Chapter 22: Tournament?

| Sorry for not posting, my internet router broke, and the provider only just recently managed to fix it |

The 5 were chasing in hoods and following a guy through the streets without him noticing as the goof was goofing off, flirting with women on the streets.

"What does he even do anyway? We've been following him all day, is being unemployed a crime or something here?" Emma complained

"He is apparently a part of a drug ring" Nova explained "Our request wants him dead or alive, but we'll get better rewards if we turn him in alive"

"I don't blame him for getting distracted either" Elliot whistled "The girls here really are good looking, if I didn't already have Eliza, I wouldn't waste any moment to hit on them"

"You say that as if Eliza is already yours" Dabria rolled her eyes

"She will be" Elliot argued

"Stop it you 2, here come Perseus" Nova shushed them

Perseus was coming from a different direction and bumped into the man. Perseus then dropped his paper bags that was full of bread.

"Oh man! Sorry for bumping into you" Perseus apologized and then tried to pick all the bread up

"Oh that's fine man, let me help" the guy bend down to pick up the breads "My bad, I was distracted by the beautiful girls here. Your bread is ruined now, let me pay for it"

"No need, but thanks for the offer" Perseus bowed before running off and leaving him

He then ran to the others.

"Did you manage to do it?" Nova asked

"Yeah, I placed the rune stone in his pocket" Perseus nodded "Won't be long till the rune from the stone get's imprinted on him."

"With it, we can track him down more easier. Why are you eating the bread?! It dropped on the floor!" Nova took it out of his mouth

Perseus then took it back.

"It's still hot and delicious" Perseus took another bite "Besides I used to eat some food scraps even dirtier than this, and I'm still alive, aren't I?"

"As your older brother, I will not allow you to do no more of such things" Nova argued as he took the bags of bread and put them all in the bin.

"Those were expensive, you know!" Perseus held his head

"Let's catch the guy quick and have lunch then" Nova suggested

*****

The guy was walking into a quiet alley far away from the others. As he walked, he then sensed energy of arcana charging up behind him.

He turned but was shot twice by Perseus who held tasers in his hands. The rest then rushed in to bound him in chains and put a thick handcuffs on him.

"You won't be getting out of those quite easily" Elliot chuckled "it was very expensive you know, it'll restrict you from using arcana"

"We shouldn't be revealing our equipments to the enemy, you know" Perseus got out of his hiding spot

"You! You're that kid who dropped his bread!" the guy shouted and struggled in his chains

Elliot then knocked him out cold.

"So what do you guys want for lunch?" Elliot asked as he then dragged the chained up guy

"Let's get fried chicken" Perseus suggested "It's cheap, delicious and can be eaten by everyone here"

"Great idea, I happen to saw one on our way here" Nova nodded "They sold a lot of other things too, like steak for Siege and fried fish for Ace"

"Yay, chicken and fish!" Ace cheered

"I'm gonna get fat if I'm gonna eat out everyday" Emma complained

"We already put the tune stone for the rest of the guys" Perseus shrugged "We can just exercise it off by doing it all this afternoon, none of them are that strong anyway. If you want, we can just give chase without actually catching them, you'll lose a lot of fat that way"

"You guys are still young, eat a lot or both of you won't grow" Nova laughed "We got a lot of money in our budget after all"

*****

Somewhere in a dark room in Artia...

"They're hosting the U16 fighting tournament in Artia this year, I plan on sending Reynolds to join in for experience" the head of the Noblesse family said "This way, he can showcase his talents"

"I heard those filthy adopted children also plans to join in to show their talents" a woman said in disgust "Why were they even allowed to get their arcana awakened?!"

"By law, they are now citizens of our nation, no matter how powerful our influence is, we can't go against the council" A guy sighs "Let's just be grateful that we were let off easy for killing all those people from the buries"

"I'm sending in some of the youths from my family" another guy joined in "One is for fame and 2 is to show those filth why they don't belong here"

"We can rig it so that some of our young talents will meet them in the first round" the woman smiled coldly "But not all of them, it'll be too suspicious"

*****

"From the rumors, Artia is going to host the U16 fighting tournament this year, you 2 interested?" Nova asked as they were eating "It's only held every 5 years, and people from all over would come"

"What's that?" Perseus asked

"Right, we forgot that you weren't with us then. So long story short, it's a fighting tournament for young talents under the age of 16, it's very popular and fun" nova explained "You can use all sort of equipments to beat people up, we joined in once, we didn't win, but we sure did have a lot of fun"

"Yeah" Elliot nodded "That's also how I met Liam and Caleb"

"I plan to" Emma wiped her mouth "Even if I lose in the end, I will get a lot of prestige just by winning one match"

"So spirit beasts or familiars aren't allowed, right?" Perseus asked

"Familiars are, but that is only if your opponent have one too and they also agree for one of them to join the fight" Nova answered

"So people will pay to watch me beat rich snobs up?"

"Not exactly how I would put it, but yes" Nova nodded

"Count me in" Perseus grinned