Chapter 30 – The First Challenge
The wind moved across the clearing again, stronger up here than it had been anywhere on the climb. It carried the smell of pine and cold stone, sweeping over the training ground and rattling the loose straps on our bags.
Valt stepped further into the field, looking around like a kid who had just found the world's biggest toy box.
"This place is amazing," he said.
Rantaro dropped his bag beside one of the stadiums and stretched his arms over his head. "Yeah," he said, glancing around at the wide clearing and the stone arenas scattered across the ground. "Amazing and exhausting. I think that mountain just tried to kill me."
Keru tilted his head from Ken's hand. "That was only the introduction."
Rantaro looked at the puppet. "I hate introductions."
Shu was already walking toward one of the stadiums near the center of the clearing. He crouched slightly, running his hand along the rim.
I walked over and stood beside him. Up close the wear on the stone was obvious deep grooves cut into the rim from years of hard impacts, the surface smoothed down in patches where Beys had struck the same spots hundreds of times.
"These have been used seriously," I said.
Shu nodded once. "For a long time."
Valt came up beside us and tapped the edge with his knuckles. "Now this is proper training."
A voice came from behind us.
"Serious training usually starts before you reach the stadium."
We all turned.
A tall figure stepped out from the shade of the trees at the edge of the clearing, moving across the ground with an ease that made the climb we'd just finished look like a short walk. Broad shoulders. Relaxed posture. And a grin that looked like it had been waiting all morning.
Xander.
"Valt!" He spread his arms slightly as he came toward us. "You actually made it!"
Valt laughed and jogged a few steps forward. "Told you we would!"
Xander stopped in front of him and clapped him on the shoulder with a thump heavy enough to knock Valt half a step sideways.
"I heard you've been busy," Xander said. "Winning matches. Causing trouble."
Valt scratched the back of his head. "Something like that."
Rantaro stepped up beside him. "You weren't kidding about the suffering part. That climb should count as a training session on its own."
Xander laughed. "That was the warm-up."
Beus lowered his head solemnly from Ken's hand. "As predicted."
Keru nodded in quiet solidarity beside him.
Xander blinked at the puppets, then laughed again. "Good. Ken brought them."
His eyes moved across the group Valt, Shu, Rantaro, Ken and then stopped.
On me.
He didn't say anything for a second. Just looked, the way someone does when they're confirming something they already suspected.
Then the grin widened.
"So you're the one," he said.
Valt looked between us. "You know him?"
"I watched the District finals," Xander said. He took a few steps closer, studying me openly. "That last exchange with Shu. You didn't hesitate at all."
Shu said nothing. He'd moved off to the side slightly, watching with his arms folded.
"It was the right moment," I said.
Xander tilted his head. "That's exactly it. Most bladers feel that moment and wait. You acted on it."
He rested his launcher across his shoulder, still looking at me with that wide, easy grin.
"Which means I've been wondering ever since whether that was luck." He paused. "Or if you fight like that every time."
"You're welcome to find out," I said.
Rantaro immediately took two steps back. "Oh yeah. This is happening."
Keru and Beus exchanged a glance.
"We predict," Beus said carefully, "structural damage."
Xander laughed and turned toward the nearest stadium, gesturing at it with a loose motion.
Valt's eyes lit up. "A battle already?!"
"Why wait?" Xander said.
He reached into his jacket and pulled out his launcher, locking his Bey into place with a firm click.
I looked at the stadium. Stone-rimmed, wide, the surface worn from years of real use. The mountain wind swept across it steadily from the west, stronger than anything back home. It would push a Bey off a clean orbit if the entry angle was wrong by even a few degrees.
Good. I wanted to know how Drago handled it.
I locked him in and stepped to the near side of the stadium.
Xander took the opposite position. His posture was relaxed, weight easy, like he did this every morning which, knowing him, he probably did.
Valt moved to the side of the stadium. Shu stayed back slightly, watching both of us. Ken held Keru and Beus up so they could see.
The wind shifted again.
Xander's grin settled into something steadier. Less performance, more focus.
"Three," he said.
I pulled the ripcord tight against my fingers.
"Two."
The clearing was quiet except for the wind.
"One."
The mountain felt very still.
"Let it rip!"