Jet was running as fast as he could. He had spent too much time out. 'I am so late for dinner. Dory is going to kill me.' Some guards spotted him rushing the castle. They got their weapons ready just in case.

"It's just me, Jet." He dropped his hood while still running. The guards just backed off and let him through. Then he stopped dead in his tracks.

"Where have you been all day?" Dory stood there, tapping her foot on the ground.

"Just took a walk and lost track of time." Sweat was dripping off his hair.

Dory just put her hand on her face and sighed. "If it had been just a walk, it would have been fine. You are sweating and flushed. I can see blood on your bandages. Why didn't you just walk back? You got your heart rate too high, and now your bleeding."

"I'm sorry." It was all he could come up with on the spot.

"Well, you missed dinner. I will have some sandwiches sent to your room. First, you need a bath and bandages redone." She grabbed him and took him inside.

The bath was quick, considering half the servants were there. Each one of them chided him for exercising. They were also not nearly as gentle as Relo. After his bath, he dropped by the library for a few books on magic and one on the human body.

When he got to his room, he started to read the book on the human body. 'Get this out of the way real quick. It makes no sense that not one girl here has interested me.' The book made no sense to him. There are certain people you were compatible with, and once bonded, you were together till death.

"This makes no sense." Jet laid back on the bed, putting the book down.

"Interesting reading choice, how the human body works." Relo was holding the book up reading the cover.

Jet sat up so fast he got dizzy. He hadn't even heard Relo come in. He looked up at her. She was holding the book and a plate of sandwiches. "Yes, just figuring a few things out. As I said, I am not from here." Jet went ahead and explained what he was doing.

"Oh, is that all I will just show you. It'll be quicker than reading this nonsense." She put down the book.

Relo walked over to Jet, leaned down, and set the sandwiches down on the bed. Then she leaned to him and kissed him. Her lips were soft and warm. However, a pain shot through his body. Jet and Relo both backed off quickly. His body felt so strange, almost as if it ultimately rejected Relo.

"You are already bonded to someone." Relo was holding her head.

"What was that? It's almost like my body rejected you." Jet was also holding his head.

"As I said, you have bonded to someone already. Your magic won't let you cheat on your bond. Jet, have you and Amanda had sex?" She said looking Jet right in his eyes.

"Of course not, well maybe, not really." Jet stumbled his words out.

"Jet, that was a simple yes or no question." She did see a problem here. What if he never went back to her.

"We almost did once. We were walking home from school, and it was ice raining that day." Jet had to stop and explain what rain was. "Well, when we got to my house, we were cold and wet. We took a shower together, and we may have connected. But before it got too far, Amanda stopped me. She told me that she believed sex before marriage is what was wrong with people. Her parents divorced while she was still young." Again he had to stop and explain.

"That's so sad. I don't want to imagine a life like that." Relo didn't want to think of life without her father.

"Amanda's parents slept around a lot when they were younger. When her mom got pregnant, her dad went out to fool around. They tried to work it out, but then her mother was doing the same. So I told her I would wait." Jet laid back, thinking more about Amanda, but Relo broke him out of it.

"I would've liked to meet Amanda. Well, Jet, it's late. I think I will head to bed. See you in the morning." She had been yawning for a while now.

"Yeah, before you go. I got something I need your help with." Jet explained what he had been doing all day. He watched as a frown kept getting more prominent on her face.

"You can't be serious. Jet, why would you sign up for the tournament, or better question, why do you think I would help." Relo sat on the bed beside Jet and laid back.

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"Well, for starters, I trust you. Also, I got no one else to ask." He was starting to think. Maybe this had been a mistake.

"You are asking me to lie to the royal family."

"No, I would never ask you to do that. If they find out and ask, tell them." Jet was seeing a lot of problems now.

"Fine, I will help you on a condition." She turned to him with a smile on her face.

"I know there is a reward, guessing you want half." Jet turned to Relo, trying to guess what she wanted.

"Jet, you would have to win to get the reward. Which is very unlikely, so no, I want to train you. Starting tonight and as much of tomorrow as possible." Relo eyes were sparkling while looking at Jet.

"Your condition is to train me?" Jet had a bad feeling about this. His gut was screaming that he should run away.

Relo jumped to her feet and looked down at Jet. "If you go in fighting with your usual style, the king and the rest would notice. So I am going to teach you how to fight with multiple styles." Relo held out her hand for him to take. If she were to do this, then she would prepare him.

The two days with Relo was hell. That was the only way Jet knew how to describe it. 'Well, at least I survived that training. I never want to fight Relo all out.' He looked at his new gear. The sword felt strange. Tom told him he could put high amounts of magic in the blade. As for the leather armor, it didn't look impressive. Besides the wrist cuffs that were metal. Tom said that in the tournament rules, he could use them to stop an attack from a sword twice. A third time you had to act like the limb was gone. Tony made the right hand glove. Well, all he could say was out of this world. Jet could move his fingers while wearing the glove, and it didn't hurt as much as without it. He still couldn't make a fist or hold a sword, but Jet was okay with that.

Jet watched as everything was getting set up for the tryouts. They had to fight for the sixteen open slots. There were sixteen more, but they are reserved for top picks from the king and the great houses.

"Ok, this is simple elimination matches. We will separate all of you into sixteen groups. There are two hundred and seven contestants here today. So four matches each except for a couple of you who won't have a third match and wait for a fourth. Also and this has been a problem in the past. We know one of you has to do an extra match. Do not come to us and say how unfair it is. You will pick a number. It is random. You all know the rules. You break them your out, as simple as that. Now make a line, and let's get started." The man jumped down from the box. He stood on and walked off.

When it got to Jet's turn, he drew a red ball out of the bucket. He spun it till he saw a three etched on it. After looking around, he saw an area with a red flag and headed to it. When he got there, a man told him to wait for the others. So Jet just waited and looked at the arena. It was just a square that was painted red on the ground.

"Ok, let's get started one and two in the ring." The man said in a monotone voice. "You got one minute. If both of you are standing at the end, I will choose a winner. Before you complain, there is a point system. So if you want to win for sure, knock the other person out."

Jet watched as two women got into the ring. He couldn't wait to see what they did. One of them is bald, and the other has long hair with a scar on her face.

"You may begin."

The woman with the scar ran forward as her hand turned to stone. She swung at the bald women. Jet immediately knew she would win. The bald woman moved with grace, letting the fist just miss her face. She then punched three times quickly. Twice in the chest and one across the jaw. The scarred women went down.

Jet has seen that fighting style, Todly uses that form of fighting. She must be a water user. Most water users generally go the healer route. The bald women could be a challenge.

"Three and four get in the ring." The man said in the same monotone voice.

Jet stared down a small-statured woman. Then he realized all of his group were women. 'What are the odds of me getting a group of all women.'

"You may begin."

Jet did not make the first move. The problem was she didn't either. They both just stared at each other. He could hear the people watching shuffling around. Well, Jet decided he would make the first move.

As he got close, he felt the magic. He could tell by the feel of it she was a wind user. The pressure was building up around him. 'She is going to try and throw me from the ring.' Jet smiled, leaving a chill down the woman's back. He mimed using a spell, and when his fire hit her wind, instead of throwing him, it backfired and threw her out of the ring. Jet hadn't planned for quite so much force. She had slammed into some other contestants. Who were now glaring at him.

"Winner number three." The bored man said. "Five and six, your up."

Jet walked over to the woman he threw from the ring. "You all right, the force of that explosion was a bit more than I intended."

"Fuck off. I don't need your pity." She said, slamming her shoulder into him before walking towards the entrance.

Jet tried not to wince. She had also hit him on his hand. So he went back to watching the fights. While, watching, he found out a person can get thrown out of the ring. Magic would disperse if it hit the edge of the red outline. Jet also looked at some of the other fights and realized there were very few strong magicians here. 'Well, it is for twenty-five and younger. What was I expecting? I have been in life and death fights.'

"Two and three, your up."

Jet walked to the stage and stood across from her. She acknowledged him with a slight bow. Jet did likewise. She hadn't her first match, so he assumed she recognized him as an equal or challenge.

"You may begin." The man was still speaking in a monologue.

Jet was surprised when the girl darted right at him. He had figured she would wait for the first move. So he sidestepped very last second dodging her three attacks. He could feel the water magic flowing through her body. As she went by, he tapped her back, catching her shirt on fire, which was put out immediately.

"So, my guess was right, a water user." Jet said so she could hear him.

"So what of it? You are fire. You stand no chance." She growled and headed right back at him.