~CLUTTER~ ~KONG!~
I was putting on my armor in an eeriely quiet dressing room and I dropped the shoulder guard by accident. I looked at my right hand and I saw it shaking.
"Am I scared?" I muttered and for some reason my voice echoed in the room.
"Scared, scerd, ed..."
'This isn't fear.' my mind rang, 'It's excitement.'
I put on the remaining pieces of my armor and I stood up from the bench with a smirk. I opened the door and I saw Roy and Leon waiting for me.
"You're dressing up like a woman" Leon joked. "Slow and neat."
"Better don't say that in front of the girls" Roy warned Leon. "Rachel would fry our arses."
The three of us had fearful looks in our faces and we began to walk down the small hallway to another door.
"Oh, I just remembered, a teacher was calling the participants to explain some things about the tournament two minutes ago" Roy said to me.
"Why didn't you tell me earlier!" I shouted before blasting off.
I reached the end of the hallway and I turned my head around and I sew a door leading in into the arena and another door at one side of the room.
I ran into it and i saw an annoyed teacher looking at her watch and a lot of students wearing their armors, ready for battle.The moment my foot touched the door step the teacher looked up at me with an annoyed face.
"What were you doing! I summoned all of you moments ago!" she chided.
"I'm sorry, ma'am I was-"
"Just shut it and sit"
"Yes ma'am"
She turned her attention from me to the whole class and she stated explaining.
"COCO is an abbreviation for 'Clash of children overlords', an annual competition done at the end of each session. Some of you failed your finals..." she said and I noticed that her gaze fell despairingly on me and when I noticed her gaze I bowed my head.
"There are 16 rounds. If you reach round 10, you'll get 20 extra marks, round 11 is 30 extra marks, round 12 is 40 extra marks, round 13 is 50 extra marks, round 14 is 60 extra marks, round 15 is 70 extra marks and round 16 is a whooping 80 extra marks..."
"....!"
I was surprised and happy at the same time. I got 10 marks in the exam out of a hundred. I couldn't read anything before the exams because I was busy practicing for COCO.
'If I lose now, I'm truly doomed' my mind rang.
"These are the match ups for round 1" the teacher continued and I immediately snapped my next up.
The board behind her had been turned on and we could see a tournament template with our names in and guess what, my name was in the first match.
"1st match - Nick V Aurora Blaze"
"The students in the first match should meet me in the room at the back. The others are dismissed until further notice"
All the students went out except, my opponent and the teacher. I looked at the person I would be fighting, a red haired girl with the same red eyes. She held a bow and had a quiver if arrows on her back and she didn't wear any armor.
'A pretty confident style of dressing' my mind rang again.
My thoughts were cut short by the sharp voice of the teacher. "Nick, wait at the door leading to the arena at the back and when you hear your name, you'll walk out. Aurora, follow me to the second entrance... Dismissed"
I walked out of the room with skips in my steps and I kept making a sound of ~klack~ ~klack~ on the tiles.
I reached the door and I entered the hallway that led into the arena and I stood and after five minutes the boredom began to manifest and I took out my rapier and began to inspect it.
[Water Rapier]
[Rapier made out of the crystal of a water beast]
[Slash power - 86%]
[Pierce power - 98%]
[Flexibility - 95%]
[Skills - Water illusion slash, Pierce bullet, Reflect]
[System remark - Dice some fish with it ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)]
I ignored the system remark and I slid my sword back into it's scabbard. I get out a sigh and I sat in crosslegged on the ground and I sensed my Qi core. It had grown bigger since when I first got it. It was already the size of a basketball.
I turned my attention to my mana core and I began to pull in mana from my surroundings. A way of cultivating and increasing my mana pool.
'Up next is the purification' I thought to myself.
The mana in the surroundings were plenty but it was impure. When I cultivated my core and purified the mana, I would only get twenty percent of what I brought it. The rest would come out of my body in form of the black goo.
"-ESTANT NICK! CONTESTANT NICK!"
I was snapped out of my cultivation session because of the loud shouting and I quickly realized that I was being called. I stood up without wasting a second and I ran out of the passage.
I found myself in a large arena and by my guess, there were around two thousand people here. Aurora was already on the battle stage, a smooth cemented platform raised a little from the ground.
I spotted my four friends in the crowd and they were all waving and smiling at me except Rachel of course who gaze was particularly nowhere.
"IN THE FIRST MATCH OF THE FIRST ROUND OF COCO, WE HAVE NICK VERSUS AURORA BLAZE!" a large voice boomed. "USE ALL YOUR WEAPONS AND STRENGTH, IF ANY LIFE THREATENING ATTACK REACHES YOU, YOU'LL BE TELEPORTED TO THE GLASS ROOM TOWARDS THE EAST!"
"BEGIN!"
{Round 1 match ups are in the authors thought (☞ﾟ∀ﾟ)☞}