Roy walked toward his quarters in absolute, stunned silence, his mind completely consumed by the image of the old man's finger flick. The strike had been so devastatingly fast that he hadn't actually seen any trajectory or energy—only the slight twitch of a wrinkled knuckle, followed by the massive ironwood tree sliding apart with a terrifyingly clean edge. To a youth raised in the rugged frontier, that level of destructive precision didn't even seem like something a human being should be capable of achieving.
Yet, what shook Roy the most was not the blind elder's power. It was his master's reaction. Ethan hadn't looked shocked or humbled by the impossible display; his piercing amethyst eyes had only flared with a deep, burning hunger, as if he already knew that exact realm existed and was simply eager to claim it for himself.
