Chapter16- Beginner’s Tournament

Lucarus, Aarushi and I are competing in the beginners’ tournament. Rhea is on standby to heal any injuries we may get. The three of us are waiting with Rhea beneath the coliseum for our names to be called. We are in a small room light by torch light. The walls and floor are made of yellow bricks and the floor is covered in sand. The room smells of blood and sweat. Three wooden planks held against the wall by black chains adorn each wall. Although these are often used as beds for the injured we are currently using them as benches.

Aarushi has a devilish smile on her lips as she looks into my direction. “Hey do you guys want to make the usual bet? Whoever wins the tournament wins the bet too.”

A devilish smile also comes across Lucarus’s face as he glances over to Rhea. “Does that mean we can give Rhea an order if we win?”

I say “Only if we make a way for her to win also.”

“How about if none of you win then it counts as me winning? Also what is this usual bet?”

Aarushi jumps from her wooden bench. “Well, the winner gets to make the losers do anything they want. And the losers can’t complain or avoid doing the will of the winner!” Aarushi rubs her hands together diabolically.

Rhea gives a small nod then raises her eye brow while smiling. “Oh and what is it you plan to make everyone do?”

Aarushi puts one hand on her hip and shakes a finger with the other. “That’s a secret!”

“I doubt she even knows what she wants to make any one do yet.” Lucarus leans back on the bench causing the wood to creak and the chains to rattle.

Aarushi throws her arms down angrily while shouting. “I know what I’m going to do to Deadra!” silence fills the room momentarily as Aarushi realizes what she said. A squeak comes from her mouth as she raises her hands waving them defensively. “I mean what I will make him do to me. No, no I meant make him do. Yeah just what I’ll make him do. I won’t even be involved at all!” She looks around the room hoping we fell for her ploy.

Before anyone has time to either ignore or make fun of her statement a knocking comes from the door. “Aarushi you’re up to fight. Come to the south gate now.”

Aarushi’s eyes shine with excitement not attempting to hide her love of fighting.  She pumps her fist in the air and heads toward the door. Before reaching it she stops and tilts her head to the side. Making a slight moan she turns around and asks. “Which way is the south gate?”

The lot of us break into laughter for a few seconds. Rhea stands up and puts her hand on Aarushi’s shoulder and announces. “I’ll guide you there.”

After the door shuts behind the girls Lucarus shuffles toward me and nudges me in the ribs with his elbow. “So you and Aarushi have been getting along well these past few months, anything happen?”

Elbowing him back I ask. “What about you and Rhea?”

“Hey now I asked you first!”

“Ugh fine. We haven’t really done much. I mean we cuddle every night and kiss sometimes but otherwise nothing much.”

Lucarus raises both eyebrows and falls back a little in shock. “She won’t let you… you know do more? It’s been over a year since you started dating!”

Shaking my head I explain further. “It’s not her it’s me. I really think I love her, and well in my first life I would only ever do those things with people I didn’t care about. So it’s different with her. I want to take care of her and make her happy.”

“No way! Thats how I feel about Rhea! I just want to protect her!” Lucarus rubs the back of his head giving off his usual cheeky smile accented by his freckles. After a second Lucarus’s face becomes serious as he continues. “But I’m afraid to tell her how I feel. You’re lucky Aarushi is the one who admitted her feelings to you.”

“haha do you not remember what happened? She didn’t admit anything, she just slipped up and kissed me one day. She didn’t mean to let me know she liked me at all, but now that I know she has been… well let’s say frisky.”

A curious look falls across Lucarus. Putting a fist to his mouth and clearing his throat he says “harrumph, please do continue, frisky you say do elaborate harrumph.”

The door swings open as Rhea steps through the door. “Oh sorry am I interrupting something?” I smile slightly knowing she was listening to our conversation. I wonder if she heard how Lucarus feels for her. I do know she is jealous of his reaction toward Aarushi.  

Lucarus straightens his back and defensively says. “Oh, hey, no we weren’t doing anything right Deadra?”

Knowing how to lie like an expert I could easily bale Lucarus out of this situation, but what fun is that? Instead I decide to dig him into a deeper whole “You’re fine, you didn’t interrupt anything. Lucarus just wanted me to talk about the time Aarushi started striping to seduce me. I was about to go into graphic detail on the subject knowing how it would make him feel.”

Rhea being almost a year older then us is already seventeen, but even so she is inexperienced in the ways of love. She blushes and turns her face to the ground. “Oh well I umm I ‘m sorry.” Glancing toward Lucarus she says “I didn’t know you liked girls like her.”

“No I like girls like you I promise!” After Lucarus’s pseudo-confession I decide I need to leave. Without a word I sneak out of the room.

I decide to walk over to the south entrance and meet with Aarushi after her match ends. On the way to the gate I see a confused and lost Aarushi. “What are you doing here, what happened to your match?”

“Oh Deadra!” Aarushi runs up wrapping her arms around me. Her usual scent of honey is mixed with sweat. “I won my match!”

“Already? That was really fast!”

“Well it seems with the amount of fighting we did during these six months we got stronger!”

A large man with a scar on his face walks up behind Aarushi. With a deep and monotone voice he says “Are you Deadra? It’s time for your match. Follow me.”

I kiss Aarushi on the lips, they taste like salt. “I need to go, tell the others my match is starting.”

As I walk into the arena the echoes of cheering great me. The stands are almost half full, a vast improvement from six months ago. My opponent slowly steps out at the same time. He has a wooden shield and a metal spear. His long black hair creeps out from the edges of his iron helmet. He looks to be sixteen or seventeen years old. A white scar covers his left eye.

A women standing on a raised platform raises her hands and the crowd goes silent. “In the south corner we have Deadra the Pyromancer. For the last six months his team Eternal Flame has been killing monsters in the arena making a huge name for themselves. With their current reputation they could advance to the next level of tournament but because of their lack of fighting humans have decided to stay in the beginners.”

Pointing toward my opponent she continues. “In the northern corner we have Skulio a young man from the skyless tribe. He has not competed in the arena before but has been trained in the northern mountains surviving in the wild.”

The woman bounces up and down. “Who will win? Let the match begin!”

The brass bell rings out and the crowd goes wild.

I pump heat into my sword sharpening the blade with power. Skulio brings his back foot in then shoots his front foot forward. Repeating his steady motion he shuffles closer like a well-oiled machine. Not wanting to wait I launch myself into a sprint. As Skulio and I reach two paces from each other we initiate our attacks. He thrusts his spear at my chest. I juke it with a spin, barely missing it by an inch. With the combined momentum of my forward rush and spinning juke I attack with a back slash. The sword collides with his shield. Tearing apart the shield and splintering into a million pieces. My sword gashes his arm open as it breaks through his wooden defenses. From my left hand I release an explosive blast of fire and smoke at his face to cover my retreat.

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As I back step several times I keep my defenses up preparing for a counter attack. I continuously scan the smoke and everything around it watching for the slightest movement. The smoke clears to reveal empty space. Looking left and right I don’t see Skullio so I check behind me; nothing. Where could he have gone?

“Wow a two strike victory for Deadra!” Skullio lies on his back completely knocked out. The crowd yells out my name. Astonished by my quick victory I ignore the crowd and go back to the room in silence.

Why was the opponent so weak? Should we have tried to take on a harder level of tournament?  We only took the lowest level of class because we have never had experience fighting other people. At this rate instead of doing to beginner’s class we should have done the intermediate class. One day I would like to go past advanced level and expert level and compete in the master level or dragon level competitions.

As I reach for the door knob the door swings open with Lucarus running out the door. “I’m going to go look for them.” He shouts behind him. His face flushed with red he spots me. “Oh Deadra, ugh where have you been?”

“I just finished my match. Didn’t Aarushi tell you?”

“What do you mean? I haven’t seen Aarushi since she left for her match.”

I set my hand over my face. “Uuughh. She got lost again didn’t she? Well whatever she can take care of herself. More importantly why is your face red?”

His face grows redder as I mention his complexion. He puts his hand on the back of his head, but instead of his giving a cheeky smile and puffing his chest he slouches in place. “Rhea mmbl I are mmmble out.”

“What?” Aarushi pops up from behind me. She never has very good timing.

Lucarus shoots his gaze behind me. Aarushi and the man with the scar on his face stand behind me. The man using his deep voice says “Lucarus it is your turn to fight. Follow me.” Lucarus does as he is told.

“Thanks mister for bringing me back to my friends!” she waves as Lucarus and the man walk down the corridor. “What was wrong with Lucarus?”

I shrug my shoulders. “He said something about himself and Rhea. Maybe she said something to him? Either way lets go inside the room.”

When we get inside we see Rhea lying on her belly kicking her feet in the air behind her butt. While humming a tune she bobs her head. Her eyes are closed so she does not notice us enter the room.

Aarushi says “Hey what are you doing? You look the way I do when… ugh never mind what are you doing?”

Freaking out when she notices us Rhea rolls off the bench. “Whaa! How long have you been watching me?”

Sticking my hand out to help her up I say “We just got here so don’t worry. More importantly why are you so happy?”

Rhea pulls herself up and sits back on the bench. “Well Lucarus just…” she grabs the hems of her skirt. “AAAAhhhhh. He asked me out!”

Aarushi claps her hands excitedly while jumping up and down. “Yeahya!”

“I guess I didn’t dig him in that deep of a hole.”

Aarushi and Rhea tilt their heads in unison. “Huh?”

“Haha don’t worry about it. I’m happy for you!” I walk over and sit in the corner crossing my arms and let the girls continue to giggle and gossip.

After a few more minutes Lucarus comes back to the room. He easily defeated his opponent as well. As he walks into the room he awkwardly sits across from Rhea. Aarushi runs away from the two to give them space and slides in next to me. She lays her head on my shoulder and closes her eyes. I decide to take a nap as well, but first I ask a simple question.

“What is a person from the skyless tribe?”

Rhea being highly educated by her sister says “They are none mancers. They have no magic abilities because they have forsaken their gods a long time ago. Or that’s what most people believe.”

“What do you mean most people believe? What do you believe?”

“Oh I don’t know. I just feel sorry for them and don’t believe it is their fault they don’t have power. I don’t think they deserve anything that is happening to them.”

“I used to not have power when I was in my old world; it’s not bad at all. So don’t worry about them and worry about yourself more.”

 Curiosity no longer biting at me I drift off to sleep. The next match will be a ways off.

I wake with a start being shaken by Aarushi. A red gash drips blood from under her eye. Dirt covers her face. “Deadra wake up it’s your turn to fight!”

I reach out and cup her face. “You’re so dirty… you kind of smell too.” Aarushi scrunches her face before slapping my cheek.

“Stupid! Just leave!” I give her a big smile and kiss her on the forehead as I leave.

“Wish me luck everyone.”

The fight takes longer than the first but I still have no problems.  

Lucarus, Aarushi and I each have three more fights. Between each one Rhea heals and cleans us with her water magic. The tournament was rather easy, next time we need to go to the intermediate level.

Rhea Lucarus and I are sitting in our little waiting room when I say. “So Rhea I’m afraid you won’t be winning the bet. Maybe next time.”

“I don’t mind, I already got what I wanted.” She glances at Lucarus as she says this. These kids are falling in love so quickly. They only met six months ago. But I guess I am a kid now too so I can’t complain. “Lucarus do you have any plans if you win?”

“Not really. What I did have planned wouldn’t matter anymore. What about you Deadra?”

“haha I say we all have to celebrate with drinks!”

Aarushi bursts into the room. “I won! Now I’m in the finals! Next I get to fight one of you guys!”

I say “Which one of us would you prefer to fight?”

Lucarus steps up before Aarushi can speak. “If I beat Deadra I would let Aarushi win. I wouldn’t be able to attack her seriously.”

Aarushi asks. “Why wouldn’t you be able to attack me?”

Lucarus says “Because you’re a girl!” Aarushi crunches her face and hits him in the back of the head. Ouch that must have hurt; she still had her metal gauntlets on. Lucarus grabs the back of his head. “Ouch why did you do that?”

“Idiot! Just because I’m a girl doesn’t mean anything. I could still kick your ass!”

“Maybe I should let Lucarus win so Aarushi can kick your ass herself.”

Lucarus still rubbing his head says. “Hey you think you can beat me? Why do either of you think you can win?”

A knock on the door interrupts us. “Deadra, and Lucarus it is your turn to battle.”

I stand from my seat hold my fist out in front of me. “Let’s settle this in the arena. Aarushi, Rhea why don’t you guys come to watch?”

Lucarus gives me a grin while placing his fist against mine. No more words are needed to be said. The four of us leave for the arena as our fight is about to begin.