Chapter 132: What About
The training yard held its breath.
Dust hung in the air where Tommy’s earlier fall had churned the ground. The late sun cut across the stone walls and turned every shadow long and sharp. Snow Team stood in a loose arc around Felicity. Leaf Team faced them from the opposite side of the ring. No one looked relaxed. No one stepped away.
Voss rolled his shoulders once.
Steel ford in his hand.
It did not appear slowly. One second his hand was empty and the next a long blade existed there as if it had been pulled out of thin air and solidified. His amber eyes never left Lucan.
Lucan stood across from him with that sa easy posture he had carried since the mont he teleported back into the yard. His shoulders were loose. His weight rested lightly over the balls of his feet. His expression looked almost amused.
The distance between them was ten paces.
Victor spoke first.
"Ring."
It was not a request.
Everyone moved.
Snow Team stepped back from the center of the yard. Leaf Team shifted to the opposite edge. The circle opened cleanly between Lucan and Voss.
Felicity stood near Ivan and Damien and tried very hard to understand how the situation had reached this point.
She failed. Her fingers twisted the empty candy wrapper in nervous little motions.
Voss lifted the blade.
Lucan did not draw anything.
The silence stretched.
Then Voss moved.
The first strike ca fast and direct. No flourish. No testing motion. The blade cut straight across the space between them in a clean arc aid at Lucan’s ribs.
Lucan vanished. Teleportation folded the distance sideways instead of backward. Voss’s blade cut through empty air. Lucan reappeared two steps behind him already turning into motion.
Voss pivoted instantly. The second blade appeared in his other hand.
Steel t empty space again as Lucan shifted out of the strike a fraction before it landed.
The yard reacted.
Snow Team leaned forward almost unconsciously.
Leaf Team watched with the still focus of predators who understood exactly what they were seeing.
Voss pressed forward.
His strength showed imdiately. Each strike carried weight that would have broken bone if it landed. Lucan moved through the attacks with impossible acceleration, teleportation flickering in tight bursts that kept him just outside the blade’s reach.
Voss adapted.
His blades began appearing in new angles without warning. One vanished from his right hand and materialised near Lucan’s shoulder mid swing. Another blinked into existence behind Lucan’s leg.
Lucan grinned.
The teleportation changed rhythm. Instead of avoiding every strike he stepped into the range between them. His hand caught Voss’s wrist and twisted hard enough to break the line of the attack.
Voss’s knee drove upward toward Lucan’s ribs.
Lucan vanished again.
Reappeared behind him.
Voss spun.
Their arms collided. The sound of bone hitting bone cracked through the yard.
Felicity gasped softly, and looked up at victor with worried eyes.
Voss shoved Lucan backward with brute force.
Lucan skidded half a step across the dirt and then ca forward again imdiately.
Teleport.
Strike.
Teleport.
Strike.
The rhythm changed from testing to lethal without either man announcing it.
Voss conjured three blades at once.
Lucan moved through them like smoke slipping between fingers.
The fight accelerated.
Snow Team watched with a tension that had nothing to do with the duel itself.
Victor’s jaw tightened.
Ivan folded his arms.
Damien’s gaze flicked once toward Felicity and then back to Lucan.
Kai’s distortion rippled faintly around his shoulders.
Marx sat on the low wall and watched the exchange with narrowed eyes.
Leaf Team stood silent.
Richard’s breathing stayed slow and asured.
Thane’s wings shifted slightly as future threads fractured and reford.
Dawn’s territory soaked deeper into the ground.
Exile had not moved.
Lucan caught Voss’s wrist.
Turned.
The blade vanished.
Lucan’s foot swept Voss’s leg.
Voss hit the ground hard enough to kick up dust.
Lucan stepped back imdiately instead of pressing the advantage. The yard went still.
Voss lay there for half a second.
Then he laughed.
Short.
Sharp.
He grabbed Lucan’s offered hand.
Lucan pulled him up.
Voss brushed dirt from his shirt.
"Cheers."
Lucan nodded once. The tension in the yard shifted.
Not gone.
Just... redirected.
Felicity broke first.
She ran forward.
"Voss!"
She reached him in three quick steps and grabbed his arm.
"Are you okay?"
He barely had ti to answer before she leaned up and kissed his cheek.
Then the other one.
Quick.
Bright.
Relieved.
Voss blinked once.
Lucan watched.
His expression did not changeM"Where’s mine, sweetie?"
The words ca out smooth.
Teasing.
Too casual.
Felicity froze.
Colour rushed into her face instantly. She made a small sound and ducked behind Voss’s chest like hiding inside the larger man would erase the mont entirely.
Voss snorted quietly.
Lucan smiled.
Ivan stepped forward "You done flirting?"
Lucan looked at him.
Ivan rolled his neck slowly "My turn."
The yard tightened again.
Second escalation.
Lucan shrugged lightly.
"If you insist."
Ivan did not wait for the signal. He moved fast.
Lion muscle drove him across the ring in two strides. Poison shimred faintly along the edge of his claws as he swung toward Lucan’s shoulder.
Lucan teleported.
Reappeared behind him.
Ivan pivoted instantly.
The poison strike ca back across Lucan’s ribs.
Lucan caught his wrist.
Ivan twisted free.
Their movents were faster now.
Less show.
More violence.
Ivan fought like a predator who had spent years winning ugly fights. His claws flashed through the air with precision. The toxin coating them turned every near miss into a threat.
Lucan did not retreat.
Teleportation carried him through Ivan’s reach in sudden bursts that kept the lion constantly adjusting.
They collided once.
Hard.
Ivan’s fist slamd into Lucan’s ribs.
Lucan answered with an elbow to Ivan’s jaw.
Both n stepped back.
Then ca forward again.
Felicity stood near Voss and watched with wide eyes.
Her heart pounded. Felicity watched the space between them like a string pulled too tight.
Voss’s arm was wrapped loosely around her shoulders where he’d pulled her back earlier, keeping her away from the edge of the sparring circle after Lucan had dropped him like it had been nothing.
Now Voss leaned against the railing behind them, solid and relaxed despite the faint bruise already forming along his jaw.
Felicity didn’t look at it.
Her attention kept sliding back to the center.
To Lucan.
Her stomach fluttered.
Voss’s hand shifted slightly against her arm. Absentminded.
Comforting.
He leaned down and pressed a soft kiss to the top of her head "You’re staring," he murmured.
Felicity blinked but didn’t stop "I’m observing," she said quietly.
Voss snorted.
Her fingers had found his forearm without her noticing.
Idle.
Distracted.
Her fingertip traced slow shapes against the fabric of his sleeve. One small heart.
Then another.
Voss glanced down at the movent "Cute," he muttered.
Lucan moved differently than the others.
Faster.
Sharper.
Dangerous in a way that made her stomach flutter for reasons she did not want to examine too closely.
Marx noticed.
He leaned slightly toward Kai "She’s not shy."
Kai glanced at him.
"No."
Marx nodded toward Felicity "She’s flustered."
Kai followed his gaze.
Felicity’s eyes stayed locked on Lucan. Her fingers twisted the edge of Voss’s sleeve. Her breathing looked shallow.
Kai’s mouth curved faintly "Ah."
Back in the ring Ivan lunged again. Lucan vanished. Reappeared above him.
His foot caught Ivan’s shoulder.
Ivan crashed into the dirt.
Lucan stepped back imdiately.
Ivan rolled onto one knee.
Spat dust.
Then laughed.
"Not bad."
Lucan said nothing.
Ivan stood slowly.
Before she could stop herself, she slipped out from under Voss’s arm.
"Hey!" Voss started.
Lucan noticed her imdiately.
His gaze followed her. But she didn’t stop in front of him. She ran straight past him.
Lucan’s brow creased faintly.
Felicity skidded to a stop beside Ivan instead.
He was still half on the floor, propped up on one elbow, catching his breath and wiping blood from the corner of his mouth.
Ivan blinked up at her, surprised.
"Uh"
Felicity dropped to a crouch beside him before he could finish. Then she leaned forward and planted a quick kiss right on his cheek.
Soft.
Bright.
Completely unexpected.
"I love you," she whispered quickly.
The entire circle froze.
Lucan turned slowly.
Felicity was already scrambling back to her feet.
Before Ivan could even process what had just happened, she had spun around and hurried right back across the floor like nothing unusual had occurred.
Voss was laughing by the ti she reached him.
He opened his arms and caught her easily as she tucked herself back against his side, hiding her face against his shoulder like she hadn’t just detonated sothing in the middle of the room.
Stunned he nodded once. The duel was finished.
The yard stayed tense anyway.
Lucan’s gaze drifted past Ivan to Felicity. She still stood close to Voss. Half hidden.
Blushing.
Lucan’s smile softened slightly. Sothing dangerous lived underneath it.
Snow Team noticed.
Victor’s posture changed by a fraction.
Damien watched Lucan carefully.
Exile watched Felicity.
No one spoke.
Lucan took one step toward her.
Snow Team shifted.
The space between them tightened instantly.
Voss did not move.
Felicity looked between the n.
Confused.
Pulled in two directions she did not understand yet.
Lucan stopped his voice dropped slightly "Careful," he said softly.
No one knew which of them he ant.
Victor inhaled slowly.
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