Chapter 2 - TWO

Yazayzel sat alone at the top of his families transportor. His mother was a traveling medic and had come to Bol city on business. She normally dragged him along to carry her medical supplies, but she had a private client today. This normally met that some high society noble or famous socialist needed help and didn't want to happened to get out to the public. Which usually ment his mother would be getting paid three times her usual price.

Both his little sister Tyshana and his brother Jarous were off with there friends. Which essentially ment he had the day off. He hadn't even gotten properly dressed. He still had on the same black pants and light blue sweater from the day before. The city was freezing cold, or at least that had been what his mother had said before she'd left. It didn't really bother him. The day had been a welcome break from his every day work, work he truly hated.

" And just what the hell is that? " He spotted a group of dark clouds in the distance.

It was unnatural, so it naturally drew his attention. He held up his communicator and brought up a screen. He used the camera to zoom in on them, but it wasn't working.

" Damn, why wont this thing ever work " It was probably do to the snowy weather.

After a few hours of looking over the city he decided he'd go exploring. The city had always seemed bleek to him. It had only two real sources of entertainment, the everyday small crimes that were usually stopped by the ever present enforcers. They were pretty much just a group of high tech cops who were always patrolling the streets in most cities. Most people were relatively easy for them to capture. Occasionally they might run into a psychic, but unless they were members of the garrison they always got caught.

The other source of entertainment was the local battle stadium. This had been his target for the day. The forty foot building was made with all the latest reinforcement tech. A dozen psychic dampening circuits lined every wall, temporal barrier's and shock absorbing walls protected most of the interior from the intense shock waves. Just seeing a battle stadium always reminded him of the first match he'd ever seen. When he was thirteen his grandmother had taken him and his siblings to see they're first fight between two advanced scholars.

Vincent Vermillion and Raul Vasquez. Vincent was ranked number twenty amongst the top one hundred Scholars in the world. And was named the greatest gyro-kinetic in five decades. He'd destroyed over a hundred paranoids in an attack on the city and he hadn't even graduated from the academy. Beyond that, not much is really known about him. That wasn't the case with his opponent, Raul was much more known. Ranked number fifty and a bit of a show off in battle.

He was so good at conjuring fire, that people refereed to him as Faiāmasutā. He was so powerful that If he wanted, he could incinerate stone in seconds. The match was far from a let down. No, it was inspiring. They both moved at speeds Yazayzel could just barely see. Easily over sixty miles an hour. Each clash of they're bone blades created shock waves that could be felt a mile away. It was an hour before Raul was lying flat on the ground and the announcer was calling out Vincent as the victor. That day had played a important part in Yazayzel's decision to become a scholar.

Today he had the pleasure of watching another match. Only this time, It was from nose bleeds of the stands. It was once again between the great Vincent Vermillion, but his opponent was a garrison candidate named Emily backshot. She was about your average height for a sixteen year old girl. Her frame was stocky but slim. Everything she wore seemed to stick to her almost to tightly. As she entered the stadium he noticed flares of psychic flames briefly appearing across her body.

" I heard that this is your first match? I look forward to seeing how much you've learned. I promise not treat you like child " She gave Vincent a sly smile just before the referee gave her the okay to start.

But the second his hand dropped she was on Vincent in a second. Yazayzel wasn't even sure how she closed the distance. She charged at him, simultaneously slashing and clawing at what may as well have been air. Vincent slipped passed her grip ever so swiftly, chuckling loud enough that it would appear as a taunt. He slammed his fist into the ground creating what Yazayzel would call a seven foot wide obelisk, stopping her assault in its tracks. But that wasn't enough to stop her.

With a grille that shook Yazayzel to his core, she stepped back before thrusting her fist at the massive pillar with enough force to barrel through it. This time Vincent didn't have time to avoid the attack. So with great force, he swung his arm straight. His swing produced a wave of condensed psychic force that tour through the battlefield. Thick clouds of dusk created a shroud over the field. Sensing danger, Vincent looks behind himself just as a burning fist arrive at the base of his chest. It passes through thin air leaving nothing but a five foot crator of scorched earth where he once stood.

She looked completely puzzled after he disappeared from her site, a move that caught most of the crowd by surprise. Only to be slammed into the ground from behind. With another wave of his hand the battlefield shook. As if he was crushing the very stone beneath them. A minute later he left the field with an unconscious Emily backshot laying in an seven-foot crater. It was yet another overwhelming victory for the new number ten. And a humiliating defeat for his opponent. Yazayzel was still mystified over most of the battle, but like everything else he chose to learn from it.

The stadius medics came to collect the unconscious Emily. They were joined by two guys who were also wearing the garrisons candidate uniforms. One was a boy about the height as he was. His hair was light brown and long enough to reach the back of his neck. His skin was a bit darker then Yazayzel's coffee completion, but other then that he was could have been mistaken for his brother. The other boy was twice Yazayzel's size but he was most definitely a foot shorter then him.

He was buff and built like a brolar, with a fair ivory complexion. They wore the most concerned expressions as they fallowed the medics the arenas infirmary. Yazayzel did his best to commit Emily's name to memory. If she really was a candidate for the garrison, then he had one hell of an opponent.