5 Martial Arts Tournament

Throughout the week, Abella started paying attention in school and completing her assignments on time.

During this period, she has researched quite a bit through various subjects, and slowly but steadily, she is making progress toward making her web shooters.

At the moment, Abella was getting ready for Skye's tournament since today was Saturday, around 10:30 a.m.

She had finished showering and was dressed in a black and purple jacket, some gray sweatpants, and gray socks. It was in the middle of December, so it's a bit cold out.

After getting ready, Abella was now at her personal laptop, still researching and taking notes. She already thought that it would take several months for her to officially create the web shooters, so she's trying to minimize that time frame however she can.

She then spent another hour doing this until she was called for by both Skye and Laura, telling her that they were now leaving.

Closing her laptop and her notebook, Abella walked to her door and picked up some boots before slipping them on.

Without delay, she left her room and started walking toward the kitchen, where they were now waiting.

Already, Abella could see by the look on Skye's face that she was nervous, since it was a big martial arts competition hosted every year.

The winner of the prize receives a lot of money and a chance to enter one of the top martial arts schools in all of New York.

All martial artists from all over the country were dying to enter and participate in this so that they could take their training to the next level.

"It's okay, Skye. You'll be fine; I just know it." Abella said as she patted her sister's shoulder.

Laura smiled at this until she urged them to hurry up and walk downstairs, leading to the side door. They did this, and they were now walking up to a car parked right in front of the bakery, and they got in while shivering from the cold.

As Laura started the car, cold air flew into it before it was soon replaced by hot air. Then, a few moments later, they were now driving to the tournament hosted at an arena owned by the Martial Arts League.

...

Soon enough, they'd arrived at the arena, and Abella and Laura found their seats while Skye had left to find her teammates and teacher.

Since Abella and Laura were Skye's family, there were reserved seats waiting for them already, and they were close to the front to see everything up close.

Other families and spectators were now filling the seats all around the large and open arena that was shaped like an oval. The sounds of all their chatter echoed throughout, and Abella could barely talk with her mother because of it.

"Is Skye a good fighter, Mom?!" Abella asked, and Laura nodded and yelled back, "I think so, lovebug! She got pretty far in the last tournament!"

Glancing throughout the arena near the stage, Abella could now see various martial arts teams entering through different hallways leading into the arena.

It took a couple of minutes until she was able to see Skye and her team, and they looked fired up and prepared to face anyone and anything. Seeing this made both Laura and Abella excited, and they yelled and cheered!

"GO SKYE!!!" They yelled in unison, and since they were so close, Skye saw them and gave a wide, innocent smile while waving her hand.

She was standing next to another attractive woman who had short blonde hair and green eyes, and Abella knew that she was Sarah, Alice's sister.

Skye, Sarah, and her teammates were all wearing a blue martial arts uniform with black embroidery of a tiger on their backs.

Apparently, Kung-Fu, traditionally, does not have a belt-ranking system, so Abella didn't know how adept she is at Kung-Fu. But, even if she wasn't good, she would still be proud of her big sister.

As she was watching Skye continue to wave at them, Abella felt a hand on her left shoulder, and standing behind her were Alice and her mother, Rebecca, too.

"Hey, Abella! You're here to see your sister fight, too?!" Alice had to yell over the sounds of the cheers echoing throughout the arena.

Nodding, Abella replied, "Yeah, I am! This is my first time coming to one of these tournaments, but I'm excited!"

"I know what you mean! I wasn't all that thrilled with fighting, but seeing my sister overpower someone feels great." Alice gave an innocent, toothy grin.

"Yeah, I bet..." Abella didn't know how to respond to that, all because this was the first time she spectated her sister in a tournament. But as she continued to think about it, she too was feeling excited to see Skye overpowering someone.

They continued to talk for some time until they heard an announcer say something through the loud arena speakers.

"Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the highly anticipated annual single-elimination women's martial arts tournament! We're thrilled to have you all here today as we witness the clash of martial artists from across the country."

The announcer paused and let the roars of cheers from all the spectators in the stands fill up the entire arena. When things settled down, they continued.

"Fighters from various schools of martial arts have gathered to showcase their skills and determination for their team's coveted title of champion. This tournament will be a semi-contact, point-system tournament."

They then went on and reminded everyone of the rules—basically, no knockouts, no breaking bones, or anything of the sort. When a person cannot fight anymore by tap-out, surrender, or as deemed by a referee, the match will end.

"So without further ado, let the battles begin! May the best band of warriors emerge victorious in this ultimate test of strength, speed, and skill!"

And like that, there was a bracket showcased on a large screen above the arena. There were tens to a hundred participants who would be paired up with other teams to make their way into the next round.

Luckily, the arena was very wide and large, with many fighter mats, so they could fit several fighters against each other, making it so that everyone wouldn't be here forever.

Looking at the screen, Abella searched for Skye's name with her fantastic eyesight and saw that she was getting paired up with a woman named Greta Hubbard, who is on an aikido martial arts team called "Mystic Vipers."

Their fight would be number 13, and with 10 large mats on the arena floor, they will face soon enough. Until then, Abella had to watch the beginning fighters fight.

By the sound of the bell, they all began, and Abella watched closely as they utilized their martial arts. Some mainly focused on kicks, elbows, and strikes, while there were some grapplers as well.

However, Abella could feel that although she, herself, doesn't know any martial arts, she could still beat them since she was much stronger and faster than them combined.

As seconds turned into minutes, all their fights had come to an end by tap-outs, surrenders, or being stopped by the referee.

The crowds were bolstered with cheers or complaints when their favorite martial artists won or lost, but everyone could agree that it was very exciting.

It was finally time for the next batch of fighters to fight, and this time, Skye would be fighting this Greta woman, who was a tad bit shorter than Skye and was a bit skinner than her as well. Greta had long brown hair tied into a bun and purple eyes, and she wore an all-purple and green martial art uniform.

They stood on their designed mats, and there was a referee standing between them. As the sound of the bell rang, their fight began.

Immediately, Skye began rushing toward her opponent, looking to get the first strike, but as she tried to throw a strike toward Greta's chest, her arm was redirected in a circular motion before she was about to be thrown and pinned to the ground.

However, Skye saw this coming and backed up to reset the fight. Clearly, Skye knew that this woman was a grappler, and while there are some instances of grappling moves in Kung-Fu, it wasn't its main focus point.

'I have to maintain distance and feint, or else I will get grappled by her.' Skye thought and did exactly that. Skye kept her distance while throwing strikes toward Greta, which she couldn't counter, all because Skye was feinting her attacks and her amazing footwork.

Greta frowned in frustration because she knew that she was going to lose at this rate, so she tried getting her into a lock but utterly failed and almost got knocked out with a kick but was stopped by the referee.

"Winner! Skye Woods!" The referee put up Skye's hand, and after that, she heard cheers from both Abella and Laura.

"THAT'S MY SISTER!!"

"THAT'S MY DAUGHTER!!"

Skye smiled over at her family before she walked over to Greta, shaking her hand for good sportsmanship.

They then talked for a few moments before getting off stage and returning to their teams. Abella and Laura were very proud and relieved that she won her first fight of the tournament.

Now calming down, they both watched the other fights while Alice occasionally talked with Abella about their sisters.

Abella, Alice, Laura, and Rebecca continued to watch their sister or daughter fight in the tournament, and they won fight after fight after fight.

Soon enough, Skye and Sarah were now in the quarterfinals, and it was Skye's turn again, and she was facing a rather tall opponent named "Naomi Stone," who was a Muay Thai practitioner of the team "Dragon's Fury."

"Oh, no..." Alice muttered loud enough for Abella to hear. This caused Abella to be very concerned, and she couldn't help but ask, "What? Why did you say that?"

Alice grimaced as she explained, "The Dragon's Fury team is an aggressive, ruthless team, especially that Naomi Stone girl. She's the captain of the team, and she's very skilled..."

Hearing this did not make Abella feel good at all. While she did have confidence in her sister, she wasn't going to lie and say that she wasn't worried.

However, she shook her head and said, "No, I believe in my sister. She'll win, no problem; I can feel it."

Alice didn't say anything and started to watch their fight. Skye was standing before Naomi, who was a tall woman with long black hair and red eyes. Her whole body was covered by a black and red martial arts uniform.

A few moments later, the bell rang, and the referee allowed the fighters to fight. Each fighter got into their stances before getting closer to each other and exchanging some moves to size up each other.

It was then that Naomi got aggressive and kicked Skye's leg rather hard, but she was fine. In exchange, Skye struck Naomi's stomach, and the two were now being careful and not underestimating their opponent.

This happened for several minutes until Naomi couldn't take it anymore and rushed Skye with impressive speed and went to knee Skye's stomach before it was blocked. In retaliation, Skye swept Naomi's leg and went to strike her in the face, but the referee stopped her.

"Winner! Skye Woods!"

Skye smiled and heard her family's cheers, and as a token of good sportsmanship, she went to help Naomi up, but that's when something unthinkable happened.

Abella soon felt the same tingle around the base of her skull and along her spine, and that's when she looked at Naomi.

No one but Abella could see that Naomi had bit something in her mouth, which ended up surging her with so much energy and power.

And before everyone but Abella could react, Naomi sent a devastating kick toward the leg she was kicking the whole match, which ended up breaking her leg like a twig.

Skye fell to the floor, screaming in pain, and everyone couldn't believe what happened. And before the referee could step in and stop her, Naomi sent another devastating kick toward Skye's face, completely breaking her nose, which was now leaking large amounts of blood.

Fortunately, both the referee and Sarah stepped in and stopped Naomi before she could do anything else. As the referee paid attention to Skye, Sarah managed to pin Naomi to the ground easily, even despite her having such a surge of power and energy.

Seeing all of this caused both Abella and Laura to panic, and they wanted so badly to jump in there and rush toward Skye, but they were stopped by security.

"That's my daughter! Please let me see my daughter; she's hurt!" Laura started crying and desperately trying to break free from the security's grasp, but Abella pulled her away gently while firmly asking, "We want to see her. Can you please let us through?"

She then saw a stretcher being pulled into the arena by medical professionals, and they soon put her on there and rolled her out. Thankfully, one of the professionals saw Abella and Laura and told the security guards that they could follow.

Leaving the arena behind, Abella gave one last look at Naomi, who didn't show any reaction to her actions whatsoever. Not only that, but their teacher too didn't show any remorse, and he ended up smirking as if his student did well.

'You'll pay... both of you...'

...