Central arena, full attendance.
Six hundred students packed the risers, and Hira's VIP box had a clear sightline to both combatants.
Soren could see her tablet screen glowing from the tunnel entrance.
Lior's Crowned Lion was already in the ring.
It stood in the center with its mane burning steady gold and its head turned toward the tunnel where Soren would enter.
Lior stood beside it with one hand resting on the beast's shoulder, relaxed the way someone is relaxed when they've already decided how a fight is going to go.
Soren walked out with Grimm at his side.
The crowd noise shifted when they saw the wolf.
Grimm's shadow leaked a few inches wider than her body, pulling the light around her paws.
She'd been doing that more often since the Convergence, harder to control each time.
He scanned the lion's mane from thirty feet away.
Pack Sense fed him data automatically.
The absorption nodes were wrong.
