The instant my eyes opened, I slammed my hands down on the bed to propel myself to my feet. As was recommended, I went to the Armory to get a weapon for the battle. All weapons for the fledgling tournament were slightly dulled so they could not cut right through anyone else but getting hit would definitely cause some damage.
There was a long line by the time I got there. But when everyone saw me enter to walk to the back, they all shuffled sideways to make room for me. Just from the way everyone was standing, I could tell they had formed their various alliances.
"Name?" The man asked standing across from the weapons. Odesza was not there, as I was expecting, so they must have found a replacement for him.
"Skytel." I said simply. The man looked up at me before putting the clipboard down. The room went silent as he stared back at me.
"We have full capacity of weapons. All that we have are spoken for." He said lying. He was so even tempered saying it that it was obvious he was lying.
"You dare lie to me? I should kill you where you stand for that." I said slightly annoyed. He was challenging me but I could not waste the time nor energy killing him now. But I made sure to remember his face for later.
"I do not care what you think quite frankly. Orders were given not give you a weapon as punishment from the princes for the..." he started looking back at his clipboard, "...the Odesza incident."
"Damn it. He is injured and still a thorn in my side. So be it. I do not need one to win against these pathetic fledglings. Remember what you have done here." I warned. I wanted him to feel just as bad as everyone else for the beating I was going to put on them.
The rest of the recruits continued getting their weapons while I went towards the arena waiting area. There were others in the room before I got there but they left when they saw me come in.
They evaded me as I walked in the middle of their group. There would be no mercy. Everyone finished getting their weapons as I sat in the room for half an hour. With only the few of us fighting, I had to assume they were trying the weapons out as well. Fighting with a new weapon against a stronger opponent was a foolish move that they would pay for.
The television sitting on the opposite wall turned on with an announcement, "RECRUIT TOURNAMENT STARTING! ALL RECRUITS REPORT TO THE ARENA!" It was time to show them who was number 1.
The others were all standing around the edge of the ring evenly spaced in a circle. There was one spot just outside the walkway entrance for me. Only a few of the recruits had their weapons in their hands; the ones with daggers or throwing knives. After taking note of everyone around and the weapons they carried, I carefully thought through how they were most likely to attack.
A screen dropped from the ceiling in the center of the arena that begun a countdown from 10. The crowd was getting restless as the countdown continued.
The instant zero rung out, some recruits sent their knives flying towards me. Everyone had turned towards me but no one came forward as I thought. Without any way of knowing just how many knives the few had, they were my first priority.
As I lunged toward one, the others jumped toward me. One stood in front, one on my left, and one on my right as they all threw a flurry of punches. I accurately gauged the sides' attacks and kept my focus on the one in front. The trio had surprisingly good coordination between them. I was so focused on defending that I could not find an opening to attack.
After a few moments of this, the opponent in front of me got serious. His attacks got stronger and faster. I had to lock the others down now or I would be injured. The recruit on my left threw a wide swing that I ducked but as I did, the one on my right threw a kick where my face was going. Dodging him by centimeters with a turn of my head I slammed my hands into the ground and threw two kicks into one of them before spinning and kicking the other away.
The two only slid a few meters away but it was more than enough to deal with the problematic of the three. The one was alone but his technique never faltered. But it was not enough to fight me on a level playing field.
He tried to kick me in the legs but I kicked his feet back into the ground before leaning forward and slamming my elbow into his nose. The force of the impact sent him bending backwards but just as he reached the apex of his shift, I jumped up onto his shoulders and rolled him into a slam on the ground. I had him in an armbar when we landed but applied pressure to his throat as well.
He tapped signaling his defeat but it was not enough. This was the first message. I looked at the princes sitting in the crowd as I snapped his arm and choked him into unconsciousness.
When I stood again, the two from before were less enthusiastic. They looked between each other but before they could look back at me, I was sliding toward one. I kicked up into his stomach as hard as I could which sent him a few feet into the air.
My wings stretched as I turned my legs in the air and propelled off my hands into his stomach. With each kick landed, I flapped my wings to keep the momentum. When we got to twenty meters and I was sure everyone could see us, I kicked him in the side which he blocked.
When I wrapped my other leg around his other side, he turned with it to block that as well but I grabbed his back as he continued spinning. My head was level with his shoulder blades as we furiously spun while falling.
The instant his head slammed into the ground, he was unconscious. I kicked him in the face and sent his body sliding before he rolled to a stop. Without a rest, I dove toward the last of the trio. He tried to fight me off but he was not even as good as his comrades so dispatching him was no task.
With a kick to the chest, an elbow to the neck and another elbow directly into his knee, he fell to the ground screaming in pain. Another kick to the face sent him sliding away unconscious.
"Are you all watching this? How I dispatch these fledglings with no mercy. You caused this! You are the base of their pain!" I called to the crowd before turning my attention back to the others.
Most had a small look of uncertainty except for Lion and one other recruit. He studied each of my moves as I fought through the trio.
'You must be Hollow' I thought to myself while carefully watching each of the other recruits.
The next group walked toward me without any weapons in hand. As they stood a few meters away to get in their stances, I could see they had experience. They would not be as easy to dispatch as the others.
One of the four stepped forward before letting me get into my stance. We went back and forth for a moment before he hit me in the neck with a chop and kicked me in the chest with a spinning kick. I was getting a tad frustrated not being able to overpower him like everyone else. The recruit's attacks were crisp, clean, very powerful.
Instead of taking a power approach, I switched stances to a speed oriented style. He led off with a kick but as it reached the top of its range, I struck down with a precise jab into his thigh. This made him back off a few steps to shake his legs out.
"Oh, you have more? I am glad. I was concerned they overestimated your ability." The recruit said as he dropped back down. He came forward again with a 2-punch combo but his attacks now were not even comparable to before. The recruit was toying with me before.
He threw a flurry of punches but it had no effect as I parried each of his attacks before counter attacking. He had a slight limp by the time he stopped attacking. I watched as he started to back away into the group but I was not letting him rest. With a hard stomp into the ground, the tile under me cracked.
Bending over to pick up a rock, I flicked it toward him full force. It surged past him lodging into the opposite wall. Before he could turn his head back toward me, I flew toward him and took his head in my hand. His face slid along the ground as I forced his head down while flying. The surprise delayed his reaction as he took a moment to kick me off.
There was scratching and a gash along the side of his face that was on the ground. The other three stood forward into my path to him.
"Oh? Realized this would not go the way you planned with only one of you, did you?" I asked the three cockily. They were smart enough to know not to try fighting me any more alone. As they closed the distance between us, I scanned them to find an opening but there was none.
One threw a test kick that I easily blocked but it sent me sliding away. Just that one kick left a stinging sensation in my arms.
"You are a strong one, aren't you?" I said rubbing my arms. They swarmed me after that and I did not stand a chance. For every few attacks they threw, one hit me. I was taking a lot of damage in this little scuffle.
One of the group kicked my legs out from under me and they jumped on the chance. Even if I was blocking my vitals, their attacks were getting through to other parts. After a few seconds of this, I could feel my consciousness fading.
"Skytel, wake up. You have to wake up." The demon called out from my head. I could hear his voice echoing as I slipped from consciousness. The movie started playing in my head of the demon controlling me.
"Oh, isn't this quite an interesting development?" The demon said as he caught one of the kicks. With a quick spinning motion, we were back on our feet. He kicked up into one of their guards and sent him sliding away.
The demon threw a three-punch combo faster than any of them could register. All three punches landed flush. It threw a hard elbow into the ribs of one of the group. Only two were left as the one fell to the ground.
"I have not forgot about you. Hold that thought." The demon said. There was a familiar heating sensation deep in my stomach before I changed fully.
The next punch I threw sent one of them flying and sliding across the ground. His arms were purple from the fracture. As we walked toward the last of the group standing in front of us, the demon threw a claw that sent the recruit slamming into the wall. He coughed up blood upon impact before sliding to the ground unconscious.
But that was not enough for him. We ran towards the unconscious recruit and kicked into his head on the wall. There was a horrible cracking noise as he slumped to the ground bleeding.
We turned to the rest of the group before saying, "Who is next?"