Chapter 11 · Welcome to the Ranking Pit

The guard shoved me through the gate and I stumbled into sand. Real sand, not the packed dirt they called a training yard. The crowd noise hit like a wall—screaming, boots stomping on metal bleachers, someone blowing an air horn that made my teeth ache.

"Move forward, Ruin." The voice came through speakers bolted to the arena's rust-streaked walls. Steelhook's voice. I couldn't see him yet but I knew he was up there somewhere, watching from his box seat like this was entertainment and not him deciding whether I lived through the week.

I took three steps and the sand shifted under my boots. Wrong texture. Too smooth. I crouched and let my fingers brush the surface—then yanked my hand back. The sand was warm. Not sun-warm. Furnace-warm, like something underneath was heating it, and the moment I touched it I felt that pull again, the one that came right before I used my ability and another piece of my past burned away.

"Ladies and gentlemen." Steelhook's voice boomed and the crowd noise dropped to a buzz. "Our newest D-rank. Fresh off the shelters. Kai Ruin, sand manipulator."

The way he said sand manipulator—