Hello, and welcome to the knee slapper comedy club! Tonight's opening act is...

Author: Creativity, may I kindly inquire as to why you have used the chair to turn the studio into a comedy club? And may I also ask why you are waiting in the wings?

Creativity: Oh, well... You were out for that dinner with the studio budget manager and I thought we could do with some entertainment while we waited to begin work again...

Author: Do I have to enact Amendment 7 again?

Creativity: No sir! Please no!

Author: Then you better start working double time to make up for all that wasted time.

Creativity: Of course sir! Double time, sir!

Author: GET TO IT!

Sorry about that. So, we approach the tournament. Slowly but surely, we approach it. Oh, it shall be glorious! So, who's enjoying this so far?

(Cricket noises.)

Please read this, it's key to my master plan. Enjoy!

Ryo and his friends all sat in a massive, open air arena that had massive wood columns, crisscrossing beams of steel, spires of rock that were constantly sparking with electricity, water and magma pools, spires of ice, trees, and several yellow/white and black/purple crystals within it. They were bunched together with many other people who were cheering loudly as six men and women flew down to a central disk. They were all wearing similar robes with the only difference being color scheme. They bowed to the audience and raised their hands in a call for silence.

"Welcome everyone, to this year's Sanctum tournament!"

The crowd burst into deafening applause.

"Over the course of the next three days, you shall bear witness to this year's students great test to prove themselves worthy of studying within the Sanctum! The victors from each element will earn themselves the right to enter the Sanctum and will bear the responsibility that the knowledge they gain within will be coupled with. Without further ado, let the tournament begin!"

The crowd erupted in cheers again. The friends looked at each other and smiled. This was it. They had been training for this since they had been five years old. It all built up to this moment. The Sanctum held special knowledge that only the best were allowed to study. Only one student from each element was permitted to enter per year.

And this year they were going to all take that prize.

The friends got up and made their way to their separate waiting areas for their respective elements. The tournament always opened with light having the first match, followed by water, then fire, air, earth and finally darkness. The reasoning behind light going first and darkness going last was to represent the twenty-four-hour daily cycle. The day begins with light and ends with darkness.

Ryo could hear the crowd cheering wildly. He struggled through the wall of fellow darkness wielders to the front of their designated, field level seating area. The first match was about to begin. He couldn't see Shiori in there. Instead, there was a brown-haired girl with a white and gold, double sided naginata while there was a sandy haired boy on the other side of the field, holding a white and gold bow with a gold string and a blade attached to the top front half of the bow. he drew the string back, causing a golden arrow to materialize, ready for firing.

"Begin!"

The girl swung the naginata horizontally in front of her, launching crescent of gold energy at the bowman. The bowman just fired the arrow and followed it up with another one. He then sprouted his wings and flew to a vantage point atop one of the wooden columns and began to unleash a hail of arrows. The girl spun her naginata at a feverish pace, slowly advancing on the column. The weapon had begun to glow brightly as the light arrows kept striking it. She opened her mouth in a silent bellow and unleashed a disk-shaped blast from her still spinning weapon. The arrows smashed harmlessly against it as it rapidly approached the bowman.

Knowing there wasn't enough time to draw his wings again, he simply leapt from the column, going into a headfirst dive. He drew back his bowstring, which created three arrows that were glowing differently from his previous ones. He released the arrows, which flew in three different directions before changing direction and homing in on the girl!

She didn't seem fazed as she slammed the naginata into the ground, creating a white and gold energy shield. After the arrows broke upon the shield, she spread her wings and flew straight up before looping backwards and hurtling back down at the bowman like a bird of prey going for a stoop. She began glowing with energy as she careened towards the ground. The bowman saw her coming and drew back the bowstring, this arrow was glowing phenomenally bright. He released it short seconds before she would collide with him. The arrow shot off like a comet, smashing into the girl and robbing most of her momentum. She still had the last laugh however as she landed, swept the bowman's feet out from under him with her own foot and levelled the naginata at his throat.

"Victory goes to Lyn!"

The girl, Lyn, helped her opponent to his feet and bowed before waving to the crowd. The two departed through the door they came through and the next pair came out. Ryo watched eagerly, hoping to see Leith. She had been keeping lots of secrets while she had been training, not wanting anyone to know what sort of techniques and moves she had come up with for the tournament. He smiled as he saw that Leith was indeed the first one up. Her opponent was another girl who had a blue and silver chain scythe. Ryo frowned. Those fighters were crafty and occasionally underhanded. They preferred to place their opponents in unwinnable situations and were very good at getting out of the latter themselves. Leith was going to have her work cut out for her.

The two made their way to their respective sides of the field and readied their weapons.

"Fight!"

Leith immediately launched two waves of ice at her opponent, who began to spin her chain scythe, creating a whirlpool around her, which sheared through the waves before she slammed the scythe blade into the ground, causing the whirlpool to surge forward, towards Leith. Leith swung her hand up, creating an ice pillar that lifted her out of harms way. She leapt onto one of the steel beams and leapt again to a wood column. She began spinning her weapon above her head, creating large hailstones. Soon she had easily two dozen orbiting around her, which she launched straight at her opponent. They created a wave underneath themselves and used it to surf out of the way of the incoming barrage.

Once Leith was out of ammunition, they surrounded the scythe blade with a thin layer of water which froze into a circular blade of ice! Whirling around and swinging the massive blade around, they cut the column clean through and sent it toppling over. Leith leapt away onto a steel beam. She cast her eyes around, looking for an advantage. Her opponent was think several steps ahead. She needed something to provide cover and disrupt that forethought. She saw a magma pool nearby and smirked. She sent a wave crashing over the pool, causing a colossal plume of steam spread over the battlefield. She then slipped into a sweet spot in the steam where she could see above her, but you couldn't see her.

She waited and smirked again when she saw the chain scythe fly out of the cloud and anchor into a column. Her opponent followed close behind. Leith then looked down where she could see faint yellow sparks. She swiftly launched a thin stream of water from a nearby pool that struck the sparks and then shot straight up towards her opponent.

The moment the water hit it's marking, her opponent yelped in pain. Leith leapt out of hiding and rested one of the blades on her opponent's shoulder.

"Victory goes to Leith! An amazing display of strategy!"

Leith waved to the crowd while her opponent sulked for a moment before bowing. Leith returned the bow and they left the arena.

Ryo was clapping so hard his hands we bright red. He hadn't seen a trick like that in all the tournaments he'd watched! He'd have to talk to Leith about that one.

A few men and women descended from the areas near the top of the stadium, all wearing a sort of uniform. They set about repairing the arena from the particularly destructive battle. Once it was back to it's original condition, they called the next pair of combatants. The next pair seemed quite interesting.

The first one was a boy with a broadsword and round shield. Both were red and gold. The shield had a dark red gem set in the center of it. The sword's blade was fashioned after several tongues of flame, intertwined.

The other boy had red and gold knives in each hand. The knives were more like machetes and were wide on the flat side. They were double edged, but curved back the way a single edged blade would. He smirked and twirled them in his hand, seeming pretty cocky.

Ryo was interested in the shield. He hadn't ever actually seen this style of shield before but he had heard of it. If what he heard was true, the knife user was going to be in for a nasty surprise.

The two faced each other and took up a ready stance.

"Fight!"

The knife user immediately charged, launching arcs of fire from his knives. The knight simply raised his shield and let the blasts connect, each one dissipating with ease. The knife user spun his left-handed weapon into a reverse grip and made a heavy swing. The knight once again used his shield, blocking the attack with ease. The knife user began to let loose with quick, powerful swings. The shield just continued to absorb the punishment. The knife user grinned widely and backed up, swinging both his arms upward. The ground beneath the knight began to glow red. Realizing what was happening, the knight did something unexpected.

He leapt up and placed his shield beneath him. the ground erupted in a geyser of flame, launching the knight into the air, although he was completely unharmed. As he began to plummet back down, he slashed his sword a few times, launching his own arcs of flame. Once he was on the ground, he rushed forward and slammed his shield against the knife wielder's knives. Then the gem began to glow bright red. Realizing too late his mistake, the knife wielder tried to get away. However, it was not to be as a colossal blast of roaring flame erupted from the shield like lava from a volcano! The shear force of the blast launched the knife wielder straight into the wall of the arena and the heat was felt by almost everyone in the arena!

"Victory goes to Magnus!"

Magnus bowed to his opponent, who was still stumbling around from the attack and had to be guided out by Magnus.

Ryo shook his head. The knife user had dug his own grave. The shield was able to absorb energy, be it thermal, kinetic or otherwise and unleash it at it's wielders will. He only needed to get enough energy stored up for a one hit KO.

He turned and watched as the first competitors for air entered the battlefield. He grinned as he saw Tempest coming out, his claws were sparking with energy and he was eagerly hopping from one foot to the other in anticipation. His opponent was a girl who had twin boomerangs with sharp, serrated edges.

Tempest took his position and waved his hand in a 'bring it on' manner.

"Fight!"

Tempest immediately surged forward using his tornado on feet trick. The girl raised her boomerangs and charged them with electricity. Tempest swiped his claws, throwing a powerful gust of wind at her. The girl used her own tornado to dance away from gust and launched one of her boomerangs at him. Tempest weaved his way around the spinning projectile and darted in, both claws poised to strike. The girl held out her hand to the side and a disk of electricity formed in front of it. She swung it forward, forcing Tempest backwards. She held it out in front of her and fired a beam of electricity which Tempest nimbly sidestepped. He then flew up to a column using his wings, then began to unleash a storm of electricity. his opponent caught her boomerang and began swinging them back and forth, blocking the lightning blasts. She scowled and launched both boomerangs at Tempest, who just grinned and leapt off, used a burst of air to launch himself forward and blasted her with electricity. She was sent hurtling backwards and found herself on the sharp end of Tempest's claws.

"Victory goes to Tempest!"

Ryo smiled and clapped for his friend. He clapped lighter since his hands were still sore from clapping for Leith, but he would have clapped harder if he could. Tempest did everything as fast as possible and fighting was no exception. There was a bit of a stereotype that air wielders were impatient to one degree or another, which Tempest seemed to be a living embodiment of. He had frustrated his opponent and got her to make the mistake of foregoing all her defence for one bout of offence.

Next up was the first earth match of the day. Sadly, Terrek wasn't first up. Instead, it was two boys. The contrast in size was staggering. One was taller and more beefy, while the other was short and scrawny. The shorter one had twin hatchets that looked overgrown with lichen. The large one had a gigantic, single bladed axe.

"Begin!"

The large one made the first move, launching himself into the air using a springboard tactic. As he reached the arc of his leap, he raised the axe high above his head in preparation for a meteor strike. The small one began launching chunks of rock at the large one as he came hurtling down, but none of them found their mark. The small one leapt out of the way as the large one crashed down on where he had been moments ago, slamming the axe in with enough force to create a shockwave that launched the small one a fair distance. He pried the axe free and turned to follow up, but found that he seemed to be stuck. The small one had turned the ground in that area incredibly soft, making it like very deep, sticky mud!

The large one snarled and slammed the shaft of his axe into the soupy muck, creating a shockwave that launched him clear of the mudpit. He immediately charged the small one and began swinging his axe in wide attacks. The small one just leapt and darted around the strikes, making quick hits with his hatchets before speeding out of danger.

Suddenly, he slammed both his hatchets into the ground, creating a fissure. The large one's foot went in and caused him to lose balance. The small one jumped up and kicked him in the back of the head before bringing his hatchet blades to rest on either side of the large one's shoulders.

"Victory goes to Sander! Quick thinking wins this bout!"

Ryo applauded the victor and looked over at the board. He was up next against a girl named Dusk. They walked out onto the field and took up their positions. Ryo summoned his sword while his opponent summoned her weapons. They were black, full hand gauntlets with purple lines along the sides and a purple crystal imbedded in the back of each hand. Ryo narrowed his eyes. This style of fighter often used element powered strikes and were exceptionally gifted at conjuring elemental shields.

"Begin!"

Ryo immediately opened with an uppercut strike that launched a crescent of purple energy at Dusk. She merely smashed through it with a punch and launched two purple orbs from her fists. Ryo slashed the first one away and leapt over the second one, charging up his own sphere in his left hand. He spun and launched it just ahead of Dusk, forcing her to slow down to avoid his attack. Ryo sprouted his wings and flew up to a pillar, then jumped to another pillar before dismissing his sword and charging up two spheres in either hand and launching them at Dusk. She saw the attack coming and backflipped out of the way before bringing her hands together in front of her and unleashing a concentrated beam straight at him!

He jumped out of the way of the attack and began channeling dark energy into his right hand. He resummoned his blade into his right hand and it immediately began glowing with dark energy from his hand. He spun it into a reverse grip and charged forward. Dusk saw him coming and reared back a fist, the gem glowing with power. The two blows met and caused a massive pulse of dark energy outward from the epicenter. He dropped down and kicked her legs out from underneath her, but she recovered and launched a blast from her palm. Ryo ducked out of the way and spun his sword back to it's standard grip and gripped it in both hands. he charged the blade with dark energy and unleashed a barrage of dark slashes, forcing Dusk onto the defensive.

Seeing an opening, Ryo darted forward and snuck his blade up to Dusk's neck.

"Victory goes to Ryo! A masterful performance!"

Ryo and Dusk bowed to the crowd and left the arena.

"We will have a twenty-minute break, then we will have the next set of six matches!"

Ryo immediately went to the statue where he was supposed to meet his friends. They were all there, save Terrek and Phoenix. Shiori was still busy congratulating Leith and Tempest for moving on to the next round.

"That was fantastic! I can't wait to see what you'll be pulling off when we get deeper into the tournament!"

Ryo smiled and shrugged.

"I really wanted to use that trick I used during that spar with Terrek, but I didn't want to go too deep into my bag of tricks yet. But can you imagine her face if I caught her fist and then sent her flying?"

Shiori nodded.

"It's best to save the flashy stuff for when you really need it. I still don't like how risky that move is though. I mean seriously, one miss-step and you'll be in for a world of pain!"

Ryo shrugged again before noticing Terrek and Phoenix approaching.

"I really wish I could have been in the opening fight! Still, that Magnus guys seems pretty impressive!"

Lieth nodded.

"Using an opponents power to defeat them is a skill, but Magnus is naturally attuned to that fighting style. It's certainly brings new meaning to 'offence is a good defence'."

The others agreed. Terrek was smirking a little.

"That guy that Sander beat was pretty bitter about being defeated by him. He looked absolutely livid until they announced the break."

The others could imagine that. They talked a little longer before it was time to return to their stations to watch the next matches in round one. This tournament was only beginning.

Oh, how I love writing this story. Now, we're probably going to be doing some time jumping so that we don't have to narrate every match in the tournament.

Creativity: The audience is just going to accuse you of being lazy.

Author: Yeah, no. I doubt they want to sit through a whole bunch of battles that 3/4s of don't matter.

Well, I guess I'll see ya next week!