A heavy training sword made of dense ironwood slammed onto the central combat platform, gouging a splintered furrow into the stone before Caleb Conway even reached the chalk boundary line.
The surviving applicants from the beast pen stood huddled along the perimeter of the upper terrace, their boots still caked in the mire of the lower arena. Behind them, several medical disciples tended to gashed arms and dislocated shoulders, wrapping linen bandages in tense silence while the remaining candidates looked toward the raised dueling rings with hollow dread. The preliminary trials were finished; the final hurdle before formal induction required each candidate to endure three exchanges against an established senior disciple of the Outer Sect to assess their combat temperament under pressure.
