Narrated by Alex
It was time for my match. I went inside, and there was a boy who looked around two years younger than me. He was from Class C, and his name was Kent. He had energetic eyes, and looked motivated to win.
He smiled at me, and I smiled back.
The match started, and I went in for the offense. The boy had a pretty good defense, and was able to block almost every hit from me. I grabbed his arm, and applied a submission hold. He yelped, but gave me a good smack, and got out of it. I hadn't held on for long, so he was okay.
He started off with the offense, and had a good balance of speed and strength. Even I'd grown faster though, and was able to dodge his hits. His fists did connect with me a few times, and his punches were good and hard. But I had good durability, so I didn't feel much impact.
I dodged one punch, and went behind him. I smacked my elbow to the back of his head, and he collapsed down. However, he got up quickly, and took a breath. A light blue tint began forming in the air around his body. He was gonna use energy.
I willed my energy out, and a purple aura covered my body. I formed a fireball, purple in colour, and fired it towards the boy. It was quick, and the boy tried to dodged it, but to no avail. It hit his abdomen, and he landed down at the edge of the ring.
I walked towards him, but as soon as I reached him, he brought his hands right in front of my chest, and a light blue ball of energy hovered before my chest.
He pushed it, and it blasted on touching me. I went across the ring, and now it was me, who was at the edge.
He came to me, and tried to push me out, but I didn't move. I used my strength to my advantage, and pulled the boy's leg, and he fell down. I began to gather energy at my right fist, and dodged the boy's punches and kicks.
I'd brought him to the edge, and it was time to finish this. The boy lunged at me, but I held my right arm in front of him, and fired.
A purple ray emerged from my fists, and Kent went flying out of the ring.
"The match is over! Alex Bridges wins!"
It was over, and I'd qualified for the tournament!
The boy grunted, and I helped him up.
"You're good!" He said.
"You too! Keep improving your skills, and you might as well defeat me soon!" I said. He nodded, and went outside.
I went outside, where Benji and John were waiting. John clutched his left shoulder. It must have been injured, I guess. He saw me, and lifted his head up.
I nodded, and he smiled. I walked to them, and Benji asked me,"How'd it go?"
I grinned,"I won!"
"That's great!"
I nodded, and looked at John,"What happened to your shoulder?"
John looked at it, and shrugged,"A dislocation."
"Oh," I said,"don't worry, you'll be fine soon."
He smiled,"Yeah."
Benji said,"Look, Gordon's back too!"
Gordon looked distracted, and came to us.
"What happened?" I asked,"Didn't qualify?"
He smirked,"You think I'd let you two go ahead of me? No chance! I qualified, of course!"
Benji said,"Great!"
"I assume that you two qualified too?"
I nodded, and he scoffed,"I expected that. What's with John's shoulder?"
"Dislocation."
"Wish it was me who could have done that to him."
Anne emerged from the central building, and ran to us. She smiled, and said,"Hey! Guess what? I qualified!"
I nodded,"So did we."
"You guys too?! That's great! Our entire class qualified!"
"Indeed," Benji smiled,"It is a great thing that all of you qualified. I'm very impressed by your progress so far!"
Anne looked at John, and asked,"What happened to your arm?" Deep concern was visible in her eyes, and I couldn't help but suppress my laugh.
"Shoulder dislocation," he said.
"How did it happen?" She asked.
"My opponent gave me two hard punches there. He took the match very seriously, I guess."
Benji said,"He had no intention to win the match."
"What?"
"Yes. He wanted to injure you first, and then win the match."
"But... Why?"
"You'll get to know it soon," He looked towards the main building,"Oh, look! The team has been decided!"
We went in front of the building, where a big billboard read 'Stronghold City's Team for The 50th Bender Fair', and under it, were the names of the members of the team. I found my name, along with John, Anne, and Gordon too.
I turned to Benji, who didn't look happy at all. He looked pissed about something. I didn't know what, so, naturally, I asked.
"What happened?"
He shook his head.
"No. Something happened. What's bugging you?" I asked again.
He took a breath, and his expression returned to normal. He said,"Look at the classes of the team members. How many people do you think are from Class A?"
I turned to the billboard, and looked at the Class category. Out of sixty-four, at least fifty of the people were from Class A. Around ten were from Class B, including us, and hardly five made it from Class C.
"It's mostly Class A.... Isn't that good?"
"For the tournament? Maybe. But it's not good if you look at the amount of Class C people who made it to the team."
"Only four from Class C. That's good, ain't it? We'll have more chances of winning?"
"No. Look carefully. Almost the entire Class A is there on the team. How do you think they qualified?"
John said,"So... They fought against students of Class B and C?"
"Yes."
"But, wouldn't that be unfair?"
"Exactly!"
I started to get this.....
"So," I said,"You mean to say, that they're deliberately pairing up Class A students against the weaker ones, to ensure that the entire Class A gets qualified?"
"Yes, but no," Benji said,"They're doing this, to prevent Class B and C students from entering the tournament."
"But, why?"
"Because Class A is supposed to be the best class, and the winners should only emerge from there."
"What do you mean?"
Benji sighed,"I think it's time I told you about my past. Let's continue this discussion back at the house."