Savian Yelenta: Geon and I took a stroll across the gardens as we went to grab some food from the stands. This pavilion area was reserved strictly for warriors and so we didn’t have to worry about attracting too much attention. Geon was skipping down the road and kept juggling an apple core with his feet. I sighed. “I admire your ability to be so blissful.” He chuckled.

“Yeah? Well things will work out. I’m not worried. I’ve spent too much of my life being worried and sad and angry. So I just try and relax.”. He kicked the apple core up to his head and he blew fire from out of his mouth—incinerating it.

I spoke again. “Huh. I get where you're coming from.” He laughed.

“Yeah, we’re kind of similar if you think about it. But I’m cuter and stronger.”

“We’re not similar. Don’t say that. You might actually hurt me,” Geon burst into laughter.

“You can actually joke! Wow, I mean you still look and sound slightly dead inside but that’s good to know! You’re human!” I rolled my eyes as we arrived at the food stands. I looked up and I saw a girl with long red-velvet hair smile mischievously down on us. She wore a baggy white shirt and black combat pants as well as a belt which held multiple firework-like explosives on her waist. Standing tall and upright besides the food stand was a boy who looked like he was straight out of the military. His brown hair was styled into a fresh, military style haircut. His face exuded an extremely proper and well trained look, and he eyed me with a healthy amount of caution. He wore a black vest which was embroidered with golden flowers and ruby roses, and on his wrist he wore a golden watch with an ivory interior. He looked like a classic young Mevilime warrior–calm, strong, proper, and powerful. I could feel his power and presence as he stared into my soul, but he wasn’t the one I was concerned about. I looked at the boy right next to him. He was noticeably shorter and less formal looking. He had messy black hair with blue streaks running through it. He looked extremely relaxed and content and he wore a sly smile on his face. He looked like a kid—a really dangerous kid.

“Hey, is your name Savian? I’ve heard of you, how is my accent? Can you understand me?” I nodded and he looked over at Geon. “Ah, I’ve heard lots about you! You’re the wonder boy, Geon. I’ve wanted to meet you for a long time.”

Geon laughed. “Yeah I hear that a lot these days. Not sure if I like it but whatever. Nice to meet you too.”

The boy bowed. “My name is Yudra, of house Melvin, and I am the one who will defeat you.”

Geon laughed again. “I’ve also been hearing that a lot too.” He walked forward and towered over Yudra with a competitive fire in his eyes. “And yet no one has seemed to keep their word.” Yudra laughed.

“It seems that your world is still terribly small, Geon. It’s a big world with a lot of people, and you and your friends have yet to learn that.” I stepped in.

“Well maybe you’re about to find that out yourself. Maybe you’ll finally meet someone better than you.” Yudra and his teammates began to walk back to their rooms. The girl hopped down from the stall and gave us an emphatic wave as she walked away. The military boy turned around without a word and began walking back in perfectly paced steps. Finally Yudra began to walk back too. He gave us a wave as he turned back to look at us and he smiled from ear to ear. I felt the hairs on the back of my head stand up.

“This is going to be fun Geon Leventen and Savian Yelenta. This is going to be really fun.”

Me and Geon walked back to our rooms and I immediately threw myself on my bed. I was worried. Not because of the fact that Yudra and his teammates seemed strong, but because our team was in shambles. Aurora and Evay were not on good terms and I wasn’t so concerned about Aurora but I was concerned about Evay. I didn’t know Evay, Geon, Aurora, and Lila very well but it seemed to me that they didn’t fight often. They were good friends that cared for each other and they were roommates and teammates, which was a super unlikely coincidence, but one that helped their team chemistry and bonding. But that was the problem. Me and my team were never super close. I only really ever talked to Akasa since we were the two strongest people on our team. Actually come to think of it…..I don’t actually remember anyone else on my school team. I felt guilty about it but it didn’t really surprise me. Teams weren’t usually super close and at the professional level warrior matches were never team based–so usually aspiring warriors like us would throw the concept of team play out of the window and try to fight and showcase our own talents. But this team was close. Being on bad terms made it so that they not only threw away their biggest strength, teamwork, but they also put themselves in a negative mental state. I sighed. Now of all times…. I had never lost any of these events but those were all events with individual battles and people way weaker than anyone here. Here there were people that were not just as strong as me but people that were potentially even stronger than me.I sighed and leaned back in my bed. Who would have thought that losing would ever be on my mind. I smiled and began to think. Did that idiot Geon ever think about losing?

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Probably not….he probably couldn’t care less. But he was smarter than I gave him credit for. His battle IQ was very keen and he found weaknesses and forced openings extremely effectively. It was almost all instinctual, which was the most impressive thing. I could tell he wasn’t thinking super hard but he just knew what to do. Then an idea clicked in my head. That’s how we win…. I smiled and closed my eyes. Maybe we just don’t think at all….that’s how we win.

Geon Leventen: “Wait so, you want me to ... .not, not be an idiot?” I looked at Savian with surprised eyes and he sighed.

“No, well yes, but no. I need you to create chaos and disorder. We play as a team which usually works but for Mevilime they’re too structured. Their team play counters ours. Set strategies and exploiting openings and ability combinations will only get us so far with a well run team like them. We have to be wild and unpredictable so—“

“We don’t establish patterns so they don’t exploit our patterns. Got it.” Savian nodded.

“I’ve talked it over with Aurora. She’s willing to go with it too.” I spoke with concern in my voice.

“Is she okay?” Savian sighed.

“Yes but in reality no. She’s still made plans and analyzed strategy and she’s not showing signs of distress. But she’s not the same. She’s hurting.”

I looked down at my shoes and felt like my insides were falling. Evay and Aurora, who would have thought they would be like this… We always got along and we didn’t fight. If anything I thought Aurora would try and fight me the day I blew up our stove oven—long story. But she never striked me as the sort of person to get really angry. Strict maybe, but not like this.

“Did Evay apologize?” Savian shrugged.

“Who knows.” We both walked back to our rooms and got our things.

“Match is in three hours and we aren’t even on speaking terms. Nice.” We both walked towards the stadium and put our stuff into the locker rooms. I walked in and saw Aurora asleep on the floor. She had a notepad and a quill next to her, and the notepad had battle strategies and notes scribbled all over it. I walked over to her and picked up her stuff. One of the pages flipped over and there was a drawing of Evay on it. It was a good sketch, especially for Aurora who didn’t draw as a hobby. Evay was smiling and his eyes were much softer than usual in the picture. Just then Evay walked into the locker room and we all looked at him. He awkwardly got to his locker and put his things in. I walked over to him and put the notebook to his chest. “Look at this,” I pointed to the page with his picture on it. “While you were complaining and moping around, Aurora was preparing for our match. She was also thinking about you. So I think you owe her an apology, and maybe a lunch or something, yeah?” He looked like he was in shock as he stared at his own picture. He gently touched it with his hands and looked at Aurora in the corner.

Ebay spoke, “Yeah, I do. I’m a real dick,” I laughed and Savain shrugged in agreement. Evay went up to her and kneeled down. He gently grabbed her hand and Aurora awoke with a surprise.

“Wha—wha? Evay! Um, hi.” He smiled.

“I’m sorry. For…a lot of things. I won’t be stupid, and I won’t try and blow myself up. I agree with everything you said and I think I was just really pent up from being owned by everyone a lot. I’m sorry–for everything.” His voice was unusually soft and comforting. Aurora's eyes widened and she nodded.

“Evay, I was worried. I was mad about you not sticking to the plan or following us but I was mostly worried. I know what using Gold’s Veil does to you and I really hate waiting for you to wake up out of another coma after you destroy everything.” She stood up and held out a hand to Evay. “I’m sorry for freaking out but please Evay, be careful. We need to, we want you, and I really, really, want you to be with us for a while so please–think about us.” Evay looked at her for a while and suddenly gave her a very big hug. Aurora’s eyes went wide with surprise but she hugged him back. Lila came to my side and spoke.

“Well it looks like we’re good right? That’s cool, but we still have to face Mevillime, so, any ideas?”

Aurora spoke up. “Yes. Savian gave me the idea. We don’t plan or coordinate. We just try to win fights. We go crazy and wild, which will give us the best odds of winning against this stupidly well run Mevilime squad. Other than that, we just try our best to not lose.”

I laughed. “Not losing is our speciality.”

The crowd erupted as we took our spots in the middle of the arena. I saw our flags waving high in the sky and many of our supporters lined one half of the stadium. The other was filled with a wave of navy blue, black, and gold colored shirts. Mevillime’s flag was navy blue and had two iron swords which crossed each other in a X pattern–as well as golden wreaths placed around the swords. It was simple but scary. That flag represented the strongest military on Earth. The Mevillime warriors entered the arena and a roar of applause deafened me. I heard the announcer's voice roar out into the crowd. “Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen! For our semi-finalists we have the warriors of Mevillime!” The crowd erupted once again and I spotted two officials in the V.I.P box. They both looked important and I assumed they were some type of Mevillime officials. The announcer roared out our opponents names. “We have Oden of house Beller, Crimson of house Ruby, Aqua of house Seffer, Jem of house Dula, and Yudra of house Melvin!” The crowd roared even louder when Yudra’s name was called. I made mental notes. Military boy is Oden, the bomb girl is Crimson, Yudra has blue hair, and those two I don’t know.

Yudra smiled and he spoke. “Feeling scared?”

I smiled. “Nah, feeling excited.”.

I heard the announcer’s voice echo out into the crowd. “May the match begin!”