CROWNED - unOrdinary

8 ♛

The ride to the Turf Wars location was smooth and undisturbed, making it practically undetectable that they were seated in a moving train. Arlo's stomach, on the other hand, had suddenly joined the circus and performed a magnificent act of acrobatics, fueled by his nerves and fear. "My first Turf Wars at Wellston."
Despite having plenty of experience with Turf Wars, given his previous title of King, Arlo still felt worried about the match, however good he was at hiding it. All his memories of Turf Wars consisted of him idly standing among the three fallen students from the opposing team, a bored expression on his face. The fact of the matter was, Arlo was once too skilled to participate in Turf Wars. But now, he' be lucky to be skilled enough.
    "Hey, don't be nervous! You're really strong, I bet you'll do great!" Rei said encouragingly. Arlo opened his eyes which were wrenched shut in thought, and glared at Rei.
    "What gave you the idea that I was nervous?" he snapped, though Rei was unfazed.
    "Just a feeling," he replied, still upbeat as ever. "I had jitters the first time I participated in Turf Wars. And I was a 2nd year mind you. You'll do fine, nothing to be scared of."
    "I'm not scared." Arlo said, slowly and carefully, his teeth gritted. Arlo feared that if he were to open his mouth, he might gag.
. . .
    "This is Turf Wars, Arlo!" Ophelia said, grinning as she waved her arm towards the empty field. Arlo was largely underwhelmed. "Not much, is it? Well, we can't really fancy up the place if it's gonna get destroyed during the match anyways. The ground here is sort of dry though, so I put in a request-"
    "Look, the other team's arrived!" their healer, Nolen exclaimed, cutting Ophelia off before she went off on a tangent about her request to the school to relocate Turf Wars.
    The opposing team looked quite intimidating to say the least. Arlo swallowed, summoning his courage. "Conan! Good to see you." Rei said good naturedly, giving Agwin a friendly wave. They didn't return the smile. The King, Conan, rolled his eyes.
"Cheery as ever, Rei. What else would I expect?"
"Well there's no point in being rude to each other is there?" Rei said, grinning.
"You have a new Jack," he said, cutting to the chase. "We have a new guy too." he continued, nodding his head over to the slightly shorted boy standing beside their minty haired queen. Arlo's head immediately whipped over to look. The new Jack had brown, almost red hair tied in a short ponytail. And, Arlo noticed, seemed to be just as excited as he was.
"Well, I guess we should get started then." Rei proposed. "One on one, or three on three?"
"One on one. Better for the newcomers." Rei nodded in agreement and put his hand on Arlo's back. 'Do your best.' he mouthed. Arlo, sighed and mouthed back, 'I will.'
"Alright!" Nolen began. "This is an official Turf Wars between Wellston High School and Agwin High School. The first opponent to face the challenging teams Jack is the Jack of Wellston. Jacks, take your positions.
"I'm Broven." the brown haired boy whispered under his breath.
"Arlo." he replied softly.
"3! 2! 1! Begin!"
Broven took the start by sending a sheet of ice out forwards, in a tall, sharp wall. Arlo took a leap backwards, preparing to defend. Broven moved towards him, motioning his arms to make sharp ice projectiles which he threw at Arlo with accuracy. Arlo raised his barrier to block the incoming attacks.
Broven halted in his path, stunned by the sudden injury. His arms were slashes and dripped with blood. In the time that Broven was caught off guard, Arlo took the chance to step in and land a hit. Broven ducked out of the way, but not before taking Arlo's fist to his jaw. He stumbled back, but just as quickly, made a recovery and bounced back in. He slung his arms back and forth, making sharper, more precise projectiles. Arlo narrowly managed to avoid them, but was his cheek was cut by one.
Rei stood on the sidelines, sweating with worry, "Whatever happened to 'he'll be fine, don't worry'?" Ophelia joked.
"I don't know Pheli, he's strong but this Turf Wars is important for him and I done want him to lose. I'm more scared than I want to be."
"Well I'm glad you're finally concerned about this now that the Turf Wars has actually started! Take your own advice and relax, I trust Arlo and I know you do too."
Arlo ran towards Broven who sent another barrage of small icy crystals. Arlo blocked them with his barrier, causing small scratches to appear on Broven, which weren't as large as the other ones but stung quite fiercely. "GAH!" Broven cried out, clutching his arm which was dripping blood.
"Come on Broven, don't stop now!" Agwin's healer, Elian yelled. Broven pulled his arm up and created another one of his tall icy walls, which managed to hit Arlo before his reflex kicked in, and it it knocked him to the ground before her could raise his barrier at all. Arlo coughed out blood but quickly took a second blow to the face as Broven waved his arms in a piercing sheet of ice.
Arlo sprang to his feet and skirted around the large wall. "I just need to get in range!" Arlo was close to victory now that Broven had cornered himself within his own wall. Using the already constructed wall, Broven took the ice from it and atacked Arlo from all directions keeping him on his toes. Arlo's barrier absorbed and reflected the majority of the attacks but as he neared Broven, the blows became stronger and more forceful, causing Arlo's barrier to crack. Arlo coughed up blood and Rei clenched his fists, ready to call him back.
Arlo wasn't done yet. He neared Broven and raised his barrier, catching Broven off guard once more. Just as quickly as he raised it, he began to make it shrink until Broven was crouching on his knees.
"That's it! You've won this one!" the queen called out. Broven stood up shakily, dazed and hurt from the injuries. Arlo made his way back to his side, barely managing to contain his joy at the victory.
That was the first of many victories to come.

✒ Thank you for reading, and for the patience since I was on break last week. I hope you enjoyed!
- annalycheee