Chapter Eighty Three - Sun attains enlightenment

Witnessing fifty martial artists battling it out within a square stage in the middle of a large arena, is not actually as interesting as it sounds.. at first at least. The first few seconds are dedicated to glares and calculated looks, each person glancing around themselves to see who to attack first and who best to defend against, who was a definite threat and who to avoid at all costs. Barely anyone moved.

But one move had a domino effect that turned the stage into a chaotic mess of movement, one that could draw the eye to numerous places at once and cause the watcher confusion. Leon felt dizzy from all the movement, but finally his eyes caught sight of Pike and Bowyer, who happened to be fairly close to the centre of the melee, back to back clearly teaming up. As the bodies lessened on stage, Leon could begin to see that a few groups had formed, those Pike and Bowyer had accepted no others into their alliance and the other groups were skirting about them, avoiding them while they dealt with each other. Those who failed to keep a close eye upon them, however, soon found themselves flying off of the stage thanks to a kick or a fist.

At this point, no weapons were allowed, all skills were close combat and one should not use their root abilities either. However, Sun pointed out a senior who had used wind abilities to push another's momentum until that person teetered upon the edge of the stage, his comrade pulling him back before he could fall. A Teacher leapt down into the melee and grabbed the culprit, removing him from the melee so swiftly, that the woman's move did not effect the battle at all.

The time ended just shortly after, only seven people made it this time. Pike and Bowyer had personally removed nineteen individual's between them, but at the end, one of the final team's tactics decimated their rivals so they were not responsible for the most losses. That team of five had cleared away twenty five individuals so close had they moved together and had lost no team members. Of course, this still meant the two high Standing individuals had the better scores.

"Don't get too smug," Bowyer warned Pike as they claimed seats in front of their two juniors and Leon. "You may be one point ahead now, but I will catch up and overtake you."

"Yeah, yeah," Pike grinned smugly. Their current scores were fifty three and fifty two respectively. There were three more groups that would fight on that stage before the day ended, the last had fifty two people within it. Tomorrow would usher in a whole new set of challenges for the students.

Sun began complimenting them and brightly bounced away in his seat as he described his favourite moves and moments as well as repeating what had occurred near the end of the match with the Wind user. Bowyer made a sound of disapproval.

"That would have been Gother," he shook his head. "I bet his target was a gangly looking youth with a head of loose black curls?" Sun nodded an affirmative. "Gother's had it in for Troy ever since the kid turned him down and clearly didn't wish for him to remain on stage until the end." Ah, thought Leon with realisation. It seemed homosexuality was not unheard of in this world either. It was refreshing to see neither of the senior martial artists bat an eyelid over such.

"Turned him down over what?" Sun asked innocently, causing a strangled sound within Bowyer's throat.

Pike began to laugh and smacked the other on the back. "I'll leave the explanations regarding Bees and Butterflies to you shall I, Bowyer?" Leon snickered beneath his breath, catching Jin Li's attention, while Bowyer looked horrified.

"Don't you dare!" Bowyer warned him. Sun glanced between them looking increasingly confused. Leon wondered if he should interject, but was finding this all too funny.

"Jin Li?!" Sun protested, begging him to explain.

The other frowned and replied; "This Lord does not feel like wasting the time to explain. If you wish to understand, then you must figure it out on your own."

Sun's wide and sad eyes did nothing to move his cold roommate, so they reluctantly fell upon Leon, who felt wrongly trapped by them. Jin Li turned to look at him with a slightly raised eyebrow in question, while Pike and Bowyer wondered if their favourite country bumpkin even knew what they were talking of and grinned broadly at him. Leon felt his cheeks redden beneath their attentions. "I th-think th-th-this G-Gother w-w-wanted to d-date Troy."

"Date?" Sun still did not get it.

"W-w-wanted to b-be p-p-partners w-with him." The heat increased within his face, but Sun still looked confused. Leon sighed and took a deep breath. "He w-wanted h-him l-like a h-husband w-wants a w-wife!" His loud explanation caused a silence to fall all about them. Leon shrank into his seat, completely mortified. Pike and Bowyer burst into fits of laughter, the latter grabbing his sides as a bruise he had received their earlier made itself known as he chuckled hard.

Sun thought about his explanations for a while. "Oh," he replied as realisation finally set in. "But are they not two men?"

"W-what has th-that g-g-got to d-do with it," Leon muttered, continuing to try dimming his presence. All the while, Jin Li stared at him in thought.