Champions (Volume 1)

Champions Ch04 - Tournament

Champions

Ch04 - Tournament

"Luck: An invisible force which we must rely on."

I turned a corner and found a cafeteria. Finally, some food! I have not eaten for what feels like a week! I wonder if Grace and Alex have found their way here...

I quickly ran up to the bar and found some foods that could have been straight from Earth. Food like corndogs, pizza, oranges, bananas; you know, all the good stuff.

"Hey, Sam!" I heard. Very likely Alex. I turned around to see him jogging up to me. "How'd you do in the tourney?" He asked. He didn't look too good. He had a black eye and a large gash across his face. His arms were also fairly bruised.

"I won somehow. How'd you do?" I replied. I probably had cuts and bruises all over my back from being thrown around so much.

"I got second. An axe across my face and was listed as 'Incapacitated' or something like that." Alex answered. "Anyway, we should probably eat. I am starved."

I nodded and turned around to see what other options were available. I grabbed two corndogs, a slice of pizza, and a banana. Alex had two slices of pizza, a chicken patty, and an orange. I turned around to see if there was a place to sit.

"Wow, no place to sit." Alex commented. He looked for the doors and found Grace had walked in. "Hey, over here!" He called. Grace looked over and ran towards us.

"I am so glad there are other people. The aliens here are trying to kill us! We need to get out of here!" She explained. Alex and I looked at each other with a mix of emotions. I wasn't sure if we could put this in a way that would allow her to stay sane for the time being.

"I uh... I don't think we can get off. We are not on a planet, as far as I know." I said. The expression on her face was bad. It was like shock, horror, disbelief, absolute sorrow. "You should get something to eat." I suggested. She nodded and walked slowly over to the food bar.

Alex and I looked at each other one more moment before finding a place for the three of us to sit. It took only a second once we actually looked for a spot. Grace had found us fairly easily and sat down next to us.

"So... what did you choose?" Alex asked awkwardly. Only a moment later, one of his pieces of pizza burst into flames. "That's umm..." He couldn't figure out what to say. It was good that she chose Warlock, but he lost some of his food over the question.

I bet it is hard to believe, but the rest of our meal was spent in silence.

***

We all returned to the training room and found that the middle of the room was littered with walls and columns. Everything else was generally the same. Though upon our return, three AI appeared to greet us.

"Hi Will." I said. Will flickered and disappeared. "Weird." I said, but I disregarded it. I moved over to the combat area to study it. It was definitely large. It even had an open area in the middle.

A flashing hologram appeared in front of me stating that we only had a few minutes left to get to our next tournament.

"Come on! We have a battle!" Alex called. I jogged in behind him and Grace kind of sauntered behind us.

***

This time, we entered the same arena, but there were other teams of three. A message appeared before us that read:

"Welcome to Round Two of the tournament. The boosts are the same and so is my advice. The board, however, states the team's average aura level. You cannot measure what a specific opponent's aura level is. But you will know if a team is near defeat. Remember to stay out of the red, and good luck!"