-Tuesday Morning, 8th Of the 1st Month, Year 910-

Jasmine helps me carry Johnny back up to the spectator seats. We lay him down on the bench and move over a bit to give him some space. In a daze, I watch as round one continues. With every match that goes by, I'm getting more and more worried about Johnny, who hasn't woken up yet.

"Ugh..." As another match ends, I hear a grunt come from my side, waking me up from my daze. 

"You're finally awake!" I jump up with a shout, seeing Johnny's eyes open.

I can feel some eyes looking over at us, but I don't care about that right now. Checking on Johnny is more important. 

"How are you feeling?" I ask while helping him sit up.

He rubs his head and tells us, "My head hurts, and my body feels a little weak."

I scratch my head, trying to think of something to help him feel better, but nothing comes to mind. 

"Go cultivate, if you do that for a while, then the weak feeling should go away," Mrs. Janson tells him after announcing another match. 

Johnny nods, and looks at us, "Thanks for taking care of me while I was knocked out!"

"Don't worry about it." Johnny is my friend, and Mom taught me to take care of my friends. So it's normal for me to help out my friends when they need it. At least that's what I think, and I think Jasmine feels the same way too, she helped me carry him up here on her own without me asking her to. 

"You guys are the best!" I smile at him, feeling warm inside. I look over at Jasmine and find her blushing with her head down.

"Haha," I laugh, thinking that her reaction is really cute.

Seeing Jasmine's reaction, Johnny starts laughing too. It takes us a couple minutes to calm down and stop laughing. Down on the platform, another match is about to end, so I tell Johnny, "You should start cultivating now if you want to take part in the next round."

"Right! I need to redeem myself in the next round!" Johnny smacks his chest with a big smile.

"Yeah," I nod, agreeing with him. I don't know how that loss is going to affect him, but I want Johnny to make it pass the Entrance Exam.

"Ima get started, so I might not see your fight-" He stretches his fist out to me, "-But you gotta win! Don't lose to a guy like him!"

"I'll try my best," I stretch out my fist and bump his.

"Haha, I'm sure you'll win!" Johnny laughs and takes his fist back. Without saying anything else, he crosses his legs on top of the bench and closes his eyes.  

'Hopefully, he recovers in time,' I sigh and turn to the platform.

The boy with the sword breaks through his opponent's defenses and throws a kick at his opponent's chest, knocking him off the platform.

 "Number 799 wins!" Mrs. Janson announces another winner.

When the two applicants come back up to the spectator seats, Mrs. Janson calls out the next two, "Number 802 and 607, you're up!"

I look around, trying to find the two applicants. My eyes stop on one of the girls standing up, who I didn't notice yesterday. She's another pretty girl, almost as pretty as the girl with the katana. I think she felt my gaze because she turns away from her opponent and looks at me. She glances at me for a moment with her cold gray eyes before turning away with a "Hmph!" waving her ponytail at me. I scratch my head and watch her silver ponytail swing left and right as she leaves the spectator's area. A few minutes later, they both walk out from the fighter's entrance with bows in their hands, and arrows on their backs.  

"This should be interesting, both of them are long-range fighters," Mrs. Janson comments as the two walk onto the platform.

"My name is Aimi Sylphenhide, let's have a good fight!" The girl, with her light gray hair tied up in pigtails, introduces herself. 

"Nina," The girl with the cold gray eyes introduces herself, standing face to face with Aimi.

"Begin!" Both of them jump back, taking distance from their opponent. 

"Why did they back away?" I ask, thinking that their actions were strange.

"This must be your first time seeing someone fight with long-range weapons," Mrs. Janson comments, hearing my question, "When using long-range weapons, it's common knowledge that the first thing you should do is gain distance from your opponent because you're at a disadvantage fighting up close. Especially with weapons like bows that need to be reloaded each time you attack."

"That sounds like a pain," An applicant in one of the seats behind us says, hearing her explanation.

"It is, but an experienced archer is one of the most terrifying things in the world. They don't even have to confront you to defeat you on the battlefield," Ending her explanation there, Mrs. Janson turns to the battle that's starting to get serious.

"Enchant!" They both shout at the same time.

A light blue aura surrounds Aimi's bow, and each arrow she fires leaves behind a trail of blue light. On the other hand, Nina's bow is giving off a purple aura, and behind each arrow is a purple trail of light. 

"Is she using Weapon Qi too?" Hearing her question, I look at Johnny, who's cultivating beside me. 

"Yes, she's in the same situation as that boy. It hasn't reached the point of being True Weapon Qi, so it's Pseudo Weapon Qi. But hers is different from his, based on the color she should have received the blessing of Aion the Bow Spirit," Mrs. Janson confirms my thoughts with her eyes still on the match.

Even though I don't know much about long-range combat, I can tell that Aimi is starting to fall behind. Each time their arrows collide, her Qi gets overwhelmed by Nina's Weapon Qi. 

"Let's try this!" Qi starts to build up in Aimi's arrow as she pulls it back as far as she can.

Although she's wide open right now, Nina doesn't attack or plan to dodge her attack. Just like Aimi, she pulls her arrow back while gathering her Qi on the arrowhead, causing it to glow with a bright purple light.

They both build up energy while staring at each other. Soon the entire arena goes silent, waiting for one of them to attack. Finally, Aimi makes the first move, she shouts "Power Shot!" and lets go of the bowstring. At that moment, Nina softly lets go of her bowstring, "Shooting Star."

Swish! Swish!

The two arrows fly towards each other, one wrapped in a violent blue light as it tears through the air. Another flying in a straight line, so fast that I can barely catch a glimpse of the purple lights fluttering behind it. In less than a second, the two arrows collide, sending some of the loose stones on the platform flying. The two auras collide for a moment before the purple one splits right through the blue and heads straight for Aimi.  

"Ah-" Aimi falls to her knees as the arrow flies past her and bounces off the arena's wall.

"Number 607 is unable to continue! Number 802 wins!" Mrs. Janson announces the winner seeing that Aimi isn't moving.

"Thanks, it was a good fight," Saying that, Nina walks off the platform.

Hearing her words, Aimi jumps up and shouts, "Thank you!" 

Nina doesn't reply and leaves through the Fighter's Entrance. Aimi clenches her fist and chases after her.  

The two return to the spectator seats, so Mrs. Janson announces the next fight, "Number 798 and 640 your turn!"

"Ah, that's me," Jasmine stands up and looks around for her opponent.

I look around too, and my eyes stop in Percy's direction or, to be exact, the kid next to him. The boy standing up is one of his friends, and he's looking over here with a smirk on his face. 

Author's Note: