The six of us sat in a waiting area for the past ten minutes while we waited to enter the arena. There were ten other teams in here with us, none of whom we would be fighting this round, and we all kept to ourselves anyways. Didn’t stop the butterflies in my stomach from making me nauseous whenever I looked at anyone or anything other than the floor. A robotic female voice spoke into the room, seemingly out of nowhere, “Five minutes until the fights begin. Please enter the arena and receive your positions.”

Everyone got up from where they sat or stood talking with their teams in low whispers and began walking to the door. We stood as well, and Shiro asked, “You nervous?”

“A little,” I admitted, “I don’t know what we might face.”

“That’s why master Shi’en told us to be prepared for anything and learn. So, if we need to show our monstrous forms, we will,” Shiro said with such confidence that I stopped feeling nervous.

Nodding, I said, “Yeah. Yeah, that’s what I need.”

“What?”

“I need to be prepared,” I answered and concentrated on growing my tails. All nine of them. I made them longer to have more reach and gave them more muscles to increase their defense and biting strength. I then grew my wings to their full two-meter length and tucked them away so I’m not taking up much space.

“Nice,” Cami said appreciatively, “You ready for the fight now?”

I grinned savagely, “Yes.” We walked out the door, where a man with a grey jumpsuit was waiting.

He looked up from his clipboard at us and asked, “Team name?”

“Fiery Heart,” Scarlet answered.

“Center field,” The man said, pointing down the colosseum tunnel to a shining exit.

We thanked him and walked down the tunnel into the shining mid-day sunlight. “And here we have the newcomers, team Fiery Heart!” an announcer announced, his voice ringing through the air and eliciting a chorus of cheers from the stands. “As our guest host on this fine day, master Shi’en, can you tell us what to expect from this new team of yours?”

“Of course,” Guru Shi’en began, his voice ringing through the air as well, “Although a few have short tempers, this team will refuse to give up. Preferring to fight to their very last.”

“So, the team they’ll be up against is going to have a hard time fighting them, is that correct?”

“If Fiery Heart doesn’t win or at least last five minutes, I’ll eat my robe and streak through the city.”

“Well, you heard it, folks. Fiery Heart is bound to be an excellent fight, and if not, we won’t hold Guru Shi’en to his threat.”

“Oh, you don’t have to hold me to it. I’ll do that for you.”

“Please don’t. And with that, ladies and gentlemen, all the teams are out on the field and ready for a fight. Let’s get this show on the road!”

As soon as we stepped into the center of the field, the ground beneath began to shift and rise. We stood on a metal trapezoid four meters long and three wide. It rose high into the sky and hypnotically floated around the arena before connecting with a metal rectangle four meters long and three wide. Soon after, another team floated to us and connected their trapezoid to the rectangle.

The team had six people: two elves, one male and one female, three humans, all male, and one drake. The elves had short crew-cut hazel hair and were easily two meters tall, the same as Jax. The humans were less impressive, and the only notable thing about them was the three different colored belts. One green, one orange, and one black. And finally, there was the drake.

She stood two and a half meters tall with golden scales running down her muscular body, partially obscured by her red gi and golden belt. Her whip-like scale hair stuck out behind her head and waved from side to side by themselves. Ivory spikes stuck out from the shoulders of her gi, along the helix of her ears, and two horns grew from her forehead into ten-centimeter spikes. Her tanned face looked disinterested in the goings around her as she picked at some food with one of her claws stuck between one of her sharp canines.

I heard the announcer announcing the matchups, and I figured it would take forever for him to get to us, so I decided to introduce myself. “Hiiii! I’m Zeana from team Fiery Heart! What’s your name? And your team name?” I asked loudly. This made my entire team look at me with annoyance. Even Cami, who never gets annoyed.

The drake girl opened her red eyes and looked directly at me, her eyes burning into me. She picked the food from her teeth and flicked it off her claw at the man with the green belt, making him curse. “Nice to meet you, Zeana,” the drake said, her voice a low sultry growl, “I’m Drakara. Leader of the Otherworlders.”

“Oh, cool! Are you reincarnated from another world?” I asked, making everyone freeze up. I looked around uncomfortably and asked, “What?”

“You guys are reincarnated as well?” Drakara asked curiously.

“Yep, it’s nice to meet other reincarnations like us.”

Drakara scoffed and said, “We are nothing alike.”

My heart sank a little as she said that, and the announcer said, “And over here, we have team Fiery Heart versus team Otherworlders!”

The crowd cheered as I asked, “W-what do you mean? We reincarnated here from another world. We’re alike.”

“No!” Drakara snapped, “Look at us. And then look at yourself. We’re normal, no alterations made, nothing extra. We’re not freaks like you. We’re not monsters.”

My heart dropped, “We may be monsters on the outside, but we’re still—”

“Weak on the inside,” Drakara interrupted.

“Looks like for teams Fiery Heart and Otherworlders, we have forests and crashed ship battle zones,” the announcer said as two massive objects floated up and connected themselves around the octagon we stood on. Behind the Otherworlders was a densely packed miniature forest with a few boulders protruding from the ground. While a crashed pirate ship was behind us with jagged rocks protruding from its hull.

“W-we’re not—”

“You’re all weak. You decided you needed extra help in this world, so you decked out your new bodies with as much stuff as possible. And you rely on those little tricks a little too much. Making you weak.”

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Tears began to form in my eyes, and I looked down at the ground, “I’m not weak.”

“HAHA! Yeah, right, you can’t even look at me now!” Drakara jibed.

“And with that, the final countdown has begun!”

I clenched my fists and said, “Hey, guys?”

“TEN!”

“Yeah,” Shiro said.

“NINE!”

I glowered up at Drakara, my golden fox eyes glaring daggers into her red eyes. “She’s mine,” I stated.

“EIGHT!”

“You sure about that little child?” Drakara jibed.

“SEVEN!”

“More than anything.”

“SIX!”

“Let’s go, brat!”

“FIVE!”

“We’ll win,” Fengbao said in my head as I felt him cycling my storm chakra through my body and to my wings.

“FOUR!”

“I know.”

“THREE!”

“Know what?” Cami asked.

“TWO!”

“That we—”

“ONE!”

“will win!”

“FIGHT!”

A flash filled the arena, and before anyone could react, my storm chakra burst forth from my wings, and I closed the distance between Drakara and I in an instant. I swung my feet into a kick and landed a solid hit under her chin, sending her flying into the forest behind her. I flipped and landed on my feet where she once stood. The rest of her team jumped back in surprise cause, in their eyes, one-moment Drakara was there, and the next, she was gone.

I stood to my full meter and a half height, my wings glowing and spread wide as lightning bolts shot off the tips of my wings, striking the metal around my feet. I glowered down at Drakara, who relocated her jaw as she got up. Her eyes met mine, and fear spread across her face.

I smiled as I got on all fours in a running stance, “Run, little lizard.”

Drakara ran into the forest, and the lighting in my wings crackled. SHKABOOM! I shot forward with a thunderclap, breaking the sound barrier as I shot into the sky above the forest. And I quickly cast the kinetic vision spell and the atmospheric protection spell. I looked down at the forest and spotted my golden prey running through the treetops. I shot down at supersonic speeds and formed a claw of lighting and force in my right hand. Within seconds I caught up with her, and I swiped my lighting claw through her back.

She looked back at me and smiled, “Run, little monster,” disappearing into gold and purple dust. I shot through the treetops and landed on my feet, making a small crater in the dirt. I heard my legs snap and growled in pain as I fell to the ground.

“A bit too much … power there, Fengbao,” I panted, and as my Storm core stopped cycling, I switched to my Healing core and began repairing my legs. As they healed, I looked around the forest. It was dark. The only light source was the hole I created in the canopy, making a singular pillar of light in my position.

A chuckling laugh filled the forest around me, and my hair stood on end as my tails raised their heads, began looking in all directions, and smelling the air. The laugh slowly grew in intensity and number as time passed. I felt my legs pop back into place, and I quickly got to my feet and stood, ready for a fight.

“I will admit. You did surprise me,” Drakara said, her voice echoing through the forest from all directions.

“Then come out and fight me!” I yelled back.

“Oh, no, no, no. That just won’t do. Now that I know your strengths, I also know your weaknesses.”

I scowled at that and cycled my storm chakra into my tales, just in case. “You laugh at me. Call me weak. Call my friends weak! And you can’t even look me in the eye when you fight! So, who’s the actual weak one?”

“Still you,” a single voice said from my right, and a golden blur shot behind me and severed my wings. I screamed in pain and fell to the ground. My beautiful wings floated to the ground slowly, leaving only stubs on my back. I retracted my wing stubs into my body and pointed to my wings. My nine tails began eating them, and loud crunches filled the forest as my tails broke the bones in my wings and swallowed.

I got to my feet a second later, eyes blurry with pain as I searched for Drakara. I wiped my eyes clean and opened them to see Drakara standing at the edge of the forest, a devious smile on her face. “There you are!” I yelled and created eleven level-one spells with the air rune on the tips of my tails and the palms of my hands. Drakara ran around the edge of my little circle, and I tracked her, firing the eleven spells continuously at her.

None landed, only creating a collection of smaller craters around me and putting fist-sized holes in the trees. Drakara laughed hysterically at me as I fired, and I soon stopped as I felt my storm core get a little too empty. I needed to refill my Storm core. I forgot to cycle in my anger, and now I’m running out. Calm down, Zeana. Calm down. There is no need to get angry.

“Aww, little monster all tuckered out?” Drakara taunted.

She does NOT help my calm! I began cycling my Ice-claymore core and felt the cool power flow through me. I glared back up at Drakara, who stood calmly by the same tree where she started. I drew my foot back to get into a running position when one of my tails pulled on me in the opposite direction. I looked back and saw Riko pointing into the forest opposite where Drakara stood.

“Hey! I’m over here!” Drakara yelled at me, trying to get my attention.

I looked at her for an instant, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw her shimmer into existence as though … as though she wasn’t even there! Fuck! I’m an idiot! I’ve been fighting an illusion this entire time. So, I don’t even know where the original is at all. Fuck! She could be fighting my team right now, and I wouldn’t even be able to help. I need to get out of this forest section fast.

“I said I’m over here,” the illusionary Drakara said, all amusement gone from her voice.

“Yeah, I know,” I said and thought quickly. There is one thing I haven’t tried yet. This is going to hurt. A lot. I cycled my Ice-claymore chakra through my body, then sent it into the ground. The ground beneath me resisted, but I pushed my chakra further into it, and soon the earth greedily accepted my chakra.

“What are you doing?!”

I felt my chakra drain out of me, and I looked up at Drakara’s illusion with a smile, “Evening, the playing field.” And right on cue, a blizzard shot out from me and covered the ground in ice. The snow was so thick that I couldn’t see anything around me, but I could hear trees being shredded and cracking from the sheer cold. I stood in the eye of this mini blizzard and felt my Ice-claymore core refill quickly. Instead of keeping the chakra, I sent it back into the ground and made the blizzard bigger and stronger.

The downside of making the blizzard bigger is that it starts to shrink the eye of the storm, and I soon feel minor cuts on my arms and tails. I wrap my body with my tails and feel my core refill for the second time with a small chime, which I ignore. I close my eyes and listen intently for any sounds that aren’t made by the blizzard.

The blizzard starts to die, and I soon regain my eyesight as the snow clears. A fifteen-meter circle of ice and tree bark surrounds me, and one bloody and bleeding drake with golden scales painting the white snow red. I slowly approach her with my hands clasped behind my back and a small smile curling my lips.

Once I got closer, I asked, “Who’s weak now?” Drakara tried to answer, but all that came out was a cough full of her blood. She spat out the blood and mumbled something unintelligible. I got closer, savoring my victory. “Hmm, what was that?” I asked, leaning over her.

She looked me in the eye and said, “Still … you.” Then the blood that pooled around her came to life, shot into my kneecaps, and began sowing my legs with her blood. I screamed and toppled back into the snow, my tails snapping at Drakara, who lay just out of reach. She gave a gurgling, laughing cough and rose off the ground. Her scaled hair had thin streams of blood that solidified and lifted her broken body from the ground.

I raised my hands and the rest of my tails to start firing spells at her when her bloody hair shot through my appendages, pinning me to the ground. I struggled and fought, but I couldn’t escape her grasp. I may not have hands, but I can still form spells and activate them. I began to form a level-four spell with the air rune within, and Drakara quickly recognized what I was doing. She shot two hair tendrils toward my eyes just as I finished the spell and activated it.

Then I appeared in a waiting room that was finely furnished with a full buffet and a few other competitors that … were … also here. Where the fuck am I!? I looked around, and to my left sat a very grumpy-looking Drakara. I jumped back in shock with a yelp, and she rolled her eyes at me. “Relax, kid. The fights over,” Drakara said, grumpily.

I squinted and said, “How do I know that?”

“Because I’m not trying to rip out your spine right now.”

“Good point. Anyways, how are you here?”

She rolled her eyes at me again and sighed, “Right as I skewered your eyes, you managed to get that spell off, and it blew me apart.”

“Oh, so I won?!”

“You didn’t win!” Drakara growled.

“I totally won!”

“No, you didn’t!”

“I won! I won! I won!” I sang as I danced a little jig, “I won!”

“NO! YOU! DIDN’T!”

“Drakara,” a man’s voice said from my left, making us both look at him. It was the elven guy from her team, “We absolutely lost. Only one of our team is left on the field, and he’s— Oh, there he is.”

Drakara and I turn around to see the guy with the black belt materialize on the chair behind us. A smug smile curled my lips as I slowly sidled up to Drakara and whispered, “Hey. Hey, Drakara. Hey.”

“What?!” she growled.

“I won.”

“YOU’RE DEAD, SHRIMP!!” Drakara yelled, and I ran away as fast as I could out of the waiting room before she could get her clawed hands on me and rip me apart like freshly backed turducken. Cause I won! WHOA!!