𝕓𝕖 𝕞𝕪 𝕝𝕚𝕘𝕙𝕥 | 𝔽𝕣𝕖𝕖 𝕕.𝕝.𝕙.

Cruel-Chapter seventeen

"Me, me, me!"

Valt sprang up from the bench. It amazed Ravlynne partially, how his eyes were always that excited, as if there was nothing to fear. 

In reality, the odds would be against him if he went against Heinrich, since the latter had a lot more experience and Raging Roktaver was a defence type bey. 

That thought didn't really occur to the boy, because he continued waving his hand in the air.

"You?"

Free raised an eyebrow. Valt nodded vigorously and held out Valkyrie.

"We'll take down Heinrich and his rip-off Roktaver bey!"

"Death to the rip-off Roktaver!"

His bey echoed, raising her sword and pulling on her horse's reins, making it rear up and kick its front legs in the air. Fafnir snorted, covering his face with his wings and yawning.

"That is, if you actually knew how to wield your bey."

Free pointed at Valkyrie. Valt frowned and looked at his bey.

"What?"

"When you aren't gushing with Poncho about how oh-so-lucky you are to be here, you're pestering someone who actually knows how to blade. You can't even keep your wits around yourself in a tournament, and this is just the first match."

Valt stared open-mouthed at Free. Rantaro glared at the captain.

"Hey, watcha doing attacking Valt? Some captain you are! We're supposed to be deciding who to field next, not making low-down digs at one another."

"Oh, that was already decided."

Free tipped his head to one side. The slot below BC Sol's logo was filled and "Free De La Hoya" flashed across the screen.

"If either of you had went, we would have lost this round. I don't dislike you, but politely speaking, both of you are trash. One has a bey spirit so weak it's falling apart and the other doesn't even know how to harness his own bey's abilities. Heh, what a joke."

With that, Free walked off and out into the open stadium, leaving Valt and Rantaro at a loss for words.

"I will kill that dragon someday for looking down on my blader like that. Someday!"

Valkyrie growled and her armor-clad steed snorted in agreement, chaffing at the ground with its hooves. Roktaver said nothing, merely patted his friend's horse morosely. Karaginn observed the two.

"That was...rather harsh of him. They haven't mastered their beys yet, and you can't really blame them. Not everyone is a prodigy like De La Hoya."

"Easy for you to say, he doesn't seek to put down your blader at every opportunity."

Valkyrie pointed out, hands clenching the hilt of her sword. Karaginn fell silent.

"Valkyrie has a point. Free always seems to target Valt and when Rantaro tries to help, he turns on him too. I don't think he's just doing this for fun; he has better things to do with his time. He wants Valt to do something, to change."

Ravlynne crossed one ankle behind the other, heels against the base of the bench. Valt stood motionless in the centre of a room, and for a moment she thought he might burst into tears or something. 

She knew what it was like to be told you weren't good enough, even when you had trained so much. There was always that gap between what you wanted to achieve and what you could achieve, and some people could close that gap, but some people would never.