The competition's second day started on a foggy morning.
It was not heavy, just a gentle ground mist that had settled overnight and gradually burned off as the sun rose.
This gave the competition grounds a unique atmospheric quality: the students from coastal academies hardly noticed it, while those from inland found it quite captivating.
The mist softened the edges of the venue structures and caused the arena's essence-reactive lighting along the borders to glow with a slightly altered hue, with colors blending into the mist before fully settling.
William had been in the training hall adjacent to the main arena since six-thirty.
He wasn't running forms now — he had done that around five in the morning, in the dormitory corridor with the lights dimmed because Kai was still asleep and the corridor was empty.
