A shadow of confidence fell on Nicoleta's shoulders, her qualification was more than a confident booster, it was an anxiety annihilation.
The knock out rounds consisted of one hundred matches, everyone was sorted into a group, Nicoleta had been placed in group A, she had exactly fifteen matches, she had to win at least ten to qualify to the round of twenty-five.
She also needed to get as many points as possible, because the points system worked more strictly in this round than the trials.
Right now she had forty eight points, she needed to win her matches and avoid as many hits as possible to maintain as many points as possible, or she needed to hit more than she got hit.
In short Nicoleta needed two hundred and fifty points, ten games won to qualify.
No pressure at all. She was in complete assurance of herself, Nicoleta was going to win in a landslide.
And her first six matches were as she expected, easy. She might have refused once or twice to be healed in the healers center.
At lunch, she noticed that some people were looking at her more than usual. She knew being noticed was a part of competing, but how did she forget how much she dreaded attention.
Nicoleta basically ran upstairs to her friends, and hoped she looked weird enough for everyone to stop looking at her.
"You are sector 2's new favorites" said Charlotte the moment Nicoleta sat down. She snapped her head at her, "what? Why?" May scoffed, "oh don't be so humble- you are totally acing it. You've won all your six matches, and you refused to be healed twice at some point- you are" May raised her arms at Nicoleta and gestured to all of her, "cool now" Nicoleta wanted to laugh, cool was not her. Cool was her step brother, cool was her step mother, she was just Nicoleta, sometimes happy, and mostly kept to herself.
So what if she was a great fighter- well perhaps that was cool.
Nicoleta couldn't lie to herself, it was somewhat nice to be considered cool, still though all those lingering eyes were beginning to become a thorn.
She skipped dinner, and trained in her room, abusing the dummy like it was the reason why she was suddenly known in sector 2.
The day of her eighth match came by quick, her opponent according to Charlotte was trained by Evan, and after a year she was transferred to sector 1.
That was something to keep in mind, more so because Evan specialized in more than one martial art, she could be able to break her bones and put them back for all Nicoleta knew.
She stepped on the platform, and let out a heavy breath, they switched the leather wear after many complaints from everyone participating.
Now it was the same fabric as the sector uniforms except it was red in color, and most of them were short sleeved, or they had no sleeved at all, with just a spaghetti strap holding it together. Nicoleta opted for the latter, it made it easier to use her flame.
They both bowed, Nicoleta made a point to go lower, when they met eyes, the girl's eyes burned with blue.
She had a blue flame like Evan. Nicoleta assured herself of one thing, she had fought two people with the blue flame, she knew what it felt like to have it close to her skin.
And she knew how to combat it.
"Round one…. Begin"
They ran towards each other like tigers, prowling each other, until the other fell into submission.
It wasn't Nicoleta, because she was slamming into the girl without a second to breathe. She didn't give her a chance because she knew what would happen if she did.
Cold began to wrap around her slowly as she hit her, she countered it with her own flame sending it through the girl's skin and causing her to hiss beneath her, squirming to get out.
Nicoleta was thrown into the air and following her was a gust of blue flame, She turned around head first and fell through the flame with her own flame burning all about her.
She fell into a terrible hit to her ribs, this time she couldn't assume because she heard it clearly in her ears, a crack.
Nicoleta screamed in agony as she fell to the floor rolling on the platform, and stopping right at the edge, her back slamming against the barrier around the deck so hard she believed her back had broken too.
The crowd erupted into cheers.
"Sixty points to Leilani Haddox"
Nicoleta clutched her ribs, groaning in unimaginable pain, she pushed herself to her feet, and forced herself to let go of her ribs.
Leilani smirked at Nicoleta, she believed she had already won.
Nicoleta fell into her fighting stance, hissing through the stabbing pain, and advanced toward her. Leilani didn't waste time in striking the same place she had cracked, Nicoleta stumbled back but refused to fall.
Her body trembled with incredible exertion
She blocked a blow to her ribs again, letting the heat of her flame burn Leilani, she didn't seem fazed, as she slapped Nicoleta's arms away from her, knocking her off balance just enough for her to claw her stomach and kick her down.
Nicoleta felt as if her insides had been rearranged, her stomach churned in painful agony, she groaned and struggled to get back on her foot.
Leilani slammed her foot down on Nicoleta's chest, keeping her down.
The pain increased, it was so great that Nicoleta couldn't even channel her flame to get Leilani off of her.
One, two….
Four… she heaved panting for air yet none entered her lungs.
Five... Leilani increased the pressure she had on her chest, compromising Nicoleta's breathing further.
Six… the robotic voice continued to count, as Nicoleta continued to squirm beneath Leilani, her body screaming at her to stop moving. Seven
She sunk her head down in defeat. Eight.
"Set point to Leilani Haddox" Nicoleta couldn't even breath without somewhere in her stinging.
Her head fell to the side, where her gaze landed on Finnick, who was already rushing to her.
He lifted her up bridal style, and ran to the healers center, behind them the crowd cheered on.
"Leilani is a beast" a voice echoed in Nicoleta's ear, "the tiger claw is diabolical" said another, male.
Nicoleta flipped over in Finnick's arms, and breakfast, lunch, and dinner from yesternight poured out of her.
He placed her on the floor as slowly as possible but even that was too painful to take.
He tapped her back, and a warm sensation erupted through her spine. It disappeared the moment it came, and Nicoleta groaned.
She wiped her mouth when all the contents inside her stomach was out, and fell back into someone's arms. It wasn't Finnick's she could tell.
She was placed on a soft mattress before, and the warm sensations returned.
Her stomach which was still churning dulled into a small ache, she felt her broken ribs being mended together, and the pain of being healed seemed to surpass the pain of Leilani's hit.
She screamed. Then grunted. Then the pain was gone.
Her eyes landed on a pair of piercing Yellow orbs, and she was somewhat stung by them.
"Hi," the girl said. "You feel okay now?" Nicoleta moved her hand around her ribs added pressure, and felt nothing.
"Thank you," the girl shrugged. "It's my job. That was really painful by the way- Leilani has always been a bit crazy anyway" she seemed to have said that more to herself than Nicoleta, still Nicoleta nodded.
"Zylith by the way" the girl extended a hand out for a handshake, Nicoleta gladly shook her hand, "Nicoleta" Zylith beamed. "I know, I'm rooting for you to win," she whispered, Nicoleta smiled.
"That was a horrible match though" her smile dropped, it was. How many points did she lose because of that tiger claw? Or that hit to the ribs, she knew Leilani had sustained at least one hundred points from those two moves, Nicoleta gained only forty points, after that all hell broke loose.
Nicoleta let go of Zylith's hand, and sunk her face into her palms. What had she done, so many points lost, it had to be seventy. Perhaps more.
She didn't last even one round against her. She groaned, Zylith immediately placed her hands down on her ribs, "I'm not hurt" Nicoleta voiced, she was disappointed.
And her anxiety returned by the next day, her injuries had been healed, but a shadow of them followed her everywhere she walked.
When she checked the board she saw that out of five hundred and seventy six Points. Nicoleta had been knocked down to three hundred and twenty. It was worse than she thought. Leilani was on the leader board in their group. Nicoleta was at the bottom. Everyone else was ahead of her by one hundred points, and the ones leading the group by hundreds.
She needed to gain her points back plus more, everyone else in her groups had won their matches, from one to eight, she needed to make a comeback.
She couldn't afford another loss, another one and qualifying would become a miracle.
In the canteen at lunch, Evan visited their table, a somewhat sad look on his face.
"Come to say I told you so?" He laughed, "no" Nicoleta glanced at May who made a strange sound, her eyes were practically popping out of the socket, her gaze was locked on Evan and her mouth slightly agape.
"I couldn't help spotting you from where I sat, may I join?" Nicoleta scooted back to give him space.
May bit her lips, looked away, then grabbed Charlotte's arm as if her life was on the line, "hi," she panted. Evan smiled at her. She melted.
Nicoleta and Charlotte looked at each other.
"You made me lose," said Nicoleta, Evan chuckled, "because I taught her?" She nodded, "what was that anyway- tiger claw? it's really painful" Evan nodded in agreement.
"I didn't teach her that"
"Because you don't know?" Charlotte questioned, May looked offended, as if Charlotte had slapped her on the face.
"Of course he does" May protested, "it didn't come with what I was teaching her, she must have learned it in sector 1" Nicoleta nodded.
"Don't let that loss put you down, you have seven matches ahead. You aren't always going to win," Nicoleta shook her head, "winning is the entire point of the games" Evan nodded, and shook his head.
"But you lost anyway" they looked at each other, Nicoleta frowned, "it's what you do when you lose not how much you win"
Nicoleta's confidence was at an all time low after her last match, she refused to let it put her down, but those were just words against the reality, and the reality was that she was probably not going to qualify.
Her next three matches ended up in two wins, and one draw. She got points according to how lethal a hit was, her hits were always easy, Nicoleta didn't have it in her to harm others the way they harmed her.
She fought ruthlessly, but she never wanted to go past what she had been used to.
She didn't know her opponents well, Evan could crack a bone and put it back, but she didn't know if that was the same for others.
Most of her blows earned her twenty points, thirty, or sometimes fifty, whilst all her opponent didn't hold back even a little, and almost always earned up to the eighties.
So despite winning two, she had only climbed above ten people, she was tenth in her group now, she needed to be at least at fifth to qualify, she needed at least three hundred points to make it there.
Three matches won, she made it to Sixth place, then came her fifteenth and final match.
Nicoleta let out a heavy breath, stepped on the platform, and mildly waved to her friends, they got the best seats in the house.
"Round one. Begin"
She bowed to her opponent, he bowed as well, but opted for a handshake afterward, she shook his hand.
When the buzzer rang out, and the red became green, he wasted no time.
Nicoleta was knocked off of her feet, and immediately she felt a terrible pain erupt inside her ribs, why were they all going for her ribs.
She nailed the boy's chest and pushed him in the air with her telekinesis, propelling herself up with her flame, she flipped herself over and struck him in the gut.
The boy fell down, hitting the metal loudly, Nicoleta flinched at the sound.
Some flashes ran across her vision and she saw herself strapped down to the metal.
Blinking away the memories, she was met with a bash to the shoulder, then she was sent flying back. Her back hit the edge.
She stopped him with her flame, and jumped on her feet. Nicoleta jumped up and spun in the air, before hitting him in the chest twice.
He stood up immediately, and grabbed her shoulders, he hissed as she heated up her skin.
He still hadn't shown his powers, did he not have any that could help him?
He kneed her stomach, but Nicoleta caught his knee, threw his leg back and high kicked his sternum.
He stumbled back, taking every blow like it was nothing.
Was he made out of metal?
He swished confusing Nicoleta, then she was thrown across the platform once again.
He pounced on her before she could even defend herself, when she tried to get up he stopped her by placing his foot on her.
She let the heat of her flame burn through her skin, she grabbed his leg, with her hot hands, he still didn't move.
She didn't want to have to actually use her flame, he would burn- like them.
She blinked away the memories of the burning bodies. Nicoleta squirmed beneath him, trying to drive away the images of chalked bodies on the floor, black, unrecognizable.
When the seconds were up she ran inside, tears falling down her cheeks as hot as her flame.
There was no way Nicoleta would qualify, she was in seventh place because of losing her last match. She was disgustingly disappointed with herself.
Charlotte tried to stay optimistic, but Nicoleta could see that she wasn't very confident either, May however was holding on to an invisible chance that somehow Nicoleta could qualify.
All programs were suspended after the knockout rounds were officially over, so Nicoleta could not confident in Evan, May was very encouraging, but Nicoleta wasn't looking for delusional encouragement, she wanted to face reality, and to get some lessons out of it.
Her father was her best friend when it came to that.
"I'm sure you did great Nicoleta, but things don't always go the way we want them to" she nodded, her eyes were blurring as the tears welled up.
"Don't cry sweetheart, there's always next year" Nicoleta shook her head, "I want to compete this year, I want to win This year" she wished so badly to just hug her father, cuddle up in his arms, and forget about life.
But alas, that too was impossible.
The bulletin board arrived during lunch time, May stood up and dragged both Nicoleta, and Charlotte to go check.
"I didn't qualify May there's no need making sure I Lost" May hushed her.
"My mom once told me. Si realmente lo quieres lo tendrás" Nicoleta and Charlotte glanced at each other.
"And that means?"
"If you desire it you will have it" She pushed Nicoleta forward, "I'm not going" May ignored her and pushed her further, "I'm not going May"
May threw her arms up, "fine then I'm going"
"Help yourself" she disappeared behind the crowd, Charlotte rubbed Nicoleta's back, comforting her. "It's fine- next year?" Nicoleta groaned into her hands.
Kids shouted with joy upon finding out that they qualified, noise erupted in the halls, celebrations, and even lamentation.
May rushed at them shouting something they couldn't hear.
She had this big smile on her face, Nicoleta slightly perked, was it possible…
When she was close enough they heard her clearly shouting, "Nicoleta Ariti Qualified" over and over again.