Walking through the door and going straight just as I was told. The corridor was big enough for a single person to walk through with another similar door. I opened it and was greeted with a blinding rainbow light that I recoiled from, covering my eyes with my hands to protect myself and closing my eyes tight.
After nothing had happened, I tentatively opened my eyes and gasped. I wasn’t in the corridor anymore. Instead, I stood in a colossal hallway with dozens of food carts and stalls starting to open up. It was light with lines of glowing white quarts, and signs hung from the ceiling with directions to the bathroom, seating, and locker rooms.
I reveled in the construction of this place, which I will assume is the Colosseum. Yuki yelped, drawing my attention. I followed her gaze and saw Haze talking with one of the food cart workers, and I made my way over to her. The man she was talking to was a big barrel of a man with no hair on his head, a full, scruffy beard, and a crown tattoo on his neck.
Once I got close, the man stopped talking and looked directly at me, “’ello,” he said, “Who’s dis den?”
“Hi, I’m Zeana,” I said, introducing myself, “How do you know Haze?”
Haze looked a little nervous at the question, and the man gave her a questioning glance. Looking thoughtful momentarily, she shrugged at the man and nodded. The man thought for a moment as well. He shrugged and waved me closer. I hesitantly got closer, and the man whispered, “I’m Geoff Schaefer. My brothers and I run a li’le gambling ring fer de tournament. You’ll know us by dis tattoo,” he said, pointing to his crown, “If ye ever want to place a bet just ask for a secret menu and order off it. Go by team name, doubles name, den singles.”
I nodded excitedly, “How much money would I get back if I won a bet?”
“Depends on de ratios. Also, to place a bet will be one platinum.”
I nodded again and pulled out my coins, glad I had brought them, “Can I see the secret menu?”
Geoff brightened and pulled out a thin, sleight tablet, handing it to me. As I took the tablet, it lit up with a collection of brackets. Some brackets were still empty, but some had numbers on them. At the top of the tablet was the master’s tournament, with only two brackets filled in. One had F 2:1, while another had H 2:1. I brushed my finger against the tablet, and the brackets changed. Instead of the master’s tournament at the top, it had the singles tournament. The singles tournament bracket had many more letters and numbers than the master’s tournament.
I handed back the tablet and said, “Okay. So how do I ask for the bets?”
Geoff motioned to Haze for a demonstration. She cleared her throat and said, “One Fiery Heart with a Yelp for Haze.”
“Dat is how ye do it. Den ye put down the money ye want to bet, which will be split evenly between dem. Remember de one platinum addition.”
I nodded and said, “One Fiery Heart with a Rezurrection for Zeana and Haze.” Geoff raised a questioning eyebrow at that, and I felt the need to explain, “I’m putting two hundred on Haze.” Then placed two platinum on the table before Geoff, followed by four more platinum coins.
Geoff smiled and took the coins, then proceeded to make a sandwich. He finished it in two minutes flat. It was a long sub with an orange sauce, lettuce, tomato, roast beef, and ham. He handed it to me with a small drink cup full of water. “Pleasure doing business with ye li’le miss. And good luck in de tournament,” he said, waving me off.
I took the sandwich and began chowing down immediately, “Tank you,” I said through a mouthful of sandwich.
Haze chuckled and said, “All right, let’s wait for the others and prepare for the opening ceremony. Then we can fight.”
I followed Haze away from the food stand, and as we walked, I asked, “How will I know when I fight?”
“You remember the tokens you were given?”
“Yeah.”
“Send chakra into it, and that’ll tell you.”
I downed my water, stuffed the cup into a pocket, and pulled out the tokens I had stowed away. I poured a little chakra into them, and a small screen appeared, projecting itself into the air.
Zeana Si’enn
Singles: bracket 30, position 3
Doubles: bracket 4, position 7
Teams: bracket 9, position 1
I nodded, “Oh, cool. I like that.”
“Yeah, now you just have to sit and wait to fight,” Haze said, crossing her legs and sitting on the ground, leaning against one of the walls. I joined her and happily munched on the sandwich, with Yuki also taking a few bites while we waited for our team and the games to begin.
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***
In the center of the colosseum, we all stood. Cami, Scarlet, Shiro, Jax, Xiao, and I stood side by side with our hands behind our backs, surrounded by the rest of the students from all the other empires who came to the tournament and looked up at the gathered people in the stands. Hundreds of thousands of people came to spectate the upcoming tournaments and were cheering for us to begin.
“ENOUGH!!” a deep voice bellowed from high above us. The voice rolled over the crowd’s loud cheers like thunder rolling over grassy planes. The crowd went deadly silent as we looked at the voice’s origin. At the top of the colosseum sat eight people, all wearing golden gis, except for one. Just by looking at them, my instincts kicked in and told me to run, but I steeled myself and didn’t move a muscle.
The first person on the far left sat a young child with pure white skin and platinum hair wearing a purple coat. Next to them was a beautiful woman with long red hair and flaming red eyes that looked down at us contemptuously. After her was an old man with an incredibly long, grey beard, no hair on his head, and his eyes looked to be permanently shut.
On the far side from those three sat Guru Shi’en smiling down at us happily and with pride. Next to him was an archangel woman with glowing golden feathers, hair, and small scars on her otherwise beautiful face. After her was an old green Slithkin with a thin, wispy mustache on his long snout and a long-gnarled staff leaning against his shoulder.
In the center of the group stood a man with a golden crown and golden robe, a long, thin mustache came down and wrapped around his neck like a scarf. His golden eyes gaze over the sea of people, ensuring he has their attention. But I doubt anybody looked at his overly audacious appearance, for we all stared at the woman beside him.
She wore a sleeveless, backless black dress that formed perfectly to her slender and muscular body, showing off her red skin and legs. She wore silk gloves that went past her biceps and black boots with white highlights that went up to her thighs. Spikes of glowing blue ice protruded from her shoulders and two more from her forehead, like horns. Her long white hair shimmered and flowed down her back, nearly brushing against the ground. And her eyes, her eyes glowed with power, one violet and the other gold with black sclera behind both of them. Floating over her head was a pale blue flaming half-crown.
I recognized her as the woman I saw when entering Nexus. Why was she there? Yeah, she’s beautiful in an intimidating way, but that doesn’t explain why she’s up there. Mayhaps she’s that audacious guy’s new squeeze? I don’t envy her. It must take forever to untangle that mustache.
The audacious guy raised his hands and spoke in the same deep voice as before, “Ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the three-hundred and seventeenth world tournament. Hosted by the rulers of our empires. Chizaki Orizaki from the Baobab empire!”
The child with the platinum hair stood and bowed, “Let us have a good fight,” he had a high voice but was unmistakably male and well-controlled.
“Scara Orthan from the Niflhiem empire!”
The red-haired woman stood and got shorter as she got off her chair. Is she a dwarf? She bowed and said, “This is a waste of time.”
“Gandi from the Buddha Religiosa empire.”
The old man with the long beard didn’t stand, but he gave a slight, curt nod.
“Guru Guowang Shi’en from the Fusang empire!”
Guru Shi’en stood and bowed so deep he almost did a handstand and said, “Let’s have fun here! And don’t forget to get your souvenirs!” that got a small laugh from the crowd of people and a few of us in the center of the colosseum, including me.
“Uriel from the Eden empire!”
The archangel stood, bowed slightly, and sat down, showing no interest in the tournament.
“Guru Shival Shinra from the Shcorenath empire!”
The old Slithkin nodded his head in acknowledgment.
“And lastly, I, Huangjin Wong, emperor of the Wong empire!” The man announced and bowed in greeting. “But today, we have one more addition with us,” emperor Wong added, “The esteemed goddess Zise Zhuhong.”
The goddess bowed politely and spoke in a whisper that echoed in everyone’s head like a gong, “Thank you, emperor Wong. It is my pleasure to be here.”
From that whisper alone, I felt the need to run and hide from her. Something about her made my hair stand on end. And I didn’t like that one bit. I almost stepped back when Shiro put his hand in the center of my back between my shoulder blades and whispered, “Calm down. No need to be afraid.”
I could feel his hand shaking on my back, so I whispered back, “Lier.”
That got a chuckle from him, and he removed his hand and returned his attention to the emperor. “Now, I shall explain the tournament rules,” emperor Wong continued, “There will be brackets of eight four every fight. There will also be a few brackets of five, six, nine, and eleven since there is an odd number of participants. Each round will be a fight to the death, but don’t worry. Every death in the arena will be undone immediately, and the loser will be displaced from the battlefield immediately.
“The conditions to win are simple. Remove your opponent from the ring, get them to submit, or kill them. If you have learned to use all your cores simultaneously, your teachers are irresponsible and excellent. But using that skill is considered illegal. Three violations of this rule will result in an immediate loss. If you are out of combat for too long, the one running will lose after two violations. If neither opponent wins or loses the match within five minutes of the match start, the round will end in a draw and be put up for a vote on who did best in the round.
“There are forty-three brackets in the singles tournament, six in the doubles tournament, and nine in the teams and the master’s tournaments. The singles tournament will be the only one with semi-finals. If you make it to the finals in any tournament, you will be given prizes for every victory, ranging from a simple gift to a sacred treasure. So, I expect none of you to hold back and fight to the last. Good luck to you all. The first sixteen-team fights will begin in thirty minutes,” emperor Wong ended his explanation and waved us off.
As everyone began leaving the arena, I pulled out my team token and activated it. Teams: bracket 9, position 1. “So, when are we up?” I asked, no one in particular.
“We’re the very last of the day,” Xiao answered.
“Which means we have a loser bracket,” Shiro added.
“What does that mean?” I asked.
“If we win our first match, we might have to fight the team we beat again later,” Cami answered.
“Which could be a problem cause if they’re tough, then we won’t be able to hold back, and they’ll learn all our tactics,” Scarlet added.
“Ah, I see,” I said, thinking momentarily, “We have tactics?”
“I think so,” Jax said, then thought momentarily, adding, “Maybe.”
“We’ll be fine!” Cami said cheerily, “We can beat anyone. Now let’s find master Haze and the twins and watch our competition from the comfort of the stands so we can destroy them later.” We all agreed to this, and I began itching for a fight with whomever we face.