Marcus turned away from Liam and faced the crowd.
He spread his arms wide, the gesture of someone who had decided the audience needed to be part of this moment, and he pointed back at Liam with one hand, his expression carrying the specific arrogance of someone who had done this enough times to be comfortable performing in front of several hundred people while also being in the middle of a fight.
"This guy," he said, loud enough that the speakers caught it and carried it through the arena, "is a weakling."
The crowd responded.
Some of it was laughter. Some of it was the specific sound of people who had placed money on something and were now having feelings about that decision. Some of it was booing, directed at Marcus, coming from the sections that had decided they liked Liam for reasons that had nothing to do with his performance so far and everything to do with the fact that they did not like Marcus.
