TRACK 7 –

The island grew larger as we approached and it looked like we were heading to the top of the tallest mountain on the island and subsequently, the area where my home was located. Tiny antlike figures were moving around on the mountain’s plateau where I did a lot of my training with my Sensei. The difference though between when I was training there then and what we were seeing now, was night and day.

There were about a dozen of them and they were all sparring in some sort of battle royal in a big fighting circle on the mountain. We were close enough now that I could tell they were all young, younger than us even, I was guessing about eleven of twelve. Although, I could tell they were all extremely skilled, even given their youth. Gasps sounded out around the room again as we got close enough to see who the figures jumping around were. Not only that, but AR-2’s pinged all around me and names formed above each person’s head as I accessed mine. All of them wore versions of monk garb, orange in color and baggy in style, it reminded me of Goku or Krillan from Dragonball, I mused before refocusing on the battle.

ROSHI

A younger version of my teacher was trading blows with his mirror image.

YOSHI

My other teacher was grinning maniacally, a look I never saw on his somber face in later years, as he fought with his twins and other companions.

ARIANNA

“You two better pay attention!” Arianna, the petite fiery redhead said.

She flipped in between the twins and struck out, kicking with both legs in a jumping spinning split. Roshi and Yoshi flipped backwards in unison out of harms way, landing five feet away as Arianna came down from her kick in a high fighting stance.

CECIL

“Now cousin, you should head your own advice.” Cecil said.

The massive boy came in with a powerful haymaker to the girl’s blindside. Arianna’s eyes widened in surprise as the huge fist rocketed in, but to her credit she reacted immediately. She jumped back while raising her arms in a cross guard blocking the blow. She reacted in time, but unfortunately for the small girl Cecil’s punch was so strong the force of the attack launched Arianna backwards.

Arianna flew through the sky with a look of surprise on her face, and her mouth in a small ‘O,’ she turned her body in midair as she sailed backwards. Her expression turned from surprise to a wicked grin as her block became a crossbody tackle taking her into the twins. Both Roshi and Yoshi grunted when she hit them.

“Gotcha boys!” Arianna cried gleefully, as she took the brothers with her on her way out of the circle.

“Sorry about that guys!” Cecil called, wincing as the three of them tumbled across the ground in heap of adolescent limbs and bodies.

ICHIGO

“Ha ha! That’s what you get for not paying…” Ichigo started, pointing and laughing at the trio on the ground.

Another huge boy streaked in and slammed into the back of Ichigo, cutting him off mid jeer and sent him careening into the trio. Which had just started to rise but with the addition of Ichigo it was sent back sprawling to the ground once again.

SIEGFRIED

“You should follow your own advice little ninja.” The giant barbarian looking boy said stoically.

Ichigo glared at the bigger boy from his spot in the pile but quickly his expression changed to glee. Siegfried raised a quizzical eye at his rival who was already out of the game but acting completely opposite of the way he should. The little ninja boy extricated a limb from the mess and pointed behind his future best friend. Siegfried’s eye’s widened in understanding and he turned raising his guard just in time to see, not guard against, a pair of legs coming his way, from different directions.

LITITH

A pale raven-haired girl with piercing red eyes and a face already beautiful at her young age, attacked the boy almost twice her size with a leaping roundhouse from his right.

YOENE

An equally beautiful girl, but with bright white hair and ebony colored skin, attacked with the same maneuver from the left, both girls connecting with the bigger boy’s chest and launching him out of the circle and a few feet from the pile of the other losers. The two girls shared a grin and a wink but kept their guard up facing out against the remaining combatants. Which was good because they were immediately attacked on both sides by two other girls, who were just as beautiful as the first two. The one was the proverbial ice queen, with long blonde hair and icy blue eyes, while the other was the girl next door, radiant with a healthy, full of life beauty.

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TANYA ROMANOV

“I could’ve taken the big oaf out with one kick.” The ice queen teased, dropping down from her high kick and facing off against Lilith.

“Yeah, well you always did work harder and not smarter.” Lilith teased back, lashing out with a flurry of punches sending the other girl back a few paces.

Yoene made as if to go help her friend but the other girl launched a leaping heel kick that forced the ebony girl to give her full attention to the new threat.

STACY

“Sorry Yoene, it’s you an me.” The girl next door joked, following her comment up with a series of punches and kicks.

Each punch and kick blocked and riposted, the two girls fought back and forth looking to be evenly matched. As a matter of fact, both pairs fought with equal and high skill, they flipped, twirled, jumped, punched, and kicked. In seconds they had battled each other to a standstill. With one final series of blows the combatants separated and faced off again all wearing grins from ear to ear while breathing heavy with exertion.

RYO CELESTIAL DRAGON

“All for one!” Ryo shouted

ZOD ROMANOV

DAMON

“And one for all!” Damon and Zod yelled in reply.

The three boys called out from their attack position, high above and behind the girls, then hit the top of their leap and came streaking down towards the four surprised fighters.

“Sister you’re mine!” Zod cried gleefully, coming down and smashing into Tanya with both feet.

The girl raised her arms in time to block but the force of the blow rocketed her out of the circle. Lilith had only a moment to look surprised as Damon came down striking her in the back with a spinning tornado kick

“Bye Lil!” Damon joked, as the object of his mirth crashed to the ground and rolled out of bounds.

The girl popped up as soon as she got disqualified and glared daggers at her attacker.

“Damnit Damon! I’ll get you next time!” Lilith growled, shaking her little fist at the young Belmont.

Stacy and Yoene took in all this in seconds, and sharing a quick nod decided to team up against the last attacker, which was a good idea. Unfortunately for them, it didn’t make a difference. Just as the two girls began to turn out and face the three boys Ryo landed right in between the two. Reaching out lightning fast, he grabbed an arm from each girl and yanked them hard towards him. At the last second, he moved out of the way, swaying slightly back, and the girls slammed into each other with a loud crunch.

Quickly letting go and reversing his grip, Ryo pushed out, sending both girls tumbling away in opposite directions, dazed and disoriented. Which, on their own, they could have recovered from, but Ryo not only pushed them, he pushed them right into his two waiting compatriots. Damon and Zod accepted the two gifts sent their way by their friend and grabbed the incoming girls. Then whipping them around like a lariat, launched them out of the ring and into the group of students that had just gotten up from the ground.

Now, only three combatants were left in the ring. Ryo, Zod, and Damon fanned out, creating an equidistant triangle, each of them were ten feet apart. They dropped into fighting stances with grins stretched across their faces. The combatants who lost fanned out around the fighting circle jeering the three fighters, while watching the fight with interest.

This was the second to last test before the final and who won, or depending on what position you lost, determined your spot in the last exam. The grins faded from the fighters faces and the rest of the students quieted down as the three fighters prepared themselves for the last fight. Normally, when three combatants are left two of them would gang up on the third. These three boys were such good friends, almost equally matched in fighting power, and each wanted to best the others fairly.

“Hurry up, we don’t have all day!” Tanya yelled out playfully.

Her sentiment was echoed by the other kids and the three boys tensed even more and readied themselves.

“You heard my sis…” Zod said, or tried to, because as soon as he spoke Ryo flashed forward striking out with his right fist.

His punch was pulled short though as Zod leaped back and Damon attacked Ryo from the side with a flying scissor kick.

“Tch!” Ryo growled, blocking the kick and using the attacks momentum to flip backwards and out of range.

As Damon attacked, Zod used the time to recover and then launch his own furious rebuttal. The white haired and pale white skinned boy stepped back and crouched then leaped high up into the air in a triple somersault going high above Damon and Ryo. His jump took him in front of the son and his shadow covered his two friends who looked up in time to see Zod flying down at them.

Ryo jumped to the side and rolled away while Damon, the biggest and strongest of the three, stood his ground and opened his mouth in a wicked grin. Zod realized his error as he saw his friends face and tried to change direction at the last second, but it was too late, Damon was already moving.

He reached out both hands as fast as a snake striking, and grabbed Zod’s lead foot, not stopping he continued moving in a spin. Using the smaller boy’s momentum to help him turn, he moved faster and faster, turning like a centrifuge, and Zod was the impetus. Damon let go and Zod flew towards Ryo screaming the whole way, not in fear but in glee. His face locked onto Ryo’s as he closed in.

“I’m not going out alone!” Zod called.

The topknot wearing Samurai looking boy, Ryo, was not caught unawares and as Zod tried to grab him on his way out of the ring he instead got nothing but air. Ryo ducked his friend’s outstretched hands, and instead latched onto Zod’s legs while leaping up and spinning in the air in a front somersault carrying the helpless airborne boy with him. The two flipped, end over end, in a ridiculous parody of a circus act but this ended in a much different way.

Ryo let go at the perfect moment sending Zod back the way he had come and careening into a dumbfounded looking Damon. Neither had time to react and with a loud smash and a couple of swearing rants, they tumbled out of the ring.

“There can be only one!” Ryo called, raising his arms up to the sky and laughing out loud at the top of his lungs.

“Oh, shut up Ryo.” Damon growled, extricating himself from Zod and rising while wiping the dirt from his hands. “Besides, that was a lucky throw, it was me throwing the little ice prince first…”

“Who’re you calling an Ice Prince you overly muscled Conan reject.” Zod shot back, rising as well.

The three shared a laugh and shook their heads.

“Damn Ryo, Damon, I’ll get you two next time.” Zod joked, as the three boys grinned and high-fived each other.

“Tripod for the win!” Ryo cheered.

The three boys laughed and clapped each other on the back as the rest of their classmates surrounded them.