The arena had seen wildness. Brilliance. Battles that scorched the stone and bent the air. But what settled into the ring now was something else—heavier. Quieter. As if the very earth itself recognized what was coming and leaned in to listen.
Kai stepped forward first.
He didn't bounce or pace. He didn't roll his shoulders or throw a grin to the crowd. He walked slowly, deliberately, and stopped with his feet shoulder-width apart, toes angled just slightly outward.
Grounded.
His arms hung loose at his sides, his fists lightly curled, and the faintest shimmer of force spread beneath his boots. The stone beneath him cracked, barely perceptible, like hairline fractures forming under the pressure of a presence that refused to budge but Darius felt it in the stands.
Kai had always been loud. Sharp with his humor, broad in his casting. A storm of earth and will.
But this?
This was something new.
Still.
Composed.
