"Hey there, Miss Arime," our teacher Josh greeted Miss Arime Hanaye, one of the level 3 instructors at our school. Miss Arime was a stunning woman with raven-black hair and fair skin. Her curves accentuated her slender figure, and I guessed she was in her early thirties, though she wore no wedding ring. "What's up, Josh?" she replied with a stoic expression written across her face.

"Hey, chill out," he said, smiling as he walked over to her. "Your students are doing great. Don't compare them to mine—they're a year older, remember?" He sat down on a chair next to her, near the podium where the principal was making announcements.

"So you really think the Orime group might invade us?" Miss Arime asked, glancing at Mr. Josh with a worried expression.

Before he could answer, two other teachers walked into the room: Mr. Kelvin and Miss Diana, who taught the first and second years at our school. "What are you guys talking about?" Mr. Kelvin asked, grinning and winking at Josh. Josh sighed, knowing what Kelvin was implying, and decided to ignore it.

"We're just discussing the issue Josh raised at the meeting," Arime said to Kelvin, who wrinkled his nose and nodded.

"So, Josh, where did you get that info from?" Diana asked, fixing him with a serious gaze.

Josh paused before answering. "Well, it was a heads-up from Ashylene's father and a hunch I've had for a while."

"Ah, the father of the three Void sisters. Is he worried they'll attack us and lose his heirs?" Arime asked, turning her attention back to the arena.

"Maybe. And he also wants to avoid losing some potential recruits for his family," Josh said, leaning forward and stroking his chin.

"Well, if that happens, they'll have to find a new leader if the three daughters die," Kelvin said, following her gaze.

"They'll have to choose someone from the branch families, even if they're not as powerful as the main line," Josh said, sitting back and crossing his arms.

"And that means he'll get the position of the heir, right?" Kelvin said, glancing at Josh.

"Yeah, and he could always challenge the leader if he wanted to. He's known as the one who will become the strongest, but I don't think he's interested in leading." Josh took a sip of water.

"Mmm, his ability is amazing," Arime said, brushing her hair off her face.

Our school has four main teachers, each in charge of a class of about 40 students. There are four classes in total: class 1, class 2, class 3, and class 4. My friends and I are in class 4, which has 45 students. I'm the weakest one. Our school only has 187 students, because there aren't many chosen ones. Out of the 8 billion people in the world, only about 20 million have abilities.

There's a tournament that's held in every school around the world. It's designed to measure our abilities and potential, and rank us in tiers. The tiers are red, orange, green, violet, and blue, from weakest to strongest. The same tiers apply to our society. I'm currently a red.

…

"The next match is Dwayne versus Sarah," the announcer, our principal, said with excitement in his voice.

Dwayne and Sarah locked eyes, sizing each other up.

"You don't look like a misfit," Sarah said to Dwayne. "You have talent, so why do you hang out with that loser Tinashe?"

Dwayne stared at Sarah, not saying a word. He was too busy admiring her to listen to what she said.

"Man, these three girls from the great families are all smoking hot. Why do we have to be enemies?" he thought, ogling her. "But she's still not as good as Sandra," he added, as he summoned his armor.

"So you're going to ignore me, huh?" she said, as water began to swirl around her.

"I won't beat you up too bad. I don't want to make Sandra mad," he said, brushing off her question.

She looked down, and the water around her turned into needles. Her hair became drenched.

"What's wrong with her?" he wondered, watching her.

Sarah had never been ignored in her life. She was someone renowned and respected, and spoiled by her parents. She was enraged by Dwayne's indifference.

"How dare you?" she snapped, glaring at Dwayne, who looked utterly unconcerned.

"Why would a peasant, a nobody like you, ignore someone like me?" she demanded, as the water around her began to whirl, slicing through everything in its path, showing how irritated she was by Dwayne's attitude.

But Dwayne didn't care. "Look, I don't care if you're a princess, a spoiled brat, or a cute elf," he said, as his rods materialized.

"As long as Sandra is hotter than you, you're a peasant in my eyes too," Dwayne said, extending his left hand.

"What are they talking about?" Sandra asked Ashylene, watching them converse.

Ashylene giggled, as if she could hear what they were saying.

"You do know that Sarah can beat Dwayne, right?" Tanaka said, grinning.

Ashylene smiled, ignoring her comment, and looked back at Dwayne and Sarah.

"What did you say?" Sarah said, her voice rising with anger. "You do know that I'm the heir to the Void family, right?"

Dwayne met her gaze and said, "Don't care."

She took a step forward and said, "Do you know what power I possess?" she asked him, but he answered again,

"Don't care."

She was furious, and the water around her spun faster, reflecting her rage.

"Why is your daughter acting like that?" Jane's mother asked Ashylene's mother.

"I don't know. I've never seen her this way before," she said, looking at her husband, who was equally shocked. Sarah started ranting about how great the leader of the Void family was and how she could ruin Dwayne's life, but he just said to her, "Still - don't -care."

Sarah trembled with anger and unleashed her water technique at Dwayne. He quickly formed a shield shaped like an arrow to deflect the water and split it in two.

"Wow, he can make new things so fast now," I said. Dwayne used to be slow at making big things, because they took a lot of memory to build without repeating them. He could summon things he remembered faster than those he had to recreate from scratch or from memory.

He must have trained himself to be quicker with his weak points. He launched his rods at Sarah, who made a wall of water and then changed its structure by pulling the water molecules together, creating an ice wall by making the water particles lose energy. The rods hit the ice wall and bounced off, surprising everyone.

"Wow, how did your daughter do that?" Jane's parents, who were ice users, asked Ashylene's parents. They explained how Sarah could change the state of water from gas to liquid to solid.

Jane and our other friends already knew about it, so they weren't surprised.

"Wow, that's new," Ashylene said, sounding shocked.

"Your friend is going to lose, big sis," Tanaka said, giggling wickedly.

Dwayne pulled back his rods and launched a barrage of them at her ice wall, shattering it. Sarah summoned more water and rose into the air, creating distance between them. She tried to attack him from above, hoping to gain an advantage with her aerial view.

But Dwayne had another trick up his sleeve. He summoned his star-shaped weapons and threw them at Sarah, who blocked them with ice. She knew she had to use solid water, because liquid water would be pierced by his metal.

She started gathering water in the sky above her, as they exchanged long-range attacks.

Dwayne saw what she was doing. She was planning to drown him with her water. He knew it was time to strike her down.

He had left all the metal rods he had used to attack Sarah on the ground. She didn't know he could fly. He ran around, dodging her ice crystals, which she had learned from Jane. He summoned a shield to block them, as he waited for her to make her move.

"You're a rude peasant, and I'm going to drown that rudeness out of you," she yelled, lifting her hand and aiming her giant gallons of water at the arena. She smiled as her water fell toward him.

"It's so big," Ashylene and Sandra gasped in unison. "Will he be okay?" Sandra asked.

"Mmm-hmm, he'll be fine," I said, trying to sound confident, even though I had some doubts.

The water crashed on the ground, flooding everything and submerging Dwayne. Sarah turned the top of the water solid, trapping him inside a five-meter-thick layer of ice.

"It's over now," she thought. "In a minute or so, the match will be stopped and he'll be unconscious." "This will teach him to respect me," she said.

Sarah smiled, thinking she had won, as ten seconds passed, then thirty.

But then a loud bang came from the ice below her, as if something was trying to break out. She knew the ice was five meters thick, strong enough to withstand a grenade blast. It would take something like a tank cannon to shatter it. How could Dwayne make anything like that while underwater?

Forty seconds passed, then fifty. It went silent. "Is it over?" she wondered.

Suddenly, the ice cracked all over the arena, and then exploded, sending thousands of rods flying in the air.

"How?" Sarah gasped, shocked. She saw Dwayne floating in front of her, gasping for air. Before she could attack, she saw the rods pointing at her from all directions.

"Checkmate, honey," he said, water dripping from his body.

"I'm impressed. I can't believe you actually came up with such an obvious plan," Dwayne said, taking off the mask he had worn.

"Anyone could tell what you were planning. I mean, the giant water bubble was right above you," he added. "You just assumed I couldn't do anything because you thought I couldn't fly like you. That gave me the chance to lower your guard and secure my victory."

"Heir to the Void family, huh? Funny. It would have been better if you had used your water ability to slash at me with pressure. You know, the kind of pressure that can cut steel, like a water jet cutter," he said.

"Well, you lose," Dwayne said, as the principal announced the winner of the fight.

"Dwayne won," he said, as the crowd cheered with joy.

Sarah's parents were disappointed by her defeat.

"Hmm, she lost to some kid, even though he is impressive," her father said.

Ashylene driver told them that Dwayne was the fifth strongest, which shocked them all.

"Oh, well, it makes sense. Talent in this school is very high. Maybe I'll recruit him," Sarah's father said.

Dwayne came straight to us, as the first aid told him he was okay after a checkup. He had been underwater for a short time, not enough to make him drown. Dwayne could spend a long time underwater, so this was nothing to him.

"Dwayne burst into the room where we were watching, laughing triumphantly. "I won, my friends, I won!" he exclaimed. We rushed to him and congratulated him.

Tanaka glared at us, fuming over the match result. The other two girls from the great families joined her, shooting daggers at us with their eyes.

"Aww, that must suck," Dwayne taunted, making a face at Tanaka, who looked ready to explode.

"This is so irritating," Tanaka muttered to Jane and Dane, venting her frustration. "Hey, where's Jerry? Doesn't he want to watch, or is he too embarrassed?" Dane asked Jane, who kept staring at us.

"Hey, get ready, Dane," Jane said to him. "You're next with him," she added.

The announcer then announced, "It's time for the next match-up," he shouted into his mic.

"Dane versus…" he said, pausing for effect.

"Tinashe," he finished.

My heart sank, and I realized I had to fight Dane.

"I should have checked my name in the match-ups," I thought.