The Great

Evay Maver: What a day to be alive huh?

We were escorted on a carriage pulled by royal horses and shown to our waiting rooms under the battle stadium. The finals of the school qualifiers were to be held at the Suhan center, a training field for full fledged warriors. Its size and proportions were adjusted to fit our audience and battlefield, but the fact that everyone in the school would be watching was a little intimidating.

But the thing was that this event was open to the public. It was the closest thing to the actual Championship that the people were going to get before the Championships started and since it was Eden the tickets usually sold out at a high number. As I sat in the waiting room I looked around and heard the voices outside the stadium. Aurora walked back into the room and gave everyone a heads up. She looked a little nervous which was bad, since she was never nervous. “Guys, we sold 45,000 tickets…Apparently we only exceeded the average by 2000….I knew these things were big but this is crazy.” Lila came rushing in and looked even worse than Aurora.

“Aurora’s right, and uh…..try not to look up when you’re out there.” Lila went to sit down and Geon came out of the changing room. We were all in our battle vests and gear. We had been given extra clothes and towels but we didn’t really touch them. Geon looked at Lila and Aurora and laughed a little. “Just think of them as melons or something–I always like to think that.”

“Do we get paid for this?” I asked no one in particular and Lila answered.

“No, it goes back into the school and it’s used to fund our program further. I mean….it’s kind of a hot topic right now. Some people say we should be paid but I don’t know. All I know is we do one thing–win.” Lila looked at us with a determined face and we all looked at each other for reassurance.

A loud bell sounded in the distance. “Well, it’s go- time”. Geon whispered and he stood up. We did the same and looked at each other once more. Aurora led the way and turned to us with a smile. “Let’s not screw this up.” We walked through the tunnels and up the entrance to the massive marble stadium. The seats rose up to the sky and even our training facility at our school paled in comparison to this. The cheers and shouts shook the Earth to its core, and my ears seemed to recoil at the volume of the people. The sea of colors and humans made my head go blurry, my breathing quickened, and I felt my insides turn. For a split second I forgot everything. What our plan was, what we were going to do, what we needed to execute…..Suddenly, Aurora tapped me on the shoulder. “Hey we’re here now–look alive,” she smiled softly and walked forward. I snapped back.

We were motioned to the center of the battle field by a Bondas Combat institution referee, who were at all our other matches. We looked around at the crowd in all its magnitude and soaked it in. Well, let’s give this our best shot. The bell then rang again. This time our opposing team walked out. The cheers got even louder as my ears were once again deafened by the shouts and cheers of the crowd. A girl and a boy–who both looked nervous–walked out of the entrance. I couldn’t remember the names of those two but the boy was about as tall as me. He was less scrawny compared to me, but he still didn’t look very strong. The girl was a lot like Aurora, lean, muscular, and athletic. She had long and curly navy blue hair and looked like a psychopath.

I heard the crowd cheer extra loud as Savian and Akasa both walked through the entrance. Both of them looked as cool as ever–Akasa had the same neutral expression on his face while Savian waved to the crowd and smiled. They walked towards us and we met face to face in the middle of the field. I looked into the eyes of the scrawny boy. He had blonde hair and was wearing a gold necklace. He seemed to steel his nerves and stare me down. I did the same. Lila faced the navy blue hair girl and Aurora met face to face with Akasa. Geon was up against Savian. He stood next to me as we planned and we waited. We heard the commentator shout at long last. “Good morning students at Eden academy, the ticket holders who have been so kind as to pay to watch these students, and the officials of Eden high who made this event possible. This final match of the Eden qualifiers will determine one school that represents Bondas at the inter-empire Championship.”

“We have the team who ran through the qualifier rounds who have risen to stardom as first year students. It is class A-3!” The crowd erupted into cheers and the very ground shook, almost as if an earthquake had just begun.

“Then we have the team who dominantly sped through the qualifiers, winning each round by an average of mere seconds, a team with the sensational junior combat championship winner, a projected top ten student warrior, and a load of confidence to go with it……it is class A-5!” The crowd seemed to never get tired of yelling as the volume was no quieter than in the beginning.

“Now, are you ready!” a resounding roar came from the crowd. “Students, prepare yourselves!” Savain stretched his arms, smiled wickedly, and got ready to run. Akasa focused and took his hands out of his pockets. The girl got into a fighting stance and the boy in front of me crossed his forearms.

We all got ready and I eyed Geon who gave me a nod. Let’s go.

“May the match begin!”

Now

As we expected, Savian took off. His body turned into a blur of color as the marble floor tore up at his feet. I eyed Akasa and he held out one of his hands and coldly stared at our eyes, “Kneel,” a faint blue-green aura was cast from his hands. Don’t get hit by that. Get hit and it’s over. Time seemed to slow down and the very air and tension in the arena seemed to condense into my headspace all at once. My eyes strained in concentration and my brain screamed in panic. But there was no room to panic…I looked over to Savian who had reached Geon. His arms stretched like a claw of quick death. The blue waves were also here, and they glowed like deadly fire in my eyes. I braced for impact and willed my protection onto Geon. Now.

The golden aura in the shape of a spherical barrier was encased around Geon. I put another shield around myself and felt the waves of Akasa harmlessly wash over me. Savian’s fists rammed into the shield but he couldn’t pierce it, and Geon saw his opening.

I dropped the shield and Geon instantly willed the marble flooring to shoot up in spikes. The giant pearly spears of rock rapidly approached Savian and his face bloomed with concentration. He rapidly backed away from the spikes and managed to dodge the counter strike. The crowd gasped and I silently cursed. That was our chance…

I saw Aurora laced in electricity and she flipped over her opponent. She descended onto the ground and she slammed her fists into the floor—sending an Earth shattering ripple of electricity outward. Lila’s aura shifted to battle mode and she jumped high into the air. Geon flew upwards and I put a barrier onto myself. The first layer of marble was beginning to vaporize and Savain cursed. The electric blue lightning spread along the floor like a web of intense heat. It reached out to all corners of the arena, making the floor untouchable. He ran along the side of the arena walls that separated the stands from the floor. He sped around like a rapid boomerang while the boy I was facing came towards me. The boy looked desperate to get to me and with a sea of blue death chasing him I watched as he tried to run out of the stadium. He was caught at the end of the floor and his body violently twitched and convulsed as lightning coursed through his bones. The girl jumped upwards and met Lila in the air.

She grabbed onto Lila and her hand transformed into a navy blue colored blade. She aimed to stab Lila in the throat but Lila grabbed her hand and the girl immediately let go. She was still falling as she flicked two blades at the falling Lila. The blades soared through the air like arrows and Lila dodged one but the second grazed her shoulder. She gritted in pain as she looked up and reached out a hand. Geon soared through the air as he caught Lila and flung her towards the girl who had just about reached the ground. Aurora’s electricity was still surging and I prepared to put a barrier on Lila, but I saw Akasa in a ring of blue.

The electric sea didn’t even reach his feet and he calmly stared at the situation. He kneeled down and stared at the ground. A faint smile appeared on his face as he touched the ground with one gentle finger.

A radiant burst of blue washed over the floor arena as the blue burst seemed to cleanse the floor of any destruction. The electricity that had been intensely burning had been swept away. Then I looked at Aurora. She grabbed her chest and coughed violently. She was brought to one knee as her face was laced in pain. Lila looked at her with worry and shouted something. I couldn’t hear her over the battle but she pointed to her shoulder. But I needed to move, I couldn’t stand still now….I took down my barrier and I raced towards her. The girl from Savian’s team pounced and threw a series of blades at Aurora’s defenseless body. I immediately erected a barrier around her and the blades harmlessly clinked off. Geon saw what was happening and frantically threw out walls of steel to protect Aurora. He took off at blazing speeds into the air again and oversaw the battle field. He put out his arm and a blazing column of bright red and orange flames torched the battle field. Savain suddenly took off and ran along the steel walls Geon had created.

He ran up the wall and launched himself into the air like an arrow shot to the sky. The crowd roared in excitement as he went higher and higher and rammed into Geon at full speed. Geon grimaced in concentration as he sporadically flew in loops and circles in order to throw Savian off. Savian couldn’t win up there but our air defense was gone…I saw the girl come for me and I put up a barrier to block her array of daggers. She leapt off the ground and spun more daggers at me which I blocked as well. She landed in front of me and threw a high kick to my face which I dodged and she immediately threw a sidekick to my stomach. I blocked with my hands but her power sent me flying backwards. I used my barrier to shield myself from the impact damage and prepared for combat.

She zigzagged and leapt towards me like a wolf and swung in a swift killing motion to my head. I dodged and nearly met my death but I pulled my head up to avoid getting hit by a blade-armed uppercut. I attempted to throw a hard right hand punch when she immediately ducked it and leapt over my entire body. She gracefully landed behind me and tried to stab me in the back, but my barrier parried her attempt. She sneered and charged into me with immense power. I dropped my barrier on instinct and I felt the full force of her body slam. I flew backwards and I attempted to seat myself upright. I got my footing and I grabbed her head. She attempted to get out of my grasp but I slammed her head into my knee and threw her forward. I leapt into a side kick to her stomach and her eyes went wide from the pain. She flew backwards and I watched.

Evay, you can fly right? Now would be a good time to try again…..

She suddenly threw something from her hands and it took me one second too long to realize it was a blade. I put up my barrier but part of the blade hit me in the chest. I looked at it and the wound wasn’t deep–the blade hadn’t gone in. I readied myself again for battle when my heart felt like it was burning in white-hot fire. My entire body felt like it had been powered off as I coughed and was brought to my knees. Suddenly I saw Akasa put his hands out in my direction. A beam of blue raced towards me and I felt another burning sensation in my body. This time it felt like I was being seared, like my insides were being burned away from my existence. It felt like my blueprint was being burned off.

I fell to the ground and couldn’t move a muscle. I couldn’t cast a barrier and I looked up to see Geon fly Savian at full speed into the ground. Surprisingly, Savian gritted his teeth and ran. Geon erected barriers of marble to cut him off and flew towards him. Explosions started to go off as Geon bombed the floor with smoke and fire. I coughed even louder as two figures emerged from the smoke.

Akasa and the girl were looking down at me with serious eyes. “Good, this is the one that we needed to take down right?” The girl had a surprisingly sweet voice but it was rough from the smoke.

“Yeah, he’s the kid that’s letting them get away with anything harm free.” Akasa looked down at me and I tried my best to look him in the eye. I couldn’t talk and his cold gaze sprouted anger in my heart.

“Oh…were you that kid at the festival? Wow I guess you’ve come a long way….But a long way on a short road doesn’t mean much huh?” I eyed him with disdain as he gazed into my eyes.

“I guess you knew this was coming then? I mean I beat you once and now I’ll beat you twice.” He smiled and laughed softly. “But I don’t hate you. In fact I kind of like you for beating that Ren kid into the ground. That takes some balls this close to the tournament, and just in general. I hate that kid, you did us all a favor.” He got up and turned his back on me.

“I hope we can set aside our differences once this is over. I find you interesting…..let’s talk, yeah?” He walked off into the smoke and disappeared. Only the girl was left.

I finally got my voice back enough so that I could speak in short sentences, “How—you—blades-do—this?” My voice was hoarse and my eyes were still red. She looked at me and replied coolly.

“My blades aren’t just sharp. They’re made from my own cells. My cells are special in a way that I can control how they are shaped, and also their degree of hardness. So I can make blades and shurikens and spears. But my blood is also special in the sense that it’s toxic to any other person. It produces an unknown type of antibody that doesn’t interact nicely with any blood type. You’re blood clots, and if you get graced with my blades you get graced with my blood.” She smiled sadistically and kneeled down. She put her lips close to my face and looked me in the eyes.

“So I’m basically a poison. Your girlfriend over there is already suffering from it and you’ll be the same.” I looked at her and tried to hide my embarrassment.

“Not—my—*cough*—girlfriend.” She looked at me with another wicked smile and whispered sweetly into my ear.

“Oh, so you’re available. Lucky me…I just so happened to think that you were kind of cute.” She leaned in and grabbed my shoulders. She sat on both her knees and slowly moved her legs and sat on my waist. She smiled seductively. “Did you know that whoever I kiss gets the most of my blood? My mouth has always been cut easily with my bladed teeth.” She smiled and leaned in closer. What looked like well applied lipstick before was actually cherry red blood upon closer notice. I didn’t know what to think of the situation….I knew I shouldn’t but……I couldn’t…move. The poison was working its magic….

“Relax….I’ll help you,” she leaned in when an enormous explosion of blue ripped into the sky. Aurora’s blue hair and purple arm markings could be seen dashing through the smoke. I saw her dive down into the girl and topple her off of me. She drove her fist into her solar plexus and the girl opened her mouth in pain. She was sent flying back, but she flipped backwards in mid air and landed on her feet. She looked in anger at Aurora who had a seething face that was painted with electric fury. Her eyes were full of hate and she melted the very ground she stood on. She looked towards the girl with pure malice.

“Stop trying to kiss my teammate,” the girl laughed and readied herself.

“Not a girlfriend huh, Maver.” She laughed wickedly and looked at Aurora. “So why him? No one is better? Geon wasn’t the go-to?” Aurora looked at her coldly. She looked at Aurora with curiosity. “What…what makes you feel for him? Why him? What exactly does he have to offer? Enlighten me.” The girl summoned two blades from her arms and readied herself. Aurora looked at her coldly and readied herself as well. “Because he’s special to me….he’s someone that’s so different from everybody else.”

“In what way?”

“He’s a nice person, something that’s really hard to find these days.”