The children, teens, and young men and women in the audience of recruits quietly listened to Fujitora's words.
"In roughly fifteen minutes, all of you will participate in a team battle tournament! The format is four versus four, weapons and abilities of all sorts allowed. However!! You are forbidden from killing your opponents. Violation of this rule will result in serious punishment! You win the match by either rendering all of your opponents unconscious, or knocking them out of this stage!!"
Soon after he said that, a large square of the floor started rising. It was about fifty yards wide on all sides.
A large screen above Fujitora's head lit up. It showed all of the teams' matchups.
There were twelve teams, six on both sides.
"As you can see on the screen, there are twelve teams in total. After the first round, there will be six teams left. Three on each side. There will be five judges overseeing every match, including myself, and one referee. The judges will decide on the teams' performances. The team with the best grade in the first round will get a special pass to the semifinal round. All losing teams before the finals will have failed the exam. Is that clear?"
The audience nodded their heads in agreement.
"Good. There's approximately ten minutes left. Be ready."
"Alright!! I'm fired up!!" Tenma said.
Kyo looked at him. "You said this was your second time here. Did you lose in the team battles?"
He nodded. "We got knocked in the first round. Last year there were three on three battles. Our team got beat by a kid named Kuro and two girls. We weren't even a challenge."
Kyo's eyes widened. "Oh, Kuro? I ran into him and those girls not too long ago."
Tenma was surprised. "R-Really?! Were they strong?"
Kyo thought about it. "I couldn't tell. I kinda jumped in on their mission by accident, heh heh."
Frost butted in on the conversation. "All of that doesn't matter now. We won't lose."
Kyo responded. "How do you know? There might be some really strong guys here."
Frost gave him a cold glare. "I said, we won't lose."
Agaki closed his eyes and smiled. "He's right. I don't know much about you two, but with me and Frost on the same team, we won't lose. Guaranteed." Agaki looked like he remembered something. "Speaking of that, we should tell each other our powers and abilities, so we know how to fight."
Tenma went first. "I'm a fire and rock type. I can also use my energy to fight as well. I'm pretty strong, but not that fast."
Agaki nodded. "So you're like a tank. You'll be our team's backbone. What about you?" He looked at Kyo.
"Uh, I don't know my own power that well, but it's called Mystic energy. It's stronger than regular spiritual essence energy, and has the ability to repel and attract. I'm a close up fighter. I'm pretty well balanced when it comes to speed and power."
Agaki smiled. "I like that. It's different. You're our close range attacker then."
Frost answered next. "I generate ice and earth. I can also manipulate temperature. That's the basics of it."
Agaki spoke again. "Frost is our main attacker, but also our main defender. He's well off by himself."
Agaki put his hand on his chest. "I fight with light particles. They do low damage, but it will burn and can temporarily blind my opponent. I also have an ability called Molecular Telekinesis."
Kyo wasn't sure if he was hearing right. "Molecular Telekinesis?"
Agaki nodded. "It's a special ability. I can manipulate any non-living organism to bend and shape as I will by looking at it. I basically can see the particles in matter."
Tenma was speechless. "Woah. Those are some eyes you got there."
Agaki laughed a bit. "I'll be the brains of our team here. I can manipulate the battlefield if needed, so we're covered."
Frost smiled slightly. "See? We won't lose."
Kyo was in awe. He never thought there were so many different abilities in the world. "So cool..."
All of the teams on the screen were labeled as B one through twelve.
Fujitora spoke. "Alright!! Time's up! First matchup of this tournament will be... Team B-1 versus Team B-12!!"
The members of both teams went to the stage. Kyo's team was B-3.
Judging by the screen, their match was either third or fifth.
After some minutes, B-12 won their match. It was pretty uneventful. The next few matches passed.
"Next Up: Team B-3 versus Team B-10!!"
Kyo jolted. He was a little nervous. Tenma patted him on the back. "Hey. We got this." Kyo smiled nervously and nodded.
The four of them stepped up on the stage. Their opponents did the same on the other side.
Frost stared down his opponents. He frowned slightly. "Watch out for the guy with the green hair."
Agaki looked. "I've seen him before. That's Kado. His ability is swamp."
Frost closed his eyes in preparation. "The other three are probably small fry. We take Kado out, we win."
Kado measured up his opponents. He pointed at Frost. "You there!! Everyone knows who you are. Frost. The orphan kid from the Northern Territories!! Everyone says you're the strongest one here out of all the recruits, but I'm gonna prove that wrong!"
Frost said nothing in return.
The referee held up his hand and blew a whistle. "Start in three! Two! One! Begin!!"
Two people from Kado's team charged in first. They weren't elemental types, so they fought with their energy only.
Agaki motioned Kyo and Tenma to attack. They obeyed.
Tenma charged in with some fire. "Hwaah!!!" He took his opponent down in one hit.
Kyo also easily took down his matchup.
Kado started running at Frost.
Frost opened his eyes and exhaled. Freezing cold mist came out of his mouth.
Kyo had shivers travel down his spine. "What's this chill? This cold... it's insane!"
He turned around to look at Frost, but he was already at it with Kado, who put his hands on the ground. "Sandy Swamp!!"
A portion of the stage started turning into a swamp, with quicksand mixed inside.
It caught Frost's feet. He was sinking in.
"I got you! How does it feel?"
Kado's other teammate ran over to distract Agaki.
Frost took a deep breath. He exhaled. As the mist left his mouth, the entire spot of swamp froze solid, including freezing Kado himself.
Frost took his feet out of the ice. "Agaki, you done yet?" he asked.
Agaki was busy dodging a sword user's attacks. "Just wait a minute! Throw the other guys off the stage or something!"
Kyo and Tenma did just that, throwing the beaten opponents off the platform to disqualify them.
Frost grabbed Kado's hair and pulled him out the ice. "I imagined this would be harder." Frost started walking to the edge. Kado looked up at him and spewed swampy water from his mouth.
Frost was knocked backward.
"Ha!! You thought you had me!! I can still use my mouth!" Kado spit swamp water all over him, melting the ice on his legs and hands.
Frost wiped the water from his face. "Disgusting."
Frost raised his hand. Ice started forming on the ground from his feet. A hand of ice formed and grabbed Kado. He was raised into the air and then slammed into the concrete.
BOOM!
Agaki's eyes changed. The yellow in them started glowing and a pattern appeared in them. He looked at his opponent's sword.
The blade bent and crumpled up like a tin foil ball.
"What? How is that even possible?!"
Agaki smirked. "You don't need to know."
pow!
He kicked him in the face and sent him off the ledge.
Kyo walked over to Frost. "Why did you have to do that? You could have just thrown him off the stage."
Frost looked at him. "He spit in my face. He's lucky I went easy on him."
The referee scouted the situation and raised his hand. "Team B-3 wins!"
They all walked off the stage.
Kyo looked up where the judges sat. They were smiling and talking with each other about the match.
Tenma was proud of their win.
Kyo sat on the ground, disappointed.
"What's wrong with you? We won!" Tenma said.
Kyo folded his arms. "I didn't get to do anything. I want stronger opponents."
Agaki laughed. "This probably isn't the place for strong guys. It's just a bunch of recruits for an exam."
Kyo sighed.
The last fight of the first round happened as planned.
Afterwards Fujitora stood up. "After a decision by the judges, teams B-9 and B-3 will have the pleasure of automatically making the semifinals!"
Agaki looked up. "I don't think I was paying attention to that fight. Did any of you see it?"
The rest shook their heads.
Frost looked away. "I don't watch any of them."
Time passed. The second round ended with teams B-12 and B-6 advancing. The next match was B-12 against B-3.
Kyo and the others went to the stage.
Frost looked at the other team for a few seconds. He sat down. "I'm not fighting this round. They aren't worth it."
Agaki decided to sit as well. "You two should fight. It would be a better matchup."
Kyo smirked. "I was hoping you'd say that!" A black and white glow outlined Kyo.
Tenma's hair glowed red, and a fire aura appeared. He looked at Kyo. "I'll take the two on the left?"
Kyo nodded. "Last one to finish buys the other lunch?"
Tenma smiled. "You got a bet!"
At the same time they said, "Ready? Set? Go!!"
woosh!
In a cloud of dust, Tenma and Kyo rushed over to the full team to fight them two on four.
Like Agaki thought, those two were more than enough to fight one squad.
They hurried back to him and Frost in less than a minute.
"I win!!" Kyo exclaimed.
"Huh? No I did obviously! Agaki, did you see who finished first?"
Agaki looked at them. "Yeah, I saw the whole thing. Tenma finished first."
Tenma pumped his fist in victory.
"What?! Aw man..."
Tenma slapped Kyo on the back. "So where are we getting lunch?" He started laughing.
From the judges table, Fujitora was standing up, squinting his eyes in thought.
The referee raised his hand after checking up on team B-12. "Okay, the victory goes to..."
"Hold on a second!" Fujitora interrupted. He jumped down to the stage. "This is a team battle. I won't accept half of this team sitting out in a tournament. If this was a real battle, you would've put your comrades in danger. B-3 is disqualified!!"
They all had a shocked look on their faces.
The other kids started laughing to themselves.
"What? You can't do that! That wasn't a rule!" Kyo exclaimed.
Fujitora got close to him. "Don't test me, boy. What I say goes in this building. All four of you. Leave! Now!!"
Frost, Tenma, and Agaki slowly started walking down the stairs. They stopped and turned around.
Kyo was still standing. Looking straight into Fujitora's eyes.
Fujitora growled. "I said. You fail. Leave my sight."
Kyo didn't move.
"That won't be necessary!!"
A girl's voice was heard from near the academy's entrance.
Everyone looked to see who it was.
"I thought these boys fought wonderfully."
It was a teenage girl, in expensive clothing. She was very beautiful, with long brown hair in a ponytail, and amber eyes. "They didn't deserve to fail, Fujitora."
Fujitora immediately got on one knee. "Princess!! I didn't know you were here, I would've been more hospitable to you if I knew..."
Kyo elbowed Tenma in the side softly. He whispered. "Who is that?"
"That's Princess Narumi. Her mother is the current Queen of Arbok, Athena."
"What?! A princess?!" Kyo exclaimed softly.
Narumi flew up onto the platform. "Fujitora! What is the meaning of this?"
He bowed his head. "I... they, um, they did not respect the point of a team battle. They treated it like some practice match..."
Narumi got angry. "Does that matter at all?! These four boys are probably the strongest group of recruits this country has had in I don't know how many years, and you were about to just let them walk out the door?!!"
Fujitora didn't seem so big and mean when talking to the princess. "I'm... sorry, your highness. I don't know what I was thinking."
Narumi walked over to the four boys. They were all taken aback by how cute she was, even Frost.
"You four are done here. As princess I'm making all of you Gamma Knights effective immediately. You don't have to be Deltas."
Fujitora's eyes widened along with the four boys. Fujitora spoke out. "With all due respect, your Highness, you can't just make new recruits Gamma's-"
"Quiet!!" Narumi demanded. "Not another word from you. I have the power to do so. Making these four Deltas is a waste of talent." She went up to his ear. "Especially if you FAIL THEM!!" she yelled.
Fujitora quickly shut himself up.
Narumi went back to the boys smiling sweetly and clapped her hands. "So, how about we get out of this place?"