As he ran with Vale, Larna stared down at the floor the minimum not to trip over. But, he wouldn’t care about feeling a little pain. He deserved some punishment for losing so shamefully.

  Three losses, zero victories. He tsked. Predictable. As an open book.

  “You look even worse than after our battle.”

  Larna tsked again. How could I not? That guy could read all his movements.

  “You,” Vale puffed, catching his breath. “take losing really hard.”

  Larna's brow furrowed. How else could he take a defeat? It just showed that you were weaker than the winner. It was harsh, direct, and merciless. It just tells you: ‘You are worse.’

  Vale could say something like that easily because he won against that masked guy with the scythe. He was tasting the victory.

  I want to do it too. I don’t want to keep losing…

  “Let's—Let's take a rest,” Vale sputtered, decreasing his speed.

  Larna stopped too. He noticed his heavy breathing and sore muscles when his awareness returned, and dropped into the grass beside Vale.

  “You know, defeats aren’t bad… completely,” Vale said.

  “Says the one who won,” Larna answered, not being capable of hiding his irritation.

  “I would have preferred to lose.”

  Larna’s body pulsed, shaken by that statement. “What?!”

  Vale turned to Larna, a slight frown on his face. “Did you learn something from that battle?”

  “Yeah, I learned I was too predictable, that my Defender Lance was a slow weapon, and that I’m still horrible at this.” Larna’s face wrinkled more with each lesson he mentioned.

  Vale grinned, as if Larna had told him something good. “See, you learned a lot!”

  “I…” Larna prompted but shut his mouth. He took a breath, waiting for his emotions to settle. He clenched his teeth, suppressing a smile he didn’t understand.

  Well, maybe he smiled because Vale was right again. Indeed, he had learned a lot.

  His horizons expanded to a new field with that battle—predictability. It also taught him important limitations of his weapon. With a reluctant sigh, he reformed his answer.

  “I did.”

  Vale leaned closer to Larna with a bothersome smile, “Imagine you would have faced a weaker battler than you, as I did.”

  Larna imagined himself spearing his opponent and winning. He would jump for joy, but also understood Vale’s point. He wouldn’t have learned so much. If he had easily defeated Analyzer, the readiness would still be a secret for him.

  Larna stared blankly at Vale.

  “Um, Larna?” he said, scratching his head.

  “You can be shockingly wise sometimes.”

  Vale’s face grew reddish. He grabbed one of his dual blades and pointed it at Larna, trying to hide his embarrassment. “What are you saying?! I’m always wise!”

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  Larna chuckled. “Yeah, yeah.” His face softened as he glanced at Vale, chuckling too. He felt more relieved, thanks to him, again.

  But the unease inside him persisted.

  “Thanks, Vale. But I can’t get rid of this soarness.” He said with a smirk.

  “Hum hum.” Vale hummed before crossing his arms with a smug grin. “I know something that will take your focus away from that.”

  Larna blinked with a deadpan face.

  “What’s with that face?!” Said Vale, narrowing at Larna.

  “Then, what is it?”

  “Check the event’s section.”

  The Battle Interface faded into Larna’s vision. He had done it just a few times, but the way to navigate through it was pretty intuitive.

  The Event Section displayed a list of announcements, which seemed to be sorted by date. Larna's eyes fell on the top announcement.

  [Battle Tournament Classificatory Phase has begun]

  A Tournament?

  He looked up at Vale after reading just the first paragraph.

  “So?!” Vale said with a smirk, knowing very well what Larna’s reaction would be.

  It’s absurd. Just the top 20 novices of each city are classified to the next phase, according to the little he read.

  He didn’t even know his rank, but he was sure there were thousands of battlers on Tenet.

  He hasn’t been a Battler for more than two weeks, and Vale not much more than him. Even so, he wanted to compete at the level of people like Rising Shadow.

  “What do I say? I say you went mad.”

  Vale frowned. “Don’t be like that. I think we could do it.”

  Larna frowned back. “The tournament is in a month.” He needed to make his friend understand.

  “I know,” Vale answered firmly.

  Larna sighed. “What’s your rank?”

  “Fifty-four thousand,” Vale answered without hesitation.

  “Fifty-four thousand?”

  “Fifty-four thousand.”

  He’s a lost cause.

  Deciding to ignore Vale and curious about his own ranking, Larna summoned the interface.

  The top twenty Novice Level battlers’s names were displayed in front of Larna’s eyes. His eyes quickly captured two familiar names—Rising Shadow’ and “Analyzer’—before the list turned blurry as it began to scroll down faster and faster.

  It stopped at the depths of the ranking, highlighting a specific name.

  [ Rank: 1 100 500 Larna ]

  It struck him as if the weight of all those people ranking higher fell above his head. He clenched his teeth, staring at his ranking, before hearing Vale’s laugh.

  “What’s so funny?!” Larna asked him. It wasn’t anything funny.

  “Your face!” He yelled, but maybe because of Larna’s deep frown, he slowly grew more serious.

  He nudged Larna. “How low you are doesn’t really matter. Battle Ranking is quite simple to ascend.” He nodded, crossing his arms. “Indeed, with just one battle, you could become rank 1.” He smirked at Larna’s questioning look. “You just would have to defeat the top 1.”

  Yeah, pretty doable.

  Even so, that was an amazing notice. “So, you take the place of the people you defeat.”

  “Yes, if your opponent’s rank is higher than yours. You take their position, and they lower one rank.”

  With this method, the strongest would easily occupy the first ranks. It was fair and made it possible for all battlers to get into the top.

  “Picked your attention?" Vale asked him, with a smirk.

  Larna sighed for the third time. Battle Tournament. It was a massive wall to surpass.

  But he knew Vale was going to try to break through it.

  Larna smiled, Don't hesitate, right?

  He looked at his hands, calluses forming on them from the training. He couldn’t stay behind. This time, he was going to take that step forward by himself. Even if his hands trembled, he knew there wasn’t another choice. The flame on his chest wasn’t going to let him sleep if he didn’t.

  He shook his head before pushing himself up.

  “Larna?”

  He extended his hand to Vale.

  “What are you doing seated?” He yanked Vale up with a smirk. “There’s no time to lose.”