The Manifestation of Wrath was not blind rage.
It was authority over destruction itself.
The red in Kaiden's eyes deepened. The frost beneath his feet spread another inch outward, slow and patient, the cold of a man who had all the time in the world because he had already made his decision.
He was going to kill Ash.
Not here. Not now. Not where the cameras could record it and the Association could intervene and the penalty would cost his team elimination or worse.
Later.
When the streams were off. When there was no one to hear him scream.
Ash had just moved from "obnoxious nuisance" to "dead man walking" in Kaiden's mind, and the transition had been as quiet as snowfall.
The pressure that had been building in the basin since his eyes changed color consolidated. It stopped spreading outward and compressed inward, tightening around the space between Kaiden and Ashbound's group like a fist slowly closing.
