The second day of the tournament was different.
The air in the arena was charged with a tension that hadn't been there before. The word "commoner" was being whispered in the stands, but it was no longer a slur. It was a question.
Ren stood in the tunnel. He felt... different. The potion had done its work. His muscles felt denser, his senses sharper. The world seemed to move a fraction slower than it had the day before.
"participant 402 versus participant 112!"
Ren walked onto the sand.
His opponent was a girl from the Nyx vassal families. She was small, dressed in charcoal grey, and she held a pair of thin daggers. She didn't smirk. She didn't talk. She stood in a low crouch, her eyes tracking Ren's every breath.
"Begin!"
She didn't lunge. She disappeared.
It was a common tier movement technique called Shadow Step. She moved through the blind spots of the human eye, reappearing behind Ren with her daggers aimed at his kidneys.
Ren didn't turn around.
He reached back over his shoulder and caught her wrist.
The crowd gasped. It was impossible. She was behind him. He hadn't even looked.
Ren twisted.
The girl was thrown over his shoulder, hitting the sand with a heavy thud. She rolled and tried to stand, but Ren was already there. He didn't use his hands this time. He used his foot.
He stepped on the blade of her dagger, snapping the steel like it was glass.
He stopped his foot an inch from her throat.
"Yield," Ren said.
The girl looked up at him. She saw the lack of emotion in his face. She saw the violet flecks in his eyes that were now spinning slowly. She felt the cold pressure of his Aur,not large in volume, but so pure it felt like a needle pressed against her skin.
"I... I yield," she whispered.
Ren stepped back. He didn't help her up. He didn't acknowledge the herald.
He looked up at the VIP box.
Jace Vane was standing at the railing. He was seventeen, handsome in a sharp, cruel way. He held a glass of wine, but his knuckles were white. He was looking at Ren not with curiosity, but with the dawning realization that his "Peace Summit" was being hijacked.
Ren raised a hand. He didn't point. He simply flattened his palm and made a cutting motion across his own throat.
The silence that followed was absolute.
Up in the gallery, Helios of Sola laughed. It was a dry, hollow sound. "The rat is challenging the cat, Kael. I do hope your son has been practicing his forms. It would be a shame if the 'Decade of Peace' ended with a Vane Successor facedown in the mud."
Kael of Vane didn't laugh. He turned and walked out of the box, his silver robes snapping behind him.
Ren walked back into the tunnel.
The architecture was moving into the second phase. He had survived the foothills. Now, he was standing at the base of the tower.
And he intended to pull the whole thing down.