Shadowfang tore through the water spears clean, splitting them apart mid-flight before they could do anything useful, the fragments scattering across the arena floor in harmless splashes.
Lucas reset his stance without slowing down.
Nova, across the field, had the expression of someone who has just been told no and is in the process of deciding how to respond to that. The grin came back first.
"Alright then," he said, rolling one shoulder. "Let's see what you do about this."
Water spiraled up his arm and then did something unexpected, they twisted, pulling moisture from the air around them, heat and water compressing together into something that was neither and both simultaneously. It grew fast.
Five meters tall, spinning, the edges of it dragging loose debris and water from the arena floor into its core like the whole thing was hungry. The pressure inside it was visible in the way everything around it bent slightly inward.
Then he sent it forward.
