Chapter 194: Oh shit, my feet!

My head throbbed. It was hard to stand. But- I stood regardless. I wasn't sure what just happened but I had a feeling I'd gone to sleep and Enira just woke me up. 

But I was still in the middle of something.

The kid was actually in a crater. 'What happened here?' There were some people trying their best to get the kid out of there. And how did he get beaten up that badly? He was still conscious and the moment he saw my gaze, she turned even paler and passed out.

There was something going on, on the other side of the court too. 

That being, the cool guy was losing. Frankly, I didn't care if he lost or anything but I just wanted this to be over with. My body was swaying a bit too much anyway. 

I made a plasma ball and threw it at the guy covered in blue fire. 

He stopped it, but just barely. Though he was covered by fire- he seemed to have taken some damage from the plasma and he wasn't healing either. I guess just the hot fire was his power? 

But what about his sword? How come he was making this guy so miserable while having virtually nothing that good? It could have been possible that he had something hidden.

Suddenly, he threw a large fireball at me. 

Enira came in front of me and absorbed it. "Looks like you still haven't woken up properly. Do I need to kiss you again? I wouldn't mind being the prince, by the way, my sleeping beauty." She winked. 

Yeah, no thanks. I wasn't into those kinds of bits. 

And wasn't it the maiden kissing the frog or- yeah, my head kind of stopped functioning.

I took a deep breath and moved forward. 

The cool guy gave me a look and just stood aside. He actually stood next to me. 

I really thought he'd try to argue or something but he just kept quiet. 

"What seems to be the problem? Why are you having issues with guys of that caliber?"

The cool guy snorted. "Did your eyes rot or something? Can't you feel that presence? No matter how many times you attack him, those flames protect him and that makes him invincible. Didn't you understand anything after throwing your concentrated fire?" He glared ahead. "Besides, that saber can cut through plasma like mine can cut through organic matter."

Well, if that was true, then he would have cut through my plasma ball.

I half sighed, half stared. "First of all, that was plasma and second, he did take damage. So, clearly, you have to use actual stuff." After all the plasma in our sabers and actual real plasma were different. I gave Enira a stare. "Would you mind protecting him? Oh yeah, we were going to give it a practice run before anything else, right?"

Though I kind of wanted to try this in a more controlled situation. 

"Wait, what are you doing?" The cool guy said, but we ignored him.

"Fair enough." Enira touched the cool guy's back. "But don't blame me if he ends up dead."

I sighed. "Well, anything for science."

She giggled. "Go get him, you mad scientist."

"The hell!?" Though the cool guy complained he actually wasn't protesting or anything of that sort.

Was something wrong with him? Even just moments ago he was mocking me and wanted to pick fights with me but now, he didn't actually try to do anything. 

Wait, could it be, that he was afraid of me? He wasn't even making eye contact with me anymore.

I almost snorted but dashed for the guy in fire. I didn't have time to be worrying about some cool guy.

As I got near him, I felt his heat but I had a barrier over my head. i swung my saber and the cool guy was right, this guy could cut through plasma. My saber regenerated pretty easily though, so it wasn't a problem. 

I was close and there was a barrier around us, but I deployed another one and to do that, I needed to get this close to him.

"Why are you locking yourself up when you know I can do this?" He started to burn pretty hot and the air kind of got smoky and there was monoxide everywhere. Definitely not great for living breathing people. 

"Because I can do this." I grinned and released gamma.

He shouldn't have seen it coming- and he didn't. 

His fire kind of started to wiggle around as he swayed and a second later threw up. He backtracked slowly. I moved forward slowly. 

The barrier disappeared and finally, I could breathe. The smell was kind of terrible though. I almost felt bad for doing this to him. 

'Maybe I shouldn't shorten their lives like this?' Yeah, I guess I could have taken it a bit easier.

"BUewyh!" The cool guy also threw up. 

Well, that was a failure I guess. 

"Don't worry, nothing passed. He just couldn't take the visual representation." Enira looked at me with an awkward stare. "YOU can release a bit more and it'll still be okay." With that said the cool guy just bailed out of the fight and went out. 

Well, I guess he was done anyway. So much for the cool guy.

Didn't matter to me, cause we already won as our opponent was on the floor and we-

Oh?

Oh!?

Oh shit. 

My feet.

My feet! 

Apparently, my feet were touching the edge of the court before I even realized. 

Sweat poured as my legs shook a little.

"Oh boy." I chuckled, very nervously.

This only meant one thing… we were screwed. 

The announcer signaled that I was out. 

Wait didn't this mean?

I looked around and the whole stadium was quiet and everyone was just staring at me. 

There were cameras pointed at me too. 'Ahhhhh!'

"YAWN!" a snort bubble burst and the guy in the suit woke up. 

I felt like a massive stone from my chest was just lifted. 

"Team Helio wins!"

A round of applause followed by roars. 

And since when did this team get named, team HELIO!?

It didn't matter though. I almost wanted to hug the guy for waking up. I shot the idea down almost the very second it surfaced though. 

Anyway, I kind of wanted to go home now. 

Sigh. 

With some sways here and there I walked toward Marg and when I reached her, just hugged her and tried to pass out. 

I didn't though. 

Argh. 

***

As the announcer announced our stuff and the judges gave long speeches on why who deserved what prizes, I sat right next to Marg and Elsa. Enira went back into the saber.

My head rested on Marg's shoulder as I squeezed her hands for power!

The pipsqueak was right next to Marg, covered in bandages. I actually couldn't remember what happened to him? Whenever our eyes met he kind of grabbed Marg's arm tight and hid behind her. 

Technically he was Marg's relative and since Marg wasn't complaining I didn't bother asking stuff.

Oh well.

The court became the stage for the prize-giving ceremony and all the speeches. Half of the audience had left and I didn't see my cousins anymore. 

Which was grand news. 

"Doesn't look like you'll be getting anything other than money. Though you were here for the money, to begin with so, congratulations," Elsa said. She wasn't sad or happy. Pretty neutral for a change. "I wanted to meet some of them but they all left." She sighed. "I guess they only like you."

Elsa did have a pretty good reputation in our family- though that was only a front. In reality, she was a bit too selfish and spoiled. Whenever she was out she acted a bit more mature though. Especially this time around she acted a lot more mature than I gave her credit for. 

I had to admit, my sister was growing up faster than I could comprehend. 

And though she was sad not to be able to meet our cousins, I was glad. The reason? Almost all of those morons had a crush on her. That was another reason why no one actually visited us. Sometimes mom smiled sweetly at them, sometimes I cracked some of their bones. Ah, those were good times.

Elsa didn't know any of that though.

***

One by one all four judges finished and presented their unique gifts to the participants. The cool guy got one while the guy in suits got two. The guy who was covered in fire got one too. The prizes ranged from rare metals like Sylvanide to exquisite tickets to paradise islands. 

Honestly, those didn't really matter all that much to me. 

Nope, not even a little bit. 

A whole week with Marg on an island- just the two of us- ah, yeah, definitely didn't bother me a little. 

"And lastly, Helio Romswell Jintel come forth!" The last judge, the stuttering geezer called me. 

I guess I was going to get something. 

It felt surreal, unreal even. 

As I was stumbling my eyes met with the headmaster- he smiled and pointed me to move forward. 

Right!

I made sure not to stumble and carefully walked up to the stage. 

This was really nerve-wracking. 

He handed me a red box, almost wrapped like a present or something. "This originally belonged to your grandfather. Never thought the day would come when I'd return it to you." We both were holding on to it as the press clicked photos. 

Gramps'? I guess this guy knew him. 

It felt kind of nice to have something like that. "Thank you. You knew him?"

"We were rivals." The guy showed me his teeth and as one of the winners, I stood next to the other two.