*+.The Golden Tournament.+*

3. And So It Begins

Kai sat with his cheering friends as he tried to see if he could beat Griffin's score. Just as the score was about to hit 29,000, a loud buzzer rang. Luckily, the screen said 'Progress Saved'.

"Greetings contestants!", a voice rang out from who knows where, "This is your first contest! Around the building, you will find hidden yet large fox-shaped pots. In each one of these pots, there is a flag. Form teams up to the number of eight, and collect as many as you can! Elimination will be based off of teamwork and rules. There is a count of 20 to form teams, so I suggest you move quick!"

The ninja quickly selected themselves, as there were six. Eight of the elemental masters teamed up, leaving two. Mr. Pale and Griffin. The ninja let the two into their team, making eight in each group. The buzzer suddenly rang.

There were two different fox pots on both sides of the large room. They rushed quickly and grabbed the flags, making equal points. Both the ninja and elemental masters were hoping to get even numbers. Despite the fact that elimination will be based off of teamwork and rules, they didn't trust it.

The ninja's group bumped into a second team. They seemed to be a group mainly composed by serpentine. One, an entirely blue serpentine noticed the flag that the ninja held. "Get it!", he hissed, pointing to the bright blue flag that Kai held. Mr. Pale suddenly disappeared, appearing on the other side of the serpentine with their flag.

Astonished, the pink serpentine that had been holding it made a grab for him, missing as he disappeared again. He reappeared on the ninja's side, now holding both flags. Griffin grinned at Pale, obviously praising him for the smart thinking.

Though you couldn't see it well, the position of his arm clearly showed he was making a thumbs up.

Griffin then used his speed to clear a way for the ninja, bumping the surprised serpentine group out of the way gently, but moving them quite a lot. The ninja ran through with an invisible Mr. Pale within the middle.

Griffin joined them, running in front of Cole. Cole winced as a searing heat burned his arm. He looked and noticed a bright red spot growing on his arm. "Ow, ow, ow", he hissed, shaking his burning arm. Zane looked over, noticing that the red burn came from Griffin's speed.

Zane gently froze it over, hoping to ease it a little. It seemed to work, as now Cole looked uncomfortable, but grateful. "You need to be a bit more careful, Griffin", Zane spoke, "The heat you are able to withstand is not much of a strong suit for too many of us. Your speed is creating a burning hot aura."

Griffin looked back, wondering what he meant. Noticing Cole, he rushed over carefully, apologizing and bowing. Cole simply chuckled, trying to tell him that he was fine. Griffin eventually stopped apologizing and bowing, but kept reaching for the frozen spot like maybe he can speed up the cooling by touching it.

The frosted area became a main target for the other teams, as it was a weak spot. You could clearly tell how guilty Griffin felt as more and more teams got more confident and kept going for Cole. At some point, a buzzer rang.

Griffin sighed in a look of relief that Cole might not be attacked anymore. "Alright, contestants!", the same voice from before called out, "Meet at the Tengu statue to turn in your flags!"

All teams headed over, putting their flags into boxes that looked like they were for specific corresponding teams. "The Elementals, and the Ninja have tied", Olunai rang out, "They, with the most flags, have clear passing to the next round. However, the second winners, the Serpentine have cheated. Those directly included will not be participating in the next round. This means that Gonia, Jorius, and Safila are eliminated."

Tengu emerged, taking away the snakes that had those named. The contestants watched as the bridge door opened, showing Ninjago City on the other side, and the serpentine cheaters were pushed in with the gates slamming on their faces.

"There will be re-stocked food in your rooms", Olunai said peacefully, "You may go back to the activity you were doing before the contest. The next challenge will be tomorrow, so have a peaceful night!"

The ninja and elemental masters went to their rooms, finding tiny necklaces with gems carved into the shape for their elements. They all met in the hot tub room, with Nya silently studying all of the necklaces for any type of tech. Then they were handed to Zane and Wu for a magic check.

In case you were wondering, Wu was just chillin in the middle room during the contest.

"There's no tech on them", Nya said, slightly confused. "There is no magic on it either, as Zane and I have found", Wu said, stroking his beard and staring at the necklace.

All the ninja and elemental masters felt odd.

Where was the bad thing that usually happened here?