Trials - Chapter 10

(Hi everyone, TheGrompFather here - apologies for no chapter last week and no notice as to why. To make up for it, I have decided to release this super-long chapter of Guardians this week.)

For the students of Ferris, it was, theoretically, impossible for them to have to wait in line for any of the Tournament matches.

Not only did they not have to go through the rigorous screening process both at the train station and at the stadium, but they also lived minutes away from the arenas, meaning that, as soon as they were open, the students could enter them and take their seats easily without waiting in line.

Despite that, Eric had arrived late at the stadium and, as a result, now found himself faced with a line of hundreds, if not thousands, of others.

“Wow, that’s quite a line,” Alexa mused, panting heavily as she caught her breath.

“We wouldn’t have had to deal with this if you hadn’t slept in,” Eric reminded her and she laughed a little.

After Alexa had arrived last night, Eric had introduced her to the rest of his team and they had spent the evening catching up, reminiscing and talking about anything and everything. Then, she had slept in Eric’s room in a sleeping bag and slept in.

Alexa had then spent a while getting ready, doing her makeup and changing into her outfit. She was wearing a light blue jacket over a black shirt and she had white shorts on as well.

“I said I was sorry about that. It’s not like we missed it, right?”

“We would’ve if I didn’t wake you up.”

“Still, no harm done, right? So, where do we check in?”

“Over there.”

The two of them walked up to one of the student booths, showed them their tickets and were then escorted to their seats by one of the guards at the stadium. While they both found it strange, neither of them questioned it until they were led to one of the private boxes which was guarded by Kasmine’s bodyguard, Harbinger.

He moved out of their way and, nervously, they entered into the box seats where Connor, Laila and Kaida were already waiting for them.

“Took you guys long enough,” Kaida said, standing up to greet them.

“Sorry about that. I guess we slept in.” Eric glared at Alexa who smiled awkwardly and rubbed the back of her head.

Kaida sighed. “I should’ve known.”

“Hey! I don’t always sleep in!”

“Actually, you do,” Connor chimed in, poking his head around. “If I remember correctly, you always arrived a minute or less before the bell went every day.”

“That never-”

“Every day.”

“Without fail.”

Alexa pouted and, with a huff, took her seat next to Eric and Kaida. “It’s not my fault I ended up talking for so long to you guys last night. A lot’s happened since we last saw each other, right?”

“Yeah, but we didn’t have to go to two in the morning to talk about all of it,” Eric argued, yawning a little.

“It’s not like you didn’t enjoy it.”

“I would’ve enjoyed it more if, when I said, ‘Can we go to sleep now?’ a dozen times, you’d listen to that request the first time.”

“Aw, you’re being very cold today.”

Eric smiled and lightly patted her on the head. “Sorry, but I didn’t want you to miss the tournament that you were so excited for.”

Alexa’s eyes lit up and she giggled. “Ah, if you keep using lines like that I might fall for you.”.

“Please don’t joke about that,” Kaida whispered to herself, but Connor heard it all the same.

“Hey.” He leant over to her, his signature smirk on his face. “Why not try to make a move on Eric now?”

Her face went red. “Huh?!”

“Think about it. When the fighting begins, put your hand on his on the arm rest like you did it on accident, see how he reacts and, if he’s okay with it, keep doing it.”

“I don’t know how that would be a move per say.”

“Kaida, my friend, think about it. If he doesn’t bat your hand away, then he must like it and therefore you know he might like you back.”

Kaida opened her mouth to speak but cut herself off, glancing at Eric shyly. “Will it really work?”

“You won’t know until you try.”

Kaida lightly nodded and moved her hand to cover Eric’s, but Eric suddenly turned to face them, catching her off-guard.

“Hey, where’s the cute little blonde girl?” Alexa inquired.

“Elthia? I asked if she wanted to join us, but she wanted to go and do some shopping instead,” Kaida replied.

“Elthia did?” Eric asked and Kaida nodded.

That’s…odd.

“By the way, why are we in a box seat? I thought these were for senior members of the Guardians or visiting royalty and the like? How comes we’ve got them?”

“When we came to check in, the Headmistress was there and said we’d been moved here,” Laila answered. “‘Someone in the crowd might try to assassinate Eric in the fights’ was the official reason but I imagine it’s compensation.”

“Because of the stuff with Bunny?”

“Or maybe for just putting on a good show during the first few rounds?” Connor suggested.

“Speaking off,” Alexa said, cutting into the conversation. “You guys have been very cool, you know! I’m amazed that you guys could do stuff like that!”

“I’m surprised you’re not mad at me for hiding it from you,” Kaida confessed.

“I was, at first, but I figured you had your reasons and, hey, everyone’s entitled to a few secrets, right?”

Kaida smiled and nodded. “Thanks for understanding.”

“Wait!” Alexa snapped her gaze to Eric. “Did you guys say something about Bunny?” Eric nodded. “Did you fight her?”

“Eric and I did,” Laila replied.

“Seriously?”

“Yeah,” Eric answered.

“Wasn’t that scary?”

“Well, yeah, it’s Bunny after all but, because of what we did, we scared her away for a while and stopped her from taking any more lives. In a way, that makes everything we went through worth it.”

Eric smiled softly and Alexa soon followed suit upon seeing it. “I see.” She grinned and brought Eric into a small hug. “I’m just glad to see you’re doing okay.”

“Thank you for worrying about me.” He held her back.

“He’s being stolen from you right before your eyes,” Connor whispered into Kaida’s ear who threw a small fist at him which he dodged.

Alexa and Eric broke their hold.

“So, the rest of your team are taking part, right?”

“Yeah, they all are,” Kaida said. “Everyone was really eager about it as well.”

“Well, if they went into it with a half-arsed attitude, I imagine they’d get destroyed,” Connor commented, placing his hands behind his head. “There are people like Ajax who have been training their entire lives for a chance like this and they’ll be damned to lose out on it to someone who isn’t really into it.”

“Correct,” Laila murmured.

“On that note, my friends.” Connor grinned and turned to Eric, Kaida and Alexa. “Anyone care to place some bets?”

“You have my attention,” Alexa replied slyly.

“Five-pound entry and we say how many of our teammates will make it into the final sixteen. Whoever guesses the right number or gets closest wins the pool and, if it’s tied, the people who tied split it. Sound good?”

The other three nodded and eagerly got out their wallets.

“Ah, just like old times,” Alexa said, handing Connor her fiver. “I bet that they’ll all make it through.”

“Oh, interesting,” Connor mused. “I’m going to say one of them won’t.”

“Doubting your friends now?”

“No, no, far from it. I’m being realistic given their competition. Xantico, Ace and Alexis are all entering and they can all pack a serious punch.”

“True,” Kaida agreed, rubbing her chin and thinking carefully about her bet. “Even then.” She handed him a five-pound note and smiled. “I think they’ll all make it, too.”

“Um, not really in the spirit of making the game interesting, but okay. Eric?”

“I was going to bet the same, actually,” Eric confessed.

“Seriously?” Connor sighed and took Eric’s money, putting it into his back pocket. “Well, it won’t be too difficult to keep track of that. Laila.” He turned to face her. “Wanna join in?”

“Did you guys often make bets like this?” She asked.

“Yeah, we tend to make games and bets on everything we can,” Alexa explained. “We did it for sport’s days, tests, GCSEs, A-Levels, world cups, and everything else we could think off. I think we first did it towards the end of Year Nine and it’s just become a tradition of sorts.”

“Yeah, I’m not usually a betting person, but it’d feel weird if we didn’t bet when we’re all together,” Eric added. “It’s all just for good fun. No grudges regardless of the result, right?”

They all nodded enthusiastically.

“In that case,” Laila began, taking out a five-pound note from her purse. “I’ll make the same bet as Eric.”

“The same as everyone else?” Connor mumbled, a little disappointed. Still, he took her money and pocketed it. “Right, all bets are placed and there’s no changing them. Now all that’s left is-”

“Ah, here they come!” Kaida yelled excitedly.

Hundreds of students emerged from the east and west wings into the large playing field, all of them in their combat equipment and all of them greeted with excited cheers from the audience.

“It’s impossible to see anything from here,” Alexa moaned, curling her hands to act as fake binoculars.

“When the one-on-one fights begins, you’ll be able to see everything much better,” Connor said.

“What about during the Elimination Match?” Eric asked.

“Ah, that’s what these are for.” Connor picked up two thin clear screens and handed them to Alexa and Eric. “When the match begins, these go live and you can view the match through Teeq’s invisible cameras with them.”

“Invisible cameras?” Alexa repeated.

“Teeq makes them in his Virtual Space and then we can look through them.”

“I see.”

The speakers crackled and they heard Kasmine cough lightly into the microphone.

Good morning, everyone. Welcome all of you to this year’s Single’s Tournament. I am pleased to announce that we have had two hundred and eighty-three people enter this year’s tournament but, unfortunately, only sixteen of you will be able to advance through into the actual tournament, and only one of those skilled sixteen will win.

I hope that each of you contestants fights as hard as you can this year and that, even if you don’t make it to the final sixteen, you can still hold your head high and be proud of what you’ve done. Kasmine let out a small sigh as the sounds of paper being ripped came through the microphone. Teeq, it’s all yours.

Kasmine walked away from the microphone loudly and Teeq took her place.

As we know everyone here and at home are excited to see the Tournament begin, I’ll try to keep this brief. Firstly, the Elimination Match is not a battle per say; it is a fight to survive with no rules other than that. Any action against other players is allowed and the match will go on for as long as it needs to until there are only sixteen contestants remaining.

Secondly, there are not only your fellow competitors that you will have to worry about. Our teachers will be spawning thousands of spirits inside my Virtual Space that will attack you all randomly and their number will continue to increase the longer the match goes on. Finally, when the match begins and everyone is transported to my world, you will all be spawned randomly on the map alone, unless you are holding hands with someone else.

You can use this if you want to form small teams, or to potentially target those who you think are weaker than you. We don’t mind either way. Any and all tactics are acceptable here. By the end of this Elimination Match, only sixteen of you two hundred and eighty-three will be through to the next round, so please do your best to reach that goal.

Contestants, on my mark, the match will begin.

3.

2.

1.

Begin!

***

The stage for the Elimination Match was, like always, a ruined city but it was a completely different city from any of the previous years.

In order to allow students to properly plan for the Elimination Match, Kasmine made sure that the type of map would always stay the same, although she insisted that the layout changed every year to prevent people from learning it off by heart and having an advantage.

The two hundred and eighty-three competitors were spaced across the map randomly and, a second later, an army of black spirits in all shapes, sizes and forms appeared.

The Elimination Match had officially begun.

***

The moment Evony and Jasmine had spawned in the middle of the destroyed street, they found themselves surrounded by five spirits.

Evony loosed an explosive arrow at one, destroying it, and Jasmine gunned down two more with her machine guns. The remaining two spirits charged at them with swords and slashed at them, but the girls easily avoided their swings.

“We don’t have to bother with them!” Evony grabbed Jasmine’s arm and dragged her away.

The two spirits followed behind them, but they were much slower and less intelligent than the girls were, allowing them to easily evade them.

Once the spirits were gone, they stopped inside an empty department store to rest and assess the situation while Jasmine reloaded her machine guns.

Before the match had begun, Evony and Jasmine had agreed to work together as they had a gigantic disadvantage when compared with the rest of their competitors; they were wearing little to no armour and had no supernatural abilities.

Without any real way of stopping bullets or magical attacks, they were vulnerable and their skills and equipment weren’t suited for street-to-street fighting.

Evony knocked an arrow against her bow. “We’ve got to get underground ASAP.”

“Agreed, but, if we move too quickly, we could be spotted and killed instantly.”

Evony scanned the street that they were on and saw what looked like an old train station a hundred metres from them.

“There.” She pointed at it. “That should be our way down.”

Jasmine frowned and clicked her tongue. “Across the open street, huh?”

“On three, we run for it. Ready?” Jasmine nodded. “1. 2. 3!”

Evony and Jasmine ran as fast as they could across the street, praying that they wouldn’t encounter anyone on their way. A gunslinger on a nearby rooftop took a few shots at them, but Evony fired her arrow at them, unleashing a hail of mines upon the building, devastating it.

The gunshots stopped.

As they got close to the station entrance, an Air Mage flew down from a nearby rooftop to the ground and spotted them. Jasmine fired all of the bullets in her magazines at the mage, but the mage created a shield made of air before her, absorbing the shots.

The mage lowered the shield and sent the air at Jasmine, but she managed to dodge it. Evony fired an arrow at the mage but a bolt of lightning quickly shot it out of the air. Storms clouds gathered behind the enemy mage and several bolts of lightning shot at them. One of them clipped Evony’s shoulder, sending her spinning to one side, but Jasmine’s managed to dodge them.

Jasmine discarded her machine guns and deployed her pistols, firing at both the mage’s head and legs. The mage raised the shield to protect her head, absorbing the bullets, but the shots aimed for her legs connected. The mage screamed and fell onto her side, giving Jasmine the opportunity to gun her down before she could block her bullets.

“You okay, Evony?”

“Not really, but I’ll manage.” Evony held her burnt shoulder and winced. “Nice take down by the way.”

“Cheers.” A large explosion boomed a few streets away from them and Jasmine’s eyes narrowed reflexively. “Hurry! Get into the station!”

The two girls dashed inside and down the stairs, entering into the underground train system of the city.

***

Alexis bounced off the side of the building towards the Mech and severed its legs.

The Mech suit collapsed onto its front and Alexis leapt above it, firing a barrage of bullets at its back which pierced its armour and killed its pilot. Alexis landed gracefully, smiled, and began to run again, quickly regaining her momentum once more.

She leapt high over one building and landed on another’s rooftop, skidding to the edge of the roof. She took a quick glance at the vast square beneath her and counted a dozen dead competitors and several more groups fighting one another.

“Hmm, seems like this will be over quickly.”

Her body instinctively flinched and she ran to the right, narrowly avoiding a black bolt that had been sent at her.

“Even though it wouldn’t be the best way to defeat you, it’d still count as my win if I beat you now,” Ace taunted from atop a fifty-metre-tall tower he’d created.

Alexis grinned. “Where’s the fun in that?”

She fired a dozen bullets at the middle of the tower, breaking it in half, causing it to collapse before she took off running away from him.

“Wait!”

He threw fifty Death cards into the air but all of them missed Alexis who, now that she knew where he was, could easily avoid his attacks. Ace hissed and steadied his rough landing with his moon, just as a group of spirits began to lumber towards him.

“I guess I’ll have to just settle with the small fry,” Ace mumbled.

***

Ajax blocked the enchanted sword with the shaft of his spear, but the blade effortlessly cut through it, forcing him to leap back a few feet.

He deployed his own sword and shield into his hands, blocked his opponent’s next blow with his shield, and then chopped at their chest, slicing through their heart. His attacker stopped moving and Ajax pushed his body of his weapon.

Ajax panted heavily as he was finally able to recover from his fight.

Since he had spawned, he had been fighting non-stop against spirits and two other competitors, all of whom he’d managed to defeat but at a cost. He had lost his spear, the weapon he was best with, and he was exhausted.

“Come on, Ajax.” He deployed swords in both of his hands. “You can do this!”

An armoured bullet pierced through the back of his shoulder and Ajax howled in pain, the bullet fragmenting upon impact and sending shards through his body. Ajax didn’t bother to check where the shot had come from or who had fired it as he ran into a block of flats, because he already knew the answer.

Damn Dead Eye! Ajax barely avoided another bullet except, this time, it had been aimed at his head.

Ajax took cover against a thick concrete wall and bit his lip.

There’s no way that isn’t Dead Eye, not that I can do a thing about him except get as far away as possible.

Ajax ran to the emergency exit of the flats, burst through the door and charged into the side alleyways, hoping to find more opponents for him to defeat.

***

“Damn.” Dead Eye pulled back on the bolt of his rifle.

Dead Eye had been given a fantastic spawn point which was on the rooftop of a twenty-eight-story block of offices which gave him a clear view of a good portion of the city.

While Dead Eye hadn’t been able to get Ajax, he had already sniped and eliminated four others.

The doors behind him flew wide open and Dead Eye sprung to action.

In less than a second, he had spun around, aimed at the attacker’s head and fired a shot right between their eyes.

Before the gunslinger could even see Dead Eye, Dead Eye had already killed him.

He returned to his original position and saw a large pillar of fire burning tall and brightly in the centre of the field. It licked higher and higher into the sky and it quickly spread down the neighbouring streets, consuming the buildings along them.

“Xantico, huh?”

***

Stood in the centre of the inferno was Xantico, her hands curled into fists and she was breathing heavily.

“It’s not enough. Nowhere near enough!”

The flames rapidly expanded and she heard at least ten people’s voices scream in agony as they were burnt to a crisp, eliciting a small smile from her.

“Ah, that’s better,” she said, stretching her arms above her head. “Taking out your anger in games really does feel great!”

***

“Ah, the fire’s really getting out of hand now,” Kiara purred.

While she didn’t know what had caused the fire to keep growing at such a rapid rate, knowing who was creating it, Kiara could easily guess why.

Floating high above the battlefield lazily and acting as if she was lying down on her bed, Kiara was patiently waiting above the city, observing the fights below and keeping herself as far away from danger as possible. She had had to deal with a few air mages who had come after her but she’d quickly dispatched them.

“Even though they said no rules, I think maybe they should consider banning flying above a certain height.”

A black arrow made of tree roots flew past her head and Kiara smiled slyly when she saw where it had come from. Located in a corner along the eastern side of the map was Herne’s forest which was well over thirty metres wide now and continuing to grow.

“Oh, Herne wants to play?” Kiara smiled sadistically. Another arrow flew towards her but she caught it out of the air and crushed it in her palms.

She swooped down from the sky towards the forest, dodging another two of Herne’s arrows and Kiara quickly made her way to its border. She landed and then shot one a black ball into the back of the head of a nearby mage before swatting away another of Herne’s arrows.

A black hand emerged from the forest and tried to grab her, but Kiara effortlessly flew around it, giggling gently to herself.

“Your curse doesn’t work on Vampires, Hunter, so try to make this fun!”

***

Evony and Jasmine carefully made their way through the underground tunnels which, miraculously, still had functioning lights and soon came across two mages.

Without saying a word to one another, Jasmine and Evony attacked the mages.

The mages, a boy and a girl, scattered to either side and a barrage of Death bolts flew at Evony and Jasmine, forcing them to take cover behind a concrete wall.

“Necromancer!”.

“Yeah, I realised!” Jasmine yelled back, ducking out of cover and firing in small bursts from her machinegun at them.

The Necromancer created a dark storm cloud behind him and several black lightning bolts zoomed at the girls. Jasmine took cover again and the bolts smashed against the concrete, chipping pieces of it off.

Evony turned the corner and fired an arrow which shot out a hundred small mines from the tip of it but a wall made of pure white energy appeared before the Necromancer, absorbing the attack.

A Light Mage?

The wall disappeared and more bolts of black energy flew at the girls, slowly chipping away at the concrete they were hidden behind.

“Any ideas?” Evony asked.

“If they were both Necromancers, I might’ve had something.” Jasmine reloaded her machinegun. “Unless we can do something about that Light mage, we’re-”

Two loud, high-pitched screams cut off their conversation as the attacks against the wall stopped. Before Jasmine could peak her head around the corner, Evony held up her hand, signalling her to stop. Evony closed her eyes and focused all of her being on any and all sounds that she could hear, hoping to get some indication as to what happened on the other side of the wall.

“You don’t have to worry, I won’t kill you,” a female voice called to them.

Hesitantly, Evony looked around the corner and her jaw dropped upon seeing the girl.

She was dressed in silver coloured plate armour complete with a full-face helmet with gorgeous golden vines wrapped around it, a stunning white-gold sword in her right hand with green vines curling along it, meeting at the top just beneath the tip of the blade, and a similar looking kite shield in her left.

It wasn’t the appearance of the knight herself which shocked Evony, but rather the gigantic, beautifully crafted red rose on the centre of the chest piece; a symbol Evony could never forget.

“The…Rose Knight…” She whispered, her body shaking a little as she uttered those words.

The girl in armour sighed sadly, sheathed her sword and, even though Evony couldn’t see it, she knew the girl was smiling beneath her armour.

“I’m not him, I’m happy to say.”

“You’re not going to attack us?” Evony asked.

When she realised that she had accidentally revealed that there were two of them hiding behind the wall, she covered her mouth with her hands, even if it was far too late.

“Rest easy, I won’t fight you,” The Rose Knight assured her. “I killed them because they were trying to kill you. That was all.”

The Rose Knight walked up a set of stairs a good distance from them and went back up onto the main streets.

“She saved us?” Jasmine questioned, scratching the back of her head. “Why? It’s a Deathmatch, right?”

Evony nodded. “Perhaps…saving people’s more important to her now than getting through to the next round.”

“Well, given the Rose Knight’s history, I’m not surprised.”

***

It hadn’t even been five minutes since the Elimination Match had begun and yet there were already less than a hundred people remaining.

“Have the Elimination Matches always been this short?” Eric asked.

“Hmm, it can be quite short or long, depending on the number of people who apply and their powers and abilities,” Connor explained. “On average though, the Elimination Match takes about eight minutes or so.”

Alexa reflexively grabbed Eric’s arm and grimaced. She leant over to him and whispered, “I’ve never really considered it before, but it must be scary to fight in a battle like that.”

“Most fights aren’t anything like this,” he said softly back, putting his hand reassuringly over hers. “I’ve been in real combat before and I was fine, so don’t worry.”

Alexa nodded. “It’s…you never really consider how scary it must be until someone you know is involved in all of this.”

“Yeah, I guess.”

Even though Eric had reassured her that he’d been fine, Eric’s body had shuddered at the idea that so many people could die in such a short period of time, and it was even more disturbing when it dawned on him that he might have to fight in such battles in the future.

I hope I never have to fight in a hell like that for real.

***

Alexis stabbed the archer through the chest, killing him, before bouncing off his body and back onto the rooftops.

“And that’s nine.”

As she ran from rooftop to rooftop, she swerved around the various spirits and their attacks, whilst checking the streets beneath her for new targets. She spotted someone wearing knight’s armour and pounced at them.

She kicked off the edge of the building into the air and unleash a hail of armour piercing bullets at them. A few dented his armour, but the knight was quick to spin his tower shield in front of him, blocking the rest of her attacks. Alexis landed on his shield and tried to stab her blades through it; they bounced off them and Alexis leapt off the shield.

Alexis landed in a crouched position a dozen metres away and narrowed her eyes, focusing solely on the knight before her and began analysing her opponent.

He was wearing a white suit of armour with a gold trim and he was holding a beautifully crafted engraved silver longsword in his right hand and a magnificent tower shield along his left arm. It was slightly taller than him and it looked like it should weigh a tonne, yet he had spun it around to meet Alexis’s attacks effortlessly.

She knew the shield had to be enchanted and, if it was, there was a good chance that the sword and the rest of his armour was too; or, he could have been born with super strength and endurance, or perhaps even wearing a strong Mech suit like her brother.

If she didn’t know which, Alexis couldn’t plan her attacks effectively.

She ran towards him, firing constantly at him and the knight blocked her shots. She swerved to the right and he kept his shield before him, preventing her from landing another shot on his armour. Alexis stopped in her tracks, turned on her heel and ran at him instead, ceasing to fire. The knight moved his shield to see her and Alexis slid at his legs.

The knight slammed his shield before her just as Alexis had wanted and, from her slide, she leapt back onto her feet around his left side and stabbed at him. Her blade pierced through his armour and punctured his shoulder, and Alexis began to fire at him. The knight’s sword glowed and he swung it at Alexis, forcing her to retreat.

Alexis jumped five metres back and saw that the knight’s blade was covered in an intense flame.

“So, that’s how it is,” She whispered, reloading her wrist guns.

His armour wasn’t enchanted but his sword and shield were.

Alexis prepared to attack again but the knight turned his shield to face her and a green blast fired from the centre of it. Alexis ducked beneath it and the knight charged at her, his sword still ablaze, and he swept it at her. A wave of fire soared at Alexis, forcing her to leap into the air to dodge it and the knight aimed his blade at her again; this time, it fired a fireball at her.

Alexis clicked her tongue, span in the air and it grazed her back. She hissed and landed awkwardly on a nearby rooftop, her back screaming in agony but, thankfully, it wasn’t on fire.

This…might be bad.

***

Ace didn’t even see the boulder shot at him until it was too late.

It smashed into the side of his arm, knocking him down and sending him tumbling. Ace scowled and stood back up, quickly deploying two knight cards beside him.

“Where’d that come from?” He demanded.

A boy dressed in a smart navy blue suit stepped onto the street and smiled at Ace with several large rocks floating around his body. He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose, glared at Ace and the rocks flung at him.

Ace raised his moon to protect him and the rocks turned to pebbles upon impact. Ace sent his knights at the boy. The boy slammed his foot against the concrete and it split open, causing the knights to fall into the craters.

“A Geomancer, huh?” Ace noted.

Ace pulled out a dozen Death and Devil cards, threw them into the air and they launched at the mage. The boy smiled and raised a wall made of white energy before him, blocking the bolts of Death magic. He then dropped the shield as the fireballs flew at him; his body sparked and it was quickly covered in a cloak of fire, absorbing the fireballs.

“What the hell?” Ace yelled.

Three types of Magic?

As far as Ace knew, people were born with a natural affinity for one or two magic schools at the most, but the person before him was able to use three, maybe more, something that was extremely rare and difficult to fight against.

The mage flicked his wrist and clicked his fingers. Ace felt the ground around them shake as the sewer grates and manhole covers exploded into the air from the force of gigantic pillars of water.

Four!

The mage thrust his hand at Ace and the pillars of water shot at him. Ace clicked his tongue, placed a tower card onto the ground and he shot high into the air atop a pillar of rock. Ace then threw out four chariot cards and they charged at the mage. The boy swept the pillars of water to intercept the chariots but they broke through the water and continued their charge.

The boy frowned and conjured a wall of fire between himself and the chariots; the chariots burnt to ashes as they tried to run through it.

From atop of his tower, Ace was nervously watching the mage beneath him.

If there’s this much of a power difference between the two of us, does that mean that there are other people like him in this tournament? Ace wondered.

If there are…will I be able to win?

***

Ajax stabbed another spirit through its chest, destroying it, and he let out a small sigh of relief.

After Ajax had evaded Dead Eye’s attacks, he hadn’t run into another competitor which slightly upset him. He had wanted to prove his strength against other people, not the teacher’s cannon fodder but all he had run into was a constantly increasing number of spirits.

In total, he had defeated about twenty of them.

“If there’re this many spirits around, then it should mean that the match is almost over,” Ajax said, smiling proudly beneath his helmet.

As the Elimination Match went on, more spirits were summoned to keep this moving at a quick pace and Ajax knew that meant he was almost in the final sixteen.

“Right then,” He said, swinging his blades around in his hands. “Let’s see if we can get one more real opponent in before it ends.”

Ajax started to lightly jog along a few practically deserted streets, ignoring the spirits whenever he could, and stopped dead in his tracks when he turned onto one of the main streets.

Lying face down on the ground were a dozen other competitors, all of them filled with silver crossbow bolts, and, sitting on a destroyed lorry in the middle of the street, was a boy wearing all black clothes and a brown cloak, its hood drawn over his head. He was holding in his left hand a one handed crossbow and was looking on at the scenery in a very relaxed manner.

“Another one?” The boy asked in a bored voice. He glanced lazily at Ajax and grunted. “You’re not worth the effort.”

“Wha-?” Ajax tried to protest but a crossbow bolt landed in the ground between his feet, causing Ajax to tense up.

I didn’t even see him fire it.

“Run away. I won’t bother pursuing you.”

Ajax’s teeth inadvertently ground against one another and he shifted into a combat stance, gripping the handles of his swords tightly.

He was terrified of the cloaked boy because he knew that he had the ability to cut down Ajax before he could even attack, but his anger kept him from running.

“You’re not going to run?” The cloaked boy asked. Ajax didn’t answer and instead dug his feet into the ground more. The boy sighed, jumped down from the lorry and shot daggers at him. “Either you’re brave or an idiot. Probably both.”

The boy raised his crossbow and prepared to fire, but a loud cracking of the speakers made him stop.

Congratulations remaining competitors! The Elimination Match is over!

***

The city disappeared and the last sixteen competitors reappeared standing in the very same places that they had been in when they were first teleported. Lying on the floor around them were the other two hundred and sixty three competitors, all of whom were temporarily knocked out for the time being.

Ladies and gentlemen, it is my privilege to present you this year’s Final Sixteen! Kasmine excitedly said through the microphone. Our finalists are: Ajax Amory, Jasmine Delana, Kellan Bowen, Fergus Reamann, Ashar Ozkan, Alexis Amory, Evony Alma, Kiara Morrigan, Fiddah Darpa, Seb Mahin, Keahi Hekili, Messorem Armand, Edgard Gwydion, Herne Heolstor, Arian Rajneesh, and Izellah Vartan.

Please, give them a big round of applause!

Even though many people were cheering and clapping for them, many more were whispering to one another.

“Vartan? As in-?”

“Yeah, the Rose Knight.”

“I thought the armour had been destroyed.”

“It should’ve, after what the last one did.”

“Why does everyone look so worried?” Laila asked.

“Izellah Vartan, the Rose Knight,” Connor said, crossing his arms and scowling a little. “She’s the granddaughter of the last Rose Knight, the granddaughter of one of Cu Sith’s greatest allies.”

Eric nodded and frowned at her, seeing that Izellah had decided to keep on her helmet rather than take it off, no doubt unable to handle all of the people looking at and talking about her. When the competitors had come out, even though they had all been on full display, Izellah had been lost in the crowd, no doubt hidden behind someone taller than her or in bulkier armour which is why it had come as such a surprise to the crowd.

The previous Rose Knight, James Vartan, had helped the terrorist Cu Sith execute his vile plans and personally took the lives of over a thousand people in a single battle.

“There’s no way she didn’t know she’d get this much attention, right?” Alexa asked.

“Maybe she just wanted to be a Guardian and wasn’t born with any powers or something,” Kaida answered. “Even if it means wearing the armour of a monster, she might not care as long as she can fulfil her dream.”

“I…don’t think that’s it,” Eric interjected. “I think she’s trying to clear her family’s name.”

“Hmm, that I could see,” Alexa said. “Bring the Rose Knight back to the warrior of justice that he was a long time ago.”

“Even then, it takes a lot of courage to appear before the world in that armour, doesn’t it?” Connor mused, putting his hands behind his head.

With that done, I am pleased to present to you the tournament brackets for the first round, Kasmine continued. The main screen in the stadium displayed the tournament tree and it slowly panned over the very bottom of the tree, across the first matches of the elimination round.

The matches were: Paladin (Fergus) VS Arian, Seb VS Edgard, Dead Eye VS Herne, Kiara VS Ashar, Jasmine VS Evony, Ajax VS Messorem, Alexis VS Ace, and, finally, Izellah VS Xantico (Keahi).

“Wow, this should be interesting,” Connor said. “Dead Eye VS Herne? That’s practically a free round, isn’t it?”

Alexa let out a low hum and smiled at him. “Willing to make a bet on that?”

“How much?”

“Double or nothing; I’ll say Dead Eye will win, you say he won’t. Deal?”

“Deal.”

The two shook hands before Alexa coughed deliberately loudly.

“While I hate to be a nag, Connor, you’ve forgotten something,” Alexa teased, smirking and holding out her palm.

Connor let out a long sigh, took out his wallet, and he handed each of them a five pound note and a handful of coins each.

“Do you think we should tell them that Connor didn’t think one of them would make it through?” Alexa suggested.

“Please don’t,” Connor begged with a small smile. “It’s not like I’m not happy to see them all make it, but, you have to admit, they were up against some stiff competition. Herne or Xantico could’ve one shot any of them and Alexis is faster than all of them. It wasn’t exactly a stretch to imagine them getting defeated.”

“I hope one of our team makes it to the final round,” Kaida said.

“I think someone will,” Eric added.

“Who do you think will?”

“Hmm, I don’t know.”

“Hey, then let’s place bets on who will win every fight in the tournament,” Alexa suggested.

“Go on.”

“Everyone puts twenty pounds into a pool; whoever gets the most number of winners throughout the entire tournament right wins the lot.”

“Oh, that sounds good,” Kaida excitedly agreed.

“Seconded,” Connor chipped in soon after. “Eric?”

Eric smiled. “Do you even need to ask?”

“Can I join in, too?” Laila interjected.

“Ah, of course!” Alexa replied.

Everyone swiftly handed in their money and they spent the next few minutes writing down on their phones who they thought would win every single fight in the tournament, including who the ultimate winner would be.

We will now take an hour long intermission to allow the contestants to relax and strategize before their fights, Kasmine said. Once the tournament begins, there will be no breaks or rests between matches, so do your best, young Guardians!