The crowd roared.

Victor Vincent grinned and splayed his hands up to the stadium, turning a full circle as if to say 'am I not the greatest?'

Camilla sat back in her chair and folded her arms. Arrogant little shit. But his turn was coming, assuming he made it to the semi-finals to fight her.

She checked her phone automatically, but quickly pocketed it, remembering she had put it on do not disturb. Grace had been texting her all morning, asking about nonsense as usual, and Camilla had ignored her and sat in a corner of the stadium by herself. Couldn't Grace see that she was busy? Couldn't she see how important this was? Camilla was confident she could win today, but it wasn't about just winning.

She'd had spent the night before watching her father's tournament matches for motivation. They were grainy, black and white videos from the 50s, where the fighters blurred when they augmented themselves, but one thing about each match was clear. Her father hadn't just won. He'd obliterated his opponents, the matches sometimes lasting less than ten seconds. And they hadn't been random chumps. Two of the mages he'd faced had gone on to be Sheriffs, two had sat on the North American Council at various times, and the man he'd fought in the final had ended up being the Arch-Lictor of the Consular Guard.

Victory wasn't enough. She needed flawless, overwhelming victory.

Ishaan Stone was a somewhat strong Producer who'd made it this far because of his skill and technique. It wasn't fair to him that he'd gotten matched up with her, but he was in her way and she wasn't going to go easy on him just because he wasn't a challenge for her. None of them were challenges for her. Not Vincent. Not Tanaka.

Tanaka. What had he been thinking the other day? He shouldn't have made that mistake. It was something a first-year noob does, not someone like him.

It did make her wonder, though. For all his strength, all his ability, arrogance blinded him the same as anyone else. She wasn't Tanaka, but she'd have to make sure she didn't fall into the same trap. When your eyes were so high off the ground, little things could trip you.

And it was a long way down.

She gazed across the stadium, picking out Jacob and Blake and Grace sitting in their usual spot, chatting away. She hadn't spoken to Jacob since the morning before, but she knew he would understand that this took precedent over everything else, no matter what it was. She couldn't afford any distractions right now. She had to be totally focused on the match, on her strategy. To even show an iota of weakness against someone as amateur as Ishaan would be failure.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Still, it made her feel a little bad about not talking with them. It was lonely sitting over here. But that was part of the price she had to pay. Afterwards she'd go and sit with them and they could talk and have fun.

In fact, once this whole tournament was over, once the whole term was over, maybe she'd go to Italy with Grace for a week. They'd been talking about it on and off since the new year, and she knew she'd need a break before senior year of high school.

But first, she had to win.

----------------------------------------

Jacob looked around the stadium for Camilla but couldn't find her. He was disappointed she wasn't sitting with them for the matches. He looked forward to sitting next to her, talking about the various strategies in the matches, even with his impending fight with Archie looming.

Down in the arena, Victor Vincent blew around a ward launched by Wally Czerniak, the 14th seed. To his credit, Wally blasted forceward after forceward at Vincent. The turn around time between his spells was negligible. But Vincent was a grey blur on the arena floor.

Jacob peered down intently. Was that what he looked like when he was augmenting? Or was Vincent faster? Either way, the other boy was deft as a dragonfly despite the intense augmentation. He wove around Wally's increasingly flustered attacks, grabbed him, and tossed him out of bounds.

The fight had taken less than half a minute.

"What you think of him?" Blake asked, gesturing towards where Victor revelled in his victory.

Jacob shrugged. He still wasn't sure if Victor was actually super arrogant or just weird. "He's good. Best Consumer in the class."

"Coming from you?" Blake asked.

"I admit he's better than me," Jacob said. "What was that you said about not deluding yourself about your own abilities?"

"Touché."

Jacob perked up as Mr Michaelson came into the arena and walked around its circumference, waving his hand and reinforcing the ward-wall. It shimmered in the air like the surface of a bubble, then disappeared.

"Kaidan Sharpe vs Riley LaForce next," Blake said. "Then it's Camilla. You think she'll have trouble with Ishaan?"

Jacob shrugged. "He's skilled, and smart, but, man, the firepower difference is huge."

"I was thinking that, like, Ishaan's strength is in Production, which gets totally swamped by Camilla."

Jacob wondered if the boy would call him back down for a Pre-Match Advisor again. He set his jaw and decided that if Ishaan did, he would refuse. He wasn't going to help anyone against Camilla.

Blake leaned forward as the announcer called out the next match. "This should be good."

"The next matchup is between the 24th seed, from Portland, Oregon. She's coming off a big upset last weekend, it's Riley LaForce!"

The crowd roared loudly. LaForce entered the arena, waving merrily to the crowd as if she were a celebrity. Grace growled something next to them but clapped anyway.

"Nothing like an underdog, eh?" Blake said.

"She's facing off against the 8th seed, coming off a dominant performance. One half of the dynamic duo from Louisville, Kentucky, it's Kaidan Sharpe!"

Kaidan, or Keenan—Jacob still couldn't tell them apart—waltzed into the arena. Their magic and Strength Charts seemed as identical as they were. Both fairly balanced mages, with no commanding strength in any type.

"I kinda feel bad for them," Blake said. "Whoever wins has to face Tanaka."

Jacob grunted. Tanaka had been the first fight of the day, against the 17th seed, Lesno Shiren. It hadn't been much of a fight, and Lesno had been wheeled off in a stretcher.

"Contestants, get ready!"

LaForce leaned forward. Kaidan crouched into a stance.

"Start!"