Richard's future sight was screaming.
Every path. Every angle. Every desperate variation.
They all ended the same way with him not making it out alive.
I need to make one.
He reached inside himself and gripped the shard.
Not to use it. To break it.
The Shard of Foresight cracked. Then shattered. Future sight didn't fade—it exploded. Every possible future flooded his mind at once. Hundreds. Thousands. A cascade of images overlapping so fast they became a single blinding pulse.
His body accelerated past its limit.
"DAMN IT... AH!"
Muscles tore. The cheetah-form strained at the seams and the horn on his forehead split at the base.
At this point pain was irrelevant he had only one window and one sliver of a future where he didn't win but he survived.
He took it.
Richard moved faster than he'd moved all fight. Not toward Jan. Not toward Louise. Toward the gap between them. Claws retracted. Body low. A blur that skimmed the scorched floor and shot past their guard.
DING!
