The second fight didn't last as long as the first.
Nylen versus Zarek had been sharp and decisive — over in under two minutes, Zarek forcing an early concession through a pressure ability that left Nylen with nowhere to move and no good answer for it. Clean win. No drama.
The crowd had absorbed it quietly.
Filed it away.
And now the field was being reset again, students shifting their positions around the boundary, the officials moving back to their ends, Olmo standing exactly where he always stood — at the edge, watching everything, showing nothing.
Jelo had watched both fights carefully.
Zarek's pressure ability was worth noting — a radial force emission that expanded outward from his body in controlled pulses, each one building on the last. Not destructive on its own. But it compressed space. Removed options. Made every position feel slightly more wrong than the one before it until there was nowhere left to stand that felt safe.
Smart ability for a tournament setting.
