Lancet let Kasto drag him through the Academy's lower levels without protest, though his thoughts were already running ahead of them.
They were stepping down into the Old Training Arena, half-forgotten space beneath the Academy, where the rules loosened and the students who liked to break things came to do it away from the eyes of professors.
It had been some time since Lancet had set foot there. The last time, he had fought the Terrible Three and their ugly summons, and the place had already been a ruin even before they were done with it.
The cracked floor, the broken stands, the splintered stone pavements and gashes in the walls all carried the memory of battles fought too hard for too long, until the arena itself looked less like a training ground and more like a wound that had never finished healing.
When Lancet and Kasto emerged onto one of the fractured upper ledges, students were already gathered inside — another proof of speed of gossip in Awakener Supreme.
