❝how do you kill a monster without becoming one?❞
In the last city ruled by man, fish soar in the skies above and monsters lurk in the alleys below. Ten years ago, Jase lost both his legs and his mother to one such monster. However, tragedy couldn't...
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The Hopeful Conference ended with the Challenges.
The large gym had been cleared to make room for three sparring rings. In each ring, there were two referees dressed in black. Two Hopefuls would spar against each other, their opponent selected at random. The winner got into Stingray and the loser went home.
Of course, that wasn't entirely fair since no matter how strong you were, if you went against someone like Huraira or Kova, you were guaranteed to lose. To avoid this, losers were allowed to challenge one of the winners up to three times and if they won, they traded places.
Jase just wanted to go against someone easy in the first round. That way he could just relax for the rest of the day. And with his thirty-minute time limit... that could get nasty really quick. He knew he couldn't spar more than two or three times depending on the length of the matches. He hadn't told anyone about his time limit for this exact reason, hoping that no one would figure it out and then challenge him.
The Viper stalked into the room, holding her tablet with ferocious intent. "I hope you haven't been screwing around all week because today's the day!" she said, flipping through her tablet. "And we got ourselves a good matchup. In the first ring, we have Dolion against King." She pointed to the ring on the far right.
Huraira muttered something under her breath about being first and Bonnie followed her to the ring, her face white. Jase flashed both of them a smile, already knowing that Bonnie stood no chance against Huraira.
"Ring two, Brook and Miller," the Viper continued, pointing to the center ring as two forgettables walked towards the ring. the Viper said. "Finally, in ring three we have Malik and Williams."
Just great.
Well, that meant Jase was fighting at least twice today. However, there was something odd about all of these people. All six of them were in the top ten high scorers on the simulation. Were they making the best go first? That didn't seem entirely random to Jase.
He sighed and pushed himself out of his wheelchair and into the ring as Kova positioned himself on the other side. The referee walked in between them, old and scowling. "This will be a simple test of hand-to-hand combat," she said. "Either down your opponent for ten seconds or knock them out of the ring. No weapons will be allowed to gain an advantage. Please refrain from doing any lasting damage to your opponent or else you will be disqualified. Begin with the whistle."
The referee stepped out of the ring, raising a silver whistle to her lips. With a shrill chirp, the match began and Jase leaped into action. Jase's legs were his greatest weakness, but they were also his greatest strength. They made him fast and strong, more so than the average human. Huraira had been the one to teach him how to use his legs to their fullest potential when facing a stronger opponent.
Just because Jase knew he was going to lose, didn't mean he was going to lay down and surrender.
Kova was faster than Jase, but he was also a solid foot shorter and had twigs for arms. The only real chance Jase has was to use brute force and end this before he got tired.
