It came without warning, a sudden violent gust that seemed to originate from nowhere and everywhere at once, slamming across the exposed face of the mountain hard enough to send loose gravel rattling past Ren's head.
He flattened himself instinctively against the rock, fingers locking into their holds with a desperation that had nothing to do with technique and everything to do with pure survival instinct.
Somewhere above him, a scream cut through the roar of the wind.
Ren's head snapped up in time to see a girl — Basic class, judging by the absence of limb weights — lose her grip entirely on an exposed ledge nearly a hundred meters up, her body tumbling backward into open air with the horrible, silent slowness that terror always seemed to produce.
The containment ward caught her three seconds later, an ugly, visible shudder of magic snapping taut beneath her like an invisible net, and she was lowered — safely, if roughly — back toward the base.
