Hajin reopened the broadcast before stepping into the sparring basin, where Orin waited beside three training posts.
[ Broadcast | ON | Soul Energy and Fragment Recovery resumed ]
The targets stood thirty paces apart with bells above their frames, and Orin hugged twenty chalk pellets against his hip. Hajin eased the supported chain out of its cloth, checking each interval, keeping the cracked bend clear of the posts.
Orin rolled one pellet between his palms while the summons took their places inside the marked boundary.
"Twenty incoming from changing angles," he explained, lifting the basket toward the target line, "any chalk on your coat resets the test, and the bells ring together or they don't count."
"Twenty pebbles? Old man, I've taken worse hits from breakfast."
"Then breakfast should have taught you to duck."
