Zaka's laugh still tore through the broken trees when Sagiri stopped treating the duel like a study and started treating it like a debt coming due.
The two great cats circled him through ash and split cedar, waiting on the same impulse that lived in Zaka's shoulders before either beast committed its claws.
Sagiri kept Nokai low while the Archive pressed a faster answer against the walls he had built around it, hungry for the simple blood that would end every calculation.
He refused that answer, then watched Zaka mistake restraint for hesitation and drive forward with the left cat rising beside him like a second blade.
The second beast cut through the ruined canopy to close Sagiri's turn toward Galka Academy, yet its timing still depended on Zaka's attention reaching both animals before either one changed direction.
'Anger times them,' Sagiri thought, boots finding firm earth under ash, 'not skill. Just like ther master'
