The Drummer launched forward in a lurching, swinging motion—its arms dragging the tempo behind it, sending pulses that shattered stone.
Aris rolled aside, coughing from the pressure.
The floor beneath her rippled with every beat of its distorted heart.
She tried to fire a pulse blast from her gauntlet—nothing. The coil overloaded.
"Of course," she muttered.
She ducked under a pendulum-arm, kicked off the wall, and leapt onto its back—punching directly at its rhythm core.
It shrieked again—and then shifted tempo.
Suddenly, she was moving too slow.
The creature's pulse had altered her time.
She floated mid-air, helpless, as it turned its head 180 degrees to look at her—
And raised an arm.
The Spark
[Sovereign Mark Reaction Detected]
[Shell Pulse – Level 0: Instinctual Trigger Activated]
Time snapped back.
The world inhaled.
And Aris punched.
