The arena did not settle after Stormforge's defeat.
If anything, it became louder—sharper, more charged, as though the very structure had absorbed the impact of the battle and was now echoing it back into the world with multiplied force. The thunder of applause refused to fade, instead rising in waves that rolled across the colosseum again and again, each surge fueled by excitement, disbelief, and the collective realization that something significant had just occurred.
What had once been a tournament of rising contenders and early speculation had shifted, almost imperceptibly at first, into something far more serious.
Reputations were no longer forming.
They were being forged.
And Skygate Academy had just reshaped theirs in full view of the entire Imperial City.
