The quarter-finals were to be held in the main stadium in a much larger ring. I had never seen a fighting arena that big since….well, not since Rome circa A.D. 323. This place, however, put the coliseum to shame. It could seat over half a million people and the ring was the length and breadth of a football field. It would make the fights much more open.

The ring stood about five feet off the ground and had stairs leading up to it. It was also, without irony, the color of bone and was tiled. Grass surrounded the ring and there were entrances on both sides of the stadium floor to enter the field. Cameras were lined all along the lower walls. Giant monitors also lined the top so everyone could get a good view of everything that was happening. If you were into blood, the screens would show it all. The lower sections could definitely see everything up close and personal. It was also acclimatized, but the stadium was an open air arena.

There were two waiting areas; one on each side. There were three other fighters on my side and there were four on the other side. Sora, Jason and Yukon were on the other side with that girl Rebekah and I had the alien and the two masked guys on my side. We were called to be in the waiting area an hour before the matches would begin. To be friendly, I tried talking to the others. First I tried one of the masked guys but he just ignored me. Though, there was something odd about the two of them. When I went over to speak with the alien guy, they kept staring at me. Whenever I would walk, I could see them following my progress.

Despite all of the stalker-like staring from the masked guys, I found out some interesting things in regards to the alien looking guy. It turned out that he indeed was an alien, from Venus. His name was Kelder Ramyu. He came to Earth a few years prior to find help for his people, but when he saw that the humans weren’t advanced enough to send help, he stopped his quest. When he tried to leave, his ship malfunctioned and no one from Venus could come because they were in the midst of a civil war. The reason Kelder was even fighting in the tournament was so he could get enough money to scrape together parts for his ship. The prize was $10 million to the winner of the tournament, $5 million to the first runner-up, and $1 million to the second and third runners-up. He just wanted to, at the very least, make it to the top four and some of his problems would be solved. I missed that last part because I was focused on the prize money he had mentioned. That would have been so awesome to be rich in that world. All I had to do was take everyone else out. That wouldn’t be a problem…or so I thought.

While I was talking to Kelder Ramyu, I could hear the announcer beginning his shtick. “Welcome ladies and gentlemen to the 133rd World Mixed Martial Arts Tournament! Are you excited to be here?!” The crowd roared with excitement. “I thought so! We start today with the quarter-final rounds! There are eight combatants left from the thousands that journeyed here to compete! These are the best of the best! I’ve never seen fighters this good in all of my years as announcer and referee! I hope you all will agree! So, let’s get this party started!” He was really good. The crowd thought so too because everyone was on their feet cheering like crazy.

I was by the entrance to the field waiting my turn. I was also trying to scan the crowd for my friends, but I couldn’t see them. I knew they were there, so I didn’t worry about it too much.

The announcer continued when the crowd settled down a bit. “Now, for the first match; on my left, we have a newcomer to this tournament! Despite his young age, he has shown many impressive skills in the preliminary matches. You won’t be disappointed now that he’s here either! I bring you…James Patel!”

I walked out onto the field to screams and jubilation. That changed, however, as I walked to the ring. I heard laughter and surprised gasps as I reached the stairs leading up.

I heard, “How did he make it to the quarter-finals?! He’s just a little kid!”

“Were all of the other fighters little kids too?! How did that small fry make it?!”

“What is this, recess?!”

I figured that would be everyone’s reaction to seeing me. It was a good thing I had the talent to back up my claim to fighting glory.

The announcer tried to get everyone’s attention back. “Calm down everybody! Despite his diminutive size, he is a total power house when fighting! Moving on…on my right, we have a girl who fought in the last tournament 3 years ago! She has grown in size and skill since then and is ready to show that she can get to the final rounds again! Here she is….Rebekah Daring!”

Rebekah walked out onto the field. This time there was no hesitation in the crowd’s applause. It seemed she had made a good impression the last time she participated, and she was totally eating it up. Rebekah waved at the people and I heard people screaming her name. There also seemed to be a fan club on the left side of the stadium. There were banners and little flags with her name on them. I had wondered exactly how far she had made it in the last tournament. Well, I couldn’t afford to lose here. I needed to face Sora, Jason or Yukon again. Anyone one of those would make for an excellent match. But for now, I needed to get past this Rebekah girl.

When Rebekah got into the ring, she looked at me immediately and made a super serious look. The announcer raised his hand to silence the crowd. Once they had simmered down, he said, “And now, to start the first match of the quarter-finals; James vs. Rebekah. Begin!”

Rebekah, without warning, ran in my direction and was on top of me even before I could blink. I could see that she would be a challenge. From what I could tell, she definitely earned a spot in the semi-finals her last go around.

She threw a right cross, which I barely avoided. I had dodged to my left and then kneed her in the stomach. She backed away clutching the new injury. The crowd had gasped at the suddenness of my attack. Rebekah stayed hunched over for a good two minutes. “All right Rebekah, enough is enough. I know that attack didn’t really hurt you. I didn’t even put that much effort in the kick. Stop playing around.”

She stood up swiftly and smiled. “I was sure I could milk that a little longer. I didn’t expect you to catch on so fast. Who are you kid? How did you even get this far into the tournament?”

I gave Rebekah my best sinister grin and said, “Maybe I should just show you, then you will know why I am here.”

I ran towards her and stopped right in front of her face. She threw another right cross, but I did my quick step movement to get behind her and then I gave her a good and hard kick (I still needed to name that fast movement. All the best shows and comic books and manga had names for those kinds of things). Even though I moved really fast, she was able to follow my movements, but because I caught her off guard, I chose that moment to strike.

Rebekah recovered quickly but that didn’t stop me. She had stopped herself from falling by digging her hands into the ring and bending down.

I jumped high into the air and soared above her. As soon as she recovered from my kick, I plummeted to the ring. When I reached the ring, Rebekah jumped out of the way, but I caught her with my telekinesis. She was trying to struggle, but there was no escaping my grasp. I lifted her high above the ring and then took to the skies myself using my fire power to lift me. I stopped raising her at about 500 feet off the ring floor and then went above her to about 1000 feet. Once I stopped my own ascent, I launched Rebekah back down with tremendous force.

People in the stadium screamed. They didn’t think someone as small as I was could be so strong. I didn’t think this girl thought I would be that much of a threat either, mostly because she was soaring head first into the ring. Just before she hit however, emerald colored wings appeared from her back and she managed to slow and eventually stop her descent.

At the sight of the wings, the crowd gasped and gaped at the new spectacle. My guess was she never revealed that power at the last tournament.

Rebekah used the new emerald wings on her back to fly up to my level and she had the most menacing look I had ever seen a girl give me. Well, there was that one time in gym class in sixth grade when I said something to this bitch of a girl. She didn’t like what I had to say so she slapped me. I tried to slap her back, but she was too fast for me. I was so embarrassed. That girl back then had the same look Rebekah was giving me at the tournament. Her eyes were literally burning with an emerald fire. She held her hands apart from one another and ice formed in the space between them. The ice was getting larger and larger and when she was done, it was the size of a 100 foot diameter boulder. That ice boulder confirmed it; she was like Sora and I. She too was a dragon.

She got behind the big ice ball and kicked it with all of her might towards me. I made a blade out of fire and just as the ball of ice got me, I sliced it in half. The two pieces soared past me and were about to hit the stands. That caused a panic and people were tripping over one another trying to escape certain doom.

I didn’t think I would make it in time, so I made my wings appear and flew with all haste to cut off the ice blocks. I managed to get in between them and then I stopped them with my mind. I threw them both high into the air and incinerated them with a big blast of fire (Well, the ice didn’t get incinerated exactly, but more like melted. But the heat was so intense from the fiery blast that the water evaporated in an instant). The screams stopped. Actually, all sound stopped. It seemed that my feats had made everyone speechless. I turned around and saw that Rebekah’s jaw was practically on her chest.

Someone in the crowd started clapping, followed by many others. Soon, the whole stadium was cheering me on. I looked down sheepishly and then raised a trembling hand. I began to wave. The applause got louder and more boisterous. Totally eating it up, I raised both hands and started waving like I was a politician at a fund-raiser. Jason said to me telepathically, What are you doing James? Get back to the fight!

I’m sorry Jason. It’s just….well, they love me now. I’ve never received accolades like this before.

Whatever babe, just focus on your opponent and beat her already. I want to have a go up there too and you are hogging all of the glory!

I smiled and then stopped my showboating.

“Would you look at that folks?! This kid is full of surprises! He is certainly a little powerhouse, but will it be enough to beat the runner-up of the last tournament?!” the announcer asked.

So Rebekah came in second place the last time? She must have been holding back then, because she wasn’t exactly winning the fight with me. Then again, I was also holding back considerably. It didn’t matter really. I got the information I needed. “That was a dangerous stunt you just pulled.”

She put her hands on her hips and cocked her head to the side in a very me manner. “I knew you would stop it. You seem the type; a goodie two-shoes.”

“I’m really not, but I also won’t let innocent people get hurt if I can help it.”

“I just didn’t know there were other Draglorians on this planet. It was only supposed to be me and one other.”

“What’s a Draglorian? And wasn’t I another one? Is that what your people are called? I just thought they were called dragons.”

Rebekah shook her head. “You aren’t the other Draglorian. That kid that you trained with is the other one. When I first saw him, I immediately recognized him. He looks just like his father. But you….you also look familiar, but I don’t know why. I left the planet Draglor when I was just four years old. That was around the time it blew up. Um, can we finish this on the ground? My wings are starting to hurt.”

I shrugged my shoulders and said, “I guess we can.” I flew straight down into the ring. When I landed, I retracted my wings and they disappeared into my back. I had also just realized that I probably made holes in my new uniform which the master gave me. He was going to be pissed; I knew I would have been. I just got the thing and I practically ruined it. Rebekah touched down right after I did and then she retracted her wings as well.

“I can’t stay airborne for very long outside of dragon mode. How long have you been on this planet James?”

“I’ve been here for a little over twelve years now. I left the place you call Draglor shortly before the planet exploded when I was still just an infant.”

“Wait a second; you’re only twelve years old?!”

“Yeah.”

“No one has ever pushed me so hard in a fight and the first person to do it is in elementary school.” Rebekah scratched her head in frustration.

“Well, I am much more than I appear, but, can we continue this after the fight is over? I have many more questions about our race, but I feel the crowd getting restless.”

“Sure; I can beat you really fast and then we can talk until your heart’s content.”

I smiled and said, “If you say so.”

Before I even finished my sentence, she was already behind me. She made a move to kick me, but I ducked and I then tried to kick her. She backed away swiftly. Rebekah ran towards me and threw an ice ball at my head. I did a backflip to avoid a direct hit and barely made it. She wasn’t holding back any more. She kept launching more and more ice projectiles and I had to keep dodging them.

I couldn’t let this fight drag on any longer. I didn’t want to waste too much energy on too long of a fight. I knew I wasn’t fighting any time soon, but I still needed everything I had if I was going to go up against Jason, Yukon and Sora. Plus, I wanted more info on these Draglorians. It was such an interesting name.

I shot straight up into the air and hovered about several hundred feet above the ring. I raised both arms above my head and conjured two enormous balls of fire. I launched one of them at Rebekah at a super-sonic speed. She intercepted it with an ice ball of equal size. Just as the two elements collided, I flew through the explosion still holding the second fireball and sent it careening to Rebekah. She couldn’t react fast enough and it hit her hard. She was thrown out the ring and crashed into the eastern wall below the first seats. The force of the blast and the crashing into the wall knocked her out.

“Wow, did you see that folks?! That was an amazing one two attack by James! Oh, I need to start the count! 1…2…3…4…5…”

Rebekah started to stir from her forced sleep and then she managed to get back up, but ever so slowly. “6…7…8…”

She jumped out of the wreckage of the wall and landed on the ground below. She looked at me and said, “Who….are….you?” and then fell over hitting the ground. She passed out shortly afterwards.

“9…10! And the winner of the first match is James Patel!”

The crowd went wild with cheers and applause. I had already landed back in the ring after the surprise attack I made. I couldn’t believe all of that cheering and merriment was for me. It was a wonderful feeling. And, as I left the ring to return to the waiting area, the applause continued and showed no sign of abating.

When I got back to the waiting area, I decided to head to the medical ward. They had already taken Rebekah there while I stayed to milk the crowd of their attention. I had a lot of questions for Rebekah. Hopefully I didn’t hurt her too much.

As I was walking there, I heard them announce the next fight. Yukon was going up against one of the masked guys. His name was TK. Yukon was plenty strong, but those guys also looked really tough or else they wouldn’t have made it that far. I needed to finish the questioning as soon as possible so I could get back for Yukon’s fight.

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I opened the door to the medical room and saw Rebekah. She was just waking up. She had a few scrapes and bruises from our fight, but for the most part, she was just fine. “Are you all right Rebekah?” I asked.

Rebekah sat up, wincing in pain. “I think you broke one of my ribs. What are you even doing in here? Did you come to gloat?”

I walked over to her bed and laid her back down. “Here; just lay back. I can help.” I put my hand over her chest. My hands started to glow white and it got hotter in the room. “And, I don’t gloat. I came to ask you some more questions about where we come from.”

“Ah, I see. So, you have the power to heal I take it?”

“No, I don’t have that power. Or rather, I can’t heal wounds or diseases. I can apply the right amount of heat to torn muscles or broken bones and mend them.”

“How does a twelve year old know how to do such things?”

“Well, other than being a genius, I’m not really twelve, but that’s a story for another day.”

It took a few minutes, but I was finally able to mend the rib that I had broken in battle. When I was done, Rebekah sat up and looked at me with awe. “You really are a genius! That totally worked! Okay, since you healed me, or rather fixed me; I will answer as many questions as I know the answer to. What do you want to know?”

“Well for starters, are you the one who made that crater in the town of Little Flower?”

Rebekah looked down and wrapped her arms around her shoulders and squeezed. “So, you’ve been there?”

I nodded in agreement.

“Yeah, I did do that….but I didn’t mean to. It happened when I was your age; four years ago. I was walking to the bus stop so it would take me to my school when my body got really hot. I doubled over in pain. I realized what was about to happen and I told everyone to run away. It was a good thing they all knew me, or they never would have moved away in time. Right after, I turned into a dragon. I immediately flew away. I returned to town shortly after I regained my human form, but there was no one to be found. They had all fled shortly after I transformed. After that, I went to my home and packed some things and then moved to New Pandria.

I sat down next to her. “That makes some sense I guess. Who were you living with? Why did they leave?”

“I lived alone. The people who were taking care of me died the year before, but left me the house and enough money to live on.”

“Why would the state leave you by yourself when you are so young?”

“They are for some reason very trusting on this planet. Not a lot happens here; I don’t know if you’ve noticed,” she said with some flippancy.

“I have noticed. There are more natural disasters than there is crime. Anyway, I have another question. Are we the last of us?”

She gave me a look of puzzlement. “Are we the last of what?”

“Are you, Sora and I the last of the Draglorians?”

“What are you talking about? There are hundreds of us.”

That took me by surprise. “But, the planet exploded. How are there still so many people alive?”

Rebekah stretched and then swung her legs off the bed and stood up. “A lot of our people were off world at the time and many of the others simply escaped the destruction. My family, for instance, is still alive for the most part. My mother was still on the planet and couldn’t escape.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

“Thanks for that, but I’ve already moved on. It was twelve years ago after all. Though, I do wish she was still here. Anyway, my father, who is an engineer escaped with my brother, and I was already here. That kid traveling with you; his father, older brother and sister escaped the fiery blaze too. Also, the royal family made it too except for….”

“Except for whom….did one of them die or something?” Wow, that was completely insensitive.

“The king and queen and their eldest son survived, but no one knows what happened to their youngest son. He had just been born, but in all of the confusion, he was lost. My father had seen him last and said he sent him in a space craft but doesn’t know where he sent him. He was knocked out just before he escaped the planet. He lost some of his memory. At first they reprimanded him, but then they thanked him for keeping the prince safe. They have scoured the whole galaxy in search of Prince Drake, but there are just too many planets to search.”

“Don’t you know what he looks like?”

“Well, he was a baby at the time, and though we have pictures of him then, no one has seen anyone that looks like him. Also, I was just four when it happened so I don’t remember anything about the prince. My father would know since he was the last to see the prince. I did have a picture of the prince as a baby, but I inadvertently left it when I left that house in Little Flower. Before that I hadn’t really looked at the picture in years. You could be the prince for all I know.”

I laughed at that. “That is funny. Me, the prince of dragons; that will be the day. However, I’m sure you will find him some day. Dragons can’t hide forever.”

Just then, we heard the announcer begin his spiel about the next match over the speakers. “Ladies and gentlemen, it is time to start the second match of the quarter-finals! On my left we have a young man who has proven himself in the pre-lims with pure guts! I bring you… Jackson Yukon!” The crowd burst into applause.

I got up out of my chair and said, “I need to get back. I want to watch my friend fight.”

As I was about to leave, Rebekah said, “Wait!” She ran over to the corner and put on her shoes. “I’ll come with you.”

“You don’t even know him.”

“But I want to get to know you, mostly because you are such a mystery to me.”

I smiled and said, “That’s a weird thing to say to someone you want to get to know.”

“Yeah, well…whatever.”

We walked back towards the ring of the stadium and heard the announcer mention the other fighter and how much he eviscerated the competition in the preliminaries.

A few minutes later, the fight began. I picked up the pace and Rebekah did the same. We were practically jogging. As we were walking, or almost jogging, I asked, “So, why did you come to this planet?”

She hung her head and stopped moving all of a sudden.

“What’s wrong Rebekah?”

“I don’t want you to judge me.”

“Why would I judge you?” I asked.

We resumed our slow jog, but she still hadn’t said a word. Just before we entered the waiting area, Rebekah stopped me by grabbing my shoulder. “I was sent to conquer this world.”

I wasn’t expecting to hear that. “Run that by me again.”

“You heard what I said. When I was old enough, I was supposed to conquer this planet. You’ve seen how docile these people are. It would have been quite easy. But, there was a change of plans. They no longer felt this planet was of any value, however, they might try to destroy it one day,” she said.

I scratched my head in confusion. “Who is ‘they’ exactly? Is it the Draglorians?”

“No, it’s the person they work for. He is the head of an intergalactic company that brokers planets to the highest bidder,” Rebekah said. “Earth was next on the list, but I talked them out of it. The humans haven’t had enough time to fully develop. I didn’t think we should extinguish a burgeoning race.”

At first I was upset with her, but after hearing her little speech, I understood her a bit more.

Afterwards, we both walked through the doors and then we heard the announcer say, “10! And the winner is T.K.!” Well that couldn’t be right. I ran to the field and I saw Yukon passed out on the ground in a small crater. I looked up at the masked fighter TK and he turned his head and looked directly at me. He pointed his thumb up and then gave me a thumb down gesture. Either that was for Yukon or he was saying I would be the next to lose. The announcer said, “Look at that folks! He’s already declaring victory over young James. With a win like he just pulled off, James might just have his work cut out for him!”

That was an understatement. I just shook my head and gave a hearty chuckle. T.K. did seem pretty tough, but I wouldn’t let him get away with hurting my friend either.

I ran over to Yukon and helped the medics put him on the stretcher. He still hadn’t regained consciousness when they carried him off the field. But before they took him away, one of the medics said that his heartbeat was still really strong so he would be all right. That was good news. Unfortunately my heat power wouldn’t help fix Yukon since his bones weren’t broken, so I decided to stay and watch Sora fight Kelder. The Venetian looked pretty good, but I knew Sora would win.

I walked back through the field entrance and I saw Kelder coming out. I wished him luck and he nodded his head and said thanks.

The announcer once again said his prepared speech, though it sounded like it was off the cuff. He started by announcing Kelder and then Sora. Once they were both in the ring, the fight began almost immediately. They sized up one another before they committed to all out attacks. Once that was done, we were treated to such a show.

Kelder had some swiftness to him. I was sure to the spectators, he was nothing more than a blur, but not to the rest of us who actually had some strength, he was just fast. He somehow kept getting behind Sora with such incredible speed, but every time Kelder would attack, it seemed as if Sora had anticipated the attack. Kelder was also using some sort of energy pins attack. Or maybe they were pins that glowed, but it didn’t matter which because Sora dodged them with ease.

Ten minutes after the fight began, Sora stopped in the center of the ring. Kelder also stopped a few feet away, but unlike Sora, he was completely winded. He kept his defense up, but his breath was coming out chopped and ragged. Sora, however, was the picture of health and composure; it was almost as if he were still warming up.

The fight would soon be over. Kelder was about to make his first and last mistake. He looked down for a second because he was so tired, but that second was all Sora needed. Sora disappeared and reappeared behind Kelder. Sora kicked him into the air, jumped up above and then punched him hard.

Kelder plummeted to the ring and hit it really hard. Sora landed and then folded his arms for a job well done. That boy’s arrogance was definitely getting out of control. I had never seen him so cocky before. I would have to do something about that. After the show of humility on the part of Sora, Kelder tried to get back up, but his legs wouldn’t support him and he fell back down. He tried one more time, but failed again and proceeded to pass out. The announcer started his count. And after a ten count, Kelder had lost and Sora had won. Sora jumped up and down holding his fists above his head. Once he was done accepting the crowd’s praise, he jumped out of the ring and landed right next to me. “That’s going to be you James. When we fight in the finals, you are going down.”

I laughed heartily. “The only person I’m going down on is Jason, and that’s not for another 5 plus years. You shouldn’t think that it will be like it was when we were with Sauza and Todrick. I am not the same boy. Though, why do you think it will even be us two in the finals? We really don’t know how good those masked guys are, and don’t forget about Jason. He has yet to reveal his true strength to us,” I said.

“Neither have you. Even when we were training, I always got the feeling like you were holding back.”

Hmmm, he caught me. “Yes, I have been holding back, but not my strength. Well, not completely.”

Sora became quite furious. He shouted, “I knew it! Why would you do that to me; to Jason?!?!”

“I did it because I didn’t want to have an unfair advantage.”

Sora was still angry, but looked more confused than angry. “What are you talking about?!”

I sighed heavily and said, “In order to use my full strength, I have to be able to use my full mental powers. It takes a lot of my physical strength to keep my mental prowess at bay. That alien you just beat up, Kelder, I can hear the thoughts of his people. Planet Venus is millions of miles from here.”

“What does that have to do with anything? I already knew you could hear thoughts across great distances.”

I shook my head and tried to hide a grin. “As you saw when we first met Yukon; I haven’t told you about my full capabilities when it comes to my telepathy.”

Sora was silent.

“I will take your silence as to mean you want to know more. Well, can we please do this in the waiting area? People are starting to stare at us.”

“Fine,” Sora said with hint of a whining tone.

As the medics were taking Kelder Ramyu away, Sora and I walked to the waiting area that Jason was in. It was going to take a few minutes to get the ring back in order so there was to be a brief intermission for about an hour.

Jason was waiting by the entrance. When he saw me coming, he ran out and gave me a great big bear hug. “What’s up James? What are you doing on this side of the field?”

I pulled away from Jason’s wonderful embrace and then grabbed both of his hands. “You should probably hear this too.”

Jason looked perplexed. “What’s going on you two?”

“Sit down; the both of you.”

They both sat down with anxious looks. Rebekah stayed by the entrance so as not to bother us.

“I haven’t been totally honest with the two of you. I just tried to explain this to Sora, but Jason, when we fought and you asked me not to use my mental powers, I honored your request, but at a cost.”

“What cost?”

“I couldn’t use at least 50% of my total strength because it went to holding back those mental powers.”

Jason freaked out. “What??!!??”

And there it was. I knew he would react that way.

“So,” Sora intoned. “All of the times we fought and trained together, you were barely using half of your power?”

“That’s not completely accurate. How it works is, the stronger my mind gets, the more power needed to keep it closed. When you and I trained Sora, my mental powers weren’t that strong, so I only used about 20% of my strength to hold it back. Now, however, it’s closer to 60% that I use.”

They both looked at one another and then back at me.

“Don’t look at me like that. I’m not doing it to give myself a handicap. I’m doing it so I can be a better fighter.

“Back when I was still an arch-angel, my mystic powers were second only to God himself. My physical strength however, was only just above that of a human’s. I had Ganu train me a lot before Samiel’s," and they looked at me like I had lost my mind.  "I mean Lucifer’s rebellion, but I really only gained enough strength to be about 15 times stronger than a human. A basic angel is at least 20 times stronger.

“When I got my powers back, they were where they were before I lost them to begin with. I couldn’t have that. Upon coming here and not initially having my abilities made me work that much more on my strength. I’ve been trying to hone my fighter’s spirit and instinct, and I can’t do that if I always rely on my other powers.”

With tears in my eyes, I continued. “I’m sorry if I’ve insulted you both, but I have been tasked to save the whole universe. I couldn’t do that as I was. You can hate me if you want, because I already do. I can’t stand the fact that I’ve never won a single fight on this planet despite how hard I’ve worked for strength. I was the fifth most powerful being in the universe and now I might not even be stronger than my human boyfriend. Do you have any idea how that makes me feel?!”

They both looked at me with such pity that I had to look away. I walked to the entrance of the field and looked out at all of the people. I wiped away my tears. Rebekah looked on silently.

Jason walked up behind me and gave me a hug. I leaned back into his warm body and inhaled his scent. Sora also walked up beside me and rested his head on my arm.

Jason said, “James, you just won a fight, so you should never think that you’re weak, because that fight proved otherwise. Also, I think you have a great fighter’s instinct. You shouldn’t have to hold back anymore.”

“He’s right my brother. When we fight in the finals….”

“When we fight in the finals?!”

“Yes brother, WHEN we fight in the finals, I expect you to fight with everything you have…. Well everything except for turning into a dragon, that is,” Sora said with a snigger.

“I’m still confused as to why you think we will even make it to the finals. Jason could beat the masked guy next and then you in the semi-finals. I could lose to the first masked guy, T.K., and that would be the end of it.”

Sora smiled and said, “I have faith.”

I laughed really hard at that and then pulled him in for a hug. “All right then; see you in the finals!” I left their side and walked across the field to my field entrance. Rebekah followed.

She said, “So, you were holding back during our fight?”

“Yes, I was holding back. I still don’t know what I’m capable of,” I said.

Rebekah just smiled. “Spoken like a true Draglorian. Don’t worry so much and stop holding back. If you never let loose, you will never know of what you are truly capable.”

They were right. It was time that I used my full strength. By this point, I already knew how to fight and like they said, I had a great instinct for fighting. It wasn’t developed until I came to this planet, but it was developed. I finally had the warrior’s spirit I had longed for. It was time to apply all I’ve learned with what I already knew. I would start with the next fight. Though it was weird, I had a funny feeling that whether I wanted to or not, I wouldn’t be allowed to hold back any longer.

Next Chapter: Finals and Beginnings