"Inner Strength Master?" I asked, my voice carrying clearly through the tense silence. "Are you sure?"
The circle of Grandmasters tightened around me. Their faces showed confidence returning, bolstered by Melvin's words and the blood seeping from my wounds.
I almost felt sorry for them.
"Don't be deceived by his bluff," Melvin Blackthorne sneered, raising his hand to signal the others. "He's wounded and desperate. Strike now!"
I closed my eyes and let out a soft chuckle. "You poor, deluded fools."
The air around me began to shimmer. The temperature in the room plummeted, frost crackling across the floor in expanding circles around my feet. My wounds stopped bleeding as my skin knitted itself back together.
Burton Griffin, the youngest of the Grandmasters, took an involuntary step back. "What's happening?"
"Something impossible," whispered another.
I opened my eyes. They now glowed with an unearthly blue light.
