Chapter 49. The Final Begins

The noise hit her before the light did.

Crowd roar—that animal hum made of a thousand small hungers, layered over music and static. Lia stood just behind the tunnel curtain, hands wrapped, gloves half-taped, the air thick with sweat and metal.

A staffer adjusted her mouthguard, another clipped the mic to her collarbone. The sound tech’s hands trembled slightly—not from fear, but from proximity to the storm.

She stared straight ahead, jaw locked, pulse calm.

The announcer’s voice thundered over the speakers.

“Ladies and gentlemen—your finals contender, fighting out of Chicago—LIA CHEN!”

The curtain snapped open.

White light swallowed her.

For a second, everything blurred—flashes, camera shutters, the rhythmic chant of her name rippling through the arena. She walked out slow, deliberate, each step sinking her deeper into the gravity of it.

The cage waited under the lights like a mouth.

She exhaled once, steady. Fear was gone.