The Great

The roar was so loud that I thought my ears would explode. I plopped down to the ground and I took a deep breath. Geon went over to Lila and they gave each other a hug. Aurora smiled down at me and gave me her hand. I grinned and I took it and stood up. We all smiled at each other and laughed. We laughed at the sheer reality of it. Our first match, we won. It was worth it. The prep, the training, the travel, we had done it for this moment right here… Geon looked at the crowd and waved which caused the stadium to explode in even more applause. We made our way out of the arena and walked through the tunnel to our room. I took in the familiar sight of our lockers and possessions. I took my bag and sat down in relative silence for the first time in what felt like an eternity. Aurora was the first to speak up, “Well, I think we all deserve a job well done, no?” We all smiled and cheered. Geon laughed and continued grabbing his stuff. “They were pretty good, I'm not going to lie. For the fifth ranked team in our division they gave us a decently hard time.” Aurora spoke in a relaxed voice. She tossed water to Savian before speaking again. “It means we can’t underestimate any of the teams going forward. We have to watch the other two teams fight tomorrow. They will be our opponents for the quarter finals.”

Savain sat down and applied some bandages to his legs before speaking, “So if I’m correct that means 16 nations qualified for this right? Single elimination tournament, we need to win 4 matches to take it home. Simple. By the way, none of us bothered to check but we’re the fourth ranked team in our division. We’ll meet the other division champion in the finals.”He stood up and took a sip of his water. “But we should probably just rest up and study up on our next opponent. Let’s go back to the rooms, I’m tired.” We all nodded and we stood up and walked through the exit doors. We walked out the door and before us stood a sea of reporters with pens and paper. They all turned their heads towards us and shuffled in one big crowd, yelling our questions and names. “I hate this part,” Savian sighed and he tried to make himself look less tired.

He whispered to me, “try and not look dead for the reporters.” I nodded a little and smiled a bit more than I usually would have. The reporters all yelled and motioned for us to look their way and one of them finally got our attention.

“Excuse me! Excuse me! Thank you…Firstly I want to congratulate you on your victory. With such a big win can you tell us what it means to you and your country?” Aurora stepped up and talked.

“It means a lot to us of course. We feel very proud to represent Taegan and perform on the world stage. But we know that the ultimate goal is to win and we’re always focused on the next match. We’ll enjoy the win but we’ll also keep our focus for the next bout.”

The reporters all started to yell and raise their hands again until another voice rose above the rest. “This question is for Geon Leventen in particular. Mr. Leventen, we know that you were ranked as the number one, or in some sources, number two prospect coming out of Taegan. Your performance was up to those expectations today, but do you feel any added pressure because of those expectations?” Geon spoke,

“Not really…I feel like it’s just more exciting, you know? I just keep doing what I do and people like you seem to love it,” the reporters all laughed a little at his comment and Geon continued to talk. “I can’t let my country down and I know that, but that just keeps me more motivated. So yeah, no pressure.”

More noise rang out and another reporter rose above the mass of voices. “One last question before you leave. For Evay Maver, out of your team it seems that you have the least experience and background in competitive matches. What is something that you’re looking to gain or have gained from your new experiences in competing in these matches?”. I looked at Aurora and she gave me an encouraging smile.

“Um…well…I think I’ve learned a lot of valuable lessons about preparation and cooperation. Teamwork is one of our stronger qualities and I’ve learned how to improve in that aspect a lot. Forging good bonds and chemistry is the most valuable thing gained from my experiences.”

The reporter smiled, “thank you for your time.” We all shuffled through the crowds and finally made it out to the streets. There were metal fences and many officers standing in the streets trying to push the crowds of people that were trying to reach out to us.

“Wow, I guess we aren’t trying any of the food here ever huh?” Geon shuffled through the crowd and waved at the people. They all cheered and let out deafening screams which made my ears bleed.

We walked through with the help of some officers and finally reached our rooms. We stepped inside and immediately went to our rooms to shower. Aurora turned to us and said, “Be outside in fifteen minutes, we need to eat.” We all nodded and I stepped inside my room.

Like the rooms we stayed in on our way here, these were customized. Mine looked almost identical to the one I had from the warrior hotel, but it was bigger and everything felt a little nicer. I stepped in the shower and I soaked in the nice warm water as I felt my muscles relax. I let all the pain and tension wash away and tried to enjoy the nice warm feeling of water running down my body. I dried off and ruffled my hair to make it look less weird, and stepped outside. Lila and Geon were waiting, and Savian and Aurora stepped out at the same time as I did. We all walked down to the dining hall and each went to stack up on as much food as possible. There were huge piles of leafy greens, fruits, and other vegetables in one section of the hall. The other had all sorts of fish, meats, and weird sweets that I still didn’t know the names of. The only one I knew was ice cream, because they had those at Eden. I was still getting used to the taste of these things called cookies, and I found candy really unnaturally sweet. Meanwhile Geon and Savian were piling on food to the point where it looked like they had towers on their plate. The old lady serving the food smiled and gave Geon a little more rice which made him very happy. Lila sighed, “you’re like a puppy, food driven and careless.” I laughed, and me and Aurora went to sit down first to eat while the others got their food. I began to eat when I finally spoke to Aurora.

“Have you seen any of the articles written today?” Aurora looked surprised and she averted her gaze.

“No…why?” I didn’t buy it.

“Aurora, you look away when you’re embarrassed or lying…you did, didn't you?” She sighed and she spoke.

“Evay, you can’t read them. Never do that during a tournament.”

“So they said something bad.” She looked at me with sad eyes and spoke again.

“Don’t listen. You did great today. Personally I don’t buy what they say. Getting the last elimination is always something of high value.” I looked at her bag and saw a paper poking out. I quickly snatched it and her eyes went wide.

Before she could say anything I spoke. “Please, I need to know what I can do better. I know I didn’t do good today…so…please.” Aurora sighed and she let me look through the paper.

While the rest of team Taegan performed up to standards, the mystery warrior Evay Maver had quite a confusing showing. While he got the last elimination to end the match, he was silent for a majority of it as well. Clearly outclassed in hand to hand combat, Maver couldn’t deal with his opposition unless he used his last-resort techniques. He will need to work on his individual skill to make better use of himself in the next match against Leona. I put down the paper. I looked at Aurora and gave her a short laugh. “I mean, they aren’t wrong”. Her face became less gloomy as she cautiously peered at me.

“So ... .you're not discouraged?” I shook my head.

“Yeah, it’s not like I was expecting to be insane anyway. These guys here are on another level in terms of combat skill. I’m more of a team player most of the time so I get it. I’ll just have to listen and learn, not hard.” She smiled and grabbed my hand.

“You see, that’s why I think you’re a great warrior.” My heart raced and my face went red.

“Uhhhhh, yeah! Thanks!” She noticed I was sweating and she quickly pulled her hand away. Her own face turned a little red and she gave me a little laugh.

“Sorry.” The awkwardness of the moment didn’t last long as Savian, Geon, and Lila came back just at the right time. Geon tossed some salad off his plate as Lila tried to force some back onto his plate.

“So, we’re facing Leona next? They’ve always been historically good. Won twice in the tournament's history, Vill Meren is from there right?” Everyone nodded except me.

What are all these names and words….

“Um..so are they good?” Savain laughed as he poured himself some water.

“Well they’re the number one team in our division,” I almost spit out my drink.

My eyes went wide, “what?” Savian laughed and he took a bite of his chicken before talking again.

“The seeding or ranking doesn’t show a lot. The top three teams are always good but Leona is known to try really hard to get the number one spot, even if it doesn’t really matter. Other nations probably didn’t play in the matches that were just for seeding—to rest and conserve energy. They might be number one, but I’m more concerned about the other teams.’

“Like who?” Savian’s face darkened.

“The second seed, Mevilime. A nation that’s won the tournament eight times. They’re known for having the best youth warriors and military system in the world. Training warriors is what they're known for.” He picked up a grape and tossed it in his mouth.

“I sparred a kid from there once.” Aurora’s eyes lit up.

“Who? What were they like? Are they here? What’s their style? Abilities?” I looked at Aurora with a slightly humored expression and she looked a little embarrassed. “Sorry…just curious. Any competitive advantage helps.” Savian smiled but it wasn’t a real smile. I could tell. I had seen enough fake smiles from nobles and the wealthy all my life. Fake smiles of pity or smiles of malice were easy to spot for me.Savian however, always looked sad when he tried to fake a smile. It was almost like he was actually smiling, but his memories stopped him from feeling the joy that came with it.

“No it’s ok,” his voice was calm but cold and indifferent. “He was young. Like us but more dedicated. He was fast and skilled and fluid, and he had a knack for setting things on fire.They’re good, all of those Mevilime kids…but not unbeatable.” He stared at his almost empty plate with his long, sad eyes. We all stayed quiet for a bit before Geon finally spoke up.

“Did you win?” Savian let out a dry laugh and stood up, turning his back to us.

“Yeah, I guess I did”. Without another word he ran off–searching the diner for something to ease his sadness.