Chapter 10 - A grand opening

"He still isn't here... I suppose I should be able to win without him, but this is his only chance..." John said waiting at one of the stalls to confirm their participation. Those stalls covered almost the entire area near the arena. The feeling reminded someone of a festival. Laughter and happiness was everywhere. Many were already prepared for this occasion. They brought booze, snacks and drinks. The security was pretty open-minded and let most things go through.

And somewhere between all this ruckus I tried to go through the masses and reach John, whom Jack had already spotted near the entrance of the arena. "You didn't lie to me, right? He is at the registration?" I said while squeezing myself through the gaps of drunken young machos. Jack had no problem since he could just easily push them away and no one was saying anything because of his superior frame and the following intimidation. I realized just how big he could make himself look. 'I'll still grow right?' I thought with a wry smile. With my 1.7m I was small for my age. My poor genes... "Look out damn it! Eh... Just walk behind me... I'll guide you to them." Annoyed as always Jack grabbed my hand and dragged me along the way. His grip was way too strong, where did he get that power from? After a while I asked "Shouldn't your Drawback have happened already?" "I have my ways. I can tell you more about it later, but concentrate on what is in front of you for now."

...We needed aproximately 15 minutes to finally reach John and the others. If not for Jack practically dragging me along it would have taken much more time.

The first one to react was Jimmy who quickly noticed the man full of scars. His expression changed and he seemed terrified, trying to hide behind John and the others. "Hey there! It seems like that little puppy remembers me well." Jack said seemingly satisfied.

"Who are you?" I heard Johns voice full of suspicion and curiousity towards this mysterious man. "Hey John, he belongs to me and brought me-" After John heard my voice he rushed to me and instantly hugged me.

"You idiot... Where have you been? Do you know how much I was worried about you?"

"Woah... John!" I tried speaking, but I just replied to him by hugging back. 'Strange... he seems a bit bigger than before.' John has always been short like me even though he is older, but he seemed a bit more grown up. Physically and mentally.

"What happened while I was gone?" "Nothing much. Father screamed a lot because we weren't allowed to use a substitute for you so close before the tournament. I trained and made some strategies for my possible opponents. After all they will probably divide us by our combat power and our experience."

"Well, it seems like you have grown." I said with a pure smile and John just blushed as a response. Sometimes I really wondered if I am the big brother and he the little one.

"We should go and confirm our stay now. There are only about 2 hours left till the opening."

After a little more waiting we went inside and Jack split from the group. Apparently he didn't want to be seen with us, so he just got a later ticket and went to another area. "Don't worry Mark. I will still watch your battles and support you. Till then..." He left us while waving with his hand.

"We should go inside the waiting room for now. There is still time and we can strategize together for the opening fight." "I already thought about them and I narrowed our possible opponents down to 2 or at least Jack helped me with that."

"Who exactly is he and why do you even trust him?" "I don't know. He just seems... familiar."

-Inside the arena, all fighters simultaniously went outside, filling the air with fighting spirit and blood lust, pumping up the viewers even more. It was intense. You could hear screaming from everywhere, while we just walked towards the rings in the middle of the arena. There were 5 rings in total. Being nearly their I looked to the right and saw Johns confident smile, giving me a great boost myself. I looked forward and was ready.

After looking around for a while I found the Ashen family and saw some familiar faces from other families. I wasn't able to pin-point Jack though, which was strange because he should be easily seen with his big frame. 'Hm.'

At the center of the ring stood a tall man, waiting for everyone to take their proper spot. "Ladies and Gentleman! I am honored to be your moderator for this regionals again. I can already tell that those fighters are acking for the tournament to begin. This time we not only have 3 places for the nationals but the winner also gets the chance to challenge one lf the champions of the big families. Those Apex-monsters are willing to accept the challenge and fight using the tournaments rules! They will also pick one of the participants they want to battle themselves! There they are! The Apex's are finally hereeeeee!" The crowd instantly went silent and just sat there, waiting for them to come out. You could even hear the breathing of the other participants and see the slowly build up fear that was spreading on their faces. "Everyone is here: Adrion Nacht! Sam Tag! Wilson Burn! Laura Shine! Hannah Zone!"