Author's Corner: If you didn't read the prolouge, you might want to read it, but it isn't completely nessesary. Thank you to everybody who helped me with it. Here is Chapter 1.

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Chapter 1-The Forest of Champions

A long line of young teenagers were standing, not daring to make even a slight movement. Liat was stiff in fear of the man who was pacing along the line. He was quite muscular, striking fear into all of the teenager’s hearts.

“Welcome” The man said “to the first portion of our tournament. This test is designed to narrow down our number of contestants so we can organize the tournament in a more orderly fashion. The test is simple. Just enter the forest. Do whatever you wish today, tomorrow, and the day after that. The first 96 people to get out the following day will enter the tournament. Understood?”

Liat shivered. Even though the man was at the other end of the line, he could hear his voice quite clearly. His fighting pole hung loosely from his belt. Tor stood next to him.

“Go!” The man yelled. The contestants sped forward into the forest. Liat glanced back as the doors were closed behind him. Some people were crouching behind bushes near the doors, ready to speed out once the doors were opened. But three days would kill them if they didn’t get water, and the contestants were only allowed to bring one weapon into the challenge.

“Liat!” Tor said “There you are! We’d better find water, like we planned!”

“Yea,” He replied, smiling slightly at his twin’s enthusiasm “Let’s see…”

As Liat’s voice quieted, a tiny electric purge exited his body. He sensed its motion, waiting for it to speed up should it hit water.

“That way,” He said, pointing to their right. Liat’s electrical abilities would make this challenge easier. Sure, everybody on the planet had some power, of which plenty had electricity, but he should be able to win any battle that occurred with Tor’s help. Tor summoned a light tailwind that would slightly quicken their pace.

Unfortunately, survival skills wouldn’t be enough to complete this challenge. Some people would likely kill to ensure their own spot in the tournament, so they would need to fight them off, likely even having to kill the opponent. That wasn’t something Liat wanted to resort to, but it would be necessary if nothing else would stop the attack. But one of the people who would kill just to make it to the tournament was standing before them. Tor pulled Liat up on top of a branch, where they could watch what was happening without being spotted. There was a girl glaring at two others. She had tied them up with vines and was about to hurl them into a large pit she had created.

“An earth elemental,” Tor said, observing the scene carefully.

“Look at this,” The girl said, looking from one of the girls she held captive to the other. “Sisters! Likely twins! Not identical, though, you look to different to be identical…Anyway, you two are both in my way of winning this tournament. And now you will die.”

Liat couldn’t watch this happen, so he turned to Tor.

“Fling me at them. I’m going to save them,” He said, glaring at the girl.

“You’re insane,” Tor said, summoning energy. “but fine.”

Liat was levitated in the air, then flung at the tied up girls as he pulled out his pole. He grabbed both, then kicked the vines connecting them to the ground loose. One of them froze the vines around her, and then destroyed them. She did the same to free her sister.

“Let’s go, Cerulea!” She said, charging at the attacker. She thrust out her palm, freezing her. But the girl wouldn’t go down that easily, and broke out. Cerulea charged forward, summoning an intense blast of water. As the water blasted the attacker back, the other girl froze it. The ice was too thick, and the girl stood there, motionless.

“Thanks,” Cerulea said, holding out her hand. Tor jumped down from the tree.

“Nice one, Liat.” He said “I’m Tor. Nice to meet you two.”

“I’m Crystal.” The ice elemental said “And this is my sister, Cerulea.”

“As he said,” Liat replied, gesturing at Tor “I’m Liat. This is my twin, Tor.”

“Weird.” Cerulea said “We’re both twins, but not identical.”

“Want to come along with us?” Tor proposed “That way, we all have a higher chance of making it.”

“Sure!” Crystal said “Which way should we go?”

Liat gestured in the direction of the water. The four 13 year olds began to walk through the dense overgrowth. This was a clear sign of nearby water, as a large supply, like a river, would make way for an abundance of plant life. Sure enough, within the next five minutes, they were standing by the Nucleo River. This river ran through the center of Termasse, the island on which fire and earth elementals lived. Wind and Thunder elementals lived in Nuvalose, where all the buildings were on top of clouds. Water and Ice elementals, like Cerulea and Crystal, lived in the Ghiac Lake. Liat bounded at the lake, exited to fill up his canteen. But his hopes dropped when he saw that the water was a disgusting shade of green.

“The water must have gone through some sort of filter before entering here. The water from the Incolto must have been mixed with this water.” Crystal said.

“Why our planet has to be mostly wasteland I have no idea.” Cerulea said “I wish that people could live on the Incolto.”

“That would be nice, but now only plants can,” Liat replied, looking intently past the river. “We’ll have to look for fresh water. Let’s cross the river and keep going.”

Crystal showed her worth to the rest of the group by freezing some of the river. This allowed for a temporary path across the river. The group carefully began to slide on the bridge. But Crystal forgot one thing. The bridge she made had very thin ice. This was very bad for Tor, who was the unlucky last person in the line of people crossing the river. The bridge gave way, sending the stunned Tor plunging into the acid. Liat promptly ran over to his side.

“Grab my arm!” He yelled.

“I can’t reach you!” Tor said, struggling to keep his head above the surface of the water.

“Grab the pole!” Liat screamed, reaching out for him. But the pole was too well sanded, and Tor’s hand slipped off when Liat began to pull.

“Keep him calm!” Liat ordered Cerulea and Crystal as he sped the rest of the way across the river. He soon ran back, holding a long branch in his hand.

“Grab this!” He yelled, extending the branch at Tor. The stick had many tiny extensions, allowing Tor to take better hold. Gasping for air, Tor slid onto the bridge.

“Are you alright?” Cerulea said, eyes widened.

“Yea…” He replied softly “I’m fine.” Liat immediately enlisted the help of Cerulea and Crystal in pulling Tor onto dry land. Pretty soon, Tor’s breathing was back to normal.

“Let’s keep moving,” Liat said, directing the group onward. But this wouldn’t happen just yet.

A towering beast burst out of the acid, roaring at the group. Liat shielded the group quickly in a field of energy that repelled the acid. He looked up at the creature. It was a giant serpent. But instead of a snake’s head, this serpent had the body of a woman, holding two scimitars. The snake extension had many tentacles attached to it, of which three were holding people, one girl ad two boys. One of them seemed younger them the others, while the older two were both about the group’s age.

The beast hissed, and then spat out “Ah! More food for my children! It must be another tournament!”