Autobiography of a Legend

The Tournament of Deception

While the Tournament of Elements was the only tournament that I ever fought in, I don't think I'd enjoy having to fight in another one again. After the craziness that was fighting in those rounds, I'm not sure I could handle being tossed in again. I didn't even fight in many of the rounds, but Chen made sure that what we did see was enough.

Chen had a very clear bracket established from the beginning of the tournament, meaning that we knew what order everyone fought in. The first few rounds were simple elimination by getting the jadeblade, just like the first round. The first few matchups were ones that I only was able to watch, but it was interesting to see what exactly he had in store. Now, I'll be assuming that many of you know of all of the elemental masters at this point. I'm planning on putting a big character reference in the back of this book. There are a lot of people that were involved in this tournament. At the start, there were 16 of us in the tournament including my team. Keep in mind these names right now: Neuro, Bolobo, Gravis, Griffin Turner, Ash, and Paleman. They're the ones that were involved in the first part of the tournament.

The original bracket that Chen had created had Karlof facing off against Tox. Since he was eliminated, Chen moved some matches around, meaning that Jay thought he had the day off. We were all still rattled about what we'd discovered. I told my dad -who I should mention snuck into my room we shared so he wasn't sleeping out in the jungle- about this, and he agreed that it was best not to say anything just yet. He said that Chen would be looking for any chance to eliminate us if we left any sort of evidence that we were the intruders. Since we were ninja, we were going to be the top suspects and targets. We needed to keep our heads down and play along unless we wanted to turn the entire island against us. Chen had plans for us, and being ready for them was what was important.

The first day of the tournament was a very action-packed one. Chen wanted the first few rounds to be eventful, and assigned everyone an arena. Chen told us to go and eat lunch, and while we did, he was getting everything ready. During lunch, Cole and Jay reminded me very loudly that the two of them were still fighting. I don't know what I expected, but I'd been secretly praying it wouldn't happen. I mean, I knew Jay had talked about Cole when I went to get them, and vice versa, but the two were just like little kids! They literally started arguing over who had dropped their grudge first. I guess, not having a childhood like them meant I didn't get why they were fighting like that. Sometimes, I feel a little glad I skipped right to a young adult.

While the two were fighting, Chen was already getting ready to have his fun with us. He called together the first three matches, and told us to all assemble for the first one. I once more have to ask just how much money Chen managed to amass, since he not only built personal arenas to each and every fight that took place, but they weren't just simple matches either. He had built that entire island like he was some sort of millionaire mansion. How much money does a noodle shop make?

The first round was between Griffin Turner and Gravis; Speed versus Gravity. The entire place was decked out to look like they were fighting over a cherry blossom tree that was perched on the edge of a cliff. When you sat down, it was like the sun was actually shining on you, and you actually would see some cherry blossoms flying off into the crowd as the fight progressed. Chen always had us sit in seats on one side of the arena, while he and Clouse were on a raised platform with Chen's throne always there. He loved to lord over the matches, and he said it was to 'be able to see all the action!' or something like that.

Watching the two of them left a lot to think about. They were incredibly fast and it was like you trailed a second behind what Griffin was doing. The jadeblade they were fighting over was on the top of the tree, and the two were getting there as fast as they could. By the time you even saw where Griffin was, he was already moving somewhere else. Gravis was being pretty tame all things considered, and at first I thought the match was just going to be completely one-sided. I guess Griffin realized that he couldn't see the blade once he was in the three, so he had to race from branch to branch to try to find it. This gave Gravis the advantage.