Gold flashed on the shoulder of the mountain. The boulder lit from the inside, cracked, and exploded. The slope fractured like glass. Snow lifted in a white wall.
No warning. No count. Just a roar that erased thought.
"MOVE!" Keahi's voice cut through once. Then the sound took even that.
Hikari turned uphill. She saw only the tail of a golden streak, a shadow where Raizen had been.
She ran toward it without thinking.
Keahi caught her by the arm. Hard. "Downhill. Now."
"Let me go!"
"He bought you time. Don't waste it." Keahi didn't ask. She dragged.
The avalanche dropped.
It wasn't snow at first. It was air. A fist of wind punched the line flat. The first wave hit like a building falling. White. Heavy. Noise too big to hear.
Rune hit the ground, rolled, and screamed orders that broke on impact. "Form - FORM -"
The formation shredded. Nobody cared about formations.
