As the first hours passed, certain participants began drawing attention through their performance.
Lucien noticed them before most spectators did.
Midas. Augustus. Leo.
For Lucien, the names carried older memories.
For much of the West, however, they were no longer unknown figures associated only with Lootwell's earlier years.
They had traveled. They had fought. They had built reputations of their own.
Their names had appeared repeatedly in the Echo Crucible rankings, enough that many younger practitioners recognized them even without knowing their full histories.
Now all three were performing exactly as Lucien expected.
Midas rarely wasted movement.
When a restriction changed, he adjusted almost immediately instead of resisting the change.
He did not possess the fastest completion time in his classification, but his efficiency remained remarkably stable from one section to another.
Augustus approached the qualification differently.
His control stood out.
