The arena reset.
Class 1 Fight 2.
Tessa of Aurelius against Rax of Dravenfall.
The Aurelius sections gave Tessa the home warmth that had carried through the day — the crowd that had been producing this sound since the first fight now doing it with the additional weight of Class 1's stage, the investment deeper than it had been in the earlier rounds. The Dravenfall sections gave Rax their heavy territorial response — the particular sound they produced for fighters they believed in completely.
Tessa walked out of the Aurelius tunnel.
She moved differently from every fighter the tournament had produced — not the deliberate density of a physical fighter, not the precise economy of an ability-user whose technique required specific positioning. She moved with a looseness that suggested the fight happened around her rather than through her body, the specific quality of someone whose primary weapon wasn't their physicality.
She reached her starting position.
Raised one hand.
