"And...and with a decisive monstrous finishing blow...Ver, the Kraken Manifester, is the winner of the first battle of the Winter Wars!" Principal Khan said, trying to still himself after the magnificent display of Ver's power. As the towering monster slowly submerged back into the water, Ver leaped out from its head before she gently laid Matty's body on the ground, handing it to the Guild of Medics.

The single chariot for the winner picked her up and took her back towards the Winter Wars Resort. As Lera and Fatera stood up from their table to meet Ver, Yuna and Braka stormed out of the restaurant before anybody else moved.

"Yuna!" Braka called out to the reckless red-haired girl as she marched across the hallway with her footsteps empowered unconsciously by the wave, "Where are you going?!"

"I am going to see Matty!" Yuna said stubbornly before she nearly ran into John King that's walking along the corridor with a book in hand, "John King! Where is the medical ward?!"

"Hey...watch your..." Braka said when John put up a hand and smiled.

"The treatment rooms are towards the back of the Resort." He said, "The losers of the battle are welcome to stay in the resort until the commencement of the round."

Yuna glared at him for a little while before pushing past him and heading straight on towards the described location. As the Guild of Medics lowered and put Matty's body onto a treatment bed with a full diagnostic Casts activated around him, Yuna pressed the base of her palmover the window as she watched the medics intensely.

His body was a complete mess. His feet and hands were like bloody mushes, and the number of broken bones over his body are more than she could visually count. The medical Casts were applied onto him immediately, and the operations to fix up his body began right away.

Braka simply stood besides her and watched as their friend was treated for his injuries. In the meanwhile, the rest of the battles during the first round of the tournaments continued, though the bars set by the battle between Ver and Matty was so high that the crowds were inevitably disappointed by some of the more underwhelming of battles with one fighter clearly dominating over the other.

After all, the majority of the people that participate in the Winter Wars are those that sought to make a name for themselves. Thus, the true powerhouses within the Academy like the majority of the Boarded members never intended to enter into the One-on-One tournament, opting to save the showing of their true value during the far more intense Summer Selections. The few that do enter risk losing and appearing unworthy of their title as one of the fifty strongest Wave users in the Academy.

However, Lily Watts, one of the Boarded member, is a notable exception for this year. Rather, she simply didn't care for the conventions of the other Boarded members and chose to do whatever her heart desired.

As the treatment continued in the medical ward, Ver returned to the Resort victoriously as Lera and Fatera welcomed her back by the gates.

"Well fought, Ver." Lera said, giving her a light hug before Fatera slapped her on the back, "That did remind me of the time when you stabbed Wu in the back though..."

"Didn't he tell you that was all part of the plan though?" Ver said, poking Lera's frowning face with a finger playfully, "Plus...didn't you two use that chance to get closer~"

Lera's face turned red briefly before she quickly looked away, "Nothing happened! Nothing, really!"

"For a moment, you looked rather shaky back there!" Fatera laughed, "Then, the real monster came out!"

"I wanted to save it for later, but...Matty was stronger than I thought." Ver said, "Though for someone with a duplication ability, I thought he would have had a bigger arsenal."

"As someone with a decent arsenal, spamming all of the Casts you got is seldomly a path to victory..." Lera said, "You always need a main set of abilities that you can rely on, then, the rest are highly conditional and auxiliary, like icing on cake."

Ver nodded before she started walking back towards her room as Lera and Fatera returned to the massive watch party in the restaurant. Ver needed a shower after all that exertion, then she will also join the others shortly.

A whole day and dozens of other far shorter battles later, the first round of Winter Wars had reached its half-way mark. That was also when the treatment on Matty had finally finished. As the Guild of Medics returned to their own rooms after logging in all of the individual treatment performed on him, the doors finally opened for Yuna and Braka to come in.

Matty heard the sound of Yuna's hastened footsteps, and he slowly tilted his head to the side before opening his eyes despite the blurry vision.

"Yuna...sama..." He said, and the crackling weak voice of his surprising even himself. Despite the fuzzy image, he still easily made out the rough red patches that pretended to be Yuna's actual hair. She smiled a tad upon hearing his voice as the worried looks on her face slowly melted away.

owever, before Matty's semi-shutdown mind can register her worry, she had already reached forward and started playing with Matty's white hair as he shouted in pain, "OUCH OUCH OUCH!"

"How dare you talk all big and then lose like that?!" Yuna said, fussing up Matty's hair before pinching onto his face, a piece of bandage flopping off the side of his cheeks in the process, "MATTY?! COME ON MAN!"

"I know...I know..." Matty lowered his head, and the usual cheerfulness that came in response to her teasing nowhere to be found. Yuna held onto his face, though instead of pinching it, she started massaging it with her fingers going around in circles.

"We were worried about you." Braka said, letting out the words that Yuna couldn't have spoken herself, "We are just glad you are okay."

Matty held still for a second before he slowly nodded. He wanted to show the world the true strengths of the people from Down Under, but instead, it was Ver that completely and utterly outclassed him towards the end. When he's exhausting his options and trying to use the environment to his advantage, Ver was actually holding back.

"I...am nowhere near strong enough, at my current rate..." Matty said, looking at the bruised and bandaged up hands of his with frustration, "I have progressed so much since leaving the island, yet the others are still..."

"My father used to say this." Yuna said, interrupt him before she let his face go and sat on the bed besides him, "The path to strength is about others as much as it is about yourself. You are twice the man you were when I first met you, and..."

"I thought I could use the Surging Tiger to break through..." Matty said, his eyes avoiding Yuna as she never knew about this side of Matty's combat style. He's afraid that she's going to be angry, that she is going to make him pay for making one of the more prestigious style of Wave martial arts look so...weak.

But instead, Yuna simply leaned in and gave him a light smooch on the forehead.

"For a complete beginner, you didn't look that shit." She said as Matty's face turned bright red and Braka laughed, "When you recover, I will teach you the true essence of the Surging Tiger."

Matty nodded before Braka looked down at the time-keeping Cast on the wall and started moving.

"It's my turn now." He said, his face looking surprisingly handsome now that there are no more brand new scars on his face, "I will ensure our victory today against Fatera."

Yuna nodded before she waved a hand towards Braka. They never needed much words between them, unlike Matty and Yuna, and as Braka's shadows disappeared from the hallway, Matty bit into his lips as tears of frustration flowed down the side of his face.

There are so many things he wanted to do in this tournament...so much power to show, and so many things he could do to make his island proud...But all of that is but a shattered dream, unable to be realized this time around. As Yuna's hands gently covered Matty's shoulders, he bent over and bawled his frustration away. After this day, he will never be the same.

With newfound conviction and motivation in mind, he will become the strongest Wave user that's ever come out of the Down Under place.

But that's a story for another time.

"You ready?" Lera asked Fatera as Ver dried her post-bath hair with a towel, "This Braka person seemed to be friends with Matty?"

"Some say ya can never be ready enough." Fatera said with a look of deep thought over her face before a smile of confidence took over. She cracked her knuckles and stretched her groin in a deep side lunge before looking at Lera with a smurk, "I say ya never need to be ready if ya stay ready."

Typical Fatera, but if there is anyone within the resort that can be as confident and arrogant as she is, it will be her. Plus, the Winter Wars doesn't have the same stupid laws of being eliminated by stepping out of bounds of the battlefield, so there won't be a risk of her losing to cunning cowards like Charlie Watts.

As she marched towards the gate of the Resort, Braka had already departed for the battlefield, and she is, in fact, late for her first battle.

With the entire world watching with held breath and waiting for Fatera to show up, Wu had been rather busy behind the scenes. Now with all of the information in hand regarding the mercenary's employer, Wu instead returned to the place where they received their initial missions. And as he entered the deathly quiet cave openings, a trio of shadows followed closely after him, moving silently through the snowfields like ghosts.

"And...here it goes!" The voice of Principal Khan sounded ever so magnificent even through a small transmission Cast, and it appeared that someone was watching the broadcast in the cave. Wu poked his head around, and the girl that gave them the missions were lying sideways on the ground with nothing but a singlet and her underwear as she snacked away at a bowl of pop corn.

The room was heated generously by a Warmth Cast, and she slowly rolled around to face Wu as his hiding place became suddenly exposed.

"So I have been wondering why all of the mercenaries are slacking..." She said, spinning upright and crossing her legs, "Who are you really? And why do you have a death wish?"