The tent of fighters began to cry out at Umdarr in protest as the news sank into them.

“That is not fair!” someone screamed out. “I am only Level 3! How am I to compete against those that are Level 8 and 9?”

“I apologize, but I have told you the circumstances. There is no negotiation to be had. We will not be changing back,” Umdarr replied.

“I would not mind fighting only a few fighters at my Level rather than taking on those far weaker than me. Leave the brackets as they were,” someone else called out.

His derisive words turned heads, and Zalan saw that it was Slauson, standing on his own in a corner. He was a few steps away from anyone, as though being avoided. It delighted Zalan to see he had no friends and he took slight consolation in seeing Slauson disappointed by the change. The changed brackets also gave Zalan the chance to take him on in combat, no matter the Level.

“You will have to prove that you are more powerful,” Umdarr replied to his comment.

“What about the prize? Which one will we get? The Level 5 or Level 10 prize?” another fighter called out.

“Is the Reversal Stone still available to us?” Slauson followed up.

“The prizes will be combined together. Winning the tournament means receiving 10 gold coins and the Reversal Stone Artifact.”

This brought some small comfort to the fighters. At least the prize was not just intact, it had been enhanced. Zalan had plenty of gold to his name after the events of the Castle Docrun and didn’t care about the monetary aspect of the prize. As the fighters conversed between themselves and continued to complain to Umdarr, Zalan looked around to try and see if he felt stronger than anyone around him. Ideally, he’d be stronger than everyone in the tent.

As his gaze passed over his potential opponents, Zalan couldn’t tell how to size himself up in comparison to them. They were all so different. Most of them were men around his age, and every one of them carried themselves with the confidence of an experienced fighter. Zalan had never done anything more than sparring against a few of his allies in the realm. How would he hold up against them?

Most fighters wore plain brown tunics, similar to Zalan’s. Some had insignias stitched into them, but the majority looked too poor for such extravagances. Those that looked to be more wealthy had more colorful and flashy tunics, likely to make an impression when they entered the ring. Zalan noticed that Slauson was the only one wearing a black tunic. It had stripes of purple on the inside of the sleeves. It seemed like an odd choice for any occasion.

As he continued to look over the fighters, one of the taller men stood out to Zalan. He recognized him, but couldn’t tell from where. He nudged Rep.

“This is terrible,” Rep said, gravely. “I never expected the brackets to come together.”

“Who’s that guy?” Zalan nodded to the familiar fighter, ignoring Rep’s fear mongering.

Rep first didn’t react to Zalan’s question, continuing to stare at the ground in dejection. Zalan raised an arm and pointed at the fighter, picking up Rep’s attention.

“Do not point at people in here, they may take it as a challenge,” Rep said urgently.

“Tell me who he is. Pretty sure we’ve seen him before,” Zalan said.

Rep pushed Zalan’s pointed arm down and looked up at the man. He peered for a second before recognition crossed his face.

“We saw him in Poppyville. He was the one who won the prize in the game of getting water on the boy. He threw the entire barrel, then sprinkled him. I believe his name is Dimak. They chanted it after he won,” Rep said as the memory came to him.

“Oh, yeah, I remember now. He won after Fran tried,” Zalan said.

The mention of Fran brought a moment of silence and reflection between them. As they recalled her antics, a fellow fighter slinked up to them with a curious look on his face.

“I saw you two fly in by way of sand platforms,” he said. “You were trained by Instructor Nold?”

“Yeah,” Zalan said curtly, not wanting to make conversation with a potential enemy. He didn’t trust them to have any good intentions.

“I have never seen you before, this must be your first tournament. That Nold always gets his fighters into the final few matches. What did he teach you?” the fighter asked.

“Enough,” Rep said dodgily, on the same mental wavelength as Zalan.

“I understand,” the man held his hands up innocently. “You have been warned about sharing secrets with strangers. Allow me to introduce myself so we are no longer strangers. I am Moss.”

He held out his hand toward Zalan. Zalan didn’t move, and Rep took the hand and shook it so as not to be overly rude.

“I am Rep. This is my friend, Zalan,” Rep introduced them.

“Well then, now that we are no longer strangers, would you like to share any tips with your new friend?” Moss asked. Zalan found it odd how fast Moss was to call them friends.

“No,” Zalan said cautously.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

“Very well, very well,” Moss held a pleasant smile on his face. “How about a trade? A gesture of good faith. I will tell you someone’s Elemental Power that is in the crowd and you tell me another person’s Elemental Power. Does that sound agreeable to my new friends?”

Rep and Zalan looked at one another. It could be useful to know people’s Elemental Powers ahead of the fights. It could be the difference between winning and losing to form a strategy before going into combat.

“How do I know we can trust you?” Zalan asked.

“The same reason that I know I can trust the two of you. We are friends, not strangers,” Moss said readily.

Zalan looked at Rep and shrugged in assent. It couldn’t hurt to trade what little information we knew.

“Excellent, excellent,” Moss said. “As a show of good faith, I will tell the two of you first. You see that youngster over there? His name is Trentor. He is Level 3. Has Elemental Water Power.”

The one Moss indicated was the youngest fighter in the crowd, looking more like a teenager than the adults that surrounded him. He was the one voicing the most concerns about the rule change, testing Umdarr’s patience.

“The only one we are familiar with is him,” Rep nodded to Dimak on the other end of the tent. “He has Elemental Earth Power. We do not know his Level.”

“Not a problem, that is already very helpful,” Moss said agreeably. “I will see you in the arena, friends. I wish for you to make it all the way to the finals, so that I may beat you myself.”

Moss slipped away to another group of fighters to strike up conversation. It seemed he was gathering information from everyone he could.

“Rep!” a young woman called from behind the duo.

Rep and Zalan turned around to see another duo approaching.

“Who is your friend?” Liv asked, nodding to Zalan.

“This is Zalan. Zalan, these are my friends and fellow guild members Liv and Epanor.”

The two nodded to Zalan respectfully. Liv looked chipper and ready for action, where Epanor was of shorter stature and had tight lips.

“You guys are in Journey House?” Zalan asked looking between the two of them.

“Indeed,” Liv nodded.

“And you have Elemental Powers now? I recall you being out with Heron to gain some power,” Rep said looking to Epanor.

Epanor said nothing, staring between Rep and Zalan.

“Yes, we did,” Liv answered for them. “I look forward to getting paired up in a fight against you. We were trained by Heron himself, you know.”

“We trained with Nold,” Zalan said.

Liv and Epanor looked between the two in surprise.

“You?” Liv asked, looking at Rep. “But you are… not…”

“Nothing special?” Zalan asked.

“Yes!” Liv said. “I thought he only took the best!”

“Rep’s a lot stronger than you think. Stronger than he thinks too,” Zalan said, nudging Rep with his elbow. Rep smiled slightly and looked down, embarrassed.

“I look forward to testing that claim. I hope we get a chance to take one another on,” Liv said.

The four looked between each other in silence, sizing one another up for the battle. Zalan stared at Epanor for a few lingering moments.

“Does Epanor not talk?” Zalan asked, curious.

“I communicate best on the battlefield,” Epanor replied.

“Ah, well, then see you there, I guess.”

“Fighters, please!” Umdarr called out, growing exasperated with having to repeat himself so often. “No more questions. The rules are not changing. Go out to the arena so that we may begin the first rounds of fighting!”

“But…” Trentor began to ask.

“No more questions!” Umdarr said firmly. “You will now exit the tent the same way you entered and make your way to the arena. Do not rush out without being examined, or you will be disqualified.”

The fighters began to line up. The few that tried to ask Umdarr more questions were ignored as Umdarr made his way to the head of the tent. Rep and Zalan joined toward the back of the line, a few people behind Slauson.

“What’s this examination thing supposed to be?” Zalan asked.

“I do not know,” Rep said, leaning to look toward the front of the line. Umdarr, assisted by two other men, was scanning people with a glowing Artifact as well as looking them over.

“Oh, I see,” Rep said. “They are using a Glow Finder. It is an Artifact locator, but only at very close range. They are checking us for Artifacts. And perhaps weapons. They are not allowed in the tournament.”

“What about the Homeseeker?” Zalan asked, holding up the pouch he kept it in.

“I do not know. Do not take it into the arena,” Rep replied, shrugging.

“They better not take this away from me,” Zalan warned, preemptively annoyed at this surprise inspection.

As they moved, they witnessed the Glow Finder shine brightly over one of the fighters. The fighter denied it, trying to convince Umdarr that the Glow Finder was going off randomly. The other two men began to pat the fighter down and the fighter tried to stop them. They pulled out a ring from his pocket. A shouting match began.

“Is that an Artifact?” Zalan peered.

“A Ring of Range. It expands the distance of power on the wearer. Definitely an illegal Artifact in the fight,” Rep explained, watching closely.

The fighter was told they would need to hold on to the ring. The fighter grew irate and tried to fight one of the men. He was slammed into the floor and immediately disqualified. As they dragged him out, the line continued to move forward.

Slauson was soon being scanned. Zalan watched closely, certain that he would carry something to cheat his way through the games. He came out clean and they let him go. Zalan was skeptical, but didn’t say anything to Rep.

“Any Artifact that you traveled here with that we should know about?” Umdarr asked as he began scanning Rep with the Glow Finder.

“I do not have anything. But my friend has a Homeseeker,” Rep indicated to Zalan.

“A Homeseeker?” Umdarr asked, interested. “Interesting, I have seen them, but I have never used one before. Does it work as instantaneously as they say?”

He allowed Rep forward and began scanning Zalan. The Glow Finder shined above the pouch as Zalan held it out for them to inspect. Umdarr took the pouch.

“It takes about ten to fifteen seconds to charge. Then yeah, it warps you back home in a moment,” Zalan explained.

Umdarr looked into the pouch and scanned the rest of him. To Zalan’s surprise, Umdarr gave the pouch back.

“I have no problem with fighters carrying around Artifacts intended for traveling like Satiators and the like. But do not carry them into the ring or you will be disqualified,” Umdarr said reasonably.

“Sure,” Zalan nodded.

“Now, go on. I will see you in the arena. Try and arrive before I do,” Umdarr said, moving Zalan forward to scan the last few fighters.

Zalan wondered how Umdarr would get there first when he still had more people to go over. Maybe he would run. Either way, he was excited to make his way to the arena and start everything he had been preparing for.