Chapter 2 - Friends

The sound of medical equipment spurred Luke back to consciousness.

As he opened his eyes, a starry night sky greeted him. The muscles around his face started to activate, and eventually regained control of his whole body. Realizing he was in a room, he brought up a hand to his throbbing head.

"Where am I," he asked himself, gaining a sense of his surroundings. He heard the voice of someone familiar behind the curtain.

"The infirmary," the familiar voice chuckled, popping its face through the curtains. His body was also covered with bandages and pads around his wounds. He also seemed like he was moving a bit stiffly.

"Feron," Luke exclaimed, trying to sit up, but was met with massive pain around his abdomen.

"Not too fast now, Luke," Feron said, helping him sit up. "It took a concussion, and a kick to the gut to finally bring you down. Naturally, your body would be feeling it."

Feron slumped into the chair next to Luke's bed. A look of disapproval appeared across the bed-ridden man's face.

"That means - then," Luke said as he started to crumble sheets in his hands. "That means that I lost the tournament. I couldn't beat you."

Feron put his hand on his friend's shoulder.

"You're correct. Even though you did lose, however, I couldn't have asked for a better fight," Feron reassured Luke. "Besides there should be another tournament sometime, right?" Luke chuckled at his optimistic words.

"Unfortunately," Luke retorted, closing his eyes. "The tournament was our final showing before graduation. There's no other times for us to raise our rank."

"Well, it would've been for nothing," Feron commented, starting to stretch out muscle aches. "Even if we could switch our rank, the top ten get to choose whatever Pangea branch they want to enlist in. The Top Ten could even lead normal civilian lives, but after dedicating so much time to Pangea and Paramythical society as a whole, it's no wonder they enlist across all Pangea branches!"

"Yeah that's true," Luke said, turning to Feron.

Getting lost in the enthusiasm of the tournament, he forgot the choice was ultimately left up to the top ranked graduates of each class on which branch they enlisted to.

Nonetheless, Luke was disappointed. Unbeknownst to everyone but Feron, Luke worked extremely hard to get prepared for the tournament.

However, he was grateful that his hard work earned him a spot in the finals. There were many worthy participants, but through perseverance and will, Luke was able to make it himself. He's the 5th top ranked student, but that, sometimes, felt like a fluke.

He slept through most of his courses, and was only able to make it after finally applying himself. Class came easy to him; in fact, he was handed practically everything in his life. His best friend, Feron Baton wasn't willing to hand him the championship though. Because of Luke's relentlessness, he was able to have a fair fight against Feron. Although he lost, he gained a valuable lesson.

"Hey Luke – man, you okay," Feron asked him as Luke had been staring at him for a while.

"Yeah," Luke said. "I think I need to improve more."

The two laughed, silently acknowledging they both needed to.