The Competition

Looking at the scene in front of me, I say the first thing that pops into my mind. "This feels wrong. I always thought of the Lands as a pure place, untainted by the hands of man, but seeing buildings here… this is just wrong."

"Get used to it," Drew says, "Each of the Trump courts has a base in the Lands, so you're going to be seeing more man-made stuff here very soon."

"Wait, did you think that we would have a large, mostly untouched piece of land and we wouldn't build anything in it? That's just dumb." Lathia points out. "But at the same time, I kinda get what you feel. The Lands feel like a place of nature, and seeing stuff like this is kinda jarring. But as Drew said, get used to it. At least I know for certain that more than ninety-nine percent of the Lands is purely natural."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Apart from the Rankings arena, and the court buildings, there are only a few other man-made structures in the Lands, and the Lands is really massive."

"How massive?"

"Massive enough that some people feel that its size is comparable to some of the largest continents. That big."

I could sense that that is big, but when I tried to imagine how big, my imagination failed. In the end I just gave up.

Drew then leads me to where the Rankings participants would stay during the competition and then leaves with his team after that.

The place is a moderately sized building. I walk in to see that a large part of it is empty space filled with numerous chairs, all facing what looks like the biggest TV I have ever seen in my life. Almost everyone in the room is a Pre-protector, with a few Teachers visible near and there, and a quick scan of their faces shows that these are newly promoted Pre-protectors, those who just completed their exams today.

I spot Tobi, Han, and Bella and begin walking toward them with a smile on my face. Tobi is the first to notice me and he quickly nudges the rest before nodding at me, then they break out in smiles.

"Hey, how were your exams?" I say, sitting in the empty spot beside Tobi.

"It was tough," Bella says and the rest agree. "But I guess to you it must have been a breeze."

"A Teacher sad you were the first to finish fighting against the Azzures." Tobi adds, an envious look on his face.

I shrugged, acting like it is no big deal, and to me, it isn't. Compared to Keldin, the Majin, and even the stone golems I had faced during my Apprentice exams, the Azzures had been surprisingly weak. "It wasn't too difficult."

Han put a hand on his chest. "Dude, I almost died and you call it not too difficult? Man, I wish I was as strong as you."

Says Bella, "Look, let's not talk about those things anymore. They almost made me fail."

Nodding, I change the topic, "How many people passed the exam?"

"Thirty-seven," Tobi answers before looking around, "but most of them aren't here yet. They're preparing for the Rankings."

"Aren't you guys going to prepare?"

"How," Bella asks. "It's not like we know any of the seniors. I mean you know one of the Five so things aren't too difficult for you, but we're on our own."

For a moment I am speechless and am tempted to refuse. Knowing Drew didn't make things easier for me, I got where I am by training really hard. But then I think things through. Without Drew's original training session for me in the Lands, I doubt I would have started coming here regularly, and without that, I would never have met Luoi. Plus, without our little spars, my fighting experience would have been limited to Keldin, and maybe some Azzures. So yes, without Drew things would probably have been a lot harder for me.

"Why don't you approach a senior to help you out?"

"It's not that easy," Tobi says. "Most seniors will ignore you unless they've taken a special interest in you, and for that to happen you have to be a genius or something near. And unlike people like Keldin who have family members and friends here, we are alone. Our parents are first-generation Laen, and their friends don't have kids here so… well, like I said, we're on our own."

"Oh."

"Don't worry about it," Han says, "we have each other."

That seemed like a terrible consolation prize. "I could introduce you guys to Drew if you want?"

They all disagree, claiming that it would be too awkward for them. After all, the reason Drew could be so free with me was that we were in the same age group. If they decided to tag along it would just be too uncomfortable, being kids in a group full of people older than them. They would have little to nothing in common with us. In the end, I am forced to agree with them, but that does not stop me from making up my mind to help them out as much as I possibly could in the future.

"You know," I say, "I train every day in the Lands. You're welcome to join me. It's not Drew training me, but my Familiar, so you don't have to worry about feeling awkward."

Tobi looks as if he just figured something out. "Wait, the Fasuru that helped you fight the Majin was your Familiar?"

I nod. "Yeah."

"That's why it helped you," Bella points out. "I always found it a bit confusing why a Fasuru would suddenly help you fight the Majin, so it's because it was your Familiar."

I don't correct them that it wasn't my Familiar then, since Luoi made it very clear that the only reason it was interested in me was that it wanted to bond, and what better way to achieve that than to become my Familiar.

As more people begin to arrive, I ask them, "How high do you think you're going to rank?"

Tobi eyes me, "You mean how low? If you can't tell, compared to the others we're very weak. But, I think I should be able to reach thirty. I'm stronger than these two and a few others."

Han and Bella state equally low ranks.

"You may be able to make it into the top three," Bella states, "if you can defeat Keldin, Bree, Noah, and maybe Roy."

I frown a bit, finding all the names after Keldin unfamiliar. "Who are the rest? After Keldin?"

"They're not from our class," says Tobi. "But, from what I have heard, they are not that much weaker than him either. Roy even finished fighting his Azzures faster than Keldin. Do you think you can beat him now?"

"Who?"

"Keldin. If you can, you might be able to make it into first place."

I think back to my previous fight with Keldin. Even then he had shown that he has a lot more variety when it comes to noers that he could use in combat. Along with that, he has also mastered a fiis technique, Alpha Counter, plus it was plain to see that he trained regularly. As long as he hasn't been slacking off recently he should have gotten even stronger. Put all of that together, and I am not sure if I could beat him.