Veylan asked me to stand. I got halfway up before the bruise caught. He watched me stop, put a hand on the bench, and try again more slowly.
Nobody offered to make the ruling shorter because it hurt to hear it standing. Aiden waited on the other side of the desk. Jonas stood behind him, arms folded. The scorer held the combat sheet while the recorder placed a clean page beneath it.
I looked at the clean page. That was the one I cared about.
"The combat result is two contacts to Crest," Veylan said. "Both contacts were within the permitted targets. No excessive-force penalty applies."
Aiden's shoulders eased slightly.
I had no reason to object. The second strike had hurt because he had hit me, which had been the point of allowing him to try.
"The contact disruption was declared and used before the final stop. It is included in the technical assessment. It does not remove Crest's second score."
The recorder wrote the result. I waited for the part after it.
