32. Day One

With the forced growth spurt that I had undergone some months ago, many of the organizers assumed that I was older than the minimum age, but the truth is that I had requested the minimum age be set to twelve for a reason. I wished to compete openly and didn’t wish for any concerns about disqualifications.

There was no maximum age, but there was a maximum level of cultivation, specifically that of having reached the bronze path. There was talk of hosting another tournament for those with more advancement once this one had concluded, and I might be more interested in the details of such an event in the near future, once I had met my goals inside the spatial artifact that had been given to me by Pi Phon.

Effectively, these two factors combined to ensure that the room was filled with young people between the ages ten (who were lying about their ages to compete) and thirty. And ironically, it was the younger members of the waiting fighters who were most likely to win, considering that those who had reached their mid twenties without ascending to the bronze path were unlikely to ever do so.

That doesn’t mean that they were to be underestimated, and so when my first match of the day was called and I journeyed out into the south-center ring to find myself matched against a thirty year old man, I was on my guard immediately.

I watched carefully as he took his stance and we waited for the bell to chime. He dashed forward immediately once the match began, and his fists collided with my palm with all the strength that a cultivator in the energy gathering realm could muster.

Realizing that I wasn’t facing anyone with any particular strength or talents, I swiftly enacted my handicap, slowing the flow of Qi in my meridians to bring me down into his realm, matching his cultivation. Considering that I was a teenager fighting a man, this put me at a further handicap, but my countless sparring matches with Hien Ro swiftly proved to have been worth every moment as I spotted weakness after weakness and flaw after flaw in the man’s defense.

I scored several dozen Solid Blows, although each was awarded only a single point.

With one minute left, the man collapsed from exhaustion, and I was awarded a further ten points for having incapacitated my opponent.

Without really intending to, I moved into sixth place with the score from my first match.

I listened as the crowd cheered and jeered from the stands. I tried to help the man up once he had recovered his breath, but he cursed and pulled away, walking away without shaking my hand.

I shrugged and returned to the waiting room. I was alone today, with Hien Ro and Yara being assigned different waiting areas from me. I brought with me a notebook and was planning on making observations on the techniques that I witnessed. Not that I had witnessed anything from my first match, but that was to be expected.

I sat in silence and scribbled a drawing of an alien landscape, taken from one of my many dreams of the mayfly lives.

~~~~~

Hien Ro spat on the ground, turning back to face the girl he was dueling after having taken a surprising blow. That had earned her a point, but that was fine. He was up five points already. He sighed.

“I guess I can’t do it,” He said, releasing the technique which had lowered his power to that of the energy gathering stage. He’d been trying to emulate his teacher, matching the cultivation of his opponent while fighting them. But while he could match his opponents cultivation, he couldn’t do so while fighting them , a key distinction which he was only just now appreciating as he tried it.

The girl said something in one of the languages of the south, having noticed his sudden flux of Qi.

“Yes. I’m sorry for holding back before,” he said, and he dashed forward. He scored five solid blows in five breaths. Two were worth two points, while the other three were worth one. To end the match, he drove a fist into her stomach hard enough to knock her gasping to the ground long enough for the judge to declare her incapacitated.

He was pronounced the winner with twenty-two points to one point.

Not that it really mattered if he won or lost. It was the final point tally between all of your matches which determined the champion. He was curious where he was in the hierarchy, but it wouldn’t be until the end of the first round that he would find out.

~~~~~~~~

The cards displaying the outcome of round one were displayed even as round two was midway in progress. The others in my waiting room were eager to see how they had performed, while I simply glanced at my name and returned to my musing. I knew how I had done, and while I wasn’t ashamed, I was looking forward to facing more challenging opponents.

After the others had cleared out, I returned to the card to see how my companions had done. Hien had won his match handily, I noticed, while Yara had also won, but her score was only seven to three. That was fine, the truth was that I expected her to drop out before the end anyway.

I was called to face my second opponent moments afterward, and I tucked my notebook into my pocket as I jogged out into the stadium.

I immediately sensed that this opponent was different. She was of the late purification realm, and I could sense the water attunement in her Qi.

She spoke as we waited for the bell to ring, and then as soon as the match began she raised both hands and--

For a second nothing happened.

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I frowned, but waited patiently as I sensed the flowing Qi. I wanted to see this technique.

She gasped and a blob of water began to form, hovering in the air near her hand. She gasped and then it sprayed towards me at high pressure.

I raised my hand and caught it. “How old are you?” I asked.

She blinked in surprise that I had defeated her technique, but it wasn’t exactly difficult. She didn’t have the skill to retain control over her conjured water after launching it.

“Oh, right, you can’t understand me. Well, try to fight more like this,” I suggested, and I used the water she conjured as a club, zipping it around and smashing it into her from different angles. I retained control of it even after it had impacted her, causing it to immediately regather into its orb and zip off at another angle, and the impacts were enough to stagger her.

People think that water is soft. That water magic is weak. They’ve never met a skilled water mage.

I beat her into submission with her own conjured water, and she collapsed. Unfortunately few of my blows were considered solid blows, and I only scored another ten points from the match, falling considerably behind in the rankings.

Oh well, I wasn’t in this fight to win it.

~~~~~~~

Farun gasped as the pain in his groin threatened to overwhelm him. He leaped back, but the cowardly opponent who had no issues with targeting him there dashed forward to follow up the devastating attack with a blow to the back of his head. His face impacted the sand, and his vision fluttered on the verge of black and gray.

He wondered why he had sand in his mouth for a moment, and then there were men there carrying him away. They gave him something to drink and he spat the sand out. They gave him another drink and announced that he’d be fine, but that the were moving his next match to the end of the sixth round.

He just nodded. He realized that he had lost, and lost pretty badly this time.

Once he was allowed to leave the medic’s hall and return to his waiting area, he went over to look at the latest score card. He hadn’t managed to score any points against his last opponent, but he still had sixteen total.

Unfortunately the front runners were already in the triple digits. He looked for the name of the opponent that he’d just fought and despaired.

She’d only scored sixty two over the first two rounds.

He knew that he shouldn’t be discouraged, but he began to question what he was doing. Why he was here, why he was fighting, what he was fighting for.

As his self-doubt began creeping in, the time before his next match was swiftly fading, and he’d have to go out into the ring once more and face – he looked up the name of his next opponent and paled.

One hundred and twelve points. Ranked number three so far, Thaseus was his next opponent. He could go out and hope for a quick loss, but he knew that you didn’t score one hundred and twelve points by beating your opponent swiftly.

He quietly walked up to the officials and requested to withdraw from the tournament. His name was crossed out, and he was informed that he could continue to watch for that day from the stands in honor of his participation, after which he would have to pay for admittance just like everyone else.

In the next round, he watched Thaseus thoroughly destroy a purification realm cultivator and swallowed. While the opponent was being carried off to the medic’s hall, alive but unlikely able to continue in time for her next fight, he could only sigh in relief that he’d had the foresight to withdraw.

~~~~~~

We sat in the booth outside the restaurant. I salivated over the steamed buns that the waitress had just delivered, while the others were lost in their own little worlds. I knew that they had momentous things on their minds by their expressions, but I did not urge them to speak, knowing that they might value the destination their thoughts took them more if they arrived there on my own, and that if they needed my guidance, they would seek it.

It was the end of the first day of the tournament. The final day was unknown, as the fights would continue until all the current participants had faced those who remained. The organizers were prepared for this event to take months, but I expected it would be over within weeks. I had seen the fates of many of the participants changing as the outcomes of their duels drove home their limitations and shortcomings, and I knew that they would withdraw soon.

Leaving only the elite.

Both of those outcomes were represented across the table from me, and I watched the threads of fate slide into place as they each came to their decisions.

“I’m withdrawing tomorrow,” Yara said finally.

“Are you ashamed?” I asked her.

She shook her head. “No. I thought I would be, and that’s what kept me going through the last two fights, fear of disappointing the two of you. But at this point I can see that I’m not going to learn anything here. I’m not going to place anywhere near the top. More likely I’m just feeding points to those who belong in this tournament. I’m not ready for it.”

I nodded. “There is no shame in recognizing and accepting your limitations. I am proud of you, Yara, for entering in the first place and traveling as far along the path as you have. Consolidate your gains tonight and over the following days, reflecting on the lessons you learned in combat. If you haven’t reached the bronze path by the next time they hold this tournament, then perhaps you can enter next time.”

“Yeah,” she said, nodding. “I’ve only been cultivating for a few months. I have nothing to be ashamed of. I scored fifty-two points today and I’m damn proud of it,” she said, her back stiffening.

“You should be,” Hien Ro agreed, wrapping his arm around her shoulder. He seemed surprised when she leaned into him. “I’m proud of you too.”

“You’re going to keep going, though. Both of you,” she said.

“Of course. Until I have faced everyone who will face me,” I said.

“I don’t know about that, but I’m in the top quarter by rank,” Hien Ro said. “If I can finish in the top ten, then there’s a hefty financial reward. Even if I can only get the medal from the top twenty, that’s bragging rights for the rest of my life.”

“I’m sure you’ll do spectacularly,” she said, and she bit into her steamed bun.

I chewed my own, watching as the bonds between them strengthened further than ever before. I knew what would happen the next time they were alone together, and I was happy for them. After we had finished eating, I pulled Hien Ro into the corner so that nobody would see me vanish into the spatial ring.

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