"Every Brío Arts in existence?!" Dimas's eyes widen. "Is that even possible?!"
"I've told you before with Brío the possibilities are endless. Again though, it's just a theory. The only one who knows is Alastor and he always avoids talking about it during interviews which only fed everybody's curiosity."
"Did you ever get to see him fight?"
"Only his final fight against my Dad's friend. Before that I never even heard of him. Which is funny when you think about it since Alastor is now the most famous person on Terrama." Lilee looks towards the horizon at nothing in particular. She loses herself in the pleasant memory of watching the fight with her family.
"Hilarious…" Dimas leaves Lilee to her stroll down memory lane.
What kind of luck is this? It wasn't enough that his previous life was ruined in an instant or that he has to compete in 12 fighting tournaments or that the other fighters all have powers. Nope, he also had to be targeted by the top fighter of this world that also happens to be possibly all powerful. Not to mention that his only ability, which is supposed to give him a fighting chance, tends to leave him weak practically after every use.
Dimas takes a deep breath and twirls the ends of his blanket bracelet around his fingers.
Lilee begins to hum softly. It's a song her mother sings whenever she does chores, Lilee knew the words but her favorite part was the melody.
Her humming has Dimas remembering a pleasant evening a few years ago. It was a late summer evening, the orange sky bled small lines of red. He had just won a match against someone who had three wins over him and was treating himself to a torta de tamal with some lemonade while perched on the edge of a mountain that looked over the town. It is a cheap and small meal but it's Dimas's favorite and he rarely allowed himself to indulge his cravings. Miraculously, the evening had been quiet. No birds singing. No bugs crying. Not even the town made a noise. Just pure silence. Almost as if the entire world had disappeared leaving Dimas to himself. It's easily one of his favorite memories.
"What's so funny?" Lilee asks. She's still grinding and mixing ingredients into the ointment.
"Huh?" Dimas snaps back to reality.
"You were smiling a little just now."
"Must've been a trick of the light cuz I wasn't smiling."
"Mm-hmm, sure." Lilee grins and shakes her head.
"I wasn't smiling besides why are you ogling me for?" So what if he was smiling, which according to Dimas he wasn't, Lilee had no right calling him out on it.
"Ogling? I wasn't ogling! All I did was look at you!" Lilee doesn't understand why couldn't Dimas just admit he was smiling? It's not that big of a deal.
The duo continued to argue until night came. Dimas didn't want to admit he had smiled even if it was for a few seconds. Was it a pride thing or maybe he felt embarrassed? Neither, actually. He just didn't want to admit that he felt safe in that moment with Lilee. Not just safe but cozy.
Morning came and along with it a new round of fights. It is the third day of the fighting phase and that meant that today would be the semi-finals. There will only be two fights Dimas vs Scott and Sebastian vs someone, Dimas didn't know the other fighter's name. Not that it mattered, based on Sebastian's match history and the fact that Alistor actually trusted the guy, learning the other fighter's name would be a waste of time.
"Yay! We made it to the semi-finals!" Lilee is admiring her card which has now changed to reflect their current status. The word 'Semi-finals' replace 'Preliminaries' but instead of clouds it's written by sparks from fireworks that shoot out from behind Onaq's silhouette that sits underneath the new moon.
"We knew that since yesterday." Dimas flips the card around trying to figure out how the thin card is able to animate the fireworks. Of course the answer is Brío, a natural energy source on Terrama, but to an outsider like Dimas it defied any laws of nature he grew up with. He decides to put the card away before it drives him crazy.
"How are you not exci-, that's right. You've been through tournaments before back on your world. Did you ever win any?"
"Not my first one but afterwards I won all of them."
Lilee furrows her brow.
"What?"
"Are you sure you're not exaggerating to make yourself sound more cool?" She pokes Dimas in the ribs.
"I'm not lying. I'm the best fighter in my town."
"That must've made you really popular."
"I wore a costume, remember?"
"That's right… Why though?"
"I didn't want the attention or for it to affect my school record, much good that did."
"Your world sounds weird. If a kid here fought in tournaments and went to school, the teachers would be praising them."
Dimas lets out a small chuckle. "At least my world doesn't have giant spiders."
"We don't either! Or we usually don't. I actually asked Nicole about that and she said that it only happens when a creature ends up with too much Brío. It's extremely rare but it tends to happen."
"Well aren't we lucky." Dimas says sarcastically.
The moustached man appears on the screen. "Welcome to Onaq's Semi-Finals! We've had several amazing battles this tournament."
"We'll have to take your word for it." Lilee sighs.
"I firmly believe our final three matches will be no different. Without further ado, our first match will be…" The moustached man pulls out a marble. "Sebastian from 'Tango' vs Ruben from 'Beacon'. Fighters please make your way to the arena."
"Keep your eyes peeled. We need every bit of information on Sebastian's Brío Arts."
"Got it." Lilee leans in to get a better view.
Sebastian steps out into the field, hands in his pockets, and with a carefree attitude. In his defense, when the world's best fighter trusts your fighting skills, it would be easy to get a big head. A tall bald man, Ruben, steps out from the opposite portal. Nothing about Ruben stands out but hopefully this is a case of not judging a book by its cover.
[Maybe this Ruben guy can take care of Sebastian for me.]
Ruben wins the support coin toss.
[Just maybe…]
Sebastian takes his hands out of his pockets as soon as the match begins. Ruben, having seen Sebastian's previous fights, takes no chances and activates his Brío Arts. Needles from an unknown material, it has the same coloring as copper, appear all over his body save for his eyes, ears, and mouth. The end result looks like he was tossed into a bed of cacti.
Ruben casually walks over to Sebastian. "Can't hit me without getting hurt."
"Oh no." Sebastian says mockingly before socking Ruben in the mouth.
Ruben stands still, a look of pain forming on his face. He slowly drops to his knees while covering his mouth, a frail scream escapes through his fingers.
"Give up and it'll stop. Before you think it'll stop soon, it won't. If anything it'll slowly get worse. Right now what you're feeling is a two. Three is slightly worse but four… four is quite a leap. It'll have you screaming. Take my advice and give up now before it gets worse." Sebastian inspects the wound on his hand before wiping the blood on his shirt. It stung but Ruben is the one really suffering. He can tell from the stream of tears on Ruben's face.
"I surrender." Ruben says weakly.
"The winner of this match is Sebastian!" The judge declares.
"Wow… What do you think?" Lilee falls back to her seat.
"I think Alastor knows how to choose them." Dimas watches Ruben touching his lips almost as if checking they were still there. What was he reacting to? From where Dimas stood, Ruben was perfectly fine, no busted lip or scratch.