Silence fell, not just across the courtyard, but into the very marrow of every soul watching.
Each students watching with disbelief. The very battle turning into something they all haven't anticipated.
Rand’s sword dropped from his hand first, clattering onto the wet stone with a dull metallic clang that was swallowed instantly by the storm.
His body followed slowly, almost reverently, folding forward at Kael’s feet like a puppet whose strings had been violently severed. The gash across his chest sizzled faintly—dark tendrils of Hakana energy still trailing from it like smoke.
Kael didn’t move.
He couldn’t.
Not from shock, but from something far more profound—a vibration that was surging from his core to every nerve ending.
The moment Rand’s blood had splashed across Kael’s broke
