The miniature sun bloomed.
It wasn't a gentle warmth that crept over the skin. The moment Yeolodan released the orb, a wall of heat slammed into the 18,490 participants like a physical object.
Gasps rang out across the first battleground.
Then, almost simultaneously, the sound of thousands of people activating skin-tight barriers filled the air like a chorus of crackling static. Vesh leaned back into his throne, resting his chin on his knuckles.
The heat doubled.
Then tripled.
At random intervals.
The first screams weren't from pain. They were from panic. A young woman near the eastern edge of the battleground watched her flickering barrier shatter like glass, and she stumbled backward with wide, horrified eyes before the referee barrier caught her and guided her gently out of the arena.
The Executive Agents had the job of protecting the participants from mishaps. They were not judges, but the guards of the participants.
