Day of the Tournament. (Serene’s POV)

"Are you ready?" Ayrden asked as I was putting on my protective gloves.

"Almost," I put on my black protective glovelettes and was all set to go. Both of us made our way to the training grounds where we teamed up with Ralph, Zeph and Darius.

"Good morning, ladies." Ralph welcomed us in his sing-song voice and with a large grin. Darius smiled at us while Zeph was looking in the other direction.

"Morning! Guys." We replied.

Almost all the teams had arrived and were discussing last-moment strategies. Zeph was dressed up in all black. A black tank top that clung to his toned body and black pants and black protective glovelettes like the rest of us.

He momentarily glanced at me and then averted his eyes.

"Darling, will you be kind enough to come and listen to me?" A melodious voice spoke from behind us as I turned around and found myself face to face with Lourden, who was standing there with a huge plastic smile on her face.

Zeph moved like a ventriloquial figure as if following his ventriloquist. He moved near her and she slid her hands across his chest. I knew what was about to happen next but Zilver interrupted them: "Lourden, I need Zeph. We need to revise our strategy before the fights begin."

"Ugggg, you never let me have any fun." She shot an angry glance at him and walked away. Zeph’s face looked relieved as he walked back to us.

"So, I have some news. The tournament will be taking place in the ground at the back side of our Institute building and they have prepared a cemented maze with a lot of doors for it. I am not yet sure what the rules and method will be but you guys will have to play it smart to win. So, remember to hit soft areas with your hard parts and hard areas with your soft ones. Remember your training and the size of the opponent won’t matter. Understood?" He gave us one last reminder.

"Yes," we all shouted in unison.

All the teams were then ordered to make their way to the other ground.

"How is your injury?" Zilver asked me.

"Stitches will come out tomorrow and I feel absolutely fine," I replied.

"I was against the decision of letting you take part but you insisted. You must avoid any contact with your head because your injury is not properly healed yet." He told me in a serious tone.

"I will be careful." I tried to reassure him.

We reached the ground, it was covered with a greyish-looking maze for a stretch of about 1 km.

"Woah, that looks rather bizarre." Ralph gasped. On one side there were chairs for Senseis and seniors to sit and watch. On top of the maze, there was a huge screen-like projection that showed the inside of the maze. That was made to show our flights from the inside of the maze.

Three teams made up of Folkels, Witches/Warlocks and I lined up in the front of the maze waiting for instructions. While Vampires and Werewolves took their seats. We would compete first and then it would be their turn.

"Hiya! to all of you." Sarim Sensei’s voice echoed through our ears." Welcome to the Hand to hand combat tournament. Today, we are here to see how strong you people have gotten physically and emotionally. Because this tournament will test your physical strength and how will you do under the pressure of a fight." Everyone clapped and hurrahed.

"I will now explain to you the rules of this tournament. As you people can see there is a huge maze in front of you with different doors. Each one of you will be given a key. Meaning each team will have five keys and starting doors will easily open with your keys. But, there is a special door which has ten locks. It can only be opened with ten keys. Whichever, team will locate and open that door first will be our winning team. To get more keys, you will have to fight other teams in one on one combat. For each fight, a person will gamble his or her key. If you win, you will have two keys, but if you lose you will be left with zero keys, meaning you can’t fight anymore."

"Sensei?" Xin Li had raised his hand.

"Yes?" Sarim Sensei asked.

"What if someone has two keys and they could give one to their partner and let him fight?" Xin Li asked.

"Of course, as a team, it’s up to your captain to decide how to handle keys and which member to fight. But, at the end of the tournament, the winning team should possess ten keys. Meaning each member should have two keys and it’s mandatory for each member to fight at least once. All three teams will be scattered at different locations in the maze. You can remain grouped as a team to move forward or can form sub-groups of two to three members to gather keys quickly. Remember, this tournament will only end when a team has ten keys and open the door." Sarim Sensei explained in detail the rules of the tournament.

"How will the result of the fight be decided?" Ralph asked.

"You have to land 3 hits on your opponent. It can be anywhere, remember to avoid sensitive areas or you will be disqualified. Whoever will be able to land 3 hits first will be declared the winner and will get the key from the opponent. We will be watching and officiating every fight and will announce the winner." Sensei explained the fight rules as well.

"If you have any more questions, ask now. If not then let’s get started with the tournament. May the best team win. Good luck to all of you." Sarim Sensei wrapped up the announcement and we were given silverish black metallic keys by Zilver with chains in their keyholes. I wore it around my neck. All three teams were taken to different doors. We had chosen Ralph as our captain.

"Let’s give our best you guys. As we huddled together, Ralph held onto Zeph’s hand and pushed him forward to join us.

Finally, the whistle blew and Ralph entered his key in the door’s keyhole and turned, the door opened and all of us gasped.