The next to wake was Amadeus, who was currently resting in the back row of Cecil’s truck.

They touched their head, her hand landing on her silver hair. “Did they see?” Amadeus looked around and noticed there wasn’t anyone else in sight.

“Why does my head… I need to tell the headmaster about… But wait, why am I still alive? Am I a prisoner? How do I break out?” Amadeus tried to use her mana to speed up, only for the headache to heighten.

“Now what should I do?” Said a familiar voice that seemed to get on her nerves.

“As we won… Who should we cut from the main team. Bella and Max are indispensable, Ander proved to be our best attacker. Brion went down so easily and Tiffany did as well. Then there was Amadues and Bug girl. One fainted to a single one of my attacks, while the other lasted a few minutes against Ander. Maybe I should make one of them an alternate and let Bastion come along.” The voice sounded more condescending than usual.

“Did he say one attack? You’re the one who ambushed me!” The truck began shaking as Amadeus tried to escape, not knowing how to open the door. She kicked it with all her strength, and nothing happened. However, the second kick was followed by an explosion that caused the vehicle to jump a foot upwards before it fell back to the ground unharmed.

“Hey, chill out. You aren’t going to escape from this vile beast through brute force. Try using your head for more than a bludgeon. Also, you’ll probably run out of oxygen if you keep setting off those explosions.” Kyrion sat unperturbed on top of the roof as he stole a line from Cecil.

“Get me out of here!” Amadeus yelled.

Kyrion did not know how to open the doors from the inside and had a stinking suspicion that if he did, she’d punch him so hard that he’d be sent a week into the future.

“Only if you agree to my conditions.” Kyrion said with a glint in his hidden eye.

“What sort of conditions?”

“Four conditions that cannot be refuted.”

“I’d rather die than agree to some slimy deal.” Another hit to the interior caused the vehicle to shift again.

Kyrion looked into the middle distance, recalling a conversation he had recently.

Bastion said that he should apologize. With his foe trapped under him and ample reason to listen, he decided to try his best.

“I’m sofey.” Kyrion squinted as his tongue seemed to not agree with his lie.

“What?” Amadeus said, clearly not hearing correctly.

“I’m coffee.” Kyrion felt his tongue act all funny in his mouth.

“Will you quit blabbering and get me out of…he…re.” Amadeus tried to take a deep breath.

“Fine i’m sorry you punched me in the stomach and made me barf on you. I didn’t do it completely on purpose.” Kyrion said truthfully.

“Slim… no….go…d…” Amadeus began to fade.

“Oi oi. You shouldn’t be running out of air this quickly….”

Amadeus didn’t respond.

Kyrion opened up his senses and did, in fact, notice that his rival’s heart rate was, in fact, slowing along with their breathing. That concerned Kyrion and led to him hopping down and opening the door.

As the door opened, Kyrion felt he needed to duck. Sadly it was too late as a fist aimed at his midsection connected. An explosion shook the nearby area, which led to a chain as more explosions seemed to follow one after the other rocketing the red-haired giant across the land in a perfect parabolic arc as he crashed headfirst inside a boulder.

“That’s a hard head.” Brion commented with a calm expression.

“Shouldn’t we go help?”

“It’s fine. He’s just faking it. He softened the boulder as he landed and reshaped it. He’s being dramatic.” Tiffany sighed. On cue, Kyrion pulled his head out of the rock, took a seat on a soft patch of grass, and began healing himself.

“Though he does seem hurt.”

“Minah!” Max stood only for a solid hand to grab his ankle.

“She’ll be fine. Though she isn’t right in the head. Blinded by rage. You aren’t that durable.” Bella pointed at the now shirtless Kyrion, who scowled as he tried to save the burnt tatters, opting to turn the bottom half into a skirt until he could get changed.

“Still someone has to check on her.”

“Bastion? As your first lesson on mediation go talk to Amad… Minah.” The headmaster stated as he stood.

“M-me but why?”

“Because if she attacks you then I’ll have her dropped from her position as one of my pupils. I can’t have someone without reason becoming a bad influence.” Caeden slapped the boy on the back and pushed him forward.

Bastion slapped Caeden back before he whiled into motion, his short legs holding him back. It took him two minutes to arrive at the flipped vehicle as Amadeus tried using a dagger to slice open the window.

“Excuse me, miss?” Bastion squatted to better look into the vehicle

“What do you want?” Amadeus asked as she continued not to make progress.

“I’m here to be the mediator between you and Mr.Kyrion.”

“Why are you being formal with him and not showing such reverence towards me?”

Bastion closed his eyes and thought carefully before speaking. Because Kyrion saved my life, and all I’ve seen you do is act like a jilted toddler and punch things when angry.

“Because I don’t know how I should refer to my senior. Ms? Mr? How would you like to be seen.”

“Ms. Amadeus.” Minah said.

Bastion looked up and stood as he rolled his eyes out of sight. “Ok, Ms. Amadeus. As the loser of this challenge, you are at the winners mercy as per your deal with the headmaster. He asks that you don’t make matters worse through insaporaiton.” Bastion bit his tongue as he tried to say the long word.

“Insubordination you mean?” Amadeus had no empathy.

“If that’s what it sounds like.” Bastion partially lied as he was trying to help Kyrion out. Bastion was neither a fair mediator nor impartial, and he wasn’t really trying to hide it.

“Fine I’ll talk now, can you get me out of here?” Amadeus asked.

Bastion didn’t touch the vehicle as if it was magic. Instead, he opted to run off. “I’ll go get Kyrion.”

Bastion skipped away, taking his sweet time as far as Amadeus was concerned.

“Oh hey there Bastion. What’s up?”

Bastion looked up and pointed at Icaron. “The moon Mr.Kyrion.”

“Not what I meant. Anyway, why are you here?”

“I’m acting as the meteor between Amadeus and you.”

‘What’s she want?”

“To get out of the truck. She’ll have to agree to do 4 things no questions asked.”

“This seems highly in my favor. Aren’t you supposed to find an agreeable compromise?”

Bastion’s eyes went blank as the squirrels in his head seemed to get lost on their way to the wheel. “Uhhhh. But you won. So you make the rules.”

“Fine then tell the lady I settled for three if she agrees to listen to me until after the tournament if she doesn’t want to participate she’s free to run back to the academy. She can’t ignore my words and runs off. That’s hazardous and strong or not we don’t need a loose catapult.” Kyrion shook his head.

“Can I get that and your three requests in writing?” Bastion coughed, not trusting his memory and comprehension in recalling so much information.

“Can you read now, Bastion?” Kyrion raised a strangely wrinkled eyebrow.

“Nope! But I’m sure she can.”

“Fair enough.” Kyrion wrote his demands on one of Gamodren’s fancy scrolls and pulled out a well of ink and a quill.

He started with the major condition that required her to listen to his orders.

Thou shall not hit me. Thou shall accept healing when needed. Thou shall agree to follow my orders so long as they are not detrimental to you in any way. Thou must wear purple bunny ears. For 24 hours

Kyrion laughed an old laugh before he crossed out request number 4 and scribbled some runes onto the paper.

“What’s so funny?”

“I thought of a prank but decided to take it back. She’d find a way to twist my motives. Now just go deliver this.”

“Can you tell me what it says?”

“Don’t hit me, accept my healing when hurt, follow my orders and… you can have the last one. All they need to say is that they agree and the scroll will disappear. Not an oath but it is a contract. If they lie then they will be forced to wear purple bunny ears for 24 hours.”

“Why bunny ears?”

“Because I hate rabbits almost as much as I hate those who can’t follow simple rules of civility.”

“Why do you hate rabbits?”

“Do you want to hear a story or do you want to get this over with?”

“Both!”

“Well I want to get this over with. I’ll tell you on the trip back.”

“Fine.” Bastion kicked the ground and took the letter with him.

“Oi! Meany! I mean Ms. Amadeus, I have your orders.” Bastion put the paper against the window.

“I can’t read that handwriting. What does it say?”

“Don’t hit me. Listen to me, accept my healing, and the most important one. Let me touch you for a second.”

“Why would I accept that last one? It’s ridiculous. Is he that perverse?”

“Huh? No. I want to touch you. Your power is curious.”

“What does that have to do with you touching me?”

“Just agree so that we can get this over with.”

Amadeus thought about the terms Bastion listed. “Fine, I agree to those specific terms you listed.”

The paper vanished.

“Yay!” Bastion opened the door and scowled. How did he know how to do it? Oh well.

“Great, now get your touching done already.”

“Your hand. Any bare skin will work.” Bastion stated.

Amadeus took off a gauntlet, and Bastion took the hand. A familiar sensation enveloped him.

“Interesting.” Bastion vanished from sight quite quickly as he moved back to the group.

Amadeus slowly made their way to Kyrion, who was relaxing on the broken rock with a smug look.

“Good we’re done now. Kyrion said he’s going to tell me a story on the way back so let’s go!” Bastion said

“No. No I didn’t.” Kyrion was making a large, heavily loaded sandwich in preparation for the first lunch.

Bastion looked at Kyrion for a hard moment and then back at where Kyrion had been a moment ago. “When did he trick me?”

Kyrion placed a hand in front of his mouth and surrounded them in purple fog. “We swapped places when you went to talk with Amadeus the first time. He has something planned and I don’t mind so long as his sister stops trying to fight me. I rarely like fighting, so I don’t fight fair when forced to do it. Don’t repeat that of course. I’d prefer if people just assumed I was weak and let their guards down. Especially since physical strength doesn’t mean much unless it’s absurdly high.”

“The more tools in your position the more you can adapt and exploit a weakness. Is that right?” Bastion said.

“A lesson from the headmaster?”

“No. Your mom actually. She’s a nice lady, she even gave me this sword to practice with.”

Bastion unsheathed a wooden cuntless with the name Ace carved into the side.

“A training blade…Are you taking up the sword?”

“Not likely. My power seems to be more hands-on.” Bastion sighed.

“Looks like they’re finishing up.” Kyrion looked to the side before fading from the group’s notice.

“You know. I don’t have a reason to hate you anymore. Welcome to the team.” Kyrion held out a hand.

“Well I have enough reasons for the both of us.” Amadeus moved to shake the hand only something was off.

“What?” Kyrion sat up only to get a hard and quick punch to the forehead, which sent him back down.

“Like I’d agree to your terms.” Amadeus said with a smirk.

“Did you not agree to the contract?” Kyrion sunk back into his rock.

“I agreed to the revised contract.”

“Can’t we talk this out? I’m really not mentaly stable enough to fight.” Kyrion stated.

“This isn’t a fight….” Amadeus stopped as something told her continuing could be dangerous.

“Great. Anyhow if you want to be our alternate than you on the team, under Max who is our number seven.”

“You’re making him fight!” Amadeus seemed to start ignoring her instincts.

“Until you can be trusted no to go off and get us killed, yes he is our anchor. We’re already going to be at risk. I don’t need a show off who won’t follow orders. You’re also too weak too be on our team despite your rank.”

“How am I weak….” Amadeus seethed.

“We both know what your power is and it isn’t fire related in the slightest. A gimmick like that can only get you so far.”

“What do you….”

“Acceleration and deceleration. You utilize flammable materials when you move and attack to create your explosions and path of fire junk.”

“Did…”

“Max isn’t quite aware. His ability is quite different from yours despite their similarity.” Kyrion yawned.

“When did you figure this out?”

“After the first fight. It’s a power that’s easy to counter if you can sense mana well enough.”

“What then?”

“It’s one of the first things I learned how to do. It apparently isn’t as common as I’ve been told. Your attacks are choreographed at times, knowing this makes a fight with you winnable. Not easy, no your weakness is your adherence to melee combat. It’s a literal waste sense your power can’t be used to slow others down. All I need to do is let you hit me, lock you down and counter.”

Amadeus looked at Kyrion for a long moment. “How…”

“Amadeus. Or Minah since that seems to be your real name. Your a bit of an idiot if you haven’t figured out how yet.”

“Watch it.”

“I swear… Let’s just say I’m very observant. I’ve seen you fight Ander quite a few times already. All losses though he was also not using his powers properly. In one day he was able to gain enough power to surpass your raw speed and explosive power. Albeit he hasn’t figured out how to use it yet. So yeah, you’re behind, five years of stubbornness have left you in this predicament while the people around you have been growing in different ways.”

“What gives you the right to.”

“Did I not say that this tournament was going to be dangerous? If you’re going to be on my team you’re going to need to be striving to get better not because I want to win. No if we’re going to make it past this trip alive then I’ll need everyone at their best. You aren’t anywhere near that and you’re not pushing yourself in the right way.” Kyrion said with a scowl that seemed to have wrinkles that didn’t match his face.

“You’re starting to sound like my teacher….” Amadeus scowled.

“Well maybe the handsome and intelligent headmaster had a point.” Kyrion said all too easily.

“Yeah… Well you’re clearly even weirder. Fine. I’ll listen your orders.”

“Be sure to say Kyrion’s orders. Gotta specify now. Sorry if I don’t trust you.”

“Fine. I swear that I’ll follow Kyrion’s orders.”

“Great.” Kyrion stood up and vanished from his position.

“He could have dodged that attack if he wanted to. He’s quite strong.”