The competition venue sprawled across an entire convention center, a scale of fencing Ivy had never witnessed in person before — a dozen strips laid out in careful rows beneath towering fluorescent lights, the air buzzing with the layered clash of blades and the low roar of a crowd easily ten times the size of anything Kingsley's home salle had ever hosted.
"Big, right?" Lex said, beside her, taking in the same overwhelming scene with an expression that suggested even he, veteran of two years' varsity captaincy, found the scale of it genuinely impressive. "This is what all those Petrova footage sessions were actually preparing us for."
"I don't think anything could have fully prepared me for this." Ivy's gear bag felt suddenly heavier on her shoulder, the accumulated pressure of the last
