After the scare Bob gave us a huge christmas party broke loose, all kinds of food and drink appeared on tables throughout the entire hall. It was a huge enjoyment for most of the people gathered. As for me, I just decided to spend the time on top of Ces’s head, who positioned himself conveniently near one of the food tables. Due to this optimal position we were able to enjoy the superb food and at the same time assess the other champions strength, since everyone sooner or later was near the food tables.

Well Ces ate and I scouted the abilities with the help of my force mind manipulation. It was really extraordinary how few people had a defence around their mind.

If you imagine the mind as a fortress, these people had all the gates open and no guards patroulling at all. Taking a look into their mind was like walking through the open main gate. It was really disappointing for me, I had practiced on Jedi, who due to their mental fortitude obtained through the meditation necessary to connect to the force had a natural defence around their mind, comparable to a fortress with closed gates and guards on the watchtowers, while people like Yoda had a mind like a huge fortress with multiple high and thick steel walls, thousands of soldiers all times ready everywhere and all sorts of tricky defence mechanisms.

Gaining access to other people‘s mind was like breaking into this fortress, there were multiple strategies to do that. For example you could sneak in like an assassin, though that was only possible if the target didn’t know you were coming, use pure force to breach the defences or use weaker and continuous assaults to tire the target out.

Of course a mind wasn’t a medieval fortress and everyone’s defences were different, but I always liked to compare it to a fortress.

Due to my observations I was able to see that many people hadn’t even really begun with building up their strength, totally understandable in cases of people with a bad luck in regards of starting circumstances, but some hadn’t began even with near optimal conditions. For example there was someone who was reborn as the first prince of a powerful magical empire, but all he did was goofing off and ordering others around.

Then there were those that made an effort but had really bad luck with their first reincarnation, for example there was a girl who was reborn into a physically heavily impaired body, not even able to kill herself in order to have a better chance in the next life. She would have already gone insane weren’t it for her patron deity. Though she had surprisingly good defences around her mind.

Others had already died once or multiple times, those who were reborn as a member of a shortlived species, were killed or had a heavy desease durig early childhood.

There were also what I would call the normal guys, who had already begun with their training but either didn’t have much talent or didn’t make enough effort to be great. Many of those it would seem were more or less regulars here in the lobby, if the way they were gathered in groups was any indication.

Last but not least there were the strong ones. Some were just born into a strong species, similar to Ces, some had amazing talent or intellect and some just worked ultra hard or had superior experience, obvious was that those formed the top oft he bunch. They were the people either in the midst of attention, often as leaders of groups of champions with lesser power, or standing quietly on the side, assessing the competition like we were.

They were also the ones who often had higher mental defences, achieved either through bloodline, intelligence, discipline or real training in mental arts, though with a little effort I was still able to breach all of their defences undetected.

All but one.

There was one guy who had been an abbot in the shaolin temple in his first life. His mind wasn’t as unbreachable as those of high ranking jedi masters, but it was still a really well fortified mind. I was detected within ten seconds of my intrusion attempt and spotted before I could retreat. The former monk made his way towards us.

How I was able to know that he was a former Shaolin? Simple: his surface thoughts. Surface thoughts and emotions were like message boards with constantly changing content nailed to the outside of the fortress for someone who hadn’t encountered anyone able to intrude into his or her mind it was understandable that those were still in the open, even with a good mental defence. To hide them you would need something like a second wall built around the first one.

Anyhow, the former monk walking towards me had been reborn as a tortoise. I kid you not, a tortoise, though this tortoise was of the size of a normal six year old human and walked on two legs, an antropomorphic tortoise.

But he wasn’t slow. He moved at a normal pace without being noticed. I didn’t really have any other words to describe it. He somehow moved through the crowd by following it’s flow and seeming absolutely non important, if I hadn’t probed the mind of everyone I could see my gaze would have just wandered past him like he wasn’t there.

When he was just a few meters away I bonked lightly on Ces’s head and used my tail to point in the direction of the approaching tortoise, showing him that we had company.

Ces immediately turned around and smiled at the tortoise. He knew that I wouldn’t be so relaxed if the approaching person had malicious intent.

The former monk smiled back and said in a smooth and calming voice: „Hello there young ones, my name is Oto, I believe it is the first time we meet.“

I decided to answer him, I even fully opened my eyes and stood up to speak to him. Can’t let Ces greet him first, I always admired the Shaolin monks after all.

„Yes it is. My name is Shira and this is my little brother Deuces, it is an absolute pleasure to meet an abbot of the Shaolin temple“

„Ooh? How do you know that?“ he seemed genuinely surprised.

„It’s rather simple. While your mental defences are definitely very strong, you aren’t protecting your surface thoughts and emotions. It can’t be helped, back in our world nobody could really intrude into the mind of others, therefor such protection wasn’t necessary there. If my guess is correct the protections you do have were formed due to decades of physical and mental training, though without a teacher or the ability to invade the minds of others yourself it should be really hard to cover those up.“

He seemed to contemplate my words, leaving Ces the time to ask me something: „Shira-nee, what is a Shaolin?“

With a chuckle I told him: „Have you ever seen the bald men with yellow clothes that could do incredible things back in our world in the television?“ at that point he nodded, „that are Shaolin and Oto here was one of the leaders of the Shaolin temple, you can compare him to a council member in the jedi order, though the Shaolin never were even near the power of a Jedi.“ I said the last bit quite proudly. True I always respected the Shaolin but Jedi were still much cooler.

 Right when I was done with the explanation Oto seemed to have returned from the depths of his own mind, he cupped one of his ‚hands‘ in the other and bowed before exclaiming formally: „Please young miss, teach me in the mental arts.“

I was tempted. Really. I would be able to demand him teaching me other things, like the ways of Qigong and the fighting techniques of Shaolin Kung Fu, but I already had a superior fighting education in the jedi temple and I needed any advantage I could get.

„Sorry, but no. If I were to teach you, I wouldn’t be able to read your next move out of your mind anymore if I trained you in advanced mental defences and therefor making your chances against me way higher. Even if you had a technique of comparable value to trade, I already have enough techniques I need to master. You will probably still learn it but it will take you longer, as you will have to search for a teacher while you‘re awake, therefore cutting the time you have to train other things. My goal is to win this tournament, I can’t help my opponents to become stronger.“

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

He sighed. I could tell he was a little disappointed, but understood my reasoning.

„Ah well, it’s not that I can blame you. The godhood granted to the one who wins is rather tempting after all.“

This caused Ces to laugh.

„Hahaha, you don’t understand mister Oto, Shira-nee doesn’t want to be a goddess, she says it’s waaaay to much responsibility for her. But Shira-nee said that she wanted her patron goddess to become the aspect of time, since Luna is really kind and Shira-nee doesn’t want anyone bad to get so much power.“

Oto’s eyes widened a bit, but before he could say anything, an arrogant and needlessly loud voice rang from our right side: „As if some filthy talking kitty could even hope to win the tournament. It is I, prince Eloros Elmen, who will become the ultimate champion and stomp all you worthless maggots into the ground.“

I looked at him. An elven boy, tall for his age, dressed in rich fabrics, clad in fancy light armor and a ornate falchion on his hip. He would have looked good, with his long golden blond hair, the aristocratic face and the flawless skin, but that arrogant smirk destoyed his looks. With a quick look into his mind I learnd, that he lived his first life spoiled as the son of a sheik, was killed in his mid twenties by a group of thieves who had broken into his home and was reborn as an elven prince. In his second life he was pampered again, but this time he had the determination to grow strong, so he could have everyone else kneel to him and never had to worry about being killed in passing again.

He was really strong for his second age, in his world he could even beat trained people thrice his (new) age.

Behind him was a group of kids, who seemed to be his followers, judging by the approving thoughts I could catch from them.

I already wanted to verbally humiliate him, but before I could say something Ces shouted: „As if you could ever beat Shira-nee! Shira-nee can’t be defeated by any champion! She’s the strongest!“

I sighed. Now I would have to fight if I didn’t want my little bro to look like a fool.

„Who do you think you are? I am a royal elf, hence you are one of my subjects, how dare you raise your voice against me?“

That made Ces really angry. A really angry Ces meant a Ces who couldn’t uphold his transformation and thus turned into a huge blue dragon. He roared and was about to turn Eloros into paste, but before he even began swinging his claws, I myself turned into my baseform and yelled: „Down Ces!“

Ces stopped and looked at me confused.

„Why Shira-nee? He insulted both of us and thinks he is the best but he is really just weak!“

Eloros wasn’t weak. He was really strong in his world, but Ces was a dragon. No six year old no matter how talented should be able to defeat him. In Ces eyes the elven prince was really weak but that was the problem in this situation.

„If you beat him up it would just look like bullying, let your big sister handle this one.“

I wouldn’t really care if it were just us and Eloros but we had attracted the attention of almost everyone there. Though I didn’t really know any of them, I still care a little about my reputation. A bad reputation is annoying.

Ces grumbled, but calmed down a little and transformed back into his elven form.

I turned to the now quite shaken looking arrogant prince.

„If you think you are so strong, prove it. I’ll be your opponent. If Ces were to fight it would be just too unfair for you.“

I kept my voice calm and my words brought the colour back to Eloros face. His arrogant smirk returned.

„Ooh, the kitty turned into a kittygirl, maybe I’ll let you become my little pet when I’m done with you.“

„What’s with the cliche third rate movie villain line?“

I kept my face calm, bordering bored, but the look of indignation on his face almost made me burst into laughter.

Suddenly we stood in a Colloseum. The ranks were filled with dumbfounded Champions and deities sitting in the comfortable shade of the giant parasols on top of the arena while the sun burned down on the two contestants, Eloros and me, standing on the sandy oval in the middle.

From the announcers box came a booming voice: „Welcome, my dear deities and champions, to the Colloseum!“

All heads turned. There stood Bob, clad into a toga, a laurel wreath on his head.

„There are two champion’s who agreed to have a duel on this fine day, I present to you on the left: The elven prince Eloros Elmen and on the right side the mysterious nekomata Shira!“

The audience had grasped the situation and began cheering away. And I wanted to avoid attention.

Well at least Bob didn’t reveal anything about me, my family name alone might have given away a lot of information.

I could see Eloros basking in the audiences attention, that smirk still on his face. It was really strange, he didn’t seem to have any other facial expression, even when Ces frightened him he had still that arrogant smirk plastered on his face. Though he did go rather pale then.

I myself gave a polite smile and waved to the audience.

When the cheering stopped Bob continued: „In this duel there is only one rule: There are no rules! Fighters begin!!“

Well it wouldn’t be a fight. I never intended to fight the prince. I wanted to humiliate him. The best way to do that?

„Hey little Elf, if you manage to touch me, or move me from this spot, I’ll give you the win.“ I said it loud enough for the entire audience to hear. Everyone went silent. Before there had been a few discussions about who would win, but now there was no noise. I took out a pin and dropped it.

You could hear it in the entire Colloseum. But then, as if the pindrop was a signal a cacophony of voices exploded, drowning whatever it was Eloros had screamed before he pulled out is falchion and charged at me.

When he took the third step he tripped over his own foot and nicely planted his face in the ground.

Again there was a short silence until everyone started to loudly laugh. The laughter got even louder when the prince tried to lift himself off the ground only for his arms to slip sideways and his face to kiss the ground again.

With the next try he succeeded standing up and again started to run towards me. This time he didn’t even make it one step. As soon as his foot touched the ground for the first step, the foot slipped forwards and forced him into a split. He screemed in pain. But nobody heared him over the roaring laughter of the crowd.

I could see him turn red with embarassment and anger, even his smirk was gone and he yelled something. Not that I could hear him, the audience had stopped laughing, but I had plugged my ears with the specialized earplugs Luna had gifted me to my first birthday. They were necessary, otherwise I would walk around with a constant noise induced headache.

I had them set on absorbing almost all noises, the cheering and laughter was too unpredictable after all.

Anyways Eloros stood up, holding his crotch and this time he didn’t make the mistake to move again. Pity. I wanted to force-trip him some more.

Now he seemed to chant something, and after a while a stream of fire shot at me. It wasn’t a bad attack, certainly better than the cliche and way too easy to dodge fireball. With this continuous flamestream he could cover a large area in fire, therefor making it harder for the opponent to evade his attack.

Didn’t really endanger me though. I made an invisible airtight shield around myself, it had an edge at the front and curved around me on all sides, making it look like I was enclosed in fire. I could still feel a little of the heat but there where training sessions in the order which made a Jedi’s body resistant to all kinds of conditions like heat, cold, poison, intoxication, tiredness, the list went on.

The heat didn’t really bother me and after some time the flames stopped, revealing me without any marks on my body. Eloros gaped at me but after a little time he decided to switch techniques and used an earth spell to shoot multiple bullets of earth at me. A few from the front and three from behind ordered in a horizontal line. A really nice attack again. You would have to concentrate on blocking or evading the bullets from the front and wouldn‘t notice the ones from behind, even if you dodged to the side you would get hit by one of the projectiles. Strangely they all missed, it had certainly nothing to do with me using the force to slightly alter the direction of the projectiles.

I was kinda getting bored by the fight so I decided to end it.

I used the force to thrust a spear of earth up his behind and out of his mouth, successfully making my first prince en brochette.

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I'm BAAACK

prince en brochette = skewered prince

IMPORTANT

I received my first one star rating. That in itself isn't a problem, the problem is, that there was no comment or explanation to why I received this bad rating. As I have already written in the prologue, I would like to have a reason for each bad rating I get, it would help me to improve you know? If you don't want it to be public, just PM me, but please give me reasons.

NOT IMPORTANT

The first 'fight' I ever wrote. I hope you approved of the attacks I thought up. I always thought, that using just frontal magical attacks is rather uncreative and defeats the purpose and wonder of magic. If you just use frontal assaults with magic, you can use a gun just as well, it would be much more efficient. For example, I really like the tactical magic fighting in some of the fights in the 'black magician trilogy' by Trudy Canavan. The same for force attacks. Using the force just to lift large objects around and use telekinetic blasts is a waste. A much more subtle use is way more effective and energy efficient. It may not cause as many flashy explosions, but it gets the job done. I hope it was enjoyable.

This is th first time I wrote a chapter in one day, normally they are created over the course of a week.

This year I don't feel so good, since the beginning of 2017 a lot of unlucky things happen to me. Luckily I wasn't hurt badly yet. I hope you all have a happy new year though.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter

Bye