Crows and Combat

It was a new day, so a new set of matches for the tournament. Ed actually tried to sleep on time today, because he figured it would be important. Annoyingly, he still ended up waking up later than everyone else did. His internal clock was so messed up.

He would have to fix it later though. At the very least, he was awake on time. With a glass of glowing water in his hand, he downed it in the waiting room as he prepared for his next match.

“Hey, Ed. Who’re you fighting?” Joyce said, taking a seat next to his bench.

“Another girl named Katie,” Ed responded. “She controls crows, I think. Teddie told me about her. What about you?”

“Someone from Loura, probably. I’m not too familiar, I was just hoping to learn as I go,” Joyce responded.

“That’s your advantage, at least. You should thank Teddie for telling you about your opponent’s abilities,” Auranna mentioned over Ed’s shoulder.

“What do you think of fighting Adelyn later?” Ed asked.

“It’s… I think I got it,” Joyce said. “You guys probably didn’t watch my matches, but… I’m pretty strong too.”

“Well, we’ll see,” Edward said, crossing his arms. “Both of you seem pretty tough.”

Though he was right. Outside of the one giant spider she cut in half, Ed had never actually seen Joyce fight before. There were a lot of secrets that this girl was hiding it seemed. Ed took a glance at Auranna. He remembered that she told him earlier about the fact that Joyce was not likely her real name.

But he had no idea why Joyce would want to hide that fact. It was a mystery that he couldn’t solve.

Though, now that he thought about it. Maybe there was a reason.

“Edward, Joyce. It is time for your matches,” a female guard said, approaching them.

He didn’t have time to think about that now though. His match was about to start.

“Good luck, Ed!” Joyce waved.

“Good luck to you too,” Ed responded. The two of them were led off to the familiar stadium and split off.

***

The first time Ed was here, there was a lot more pressure on him. His only eyes before had been Auranna, but in the tournament there was so much more. Sometimes, hearing the audience’s reaction would throw him off and he would make a mistake, forcing him to recover.

But this was the second day now. He couldn’t afford to feel like that anymore.

“Do well,” Auranna said, before vanishing into Ed’s mask. The boy put it on, and felt the power surging through his body again.

“Lets give it up for the masked warrior of light, Edward!” the announcer said, as Ed stepped into the field. “And up next, the commander of crows… Katie!”

The girl looked like a farmer. Overalls and a wide-brimmed hat. Teddie had told Ed a little bit about her. Apparently she was the one who recommended the bath to him.

“Hey, Teddie took me to that bath you recommended,” Ed said, as they walked into the arena together. “It was nice.”

“O-Oh, uh…” The girl nervously scratched her cheek. “No problem?”

Three crows landed on Katie’s shoulders. Despite Teddie telling him about the crows, he had no idea what they did. He also wondered how strong they were. Surely, they were strong enough to take a few hits. Ed absolutely did not want to be responsible for any awful accidents.

Regardless, he couldn’t hold back.

“I’m ready whenever you are,” Ed said.

“Lets… start then,” Katie said. The three crowds on Kate’s shoulder spread out and flew around her.

Deciding that was as good of a signal as any, Ed took out his hammer and began to run down the birds. He struck at one at blistering speeds. But, the crow flew straight through the hammer and struck Ed in the forehead.

“ACK-” Ed jumped back a little bit. He wasn’t expecting that, though the strike didn’t hurt very much. It just annoyed him, and he didn’t want to get pecked like that again. He summoned a staff in his hands and looked at the crow that attacked him.

Each of the three crows had different markings. The one that phased through his weapon had a red marking on it, and he knew that was going to be important. However, as he was trying to observe, a crow with a blue marking SLAMMED into his stomach!

Ed let out a grunt as he rolled over on the floor and landed just almost outside of the arena. He almost got eliminated right then and there. How could a bird carry so much force? Edward shook his head and immediately launched himself back into center stage, recovering quickly.

Katie was also there waiting for him. Ed didn’t give her any time of reprieve before clashing instantly with her, acting as a flash of golden light that struck the crow commander directly.

The two of them clashed in the center. Ed’s own staff matching against Katie’s stick. Ed was clearly the more physically powerful out of the two, and he began pushing Katie back quickly. However, a yellow marked crow landed on Katie’s head and stared Ed directly in the face… before a SCREECH let out in the air and blasted Ed back.

“Gah…!”

Ed got thrown back as he planted his staff into the ground to maintain balance, landing on his feet. However, Ed himself did not get a lot of time to recover before the blue marked bird began pecking at his head.

“Get off of me!” Ed said, swinging his staff at it. The first hit phased straight through, once again, but the second hit managed to knock the bird away. It didn’t manage to phase through a second consecutive attack!

Ed took note of this, and then immediately felt a massive blunt strike on his back. He had been hit with an immense force… the red bird once again! He spun around in the air before barely landing on his feet, once again nearing the border’s edge.

Damn it! Ed thought. It’s like it’s four against one!

Ed took a breath as he moved towards the center. He noticed that even though he had almost faltered twice now, the birds weren’t able to fully capitalize on it to quickly end this fight. A cooldown, perhaps? That would be good for him. It gave him an idea.

All he needed to do was outlast the three bird’s attacks. Then, an opening was all but guaranteed for him. Once again, he dashed towards the center, but this time with two maces in his hand.

“One, two,” Ed counted aloud, as the blue marked bird approached him. He swung at it once, and then swung again. It managed to send the bird spinning out of control and onto the ground.

“Three, four,” Ed continued to count. A screech was heard from the top of Katie’s head. With that, Ed manifested a golden forcefield around himself to block it. The sound blast reverberated around the shield as Ed held it down. The next thing he knew, he saw the red marked bird flying towards him.

He held his shield strong, but the bird slammed directly into it. The shield was forced back onto him, and he went flying back with the shield

“Shoot. Really?”

The shot pushed him back a fair distance still. That attack was quite powerful, though it didn’t dent the shield at all. Ed dropped the shield and ran towards Katie. The opposing girl stood strong against him, as the boy summoned another staff to strike at her!

The two of them engaged in a fair bit of combat. Ed was far more overwhelming, even if he was impressed with Katie’s own skill. Her demeanor was fairly unassuming, but her skills with the staff were far above average.

Ed tried to keep an eye out for the other crows, preparing for their strikes. They seemed to be flying around the arena, making it hard to keep up with them visually. She was managing to push Katie back…

And then immediately ducked, as the red marked bird flew over his head. He had predicted the strike, and swiped at Katie’s feet.

“Agh-!” Katie almost fell onto her back, but two of her crows flew over to lift her back up just before she could hit the ground. They began to pull Katie away from Ed to give them distance to recover, but Ed wouldn’t let them.

He dashed forwards and kicked Katie in the chest. The crows dropped her and she just landed on her feet still, leaning on her stick to keep her balanced.

“Uff, ow…”

Ed saw as all three crows landed on Katie’s shoulders. They seemed to be ready for another attack. He realized that if he kept on getting hit by these crows, they would eventually knock him out of bounds.

He ran forwards, and the birds all scattered. They were in different positions, but he could tell they were poised for another attack. But however, he was ready to strike back. A sonic screech from the bird shot towards Ed, but the protective shield wall managed to block the worst of it.

Then, he saw the red and blue birds flying straight towards him. With a twist of his hand, he manipulated his shield into a net, before pushing it at both of the birds! Despite this, it didn’t seem to impede either of them.

The blue marked bird phased straight through the net, preparing to immediately begin its assault on Ed. The red bird was caught by the net, but it did not care. It simply kept on flying forwards at high speed, leaving Ed with only a split second to react.

But, he would make that split second count.

He moved his head out of the way, causing the net to barely miss hitting him, and he grabbed the tail end of the net. Using his entire body, he spun the bag around, hitting the blue bird head on knocking it down and away.

Then, he released it after a full pirouette, sending the red bird flying directly at Katie! The girl was too surprised to react to the sudden turn around, and the power of her own bird sent Katie flying backwards and into the walls of the stadium. She landed right out of bounds!

“AND THE WINNER IS, EDWARD!”

The crowd erupted in applause. The sounds of victory echoed throughout the entire stage, as Ed took off his mask in relief. Auranna manifested next to him, unbeknownst to the entire crowd.

“That was… closer than I’d like,” Ed said.

“Good job,” Auranna said. “We’re this much closer.”

“Thanks. This is way more stressful than I imagined,” Ed sighed. He walked over to Katie, and looked at her. There were no signs of vampirism. No red eyes, no teeth, nothing. He also won, so it felt like if she was the cheater, then she must have failed miserably.

Still, he wasn’t expecting the power behind those crows.

“That wasn’t bad,” Ed said to her, helping her up. “Your crows are pretty crazy.”

“Ahh… I kind of got here by cheap shots,” Katie responded. “You were… more sturdy than I thought.”

“I mean, I can’t blame you. It’s not my style but I can’t fault anyone for trying to win.”

A guard was approaching to escort the both of them back to the waiting room. They both nodded as they began to head back.

“Good luck with moving on,” Katie said.

“Thanks,” Ed said. Auranna was floating beside him, observing Ed’s interactions quite closely. “Are your crows fine?”

“Yeah… this isn’t the worst hit that they’ve taken,” Katie said, as they flew right next to her. “We’ve been training on our synchronicity a lot.”

“Your training worked pretty well,” Ed said. “Unfortunate that it had to end there.”

“Yeah… I’m proud of them though,” Katie said, patting them. “I’m going to get them some food actually. It was good meeting you, Ed!”

They arrived in the waiting room and eventually split off, leaving Ed alone to contemplate by himself.

“She seems like a well-meaning girl,” Auranna said.

“Yeah. Makes me feel kind of bad,” Ed responded.

“Don’t be. You knew the risks and so did she. Everything is going well.”

“I suppose, but I dunno.”

Ed always felt a little bit awkward about competition. He wanted to win, definitely. But he couldn’t help but feel somewhat bad.

“The academy is much the same. Everyone cannot succeed, you just need to grasp at the chances you do have,” Auranna explained.

“Yeah. Let me just focus for now, then.”

“Good, Edward. You’re going to need all of it.”