I felt the light touch of the midnight breeze on my cheeks, as it moved strands of hair over my ears. The silence that came with it was a comfortable one. Not intrusive, not distracting, but quite the opposite. The intrigue of listening to it would have been enough to catch my attention some time ago. But I was used to it now. I was like a fish in the water, breathing away my worries and letting my attention lean into the only thing I wanted it to.

I felt the wind surrounding my blade as it cut through the air, slicing its path away, like a ship through the sea. The line it followed was not one I decided. I only led it where it wanted to, its movements not quick, but soothing. I had learned the best way to cut was not to strike with strength. The sword was strong enough on its own, I was just its guide. Sliding its edge over circular paths, always pointing forward.

I stopped.

The wind was still blowing, but now I was aware of it, not just acknowledging it. I opened my eyes. My posture was good. Improvable, but good enough. My grip was strong, as it should have been. I used my other arm to keep my balance, leaning forward as I pushed with my legs. Lifting my arm behind my head.

An instant later, the sound of branches breaking was followed by a loud, resounding through the forest. Some birds had been scared away. The cut had been quick, I almost didn’t feel any resistance this time, as it cut through the wood. I got closer to the tree stump to have a better look at my performance. There were some remains of splintered wood at the further edge of the cut. I hadn’t put in enough strength. Dammit. It was hard to balance.

That was the issue with Jon’s explanations. His guidance was vague, and usually hard to interpret. He wasn’t good at explaining. You always reached these points close to enlightenment, where you thought, after all the time spent on training, you finally understood. And then you hit your face straight into a wall. But the issue was the more you insisted, the less you understood. It had taken me a long while to understand how to deal with our master’s cryptic teachings. But the more I practised, the more I realized.

I broke my pose and pulled my weapon closer, examining it. The moon reflected on the blade as small veins of lighting crimson followed from the blade into the eye at the handle, which in turn lit up in a bright red. It slowly cooled down, turning darker and darker, until the light completely faded off, but I kept looking at it, curious, even after that.

I was intrigued. I didn’t know where it had come from. I guess I could interpret it as my inheritance from my brother. But where it had originally come from was still an unresolved mystery. How a weapon like that one could develop an image like everyone did was something Jon hadn’t bothered explaining to us. At least not any further than the usual “It’s just an image, but in a weapon”. And that did not quite fit my liking.

The canals where the red light flowed through were now empty. There were some slashes here and there on the blade, I couldn’t expect anything less after using it for so long. I hadn’t checked if any of the scratches were before my training though. So it was hard to tell whether anyone used it before me. I wondered If anyone had used this vital before me. I could do nothing but shiver at the thought of the amount of practice anyone might have gone through before completely understanding it. But I was confident. I would become a worthy wielder.

I hadn’t been able to sleep that night, so I decided to go out into the dark forest. I needed some time to clear my thoughts. I wasn’t worried, and definitely not scared. But I wasn’t excited either. Or confident. I was just painfully aware of what was going to happen the following day. The insecurities were so many my head had just given up.

I laid on the ground.

We hadn’t been able to see the participants from the academy of image. The other teams looked scary. Or rather, strong. Just a glance was enough to tell the difference between them and us. They were professionals. It wasn’t the first time they participated in a tournament like this one, and the experience carried some weight I wasn’t sure to fully understand.

When my brother was still here in Marenia it looked so easy. Watching him smash through the walls with his fire fist was amazing. The image of his sunglasses reflecting the brightness of his own image was hard to forget. Both physically and metaphorically. I felt excited when I was little, but it was now turning into something darker. I wanted to be enough. I wanted to be worthy. The stakes were high, and I had to meet them. But…

What if I didn’t…

———

I saw the building from far away, as I was getting closer to the entrance of the enclosed area. The cube building seemed quite unoriginal. The architects must have not thought much about it. But again, it was only the top floors contained in the structure. The rest of the facilities were deep underground, away from the passers-by’s glance. The black windows completely hid whatever was going on inside, completely covering the outer walls while reflecting the sunlight straight into my eyes, of course. It was surrounded by some sandy terrain, subdivided into different rectangles with a couple of steps serving as seats at the edges. If my memory didn’t fail me, this outer area was of public access. In fact, some younger kids were already using them, playing with their still-young images on the field. This probably meant that the organisation team had decided to keep the first stage inside the building since they hadn’t closed the rest of the facilities from outer reach.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

There was a bunch of people at the fence, queuing all the way until the entrance of the building. It already looked like a busy day.

I decided to carry my sword in a bag that day. I hadn’t brought it to the opening ceremony since there had been no fights going on. So this was the first time I was showing up in public with my vital. I wasn’t sure how other participants would react to the weapon, so I preferred to hide it, now hanging on my back. They were allowed, so I wasn’t sure what I was making all this fuss for. But I didn’t want any other participant to point it out in the middle of the crowd. Better safe than sorry.

I had managed to sleep well in the end. Or at least enough. Even though I wasn’t too sure how much was enough. But not like I could do anything about it anymore. The thing is that I wasn’t tired, so it had to do. The night had been longer than I would have liked to. Probably it had been the same for the other two.

We hadn’t really agreed on a meeting point for the day. The building was small, or at least the top part. So, Kai guessed it wouldn’t have been hard to find each other. But damned be the day we decided to listen to him.

I looked around. Not really looking for them yet. There was still time before the beginning of the event, so I wasn’t worried. Yet. I was curious about the other teams instead. They were easy to recognise in general. The same ones I had recognised at the beginning of the opening ceremony. Nothing new there. But there was this one person I was still interested in.

I really didn’t know where to look. It was a big crowd, and I wasn’t too keen on rushing into the mass of people to start aimlessly wandering in search of this one participant. Instead, I jumped on the wall, the one with the fence on top, aiming to get a wider view. But there was so much movement, and unlike for team players, there was no colour to identify her. It looked like there was no immediate way of finding her. Maybe it was easier to look for her weapon. A spear must be hard to hide in between so many people. I imagined it to stick out over the crowd. But after a long while, I wasn’t able to find her. She must have been inside the building already. Maybe that meant she really had no team to wait for. I realised my leg was shaking.

I jumped back down on the ground. I sat down, leaning my back on the wall. I still didn’t feel real. We were about to start the event we had been waiting for so long. For others this was nothing but another tournament. Even if the Challenger’s Path was more popular than other tournaments, it still was a part of the life of a student my age. But for an image-less person like me, it almost felt like the only chance to prove my worth. But was I really doing it for myself?

Someone stopped next to me, so I lifted my head from my knees.

—Yo.

It was unusual for Kai to be this early. Record time.

—Hey —I replied back.

—You look tired.

—It’s not like I didn’t sleep —I didn’t lie, but it wasn’t the full truth.

He frowned at that. Didn’t look like he fully bought it. He pulled his bag over his shoulder, reaching out to grab something from the inside.

—Grab this —He said as he threw it to me.

—What is it? —I asked, confused.

It was a chocolate bar, the kind of snack he liked to have when he was bored. Some people our age decided to get into more harmful addictions. Sometimes I was glad his was more of the innocuous kind.

—Why are you giving me this?

—Can I not be nice to my friend? Also, it’s breakfast. I imagine you’ve probably forgotten to eat before you came here.

It was true. I had left the mansion without eating. I had even prepared the food the night before to not forget about it. But I guess the nerves got the better of me.

—Thank you.

—No need. I bought an extra pack just for the occasion. I’m not going to be lacking any for the day.

He just stood next to me. Not saying anything else. He had his own way of being. He was quiet. It was hard to get him interested in conversations. So, it was uncommon to have long conversations with him. I wasn't in the mood for one anyway. But I was grateful for the company, he was someone I could count on when feeling down.

—You trained yesterday too, right? Like Syl did —He asked.

He was good at noticing people’s moods. But I didn’t reply, so we kept quiet for a while longer.

—I think I don’t have to tell you, right? —He went on.

—I’m not even scared, man. I’m not tired or sad either. It’s just so much more than what I’m used to.

He bit his chocolate bar.

—You know you can count on me. And I don’t mean just during the tournament.

I didn’t reply. But he didn’t look bothered.

—You know, I’m not going to say you can leave if you want. You know that already. But I don’t think that’s what you need anyways —Another bite—. You know what’s coming as well as I do. And Syl and I will be there with you. But that’s not important. What’s Important Is that I have faith in you. I wouldn’t be here if I thought you couldn’t make it. I’m proud to say we are not just friends, but teammates.

We were.

—But the tournament is not about showing everyone our strength —He went on— We are not like the rest of them. For them, it’s a game. For us, it's life. The Guardian, Haze. He is not our objective, he is just a step in our path. I’m sure you know we are not going to beat him though. But that doesn’t matter. It’s not about winning; it’s about sending a message. And what a message it is.

He tended his hand to me, still holding the chocolate on his other one.

—You have to be sure I’m not doing this for you… I am doing this with you. And not only that. I know I can rely on you as much as you can rely on me. And that makes me glad —He smiled.

Dammit. He did know how to cheer me up. I stood up, and picked up his hand.

—Let’s do this then.