The three runes in his hands were… heavy in a way that had nothing to do with physical weight.
Kael rolled them slightly between his fingers, feeling the faint, almost electric resistance of etched mana-bound metal against his gauntlets.
Unfortunately, all support runes.
That realization lingered for half a breath longer than expected. Not disappointment exactly, Kael had stopped expecting clean, perfect outcomes from anything involving loot or fate, but there was a brief flicker of assessment in his mind. Damage runes would've been straightforward. Flashy. Easy to measure.
But support? Support meant nuance. Timing. Survival margins.
His grip tightened slightly as that thought settled in properly. The runes weren't immediately satisfying in a "hit harder, break faster" sense, but something about them felt… flexible. Like tools that would only reveal their worth when everything else was already going wrong.
