Victor moved first. Dimitri met him without hesitation, their clash cracking the ground as fire and ice encountered something more suffocating. Victor's blades formed, heat and frost melding into sharp, controlled edges. Dimitri's silence domain expanded just as fast, swallowing sound and dulling magic as nullification pressed in. Neither held back. Not anymore.
Victor drove forward again, faster, sharper, forcing Dimitri to shift instead of simply erase, and Dimitri responded in kind, his movements fluid but heavy with pressure, each counter carrying weight that demanded respect. They were smiling, not with humour but with recognition, the kind that came when someone finally found an equal worth testing against. Sweat built quickly, not from strain but from exertion that actually meant something, both of them pushing further, deeper, letting more of themselves surface than they had since the collapse began.
