The Ranch

Newcomers Tournament p.II (1)

As the Group Tournament came to a close, there was a one and a half hour long break befor the Individual Tournament would start.

The newbies that had to participate in the group tournament could use this time to regain some energy. The audience can use this time to discuss the battles and tactics, collect their winnings if they bet on Capoeira(which next to no one did), grab some food, and head to Colosseum two.

As the group battles already took a substantial amount of time, it was already evening and many people are hungry. Every time the tournament took place, food vendor would capitalize and make big bucks.

As the cool person he was, Instructor Kane offered to buy them lunch. A distracted Tih in a daze, a Kai who pulled Tih along, and Instructor Kane headed to Colosseum two with food and drinks in their hands.

Tih is pulled through the crowd as he recalls every battle that happened in the arena in an infinite loop. If Kai knew what Tih was doing, he would say Tih is using image training but on a godly scale.

Kai crams the food Instructor Kane bought into his mouth, doing the same to the distracted Tih. They have an hour and a half to eat, walk to the colosseum, and fight. Kai wants the food to be digested by the time they have to start fighting, meaning they don't have that much time to waste. Quickly chewing and swallowing, he stuffs another bite in his mouth. Glancing to his side, he sees Tih unconsciously chew and swallow the food as well and he stuffs more food in Tih.

Once they reach the colosseum, Kai and Tih part ways with Instructor Kane. Once he finds a good seat, Instructor Kane opens his watch to bet a large portion of his money on Tih. He knows everyone will be betting on the five aces from the previous group tournament, not even pausing to look at Tih. If Tih wins, the payout will be gigantic.

It has to be said that all of the strongest newbies are able to join a class of their choosing and become a representative. There has never been a case where a strong individual did not participate in the group fight. Instructor Kane estimates that these assumptions will allow Tih to become the dark horse of the individual tournament, as no one would expect such a strong individual to suddenly pop out of nowhere and will place their bets on other people. So, if Tih really does win, Instructor Kane will have been the only person that bet on him.

As Instructor Kane waits for the raffle to start, he looks through the basic information one last time. As he does this, he can hear the crowd discussing different things.

"This year's newbies have a lot of potential."

"I think there are more talents than any other year!"

"Especially those five aces that are powerhouses in their own rights."

"Imagine what they'll become once they grow up!"

Instructor Kane listens in on who's betting for who. Everyone that's betting is picking from the five aces, with Victor having the most bets. He smirks in delight as he believes he's the only one voting for Tih. Unbeknownst to him, there are a couple other people in the bleachers voting for the child named Tih. Those people being Instructor Maddox, Major Jax, and Phillip.

Over in the outskirts of the colosseum is the resting area for the participants. Tih and Kai have made their way over. Now, they are only waiting for the raffle to see who they'll be fighting first. Kai spots the rest of the Parkour class and drags Tih over, stopping next to Sherlock and Lucien. "What's going on Sher." He asks casually.

"We're just waiting as of now. Ah, Instructor Henri is over their comforting the representatives. After all, they were unlucky enough to face the Capoeira class in their second round." Says Sherlock.

With the completion of integrating all the new moves and techniques he observed during the group tournament, Tih comes out of his daze. He glances at Instructor Henri and the disappointed faces of his classmates.

In the distance, he hears the announcer introduce the start of the Individual Tournament, kicking it off with the raffle.

There's an electronic board next to the resting area displaying the results, as most people had to take off any equipment in case it gets damaged during a fight.

Kai finds his name. He doesn't recall seeing his opponent throughout the group tournament, meaning he's probably not that strong, which is good for him, since he wasn't the strongest in the first place. Kai was not originally a fit person in the first place and has only has a month's worth of exercise, albeit extremely harsh exercise and conditioning.

No matter what, the weaker ones opponent is, the greater chances they have of winning. Lucien and Sherlock also managed to snag easy opponents, which is nice because they aren't physically fit people either.

After search around a little longer, he finally spots Tih's name and proceeds to facepalm. Out of all the new recruits, he just had to get stuck with one of the aces in the first round. This could be bad or good. Since it's the first round, Tih's opponent will most likely look down on him. On the other hand, if he wins, people might doubt the legitimacy of the fight. After all, who would expect an ace to go down in the first fight.

He turns to Tih to see if he's nervous, but his expressionless face relays a certain calmness and uncaring nature. Just in case, Kai asks," Are you going to be okay fighting Pierre in the first round?"

Sherlock and Lucien overhear Kai. Sherlock, with his slightly worse memory, asks Kai," Which one was Pierre again?"

"The slightly chubby redhead." Kai reminds him.

"Ohh, the one with the super arrogant attitude?" Sherlock exclaims.

"Hmm..rather than arrogance, I think it's mainly confidence?"

"Confidence and arrogance are two sides of the same coin, my friend. He said he didn't pick a weapon based art because of money issues, correct? He sure angered a lot of people with his blunt words." Sherlock recalls.

"But he has a point. Most new recruits don't have the money to afford or maintain a weapon."

"I've definitely observed that most weapon users use weapons that aren't in the best condition." Sherlock analyzes. As Sherlock just finishes speaking, the first group of newbies are ushered into the arena.

Now that the fights are one on one, the stages don't have to be as big, meaning they can cram more matches in one group.

Sherlock and Kai are part of the first group of contestants. Once they leave, Tih and Lucien are left by themselves. For the first time since they've met, Lucien starts a conversation on his own initiative," You sure you'll be able to participate in your condition. I've looked though some of the island's history. Data shows that only five percent of people that have fallen from cliffs in the mountain have survived, and they sustain heavy trauma."

Tih stares at Lucien's seemingly uncaring expression and nods to show that he's fine.

Seeing that he still wants to fight, Lucien stops caring," Hm, good luck then."