It was the first time I attended a ceremony like this one. The place was packed. Even though the seats had been assigned before the celebration. But it gave a sensation of welcomeness and familiarity that I didn’t expect. There were groups of friends that had come together to discuss the best way to sit together without leaving anyone behind. Others were talking with people from other groups, probably acquaintances from other academies. From the enthusiasm some showed, it looked like many alliances would form even before the official start of the tournament.

I turned around, Kai behind me, following us with an observant look. He didn’t give his thoughts off to us. His head was as hermetic as it always had been, not leaking even the slightest emotion. The only thing that seemed obvious was his curiosity.

Syl was in front of me, leading the way through the multitude, pushing people aside or politely asking them to move when she needed to. I probably shouldn’t have let her do such a tedious job herself, just out of courtesy. But she was keen on being the one to guide us through the formalities of the tournament. She liked being the lead in these kinds of situations. Not because she was craving some kind of sense of superiority out of her leadership. But because she liked organizing things for her friends. The cuter side of hers.

I stopped my eyes at her hip. The sheath of her sword was attached to the right side of her belt. The weapon gave off an ominous look. Kind of a respectful feeling rather than a frightening one. I was probably the only one to notice that since no one else was aware of the strength Syl could earn by just unsheathing it.

I felt mine bouncing on my back. It was tied to my shoulder through a leather band, a place where it could be easily released from its ties. Not like I was going to use it anytime soon, I thought. But it gave a sense of security to an imageless boy in between a mass of ready-to-fight image users.

I looked at the stage from in between the silhouettes of the heads of strangers, many taller than me. It was still empty, but the organizing team was likely to be getting ready in the backstage. That man Syl had introduced us to, Ethan, likely formed part of it. I wondered if he would appear during the show. The ceremony was likely to start at any second.

We found our seats not too far away from the entrance. The seats had been arranged to have two lateral rows of seats and a wider middle one, leaving two empty strips to allow for the participants to move through the space left in between. We had been assigned to the middle block, specifically to its left side, around fifty meters away from the stage. It wasn’t a bad position, quite centred and next to the corridors, meaning we could lean to the sides if we needed to avoid the heads of the spectators in front of us. I sat in the middle. Syl to my right and Kai to my left. Following the same arrangement we had kept while walking towards there.

Syl was engaged in a conversation with the girl on the opposite side of hers, while Kai went back to sleeping. I looked at him, deciding whether I should entertain myself by bothering him any more or just leaving him be, and finding something else to distract me. The first option was appealing, but I felt bad for my friend, so I decided on the latter instead.

I examined my surroundings. All I could see were the figures of other participants moving in all directions. Nothing caught my eye at first. Some had peculiar looks. But I couldn’t expect any less from the society of images. Blue skin or four arms were just some of the less common appearances I caught a glimpse of. Some had joined into groups of similar-looking individuals. Likely being families with similar-looking images. Otherwise, it was hard to tell the abilities of most people in the crowd though. Since most of them maintained a typical human-like look, there was nothing to differentiate them from the rest.

It was in their clothing I was more interested in, though. Many wore uniforms from different organizations. Candidates for the tournament are chosen to represent their academies and schools alike. It was a topic I had been interested in for a while, at least since my admiration for my brother had led me to memorize the names of some of his scariest opponents. It was weird to imagine them now as foes of my own. It gave me a sense of reality I hadn’t felt in a while. It was a way in which I reminded myself that the stories I heard my brother talk about for so long were now my own.

I shivered at that thought.

The ones standing out the most had bright colours, reflecting the light of the morning sun into my eyes. The students from Paragon Peak School were easy to spot. Their bright orange and black uniforms were simple, reminding me of more sports-focused clothes, like training pants for men and leggings for women. Of course, accompanied by the more spectacular elements of a typical academy uniform, in this case wearing stylish orange jackets over their dark-toned sportswear. To me, it reminded me of Kai’s usual clothing. Confident, and determined. I hadn’t informed myself on their current state as much as I should have. But back in the day, their focus was on movement-based abilities. Hard to catch and always dashing from one side to another with ease. I imagined them jumping around the field as this orange blur, hitting you with a speed that was hard to match. They were not the most prominent organization, but the Paragons would likely be an issue for me. Kai could tie them up, and Syl could match their speed. But I was no use if I couldn’t land the first hit. I would have to be mindful of them. Depending on the situation I might get forced to flee the battlefield. The problem was how.

Not far from them were the participants from the Etheria Institute. Their emerald tunics were far from intimidating. It gave off the look of the more fragile kind, probably casters. My information was limited to their basic skills, usually without any body-altering image, but rather a more abstract and distanced kind, based on projectiles and environment manipulation skills. They were a team-based academy not reliant on focussing efforts on one specific individual as most of the other academies did, but rather on observing the wider picture, combining abilities in ways that were usually unpredictable but still limited on their own. I specifically caught a glance of this white-haired kid, smiling while in a conversation with his other taller teammates. I wondered who he was since his innocent-looking appearance gave little room for my imagination to guess his ability. But it was unlikely for a professional team to let someone like him in without a proper reason. I was eager to find out his secrets in battle.

Another team that was easy to identify was the Astral Nexus participants. All of them shared the colour blue for their uniforms, but each had a different style and shape. Probably adapted to each student’s skills and image. It was interesting that they had personalized the uniforms in such a way. Other school’s students had different uniforms in size and shape, but they still shared some common patterns. The Astral Nexus students did not. A girl was wearing a cape around her shoulders, while another student wore a long jacket over his shoulders. There was a robust man with just a shirt on, while another had a face-covering mask covering his face. I didn’t know about the specific specialization of Astral Nexus students. I had heard that they were used to out-of-the-ordinary images, that deviated from the more common and easy-to-understand abilities. They might become an issue if their images conflicted with mine in any undesirable way.

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There were other groups I could name waiting for the ceremony. The Legacy, the Catalyst, and the Radiants were some of the more prominent ones I had to be mindful of. But there were two specific ones I had been intending to check on since we had arrived at the ceremony.

It didn’t take long to find the first of the two. Arkadia’s students wore their well-known black and gold uniforms, easy to find among the more colourful crowd. Quite ominous if I was honest. I wasn’t sure what came first though. Was it that they had chosen an intimidating look or was it the name of Arkadia’s academy that gave off this menacing feeling?

They weren’t strictly wearing uniforms though. It looked more like armour. The many pieces of their protection covered their whole body in patches. Many of the plates were used for the articulations, while the wider more rigid sections were used for their torso. I caught a glance of the livelier student: a young woman wearing spiky armour moving around with ease despite the many protecting pieces that covered her body. She had a couple of blonde strings going down the sides of her face, while the rest of her bright hair fell shorter on the sides and front of her head, reminding me of a lion’s mane, fitting with the two protruding animal ears coming out on the top of her forehead. Her wide smile let me catch a glance at her spiky fangs. She moved around cheerfully, laughing around with the rest of her team. Except one.

The person in question was quietly sitting down in his assigned seat. Arms crossed and straightened back, impassively staring to the front. His presence was not even acknowledged by the rest of the team. I couldn’t discern his facial features, a hood covering his face from this angle. But he had a big bulge on his back, covered by a cape, which forced him to sit while leaning forward.

At some point, the woman turned towards him. Her smile still on her face. They said something to each other, or at least I guessed they did, since the girl paused now and then, probably listening to what her teammate was saying. I wasn’t sure what their relationship was. At first, she had looked like the leader, comfortably talking to everyone on the team. But she kind of reverenced to her companion, still while keeping her confident and strong-willed composure, so I was unsure. I would have to figure it out, hopefully before the combat stage started.

But I still looked around. There was a specific team I was interested in. Since even before starting I had heard promising things about them. Probably the team that would lead the way through the tournament. And, if we were not there to stop them, possibly crown themselves as the victors.

But their characteristic white robes were nowhere to be seen around the place. I wondered if they were too hidden in between the crowd to be found, or if their ego had prevented them from coming to the initiation ceremony at all.

After the conversation I had with Kai the day before, I was keen on at least seeing the person we had talked about. The story he had told me had not scared me. Quite the opposite, I was intrigued. Meeting, or at least seeing, the man who was said to match my brother’s strength during his university days was something I had been looking forward to since I had heard of him. But it looked like there was still time to be spent before meeting him in the first place.

Instead, there was something else that caught my attention.

In between the many of the teams, it was easy to find people like us. Participants that had decided to join the Challenger’s Path on their own. People with no characteristic colour scheme in their clothing indicate their relationship with any of the common academic teams. I looked for a while trying to find something I was curious about. I wasn’t looking for a specific person, but rather, for their equipment.

And then I caught sight of one.

The girl was holding onto a spear. A black staff with what looked like a smaller version of a sword blade at the top, with a bunch of feathers attached to the base of the spear’s blade, near the socket.

She was holding it keeping her arms crossed around the shaft, leaning it on her shoulder, pointing upwards. She was on the fence, near the entrance, resting her back on the metal bars while standing, her legs crossed. It was hard to tell at first whether it was a vital she was holding on to or not. Weapons were not prohibited in the competition, just not common. I had no way of differentiating between the two kinds. Jon hadn’t taught us about that. Either because there was no such way of distinguishing them or because he had considered it unnecessary due to the rarity of such special items in this country.

I tried to look for any indications that could lead me to an answer to my question. She was far away from the three of us, but since she was standing, I could catch a glance at her over the heads of the sitting participants to our right.

She was wearing a suit. Boots at her feet. She looked annoyed at something, probably not enjoying the more cheerful and celebrating part of the tournament. Her serious expression confirmed my suspicions. Her eyes almost closed, as she impatiently waited for the event to end, so she could go back to whatever else she wanted to do. Her clothing though, looked quite professional. I was unsure whether she had participated in tournaments before or not. I had not heard of someone like her before, so she was either a newcomer to the competition or she was just not popular enough to have heard her name. But she looked confident in her way. There was nothing that had let me catch a glimpse of her battling skills, but she looked comfortable in her way, probably indicating she had battled before. Maybe even trained, as Syl and I had before.

But her looks were contrasting. Her young-looking face made me think she was too young to have had enough time to gain the necessary skills for an important event like the Path. Or at least, not to have as much confidence as she was showing off. Her long brown ponytail was a sign of her young age, probably younger than myself. But her clothing looked like that of a more professional fighter.

It was hard to conclude with so little information about her.

Syl looked at me then. Her brown eyes stared right into mine.

—Is there anything wrong?

—Nah, just a bit distracted.

She leaned forward, trying to look to the other side of mine. A disappointed look appeared on her face as she saw our companion with arms crossed and eyes closed, almost completely sliding away from the chair.

—I don’t know how reliable he’s going to be —She complained.

—Just have some faith. I think he will surprise us in the end.

She looked unsure but accepted my statement without complaint. Glancing one last time at the girl with the spear, I turned back to my friend.

—How are you feeling? Excited? —I asked.

—Yeah, quite —She replied—. And from the looks of it, I’ll be the one leading the team into battle. The other teams look scary. This probably isn't their first tournament, and I'm afraid our disadvantage might be bigger than I thought —I nodded—. But I’m hopeful. What about you?

I wasn’t sure how to respond to her, but I tried to lift her spirits.

—I can’t say for certain about our own abilities, but we did have a great teacher. I’m sure he wouldn’t have sent us here if he didn’t believe in us.

She smiled, but I could tell her doubts still lingered. Those types of thoughts can be difficult to shake off. But it had to do for now.

Suddenly, a woman in her thirties approached the stage with a bright expression. She tapped the mic and clutched her notes tightly in the other hand. And after a deep breath, she began to speak.

— Hello everyone, and welcome to the 37th edition of the Challenger's Path!