Rex didn't wait for her to recover. He didn't even wait for her to reach him. As Kaelira surged forward, a living comet of heat and will, Rex simply tightened the reins of reality.
He increased the gravity field around himself, creating a localized zone of crushing density. The air itself seemed to thicken, turning into a viscous, invisible liquid that resisted her every movement.
She hit the edge of his field at full speed. The collision was silent but violent.
The resistance was immediate and absolute. Kaelira's expression shifted from fierce determination to a mask of sheer strain in a fraction of a second.
She managed two more steps, her boots grinding into the cracked stone, before the weight differential became too much to bear. She stopped, her body trembling under the unnatural load.
