The Selection

      After the journey to Theodore forest, Zes and Rai spent more time with the others yet they didn’t practice less than before, even much more. So, their skills were getting better and better every moment.

      The transparent liquid that Reese had got not for so long started making trouble (as I have said). Like everyday after lunch, Mr. Andre was chasing Reese and his friends as usual but this time… he caught Reese!! Mr. Andre who could catch Reese for the first time in his life (and I think it would be the last time in his life too), pulled his arm with the utmost strength. Who knew, Reese’s arm suddenly came off. Mr. Andre screamed out loud, dropped Reese’s fake arm and ran away. Everyone stopped and laughed. In fact, Reese put the transparent liquid on his arm and transformed a branch into an arm, tucked it under his sleeves. He successfully tricked An An. When Mr. Andre knew the truth, he was not angry, and also couldn’t help laughing along with others.

      The daily days of the students at Lathaniel passed normally until it was nearly the time when an annual big tournament arrived, the time that every student was waiting.

      “Hey, guys! The Green Tournament’s coming in two months. They’re going to begin the selection next week.” Veejay ran into the room and told everybody excitedly.

      “The Green Tournament? What’s that?” Zes who was doing his homework turned around.

      “It’s the competition between our school and the girl’s school at the opposite valley, Saoirse.” explained Reese “Every year we’ll compete what we’ve learn with them.”

      “Compete with the girls?! You mean, fight with the girls!? Isn’t it a bit unfair?” asked Zes.

      “Oi…doesn’t matter. It’s us who should be afraid of them, especially that Mairi and Scarlet.” Reese said and gnashed his teeth.

      “Who are they?” Rai turned around from his work.

      “They’re Veejay and my opponents last year.” said Reese.   

            “Where will the competition hold?” asked Zes.

      “This year is at Saoirse. Why don’t you guys join the competition?” said Veejay “But you’ll have to defeat me in the selection first, Zes!”

      Zes and Rai looked at each other and decided neither to join the competition nor the selection because it was really hard to defeat a person like Veejay and Reese, most of all…they were lazy.

      The next day teacher Fulvio also made an announcement about the Green Tournament and the selection. He told that the person who wanted to join the selection could sign their name with sir Aleander. At this point, someone who wanted to join the selection moaned, they didn’t want to listen to Sir Aleander boasted about himself. Zes, who already knew about this and already decided to do nothing, didn’t feel excited. But Freza wanted to join the selection, as same as Ladon who now Freza had a quarrel with every single day. This was a really good opportunity for them to fight without getting detentions. Otis also didn’t want to join the competition; he didn’t really like fighting with girls.

      That evening, Reese ran to the gang’s table with a cheerful face at dinner time. “Hey! Zes! Rai! I already signed your name for the selection. Oh~~~ I really want to fight with you Rai !!!!”

      “WHAT!?!?” Zes and Rai blurted out altogether but, well, couldn’t turn back now.

*

      On the selection day, the weather was good; the sky was bright and clear like everyday. Zes, Veejay and Freza went to the practicing field early in the morning. Some students were already there. The selection methods were different in each Line. For the Weapon Line and Magic Line, they did like the tournament, as well as in Creature Line and Plant Line. But for the Art Line, Musical Line and Drug Line, they did the one-time competition. A place for the selection located at its own Line.

      At eight o’clock, a Weapon Line teacher who Zes had never seen before came.

      “That’s Taren. He teaches sword at level seven but there are no student now so he doesn’t have anything to do and often stuck up his nose with everyone else” said Veejay.

      “Veejay how are we going to defeat those high level students?” asked Zes.

      “Don’t you know? They divide the selection into three groups, the beginning level like us, the middle level and the high level.”

      Teacher Taren stepped forward and unfolded the parchment in his hand. He held it in front of him so that every student could see it clearly while he explained the rules.

      “The beginning level is going to fight in pairs. The person who can damage the iron plate on your opponent’s chest first will win. Look who’ll have to fight on this parchment. I’ll give you the iron plates and the weapons. But for the middle level, I am sorry. Saoirse doesn’t have any competitors this year so we have to cancel the competition.”

THE FIRST LEVEL : WEAPON LINE SELECTION

   1. Jon vs Eleague         

                                                     1 vs 2

   2. Liam vs Dan

                                                                                 (1or2) vs (3or4)

   3. Christ vs Hence

                                                     3 vs 4

   4. Veejay vs Shane

   5. Bing vs Zes

                                                     5 vs 6

   6. Doyle vs Seal

                                                                                   (5or6) vs (7or8)

   7. Freza vs Ladon

                                                     7 vs 8

   8. Jim vs Rice

(got two last couple then complete a final round selection)

      Another five teachers, including teacher Fulvio and Sir Aleander, came and separated to their position. “We’ll begin with number one to number six. Please go to the field that your number is placed.” announced teacher Taren.

      Zes’ pair and Veejay’s both in number one to six so Zes didn’t have a chance to watch Vejay fought. He was quite disappointed but the problem in front of him now was much more important. He didn’t know how to defeat his opponent, Bing. Zes hadn’t seen Bing before so he thought that Bing might be in level two or three. Zes was scared stiff to see his opponent stood right in front of him. Bing’s weapon was also a sword and his body was much bigger than Zes. Maybe, he got stuck at Lathaniel for a long time. But when Zes thought about the silver snake, he felt a lot better.

      “Ready…….Fight!!” one of the teacher who was a referee for Zes’ pair said and the fight began.

      Bing jumped toward Zes at once so that Zes almost fell down. Luckily, Zes lifted up his sword to guard himself just in time. He pushed Bing away and struck back, expecting that he could make damage to the iron plate on Bing’s chest. But Bing used his sword to protect it. Zes moved back and just for a split second, Bing came right in front of him!! The sword in Bing’s clutch darted to Zes. Zes held the sword to guard his iron plate. Without any warning, Bing’s sword had changed the direction to Zes’ right arm, the arm that held the sword. Fortunately, Zes noticed the change so he shifted his body aside, yet, because of the close range, Zes got a slightly cut. Zes began to feel the fun and the danger of this fighting. If he didn’t get serious about it, he might be dead on the field. So, he changed his attitude and fought with the opponent equally. It’s then that he saw Veejay’s pair had already finished and, of course, Veejay won. This made Zes felt even more eager than before. He wanted to fight with Veejay.

      Because of this thought, Zes fought Bing fiercely until Bing couldn’t stand anymore and unveiled the opportunity for Zes to stab at the iron plate easily.

      “Cool! Zes! I really wanna fight with you.” said Veejay when he met Zes.

      “Greeeeeeaaaaaaat!!!! Zes! Wait till you see me beat that Ladon! Ha ha ha.” Freza ran to him with excitement.

      Freza’s pair was called afterward. Zes was very excited to see Freza fought with Ladon who everyone hated. I think he was even more excited than Freza himself.

      “Fight!!” when the referee gave a sign to fight, both Freza and Ladon darted into each other frantically with their full level of rancour. The two swords hit against the other, created the loud noise “Bangg!!!!” so that the many pairs turned around to see. Ladon tried to push Freza away, but Freza had more power so he thrusted Ladon into the corner of the field. With hatred, Freza hit Ladon non-stop. Ladon could only protect himself from Freza’s sword. Not for long, everyone could see that Freza’s skill was better than Ladon’s. The more Ladon tried to ward off Freza’s heavy hit, the less power he had left. At last, Ladon’s sword sprang out of his hand and he, himself, also fell down on the ground. Freza seized the chance, prepared to stab onto Ladon’s iron plate, unfortunately….

      Ladon grabbed the sand on the ground, threw it into Freza’s eyes and quickly picked up his sword, stabbed it so hard at Freza’s iron plate that the sword nearly got through the plate. This happened very quickly and almost no one wanted to believe their eyes. We almost had to go to Freza’s funeral, sigh!

      Freza couldn’t stand the judgement; he went to complain the referee. Veejay and Zes also helped him.

      “Teacher, he cheated, you saw that! And he almost killed me!” said Freza.

      “I’m sorry but in real life who’s faster, who’s quicker will survive. It’s not about cheating or not. Don’t be sad, kid! Try again next year.”

      Ladon was sneering behind them with his fellows. I really want to know between Ladon’s gang and Reese’s gang who’ll be wickeder. But I guess if Ladon dared to play with Reese, he’ll never ever ever be lucky again.  

      Well, Freza couldn’t do anything but be patient, “Zes if you have a chance to fight with that asshole, beat him for me.”

      Zes really did meet Ladon. His others opponents were not as good as Bing so he beat them easily. Not talking about Veejay, because he already beat all of his opponents, just waiting who he would see next, Zes or Ladon.

      “HA!!!HA!! You’re going to be dead, Ladon. By Zes or Veejay! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA!” Freza laughed madly beside the field.

      “Fight!!” the referee’s voice raised again and Ladon darted to Zes at once. Zes, still calm, waited for Ladon at where he stood. As Zes had seen Ladon fought before, he knew that Ladon wasn’t worth being his opponent. Even though, Zes wasn’t careless. He knew that Ladon could do anything to win. Well, but you know, Zes was too good. He waited for Ladon’s swings two or three times and Ladon showed a way for Zes to strike the sword on his iron plate.

      Freza’s anger had gone immediately.

      The pair that everyone wanted to watch most had arrived, Zes and Veejay. Anyway, I think both of them were the most excited person on the field. When the referee shouted a fight word, they ran to each other. Well, I don’t think you’ll ever see any fight this entertaining and this trickery as this one. Veejay swung his sword at Zes’ rib, Zes somersaulted in the mid air to avoid Veejay’s blade and aimed his sword down at Veejay. Veejay used only one hand to catch Zes’ sword and he was able to pushed Zes away.

      “Wicked…will I ever have a chance to win?” thought Zes.

      Then, Veejay ran up close to Zes, simply slashed down his sword. Zes could guard this easily but who knew that Veejay would turn the hilt around and punched it on Zes’ face. He got this chance and stabbed Zes’ iron plate.

      Although Zes had lost, he smiled with a happy face. He felt fun fighting with Veejay.

      “Sorry, Zes. Is your face hurt?” Veejay came up and asked after the fight.

      “Not at all! I was very excited that time! Who knew you would come like that!!”

      “Great Veejay! Zes!” Freza came over to them. Hey, those Magic Line’s still haven’t finish the selection, wanna go and have a look?”  

      Reese and Rai were the last couple and they were fighting by the time Veejay, Freza and Zes reached the Magic Line. Black lights that glowing blue from Reese’s hand raced through the air to Rai. At the other side, Rai whose both hands were glowing a silver light stand still… and suddenly the silver light was also darting from his hands toward the black light. The lights hit against each other created a boisterous noise “BaaaannnnG!!” and disappeared.

      “Wow!! Rai’s not easy. His magic can withstand Reese’s” admired Veejay “You two are really cool, indeed. You must have practice a lot right? Umm…but this also needs the talents too.”

      But unexpectedly, the iron plate on Rai’s chest (The selection method of Magic Line and Weapon Line often the same.) crushed down and Rai was lost.  

      What had happened was, before the selection Reese had already made up the plan. He wanted to win this selection just to get a chance to revenge Mairi and also he wanted to try the transparent liquid again. So, he dropped the transparent liquid on a small rock and kept it in his pocket. Then, when his magic power and Rai’s crashed in the mid-air (He intended to decrease his magic power to make it more excited.), the transparent rock flew right to Rai’s iron plate.

      Rai wasn’t angry when he knew the truth because he didn’t want to join the selection in the first place. But Freza opposed and said “You cheated, Reese!!”. Maybe it was because Ladon also did the same kind of trap to him. Anyway, Freza did understand at last that Reese did it for fun and his cheat was not that serious. It’s true, that was cheating. In real life many people cheat to survive. I’m not teaching you to cheat other people but I hope you’ll know what they’re up to and are not fooled by them.