The arena crew moved quickly between fights.
They swept the stone floor, cleared the debris from Sorel's terrain fractures, filled the thin cracks with quick-setting compound that dried grey against the original surface. The whole process took four minutes. The crowd watched it happen with the particular patience of people who had just seen something worth watching and were already anticipating the next thing—conversations running through the stands, people replaying moments from Fight 1, the name Silith moving through the neutral sections with a new weight attached to it.
The announcer let the preparation finish before he raised the microphone.
"Fight one is behind us," he said. "And if that is the standard we are setting for this tournament—" he paused, "then everyone in this arena chose the right day to be here."
The crowd responded.
"Fight two."
