The ranking screen over the arena gate listed his opponent as a placeholder until thirty seconds before the match, then it filled in.
E-rank. Class T.
A name Soren had never heard, bonded to something the board only described as "avian, mid-tier."
That was all he got.
For two months he had walked into every fight already knowing the ending.
The thing in the corner of his vision that used to hand him the other guy's moves before they happened was gone now, burned out the same week his writing hand was, and the screen over the gate told him nothing the real screen used to.
E-rank, Class T, avian.
He was going in blind, the way everyone else had always gone in.
◆◆◆◆
The gate opened and the kid on the other side was fast.
Soren learned that in the first three seconds, which was about two seconds too late.
The bird came off the kid's shoulder low and tight, a gray streak that broke right when Soren read it going left, and Grimm lunged at empty air.
