The transformed fighter dropped to one knee on the sand. Black blood trailed from his mouth and speckled the ground beneath him. His warped arm hung uselessly at his side, the flesh swollen and twisted by whatever shape his class had forced onto it. A handful of breaths ago, the crowd had been screaming his name as if he were already chewing Kaiden apart. Now they didn't understand what they had just witnessed.
Kaiden had barely moved. He held his ground in front of the larger man with one hand lowered, bandaged fingers loose, chest rising on a slow breath. No weapon and no armor, no theatrical Soul Essence blazing across his body, only that calm pressure folded into him, as though the power had never once needed to show itself to be dangerous.
