Still he struck. Still he refused to stop. His blade lashed out in furious arcs, his legs driving him forward even as they begged to collapse. His eyes narrowed with frustration but within that fire there was no surrender. His gaze blazed with a single truth. He would not lose. Not while his academy watched. Not while his pride remained unbroken.
Across from him Rylen moved with the patience of a man who had no need to rush. His eyes held no judgment, no mockery, no anger. Only the steady calm of one who understood the shape of the world more deeply than those around him. He watched Jinzhen the way a reader turns the pages of a book whose ending is already known.
