"From group A, bracket one. In the red corner: Haru ike! Welding the iron attribute! And in the blue corner: Futsu Haikei: with the enhancement; soar!" The announcer introduces the combatants through his microphone.
We all gather at the viewing deck, and Isamu and Nova take their place on either side of me, having forgotten about what just transpired.
"And now… begin!"
The referee slices his hand down to signal the start of the match. The two combatants waste no time at all. Haru starts the fight with an iron bullet aimed at Futsu's head, as Haru's opponent evades, which he does by flying up in the sky, swooping down and tackling Haru to the ground. Then, he flies up again and prepares to drop him from an altitude of well over 100 feet. But we all knew not to worry. Any fatal blow would be rendered useless by the nano-shields that could be activated from anywhere around the battlefield. Nullifying the force of the impact on the ground, Haru would take off as soon as Futsu dropped him. Instead, as Haru was falling, he aimed a bunch of iron shards at Futsu. One of the shards landed right on his heart before Haru hit the ground. Resulting in his victory, Fustu slowly landed on the ground. The nano-shields had protected his heart before the shards could have pierced it.
"After some quick thinking by Haru! We have a victor!" the announcer says.
Everyone in the stands claps for the two fighters as they shake hands and leave the field. A voice comes in over the loudspeakers
"We will have a 10-minute break before the next matchup: Nova Rust will be facing Arthur Pendragon," it says.
"Well. looks like you're up… next," I turn to Nova, but find she's not there.
I sigh, exasperated. "Every time."
I go find my parents. I spot them at a ticket booth with my sister, Rin, on my dad's shoulder. My mom is trying to purchase a ticket. I ran over to them as my mom saw me coming over.
"Arashi! Please tell this man that you're in the tournament!
It turns out that my mom had been trying to resolve an issue regarding an entry permit to enter the fighter's viewing box. The problem: she had forgotten her ID.
"I am both his coach and, better yet, his mother!" she expressed quite strongly.
"It's alright, please let them through. They're with me," I assure the man attending the booth
He apologizes and lets us through.
"Jeez, people can be so inconsiderate," my mom mutters.
My father tries to calm her down, and my sister, about 7 years old, also tries to assist. It works. Not surprisingly, those two are a deadly combo when it comes to handling my mother. Both are kind and compassionate. All three of my family members have black hair and good facial structure. Good genes, I guess. Both my mother and father have good physical capabilities on account of them both being my coaches in hand-to-hand combat.
"Well, we should get going. Isn't Nova's match gonna start soon?" my dad reminds me
We hurry to the fighters' viewing deck and get there just in time as the announcer comes back on the mic.
"Please return to your seats and stay there because the second match is about to begin!"
We could see Nova and Arthur step out onto the field. Both wore slight smiles out of respect for each other. Nova knew Arthur from her time in North America. Even so, she wouldn't let her friendship interfere with her fight, nor would Arthur. The announcer spoke into his mic once more,
"Round 2! This time, from America: Arthur Hexdragon! With the attribute: Sever!. Next up, we have Nova rust: originally from America, now residing on the home turf of Japan! Attribute: fusion! I hope you're ready! Because this fight starts now!"
As soon as the ref lowered his hand to signal the start of the match. Both Nova and Arthur leapt forward into a head-on collision. The force behind the strike was so powerful that it made a small explosion that rocked the stadium. The explosion created a dust cloud of smoke that blinded everyone else from seeing what was happening to the two combatants. Not a second later, a bright white slash of air cut through the smoke. As it cleared, we saw that the slash had come from Arthur's sword. Sever worked by emitting any kind of slashing attack that could cut anything as long as the user knew its weak point. This makes Sever a projection-type attribute.
Each Attribute has a name and a type that shows its main field of use. A Projection type attribute is one if not one of the most common types. It focuses on transforming the harmonic energy in your body and changing its structure to fit your attributes. Then, once you have that, you expel the changed harmonic energy out of your body at the desired target. Another common type is coating. Coating utilizes your attribute in the same way as projection by changing the harmonic energy in your body's genetic structure. But instead of expelling it, you now apply your attribute to your body. Or at higher levels, onto other objects.
Then there's the less common: union. Which is a combination of the two.
Once the smoke cleared from Arthur's air slash, Nova dove right back in with her own sword as they locked blades for a split second before launching attack after attack. Both sides looked equal before Nova found an opening in Arthur's defence. She relentlessly broke through his guard before forcing Arthur to leap back. Creating more air slashes that flew toward Nova. Only two got through her seemingly impenetrable defence. Her shield weakened, but she managed to avoid any fatal blows that would have ended the match. She pressed on. Sprinting forward, she was stopped in her tracks as Arthur split open the ground in front of her. Then, he did the same all around her. Slashing through the ground so she couldn't escape. Each cut in the floor was at least 15 feet wide, so she couldn't just jump out. Arthur leapt back one final time and raised his sword. He charged up a massive slash that he would use to end this fight. But Nova had other plans. She took out a piece of a metal chain and pressed it up against her sword. A bright flash of violet light, and the chain had vanished. Now, all that remained was the sword. Which she drew in a wide arc. Surprisingly, the blade now split into at least 20 different sections and became a lethal whip that Nova used to trap Arthur. All I did was blink. One second, the sword was perfectly normal. Next, it was wrapped around Arthur, immobilizing him completely.
Nova yanked him towards herself, reeling him in like a fish to bait. As Nova reeled in Arthur, she reached into her pocket and pulled out one of the hardest rocks on Earth. A small shard of a diamond. I smiled. For I knew exactly what was about to happen. She wrapped her fingers around the small shard, and that same faint purple glow was seen radiating from the palm of her hand. As Arthur neared Nova, she drew back her fist and delivered a strong punch to His heart. A move she called: fusion impact, using the fused material to create a more dense and durable punch: a named attack. The nano-shields kicked in, saving Arthur from certain death if that hit had connected to his body. The match was declared over. As that would have been a fatal blow. Still, it looked like it hurt. Arthur appeared fine, though, as he got up and shook hands with Nova. signifying great respect for his former friend. The rest of the matches went smoothly until the last one of Group A.
"Auton Edwards, from Australia, with the attribute: Sand. will be facing Orosu Kurashuu from Japan. His attribute: breaker."
Orosu had dark skin and short, messy black hair and wore a simple white shirt and black pants with red outlines.
I turn to Isamu. "What the hell is Breaker?"
"Probably just fancy wording. People like to overcomplicate their attributes more than they should."
Turns out, we didn't even get to see what it was. It didn't even look like he broke a sweat fighting his opponent. He effortlessly toyed with them when they attempted a first move, swatting them away like an irritating housefly. And when they used sand to attack Orosu. He sidestepped each attempt to bury them with ease. Once he had his fun. He quickly stepped into his opponent's center line and threw a chop to their neck. Knocking them out. He didn't even have the courtesy to catch them as they fell onto the hard, stone floor. He walked off stage, not looking back at his defeated opponent.
I look towards Isamu with a defeated half smile. "We got this, right? Please tell me it's not as bad as it looks."
Unfortunately, his answer was anything and everything short of reassuring.
"We're screwed."