MOON MARKED BY THE LYCAN KING
The crowd parted in silence, a heavy, respectful quiet settling over the bowl.
The champion was not a towering beast of a man, nor was she a seasoned warrior draped in heavy iron. She was a woman, perhaps a few years older than me, with skin the color of old parchment and hair as white as the snow on the peaks. She wore simple, dark trousers and a sleeveless tunic that revealed arms covered in jagged, pale scars—the marks of old lashes, of chains, of a life spent in the dirt.
She carried no shield. In her right hand, she held a long, curved blade of dark, unpolished steel. A falchion. A weapon designed for one thing: hacking through flesh and bone with maximum force.