You're Stronger Than You Think

“Phew, thank the moon,” Edward groaned, as his opponent was on the ground. The poor girl got sent flying out of bounds by a surprise strike from Ed. He took off his mask, as Auranna manifested right next to him.

“That’s one challenge completed. I’d say that was decent enough, rest up for the next one,” Auranna spoke to him, manifesting to his side.

“Yeah. I could use a break,” Edward said. He turned around and saw a guard coming to escort him. Most likely back to the waiting room, so he accepted the escort and walked out of the stadium.

Upon exiting, he saw Cozy heading out of her arena as well, though clutching her shoulder. The two of them met up soon after.

“Hey, did you win?” Ed said. “Your shoulder isn’t looking too great.”

“Yeah, I won. The medics said my shoulder will be fine by the time my next match starts, the kid played dirty,” Cozy said. “You seem pretty out of breath too.”

“It wasn’t that bad, the girl just threw me for a few loops. No way they were cheating though. I couldn’t tell any signs and they weren’t beating me hard enough for it.”

“You still struggled more than you should have,” Auranna mentioned.

“Quiet you,” Ed shot back, before turning back to Cozy. “What about yours?”

“My opponent was a boy, so I don’t think it’s likely considering what we know from Teddie,” Cozy answered, before then rolling her shoulder. “God, this shoulder thing is still gonna suck for a while.”

“Speaking of Teddie, maybe he could help with that? Just a healing song,” Ed suggested.

“Yeah… that would be nice,” she nodded.

***

Cozy and Ed entered the waiting room, the main thing they wanted was to find a place to sit down.

“Your friends are over there,” Auranna pointed out. Ed’s head turned to a table, where he saw not only Adelyn, but also two other familiar faces. Joyce and Elaina.

“Cozy, let's go sit with them,” Ed suggested, and Cozy followed.

“Oh, hey guys! Did you win?” Adelyn said, cheerfully.

“Mhm. No cheaters found, though,” Ed responded. “So, it wasn’t that bad.”

“Where’s Teddie?” Cozy asked. “I could use his help right now. My shoulder is in absolute agony.”

“He said he wanted to see if he could find more evidence or something,” Adelyn said. “If we’re all busy fighting in the tournament, then he’s the only one that has the freedom to move.”

“Fair, what about you two?” Ed asked, turning to Joyce and Elaina.

“My match hasn’t been called yet,” Elaina said. “If Cozy keeps winning then she’s in my bracket path though.”

“Ah! Shame that you’ll have to stop there, then!” Cozy smugly responded.

“Yeah, we’ll see about that,” Elaina shot back.

“And you, Joyce?” Ed said.

“Mine was called earlier,” Joyce said. “It wasn’t that long, though.”

“If you were called after Ed and Cozy but finished early…” Adelyn said. “Then you got quite the easy start. Probably easier than what Cozy had, considering her shoulder pains.”

“Yeaaah-” Cozy said. “I’ll be fine, though.”

“Well,” Elaina said. “You can’t be fumbling by round one if you think you’re gonna beat me.”

“I think I got literally the worst round 1 opponent possible,” Cozy snapped back. “If Adelyn or Ed got him, then they’d be screwed.”

“Really?” Adelyn said out of curiosity. “Who’d you fight?”

“Some kid, I think his name was Luka. His sword could turn my own magic against me, it was awful. I think round two will be easier if anything.”

“My girl could teleport short distances. That was a pain in the neck. Luckily, I was faster,” Ed added. “Not sure why they put us against such annoying first competitors.”

“Faster yet still almost outsped,” Auranna snidely remarked. Edward ignored her for now.

“Maybe we shouldn’t underestimate people,” Adelyn said. “I think whoever I fight is gonna be scary too.”

“Being fair, Adelyn,” Ed said. “You are so clearly the strongest out of all of us-”

“What? Really?” Adelyn interrupted.

“Yes. Really. Teddie doesn’t fight and you have like a bunch of summons that me and Cozy don’t have, and you have that crazy chainsaw thing too,” Ed said.

“Well, I never thought about it that way… since we work as a team a lot and all,” Adelyn seemed to nervously brush it off.

“No, I think I have to agree,” Elaina said. “You literally summoned a hydra for your showcase. I would be scared if you were anywhere near my bracket path early.”

“C’mon…” Adelyn said. “You guys are giving me too much credit.”

“Nah, you aren’t giving yourself credit,” Ed said. “I think you’ll be fine.”

Ed figured that Adelyn would be able to handle this tournament just fine. He was focused on doing the best he possibly could. Though, if he had to fight Adelyn later on, then he obviously wanted to win.

But that wasn’t the point right now. They needed as many people as they could to succeed so that one of them could request approval for the group. Things were going well, so far.

“Speaking of which,” Joyce said. “Since you guys brought it up earlier, uh… what was the talk of cheating about?”

“Yeah… I was wondering,” Elaina added.

“Teddie overheard someone bringing a vampiric strength potion into the tournament,” Ed said, pretty casually. But then he was cut off by the double gasp from both of the girls.

“Don’t they know how taboo it is? To draw power from vampires?” Elaina said.

“Do you guys have any clues?” Joyce asked.

“Probably a girl,” Cozy said. “That’s the only thing. I… I haven’t seen many vampiric strength potions personally, never heard of it traded on the markets. So, it's pretty hard to tell how similar it would be to a real vampire.”

“Well,” Elaina said. “If I had to hazard a guess… the same signs as a normal vampire? Red eyes, sharpened teeth, freakish strength, toxic blood… and healing?”

“Everyone in this competition is strong though,” Adelyn said. “It’s pretty hard to tell.”

“True, if someone just beats us, that isn’t a confirmation of cheating,” Edward said. “Though, since we’re pretty strong it might be worth considering.”

“Sounds like something Cozy would make as an excuse for losing,” Elaina jabbed.

“Quiet you. Next thing I know you’re going to accuse me of being the cheater,” Cozy responded.

“I think you two should help us find them though,” Adelyn said. “As said, a cheater is bad for everybody. It’s only been the first round, so we can still stop them if we can.”

“Sure,” Elaina said. “I’ll keep an eye out.”

“Same…” Joyce said. “Though, I might be too focused on fighting, ahaha.”

“Hey, everyone’s doing their best,” Cozy said. “Just some people are doing better than others.”

“You’re bad at reassuring people,” Elaina shrugged. However, as they were speaking a guard began to approach them.

“Elaina, Adelyn. It’s time for both of you to begin your matches,” the guard said. “Please come with me.”

“Good luck Adelyn!” Cozy said.

“Good luck,” Ed also added. “Same to you, Elaina.”

“I’ll do my best!” Adelyn said, before the two of them were escorted away by the guards. Hopefully, Ed would see them again as winners. He was pretty confident, even.

“I’m going to go get some snacks,” Ed said, getting up. He was pretty hungry, and he hadn’t eaten since breakfast. The waiting room had some nice meals that could be served to competitors at a bar near the back.

He walked over to the bar and ordered some food. Just some simple protein to fuel him for a potential future match would be good.

Auranna manifested next to him.

“You’re really saying you’re not the strongest in the group?” The mind-ghost spoke to him as he was getting food.

“Well, it’s not a competition,” Ed said. “But if it was then Adelyn would be pretty hard to beat.”

“I wouldn’t be giving up that title so easily if I were you,” Auranna said. “With my abilities, you and her fought that crazed jester evenly. And you aren’t even at max potential.”

“I guess,” Ed said, only vaguely interested in the discussion at this point. The munch he got from the bag of nuts he bought was keeping himself occupied until his next match.

“And you self-deprecating reflects badly on me as well,” Auranna said. “You have to remember that it is my power you are using.”

“Right. And I’m not strong enough,” Ed rolled his eyes.

Auranna stopped for a moment, as Ed continued to eat his snack. The boy had begun to become pretty numb to these kinds of comments from Auranna before.

“You’ve been doing well enough, I think,” said Auranna. “Of course, you could obviously be better. But… with what you’ve done so far, I can’t say I’m not impressed.”

That caused Edward to pause for a moment. A rare word of praise from this mind ghost he was eternal stuck with. A warm sensation came to his heart.

“Thanks. I’ll keep doing my best,” Ed said. “As you said. The tournament isn’t easy, and we’re going to have to deal with a lot.”

Ed had finished his bag of snacks and looked back at Auranna. “You were right, I think I did underestimate how easy this would all be.”

Auranna nodded back at him.

“We need to excel. I think you already know that,” the ghost spoke.

“So, let’s do just that,” Ed said. “We’ll win this entire thing.”

That was a goal that both of them could agree on, at the very least.