Storm waited patiently at the ferry docks for his mom. She hadn't been at Haven during breakfast, which she usually was since the tournament began. He wondered what she'd been doing, though he guessed that she would tell him when she arrived.

The ferry was scheduled to stop at ten o'clock, and even if one gave them a little room, they were late. It was a quarter past, and there was no sign of them. While for a moment he thought that perhaps the White Fang had attacked again, it was more likely was that they just had mechanical difficulties. He hoped it was mechanical difficulties.
Soon enough, the ferry came into view. As it did, he thought he saw scorch marks and gunshot holes. When it got closer, he realized he wasn't imagining it, and it looked like it had been through a fight. For a moment he was gripped with dread that his mom had been killed, but realized that if anyone survived, it would be her.

When it docked, his mother was one of the first off after a few people with minor wounds and someone shouting for doctors. She walked over to him with her longbow around her shoulder. She had a few less arrows in her quiver than she usually kept, and she looked like she had the same look he'd seen in so many people after a battle.

No words went between them. She knew that Storm could figure out what had happened. The ferry had been attacked, she'd fought them off while the White Fang inflicted casualties, and they made it back after she sent enough arrows into whatever watercraft they were using. All they did was hug.

Storm wasn't that concerned with potential embarrassment—as providing comfort to someone who'd been through something like that, especially a family member, had no shame in it. It also helped that everyone was distracted with helping the attack victims that they ignored the two of them. But besides that, he wanted to make sure she felt that someone was there for her, even if it was only her son.

She hugged him tightly, which he didn't like since he was pretty weak for a Huntsman—even a student—so it felt like she was squeezing the stuffing out of him. But she'd been through something big today, so he'd just have to bare it.

After a few minutes, she finally drew away. She collected herself a little, and said, "Storm, if it's not too much to ask, I'd like you to oversee today's matches."

Storm was surprised. He raised his eyebrows and asked, "What?"

"Storm, I've been through too much today to do this," she said tiredly. "Besides, all you have to do is raise the force field and make sure they stop when they're supposed to stop. It's not that hard."

Storm was hesitant to take on this responsibility, to say the least. Why should they listen to him, a first year student who led his team to defeat in the first round of the Vytal Tournament? They had no reason to follow him except that he was their temporary professor's son, and even that was shaky at best. Why would they listen to him?

His mother must have seen the uncertainty in his eyes or on his face, and said, "Storm, I asked you this because you're the most unprejudiced, most trustworthy person I know. I'm glad to have been part of the reason for that, and I want you to prove you are by doing this. Judge this matches and you'll prove that to them, if you haven't already."
After a few seconds of consideration, he gave in. "Alright, Mom, I'll do it. But please, don't ask me this again."

She smiled and nodded. "It's a deal."

As Crystal stepped into the arena, she noticed Storm was in his mother's place. She had heard that Mrs. Sapphire was caught in an attack on the ferry, and seemed badly shaken up by the event. Obviously she had chosen Storm as someone she could trust—being of the same blood, so to speak—to do this in her place. She could tell though that he was nervous, perhaps about messing up.

She took a place in the arena as Sun Wukong did the same. She found it slightly disconcerting that he didn't close his shirt, instead choosing to display his rather impressive muscles. Though she could ignore that for now and just beat him up.

He pulled out his red and golden staff as she drew the Crystal Blades. She considered what weapon to use in this bout. Hook swords seemed like a good idea, to immobilize his staff, but then again, a staff wasn't much against a flanged mace. She decided to use the mace, but hold off on summoning it until the beginning of the match.

The force field was raised, and Storm began the match.

Crystal immediately shattered her cutlasses into her planned mace as Wukong charged her. It took almost too long to form the mace as Wukong was a fast opponent, and quickly closed the gap between them. She blocked his staff just in time before it could hit her. She then swung her mace at him, which he did block, but it sent him barreling across the arena.

He then summoned two clones of himself made of light to attack her. He broadcast his semblance—an unwise decision to say the least—while he probably had no idea what hers was. She had an advantage in this fight, but that didn't secure her victory.

She dispatched the clones with some difficulty while Wukong tried to use them to distract her. He tried to get into her blind spot to attack. Little did he know, with her True Sight, she had no blind spot. His attempted surprise attack from the rear failed miserably as she swung her mace in an arc to first destroy the last clone and to attack him.

As he was sent back across the room, she realized the victory was within her grasp. All she had to do was keep hitting him and this would be an easy victory.

Then, as he got up again, he spoke in a derisive tone. "Ha, you call that a hit?" She swung at him and he managed to dodge it by jumping over her with a trajectory that would land him behind her. She wound up a swing that would hit him as he landed. He landed and crouched before she could hit him with the mace. "My mom hits harder than you."

He then split his staff into two sets of nunchuks made of guns and began attacking her with them. She tried dodging as much as possible, but she still got hit. She decided that a mace was too slow, so she would have to reform it into something a little faster.

She managed to kick him in the solar plexus, making him stagger back. She took the opportunity to smash her mace and reform it into a gauntlet-sword. It had a long blade, and flanges on it to block gunshots. She also made a second flanged gauntlet for her left side. She hoped this wasn't a huge mistake as she lunged at Wukong.

He wrapped a one set of nunchuks around the blade, trying to lock it down, as he fired point blank with the other. She blocked the gunshot, and kicked him in the knee. His stance weakened, she withdrew, and swung her gauntlet-sword in a large arc to finish him off. He then dropped to the ground, dodging the attack, and tried kicking her legs out from under her, which she narrowly avoided by jumping. She swung again, but he rolled backwards into a handstand that ended with him standing on his feet again.

Breathing heavily from the exertion of the fight, she said, "I'll admit, you're fast." While the compliment may have seemed strange to someone like Wukong, she believed he'd earned some honor in this battle. After all, it wasn't just anyone who could give her this much trouble. Though she quickly added, "But you can't beat me."

Wukong laughed. "You couldn't beat eggs."

Crystal smiled slightly. He was trying to trash talk. Obviously he thought that a Taryn could lose control over something like emotion. If he ever managed to get her angry, she'd just use that anger to focus on ways to beat him. Of course, she could use this to her advantage. "And you can?" she asked in response.

As he was about to speak, she charged, and began a series of lightning fast attacks against him. He barely managed to block or dodge most of them, and even returned a few.
Eventually he turned his nunchuks back into a staff and swung it at her right. She blocked, and the he followed it up with an attack on her left. He then kept alternating between right and left, keeping her on the defensive. She had to strike back at some point though, and she couldn't do that with a gauntlet-sword.

When his next two attacks struck, she allowed them to shatter her weapons, and then dodged the next attack. She then reformed her weapon into a poleaxe, hooked his staff with the axe blade, and tried to swing him over her head and smash him into to the arena floor. Instead, he oriented himself to land on his feet, and once he landed, their weapons still locked, he flung her at the arena force field. She hit the field, and dropped to the floor. Perhaps a poleaxe hadn't been the best decision.

Her aura was low, but so was his. One good attack would probably get his aura into the red zone. All she needed was a weapon to do it with. She quickly considered her options, and chose to turn her weapon into a flail with a chain about nine feet long. Wukong was noticeably displeased when she did that. "Oh, that's not fair," he said.

She smiled. "If it was fair, do you think I would use it?" She then closed, and swung it at him, which he barely managed to dodge.

As she swung again, he jumped into the air. In the air, he split his staff into the nunchuks again, and aimed them at Crystal. She didn't have time to react. While she started moving to dodge, he wasn't even as far as six feet from her. She couldn't dodge, and she couldn't get the flail over to him in time to strike. It was over.

In the moment before he pulled the triggers, she came to terms with her defeat. He'd just gotten lucky, that's all. The only reason she lost was due to unforeseen complications. She could only see the present, not the future, so victory was never certain. She could have won, but as it turned out, she didn't.

She was hit with the blasts of Dust, and her aura dropped into the red zone. She shattered the flail on the ground, and turned it into dual cutlasses that she put away. Finally, Storm called them match. "The winner, by a hair, is Sun Wukong."

There were a few cheers, though about as many as some matches got. Wukong played the crowd as Crystal slipped away quietly.

She hoped that her father would understand. He would, considering he too was defeated by a student once. Then again, she was the first of their line in recent memory to wield both Crystal Blades. Expectations for her were higher than they had been for her. She so hoped her father would understand.

As she was going up to a high bleacher to be alone, Jasper stopped her. He said, "Good match, Crystal. You had me at the edge of my seat."

"Yeah, he nearly fell into the next one," Rowan added jokingly. Crystal smiled. A bit of good humor was just what she needed after that.

Jasper looked back at him. "Ha ha," he said dryly. "Maybe you should have been a comedian."

Rowan shook his head. "Then who would watch you fools' backs?"

Jasper shrugged. "Someone with a better sense of humor?"

"Personally, I don't think I need someone to watch my back," Sakura, who was sitting next to them, added. "I think it'd just be creepy."

Crystal laughed as the two boys looked at Sakura strangely. "You're weird," Rowan said.

"Thank you very much," Sakura said proudly.

Crystal then decided on something. "Do you mind if I sit here?"

Jasper shrugged. "Sure."

As Crystal made her way past the three to sit on the other side of them, the next match began. It was Gaia versus Taline. As Crystal sat down, she wondered who would win this one.

The match sped by fast. Gaia had put up quite a fight, but even she couldn't stand up to Taline's sword and the waves of energy it made. Gaia lost the match, and Taline won.
All this meant that Sun and Taline were slated to fight the final match.

When Taline and Gaia left the arena, Storm stepped up and said, "Alright everyone, tomorrow's the day of the final match that'll between Taline Ironskin and Sun Wukong. But until then, you're dismissed and have a good day."

As Crystal got up to leave, she began to speculate who would win. While she thought that probably Taline would win, she knew that she shouldn't underestimate Wukong. Really, she didn't know who would win, but she wanted to find out.

Only one today, unless I somehow write an entire chapter in a few hours, which I don't really want to do. But look forward to the next one as I wonder if I'm somehow going to get into the forties on these chapters.