As I relax in my seat I see the young elf boy get up and grab a blunt saber from a weapons bin, which is odd, it seems like I would grab a weapon immediately, like what a huge advantage to pass up. I whisper over to raven girl

“Hey, why isn’t everyone using weapons, seems like they are at a disadvantage if they don’t?”

The wraith girl sighs and lazily says “Most people would but many people are just now learning how to manipulate their energies, and it tends to be much easier to put it in their fist and legs than a sword or spear. And to end this little lecture a magically enhanced anything is significantly stronger than any trash weapon”

“Wow… your way smarter than I thought, like wayyyy smarter”

“Yea, I know, I’ve been learning this stuff my whole life”

“Do you use a weapon, like a sword, or maybe a scythe is more your vibe”

“I’m more of a baton blade kinda girl I guess.”

With that, I had turned towards the match only to see it had already been finished the elf boy’s opponent was on the ground with a blade to his neck shaking in fear, his arms raised up by his head. The official calls it and the elf boy returns to his seat. Suddenly I am tapped on my shoulder, and a robbed man points towards the arena, I guess it's my turn to throw down. Slowly I walk up to the arena, yet I feel several gazes on my back, but I don’t look back to confirm it because that seems pretty lame to me. As my opponent walks up to the ring I can tell by his clothes and his self-presentation that most likely he isn’t a noble, which is good for me.

The official begins the fight and I steady myself and prepare to battle, my nameless opponent comes in dashing at me. The moment he’s in range he winds up to punch me, just like ‘fatty!’ I sidestep at the last moment and show a repeat performance of the one girl's knee strike. The boy recoils and steps back clearly shaken up yet not in tears like fatty, wonder why her knee hurt so much. My opponent gathers himself and moves into range slowly circling me with his hands up. I kinda just stand there with my hands up as I don’t really know any stances, the boy sends a left hook my way, it seems slow like very slow. I simply turn my chest and punch him in his solar plexus aiming for the spot where I kneed him earlier. He stumbles back in a coughing fit clearly feeling that much more. While he is discombobulated I dash forwards and as I plan my attack I decide not to wind up a punch due to previous examples instead I run and slide take out his legs. He plummets to the ground, and I quickly jump on top and place him in a chokehold until he taps.

With the announcement of my win, I escort myself back to my seat. The Raven Girl whispers into my ear “You have no clue how to fight do you?”

“Nope, never even been in one until now.” I reply confidently “I must not be that bad, I beat that guy”

“That guy was trash, there is no way you would be able to beat someone who had any basic training” The Raven Girl huffs out

“Yea whatever” quickly changing the subject I ask “Hey what's your name I had been talking to without knowing your name for way too long.”

“Gwen” She whispers into my ear as an official taps her shoulder and escorts her to the platform.

Quickly the matches start and she begins drawing some strange symbols in the air with this purple gas. Slowly a hole begins to form in the air next to her. Seeing this her opponent, Who I might add is some tall skinny dude with yellow hair, begins barreling towards her determined not to let her cast this magic. As he reaches her the glowing portal in the air next to her screeches as a hand comes out covered in scales and fur, with wickedly sharp claws all tinted purple grabs him. With a hand wrapped around his face, the boy swings his arm in panic as he is lifted off the ground. Before he can gather himself to attempt to pry off the hand he is chucked off the platform, a thud announcing Gwen the victor. Slowly she returns to her seat, yet out the corner of my eye I notice her subtle glance in my direction.

“Hey, Gwen…” I say as I notice her tense up in response, “that beast thing you summoned…”

Her shoulders seem to drop and her head tilts down. “Was really fucking strong, does it have a name, is it a contracted companion, how did you get’em?” I ask with excitement.

I see her face light up as she begins to tell me that it is essentially her ability and that it has a name but it is unpronounceable. Supposedly it's incredibly strong so much so that she struggles to control it at times, i wonder what happens if she can’t control it.

Slowly the first round comes to an end in our arena, a few more battles happening, one of note was the sister of lion boy seemed to use a sick silver fireball to blast her opponent off stage. But next was round two and hopefully, I’m matched up against some more nobodies, if I’m really as bad as Gwen say. I wonder what I can do to be better, I really don’t think I wanna learn some lame fighting style. It needs to be cool like maybe have some flips and cool kicks, and it should be unpredictable and have some super strong attacks. That's not a lot to ask for, right, I mean a boy can dream right.