It was finally over. The thirty two most qualified contestants were chosen, and Roxanne was somehow amongst them. She fell to the floor as Siena's boosts wore off, and the fighting broke off amongst the hero groups. All of them began dusting themselves off, exchanging glances with each other as they went back to their separate groups.
"Well, that was an interesting event." The announcer shouted out. "Everyone thought to aim for a hero or two, but they'd all rather fight each other and take out anyone who tried to intervene! But Capri and the Kerobons were clearing out the competition, with Zee racking up twelve eliminations!"
Zee merely replied by pounding this chest and yelling incoherently into the sky, like he was challenging the gods themselves to trial by fire.
"When Willow arrives tomorrow, the first round matches will be announced! So be sure to check the brackets to keep up with who you're fighting!"
The crowds emptied as the losers shuffled out of sight, leaving only thirty one people left in the arena. Roxanne, Julian, and Cassandra all made it, as did Luca and Caoimhe. The Stones, Maximos, and Kerobons all qualified, and so did Ryland and Rodrick, and Arianna. The Gurut girl who was helping Luca made it, alongside some other miscellaneous fighters. Cutter clapped his massive veiny hands together as his voice started booming.
"Right, erryone get back to the hotel!"
Roxanne got another small snack and collapsed on her bed. She hadn't even done anything, and yet she felt exhausted already. Her phone buzzed, and on the other end was Willow.
'heyyyyy'
'how was the tourny? whos in?'
'broadcast didnt air yet and zach wont tell meeeee :('
'Well, I made it. And most of the heroes who showed up.' Roxanne replied. 'One of the Battlestorms didn't make it in, but it's otherwise a pretty stacked line up.'
'dam thats gon b hard to beat. dont disapoint me if we end up fightin, k?'
'I'll try my best.'
So now what? It was time to sleep, probably. Tournament was tomorrow, and she had to prepare. She stood up, checked her leg still worked. It seemed fine. Kicking with it was probably more effective than her other leg in terms of both damage and balance, which seemed good. And with her training for the day complete, she went to bed, hyping herself in her dreams for the big day.
Roxanne's eyes opened after a nice night of sleep, and another person's exhale was heard across from her. She took her phone to quickly call for danger. She looked at who was standing over her, and it was…Willow, sleeping on a chair in her corner of the room with the Vannana spear leaning by it. Roxanne crept out of bed and checked the door to her room. Locked. She looked towards the window, and sure enough, it was open. Did she forget to lock it? No, she never opened it in the first place. She opened the window, and sure enough, it was broken into.
"Hm, yeah, I'm up."
Willow shot awake, clutching her spear, looking up at Roxanne's confused face, and loosened her grip.
"Roxanne, what's up?" She said with a casual smile.
"Why are you in my room?" Roxanne asked, already exasperated.
"Well, the plan was to try sneak into the hotel and make my way to my room from the inside as a form of training. So I circle around the place for an entry point, and see your window looks slightly different, so I jumped up and sure enough, I could pry it open."
"This is the third floor."
"I've climbed the castle back home a bunch, it wasn't stressful or anything, don't worry. Anyway, I try to see if I could sneak past whoever was sleeping into my own room, but once I find it was your room, I just figured you'd be cool with me sleeping here."
A normal person would probably question if they were dreaming right now. But Roxanne didn't have normal dreams, so everything in front of her was real. She looked at Willow with several responses running through her head, but she decided that just getting breakfast was the best course of action.
In the hotel lobby, Samuel, Fiorella, and Rodrick were already there, looking at the board placed for their convenience.
In what could only be described as a strange choice for an opener, Roxanne was the first up. Against some girl named Louise Gordon.
"Hey, Samuel? Any idea who Louise Gordon is?"
"Nope." He replied quickly
"No clue." Adebayo added.
"It's a shame I don't know." Fiorella said with a flick of her wrist.
Willow was at the end of the bracket, up against some guy named Tre Waves. Nobody knew him either. In fact, most of the heroes were set up against random nobodies who made it through the chaos.
"I feel bad for the people going against us." Fiorella said. "I mean, it's pretty heavily rigged in our favour."
"Whoever did the seeding did a pretty bad job at it." Rodrick agreed. "Then again, I'd recommend staying on your toes. They know everything about us, and we know nothing about them."
Roxanne scanned the board to see who she'd be going up against in round two. Also two people nobody around her knew. Cassandra and Julian were going up against yet more randoms, as was basically every hero.
"So guys, what's up."
The Gurut girl who was with the Battlestorms pushed her way past Roxanne to see who she was up against. She looked towards Roxanne.
"Hey, you're Willow's friend, right?"
"Uh, yeah?"
"Tell her I said good luck." She smiled.
She retreated without giving any more information. Rodrick was discreetly looking at her as she casually went to fix herself up some breakfast.
"Okay, I've had a theory about these Fightston games since I've gotten my invite, and I'd like to share it with everyone here. Just be sure to keep it within our circle." Rodrick whispered, closing in between Fiorella and Samuel
"Go on." Fiorella answered slowly.
"My guess as to why we're all fighting random people is to have an excuse to get rid of them. This time around, Zach is trying to flush out any possible legion members."
"Wait, you think the Legion have shown up here?" Samuel asked, pointing at him while squinting his eyes.
"Think about it." Rodrick answered. "There wasn't any screening process for people coming in. On top of that, I was pretty easily able to sneak around the hotel and find documents for what the grand prize of this whole thing was."
"And what would that be?" Adebayo asked.
"A loan of the Fightston gauntlet."
Samuel stepped back when he heard that information. Fiorella tried her best not to let shock show on her face, but she was doing a bad job at it.
"The door also looked broken into. So there are definitely Legion people around. So be on the lookout."
A couple people started walking into the room. The other heroes and players.
"Slowly disperse." Rodrick said calmly. "Don't draw attention to yourself. Report all Legion activity to me."
Fiorella left first. Samuel counted seven seconds and left next. Roxanne stepped away from Rodrick afterwards.
The thirty-two main contestants were in the building. Zach entered the building, holding a box in his hands. Upbeat rock music was blaring from his jeans pockets as he sauntered in wearing a casual blue shirt and his best sunglasses.
"How's it going, everyone!" He bellowed, setting his box on the table. "I hope everyone's at their best for the Fightston Games!
A few miscellaneous hollers were made throughout the room. Zach stared ahead at everyone in front of him.
"Sorry I couldn't make it to the first round, so I'd like to congratulate you on making it this far now. And discuss how everything is gonna work going forward. First off, we're getting rules out the way. For this tournament, anything except killing or dismembering your opponent is legal. And poor sportsmanship such as toying with someone who can no longer fight back will get you penalized. Next up, prizes. The semi-finalists will get two hundred thousand Luxa. Second place gets five hundred thousand. And for the winner…"
Zach opened the box. Within it was the Fightston gauntlet. It looked more plain compared to the ornate designs of the other weapons. A simple metal glove which was silver all around, with the palm area being bronze. Zach put it on his left hand, and almost instantly, a perfect replica appeared on his right. He took the real one off, and the other turned to smoke and faded in the atmosphere.
"Now, we rulers can't be everywhere at once, and the Legion is only gonna get more intense. And seeing as the best defence has been Cassandra with the thunder axe, we'd be more than happy to lend the gauntlet to the most worthy person here. And with that, it's time to begin the tournament! There's gonna be a room at the stadium for everyone, so make haste!"
