Pressure didn't break things immediately.
It weakened seams.
The Triangle had always prided itself on efficiency—an academy built on measured violence, structured hierarchy, and predictable outcomes. Every system had redundancies. Every risk had a margin.
But margins only worked when variables behaved.
Dreyden stopped behaving.
Not openly.
Not rebelliously.
But incorrectly.
The day after his ranked win, the training schedule shifted again.
Combat theory was replaced with "situational adaptability modules." Sparring assignments rotated unpredictably. Dungeon simulations were seeded with incomplete data sets—missing enemy counts, scrambled terrain layouts, delayed feeds.
They weren't tests.
They were stressors.
The Triangle wasn't trying to see how strong he was anymore.
They were seeing how he failed.
Dreyden noticed immediately.
