Chapter 54 - The Main Arena

<p>The tension is kind of comfortable as Eniyala, Lynsel and I eat together in a taut silence. Aside from the fact I could grab the air and put it in my pocket due to how heavy it was, I found that I liked the silent company.<br/><br/> It doesn't last forever though, of course, and as we get up to leave Eniyala and I glance at each other. <br/><br/> "You ready for this?" She asks; slightly quieter than usual. I nod. "You sure you are? Feel free to forfeit now."<br/><br/> She scoffs. "You are NOT getting a win that easily, sorry to tell you. Or at all, for that matter."<br/><br/> "Hmmm, I don't know. I think you're mixing up what a win and a loss is, Eni."<br/><br/> We look at each other again, before bursting into laughter. I've never seen Eniyala laugh, but it's gentle and contained. Meanwhile, a certain white-haired idiot is keeling over with a wide grin, that probably looks stupid. As we recompose ourselves, and I straighten up, my two party members give me concerned looks.<br/><br/> "Uh, why are ya crying?" Lynsel asks with caution, tilting his head in confusion. Failing to comprehend, I touch my hand up to my cheeks to surprisingly find wetness. "Huh. Guess I laughed too hard."<br/><br/> Eniyala juts her head out. "I don't think—"<br/><br/> "Anyway, let's go see this Main Arena or whatever! It sounds sick!"<br/><br/> "Ya've never seen it?"<br/><br/> "He was very sheltered," Eniyala jumps in. I give her a forced look, adding in, "Yeah, yeah, both of us were."<br/><br/> We nearly started our fight right there, if not for Lynsel separating us with his gorilla body. <br/><br/> With a sigh, I follow behind him as we head to the stadiums. As they come into view, I finally ask, "There's no main stadium here, why…?"<br/><br/> "Just watch," Lynsel says with a wink, and we join the large crowd encircling the giant plaza that sits in the middle of the four stadiums. It's a fairly simple, but pleasant wide area, with a few benches along the paved walkways and spats of grass thrown into the mix as well. Now it sits sectioned off with holographic tape reading "Caution! Stay Back" within it. <br/><br/> We wait for ten minutes, and then everyone takes an unsteady step back when the ground begins shaking. 'An earthquake?' I think instinctively, preparing to look for cover, but multiple people pointing draw my attention to the plaza.<br/><br/> Dust sweeps past our feet as the plaza lifts off the ground slowly, stone walls bursting sluggishly from below. It continues growing until it's about the height of the other stadiums. It would be the same size, but as the plaza was much wider around than the stadiums, it made the whole structure seem even more hulking than by itself. Lines of different sections appear at regular intervals upon the circular stone wall, pushing out different lengths until it's a blocky cone shape. The plaza splits in half, pulling apart and tilting slightly up to allow sunlight in the arena. The people lining the caution tape are wowed, clapping and cheering at the spectacle, and I stare up at the grand sight.<br/><br/> "It's like the Superbowl or something," I say in wonder.<br/><br/> "A what bowl?" Eniyala asks, raising her eyebrow.<br/><br/> "Don't worry about it," I shoot back quickly.<br/><br/> "That is the most worrying part."<br/><br/> "Oh, save it for the match."<br/><br/> We're cut off as small black boxes pop out of the sides of the stadium, about half of the way up. <br/><br/> "We're going to be starting the first match in thirty minutes! Please get your seats now, folks! Once more; the first match is in thirty minutes!" A man's voice cries from the boxes.<br/><br/> "At least it's not the biased announcer lady," I mutter, and Eniyala nods in agreement. "I think the only people who liked her were the ones she was rooting for."<br/><br/> "Will the Top Four please make their way to their respective waiting rooms?"<br/><br/> "Well, I guess I'll see you after the first match, then," I say with a grin, looking over to the girl one last time before she turned into my opponent.<br/><br/> "The ground is gonna look so clean once I wipe the floor with you," she replies, suppressing a smile of her own. Turning away, she walks towards the already-crowded front entrance — no, towards the door next to it. I turn to Lynsel, holding out my fist to bump. "I'll see you in a bit, buddy."<br/><br/> After having been taught by the drunken me a couple of times, Lynsel knows the art of a simple fist bump, and lightly knocks his knuckles against mine. "Good luck to both of ya!" He says, and as I walk to the side door as well, he joins the flowing current of people entering the Main Arena.<br/><br/> I enter the room I am led to by one of the suit people. This one doesn't have slicked back hair, because he has large elephant ears, small tusks, and a trunk for a nose. Instead he has a small black hat sitting almost daintily on his head, which he places his hand over as he bows lightly. "We'll pick you up when the second match is ready to begin."<br/><br/> I wave my hand in thanks as he closes the door, turning to inspect the room. It's much nicer than the waiting rooms in the other stadiums, probably because it didn't see as much traffic. <br/><br/> The reclining sofa chair, large, flat stone that was clearly a TV, and icebox full of things like water and nonalcoholic drinks didn't hurt, either.<br/> <br/> "I have to ask them how this works later," I say to myself as I grab a bottle of water. They didn't have plastic in this world, so the "water bottles" were more so hard leather shaped into a plain cylinder. It didn't have fancy designs like the plastic bottles from Earth, and was instead reusable and efficient. I pop the sealing stone off the funneled top, gulping almost half of it down before plopping into the seat and flicking a bead of my Mana at the TV. Once slightly powered, the screen fills with the embedded Mana cores' power, flickering a light green across the stone that quickly morphs into several others. The image displayed a huge circular arena, and I could see the edges of the stands jammed full of people. Up against the wall, I see two… three… no, four total small pillars studded full with colorful cores that glint in the sunlight as whatever is the camera rotates around.<br/><br/> The same man from before cuts through the TV as he speaks.<br/><br/> "As avid fans of the tournament may know by now, the pillars in the corner of the Main Arena have enough stockpiled energy to change the stadium to different settings! The settings are random, so even the administration doesn't know what the arena is going to look like! Other than that, the rules are the same! Run out of Mana or fall below 5 Health, you lose! Of course, you can also forfeit or become unable to fight, whether that's unconsciousness or unable to move properly. You guys know what that means!"<br/><br/> The whole stadium joins in the chant, causing the walls of my room to shake as they scream, "You lose!"<br/><br/> The man laughs. "Good, good. My name is Zwelli, and I'll be your announcer today for the final round of the semi finals! I'll see you guys in 15 minutes!"<br/><br/> And with that, the screen switches to different angles of the still-growing stands, which are steadily filling up. Where the other stadiums could only fit about 50 thousand, this one looked like it could easily handle 250 thousand spectators, with a little more room to spare. And at this point, it looked like it might just need that too.<br/><br/> I let out a low whistle at the sheer number of people, before opening up and turning to my Statscreen.<br/><br/> "Underdog is useless here. So is Skill Hermit… unless the other competitor tries to scope me out with an Analyze Skill. Even then, not important right now. I have Elemental Infusion, but the backlash… I can only use it as a trump card, really. Shit."<br/><br/> Scrolling to my Stats, I slowly add two more points into Magic with a sigh, as well as one point to Strength.<br/><br/>[MAG: 13 -> 15]<br/>[STR: 14 -> 15]<br/>[Free Stats: 5]<br/><br/> "I already blew through most of my stockpile, so it should pay off," I reassure myself.<br/><br/> A flicker on the screen draws my attention back to it. I've been so spaced out that the time before the first match had already passed.<br/><br/> "Our competitors are entering the arena, our dear watchers! On one side, the Paladin, Tilpott Bezier! On the other, the Berserker… uhh, Rarara…!"<br/><br/> The audience cheers madly as the two enter and face off. Suddenly, the Berserker opens his mouth. "Rrrr Ra!" he spouts angrily, and the Paladin nods as if he is agreeing. "Such profound words. I agree."<br/><br/> "…The fuck?" I ask the TV, but Alyphia appears to save the day. She immediately explains, launching into a speech that she swears up and down was verbatim to what the man had said. She goes on and on about things like how he wished they could have shared a mug of mead before their fight, and promised him one afterwards, and hoped to have a good fight. Finally she stops, leaving me in a state of moderate shock.<br/><br/> "…All that from one 'ra?'"<br/><br/> She gasps. 'You must never, ever say that!'<br/><br/> "What did I say?"<br/><br/> 'Well… you said 'you dirty f*cking *beeep* why do you not *beep* *beeep* *beep* inside of a *beeeeeeeeeeep*, you ugly *beep*.' '<br/><br/> I stare in bewilderment. 'How the fuck?'<br/><br/> I am interrupted by Zwelli speaking up again. "Well, let's see what their landscape will be. Arena, Set!"<br/><br/> The ground shakes as the dirt changes color and morphs, piling up high and crumbling over itself as it takes the shape of a city, similar to Galeise. The only difference is that this one looks as if it was destroyed by a dragon, leaving most of the would-be tall buildings as an especially large pile of rubble.<br/><br/> "You know the drill. Count down with me, folks! Three!"<br/><br/> "TWO!"<br/><br/> "ONE!"<br/><br/> "BEGINNN!!"</p>