Kael rose to his feet. The motion was slow, deliberate. Every muscle in his body still carried the weight of the battle, aches that pulsed beneath the skin, bruises that hadn't yet faded.
But the screaming pain that had clawed at him before? That was gone now. Dulled to something he could push past.
He rolled his shoulders, feeling the difference immediately.
His muscles didn't just feel stronger. They felt compressed, tighter. Like coiled springs waiting to release. His center of gravity had dropped lower, more stable. He shifted his weight from one foot to the other and felt the power in it, the potential.
One good jump and he could probably clear a hundred feet, maybe more.
Kael lifted his hand, turning it over in the dim light. Same calluses, same scars, same dried blood caked under the nails. But it wasn't the same, not really.
There was a heaviness to him now. Not in his bones, but in the space he occupied. The air around him felt thicker, like it was being pulled inward.
