Chapter 62: The Joker

  We stood around in silence for a few seconds.

  “Um, how should I approach the fight?” Scarlette asked. “I don’t want to hurt him too badly. But at the same time, I feel like I shouldn’t hold back either.”

  “Just go all out. It’s a little unfortunate for Bob, but it is what it is,” Asher shrugged.

  “Uh, if you say so.”

  Meanwhile, I considered what kind of strategy Bob might try to pull off. His Ability to adjust the toughness of his skin was versatile, offering both offensive and defensive capabilities. Still, against Scarlette’s fire, it was hard to imagine any effective counterplay. Maybe he could catch her by surprise somehow? But surely Scarlette had too much experience to fall for anything like that.

  Suddenly, I realised we had deviated from the original topic.

  “So Asher, back at the cafeteria, what exactly happened between you and Ignar?”

  “And I was just about to take my leave too,” Asher chuckled dryly. “I was hoping you wouldn’t ask about that.”

  “Is there a reason why?” I inquired.

  “Nah, not really. It’s just whenever someone does something unexpected, I can’t help but think if they have some sort of ulterior motive behind their actions. Was Ignar starting beef with me just for the sake of it, or was there something behind it? I was trying to understand his intentions. Unfortunately, I got a little too into it. Sometimes I overthink things and lose track of my surroundings,” he admitted.

  “That’s understandable. Just try not to cause a scene next time,” I said.

  “Yeah. Anyway, I guess I’ll head off now. I’ll let Bob know about the matchup… although he’s probably seen the email by now. Catch you guys later.”

  As Asher set off, Scarlette let out a sigh. “That guy kinda scares me.”

  “Cus’ he’s hard to read?”

  “Mhm, something like that. I can’t help but feel like he himself has those ‘ulterior motives’ like those people he mentioned.”

  “I’ll keep an eye on him. For now, you can just focus on your match against Bob.”

  “The match in Arena 2 has concluded. Winner: Cadel Ren.”

  My most recent duel had probably been the fastest one yet. But it wasn’t because my opponent, Cassa, was weak. In fact, it was the opposite.

  As soon as the match started, she began emitting thick smoke from her mouth, rapidly filling the arena. I wasn’t eager to find out what breathing it in would do, so I took a different approach. By manipulating the airflow around her, I restricted her respiration, halting the movement of air through her nose and mouth.

  It didn’t take long before she choked out a strained, ‘…Concede…,’ ending the match and securing my spot in the round of 16.

  But I had another reason to rush it.

  Scarlette’s match against Bob was happening in a separate hall at the same time as mine, and I wasn’t about to miss it. Once my match was over, I hastened my way to her hall, where the rest of my friends were already waiting. I’d told them I’d finish quickly and meet them there, and as promised, I had kept my word.

  I saw Scarlette’s iconic flames the moment I set foot in her hall, as majestic as ever. I immediately headed for my friends.

  “Did I miss anything?”

  “Not really. Scarlette’s just been cooking him since the start,” Jonah grinned.

  It didn’t look like he was lying. Bob was on the defensive, doing everything he could to dodge the flames. Scarlette was hovering in the air, hurling down fireballs at him. A few of the attacks landed, but his reinforced skin—thanks to his Ability—seemed to hold up for now.

  Then the hall shook from the impact of an attack from another arena.

  “The match in Arena 2 has concluded. Winner: Felix Harrow,” the announcer declared.

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  The sea of heads in the audience turned in the direction of the noise. A giant King of Spades playing card was embedded in the middle of the adjacent arena. A boy with blonde hair raised his arms in victory, and the audience erupted in cheers. He was taller than most, though still dwarfed by the sheer size of the card. With a quick snap of his fingers, the card vanished.

  A sudden bright flash brought my focus back to Scarlette’s match. I turned just in time to see Bob leaping through the air, arms crossed as he took the flames head-on. Scarlette reacted just in time, blasting herself backwards to dodge his kick by a hair’s width.

  She looked momentarily startled and Bob seemed ready to capitalise, but she swiftly flew to the other side of the arena for a regroup. Sweat glistened on her as she panted. It seemed Bob was putting up more of a fight than she had expected. For a second, her arms lit up before she put it out. Was she thinking of doing that technique now? Bad idea, she wasn’t in trouble yet.

  As Bob launched himself at her again, she summoned long tendrils of fire which wrapped around him. They flared up, searing his skin, which was beginning to crack under the pressure. Suddenly, the tendrils whipped him in the air and slammed him into the ground. Bob didn’t seem like he was able to get up.

  “The match in Arena 1 has concluded. Winner: Scarlette Falcon.”

  Scarlette floated to the ground, clearly exhausted. She hurried over to Bob to check on him as a bunch of medics accompanied her. After a few seconds, she scanned the crowd until her eyes landed on us, and with a small, confident smile, flashed an “okay” sign. Good, it looked like Bob wasn’t too badly hurt.

  It was then that something unexpected happened. As she exited her chamber, the boy named Felix walked up to her. They seemed to have a brief exchange of words before Scarlette excused herself, clearly flustered.

  “Hey! Who the heck is that?!” Jonah yelled.

  “Whatever it was, I don’t think it was anything good,” added Kaede worriedly. “Should we head down?”

  I shook my head. “She did say she would meet us here. If we headed down now, we may miss each other.”

  The path back to the bleachers was also full of people. If Felix tried anything suspicious, Scarlette could easily cause a ruckus and draw attention.

  Before long, our fiery girl burst through the entrance to the bleacher area, heading straight for us.

  “Congratulations on your win,” I said, giving her a pat on the back.

  “Thanks… it was tough,” she hunched over, catching her breath.

  “What did the Felix guy say to you?” Jonah butt in.

  “He umm… he said I looked interesting and asked if I was free tonight.”

  “What?!” My friends were in disbelief.

  “He is totally gonna ask you out man, don’t do it,” Jonah warned.

  “Relax, I don’t plan to,” Scarlette snapped. “He’s not even my type anyway.”

  “So what is your type?” It was impressive how Jonah could switch up.

  “Why should I tell you? Anyway, there’s a chance I’ll get paired with him in the round of 16. If that happens, I’ll give him a piece of my mind.”

  Later on that evening, while I was lounging in my room, I received yet another message from Kazen.

  “Who do you think will win the tournament?” he asked.

  “What kind of question is that?” I replied, curious about the motive behind the random message.

  “I should’ve phrased that better. If you weren’t participating, who do you think would win?”

  I paused. I hadn’t really thought about it, if I was being honest. But if I had to pick, let’s see…

  “Probably Zara?”

  There was a brief interval before Kazen replied. “That’d make sense. Her team did destroy mine during the camp.”

  Oh yeah, that did happen. If I remembered correctly, their team barely escaped, thanks to Raven’s portal Ability.

  “Has Raven been transporting you back and forth between here and the school?”

  “Yes. And I do watch your games, for that matter.”

  “What did you think of them?”

  “Boring.”

  I smirked, expecting no other reply from him.

  “What about Scarlette’s?” I decided to ask.

  “I haven’t seen all her matches. But from what I’ve seen, she’s doing a decent job, I guess.”

  “Could you have done better?”

  “Yeah.”

  Interesting. As I thought of a rebuttal, he sent another text.

  “You haven’t experienced anything weird, have you? Has you-know-who made an appearance?”

  I stopped. So this was why he had just messaged me. He was obviously talking about his brother, Soren Rain.

  “Fortunately, no. The security are all probably keeping an eye out for him anyway.”

  “You know that they can’t stop him. Just like they won’t be able to stop you.”

  “Well if he does appear, maybe I can finally get a worthy opponent this tournament.”

  “Very funny. Is Scarlette with you now?”

  Scarlette? My mind briefly wandered to Felix’s invitation to her earlier this afternoon.

  “No, I’m in my room now. What’s up?”

  “In the event that something happens to her, how’ll you know?”

  “You know that’s an unreasonable question. If Soren storms her room in the middle of the night, there’s nothing I can do.”

  Kazen was acting weird here. His concern for Scarlette came across as unusually intense, even if he didn’t mean it that way.

  “You’re not wrong,” Kazen replied after a long pause. “But Soren isn’t the type to leave matters unfinished. If he has a problem with you, he’ll use her to draw you out.”

  I suppose that made sense. Perhaps Scarlette and I had been a little too carefree. But on the other hand, I was sure the Administration, who took charge of the security for this tournament, had their own tricks up their sleeve. The defences and security employed in this compound went far beyond the surface.

  “I’ll keep an eye out for him,” I finally texted, deciding to end the conversation here. Kazen didn’t reply.

  I lay on my bed and closed my eyes, intending to think things through. But the more I dwelled on it, the more uneasy I became. I had no idea what Scarlette was doing at the moment or where her room was in case I ever needed to find her.

  But at the same time, I didn’t want to overstep her privacy. It didn’t feel right to update me on her whereabouts or activities throughout the day. Still, mulling it over by myself wasn’t doing much good. I decided the best course of action was to ask Scarlette herself for her opinion. Dialling her number, I waited for her to pick up.