The rest of the tournament goes smoothly until the finals, where they run into a group that Sen loves to stomp. It’s King’s main team in Falan. Right after the walls of light go down, the man in the lead steps forward, and manages to look down upon them while being shorter than even Kang.

“If you surrender now, this will be much easier on you.”

Sen snorts at that, and Jennifer and Lynna raise their middle fingers in unison.

“Fine. If you’re going to be like that, we’ll see how well you play.” The man, who hasn’t bothered to draw his sword yet, pulls it from its sheath, and steps back into the group, which has formed a shield wall. Sen smiles, he has just the thing to counter that, as it can’t be blocked by shields.

As they approach, Sen continues to condense air into a smaller and smaller area, eventually making a bead about the size of a marble, with a massive amount of air stuffed within it. The swirling marble is nearly opaque, and as they get within a few meters, Sen tells everyone to cover their ears, and everyone except Kang instantly does so. The King members are simply looking at them arrogantly, sure that nothing they could do would be able to harm them.

The marble flies to the King formation in a fraction of a second, and Sen releases his control over it as it arrives right overhead the head of the man who had spoken earlier. Even with controlling the air to lessen the shockwave towards them and cover his ears, he can feel a cracking sound echo in his ears, and the members of King all either fall down or reach up to where their eardrums had burst.

The enemies in disarray, They’re easily finished off, Sen practicing his throwing knives with the off balance enemies. As they exit the arena having won their first round of the tournament, they’re all excited, and decide to go celebrate at one of the in game restaurants. They each get a sumptuous meal of meats and vegetables that had never existed on Alpha before they all log out for some real food.

The dinner Sen and Lynna enjoy is relatively quiet this time, no earth shattering revelations, simply their parents checking over the progress they’ve made. After the meal, they both go practice their skin enhancement skill before heading off to bed.

Sen’s dream that night is one he hasn’t had in a long time.

A young boy of four or five begs alone in the rain, knowing that if he doesn’t earn anything he’ll not have any food. The orphanage he lives in seems to exist more as a slave dealer than a place for people to find kids they care about, simply giving them away without bothering to care who buys them. The prettier girls are always quickly “adopted” for large sums of money, money that only goes to the owner of the orphanage. The few kids that they believe will earn them a good amount are fed, and the rest, forced to beg for scraps or steal. The child has tried to steal before, but every time, he is quickly caught, and beaten until he can barely move.

He worries that today will be another of those days, as even if he’ll be beaten, without having something to eat, he’ll end up like some of the other kids, losing all energy until they disappear from the orphanage.

The days pass, and one day, a small man covered in a hooded cloak comes to the orphanage, and the boy is taken away, along with all of the other children of a similar age. They’re carried by carriage, huddling together for warmth as they are given nothing to cover themselves with through the travel. They are soon brought to a massive stone building.

The kids are stuffed together in a cell, bars covering every direction but the one that is simply a stone wall. They’re given food, but not enough of it, and the children start to fight for it. The child manages to sneak some food away, trying his best to ignore the sound of fists and feet hitting bodies and heads as he hides, pretending to sleep as he eats the little food he’s acquired.

When he wakes the next day, the cell is two children emptier. The children are fed again, and this time the child is forced to fight. He’s not the strongest, not even close, but he fights in the most vicious way, allowing limbs to hit him and leaving bites and scratches in return. The other children soon leave the child alone, and they’re then brought from their cell to a large area, no roof above the sandy pit that they find themselves in.

They’re handed weapons, swords far too large for children their size, and told to fight. Those that object are simply beaten until they agree, and the one girl who can’t bring herself to raise her weapon is simply dragged out of the arena, her short scream being cut off.

The child looks around, dragging his sword on the ground, barely able to lift it with the decayed muscles from malnourishment, but holds a feral gleam in his eyes. One of the other boys, seeing him as an easy target, and not willing to take the beatings that are being given out to those who don’t go to fight, starts charging at the small malnourished boy.

He swings his sword in an awkward manner, almost spun around by the adult sized weapon, and cuts deep into the child’s chest. The young boy, rather than crying, simply uses the memories of all the beatings he’d taken to ignore the pain, and uses all the strength he can to raise his sword, and shoves his weight forward, thrusting the sword through the older boy’s stomach.

As the older boy screams, the child takes a step back in disgust. He can see the blood slowly dripping its way down the blade of the sword. He can hear the mournful sound of screaming echo in his ears. He collapses to the ground, and heaves up his hard earned breakfast. He’s been in many fights, and even seen other children killed for hoarding food, but this was the first time he’d given such a grievous wound to another, and he isn’t sure if the other child is going to survive it.

One of the many men standing around the sanded arena comes up to him, and drags him back to his own cell this time, and he is brought more food and water. He forces himself to eat, knowing that if this continues he’ll need all the strength he can get.