(3 days before the fight, Planet Tithia, Central Arena Barracks, Outer Sector Security Briefing Room)
The briefing room was silent, thick with tension and purpose.
Fifty elite soldiers sat upright on lined metal benches, their bodies still, their expressions focused, each one dressed in pitch-black compression armor that clung to them like a second skin.
The red emblem of the Cult stood proudly over their left pectoral, gleaming faintly beneath the room's overhead white lights like a mark of unwavering allegiance.
They were not ordinary guards.
They were a specialist division, personally handpicked by the First Elder for their reputation as the most dependable and battle-hardened security force the Cult had to offer. Every man in that room had earned his place through fire and blood.
And today, they had been entrusted with the most sacred assignment of their lives : To protect the Dragon Candidates during the upcoming mega fight.
