The crowd went silent for the second time in the fight.
The specific silence of a threshold being reached—the Sky Splitter at six feet in a grand final with eight percent of simulation remaining, both abilities at their maximum output in the same moment, the fight having arrived at the place where everything remaining was being committed simultaneously.
Mark's silver eyes read the maximum stretch.
The drop—the same evasion—was the answer.
But the simulation was at ninety-two percent.
The drop created distance.
The push-up brought him back.
But the drop also broke the sustained gaze for the two seconds of the evasion—the simulation's near-contact gains requiring proximity that the floor position didn't provide.
He had a choice.
Drop and lose two seconds of gaze—the simulation potentially losing the percentage the drop cost—or stay up and take the Sky Splitter at six feet and hold the gaze through the impact.
Mark stayed up.
