Leo's breath stuttered in and out, blood pooling thick behind his teeth, as the world seemed to blur at the edges—tilting in and out of focus like a camera struggling to hold on.
His knees dug into the dirt. His body trembled under its own weight. His fingers clutched the hem of his enemy's robes—not as a warrior bracing for his next attack, but as a beaten, ruined thing barely clinging to consciousness.
Or at least, that was how it looked.
And that, Leo thought, was the whole point.
Because while his body was indeed broken, and his lungs did scream for air with every breath, his mind— his most dangerous weapon— had never been sharper.
[Monarch's Indifference] dulled the pain and slowed his panic, letting him think with the same calm, calculated malice he had just used to win the Circuit.
