The training ground was quiet, similar to how it becomes after an event that no one has fully processed yet. There was a sense of tension in the air, as if the echoes of past conversations were still talking to each other in the empty stands.
Rex was already stepping out of the divot when the first voice came.
"That doesn't count."
Rex stopped his steps.
He didn't turn around immediately. He took one more step, planted it, and then turned with the unhurried movement of someone who had heard the words clearly and was deciding what to do with them.
Alexander was still on the ground, but he was propped up on one elbow now, and his expression had settled into something that was not embarrassment and not anger exactly but was the specific look of someone who had decided the result of the last few minutes required reclassification.
"What doesn't count exactly?" Rex asked. "Is it because you lost too fast?"
"What you just did," Alexander said. "By going underground..."
