Maria.
"Maria… watch out!"
The voice echoed loudly in my head, sharp and urgent, cutting through the noise of the arena like thunder. For a brief second, everything around me seemed to blur.
I didn't understand what was happening.
My body had gone completely stiff, rooted to the ground as if the warning hadn't quite reached my limbs in time. My mind struggled to catch up with the sudden panic in the air.
Then something slammed into me.
A strong force shoved me sideways, and before I could even process it, my balance disappeared beneath me.
The world tilted.
The next moment, I found myself on the ground.
The impact knocked the breath from my lungs as my hands scraped against the sand. For a second, I simply lay there, dazed and confused, trying to understand what had just happened.
The arena had erupted into chaos.
Shouts.
Footsteps.
Voices rising all around me.
But my mind felt strangely disconnected from it all.
