The academy's training hall sits behind the main courtyards, wide, tall, and cold, with stone bleachers on three sides and a sunken arena at the center. Cadets fill the smaller areas around it, repeating cuts with blunt weapons, testing OXI shields against light projectiles, dropping to the floor and rising on the short orders of instructors. Above the main arena, a suspended screen records the action from different angles and replays key impacts a few seconds behind.
What holds the eye are the force pillars. Four thick structures ring the field, linked by runic cables to OXI machines built into the walls. Energy climbs inside the pillars in bluish pulses and feeds a containment shield around the arena.
I can feel the energy. It's a grade-S barrier, fixed and expensive, enough to keep collateral damage from escaping into the building.
I walk to the registration table.
