“Servi!!!!” cried Momo. The tears just wouldn’t stop flowing.  

“Momo…” 

“You didn’t wake up, and I got scared because you were hurt that one time, and I didn’t know what to and…and...you wouldn't wake up and...and... WAAAAA!” Speaking so fast she stumbled over her words, Momo became quiet and allowed her actions to do the talking. Her endless tears and how she hugged her best friend conveyed her feelings more accurately than if she used her words.  

It wasn’t until a few seconds later that Momo broke off from the hug.  That's also when she realized she wasn't in pain.

“They told me about your fight with Blaire,” said Servi to the confused girl. “After fighting incredibly hard and winning, you passed out from the pain. Dineria ran back to her place, grabbed her license, and ran back. She personally continued your healing after the medics left.” 

“I….” I need to thank Dineria for doing that.  

“I need to apologize, Momo. We both said we would have our rematch, and I….” 

“Our match can wait. The most important thing to me is that you’re awake.” 

“They told me about how you sat right beside me and held my hand. Again,” replied the girl with red eyes. She smiled sweetly at her best friend, who laid back on the white bed.  

Momo gazed up at her best friend and smiled. “I didn’t want you to be alone, and that’s the only thing I could think of. I thought that if I did that, then you would know I was here. I was right here waiting on you to wake up…. And you did…” 

“Momo, you’re such a good friend to me,” replied Servi, and Momo went red in the face.  

At that moment, she suddenly remembered the tournament. Servi saw the sheer panic on her face and quickly reassured her, “You were still passed out when it came to your turn, but you didn’t get disqualified. Turns out that your opponent forfeited. He was so severely injured with a broken leg and fractured knee.  He couldn't fight with those kinds of injuries, so he forfeited.  Even if he didn’t forfeit, he would’ve collapsed from a small breeze. His wounds were kinda serious."  

What a stroke of luck. But, it doesn’t feel right, Momo thought. She then asked about the fourth match.  

“Yeah… Kind of the same situation. Toni said that your fight with Blaire had such an effect on the other fighters that they went to any length to win. Your opponent this time had a broken arm and two injured eyes when his third match was over. He had to be sent off for more healing. He actually won that round because his opponent was disqualified for going for a lethal move, which ended up damaging his eyes. Unfortunately, he couldn’t fight without seeing, so he forfeited the match."

“So I’m in the finals?” 

 “Yep! Srassa and Desperado are about to have their match. Whoever wins will fight you. Do you wanna watch?” 

Momo nodded, and Servi held out her hand. The Singi grabbed onto it, and Servi gently pulled her up. Reflexively, the Singi's hand went to her chest, but she felt no pain.  

Sitting up on her little white bed, Momo put her left foot down on the ground first. Once she put a little weight on it, she put her right foot down and stood up. She was a bit unbalanced at first, with her tail swaying from side to side to help her balance, but she was as fit as a fiddle. There was no pain at all. 

Looking at her used-to-be-injured hand, she made a fist and realized it was in perfect shape. Then, she felt a little bit of a squeeze in her hand that still held Servi’s hand.  

Blushing red, she immediately let go and apologized. Servi nervously scratched her cheek and said it was no problem.  

Her hand was so warm and soft. 

I never realized having my hand held could feel so good.

The thoughts that ran through their mind couldn't have been more similar.

“Hey, Fisher and Dineria and the others are over there. I’m sure they’d be happy to know you’re awake,” said Servi.

Momo smiled. “I need to thank Dineria for doing all that.”  

Servi turned to walk away but stopped when she felt a tiny tug on her green cloak. She turned around and saw Momo trembling lightly.  

“What’s wrong? Are you still hurting?” she asked her friend.  

Momo shook her head. “I only know your name, the fact that you wear a ring, and nothing else. We’ve been friends for months now, but….” 

Servi, now’s the time. Itarr said. When Servi first woke up, she was there to greet her. Servi asked her why she had passed out, but Itarr lied and said she didn't know. Those words had a lot of pain and agony behind them, but Servi didn’t realize it.  

“Servi, can we make another promise?” Momo looked at the ground for a second before she found her resolve. Raising her head, she stared straight into her best friend’s eyes.  

“Sure.” 

“I swear I’m gonna win this, and I’m gonna get the camping set. And we’re going to go on our promotion quest, too.” 

“I know you can do it,” she replied. 

“And when we get back, I want us to go out to dinner, and I want to know about you. I mean, if that’s okay and everything. I mean, we've been friends-- best friends-- for a while, and I don't know that much about you.” 

“That sounds good to me.  I wasn't trying to hide anything, but I couldn't find the right time to tell you,” Servi smiled, but it wasn’t a happy one. Momo, being the queen of delivering fake smiles, noticed it right away, and her heart skipped a beat.  

What if…. NO! Stop thinking that way, Momo. Just stop!! You have to focus on winning! After that, you can focus on the quest! Nothing else matters for right now! 

“We can go to that noodle house, too!” said Momo, now more determined than ever.  

“I can’t wait for it. Now, let’s go cheer on our friends.” 

“One more thing….you are okay, right?” 

Servi walked to Momo and hugged her. “I am. They said it was the leftover sleepinwillo in my body.  As far as I know, I was asleep.  I'm fine, Momo.  I promise I am."

Momo squeezed a bit tighter before finally looking up. From an outsider’s point of view, it looked like she was staring up at her lover. She broke off from the hug. After smiling and nodding, her eyes showed the same fierce determination she had this morning.  

Grandpa, I consider myself a loser of this tournament. There’s no way I should’ve won the third and fourth match with me being passed out, but I guess that happened for a reason. I’m not proud of being given a handicap, but I won’t be so selfish as to not use it. Grandpa, I’m going to win this tournament, pass the promotion quest, and learn about my best friend’s past! Her mom and dad’s name, if she has or had any animals, favorite color, and stuff like that! I wanna know everything!

---

“Dineria, Servi told me what you did for me, and I want to thank you,” said Momo, who was currently being tightly embraced by the Elf in question. Her voice was a bit muffled, but she got her thanks across.  

“Oh, Momo, you fought so incredibly brave, powering through the pain to win it all!” replied Dineria. 

“Momo, I’m glad to see you’re awake,” said Fisher. He had a small wooden cup of water in his left hand. He nodded at the Singi and turned back to the arena. Toni was introducing the two competitors who would end up facing Momo. Coincidentally, he also announced she was awake, and the crowd went wild. This didn’t go unnoticed by the Singi, but she thought the applause was for Silverado and Srassa.  

“Thank you! Umm… It’s hard to breathe…” squeaked Momo.

“Ah, I’m sorry!” apologized Dineria. She removed her hands and quickly did a scan of Momo’s body while lifting the hand that used to be broken.

“Tell me immediately if you feel even the smallest amount of pain!” ordered Dineria.  

It's a good thing we healed her when we woke up.  There shouldn't be any pain, right? Itarr asked.

Servi silently nodded and smiled.

“I swear it doesn’t hurt. It doesn’t even feel like I was even injured.”  

“Good. Now, what about your chest? Are you short of breath? Is it hard to breathe? Can you stretch?”  

Momo shook her head and bent over to touch her toes. "I feel like a brand new Momo!” 

It's like she's a whole different person when Servi is around.  More cheerful and outgoing.  That's a good thing, but I don't want her to become solely emotional-dependent on someone. Dineria thought. She gave Momo another quick hug, and her tail responded by energetically waving about.

“Momo, their match is about to start.”  

The Singi turned to her best friend and smiled. Then she and Servi sat down next to each other.

“Hey, where’s Silverado and the others?” 

“They went to grab some food before the match. Ah, there they are,” Fisher turned around and spoke, then pointed when he saw a set of silver scales being followed by a massive Kobold.  Two Dwarves followed behind.

Servi turned her head and stared at her friends, who broke into a jog as they raced back to them.  

“Hey you, you're finally awake,” said Riki.  He was very relieved.

“Sorry for worrying you,” she bashfully said.  

Feral shook his head. “There is nothing to say sorry about. Instead, I must thank you for an excellent match. You never gave up, showing the true essence of Kobold!” roared Feral.  His tail slammed into the ground, prompting Fisher to quickly apologize on his behalf. 

Momo went red in the face and looked to the ground before immediately turning her head up. Meeting Feral’s eyes, she thanked him.  

I won’t look down anymore. I just won’t.  

“I don’t even want to imagine how much pain you were in. Does it hurt?” asked Silverado. He sat down and drank his cup of water.  

“Nope! Servi told me Dineria ran back to her house and got her license. I don’t feel any pain at all. ” 

Dineria blushed, her face becoming the same red as the tattoo on the back of her hand.  

AND NOW, LET THE SEMI-FINAL BETWEEN SRASSA FLINN AND DESPERADO BEGIN!!!!!” screamed Toni into his mic.  

With that, everyone around Servi and Momo turned their attention to the center arena. Whoever won this match would go on to face Momo in the very last fight of the tournament.

If Srassa wins, then we can have our rematch. But I don’t know who to root for….. I’m just gonna root for the both of them! 

---

Since it was the semi-finals, the crowd expected the fight to be both long and intense, with both competitors doing all they could to win.  

And it was, to an extent. Srassa knew she could win quickly, but it would come at a weary cost. She held the advantage of using skills by only speaking the name, a passive skill that required the user to be Rank 3. That, or they had to be blessed with the ability like Srassa was.  

I know I can spam Magic Missile. Honestly, I can use them as fast as I could say the skill, but I don’t have that much Skill Energy to use. Even using it three or four times is enough to drain me to half. Maybe I can use it a total of ten times, and that's pushing it, but I’ll be completely tapped out. What should I do? 

Srassa dodged a downward swipe from a brown wooden club as Desperado advanced forward. He had his shield turned slightly to where he could thrust with it. The pointed end faced forward. It was risky since he couldn’t defend, but he had the stamina and the speed, not to mention his natural armor: scales.

Srassa was too busy ducking underneath horizontal swipes and dodging left and right to avoid a quick thrust. She made a mistake at the beginning of the fight and allowed her opponent to make the first move, thereby setting the pace.  

“LUCEM!” shouted, Srassa when she finally had a chance to breathe. The repeated dodging for minutes on end was enough to make even Desperado heave slightly.  

Sweat waterfalled down the girl’s skin as she used the remaining air in her lungs to back up. The bright light produced by Lucem was enough to make that distance. If she was fighting a Human, they’d be both on equal terms, fighting with nary a breath left.  

But Desperado wasn’t a Human. He was Koena, a race that had the unnatural ability to move their organs inside their body. By moving his two lungs in a specific way, he could temporarily boost the amount of oxygen that flowed through his body. Such a technique was called Pulmoni Oxygeni, and it came with dangerous consequences if performed incorrectly.

There was a chance for his lungs to collapse. While it wouldn’t kill him in most cases, it would most certainly cause an unfathomable amount of pain.  

Should I use it? I didn’t use it before when fighting the juncea because I really could’ve died if it backfired. I would’ve been immobilized, and my opponent would’ve skewered me through. Now? I’m surrounded by medics. I need to use it. I won’t ever catch up to her and her rolling, and I don’t have time to use a skill because I have to chant. I need to end this fast so I can have more energy saved up to fight Momo. 

Suddenly, the Koena stopped moving and let off a battle cry. Then, he ran. His blood transported oxygen at a much faster rate through his body. He was a bit faster and just a little bit stronger.  

A more experienced Koena could get much more out of this technique, doubling, tripling, or even quadrupling their speed and strength, but seeing as Desperado didn't have that much experience, he didn’t push past his limits. Even then, there was always a chance for it to go wrong.  

Srassa was ready and let off two Magic Missiles back to back. They clashed against his scales and cracked one, revealing the red pulsing fleshy bit underneath.  

The Koena took the pain head-on and raised his club. His other hand had his shield, still rotated, ready to assist at a moment’s notice. 

She closed her eyes used Thunder Snap and Lucem back to back, relying on their ability to blind and deafen her opponent. In the next moment, Srassa opened her eyes and chose to dodge right, transitioning into a roll that narrowly avoided a shield thrust. She came up with her sword ready to attack and sliced against his elbow. Feeling resistance, she jerked her sword backwards, and two crimson-stained scales came along with it.  

Blood dripped to the ground, and he dropped to his knees.  

Shit!! Unable to maintain the technique, one of his lungs bubbled and exploded, causing a torrential amount of blood to pour from his mouth and nose.  

Only half of the recommended amount of oxygen would reach his remaining lung, but more importantly, his trump card had failed him.

“Desperado?!” cried Srassa. She wanted to run over to him and heal him since she had Remedium but didn’t know if she would be disqualified because she wasn't licensed to provide any healing. Her family had the money to pay the fine, but...

“I..I’m fine…” he said, standing up. Every single breath caused him an incredible amount of pain, but just like Momo, he endured it.  

Although Momo didn't realize it, her match with Blaire struck the heartstrings of many who were watching. A single Singi who refused to give up even while suffering from such harsh injuries resonated within them.

“I—” 

“I can still fight!” shouted Desperado, his voice turning more hoarse by the moment. He turned his shield back to its proper position and took a stance. The arm that held his shield radiated with pain and fire. It was like someone was lighting multiple matches inside his very scales. The fire coursed through his bloodstream, and it was almost like he was being cooked from the inside out.  

“I…  Very well. I won’t hold anything back!” Srassa took a stance low to the ground and watched.  

Coughing up blood, Desperado walked forward while chanting. From his booth, Toni was telling the medics to be on stand-by. He predicted this match would soon be over.  

And it was. It didn’t have more than five minutes left until one would fall.  

And one would be standing.  

If only I were fighting a monster. I’d be able to use the techniques and information Fisher taught me to protect my party. 

Srassa used Lucem and rolled in. Or at least, that’s what Desperado thought. He heard a noise and went to slam his club down, using the rest of the strength.  

But it hit nothing.  

Srassa had tossed her sword at Desperado’s feet, making him think that she was approaching from below. That was what she did, but she purposely waited for him to prematurely attack and took advantage of his recovery by charging in after he bashed his club down. She rolled forward to pick up some speed, making sure to stay silent, and tackled her opponent to the hard floor.

Ordinarily, a Koena male was far stronger than a Human female, but this wasn’t an ordinary circumstance. He was weak and on his last legs; it was a terrible mistake to use that Pulmoni Oxygeni.

I wanted to end it fast, but it backfired. Silver, now I know why you hate to use it.  

Landing hard, Srassa straddled him and held her hand to his chest.  

“Do you forfeit?” she asked. “if I use Magic Missile from this close, it’s going to hurt. Especially if I use on a place where you’re missing a scale," Srassa bluffed.  While Srassa had the Skill Energy to let off one or two more Magic Missiles, she was dangerously close to passing out. Her Skill Energy Reservoir wasn't infinite. 

Desperado smiled and tapped against the ground weakly. 

“THERE WE HAVE IT, FOLKS!!!! Srassa Flinn is going to the FINALS!!!!!!!”  

The crowd erupted into a resounding chorus of applause and cheers for two fighters who gave everything they had.  A couple of medics rushed into the ring and carried Desperado to an open bed.  After giving him a few health potions, a painkiller, and a quick examination, one of the medics said he would be out of commission for two or three days.

“I..guess..the.quests….will..have to..wait…” said Desperado, barely above a whisper.  "I'm sorry..."

“Don’t even worry about it, okay? Just focus on getting better. It was an excellent match, by the way,” as if mirroring Servi and Momo, Srassa and Silverado sat by their friend's side.

A Koena medic walked over and placed a damp rag over his sweaty scales. “You used it, didn’t you? I can’t really say anything since I would’ve done the same thing,” she whispered.

Her patient only weakly nodded his head as a stressful wheezing noise did its best to take in oxygen.

“Just relax and leave the healing to us. You’ll be back on your feet in no time.” 

Even as Srassa looked at her friend, her thoughts went to her forthcoming battle to decide the tournament's winner. I can’t believe I made it…. The finals…. Momo, I’m ready for our rematch!