Chapter 115: Tournament (1/2)

“So I presume you’ve all read through the tactics sheets.” Claire asked into the group. Eve looked like she hadn’t slept for the past week, Trian looked like a whole group of stylists had worked on his perfect look and Kyrian was avoiding Ilea’s looks though more out of embarrassment than anything else. Ilea looked at the others and back to Claire, freezing as the woman stared into her eyes.

“Hey don’t look at me like that, I’m sure the others haven’t read it either… Claire it was fifty pages of boring formations…” not only Kyrian was avoiding her gaze at that point, abandoned by her friends as if she had never existed.

“Well that’s what I expected. As soon as there are no direct monsters or money involved you slack. Well that’s why we met so early. We’re gonna go through it all together. I hope you have your notebooks with you.” Claire said as Ilea sighed, looking up at the fake sun in Eregar’s Haven.

‘Save me Helios...’ her eyes teared up as she looked into the light.

The next nine hours were not the most fun Ilea had ever had but she did see the necessity and after so much lounging around it wasn’t hard to concentrate for a while either. Eve got more and more enthusiastic as the day went on, not a hard thing to do with her starting level of a literal zombie. Well not literal but close to. It made the whole thing a little more enjoyable and Ilea at least showed some initiative just for her team mates.

Kyrian became more comfortable again as the day went on as well. At one point after the session he even came up to her to apologize for not showing up and for his behavior. He needed some time to think about things and she didn’t fault him, likely a lot of things swirling around in his head, her things being two of them.

“The tournament starts tomorrow so you better sleep enough beforehand and be prepared. This is our ticket to better missions so it should be in everyone’s interest. Don’t disappoint me.” Claire had said at the end of her nine hour monologue, a truly impressive feat. Ilea was surprised she hadn’t gotten a Speech Resistance but when weren’t charisma based characters overpowered?

Kyrian visited her that night though only to share her bed to sleep. She was quite fine with it and enjoyed talking to the man, feeling closer to him than anybody else she had met so far in Elos. Roland was nice but he did have a family waiting for him. Kyrian just somehow felt as out of place as Ilea knew she was. She was pretty sure about her theory of him imprisoned in a mine for most of his life. The two slept rather late, a little excited about the coming days. They would come face to face with high level teams that had worked together for decades if not longer. Ilea wasn’t quite as convinced as Claire when it came to their success but they certainly wouldn’t fail for a lack of trying.

Ilea woke up an hour after she fell asleep, silently getting out of bed before she blinked down onto her balcony, summoning Aki and a cup of hot coffee. Her necklace really was a blessing. “Good morning.”

“Morning. How long did you sleep?” the dagger asked as she put the sheath onto her leather armor.

“Not longer than two hours I think.”

“That can’t be healthy.” Aki commented but both of them knew the woman didn’t need more. At least until she would fall into a coma for a decade. So far it had worked out and she didn’t feel tired.

“You mean like a thousand year meditation session mr blade?” Ilea asked, watching the sun rise as she sipped her coffee. It was tea really but at this point the taste was close enough to what she remembered from earth that it hardly made a difference.

“I like the house I must say...” the dagger said, likely enjoying the view as much as she did, if not more considering the past hundreds of years of his existence.

“You think we’re gonna get far in the tournament?”

“Not really. You all are impulsive, undisciplined. You and sparky are the only ones who can take more than just a little beating so it will likely be you two standing as the last ones and as much as you have grown, I doubt you can stand against five people at your level.”

Ilea was quiet for a while, enjoying the icy breeze flowing through her hair. “You watch me.” she said after a while.

Kyrian woke to a bountiful breakfast waiting for him in the dining room. Ilea had been eating and reading for the past two hours until he got up. Aki was lying next to her with an opened book next to him. He was helping with getting through the collection of books they had found with Albert, the barrier mage inexplicably obsessed with teleporting and the nature of existence. At least if you judged the man on his choice of literature.

‘Does that make me the same?’ Ilea though as she rubbed her eyes, looking up at Kyrian starting to eat opposite her.

“What do you think of levels and skills, the way we get stronger through killing and training?” she asked, sitting back and sipping another coffeetea.

He looked up and then down again, putting together a sandwich Ilea was less than intrigued by. “It is how it is. Questioning it will likely only lead to madness.”

“Yea, some of those people at least sound mad...” Ilea said, making the books on the table vanish.

“Is that an heirloom or something by the way?” Kyrian asked, nodding towards Aki.

“Yes, my great grandfather gifted it to my great grandmother. She thought it was so pathetic it’s become a bit of a gag to gift it to the least favorite child.”

He looked at her, then at the blade and then started eating the abomination he had created. “I’m not sure what to believe anymore from you Ilea...”

“So you’re learning, good.” she said and chuckled ‘Better than me at least...’ she thought. At least she was virtually indestructible at this point so any slip-ups caused by her trusting nature would be smoothed out by her recovery and resilience. As long as nobody else was drawn into it.

The two left another hour later, flying over the snowy mountains near Ravenhall. The sky was clear that day and they reached a city in celebration. ‘This might be a bit much...’ Ilea thought as she saw the masses of people packed in the streets. Compared to an ordinary busy day in a big city, this felt more like a tourist trap.

“Let’s get to Viscera as soon as possible...” she said to her companion flying next to her. The tournament would start on midday, which meant they had quite a bit of time left. Sadly Viscera was in a similar state as the city outside. Apparently they had let in more than the usual amount of peddlers. Additionally the people Ilea saw with a level over two hundred was higher than at any previous point in time.

The two made their way down to Eregar’s Haven where the tournament would be held and where they would meet up with the team. Even here there were more people than ever before. ‘Out of what holes have all these high level people crawled out of?...’ Ilea wondered as she saw the massive fields prepared for fights, ready with barriers and cover, elemental resources and stands for people to watch.

Of course only full members of the Hand were allowed down in the Haven but considering they were team 34 it was only logical to assume there to be at least close to two hundred people at their level. With the destruction someone like Trian could lay down, a considerably big arena was only to be expected. ‘It’s gonna be hard to close in on people with that much space...’ she thought as the elevator came to a stop at the base of the Haven.

“Quite busy...” Kyrian commented and stepped off the platform, starting to fly towards their destination.

“Yes it is...” Ilea said, her wings spreading before she followed him. If anything she hadn’t seen so many people fly in one place until today.