Lucas didn't feel it right away.
That was what bothered him later.
The shift didn't come with a mistake, or a hit, or anything obvious. It came in the quiet after the session, when his body had already settled and his breathing had evened out.
He walked back toward the dorms with the others, hands loose at his sides, mind replaying pieces of the last drill.
Not the whole thing.
Just fragments.
A step here. A turn there. The moment where he moved without thinking and it worked exactly the way it should have.
He exhaled.
"Feels like I'm getting used to it."
Raisel glanced at him.
"That's the goal."
Lucas shook his head.
"Yeah. Doesn't mean I like it."
They split at the corridor.
Raisel headed toward the auxiliary wing. Arden paused near the stairs, checking something on her tablet before moving off in the opposite direction.
Lucas slowed.
Dreyden kept walking.
Lucas frowned slightly.
"You're not stopping?"
"No."
Lucas blinked.
"…For what?"
