The Crystals - 62 Rivals reunite!
After Zohaifa got Lazuli’s signature, he asked, “Who is this Hagan?”
“He is a renowned warrior. People admire him because of his ‘fight for justice’ vibe. He roams around and establishes justice wherever he can. Kind of what you did a few days ago. People consider him to be among the legends. Except that he is still alive.”
“Why didn’t he fight Lava Gladiator then? Was he not strong enough?”
Lazuli held back her chuckle and said, “You think Hagan can’t defeat what you could? He is on a different level. Not someone you can hope to even faze. He might have never got to meet the Lava Gladiator.”
“How strong is he?”
“I don’t know precisely but you know Smomb, right? He is on that level.”
“The inventor of Orange smoke! The one who defeated Oranton and his soldiers by himself? He is on that level! Amazing!”
“We still need one more member to start this!” the organizer shouted, “Assistant, can’t you pretend to be a fighter?”
“But Sir, I have no experience in martial arts.”
“I will join,” interrupted Hagan.
Everybody stared at him in shock. The whole crowded room suddenly dropped to absolute silence.
“Sir, are you sure you will participate? This was just to entertain you as you were taking a break from your toilsome voluntary works,” said the organizer, whose voice suddenly softened.
“Yes, I am sure. But being a hero is in my nature. To save people is in my nature. Whether it’s their life or their special occassion,” said Hagan heroically while ignoring the girls who were shouting for him simultaneously. He moved forward with stylish steps to fill out the form as the assistant tried to calm herself and look impressive.
“Quite a braggart I see,” said Lazuli, “Don’t you think Zohiafa?….. Zohaifa?”
Zohaifa just stared in front, with his eyes fixated on nothing, mumbled to himself, “I have no chance to win anymore.”
“Did you think you had a chance to win even when he did not take part?” asked Lazuli.
“No,” Zohaifa said but his expression portrayed otherwise.
“How brave of the Great Master Lazuli to take part in the same tournament as her disciples,” a voice came from behind.
Lazuli, Marium, and Zohaifa faced back and saw a woman past her middle age. Some of her hair has turned silver. Standing with her is a lad about the same age as Zohaifa and a girl with similar age as Marium.
The boy had red hair and was wearing green cloths. But the clothes looked odd as if it was made of a different material. Its thickness was not uniform. Maybe it was indirectly an armor similar to how Zohaifa’s suit is. This tournament thus portrayed everyone’s tendency of going around the rules.
The girl with pink hair, on the other hand, wore a fairly regular cloth identical to what Marium wears.
“Luna, you aren’t going to participate?” asked Lazuli.
“Or maybe too old.”
“Do you feel honored to say that your rival is an old lady?”
“Well, you didn’t feel humiliated to establish this rivalry when I was a little kid.”
“You want to have a piece of me?” saying which she created lightning in her hand.
“No fighting outside the tournament area please,” one of the assistants interrupted.
Luna stopped.
“Whoa! Your lightning is blue?” exclaimed Zohaifa in amazement.
“What do you expect brat?” asked Luna.
“My one is white. I thought that was the norm.”
“Hmm. I only saw blue lightning users. Maybe you are not the default,” then she shifted her gaze towards her disciple and said, “Those two are your rivals, teach them a proper lesson.”
“Same to you,” Lazuli told Zohiafa and Marium.
“I see you already found a new rival,” a voice came from behind. Everybody faced at that direction. It was none other than Flirtic.
“Flirtic? How did you get money for the form?” asked Zohaifa.
“Everybody treasures their life,” answered Flirtic coldly, “Don’t you forget that I am still after you. If we miss our fight here, we will finish this business somewhere else.”
But this time Zohaifa did not have any fears. Rather he answered back with confidence, “I am looking forward to it.”
“Come on, Warriors. It’s about to start. We need to show you the system,” the manager shouted.
All 8 participants gathered around.