When it was Andy’s turn to fight, he came out through the gate with another man. Andy was a big guy, but his opponent was taller and just as thickly muscled. He had another of the common ability booster powers that made him even stronger, as well as the power to turn berserker. He had a huge, two-handed sword that looked mean, but despite his size and great strength, I knew it wouldn’t help him here.

“Alright, who’s going to win this one?” asked Nina, who was enjoying our game of predicting winners. “That’s a big man with a big sword.”

“That’s what she said,” quipped Jane.

“He might get one swing in, but with Andy’s speed and skill he’ll dodge it and take the big guy down before you know it.”

“Let’s hope you’re right again,” Nina said.

I was right again. The fight happened just the way I’d predicted, only Andy’s opponent managed to get in two swings, powering his sword in wide arcs that would’ve probably sliced Andy in half had either of them connected. But Andy deftly avoided them and came in close for the kill. He took a page out of Chika’s book and took his opponent down to the ground, sweeping the legs before landing a punishing series of strikes that made the swordsman tap out. It doesn’t matter how big and strong you are, it won’t help you if you’re flat on your back with a trained martial artist on top of you, especially not one as big and strong as Andy.

During the second-to-last fight in the first round, it was my turn to be surprised. The fighters were a woman around Nina’s age against a much younger man. A boy, really. He came in carrying a sword, whereas all she had was a large glass jar full of a clear liquid. What was it, acid? Her affinity was Air and her powers wouldn’t help in this kind of fight. The only thing she had going for her in this situation was Competent Affinity Control. If her affinity had been Water, maybe a jar full of it would make sense, but I had no idea what she was up to. She was facing someone who actually had the skill to use the sword he was carrying.

She had this smirk on her face that made me think she had something up her sleeves so I still picked her to win, and I was still right, but it was the way she won that shocked the hell out of me.

As soon as the match started, she threw her jar at him. It smashed on the ground in front of him, splashing all over, and he laughed. No acid, then. Confident, he hefted his sword, ready to stab. He made it one step before she held her hands out in front of her, fingers pointed at him, and shot forked bolts of crackling electricity like a Sith Lord. This stopped her would-be attacker dead in his tracks.

“What the hell?” I shouted, earning me looks from all around again. “How did she do that?” I said much quieter.

“What do you mean, isn’t that her power?” asked Nina.

“No! Her powers have nothing to do with lightning. She does have Affinity Control, but her affinity is Air. There isn’t even a Lightning affinity anyway.”

“Is it from an item?”

I evaluated her again to make sure, then shook my head. “No item.”

“Is there another way she could’ve done it? A skill?”

I shook my head again, my brain working hard, trying to remember everything I could about electricity and how lightning is formed. I came to the only possible conclusion and a big grin spread across my face. As surreptitiously as I could manage, I held my hands a few inches apart between my knees and focused on Air. I thought about a positive charge in my left hand and a negative charge in my right, with air insulating the space between them. I could feel the charges build in each hand, then I released the insulation and sure enough, electricity sparked between my hands.

“Oh this is good,” I said.

“What is?” asked Nina. She hadn’t noticed.

Sigrid was in front of me, next to Jane. I nudged her with my toe.

“Quit it,” Sigrid said.

I nudged her again.

“Cut it out,” she snapped, knocking my foot away.

I nudged her again. She turned around and glared at me. “What is it?”

“You and I have an appointment for some Affinity Control practice later. You too, Jane.”

“What for?” Jane said.

“I’ll tell you later, but trust me, you’re gonna get a charge out of it.”

“Whatever,” Sigrid grumbled and turned back to watch the match.

“What’s got you in such a funk, Sig?” Jane said.

Sigrid pointed down to the arena floor, where the guy was writhing on the ground, sparking with electricity, beside his enormous sword. “That.”

“You liked the sword guy?”

“No! I want to shoot lightning,” grumbled Sigrid. “Air affinity sucks.”

I smiled, thinking about how happy she was going to be later when I showed her just how good Air was.

It wasn’t until the very final match of the first round that the tournament saw its first death. At first glance, the two men involved seemed evenly matched. Both were about the same size, looked roughly the same age, and they were both armed with long-bladed swords which they wielded in two hands; one was someone I’d seen before while walking back from the forest on the very first day, Lucas Grimes, the grim-looking man with a Japanese katana. His abilities would have been impressive enough to put him on the list of potential recruits but he’d already been snapped up by the cocky team builder Troy Hobbes. Lucas’s opponent had the kind of greatsword you would’ve seen in the hands of a Templar Knight.

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“What’s your call on this one?” asked Nina as the two faced each other in the middle of the arena.

“This one’s tricky. They’ve both got some impressive powers: Mister Katana can move extra fast and has increased agility.”

“The perfect close-combat damage dealer,” commented Wayne. “Nice.”

“Exactly,” I agreed. “Captain Greatsword can regenerate damage and has enhanced toughness.”

“The perfect tank,” said Wayne. “Tough call.”

“Yes, but I think that speed will overcome heightened defenses and win by attrition.”

“I agree,” Wayne said.

“I guess we shall see,” said Nina.

The match started slowly, each fighter feeling the other out, and it was the tank with the greatsword who made the first real attack. His strike was easily deflected. As was the next. And the one after that. Lucas’s speed was just too much. It went on like this, and the tank’s frustration was beginning to show. His attacks became sloppy, leaving him wide open to counter-attacks, but the speedy katana failed to capitalize upon them.

The crowd didn’t like this, and began to jeer.

“What’s going on?” asked Nina. “Why doesn’t he fight back?”

“He’s certainly had opportunities,” I said. “If I had to guess, I’d say he’s choosing not to.”

“Well that’s silly,” she said.

“Maybe he has a plan.”

Finally, the counter-attack came. The tank made a straight thrust with his sword, which the speedster deflected up leaving the tank’s torso wide open to a slash so fast it was hard to see. Which was followed by another. And another. The wounds looked shallow, but blood flowed liberally from each one. The tank could do nothing but stand there as his opponent literally ran circles around him so fast he was just a blur of cutting and slashing. The attacker’s mana dropped quickly as he used his super speed, but not as quickly as the defender’s health. Even with his regeneration and enhanced toughness, the tank’s improved defense proved useless against the onslaught, and by the time Annabelle called it, it was too late. Once the flurry of attacks stopped, the loser remained standing for a few moments, blood gushing from countless wounds, then literally collapsed into a lifeless heap. Literal death by a thousand cuts.

Lucas looked down at his opponent, then around at the crowd who hooted various sentiments ranging from amazement to horror to bloodthirsty excitement. If he felt bad for killing his opponent, he showed no sign of it; give the people what they want, I guess. Silent and stoic, he turned and stalked back to the gate, giving his sword a quick flick to fling the blood off his blade before sliding it back into its scabbard.

“So, um, that was something,” said Nina.

“Yes,” I said. “It was. You should remember him.”

Jane heard this and turned around. “You don’t seriously think we should work with this guy, do you?”

“No, of course not. You didn’t let me finish.”

“Then why should I remember him?” asked Nina.

“So that if you ever happen to see him in a fight, you know to steer clear.”

Nina grabbed Byron’s hand but remained silent while Jane nodded and turned back toward the arena, watching with the rest of us as the masked NPCs in dark robes and beaked masks slunk out onto the arena floor to carry away the body.

Andy was one of the first to fight in the second round, and he won his match with ease. When it was Chika’s turn, she came out with another woman who might’ve spelled trouble. She was pretty decent with a rapier, but what made her dangerous was that she was a Fire user with a power called Affinity Armor that let her envelop herself in flames. Not good for a grappler like Chika.

It was flame-on as soon as the match started, and the fire lady immediately advanced to close the gap between them.

“What’s she going to do?” asked Jane. “If Chika tries to do her grapply thing she’ll get scorched.”

Chika clearly realized this too because she kept her distance, constantly moving, circling, keeping out of range. Flame lady quickly grew tired of trying to get into melee range, so she switched tactics and started throwing fireballs; she had Affinity Control too. Chika used her acrobatics to dodge the first fireball, but the second caught her straight in the chest. It exploded in a shower of sparks, but it was a small explosion and only produced a few sparks because flame lady was still only a Novice with Affinity Control. It was enough to make a pretty light show, but the damage was minimal.

Flame lady didn’t seem to get it, though, and tossed more fireballs, one after another, all with the same flashy but ineffective result. Then all of a sudden the fire went out.

The flames that covered the woman’s body died. She tried to produce a fireball but failed.

“She’s out of mana,” Jane said. She was right; I’d been watching her mana bar decrease steadily as she kept up her Affinity Armor, then drop faster when she began chucking her nearly useless fireballs.

Seeing her opening, Chika leaped at it. Literally. She jumped high and came down right beside her opponent, and at that moment it was all over. Flame lady had zero melee skill. A quick grab and a flip over the hip followed up with a choke, and flame lady was out. Jiu jitsu didn’t offer the spectacle of flying fists and feet like karate and kung fu did, but that didn’t make it any less potent. Let a jiu jitsu practitioner get a solid grip on you, and you were in deep, deep, deep, deep snow.

The crowd didn’t seem sure what to think, but the people in my section were cheering enough to make up for it.

“Do you think that was Chika’s strategy all along?” asked Jane.

“Possibly,” I said. “If it wasn’t, it likely will be in the future.”

“I think we’ve all learned a lesson about resource management here,” said Wayne. “Watch your mana consumption.”

A few matches later, Lucas had his second fight, which showed that his first opponent’s death had not been an accident. This match went down in a similar fashion where he toyed with the other fighter for a while before turning on the speed and hitting with a relentless series of slashes. Annabelle called it when his opponent’s Health was still in the yellow, but Lucas didn’t stop attacking until he was red and dead.

“I really hope Andy and Chika don’t have to face that guy,” said Nina. I didn’t have the heart to tell her that if they kept winning, it was probably inevitable. And that’s exactly what happened. Both Andy and Chika made it to the semi-finals, as did the katana killer, and it was Andy who drew the short straw. When the gate opened and Lucas sauntered out beside him, there were groans all around me.

“Don’t worry,” I said. “Have faith in Andy.”

“Are you just saying that?” asked Sigrid.

“No, I honestly think Andy will win this. Especially if he’s been able to watch the other matches from behind the scenes. He probably won’t come out of this unscathed, but I think that Mister Katana there is in for a surprise.”

“I hope you’re right,” said Sigrid.