The half-second came when the giant overextended.
It had been swinging in patterns — horizontal, vertical, horizontal, crush — and she had been timing the gaps between each. The crush was always the longest commitment. The limb came down, the construct's mass followed it, and for the two seconds it took to reset, its upper body was forward and low and the sightline between Sawn and the mages was briefly, cleanly open.
She accelerated.
Full output — she pushed Timeweave through her body at the highest rate she'd held all corridor, and the world outside her own movement slowed to a smear. Her feet left the floor in a sprint that covered the remaining five meters in a fraction of the time it should have taken. The mages were already registering the movement, already beginning the muscle response of raising their hands, already starting the intent of a counter-cast.
None of that mattered at this speed.
She drew her blade.
