Jelo came in—Dragon Claw loading, the standard shoulder entry, completely readable.
Sibyl prepared the deflection.
And instead of throwing Dragon Claw at extension—Jelo activated fire compression at the last possible moment, switching the output in the final fraction of a second, the thermal energy channeling through his right hand in place of the Dragon Claw discharge.
His hand didn't glow. Didn't flame.
The shimmer around it was barely visible—heat present without display, the technique Chloro had taught him about containing rather than releasing. The fire compression existed in the strike without announcing what it was.
But it wasn't Dragon Claw.
Sibyl's deflection arrived—built for Dragon Claw geometry, calibrated for Dragon Claw's specific energy discharge, deflecting a strike that wasn't what it was supposed to be.
The fire compression hit the deflecting forearm instead of being redirected.
