Kain took his time getting into the arena.
Not because he was so intimidated by Isolde or anything. Rather, his steps had the reluctant drag of someone summoned to a tedious chore—not someone walking into a high-stakes match against a top-ranked student from First Celestial College.
He paused halfway to the arena, checked the state of his boots, and then continued walking with an exaggerated stretch of his arms, as though just waking up.
The crowd murmured.
Isolde Blackheart, still standing proud and untouchable at the center of the stage, began to frown.
She knew exactly what he was doing.
Of course she did.
The fusion state her contracts were in looked impressive. Unstoppable. But it had to be costly. That kind of spiritual fusion didn't maintain itself for free. Kain had no idea whether it consumed energy over time, had a cooldown, or simply risked collapse the longer it lasted. And so, naturally, he planned to stall as long as possible.
