The Announcer spread his arms as the arena settled around Camber and Ravel.
"Ravel opens bodies through their nerves, while Camber stores the force used against him."
He stepped back from the center line.
The arena floor hardened into glass-paneled stone with dark seams running beneath the surface. A flat gray ceiling covered the arena. Each footfall and scrape reached the stands without losing volume.
Ravel stood without shifting.
Camber set his weight low. His hands stayed open, fingers relaxed near his hips. Bairn hovered half a step behind him with its three arms curled close. Its soft limbs flexed one after another.
The start tone rang once, and Ravel moved first. One vertebra broke from Necklace's orbit and drifted wide past Camber's left shoulder. The rest of the bone ring adjusted behind Ravel with quiet precision, each segment finding a new angle without touching the next.
