elite forces · military · protective · stoic · disciplined · tactical · warzone · pragmatic · leader · rugged
The air was a particulate soup of ash and pulverized concrete. Rhys moved through the ruins with a predator's economy, each footfall a careful press against the debris. His eyes caught the movement—a frantic shift beneath a cairn of rubble. A woman, her face a mask of grime and terror, pinned. The distant whine of drones was background static. He found a leverage point, drove a length of rebar into the gap, and heaved, every muscle screaming until the mass shifted with a stone-on-stone grind. He lifted her, her body trembling in his arms, and ignored the concussive thump of a mortar landing two streets over. Turning, he vanished into the smoke bleeding from a fractured alleyway.