Chapter 4-Thunder Cat wrote: Liat, Tor, Tenion, Viti, Crystal, and Cerulea stood in the crowd. These were the 96 who had made it through to the battle round. They were now announcing the teams they would be competing on during the battle portion of the tournament. They all waited eagerly for their names to be spoken.
The woman read off another team.
“Let’s see here…the next team will be Cerulea Ghiacio…”
Cerulea seemed startled when her name was announced.
“Crystal Ghiacio…”
They smiled at one another, overjoyed.
“Liat Tuolone…”
Liat smiled, looking over at them.
“Viti Fuolose…”
The four of them were rather freaked out by this. So many of them on one team?
“Tenion Fuolose…”
They were no longer the only ones freaked out. The woman reading the names’ eyes were quite wide, noticing the sets of twins. She was even more startled when he read the last name.
“…and Tor Tuolone.”
They were stunned at this. What were the chances that they would all get on the same team?
The woman read off more names as the six of them walked over to the hallway. Viti walked up to the woman to grab the key to the locker room, then followed the others. They walked on through the orange-carpeted, white-walled passageway, passing endless doors. Viti finally noticed the door with the same number on it as her key.
There was a teleportation pad in the center, which would be used to take them to the coliseum. Once there, they would battle and go on to the next round. The room also featured benches and a large TV that the team members who were not participating in the battle would use to watch it.
The time crawled on slowly, giving them time to talk.
“Hey, Cerulea.” Liat said, walking over to her. “Isn’t it cool to be on one team?”
“Yeah, it is,” She whispered.
Liat narrowed his eyes, confused.
“You don’t seem excited.”
“I am.”
“Okay…”
Liat grew bored of Cerulea’s dull personality and walked over to examine the TV, which was currently showing the crowd waiting for the first round. Meanwhile, Viti was talking to Tenion.
“This room is cool, isn’t it?” She said, looking around.
“Yeah! There’s a teleportation pad and a HUGE TV, and…”
“Tenion…”
“and benches and …”
“Tenion…”
“…and drinks and snacks and-”
“Shut up!”
“Ok!” He said as he quickly shrank down onto a bench. Tor, meanwhile, was getting to know Crystal.
“So, what’cha wanna talk about?” Tor said, leaning against the wall.
“Well, I’ve recently read a great book called Winds of Rebellion, and it’s great!” Crystal replied, her spell book in her hand. “It’s about-”
“You know, I spent countless hours getting ready for this. Constant practice on learning how to fight. You’d think it would be as simple as the whole idea of beating people up.”
“Point taken, you aren’t a reader. Do you like animals? I like tropical fish and polar bears. They’re truly fascinating.”
“Yawn.”
Crystal narrowed her eyes, irritated with him. The announcer’s voice soon interrupted.
“Being shown on the contestant’s screen now is the person who will compete in the 1st round. It will be 1 on 1.” He said.
They looked up at the screen, then toward the person it displayed.
It was Liat.
The group had selected their name as Team Alpha and begun watching the battles. After several matches, it was finally Liat’s turn. He stepped on the teleportation pad and traveled to the coliseum.
“In the red corner, we have Team Alpha’s Liat Tuolone!” The announcer said, looking at the battlefield.
Liat was so focused on his opponent that he didn’t hear her name or team. It didn’t matter to him, though, as he pulled out his pole.
“Begin!”
The girl had no weapon, but charged at Liat anyway. He readied his pole to stop her and hit her in the stomach. She quickly recovered and dove under his pole and put her finger tips up to his stomach.
“What the-” Liat began, but he suddenly felt a stabbing pain and fell to his knees. He looked up and saw what had stabbed him.
The girl had grown long, cat-like claws made of electric energy.
Liat tried to strike her with an attack, but he found that her attack had seemingly disabled his abilities. He tried to keep her back while he recovered, but the pain stopped him from doing so and he fell onto the wall. He looked at her as she prepared to strike him again, and dodged. He tried everything he could do without his abilities, but nothing worked. He finally recalled a lesson his tutor had taught him.
“Perfect.” He said, looking back at her. He had now recovered enough to produce a small charge, similar to shocking somebody using static.
He focused on her and prepared to strike. When she was close enough, he used two fingers and pushed down on her inner shoulder, shocking her. This was a seemingly harmless move simply used to fake her out before using a real attack. But when she let out a quick wail and fell onto the ground, it was clear this was not the case. The place he had hit was an area where thunder elementals produced high amounts of energy for their abilities. When it is struck, it is bad for these skills, so the body send the message of pain in high doses. This strategy would work on any thunder elemtnal.
Cheers broke loose as Liat smiled.
He finally gave way to the pain from her initial attack and fell down just as it was announced that he had won.
Meanwhile in the room, Liat’s comrades were watching eagerly. They cheered when he won, but Cerulea continued watching and saw him fall. She observed two medics rush out to help him, then finally noticed one shake his head. Recognizing this sign, she ran to the teleportation pad, then over to Liat.
“Let me through!” She screamed, pushing the medics aside. Liat’s wound was severe, and she could tell it had the potential to kill him.
“We can’t save him. He went untreated for too long.” one medic said, frowning. “Further effort will keep him alive longer, but it will only cause him pain. We’re going to kill him now and get it over with.”
“No!” She screamed, placing her hands on his wound. The medics pulled her back.
“Don’t do that! He’ll only suffer!”
“No! I won’t give up on him!” She said as she blasted water on the medics, pushing them against the wall. Two guards came and pulled her towards the teleporting pad, despite her struggling.
“That’s it!”
Cerulea closed her eyes, releasing a blue aura from her body. She slumped to the floor. The aura moved to Liat’s body, making contact with the wound. One of the medics held a knife in the air above him, though the wound was healing rapidly.
Just as he brought the blade down, Liat dodged out of the way, grabbed Cerulea, and ran to the teleportation pad.
“Liat!” Tor said, running to his brother. Liat’s wound was gone, and the only sign that it had ever happened was his torn shirt.
“Don’t worry about Cerulea,” Crystal said, lifting up her sister’s body “She did that when I nearly lost my arm to my shark. She goes unconscious, the wound heals completely, and it doesn’t even leave a scar. She’ll be up in an hour or so.”
Liat kneeled beside Cerulea.
“Thank you.” He said “I’ll repay you. I promise.”
