Ryan rolled his shoulders, feeling the last edges of the pill settle. The A+ strength hummed under his skin. The other stats breathed on their own. He exhaled, and for a second the world felt less urgent.
This fight was far from over. New men had come; new rules applied. But beneath the noise, he felt something else: a thread of certainty. They were messy. They were scared sometimes, and brave sometimes.
They were friends who bled and joked with the same mouth. That was the other kind of armor they wore, one made of shared history and stubborn loyalty.
Arthur met Kai's eyes again. The unspoken question between them was not about who had infiltrated whom. The question was about what came next, and whether they would answer it together or separately. Around them the fight kept going—fast hands, quick footsteps, the tattered rhythm of a plan trying to hold.
