The next few weeks passed uneventfully. Aria spent most of its days hard at work, either iterating techniques, sparring with Trebuchet, or learning from Quill. When it could, it made good on its promise to Meteor, giving more repairs and supplies and sharing what it had learned from its months spent on awakening. It mentioned Meteor to Trebuchet, but feared that telling Quill or Fable might lead to it getting chased away from the temple outskirts.

Sparring with Trebuchet was a great way to hammer home just how big the gulf was between an Alpha and a Beta. Trebuchet’s attacks weren’t that much stronger, but the difference in defense was massive. Aria could throw out bolts of Code or Cascade Ring-enhanced punches without holding back, and Trebuchet would shrug them off easily. Rather than being discouraged, Aria kept coming back to fight Trebuchet again and again, with the hope of coming closer to bridging the gap between them. Trebuchet was always eager to provide the challenge Aria was looking for, and the two had become fast friends.

Three weeks after joining, Aria participated in its first tournament. Technically, it wasn’t really a tournament; it was just a series of judged practice matches between Quill and Fable’s classes, but it was close enough for Aria to be excited about its first tournament. The stakes were nonexistent, but the teachers would offer specific pointers to both fighters after each match, so everyone would benefit from giving it their all.

Aria hasn’t interacted much with Fable’s class, only knowing Halcyon by name. Matchings were selected randomly, making sure to match Alphas against Alphas and Betas against Betas. Quill’s class had three Betas and Fable’s only had two, but Journey, the third Beta in Quill’s class, volunteered to sit out the competition, and one Alphas from Fable’s class was selected randomly to fight on Quill’s side to balance the numbers out. Aria’s opponent was an unfamiliar Alpha from the other class named Isle.

Matches were held one by one, so that everyone else would get to observe the others fighting and learn from their successes and failures. Aria carefully watched the first couple matches between Alphas, which were mostly unremarkable fights consisting of basic martial arts and the occasional low-power Code bolt. Then, its turn came up.

Aria sized up Isle as it approached the dueling square. It was a typical Model One, although substantially taller - at two meters, Aria was one of the shortest students in either class. It wasn’t holding any weapons, which seemed standard for Alphas.

Aria saluted. “Looking forward to learning from you!”

“Don’t expect to learn a lot, but I’ll do my best.” Isle’s faceplate pattern was polite and apologetic. Quill raised an arm, then brought it down in a sharp motion, indicating the start of the match.

Despite its humility, Isle started the fight with a thick barrage, firing five Code bolts simultaneously. In accordance with Quill’s rule, they were all at minimum power in order to not do lasting damage, but even so, it was an impressive level of power and coordination for an Alpha. Aria dodged to the side, but Isle dashed on a parallel line, keeping up the ranged assault.

Aria found itself rapidly being cornered between the wall of Code bolts and the edge of the arena, facing a loss by ring out. It was just able to jump over the stream and open up more room to maneuver. That gave it time to think, and it quickly noticed that all of Isle’s attacks were in straight lines across the Firmament axes - the tradeoff for its volume of offense was flexibility. In other words, it couldn’t attack at diagonals, and Aria could.

Going on the offensive before it could get cornered again, Aria shot back, arcing attacks towards it from odd angles using the Dynamic Bolt technique. Unable to fire back from its position, Isle could only dodge the bolts, and it had to stop attacking to manage that. With Isle on the defensive, Aria charged into close range and quickly found that it had a slight edge in speed and strength. They traded blows, but Isle’s back was to the corner of the arena, and one last punch through a Cascade Ring knocked it over the line.

“Match set! Aria wins.” Quill stepped forward, nodding in acknowledgement of the win. “Well fought. You identified the weaknesses in your opponent’s technique, and used it to take control of the momentum of the match. I think, however, that you got a bit lucky at the start of the match; if Isle had reacted a bit faster, it could have shot you while you were jumping over its attack, and you wouldn’t have been able to dodge.

“Isle, your Code barrage is a very powerful technique for an Alpha, which I must applaud. However, dedicating your whole strategy to a single technique is risky. Powerful techniques usually come with drawbacks, and your opponents will find them. I’d recommend taking some time to learn another technique or two that can shore up your defense against attacks from unexpected angles.”

Isle and Aria saluted Quill, then both returned to their sides as spectators. The next handful of matches were mostly unremarkable, although Aria got a chance to see how Halcyon had developed since they met. It used some kind of blue Code projectiles that Aria couldn’t quite identify the purpose of at first, but they seemed to be somehow restricting the movements of its opponent with each hit, and it won handily.

As the fights proceeded, Aria mostly thought back to its own match against Isle, playing it back in its head and trying to figure out various ways it might have gone differently. Eventually, the Alpha matches finished, and Aria sat up, once again focused on the dueling square. The main event, the duels between Beta iterators, was about to begin.