Thorne ran the sustained output sessions the same way he ran everything — without warning, without warm-up, and without any apparent awareness that the rest of the world required either.
"Full output," he said, stopwatch already running in his palm. "Three techniques. Your choice which."
Around him, six other students cycled through their own strongest output, the hall filling with the low static hum of overlapping mana signatures. None of them had ever had to think about which of their own powers was quietly falling behind the others.
Vane called the Silver Fang first. It came the way it always came — clean, total, silver mana pouring down his arm and settling into Absolute Severance without a seam anywhere in the process. Thorne clocked five seconds and made a note.
