TWO

‘Man, I hate how far the school is.’ Ellie complained, ‘You still following, Alfie?’

‘Yup!’ Ellie’s younger brother, Alfie yelled, ‘My first-day training to be a Warrior! I can’t wait!’

‘Yep…’ Ellie smiled, nervously. ‘Are you really sure you want to be a Warrior, Alf? There are much easier jobs. You could work in the Kaiju Clean-up Crew, or-‘

‘Don’t worry about me, sis! I’m gonna be the best Warrior there is!’

‘I bet you will.’

‘Heeeeey! Ellie!’ A familiar voice yelled from far away.

‘Hmm? - Adonis and Jason?’

‘Yup! How’s it goin?’ Adonis smiled his hands behind his head.

‘Uh, good! You?’

‘Not bad at all, my friend.’

‘I’m goin’ well too, thanks for asking’ Jason complained.

‘That’s good, Jason.’ Ellie smiled awkwardly.

‘You’re Adonis!? The Adonis!?’ Alfie exclaimed. ‘El told me all about you! How you rescued her and defeated a Reincarnated Orc!’

Ellie blushed and looked away.

‘Yup, that’s me! I took that thing like it was nothing! Your sister, on the other hand, may have ha-’

‘SHUT IT!’ Ellie hit Adonis on the back of the head.

‘Ow! The hell was that for!?’

Ellie whispered. ‘Don’t embarrass me in front of Alfie, idiot! – Though, I will admit, you were impressive in that fight. You even broke its armour. Not to mention, you dodged its lightning. You’re quite the Warrior.’

‘Heh, thanks! I’m pretty damn cool!’

‘Right…’

Together, the group walked into the school grounds.

‘See you later, Alf. Be careful, yeah? You’re gonna be great!’ Ellie reassured him.

Alfie ran off, yelling, ‘I know I am! See ya!’

‘Cute brother.’ Jason commented.

Ellie agreed.  ‘Yeah, no kidding.’

Adonis smiled, ‘Alright. Let’s go in. We got our exams today.’

‘I- Oh god, I forgot.’ Ellie stuttered.

Adonis reassured her, ‘Don’t worry, I heard it’s a group tournament and this one will be based more on combat. You’ll be fine, I’ve seen you fight.’

‘Really? Thanks!’ Ellie’s face lit up.

Adonis blushed. He had never realised how truly gorgeous Ellie was. Sure, he’d said before that she was, but he never really paid proper attention to her features. Her soft, red hair, her beautiful figure, her smooth, glazy skin. [This feels so weird to write…]

Together the gang walked into the school and went upstairs to sign in for the tournament. Once they signed in, they left the room and started walking to their main classroom to be put into their teams and meet their captains.

‘Room 2-E, this is the one.’ Jason confirmed.

‘Alrighty.’ Adonis replied.

The gang sat down next to each other, chatting about how excited they were, until, to their shock, another, handsome boy sits next to Ellie.

The boy puts his arm around Ellie. ‘Hey, Ells.’

Adonis raises an eyebrow. ‘Who’s this guy?’

‘My boyfriend, Riley.’ Ellie smiles.

‘Your wha-’ Adonis is interrupted by the voice of an adult.

‘Alright kids, shut it!’ The man yells. ‘Time to find out your teams.’

Everyone sitting in the room quickly shut their mouths and looked up at the man, with curious eyes. Adonis and Riley glare at each other, both with the wish of being on a team with Ellie.

‘Alright. Team 1. You will consist of Riley, Eric and Sumire. Your leader will be Captain Ryder.’

‘Ryder!? He’s the 3^rd most powerful of the 12 Canton Gods.’ Sumire rejoiced. ‘Meaning, besides the Meishu, he’s the 3^rd best warrior in Canton!’

‘Ahem. Continuing on, Team 2 will consist of Adonis, Jason and Ellie. Your captain will be Ace.’

‘Yeah!’ Adonis bragged. ‘Screw you, Riley!’

Riley retorted. ‘Whatever, loser.’

‘Team 3, you will consist of Zack, Ash and Lyn. Your captain is the beautiful Marcella.’ The announcer notified. ‘Team 4, Jack, Pete and Petra. Your captain is Raphael, leader of the 12 Gods.’

‘HELL YEAH!’ Cheered Jack, a muscular, young boy with black hair. ‘Suck it, everyone! We got the best warrior in the village!’

‘Oh yeah!? Well, we got the best looking one!’ Ash bashed his head against Jack. ‘Bedsides, I’m the better brother!’

‘SHUT IT!’ The announcer fumed, silencing the whole room. ‘Anyways, lastly, Team 5 is Surge, James and Kirk. Your captain is Trujillo.’

The announcer continued. ‘Alright, everyone go to your designated meetup spots and join your captains. The spots will be on the paper we’re about to hand out.’

Everyone left the room, taking their papers with them and went to their spots to meet with their captain.

Team 1 went to the centre of the village, where Ryder was waiting for them, playing games on his phone. Ryder was a tall, muscular man, covered in scars. He had short, red hair and an eye-patch covering his eyes, which he claimed was to “look cool”.

Team 2 went to the entry to the forest, where their captain, Ace was sitting, staring at the sky. Ace was a fit man with spiky, purple hair, blue eyes and claw markings on his left cheek.

‘Alright, team. Your combat exams start tomorrow, so to train, you’ll be going up against me.’ Ace announced. ‘Remember, these battles will be conducted in teams, so to test your combat ability and teamwork, you three will go up against me in this forest.’

Ellie cheered. ‘Ooh, can’t wait! Let’s try our best, guys!’

Ace glared at Ellie. ‘I’m not done yet. To win this battle, the three of you must work together to destroy all three diamonds on my person. One on my back. One on my chest. One on my headband. Due to being only tier 2, you all have a tracker showing you my location.’

Ace threw each of them a tablet-like device with a map of the forest and a red dot representing Ace’s location and 3 green dots representing theirs.

‘Alright, we got th-‘

‘Start!’ Ace announced, instantly vanishing.

‘WHAT!? ALREADY!?’ Jason cried.

Ellie smiled confidently. ‘Well, we got no choice. Let’s do this!’

All 3 of them ran into the forest, excited and ready to fight. Anyone who saw them would think they were crazy, all of them running into a battle with one of the most powerful warriors, all with smiles on their faces.