The morning bell hadn't even finished echoing when the summons came."Combat Pairing Drills – All Class Tau to Arena Two."
Kiro didn't bother asking Ara if she'd heard it; the Academy's intercom was loud enough to shake dust from the ceiling.
They walked in silence, the corridors buzzing with whispers. Students from other classes leaned against the walls, watching Tau pass. Kiro could feel the weight of their curiosity — and something sharper.
Expectation.
Arena Two wasn't like the training grounds they'd used before. This was a circular pit ringed with stone seats, the sand in the center marked with concentric lines. Above, banners of the Nior Kingdom snapped in the wind.
Instructors stood at the edge, clipboards in hand. One of them, a broad-shouldered man with a scar splitting his eyebrow, stepped forward.
"Today," he barked, "we'll see how Class Tau fights when paired against ranked opponents."
Murmurs rolled through the crowd. Ara glanced at Kiro. "Ranked. As in…?"
"Top combatants in the Academy," Kiro said. "This isn't a drill. It's a show."
The instructor consulted his list. "First pairing: Kiro… versus Ralik of Class Sigma."
The crowd roared. Ralik stepped into the arena — tall, all muscle, his arms wrapped in bronze bands that glimmered faintly with runes. His Talent, Kiro knew, was Impact. Every strike he landed hit like a siege hammer.
Ralik grinned. "Heard you beat the Labyrinth without breaking a sweat. Let's see how you do when something hits back."
Kiro tilted his visor. "You talk a lot for someone who's about to miss."
The instructor's hand dropped. "Begin!"
Ralik moved first — fast, for his size — crossing the sand in a blur and swinging a fist at Kiro's head. Kiro sidestepped, the blow shattering the ground where he'd been standing.
A golden thread flared between them.Kiro touched it.Just enough to make Ralik's next punch hesitate by a fraction of a second.
The crowd didn't see it. All they saw was Kiro twisting aside again, his helmet catching the light as he moved.
Ralik growled. "Stop dancing!"
He slammed a foot into the sand, sending a shockwave toward Kiro. This time, Kiro let himself roll with it, sliding back across the arena — but his mind hooked deeper into Ralik's thread.
One thought, whispered into the space between them: Step left.
Ralik obeyed without realizing it — right into the range of his own ricocheted shockwave. The blast caught him square in the chest, hurling him across the arena. He hit the wall with a grunt, sliding to the sand.
The crowd went silent for half a heartbeat. Then the cheering exploded.
The instructor's eyes narrowed. "Ralik, yield?"
Ralik spat sand. "Tch. Yield."
"Winner: Kiro."
Ara met him at the edge of the arena, a crooked smile on her face. "You did that."
Kiro didn't answer. His attention had snagged on a movement in the crowd — high in the stands, a cloaked figure was watching him. Not like a curious student. Like a hunter watching prey.
When Kiro's gaze locked with theirs, the figure smiled… and vanished into thin air.
The rest of the Pairing Drills blurred by. Ara took down her opponent with shadow-illusions and a knife that seemed to cut more than flesh. Kiro watched every fight, every Talent, cataloguing threads in his mind.
By the time the final match ended, the crowd was buzzing with one name — his. Exactly what the Academy wanted.
As they left the arena, Ara spoke without looking at him. "They're not testing your skill. They're testing how you hide it."
"Then I'll just have to keep passing their test," Kiro said.
Neither of them mentioned the cloaked figure. But both knew it wouldn't be the last time they saw them.