Ch-4

We all went inside the building. The building was very beautiful and lavish. It was better than a five- star hotel. The building had all kinds of amenities. It also had over 30,000 rooms. This was amazing. I had never been to a five-star hotel myself, but only seen it in pictures. So, that is why I was wonder-struck by this. Asralyn, on the other hand, was not fascinated by this at all. It looked pretty normal for her.

Me and Asralyn had already formed a team and had decided that we would find 3 other teammates. I spent the night in my room. The room had 1 window, 1 bed, 1 table and chair, 1 air conditioner and also 1 bathroom. I woke up the next day to go look for teammates. It was already 8 in the morning by the time I stepped out. I ate my breakfast and started to look for teammates.

While searching, I saw one man who was looking for teammates. I rushed to him and asked him if he will join me, but he refused and asked me join his team, which already had 4 members. As his team already had 4 members, I would have to leave Asralyn and join them. I decided not to do that, and started to look for members again.

After some time, I found another man near the gym who wanted teammates. But he had a rather peculiar request. He would only join the team if it had members matching his standards. He was going to see if we matched his standards, by fighting us. Someone nearby was saying that he had broken someone's jaw in a fight this morning, and that's why no one was challenging him.

I built up some courage and went to challenge him.

"Hello there. I would like for you to join my team." I spoke.

He replied, "Yes, I will, only if you match my standards."

And with this our fight started. The rule of our fight was that we could not summon our weapons. If I summoned it, then he wouldn't join me, and if summoned it, then he would join me.

We were both standing facing each other. There were around 10-20 spectators. I was waiting for him to make the first move. I had never fought before. I was very nervous. He knew that. He gave off a small laugh and attacked. He was fast. I had enough time to dodge due to the increase in my speed by my training, but it was still very difficult. He tried to punch me, but I bent down. He then gave a low kick, which I jumped to dodge. Right after that he gave another punch and I intercepted it with my palm. I went flying for around 10 metres. If I wouldn't have blocked it, it would have hurt. He didn't stop. He hit me with an endless barrage of punches and kicks. I dodged and blocked almost all, but 2 punches and a kick hit me.

It hurt. It hurt a lot. Mo and Me told me to go on the offensive, as I was better at offence than defence. I clenched my fist and leapt forward to punch him, but he dodged it easily and counter attacked. I used one of my moves to dodge and counter attack.

-Partial lightning boost

A sudden wave of electricity ran through my body. My speed increased significantly. I dodged his counter attack and gave him a punch at his face. He went flying. I did not stop. I leapt forward again and used another move.

-Wind cutter Punch

Wind increased the speed and power of my attack. And with the lightning boost and a close-range proximity, it was impossible to dodge my attack. I gave another punch at the lower half of his ribs. I could feel some of his bones breaking, and he spit out some blood. He went dashing towards the wall, and went into the next room, by breaking the wall. I wore out the effect of the lightning boost. It was over. I had won. This is where I was wrong.

He stood up, like nothing had happened. I was surprised. He had a grin at his face. He was having fun, and was now going to use his full power. I asked him, if the breaking of his bones did not affect him.

He relied, "I used a bit of healing on myself. My bones are still broken, but this will allow me to fight."

"But it could harm you in the long run."

He stopped to think about what I had said. He then looked at me and said, with a smile on his face,

"Yeah, you are right. There is also the ranking test. Fine, you win for now. I will join your team."

"Oh, Okay. Thanks."

I was glad that he had joined our team. His name was Laimas. He seemed like a good guy. His goal was to become one of the strongest in the world. He told me that he could control the element of earth. I got to know that he was not giving his all in the fight earlier. But he didn't know that I was also holding back. I had not used my fire power at all. It was the strongest of my powers after all. I had not trained much about controlling fire, but the power it held was just amazing.

I noticed that someone was following us. I stopped. He stopped too. I turned back and walked up to him.

"What do you want?"

"I want to join your team."

"My team? Why?"

"I saw your fight just now. You both are very strong. I feel that you both could be my team mates."

"We can be your team mates? Didn't you want to join my team?"

"Yes, I want to join your team and become the leader of it."

"What! You come randomly, and want to become the leader? Even if I agree, the others should too. So, I cannot allow you to be the leader. Only if the others agree to it, you can be the leader."

"How many are there?"

"Me, Laimas and 1 other. So, you can come with us, if you want to join our team. We can decide the leader by voting after we find our 5th member.

"Fine. By the way, I am Zarek."

"Oh, I am Edgar."

Zarek had some kind of posture, which was different in respect to the others. The way he walked, or the way he talked, just gave a different vibe. He just didn't care about how he walked or talked.

When I went back to the cafeteria to eat lunch, I met up with Asralyn. She had also found 1 member. Our team was complete with it. Her name was Caelia. Zarek used the power of nature whereas Caelia used the power of water. Caelia was also a very good healer. And so, we had all 5 members of our team. We showed some of our skills to each other. Zarek was really powerful. He could create a hammer out of thorny plants, which was very powerful. Caelia also had great water attacks. After that, the time to vote for the leader had come.

We had to choose someone we would see fit as the leader and we couldn't choose ourselves. I was really confused with whom to choose. All of them were really very powerful. As I and Asralyn had already been together as a team and I knew that she was certainly stronger than me, I chose her. She chose me, probably for the same reason. Caelia chose Asralyn, because she wasn't very familiar with the others yet. Both Zarek and Laimas chose me, because they didn't know about the others very much. I had won with total votes of 3. Zarek was displeased. He stood up and went out. He thought that he was going to be chosen as the leader, but he hadn't received even a single vote. I felt bad for him, but I couldn't do anything. After lunch we went to our rooms and refreshed ourselves, and then we stepped out to go to the stadium. When we reached, there was already a big crowd waiting.

The same man as yesterday came and started to speak, "All who have managed to make a team, go to the left. And the ones who haven't go to the right."

After some time, everyone who wasn't in a team was picked out and placed into teams. After that the man began again, "So, as everyone is placed into a team, I would like to say to all the 4000 teams that your matches will be shown worldwide. You will need to win 4 matches continuously to pass the phase-1 of the ranking test. Losing even 1 of the 4 matches will get you disqualified. The details for the phase-2 will be given after the phase-1. Now, depending on the phase you reach and your performance in that phase, you will get your rankings. So, if you want to get into the top 1250 of the rankings, then you will need to clear phase-1 of the ranking tests. Your fights will start tomorrow, and you will all have 1 fight each day. The fighting arena in which you will be fighting will be told to you before the test, as there are multiple arenas. I hope you all the very best."

After that long speech, we headed to our rooms. We couldn't make any strategies at dinner, as we didn't have any information on our opponents. We just made a formation with which we would start. We slept the night peacefully. The next day, we headed to the stadium. We were to fight in the arena 8. We went inside and faced our enemy team. We shook hands and went to the opposite sides of the arena.

3! 2! 1! START!!!

The fight started. The opponents began ready to attack. The guy in the middle attacked, and in a second, he managed to come in front of me. He was too fast. Faster than Laimas. He punched me on my face, and I went flying. I crashed into the walls of the arena. The hit was hard. I stood up, but then… I saw blood flowing out of a cut made at my abdomen!!!

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