The brass herald horns of the Imperial Vanguard blared across Ring 1 of the Grand Colosseum in a majestic, triumphant fanfare that rolled across the capital city like rolling thunder. The corporate banners of ApexBio had been stripped from the stadium walls, replaced by the massive, battle-worn standard of Ironfang Vanguard Academy. A roaring dire-hound’s skull crossed with a field medic’s winged razor knife, emblazoned upon soot-black canvas.
Overhead, the central scoreboard flashed in dazzling, blazing bright gold letters:
NATIONAL College CRUCIBLE: CHAMPIONSHIP RATIFIED.
TOURNAMENT CHAMPIONS: IRONFANG VANGUARD ACADEMY!
OFFICIAL RECORD: SEVEN MATCHES // SEVEN VICTORIES // ZERO CASUALTIES.
Down on the arena sand, an honor guard of fifty Vanguard soldiers in full dress armor marched onto the field. They cleared a wide ritual pathway from the northern tunnel to the center ring. Walking down the pathway was Imperial Grand Marshal Kaelen Vance—the supreme commander of the border legions—carrying the legendary, pre-Cataclysm Bronze Crucible Trophy.
The trophy was a huge, ancient object forged from solid star-fallen bronze, standing four feet tall and weighing over one hundred pounds. Its polished sky-iron surface was carved with the fine, detailed, weathered reliefs of the ancient Divine Ancestors. The Xuanwu Tortoise bearing the world upon its shell through cataclysmic ash storms, the Fenrir Hound guiding the surviving legions through the frozen trenches, the Jinwu Crow reigniting the sky beacons above a dead world, and the Baihu Tiger cleaving the heavens with slaughter claws to purify the blighted earth. Along the heavy circular base, carved…
