Thong and Li entered the infirmary, watching as a few doctors look over Hugo's unconscious body. A large bruise was left on his chest with the doctors looking over him as they removed the wrappings from his arms. Hugo's eyes opened groggily, looking at the doctors that were working on him. They held him down as Hugo tried to get up. The one holding down his left arm was a dark skinned man with a long, flowing black coat. His glasses got moved around as he tried to hold on Hugo. Thong noticed that his nametag read "Xavier Patch."
Xavier: You're severely injured, you need to lay down and rest.
Hugo: But… the match…
Li: It already ended, Hugo. Moll beat you.
A larger doctor held Hugo's right arm and leg down perfectly, his chiseled face, scar across his bald head as he wore a more traditional doctor's uniform. Thong noticed that his name tag read "Avi Woz." Hugo stopped struggling, his eyes moving to Li and Thong as they got closer. Thong looked down at Hugo with worried eyes. Hugo let out a sigh before looking up at the ceiling.
Hugo: So I lost, huh?
Thong: Yeah…
Avi: From the looks of it, the knockout blow was simply you losing all your air before impacting with the ground. There are no obvious wounds other than the bruises on your body. I recommend staying in bed until we can do more proper testing.
Thong noticed Avi's much harsher tone of voice, the lack of interest in his face.
Thong's thoughts: Does this guy even want to be a doctor? He seems more fit to be a fighter than most I've seen…
Li: Thanks, doc. We can take it from here. We just need a moment with him.
The doctors nodded and walked away, Thong and Li getting on both sides of the bed. Hugo stared at the ceiling before letting out a weak laugh.
Hugo: Ouch! My chest still hurts from that last hit, so maybe laughing wasn't the best idea.
Thong: Hugo…
Li: You acted as a good reminder.
Thong and Hugo both looked at Li, whose expression turned serious.
Thong: Li, what's that all about?
Li: Don't you get it, Thong? Arthur looked like he put up a good match, but his rank is far above ours. Officially, I have an even win-loss ratio. You only have a single official victory to your name, and Hugo had a negative win-loss ratio. It's obvious from the get-go… This tournament isn't forgiving to people like us.
Hugo and Thong sat in silence as Li's face turned grim. Hugo raised his hand above his head, staring at it intently.
Hugo: Does that really matter? You two are my excellent students. Even if our numbers don't seem great, we can pull through. I mean, didn't you see how good I was doing out there.
Li: Well-
Thong shushed Li before looking back at Hugo. He could tell that Hugo was trying to keep a smile on, Thong moved closer to Hugo, Hugo shifting his gaze to Thong.
Thong: You're right, Hugo. We're all on the left side of the bracket, so all we need to do is try our hardest and win this. Even if the numbers are against us, we'll just have to move against the numbers.
Hugo: That's why you're my number one student.
Thong smiled as Li let out a sigh, a small grin returning to his face.
Li: Well, no point in feeling bad about ourselves now. My match is coming up after this next one. So I hope you guys will be out here cheering me on.
Hugo: Of course. If a teacher doesn't support his student, who will?
Thong: I'm rooting for ya, Li.
Li: Well, enough of the sappy talk. Rest up, Hugo. Me and Thong are going to continue watching the matches from the room from before.
Thong and Li both waved Hugo goodbye as they left the room. Hugo let out a sigh, closing his eyes.
Hugo: Maybe I really do have a long way to go…
…
Kammy and Tico both stood outside a room, Kammy nervously tapping his foot as Tico let out a yawn.
Kammy: H-how long does it take someone to get ready?
Tico: Seemingly a fairly long time. The last match has already ended and he's taking this long.
The door swung open, just short of slamming Kammy in the face as Mason walked out, stretching his arms out.
Mason: Sorry if I was late, I was just really focused on my meditation.
Kammy: Watch where you're swinging that!
Tico: You meditate?
Mason: Yeah, it helps calm my nerves. As for you, Kammy, did you find anything about this knight guy I'm fighting? I saw a bit of him in the prelims, but I doubt that's really enough to go off of.
Kammy: Ser Lorisian, huh? Looking at his match history, he's vastly inferior to you. With only one win and four losses. His ratio is basically negative. But as you already saw in the preliminaries, this man likely missed all of his matches. I could barely get any information relating to him, but he seems to have connections to both Jason and Quintin.
Mason: What an odd pair to be connected to… But this information isn't giving me a lot to go off of.
Cero: I'm assuming you already figured out what the biggest issue will be when fighting him.
Tico, Kammy, and Mason turned around, seeing Cero walking down the hall.
Kammy: Cero!
Tico: Where were you? You would've really helped waking up this guy.
Cero: I had to see how the other top tens were performing. Moll is still as powerful as he usually is, but it seems that there's still a gap between us.
Tico: Well, duh. The bigger issues here are obviously…
Kammy: Rank one, Daymond Theraposa. Rank three, Theodore Oneiroi. Rank four, Gonzalez Muertojos. Rank-
Mason: Yeah, yeah, we get it. Basically all the other top ten fighters. The only one we don't have to worry about is rank ten since he didn't even come.
Cero: I have no doubt that I'll be able to defeat that masked fighter and Moll, but I have no idea how the others have improved.
Kammy: Y-yeah… And you're up against one of them. So you'll really need help gauging these gaps.
Mason: But enough about you and these top tens. I already know what the biggest obstacle is regarding this knight guy. It isn't the fact that he has a weapon, it's the fact he has armor.
Cero: Absolutely. But I can tell from the look in your eyes, you have a solution.
Mason: Of course, what type of person would I be if I didn't? I don't have much info regarding him, but with what I do have, I'll work with it.
Tico, Kammy, Mason, and Cero all started walking down the halls, the faint sounds of the audience getting louder as they got closer to one of the entrances.
Tico: Try not to lose, alright? We gotta fight each other in the semifinals.
Mason: That's if you can make it past the first round. But I'm feeling pretty confident. I'm gonna make sure I put on a real show out there.
Cero: Try not to be like that clown from the first match. The last thing we want is to look like a group of fools.
Mason: You worry too much. Just watch me. I'll be sure to put on a fight to remember.
Tico: We'll be watching. So go on, blondie.
Mason: Whatever ya say, doting dad.
Mason walked towards the light of the ring. He pulled down the sleeves on his shirt as he put on a smug smile.
Mason's thoughts: Let's see how high of a wall this guy will be.
Zachary: After that dominating match, let's move onto the next fighters!