Ken came forward differently this time.
Not the opening calibration strike. Not the double coat-hardened combination. Something wider — the shadow extending from both arms simultaneously, not as a wall and not as a direct strike but as two reaching projections spreading low and wide, flanking Jelo's position from both sides at once.
Trying to wrap.
Trying to control rather than damage.
Jelo read it fast.
Wing Burst — straight up, clearing both projections as they converged beneath him. He came down behind Ken's extended reach and drove Dragon Claw forward at close range — aimed at Ken's back.
Ken spun.
Shadow wall raised at his back in the same motion — reactive, already dissolving by the time the claw struck it so the impact dispersed into the dissolving construct rather than the solid surface.
Jelo stepped back.
"You dissolved it on purpose," he said.
"Solid walls take more," Ken replied. "Dissolving walls disperse more."
"You practiced that."
"Yes."
