Opening Ceremony

A skittish looking young man with dark messy hair and pale skin strode towards a massive building complex in one of the most pristine districts of the capital. Kaden gingerly held onto a piece of paper that brought him to the place he was today.

He was accepted to participate in the Superhuman tournament.

Along with Kaden, many others besides him where working towards the same direction holding similar slips of paper.

Today was the opening ceremony that would begin the month long tournament. People from all around the federation came with the hopes of gaining powers beyond any conceivable quality, fame, and fortune.

Kaden felt rather out of place as he had not been this far into the capitals' center before.

As he walked, bystanders gave him knowing glances as they already began sizing him up.

Feeling uncomfortable with having so much attention, he hurried his steps and sighed.

He started to reconsider his decision of applying.

'Maybe I should have just gotten a job instead, I like the idea of gaining powers, but the stares that come with it...'

Before he could come to an ultimatum, he found himself at the end of a crowd of people forming a line in front of a huge metal fence gate. From where he could see, people in white uniforms, who he assumed where some of the organizers, held clip-boards ushering people in.

'so this is it, huh'

He looked up at the monumental building in front of him in awe of the modern engineering ingenuity, and from what he heard, made from the powers bestowed upon one of the previous years' winners. The building was made out of some form of white stone that jutted out of the ground as if it had grown there on the spot, creating incredible spires that shot straight up into the sky, each connected in an amalgamation of gravity defying through-ways that penetrated all of the massive spires together into a single structure. At the top of the building was a spherical structure that was connected to all of the spires with flying buttresses.

Suddenly he felt a shove from behind and the grumblings of impatient people.

He shook his head begrudgingly moving forward and tried to focus on what may transpire after he got through the gate.

From what he had seen online, he had a basic understanding of how the tournament goes.

Participants are given the decision between three different foundations to form their power before the tournament starts. This foundation is what will influence how you play and what upgrades you take to meld your power.

According to the organizers, the distribution system for these powers was 'completely random,' but he was not too convinced. Especially when looking at the people who had won previously, majority of which being from the central region.

'well that doesn't matter, no matter what foundation I get, I will show that having a good strategy is all that matters, no nepotism needed here... heh.'

Kaden had always been good at games. His favorite of all being dungeon crawlers. The ones where you pick up items as you go along building synergies and trying to break the game to the best of your ability. Kaden believed that his skills in the games he played could translate relatively well to the tournament.

As Kaden begun to conspire a great plan to show the organizers his genius, he found himself in front of one of the organizers he had spotted when he first arrived.

The organizer looked him up and down with not much interest and flipped a page on his clipboard.

"Name and papers?"

Losing all the momentum he had in his reverie, the young man cleared his throat and handed over the papers.

"Kaden"

The organizer looked at the paper for a moment and then back at him.

"And your last name?" He said in a monotone voice.

Kaden propped up turning red as he became flustered.

"Ah... um... Urden." Kaden gave an awkward chuckle as the organizer sighed.

"In through the gate and into the ceremony hall straight ahead where you will receive your number."

Kaden shuffled away reeling from embarrassment.

'All my aura... gone at the front door.'

As Kaden devised ways to get back his preconceived status, he saw another organizer holding a bag at the front door to what he assumed to be the ceremony hall.

The organizer handed him a circular pin with the number 4777.

'I got trips! Lucky numbers no less! Hehehe...'

The organizer looked at Kaden giggling to himself and sighed. 'Another weird one, again...'

"Make your way to the seat not filled closest to the stage, the opening ceremony will begin shortly."

Kaden, done with his giggle fest, nodded and made his way into the hall to find a seat.

***

The hall was massive, filled with rows of chairs for the candidates, about half of them already filled. The hall echoed with the sound of chatter and laughter as the candidates became acquainted. At the far end of the hall was a stage where the master of ceremonies would introduce this years' tournament.

Kaden was curious who would the MC be this year. Last year it was the stalwart Evren Woods. Quite incredible in battle, but rather bland as a commentator. He hoped for it to be someone like Lady Vestra, at least it would give him something good to look at while he had to sit through a boring speech.

Kaden dreamed of a possible beauty in his future as he made his way to the row that was not full.

As he sat down he glanced at the man sitting next to him on his left.

He looked around the same age as Kaden. He was sitting with oddly perfect looking posture, neat golden hair, and immaculate clothing; the obvious signs of a central region resident.

Kaden looked down solemnly at himself, and picked at his sweatshirt and sweatpants feeling out of place next to the man.

'Why'd I have to be next to one of them...'

Kaden tried to keep to himself and held his head low.

Unfortunately for him, his neighbor noticed his awkward disposition.

"Excuse me, are you ok?"

Relenting, Kaden squirmed in his seat and looked up at the man.

"Haha, yeah, I'm fine, just thinking 'bout the floor — i mean — just thinking about the tournament, how I'm gonna win and such."

'Why did you say that, idiot!'

The young man looked at Kaden for a moment and chuckled.

"oho... seems like I have some competition."

For all his life, Kaden had a weird habit of relying on hyperbole when left in social situations. Whether it be from some sort of social anxiety or nervousness talking to people, it was a way to take the pressure out of the situation. In the past, it would lead to situations like this that could lead into possible confrontation, or make him look a fool. He hoped this situation to be the latter.

"Yes, see my number?" Kaden gestured to the pin on his chest with a stupid grin on his face.

"Its my lucky numbers, three sevens! I am now destined to win by the gods!"

The man looked down.

"What about the four?"

"... just ignore that one"

An awkward silence pursued as someone who he hadn't noticed sat down to his right gave an audible scoff.

"If you are relying on lucky numbers to win punk, you are dead meat."

Kaden turned over to see a ferocious woman eyeing at him. Auburn hair and intense amber eyes, boding biceps that looked bigger than his string bean arms, she definitely was not someone to antagonize...

But Kaden couldn't help it.

"heh, superstition could come into reality in this tournament, anything is possible."

The auburn 'lady' looked unamused.

"Ah... shaddap, I will bash your skull in before any of that tomfoolery."

Kaden cursed at himself regretting his stupid antics getting him in the hole he was in, but this woman's instigation seemed to piss him off for some reason.

"Muscles aren't everything, you gorilla woman!"

The woman grabbed Kaden's sweatshirt and growled:

"What did you call me, you lean cut piece of meat!"

"Whats with your fixation on meat, you compensating for something?"

Before things got too out of hand, the man on Kaden's left interrupted.

"Hey you two, I'd recommend calming down, the ceremony is going to start soon. You don't want to get kicked out before we even start, do you?"

Both Kaden and the woman looked over at him, the woman mid wind up with a haymaker right to Kaden's face.

The woman stared at the man for a second, looking him up and down.

She harrumphed and plopped back down on her seat with her arms crossed.

Kaden looked at the man with gratuity and tried to sit as far away from the woman as possible.

The man sighed.

"How about we introduce ourselves, consider it a complete do over."

Kaden and the woman shared glances, the man spoke up again.

"I'll go first, my name is Trevor, and I am from the central region. I have always wanted to become a super human growing up, so to be here is quite surreal, hope we can have a friendly competition."

The man, now Trevor, looked at Kaden.

"Names' Kaden, from the middle region. I've always been interested in games'n such, so the tournament sounded fun."

Kaden turned to the woman, who still seemed irritated.

"My name is Jade, nice to meet you."

Trevor seemingly satisfied smiled, "Nice to meet you too."

After introductions, each party kept to themselves. Until after what seemed to be an eternity, the hall had finally filled up. As the lights dimmed, a woman walked out to the center of the stage, queuing the start to the opening ceremony.