The wall was opening.
Crimson watched as the wall of her quadrant fell down to the ground, revealing another quadrant on the other side. This one had a waterfall and a river, pouring down and flowing towards the small end of that quadrant. They weren't very large, but Crimson still wished she had been put in that quadrant.
As the dragons on both sides of the wall watched, one particular sakura dragon from the other quadrant got to her feet and screamed "ONWARDS!" Suddenly, total pandemonium broke loose. Dragons from both sides rushed into the other quadrant, taking advantage of their large space and immediately chatting with dragons on the other side. Crimson turned, but a Snow Dragon from the other side hit her with his tail, and she fell to the ground.
"You? You're the panlong Cucoo was blabbing about?" asked the Snow Dragon, sounding skeptical. Crimson struggled to get up. The snow dragon was watching her cautiously, as if she might run away at any moment. Which is true, Crimson thought. I probably will run away.
"Cucoo…wasn't eliminated?" Crimson finally asked, realizing the Snow Dragon wanted a response.
"Of course I wasn't!" Cucoo said cheerfully from behind Crimson. "Oh, and I brought friends, so you probably don't want to run away." Crimson turned behind her, and the snow dragon whacked her again, laughing. Anger surged through Crimson and she roared.
"What's with her?" the snow dragon asked Cucoo. Crimson tried crawling away, but Cucoo noticed and surged in front of her.
"I don't know. She hates everybody and everything," muttered Cucoo. Crimson sighed. Ugh. Do they really need a reason? Can't those fools just accept that I don't want to talk to them?
"Do you need to know? Fine. Last round, I was paired against an Air Dragon named Sierra. She was confident that she would win, and fun, and all of those things. I won, but what I did to Sierra…I can never forgive myself. Imagine if I did that to a friend! I would…" Crimson's voice petered off. The words had just come pouring out.
"She actually said something," Cucoo said, grinning. Crimson shook her head in disgust and tried to fly away. The Snow Dragon gave chase, and caught up to her in less than a second. He is fast! Really fast! Much faster than Sierra, or Wocky, or me. Faster than...than...than...Luna!
"Ugh! What do you want from me?" Crimson asked them.
"Nothing! Can't we just talk to you? You probably have lots of lots of stories, a nd it's boring waiting around in these rooms forever. By the way, I'm Flurry, future champion of everything. I hear you're Crimson?"
"You want to hear my stories? When it hurts me to tell them? You inconsiderate, pathetic excuses for dragons!" Crimson shook Flurry away from her and sailed proudly away. Flurry began to give chase, but Cucoo stopped him.
"Just let her go. It's not worth it, don't even bother." Crimson went to exploring the other quadrant. I guess the other two will merge later. Crimson barely started flying around the other quadrant when the familiar, broadcasted voice came on. Although she knew that magic could do anything by now, it still startled her to hear a voice coming out of nowhere.
"Hello, dragons! I see that your quadrants; 1 and 2 and 3 and 4, have merged to form two halves, half 1 and half 2 respectively. These halves will merge in 2 rounds, when only 128 dragons remain." 128. We started with 90,000. How long has it been? A week? 89,500 dragons have already been eliminated. "Making it this far is a huge accomplishment, although no medal will be earned. The dragon with the most bets is Fafnir, the Sapphire dragon, at the moment. Fafnir, make sure to live up to expectations!" There was a huge round of applause from outside. Why are the wizards watching if the ceiling hasn't opened?
"Clips from earlier rounds; the first, second, third, and fourth, have been playing. A round one performance is a dragon's debut; however, they don't mean too much, as the dragons in Half 2 no doubt know."
"Now, I am sure you are all eagerly awaiting the announcement of our next contest," chimed another wizard, her voice strong and decidedly different from the host's. "Although our previous rounds were mostly about speed and skill, this particular event is based on strength and agility. Allow me to announce that we will be playing Iceball!" I-Iceball! Crimson had seen dragons playing that at their Breeder's island. A cold dragon, a bluefire dragon, and an ice dragon had made a huge snowball out of ice, and some small goals of ice as well. They shoved and pushed to get the ball into the goal. We're playing that. We're playing Iceball!
"Also, the number of dragons has gone down considerably since the start." Duh. "You now have a 1 in 170 chance of choosing a medalist dragon if you pick randomly. Betting carefully, the chances are even higher. However, you will receive less payout the longer you wait to place your bets, so please make them now!" I could care less who the spectators think will win. Could they start Iceball? Crimson felt a strange excitement at finding out who her opponent was, but also a horrible apprehension. There's a 1 in 128th chance that it'll be Cucoo. A 1/64th chance that it'll be Cucoo, or Flurry. And I'm sure if I include Luna and the rest of the high-performance dragons, the chances of me getting paired with someone that I can easily beat are close to 0.
The lights on the walls dimmed. No ceiling opening? That's really strange. Crimson lay down to rest anyways. The quadrants were finally comfortable now that they were halves; 256 dragons could easily fit into a space double the size of a normal quadrant. Crimson didn't feel any dragons brushing against her for once, and she wasn't even underwater. As she fell into the magic-induced sleep the wizards always put upon them, her mind raced. When I wake up again…we'll be in another match, and I won't know if I'll make it, or if I'll lose, and finally the Dragon Games will be over for me. And I'll know who my opponent…is…
Crimson awoke to a chilling, ice-cold breeze on her scales. She snapped her eyes awake. She was in some kind of a box, with cheering crowds around her. Behind her, there was a huge hole, and in front of her, there was a massive snowball a few times her size. She tried to look behind the snowball, but she couldn't.
"Let round H1#084, Crimson VS. Oakheart, commence! First to three points wins!" shouted the announcer, followed loud cheering from the crowd. People watch every game, don't they? It's amazing. The snowball suddenly started rolling in her direction. She charged into it and headbutted it, ignoring the snow that flew all over her and chilled her even further. The snowball abruptly stopped rolling.
The snowball changed course and rolled to the side, still going slightly towards her goal. Crimson whacked it with her tail and then pressed herself against it, pushing as hard as she could with all the magic in her. She smiled as the snowball started rolling away, eliminating any resistance from the other dragon. The snowball rolled into the goal. "One point for Crimson!"
She turned to her opponent. He was a small, young adult Evergreen dragon. The snowball had bowled over him, and he was sprawled on the ground, seemingly injured.
"Oh!" Crimson screeched, rushing over to help. "Are you okay?" There was no response from the Evergreen. Another snowball dropped out of the sky, landing behind her with a loud thump. No. I refuse to win like this. I need to help this dragon. "Oakheart! Can you hear me?"
Suddenly, Oakheart leaped to his feet and headbutted Crimson, sending her flying towards a wall of the arena. Crimson quickly took to the skies and gave chase. Oakheart ran as fast as he could towards the snowball, but Crimson was faster and slammed her tail a small bit in front of his nose, blocking his path. Oakheart didn't stop charging, crashing into her tail and causing Crimson to yelp and get out of the way. She stared at her tail, which now had a few pine needles from Oakheart's head in it. She plucked them out.
"Score one for Oakheart!" Crimson turned to see Oakheart glaring at her with a smug expression. Oakheart was using me. He took advantage of me helping him, and managed to score! It won't happen again. Oakheart sent snow flying at Crimson. She darted out of the way, laughing to herself. That's his idea of winning?
The snowball dropped down, and both Crimson and Oakheart rushed at it. They went into it at about the same time, and the snowball stayed for a few seconds before shoving Oakheart out of the way. I'm stronger than him, and faster than him. How exactly did Oakheart get into this round, anyways?
An icy projectile flew into Crimson's eye, immediately stopping her run at the goal. She screamed. Ow! That really hurts! Oakheart once again took control of the snowball. Crimson's eye burned, but she closed it and tried to ignore the pain. She rushed at the snowball, but Oakheart flew into the air and buffeted her with his wing. Undeterred, Crimson continued trying to get to the snowball. Oakheart hit it one last time, and it came extremely close to the goal; but not close enough. Crimson got to the snowball and hit it back. Oakheart countered.
Crimson's eye still burned, and she wasn't as focused as she had been. When she went back to counter the counter, she missed the ball and flew into the wall, hurting herself further. Oakheart doesn't win with skill, or strength. He wins with tricks. Dirty, annoying, tricks! Angrily, Crimson rushed again at the ball.
"Score two for Oakheart!" Crimson angrily lunged at Oakheart, surprising him. The evergreen dragon leaped out of the way.
"You…are…dead!" she growled, shutting her hurt eye and turning to the snowball which had just fallen down. She lunged at it, and, getting there first, shoved it roughly at her goal. Oakheart countered, as she expected, and they hit the iceball back and forth, trying all kinds of tricks. When Oakheart shot another bit of ice at her, Crimson expected it and countered with a blue fireball. Oakheart yelped and leapt out of the way, allowing Crimson to send the ball into the goal again.
"Score two for Crimson!" said the annoying announcer.
Oakheart leapt at Crimson and attacked her, biting into her body. Crimson yelped and tried to pry him off, but the dragon was determined. Crimson fought desperately against him. Come on! You didn't train with Stoney, defeat Wocky, crush Sierra's hopes, and beat Blizzard to the ground just to be beaten by…a trickster! Crimson roared again and smashed Oakheart into the wall with her tail. She flew as fast as she could at the iceball, and instead of sending it at her goal, sent it directly into Oakheart.
Afterwards, she went back to the ball and whacked it at her goal. She turned to her beaten opponent. He was spawled on the ground, gazing dully at her. She couldn't help but feel sympathy for the injured dragon. He was trying to injure me! He won with devious tricks, not with skills! He was an enemy, not somebody that I should feel sympathy for!
"Score three! Crimson, the Panlong Dragon, is our victor!" Crimson watched Oakheart regretfully. Even though he did those things…he didn't deserve this. To be defeated in such a painful, humiliating, awful way…Nobody should have to do that. But I suppose he did that to many other dragons. All I did was get revenge. I avenged them. And I avenged the dragons I defeated.
Crimson turned back and suddenly recognized her Breeder from the crowd. She squealed happily and looked at him. Her Breeder was smiling proudly, and waved when she glanced his way. He must be proud. Stoney must be proud. I'm sure the dragons at my home are all proud that I made it to the sixth round.
She turned to Oakheart. Wasn't that worth it? Whatever I did to him…isn't all that worth it?
Or is it?