"Hey... you awake?"
Tim's eyes fluttered open slightly, then closing tightly once more before opening fully. He winced as he shifted in his bed, a hospital bed, with the rails to keep tossing patients from falling out. He tried to sit up, but pain flared, leaving him panting, eyes still on the ceiling.
"The remote is to the left of you. Reach about two feet. A bit lower... there you go."
Tim pressed the button for the bed's head to rise up, putting him in a sitting position. He looked around.
"Nice to see you're alive."
Tim just smiled weakly at Rosaria, who was propped up like him. "Are we the only ones here...?"
"No. Look around."
Tim did as she said, noticing four other beds in the ward, occupied by Daniel, Ethelyn, Amelia, and Blyke. He grimaced as he saw their wounds. Then turned back to Rosaria. And gasped. "Are you okay? What the hell did that bastard do to you?!"
Rosaria just smiled slightly sadly. "Spears through my tail. But, of course, all damage done in the Third Form is transferred over to the host's body. My legs were pretty much shredded by the time I was sent here."
"You'll be able to walk again, right?"
"With this medical technology, yes. I'll recover quite easily in this ward. The healing acceleration in this room is multiplied by nearly fifty times. I'll be out of here within the week. How about you?"
Tim shifted again, cringing. "Hurts. I don't even know what happened to me before I blacked out."
"I think the nurses said you exploded from the inside. All I remember was all of the scratches you had on you were bleeding what the nurses said was 'a gross mix of blood and guts.'"
Tim grimaced at her explanation.
Someone groaned.
Tim's eyes snapped to the bed beside him, where Ethelyn, with her platinum blond hair almost white in the bright lights of the hospital.
"Hey," Tim said quietly, softly. "Are you okay?"
Ethelyn's lips pulled up in a snarl of pain as she struggled to sit up.
Tim reached over, ignoring his own pain, grabbing her remote and pressing the button, raising the head of the bed until she could see.
"You alright there?" Rosaria asked.
"...Yes." Ethelyn sighed, frowning at her two arms wrapped in plaster. "I feel like I'm in a straitjacket," she grumbled.
Tim and Rosaria laughed softly.
"Why aren't you in bandages?" Ethelyn asked Tim.
"Because I had very few outward injuries. Apparently, I exploded from the inside out."
"...Gross."
"I agree," a tired voice replied.
"Are you alright?" Ethelyn asked, turning her head to the bed across from her.
Amelia was already moving the head of her bed up, not answering until she was level with them all. "I've been better. I haven't been beaten this badly since Asha challenged me," she replied, taking quick stock of her injuries. She was relatively normal, except for the mass of bandages around her stomach. "Ah," she said.
"What is it?" Tim asked.
"I just remembered how I passed out. He gutted me."
Tim almost choked. "Excuse me?!"
"That's... a bit brutal for a school competition," Rosaria agreed.
"He practically ripped apart your legs," Amelia said.
"And exploded Tim," said Ethelyn.
"WHAT?!"
"Will you please quiet down? Some people are trying to recover!"
"I'd know that complaining anywhere," Amelia muttered.
"Welcome to consciousness, Daniel," Ethelyn said.
"Yeah, whatever." Daniel pressed the button on the remote. He sighed. "How are you all?"
"Hurting," Rosaria said.
"I heard about your legs. No permanent damage?"
"None."
"Good." Daniel nodded in satisfaction. "Everyone else?" he asked.
"Recovering," Ethelyn said.
"Fine," replied Tim.
"Doing great," said Amelia.
Daniel nodded.
"You?" Amelia asked.
"Fine. A little sore, but fine."
"A lot more than sore, you should be," said another voice.
"You... if you were awake this whole time, then SAY SOMETHING!" Amelia chucked a pillow, freezing it a bit so it actually hurt.
"Ow! I just woke up! I swear!" Blyke cried, rolling from his side onto his back. He hit the button on the remote and sat up. "How are you all?" he asked.
"Fine," they said.
They were quiet for a bit.
"We lost," Amelia said, sighing.
"Big time," agreed Blyke.
"That Amora is just insane, not to mention it's user," said Daniel.
"It reminds me of Asha when she challenged us," Ethelyn said.
"Agreed," said Tim.
Silence again.
"L-let's see what's on TV," Blyke said, reaching for the remote on his desk. But before his fingers even touched it, the TV turned on, showing a screen full of fog. "What in the--"
"Fog? Really?" Amelia asked. "Next."
Blyke shook his head, his silence drawing the others' attention.
"What?" Daniel inquired.
"I didn't turn the TV on," he said.
"Of course you did."
"No, he didn't," Ethelyn said. Her bed was next to Blyke's, and she'd watched him reach for the remote.
"Okay, now I'm seriously bugging out here. What the hell just-- gah!" Blyke jumped in his bed as an explosion appeared on the screen. No, not just an explosion. That was the impact of elemental attacks.
A great gust of wind blew the clouds away a bit, revealing two figures battling it out, one with a spear, and one with dual swords, huge figures obscured behind them.
"Asha!" Blyke gasped. "She made it!"
"Thank God," Rosaria exclaimed, sinking into her pillows in relief.
"How do we have feed of the tournament?" Ethelyn asked. "I thought it Luminine had a closed circuit."
"Good point," agreed Amelia. She frowned at the screen.
"They look just about evenly matched," said Daniel.
Tim nodded his agreement. He watched Asha's movements carefully. It seemed that she was uninjured, except for the nick on her ear. Good. "How long do you think this has been going on?"
"No more than twenty minutes." Ethelyn checked the analog clock on the wall, nodding, as if double-checking herself. "Yes. Blyke was taken out no more than twenty minutes ago."
"And they've been at a standstill like this for that long? How?" asked Daniel.
Tim explained, "It may have something to do with the fact that they're both fast as hell, along with strong. I've noticed -- and I'm probably not the only one -- that Asha has remarkable combat strength for her size. Daniel prefers to build his physical strength, while Ethelyn trains her Amora strength. But I have to guess that Asha trains in both, almost equally. I'm assuming this boy does the same. And seeing how both of them are so powerful, it's only natural for them to be in a standstill. Their Amora are fighting each other, leaving the users to battle it out with their own strength."
"That does make a bit of sense," said Rosaria.
Tim's eyes went back to the screen. His eyes widened.
"No!" Blyke shouted.
The camera zoomed in, past the two fighting, to show the battle behind them. The six head element dragon only had four heads, because two of them were currently swords in Arin's hands. Quetzico and Tezcatlipoca were caught by the wings by two heads.
The cadre was horrified as the other two heads bit down on the other wings, and pulled.
Several screams mixed with the ones from the two winged serpents. Blood sprayed everywhere. two great fountains of crimson continuing long after the serpents fell to the ground.
Ethelyn put her hand to her mouth, looking away.
But it was Rosaria who voiced Tim's concern. "Doesn't this mean... Asha's Amoraless?"