---
Kai checked everything. After checking the updated status window.
A few moments later...
The hall was starting to breathe again.
Captains drifted toward exits with new weight in their steps, testing their balance in quiet, unconscious ways. Spears clinked. Boots thudded. Drones on the ledges spoke in low, excited voices, the sound bouncing off stone and settling into the mountain's bones.
Kai let the noise wash over him.
Luna stood to his right, arms folded, ears tilted forward as she watched Shadeclaw and Silvershadow argue about who would be the first to "accidentally" test their new strength against one of the training dummies. Akayoroi was on his left, antennae angled, cataloging how the new auras shifted the hall's feel.
"You know this is going to cause trouble in the practice yard," Luna said. "You made all the idiots stronger."
"I know," Kai said. "I am counting on you to hit them when they overdo it."
