Colin darted a glance at Satrox, holding his breath. {What's he going to do? The challengers at this level must be terrifying…}
Satrox stepped out of his seat and walked slowly down the stairs. "Who calls me?"
"Satrox Kibou is an invited entry to the Tournament." The announcer read from the card. "It seems he's the new Regional Commander of the Justice Knights."
Mutters arose. Many people got to their feet.
"Also, it says here that's he's one of the Seven Champions of the Order of Justice." The announcer went on. "The one known as the Sage of the Ancient Ways. Not the Elder Sage; that was his teacher. He is the Younger Sage. Sir Sage, would you be willing to show us some of your Comrades, so that we may call for Challengers?"
"I will call a pair of Comrades you may recognize." Satrox nodded gracefully. "Strife! Temper!"
Before him appeared his two new Chimeras. Having ridden them here, Colin was fully confident of Satrox's control of them, but the audience around Satrox drew back immediately, several of them letting out panicked yells and scrambling over each other.
"Those are the Chimera from the Lamico Comrade Home!" someone screamed. "No one can control them! RUN!"
But Satrox said nothing, and the Chimeras didn't stir. After the initial shock died down, the announcer cleared his throat. "It appears that you are correct in saying that we would recognize those Comrades. By all reports, they killed everyone who got close enough to touch them, or otherwise bit their hands off."
Satrox didn't reply. He just climbed onto Strife and sat on him. Strife and Temper marched forward, with Satrox riding Strife all the way down.
The message was clear. {This guy has total control over those two.}
"When did you…?" the announcer was sweating.
"Early tonight." Satrox mentioned calmly.
Utter, nervous silence. Very quietly, challengers started going back to their seats.
"Um… right." The announcer said. "Any… challengers?"
Colin thought they'd all forfeit on the spot, but surprisingly, three hands rose up.
"Right then… Sir Satrox, please choose your opponent."
***
{Why am I not surprised…?}
"Lord Kenneth." Satrox greeted one. "I'm rather surprised to see one of the Protectorate's generals here."
"No more surprised than I to see you with those two." Kenneth replied, still in his white dress uniform and red coat.
Satrox turned to the second. "Lady Scopia. You're an even bigger surprise. Doesn't everyone know who leads the Scopic Pirates?"
"Of course." Scopia smiled, twirling a long strand of red hair lazily. She wore a low cut gown of a matching color with a long skirt slit high. "The Republic is my biggest customer."
"Ah." Satrox turned to the final challenger. "And here we have the scion of House Melody, the pride of the Lamico Republic. Sora, I believe?"
Sora nodded, a quiet, short haired boy with an eagle beside him just as big as he was.
Satrox sighed inwardly. {This Tournament had turned into a political battlefield. Which one should I fight first? Everybody's going to read volumes into the first one I pick.}
The answer was obvious. "Lady Scopia, I really should place you under arrest."
"Why, Sage!" She said, eyes fluttering. She put one hand on her hip, the other hand under her chin and twisted sideways."Should I surrender myself to you?"
Satrox didn't answer her. He turned to his Chimera. "Strife. Take to the skies."
"Let battle begin!" the announcer said, excitedly.
***
Colin was wondering why people around him had red faces when half the field was suddenly covered with dark green.
"{Seaweed}?" Henry held his nose. "What in the world?!"
Tendrils of green stretched up, reaching for Satrox and Strife. Strife dodged, swerved, and clawed at the weed, but the plant-type Comrade just reached out some more.
{Not good. Scopia's Comrade is huge. It looks like a seaweed version of Zoe's Pando… because of her name, I thought she'd call a scorpion or something… but I guess only Foxtrot does that.}
Satrox, in response, took his Comrade higher and higher.
{What's he doing?! Strife is a short-ranged attacker. He needs to get in there and claw out the roots, or else…}
{Or else what?} Colin didn't know. He couldn't think of any way that Satrox, on Strife, could win this fight.
{Wrong Comrade type. She knew what she was doing when she picked this one to fight him. He's got no way of winning.}
But Satrox dropped to the ground, landing Strife on the other side of the field. Strife began to run on all fours, dodging streaks of tentacles aiming for him.
"He's faster on his feet than he is in the air." Colin noted. "He dodges far more easily. He's got four paws against two wings, so I guess that makes sense. What doesn't make sense is why Satrox doesn't get off Strife and relieve him of some weight."
"Isn't it obvious?" Henry blinked. "How is he supposed to command Strife if he can't see where Strife is, or is too far away to be heard?"
Colin felt a bit guilty. Shiro wouldn't need so many commands, but ordinary Comrades would need their Dreamers to tell them just what to do, when and how.
"Did you know, Satrox?" Lady Scopia's voice carried easily over the field, even though she was speaking casually. "You and your Comrades are all wrong."
Satrox didn't reply, guiding Strife deftly through the outer layers of the seaweed mass.
"For example, that Chimera of yours." Scopia said. "It's not supposed to be able to fly! Chimera are supposed to be lion, goat and snake mixed up, with three heads! Where did the wings come from? What happened to the other two heads?"
"Chimera are defined as a mix of two or more breeds in a single entity." Satrox replied, as Strife clawed past a net of weed. One particularly fast tendril of seaweed caught the Chimera in the left foot, almost tripping Strife. Strife snarled, and clawed it away, then leapt back to avoid a flurry of tendrils that would have caught him if he'd stayed there a moment longer.
"Then there's you. Regional Commander? Don't make me laugh!" Scopia's Comrades withdrew all the tendrils at a word, and unleashed a rain of sharp spikes instead.
Satrox pulled back on Strife's reins, so that the Chimera leapt high into the air, avoiding the spikes entirely. "Commanders are promoted by appointment."
"What, exactly, do you command?" Scopia's voice was filled with scorn. "A handful of Knights? Why, exactly, do you command? To cause trouble in a perfectly legitimate war?"
"To maintain and restore order in a continent filled with chaos!" Satrox answered.
"That's not your job. You're Justice Knights. There's justice being meted out by all the factions… except yours." Scopia's Comrade suddenly shot tendrils out from under the soil, nearly nabbing Strife's tail.
"I find your definition of justice somewhat questionable, pirate!" Satrox brought Strife down for a direct charge at Scopia herself. "You steal and kill and kill to steal and sell what you steal for others to kill… yet you question my idea of justice?"
"Well, I won't question your skill at word play, at least." Scopia laughed. "But you're the ones prolonging the war!" Scopia's seaweed mass suddenly sprayed out purple ink, catching both Satrox and Strife.
"Prolonging? We aim at ending it!" Satrox barked, charging in despite the ink.
"By talking?! That will never work! The only way to end it is for one side to win!" Scopia struck from all sides, ice from the left, spikes from the right, tendrils from below, and ink raining down from above.
All sides… but not the center. Satrox didn't slow his charge. "There's always another way!"
Scopia's Comrade closed its outer tendrils around Satrox and Strife, cornering him in towards its center. Scopia waited, letting him get even closer, wrapping her Comrade's tendrils all around him so that he could not escape. "Is that the answer for Justice Knights? Another way for justice other than punishment for the guilty?"
"This war is not about the guilty!" Satrox swerved, dodged, but kept closing in. The tendrils of seaweed closed in also.
"Then what, sir knight, is this war about?!" Scopia demanded.
{Satrox is trapped.} Colin realized it even as Satrox let the words fly. "It's about greed!"
"Oh no." Sandy whispered, even as Scopia's attacks struck home. "No, no, no…"
"She baited him." Rita stared. "She totally distracted him and baited him into making the worst mistake he could."
"What?" Colin stared.
"It's what he just said. Look around you." Rita said. "See everyone's faces?"
Colin looked. He saw.
"I think," Tam gulped, "We just lost the support of the Republic."
Scopia's Comrade closed in on Strife, crushing him in a grip of a hundred tendrils.
"Deny it!" Satrox roared his challenge and suddenly, Scopia's Comrade flinched. "How long will you lie to yourselves? How long will you claim yourselves righteous?!"
With a roar, Strife ripped through the tendrils from the inside out, tearing his way deeper into Scopia's Comrade. Satrox wasn't done either. "How long will you ignore the truth? Deny it, I {dare} you!"
Scopia stared in shock. "What…?!"
"I'm not here to be sweet and gentle, Scopia!" Satrox roared, and Strife struck without mercy. "I am here to end the war and by justice, I will do it! No more hiding behind lies! No more playing victim and pretending to be right! Enough is {enough}!"
"And how, gallant knight, would you do this?!" Scopia demanded. "By insulting everyone?!"
"If force is the only justice you will understand…" Satrox crashed directly over Scopia herself, towering over her with the fierce claws of Strife dripping with torn seaweed. "Then I will speak in your own language!"
Strife struck. Scopia vanished. The seaweed vanished. All that was left were the torn grounds and the shocked faces of everyone around them.
Silence fell.