66 New Top Ten (2/2)
Scrubbing himself clean after some amount of relaxing, Greyson dried off quickly using his wind magic. Putting on some comfortable night wear, he made a large leap into his bed covers. Breathing in the familiar scent of his blankets, he felt his body unwinding. Coming back after a long day, lying in bed after a hot bath was always the best feeling out there. Before he could even turn off the light stones in his room, his eyes drooped as a sudden wave of exhaustion came over him. In next to no time at all, he was deeply asleep. Lucius followed in after a little while and saw Greyson passed out on his bed. Shaking his head, he bit onto the blankets and tucked Greyson in before switching off the light stones.
”What would you do without me?” He quietly grumbled before laying down as well and shutting his eyes.
...
Morning came in what felt like an instant. The bright sunlight had lit up the room and Greyson sprung up in excitement. A good night's rest left him invigorated for today's battles. Bursting out of his room, he ran off without notifying his master towards the battle stages. Once he arrived, he stopped in surprise as the amount of people in the audience looked as if it doubled and the stadium had been changed. Yesterday the audience seating was smaller and there were ten battle stages, however, today there were only two stages and the seating for the viewers expanded. Ronan had told him before that the entire stadium was on top of a spacial array that allowed the user to change out parts for others in the space underneath, however, to actually see it happen was shocking. Both the stages were larger than the ten other stages making them look much grander.
Looking around, he spotted Ronan in the audience, but this time he did not walk over. Earlier on, he had spotted ten chairs beneath the stages on the ground floor that had obvious meaning. Even without being told he knew that it was for the top ten contestants to sit on awaiting the matches. When he had arrived over at the seat, a couple of the others had arrived. Unsurprisingly, the upright and ever responsible Leopold was already there. Tristian and Ignis had arrived as well. Noticing the approaching figure, the both of them had looked over with interest obvious in their eyes. Nodding in greeting to them, Greyson moved to sit next to Leopold.
”It seems we will finally be able to fight again today. Five years is a long time. I'm confident that you have probably improved significantly.” Opening his eyes, Leopold looked over at the familiar young half-elf with fighting intent almost bursting out.
”Well, my improvement is not bad. I'm looking forward to testing myself against you.” Greyson let out a smile while still looking ahead. Leopold gave him one last look before turning his head back and closing his eyes to meditate once more. Since Greyson was not really close with any of the others, he decided to copy Leo and started to meditate.
During this time, more and more people filtered into the stadium and filled the empty seats. The other top ten arrived all taking random seats. Feeling an oddly intense stare, Greyson cracked open an eye to take a look over at the source. What met his gaze were beautiful golden eyes paired with chestnut brown hair. Thinking to himself, Greyson tried to figure out who the personwas before he suddenly thought of a name. Luca, Luca Argentum. He had seen his photo before in that book he bought. The heat in Luca's eyes made Greyson rather uncomfortable but he wrote it off and stopped paying attention. Closing himself off once more, he continued meditating.
Right before the competition would start up again, he caught a whiff of a strong rose scent waft over to him. Furrowing his brows, he stopped meditating and looked over to the seat next to him. Seeing the pink eyes and light green hair, he recognized her as Ezra Seirina. She noticed him glancing over and winked before giggling. Awkwardly smiling back, he nodded his head in greeting before looking straight ahead. Last to arrive was a yawning Natalia looking bored as usual. Glancing over the seats, her eyes stopped at Ezra who was sitting next to Greyson. Frowning slightly, she quickly walked over as the sleep left her eyes. Smiling sweetly, she looked completely like a innocent young girl.
”Thanks for saving my seat, Big Sister Ezra, you can move over to the other empty seat now.” Her voice chimed out.
”Hohoho, Natty what words are these? I don't remember saving this seat for you. The seat next to Leo over there is still open for you.” Ezra laughed gently.
”I want that seat. So, move it, prostitute! The overwhelming scent of your perfume sickens me.” Her smile disappearing in a second, Natalia enunciated each sharp word clearly.
”Aw, Natty, just because you're young doesn't mean you need to feel inferior towards big sister's developed body. Your time will come, you are still growing.” Venom dripping from each word, Ezra purposely glanced over Natalia.
”Hmph! Me? Inferior to you? You just use your looks to beguile your opponents and poison them. Any good-looking living thing could do the same. When your power is actually weak, you should feel ashamed sitting in the presence of true talented magicians. I'm surprised you have the face to sit up here with the rest of those who truly belong in the top ten.” Not losing an inch, Natalia quickly answered back with her own harsh words.
Finally losing the nonchalant expression, Ezra's eyes narrowed dangerously as she glared towards Natalia while the mana around her began to rise.
”Enough! Would it kill the both of you to just stop fighting for once? It's never-ending.” Coming in at just the right time, Morninghand quickly called the verbal warring to a halt. Turning their heads towards him, both girls glared daggers at the interrupter.
”Eh... I was just mentioning. We need to get the competition started. If you guys want to fight, fight up there.” Slightly intimidated by the sharp glares, Morninghand fell into a softer tone. Hearing his words, both of the girls lightened up with bright eyes as they thought of this option.
”Just you wait!” They both spoke up at the same time. Disgust showed in their eyes at the feeling of speaking the same words as the other, before they both just snorted and turned their heads. Natalia stepped down and plopped down on the seat next to Leopold. The other boys just looked in other directions pretending to not have witnessed a thing. Greyson also felt speechless at the aggression between the two girls. In his eyes, their personalities actually matched up very well. He wondered if there was some sort of back story he was unaware of...