Narrated by Alex
We reached the stadium, where the crowd was cheering as usual. From the screens outside the stadium, I saw many of the participants, who'd been disqualified yesterday. They joined as spectators, and placed wagers among themselves on who would win.
Chris walked up to us, and smirked,"So, some of your students qualified, huh?
"Most of them, actually. What about you?"
He laughed,"Of course they qualified! Both of them! However, only five from Stronghold managed to qualify. Three from yours, two from mine. Even though my students would crush the opposition, and win the tournament for us, I'll just ask you to tell your students to at least put up a good fight against the others. Gotta keep our reputation, you know."
He walked off inside the stadium.
"I don't like that guy." I said.
"He may be a bully, but he's a great teacher. He only has two students, because he only picks the ones who have immense potential."
"So, both of his students are very strong?"
"It would be highly likely. However, even you lot have potential. It's safe to say that you have a good chance of holding your own out there."
A man directed us to the waiting room. It was a huge room, made to accommodate all thirty two of us. There were couches all over the area. It was well illuminated, and the north wall had an entrance to the arena. There were also a couple of screens which showed the crowd cheering.
Many of the students were already there. I saw two people having the shield logo of Stronghold. One of them was the guy who'd pushed me down during the race. I recognised those glinting eyes and long hair.
The other guy was close to being bald, and had a pretty unmoving face. His eyes showed no emotion at all, and he just stared into the souls of the others looking at him.
So, one of them was Ethan, and the other was Collin. It was pretty obvious the the serious guy was Ethan. I could relate the other guy's eyes to Mr. Easton's, and he was his son, no doubt.
Mr. Benji said,"Alright, I'm gonna have to leave you people here. Teacher aren't allowed, so I'll be with the other teachers. All the best!"
We nodded, and he went outside.
I walked to Collin, and extended my arm,"You're Mr. Easton's son, ain't you?"
He smiled, and shook my arm,"You got me. Collin's the name. But people don't really refer to me as 'Mr. Easton's son'. They call me The Best of Class A."
His hand was warm, but it carried a metallic coldness with it too. He wore a red shirt over a white tee, black denims, and white sneakers. I'd seen that attire somewhere....
He'd definitely been looking after his body though. He wasn't buff like me, but had an athletic and toned body. He seemed pretty relaxed, and looked like he didn't really care about who he faced.
"So, confident about winning the tourney?" I asked.
"Confident? Why confident, when it's a fact, that I'll win the tournament?" He smirked.
"I'd say it's overconfidence."
"That's a thing that the weak would say. The strong, however, prove it to the world, that anything is possible."
"What if the weak overwhelm the strong?"
He laughed,"You think that's possible?"
He suddenly narrowed his eyes, and gave me a look that was actually terrorising,"I won't let it happen."
That look gave me the shivers, but I managed to keep a straight face, and said,"We'll see about that."
"Indeed, we will," he flashed me an evil grin, before going back to Ethan.
I took a deep breath, and felt okay. Yeah, this guy was weird and kinda scary. I got why John looked so shaken up by him. But I didn't see any danger coming from him.
John came to me, and said,"Did you feel it?"
"Feel what?"
"That coldness inside him?"
"I didn't have to. He showed me himself."
He shook his head,"He is definitely powerful."
"I don't know, John. Doesn't look like it, to be honest."
He shook his head again,"No. Don't fall for it. He's definitely hiding a huge amount of power."
I turned to him,"You're overthinking this again. Just calm down!"
He closed his eyes, and nodded. Just then, a door behind us opened, and in came Jimmy the announcer.
He grinned,"Good morning, participants! Are you all ready to make history for the fiftieth time?"
We nodded, and he smiled,"Great! Now, let's begin the selecting procedure."
A man behind him came towards us, holding a box.
Jimmy said,"Inside this box, are fifty slips of paper, each with a number on it, from one to fifty. Each one of you picks a slip at random, and we decide the order like that! Come to the box one-by-one, and tell me the number you get!"
People began walking one by one. They told him the numbers l, and he jotted them down. Collin's number was 14, John's was 17, Ethan got 23, and Gordon got 31.
It was my turn. I felt around the box, and many pieces of paper ruffled around my hand. I picked one up, and read the number. Great. I'd got 1. The first match, was mine.
Soon, everyone had got their numbers. My opponent was a guy from Arco named Brad Clove. A skinny body, short hair, black eyes. The guy looked underweight. How'd he qualify like this?
Jimmy walked out to the ring, where the crowd cheered for him. He hyped up the crowd, and said,"It is now time, for Round One! Are you ready for the first match?"
The crowd erupted in a loud roar. Jimmy grinned, and continued,"Great! So, the first match of this event is, Alex Bridges from Stronghold, versus Brad Clove from Arco!"
The crowd cheered for us. Brad came to me, with a smile. He greeted me,"Hey! Looks like you're my opponent!"
"Yep, I am!"
"Let's have a good match, and test each other!"
"Sure!"
We walked out, as Match One was gonna start.