-1-

As the fighters emerged from the main gate into the battlesphere arena, the crowd cheered louder and louder, feeling an extreme sense of anticipation. However just when the audience thought that they couldn't be any more excited, Milla emerges from the entrance, both shocking and exciting the crowd; the young basset hound notices the large audience cheering as loudly as they can as she follows the other fighters to the center of the arena, where Pliny stood on an elevated platform; it didn't take long for the audience to start cheering her name, similar to how the crowd at the Zhōngyāng Arena cheer her on weeks ago at Qin, this only made Milla increasingly worried as the other fighters expresses clear annoyance towards the crowd's nepotism.

The fighters stood still in thirteen columns, one for each group of four; thankfully for Milla, since she was one of the last few fighters to appear, she stood at the the back row. Next to the young hound was Zhen Sheshou, an adolescent rodent who were a private for the Shuigang Military, "I wouldn't take most of the fighter's expressions too seriously; it's not your fault that the crowd favors one of the warriors who saved our world. If anything we're all excited."

"Thanks." Milla responds, not sure what else to say.

"By the way, I'm honored to be your opponent."

"I should be the one saying that, you're suppose to be a prodigy and son of an admiral."

"I'm sorry to tell you, but it's not all the special to be a soldier's son, I actually envy you, at least your reputation was built off of your own actions."

Milla simply remains quiet, Except it wasn't…

"Welcome everyone, to the 200th Annual Avalician Martial Arts Championship! This year we have fifty-two fighters, and as our wonderful Royal Magister had said himself, this is the first time the AAMAC have warriors outside of the three kingdoms!" Pliny announces. In response the audience cheers, notably people originating from the Qin Empire and Araiansu clans, despite this the rest of the audience, as well as the native fighters also applauded them, showing respect for the three kingdoms' new allies. The fighters who originated from outside the kingdoms stood proudly for their people, as well as showing thanks to their hosts.

"As always, we start with our preliminary rounds, where our fighters are pitted against each other to see who will advance to the next round. Of course since this year our fighters are divided into factions, we were careful not to have two people of the same faction fight each other, also to avoid any such incident, we specifical will hand pick who will fight who for both rounds. Typical tournament stuff-" Pliny continues however she notices that the Red Scarves' faction was shy of one person, "Hey! Where's your fourth member?" she asks, referring to the three scarves who were present, the other fighters were suddenly intrigued.

"He's… kinda late-" Hanna responds, not entirely sure of herself, though was quickly interrupted by the hawk in front of her.

"I assure you girl, that our fourth member should be arriving here soon." Icarus counters.

"Well, he better here soon, or else-" Pliny retorts.

"Or else, what exactly?" Everyone here's an echoing voice which left a cold chill on their backs, they quickly shift their attention towards the Battlesphere entrance. Emerging from said entrance, was a white dragon, who wore an iconic long red scarf; the dragon's smile made most of the fighters uneasy, meanwhile this greatly annoys Milla and her allies, almost feeling an instinctive rage.

As the man casually climb up the platform and walk towards the red polar bear, Pliny couldn't help to ask, "Who do you think you are?" she demands.

"I'm desperately sorry for my tardiness, I'm one of the leaders of the Red Scarves, Jai." The dragon casually introduces, the moment he reveals himself as a Red Scarf Leader, everyone in the arena felt their heart sank, the fighters had known of Jai as a powerful and feared fighter who excelled in previous tournaments. "It appears my reputation does follows me, if your faces are any indication." Jai then observes.

"U-uhm, w-why are you here, then?"

"Hm, well I'm a contestant of course."

"W-what."

"What? Is there a rule against that? I already registered my faction into this tournament, that includes myself, there's nothing left to say about it. I was late, simple as that."

"We understand, Jai, though we would've hoped you would show more respect and fairness towards your opponents at least, you are one of the Red Scarves' leaders after all." The Royal Magister responds in Pliny's defense, "Tell me, someone of your caliber wouldn't be late without reason."

"Interesting, you speak of fairness, however you did unfairly allow these youths entry into this tournament, meanwhile these other warriors worked hard to reach this point, yes they may not have as much reputation, though at least they have the strength and ingenuity to live up to that reputation." Jai counters, directing his attention towards Milla's faction, "Tell me, surely someone of your caliber have a good reason to insert one of the 'Heroes of Avalice' into this tournament."

The Royal Magister was lost in words, of course he had expected this to be an issue, however he could never predicted Jai himself to participate or directly point out his actions; he could easily lie however it was against his principles, though if he told him the truth, it would cause too much controversy. "I assure you, Milla Basset and her friends gained entry into this tournament via appropriate procedure, we have nothing to hide, they're simply in this tournament for their own personal reasons, nothing more." Tuanjie, one of the leaders hosting the tournament, explains.

"Very well, I have no quarrels with any of you, nor does it matter, I was simply speaking for the sake of the other fighters, you yourselves do speak of fairness after all. As for what I was doing, I was simply on official business for the Red Scarves, and there's no need for me to go into specifics."

"Understandable."

"Good, I apologize for interrupting this ceremony, carry on with the festivities!" Jai submits, before climbing down the platform he whispers something into Pliny's ear who stood besides him; Jai then moves into his position with the other Red Scarves and the crowd is left silent until Pliny resumes speaking.

"Okay then… Anyways! Before we start the actual tournament, which is what we all came for, someone else will be saying the traditional speech, other than our champion, or in this case the runner up for last year's tournament considering our actual champion couldn't make it. Instead I suppose it would make sense for Milla Basset to present us with a speech this year!"

The crowd roars as they begin to cheer Milla's name, encouraging her to walk up on top of the platform to say something, much to the basset hounds dismay. Milla being reluctant, desperately tries to convince the audience otherwise, however her plea is left ignored.

"I'm sure you'll do fine." Zhen assures.

"Indeed, just say what you have to say." Chan encourages overhearing the rodent's advice.

Milla quickly and rigidly walks up the stage, viewing the tens of thousands of people viewing her, she felt her stomach turning as she grows very nervous, she honestly don't know what to say. She quickly look behind her and sees Pliny trading a small smile and thumbs up, "Uhm…" the hound starts as she tries to test the microphone by tapping it however this causes a loud ring, the sound causes her to yelp from the startling sound and the audience quickly cover their ears from the sharp sound.

Milla, finds herself blushing as a result until she sees her friends, signaling her to breathe and relax, with that she makes a deep breath and begins to speak, "I know that most of you likely didn't expect me or my friends to be part of this tournament… I'm sure some of you are angry… I'm not even sure why I'm here, well, I have an idea, but that's not important…"

The basset hound briefly pauses and see the audience giving their utmost respect, she make sure to swallow her saliva this time so she could be heard more clearly, "What is important is that we are all here, we came this far, myself included and honestly I don't really think I deserve much of the praise I get. I understand that I did help defeat Brevon, yes, he was a mean and evil man and he almost caused our world's doom, though I don't want to be praised for that, in fact I don't really deserve it."

Again, Milla looks at the audience, to make sure they're actually paying attention, "No, If I do get praise I want to be praised for something I did myself, that doesn't mean I don't want to help others or help from others, of course I do. It may not be much, but what I can do for you now, is to try my best in this tournament." Milla breaths one last time and this time with more confidence, "I guess my advice, is that even though you might have failed once or even several time, you should never give up, even if it may seem like… you're destined to fail… there might be a chance you'll succeed. If that make sense…" The hound concludes, the audience was left silent. Until. The Royal Magister himself began to clap in response, and so did the other four leaders, and then the fighters and the whole audience. Among the audience was a cloaked woman, who smiled warmly to the hound's speech, she did not applaud her, due to trying to maintain her anonymity.

"Not bad, not bad at all." Pliny praises, "You can relax now."

As Milla leaves the stage, returning to her spot, she was met with similar praise from her friends, when she reaches her spot she meets Zhen again, "You see, you did fine, public speaking is never easy."

"With Milla's advice in mind, let's start this tournament! All fighters can return to the lounge, except for our first two fighters! Kai Xin versus Akira Seido!" Pliny announces with much enthusiasm.

Milla is surprise to see that her friend was the first to fight, as she glares towards Kai appearing worried for him, the husky simply replies with a small grin with his back towards the worrisome hound. Kai's opponent, female, a wolf and a markswoman no less gives a somewhat devious smile back at Kai, she was much older than him, about the age of twenty-one and seems just as confident.

"Let's change into a more appropriate battlefield!" Pliny proclaims, and as she says that loud mechanisms are activated, as the arena is terraformed to take the appearance of a forest like area; furthermore large prisms appears towering over the artificially grown trees, which was presumed to be the work of WOOD energy manipulation. The sudden change of terrain impresses both canines.

"Let the battles begin!"