Wind Guardian

This spell is a part of the Airess spell chain and is found in the Airess rune stone.

West Wind's Charge taught the aeromancer that Zephyr's protection and Zephyr's bite could be asked for together, split evenly between the two. Wind Guardian is what happens when the aeromancer stops splitting anything at all and asks for nothing but protection, whole and undivided. Zephyr gives generously when asked this plainly - so generously that the gift comes with an edge the aeromancer doesn't always expect.

The West Wind wraps close around the target - the aeromancer themself, or whoever they've chosen to shelter - and never sits still, circling constantly, indifferent to which direction anything physical happens to be moving. A blade, a fist, an arrow, a charging shoulder - none of it crosses that moving current at all; whatever comes for the protected target simply never arrives. Magic and raw energy pass through untouched regardless, the way they always do, though a breath weapon - dragon fire, corrosive gas, anything exhaled rather than cast - finds the same wall physical attacks do and gets stopped just as completely. But the barrier doesn't know the difference between an attacker's fist and its own wearer's: the protected target cannot throw a physical strike of their own either while it holds, caught in the same current meant to keep them safe. A caster loses nothing here but their fists - and it layers without complaint over whatever other wards or barriers someone might already be standing behind.

It's not a gift built for a duelist. It's a gift built for someone who'd rather not be touched at all, and is willing to answer only in spellcraft for as long as that holds.