Dream world.

Roxanne knew what was coming. She felt slightly more...energized for it, but still wasn’t all that ready. The figure appeared in front of her.

“You’re nothing.”

Roxanne wasn’t even scared this time. She didn’t even feel all that tired. She felt more awake then she’s ever been.

“I’m something!”

“You’re nothing!” The figure repeated.

The tendrils burst from the ground and tried to ensnare Roxanne once again, only for her to scream with such intensity the tendrils quickly shrank into the ground. It was just her against the figure, and she was seeing this dream through to the end. She leapt up, landing a kick straight to the figure’s face. The figure held in place, before slowly fading away, leaving Roxanne to flawlessly land on her feet.

“Yeah, who’s nothing now, huh?! Huh?”

Roxanne emerged from her sleeping bag. She was on the airship to Fightston, with Cassandra, and Julian glaring at her.

“That’s a different dream, right?” Julian asked.

“Haven’t heard it yet.” Cassandra whispered back, turning over immediately afterwards.

“Interesting.” Julian said, following her lead. Both didn’t say anything else and just turned over, and Roxanne followed her lead.

The skies were brighter when Roxanne woke up again. She looked out the window to see the Fightston grand, with it’s many small homes dotted around the area with a few more modern buildings near the back, all surrounded by several tall trees surrounding the perimeter.

“First time in Fightston?” Cassandra asked, eating a chocolate protein bar behind her.

“Yep.” Roxanne replied. “Is it as rough as they say?”

“If someone says no to a fight then that means they aren’t at their best, and you don’t fight someone when they aren’t at their best. So you’ll be fine.”

“And you aren’t from there?”

“Nope. Probably not, anyway.”

“Oh, Roxanne.”

Roxanne turned around, and Zach’s wife was waiting behind her. She was taller than both of them and had some decent muscles on her arms, which were holding a basket of the same protein bars Cassandra was eating. Roxanne silently took one and started eating her breakfast.

“You’re gonna have to forgive the lack of food, we really weren’t expecting everything to happen like this.”

“It’s cool, miss...Zach’s wife.” Cassandra replied.

“Leanne.”

“Miss Leanne.”

The ship landed next to the Fightston grand, and their own airship landed behind it, manned by one of Zach’s staffers.

Roxanne, Cassandra, and Julian all stepped out onto the roof of the Fightston mansion. It was a humble mansion, which didn’t seen like two words which should go together.

“Hello, Fightston!” Cassandra bellowed from the roof while pumping her fists in the air, causing Julian to flinch.

“Sorry, you guys okay with preparing your own rooms?” Leanne asked, talking over the phone.

“Do you not have staff for that?” Julian asked back.

“Again, we weren’t really inspecting anyone. Honestly, if it weren’t for our obligations as rulers, we would’ve downsized to something more manageable years ago.”

The mansion looked like the cleaning was very rushed. Julian went into the living room at the bottom, with a TV that looked more outdated than the one back at miracle. He checked the on button to see if it even worked. It did, but his finger had dust on it. He went back upstairs to the bedroom he and Cassandra were ready to stay at, and the bed was poorly made as well, in a room with only a double bed and a wooden wardrobe. The door just said ‘Saoloro’ on it.

“Dang, they really weren’t expecting anything, were they?” Cassandra asked.

“Nope.”

The two of them lay on their bed. Julian looked out the window to the town below, before the realization that he hated came out.

The Battlestorms were certainly here.

As if she could read his mind, Cassandra got the idea too. “Hey, didn’t Caoimhe say the Battlestorms would be here?

“Yep.” Julian sighed, already sounding utterly defeated. He didn’t have an idea of what to exactly do here, so he opened his phone and went to Caoimhe’s number. He could at least send a message, so she either didn’t block his number intentionally or just forgot. The latter was the more plausible.

‘hey we’re in fights now, how bout you’

He waited for a while, but got a reply only a second later.

‘Yeah. We’re all staying in the Deerhoof hotel if you wanna register. Only a day left, so you might wanna hurry.’

“They’ve already made it.”

The three made it through the well made streets of Fightston’s capital. It was lines of houses along the sidewalk, with a wide part in the centre for people to walk around and greet the neighbours, with the paths all leading into the main town.

They knew they were reaching the main town once all the buildings started getting bigger and they began passing the stalls in front of the large stores.

“Hey, you guys new here?” A jolly looking Inarian man asked from behind his food store. He looked very familiar to Julian, but he couldn’t place him exactly.

“Yeah, we’re pretty new here.” Cassandra replied.

“Well, how about some food? Straight from the spice capital of Inariu, old recipe my brother taught me!”

Julian remembered. Spice guy had relatives. He and Roxanne cleared the area without even letting Cassandra ask further.

When they were done getting away they saw the Deerhoof hotel in the distance, with it’s long lightning rod in the distance and last few floors appearing within view. The four of them kept up the walk over to the hotel.

“Hey, you guys!”

Roxanne looked over, and a group of four kids were playing in a basketball court by a brick wall.

“Can we help you?” Roxanne asked. The four kids didn’t look too bad. Just ordinary kids. Even she could probably fight them off if she needed to.

“Yeah. Are you strong?” One of them asked.

“Pretty strong.” Cassandra nodded confidently.

“You here for the games?”

“Yep.”

“Well then, guess I gotta test you.”

“I don’t think that’ll be necessary.” Julian said as the kid approached him. Him in particular for some god damn reason.

"You scared?"

"I just really don't wanna deal with this right now?"

Without talking any further, white energy wrapped around the kid's hand as he leapt forward and punched Julian straight in the stomach. Julian felt the pain spread throughout his body before once again concentrating into his stomach.

"So do I win?" The kid asked as the energy dissolved.

"You win, now go away." Julian groaned as he got back on his feet.

"Man, you are gonna suck at the games. My brother's got the same power as me, and he's way stronger."

"Wait a second, your brother wouldn't happen to be in the…Nightwatch society, would he?"

"Oh, you know him?"

"Yep." Julian said as he hobbled past the girls and went to the hotel.

The three walked into the hotel, a luxurious looking area with a giant fountain spraying water in many elaborate patterns that were constantly changing with a great looking wooden desk being manned by a woman who looked unusually scrawny and pale by Fightston standards. The glasses were especially weird, seeing as most Fightston residents ditched them in favour of contact lenses.

"Hey, we're here to enter the Fightston games." Cassandra asked.

"All three of you?"

"Nah." Julian said. "Just us two."

"I'm joining too."

Roxanne cut Julian off almost instantly. Julian turned around to see Roxanne looking the receptionist directly into the eyes.

"Where do we sign up?"

"The sign up is in the basement floor. Also, unless you're sponsored it's five hundred Luxa for entry."

"Uhh, did we ever get a sponsor from Zach?" Cassandra asked.

"We probably should have." Julian sighed.

"Uhh, we have the Thunder Axe, and we'll just…go down. Zach can fill you in when he gets back, we'll give you his number. Hey Roxanne, you got his number?"

"No."

"His wife's number then."

"Didn't get that either."

"Look, she'll be here eventually." Cassandra affirmed, slowly going down the stairs. Julian and Roxanne just followed her down without saying anything to the receptionist.

The three of them made it downstairs to the basement, where several people were lined up. Some, Julian could recognise. His gaze briefly met Gavin, but they both tried their bets to pretend it didn't happen.

"New faces, huh?"

Before Julian could try to recall the gruff voice calling out to him, the hulking figure was already approaching him. Cassandra ducked out of the way, but both Julian and Roxanne were clotheslined by an arm and slammed to the ground. Julian looked up at the man, now kneeling down at him and looking disappointed, prodding him in the head.

"These the new ones, eh? Boy, Zach's got a lot to answer for."