“Gyaaaaah!”
The orb of darkness slammed into Roxas, sending him flying. He landed on his back, but the momentum flipped him over and kept him rolling. Eventually, he came to a stop face down as a pale blue barrier expanded around him. His substitute pendant had not survived the impact.
“That’s it! The match is over!” shouted the commentator. “Defying expectations, Sain Fostess has emerged the winner!”
The commentators had, of course, considered Roxas the favorite, meaning he’d just supplied them with an unexpected twist to the storyline.
“What a nail-biter that was! Listen to the crowd! They loved it!”
“It got me sweating, too. The two contestants were evenly matched and it was a very close fight. Thank you to both of them for putting on such a great show.”
A wave of fatigue rolled through Sain, and the commentators’ voices seemed to grow distant. He dropped to his knees and pressed his hands to the ground to support himself, his breath coming in labored gasps. Sweat pooled on the ground in front of his face. Sheer adrenaline had kept him going during the match, and he’d pushed himself to the very limit. Now, with the tension gone, he’d started feeling the consequences. He could feel the blood rushing through his temples, its rhythmic flow beating against his skull like war drums. The sound was so loud that he could barely hear the audience cheering. His vision swam, and it took an effort of will to avoid collapsing on the spot.
None of that could hold back the rush of triumph.
“What do you think was the deciding factor of that match?”
“I don’t think there was a single deciding factor. Both contestants gave it their all, and since they were evenly matched, it ended up being very close. If I had to pick something... it would probably be raw ability. One of them was just overall a stronger fighter than the other.”
“Raw ability, you say...”
The female commentator repeated the other’s words, her voice slightly tense. This time, Sain hadn’t gone for a surprise attack nor had he pulled some sort of eye-popping trump card out of his hat. He fought an honest match, and he won. The implications of that were massive .
The male student who served as the analyst looked directly at Sain as he voiced his thoughts.
“At this point, I think we have no choice but to accept the reality... that Sain truly is the dark horse of this tournament. I’d imagine that intermediate division students in the stands are now seeing him in a very different light. Sain had always stood out as a rather eccentric individual, what with the way he acts and dresses, but until now, he’d never been seen as particularly competent.”
“His antics sure did make him stick out like a sore thumb. But you think that image will start changing now?”
“Yes, I do think he’ll start standing out for a different reason, now. Frankly, I didn’t think he’d be this strong, either, but the match we just witnessed served as a resounding refutation of our prior expectations. Going forward into the third round, I think people will need to start considering him a threat. Take him on without a plan, and you might come to regret it.”
Slowly, the deafening beats of his own heart softened, and the sound of applause entered his ears. He was still breathing heavily, and every muscle in his body ached, but he forced it out of his mind to relish the moment. He’d won. It’d taken so much out of him that he thought he was going to pass out, but he’d won. Never more would he be a loser. He’d shed the name. A wave of heat struck the back of his nose, and his vision blurred. In the teary haze, he saw the figures of three girls who’d offered him their friendship.
Melia. Alicia. Marni.
He was overcome by gratitude. Meeting them was the best thing to have ever happened to him. Had they not lent him their time and energy to help him improve, he’d never have defeated Roxas. Marni’s words resurfaced in his mind.
“None of us here thinks you’re weak. Not anymore.”
He’d trusted her. And how glad he was to have done so.
“Damn it...”
Sain blinked away the tears to find Roxas, who was slowly climbing to his feet, glaring at him with furious hatred in his eyes.
“This isn’t over, you little shit...”
It had been a good match. Everyone, from the commentators to the audience, probably had a favorable opinion of the fight. Nevertheless, there was some bitterness from the way it concluded. Roxas, who came into the match feeling vastly superior to his opponent, had suffered what was undoubtedly a humiliating defeat at the hands of someone he considered a loser. That must have severely dented his pride. Sain would have preferred to shake hands and end the match on a positive note, but ultimately, no such opportunity presented itself and they left the arena without trading any words.
“Sain!”
As he approached the stands, he saw Alicia running eagerly toward him.
“You did it! Nobody’s going to call you a loser after seeing that!” she exclaimed, beaming at him as though it’d been her who won. Her exuberance proved infectious, and he grinned back.
“Yeah. I’m not going to lie. I’m feeling pretty good right now. It’s as if all my hard work finally paid off.”
“It did pay off,” Marni affirmed as she walked up beside Alicia. “The old Sain would have been completely outclassed by Roxas. But you put in the work, and you tipped the scales. Congratulations. I’m... happy for you, too.”
“Thank you, Miss Grim... No, Master!” he exclaimed, touched by the compliment. Coming from her, whose attitude usually defaulted to cold disinterest, that meant a lot.
He then looked to the third girl to appear.
“Maid, it appears that our showdown is drawing ever closer.”
“I guess it is, Master Sain. To be honest, I thought for sure you were going to lose that one.”
“Mwahaha! Too bad for you! I’m on a roll right now, and I’m going to roll right through you, too! Just watch me!”
“Hmmm? Is that... baseless confidence I hear?”
Melia showed him the kind of smile that was definitely meant to be interpreted as a threat. He whimpered a little and retracted his statement.
“U-Uh... Y-You know what? Maybe I’m not on such a roll after all! Haha!”
Alicia rolled her eyes and muttered, “Why talk so big if you’re going to immediately take it back?”
“Still, let’s not get ahead of ourselves here,” Melia said in a more sober tone. “We both have another match left to go, and I’m pretty sure it’s going to be a big one for both of us.”
Her warning pulled his head back down from the clouds. She was right; the tournament wasn’t over. The thought of their next opponents put the stopper on his exhilaration.
“Melia’s next opponent is the president, and Sain’s up against Yuria, huh...” said Alicia as she studied the brackets. “There sure are a lot of familiar faces now that we’re entering the third round.”
For those like Alicia, who’d been here since the junior division, the students who made it to the upper echelons of the tournament rankings were all more or less household names. It hardly needed to be said that the student council president, Cain, was a formidable opponent, but Yuria, the younger of the Eldis twins, was no slouch, either. This time, though, mixed in with the usual crowd were Sain and Melia, whose presence this late in the brackets must have been quite odd for regulars of the magic battle expo.
“The third round is tomorrow, right?” asked Sain.
“Yeah. They finish up to the first half of the second round on day one. Day two is the second half of the second round and all of the third round. The final day is only the semifinals and the grand finals,” explained Alicia.
“Which means Maid and I are both done for the day, huh... Well, this is sort of an awkward time to finish.”
It was one o’clock in the afternoon, right when the festival was really getting busy. The expo wasn’t just a nonstop marathon of matches from morning to night. In order to allow the contestants to enjoy the festival, the matches were concentrated in the middle of the day, from late morning to early afternoon. In fact, most of the matches on day one finished in the morning.
“Let’s go get some food first,” suggested Alicia. “The two of you haven’t eaten yet, right? Sain can probably use some rest, too.”
“Yeah, I would appreciate some cooldown time.”
Even lengthier matches tended to finish in under ten minutes, so Sain hadn’t actually been moving around for all that long. They demanded a lot of energy in a short time, but total stamina drain was limited, so recovery was quick as well. It was the mental fatigue that lingered, which was why Sain was hoping for a longer period of rest.
“We’ll let you rest up first, but once you feel better, let’s go look around the vendor booths. Marni and I found a couple of interesting ones,” said Alicia.
He nodded.
“Sure thing. We can spend the whole afternoon exploring the festival.”
The expo wasn’t all about fighting; there was plenty of entertainment. Like Alicia, Sain had also been looking forward to wandering through the mazes of booths and doing some window shopping. With their plans for the rest of the day decided, Melia raised her hand.