Alice barely had time to react.
The Sentinel's twin Proton Cannons that had just fired in succession, their devastating energy beams slicing towards the flying beast. One of them, however, struck Alice mid-flight. The blast tore through her defenses, sending her spiraling toward the ruined fortress below.
She hadn't sensed the attack coming. The Sentinel's advanced stealth system did more than render it invisible—it masked its mana emissions entirely, making it undetectable to even the most sensitive magical perceptions. With no warning signs, Alice had no time to react before impact.
Her form crashed into the debris-strewn battlefield, sending dust and shattered stone flying in all directions. A deep crater marked the point of her impact, her armored body partially embedded into the ground.
"You hit the wrong target, you moron!" Isolde's furious voice rang through the cockpit of the Sentinel, her hand smacking the back of Lucien's head with a sharp thud.
