It was time. Three full days had passed since the interviews, leaving time for the remaining competitors to rest, recover their strength – in some cases recover from injuries – and time for the administrators to finalize the knock out bracket of the tournament.
Codi stood with the others in the fighter's lobby, watching the screens with everyone else. The officials had summoned the remaining competitors to watch together as the brackets were drawn, and she could guess the reason easily enough. With just thirty-two remaining, whittled down from a pool of over three hundred, each individual would be able to look their first opponent right in the eye as soon as the match was drawn.
Max stood beside her, hands in pockets, his face impassive as he waited for the screens to come alive. However
