Scarlet

I quickly move my right arm in front of me, turning slightly due to the girl on my lap as I turn my terminal off of sleep mode before going to the built-in app for the livestream. Then I log into my account, immediately getting free access on account of me being a participant.

The first thing that appears afterwards is a menu asking me which of the five stadiums I’d like to watch the stream of, with four of the stadiums grayed out on account of not having any tournaments right now. So I click on the center stadium to find the livestream showing everything in front of us. But I ignore that to focus on the chat.

And almost immediately regret it.

[ShadowDancer69 – He’s perfect for her!!!!]

Excuse me, what?

[Stellar_Rider – Absolutely perfect!]

[Tech_Wiz – I ship it. The Scarlet Wolf and Shifter. One is both cold and cute, the other naïve and stoic.]

[LunarFlame_ – Absolutely not. Scarlet will never be with someone like that. He said she smelled after all! No one says that to a lady!]

[3choChas3r – Well, most ladies don’t go around tearing the throats out of people and mauling them.]

[LunarFlame_ – That’s beside the point!]

[ElectricJourney – I agree with Lunar. Didn’t Scarlet say that she didn’t have any interest in romance right now? Please don’t go forcing your fantasies on her.]

I close out of the stream chat at that point before glancing up at Aria to find her having been casually reading it as well. After seeing me close out of the stream though, she just looks up at me and stares for a few seconds, then tightens her grip on me while burying her face in my chest again and saying, “He can’t have you!”

My mouth parts open and I fail rather miserably to find anything to say to that. All I feel is extreme embarrassment as my face flushes bright enough to possibly match my namesake.

I glance over at Allen to find him scowling at his own terminal, where I find more messages from the stream, many of which are defending me, others are still shipping us, and others are just going on about my ears or my lack of a tail.

So my cheeks burn even more.

“I think this is the most embarrassed I’ve ever seen you,” Tar mutters, sounding extremely amused.

Well, I tend to avoid looking at any forums online for this very reason. Because I know by now that they’re just going to be saying weird stuff like this.

I really don’t understand people.

Then again, this is the life of a celebrity, so… just the main aspect of it that I don’t like.

Fortunately not many people try to strike up a conversation with me. Probably because I don’t always look that friendly, since I most of the time have a neutral expression.

“Or you’re scowling,” Tar adds. “Or frowning. You do that a lot too.”

Yeah, but mostly I just have my neutral expression.

Tar hums an agreement as I glance at Aria, who is still hugging onto me like her life depends on it.

I pat her on the back while lowering my head down and saying, “Don’t worry Aria, I don’t plan on ever getting in a relationship.”

She looks up at that after a few seconds of continued hugging, only to eventually nod and rest the side of her head on my chest as she returns her attention to the arena right around the time the next matchup is revealed, the three of us having been ignoring Black since the interview with Lucas. And this time, the matchup is between Tempest – another of the top runners in the betting sites – and someone titled Risen because of their necromancy magic. A magic that lets them summon undead minions.

Unfortunately for him, Tempest’s, well, tempest magic is extremely well suited for that. Her magic seems to focus largely on very large attacks that cover a wide area but don’t deal as much damage spread out. With some concentrated skills too for single targets. Mostly area of effect attacks though.

Then there’s the fact that undead are known to be weak to fire and lightning, and tempest magic specializes in lightning and wind. Which basically means that Risen is screwed in this match.

And just as expected, the match doesn’t really end up being as interesting as it would be if either of them had different opponents. A rather unfortunate matchup made by the tournament staff.

After Tempest’s victory, the next match is between Plaguebearer, and a space magic user called Riftwalker. And against everyone’s expectations, Plaguebearer actually ends up winning despite Riftwalker’s space magic.

And for the last match of the quarterfinals, Rebound – the guy with the strange magic that’s kind of hard to figure out – surprisingly beats the mental type magic user he fights. Although no one really knows how he does it. Just that one moment the mental magic user was sending a mental onslaught at Rebound – a skill that is like a bunch of mini mental spikes that are visible to the naked eye – and Rebound somehow managed to turn half of them around to attack him instead.

The only thing I can understand about his magic is that it has the power to sometimes alter the direction or target of a skill. But it doesn’t seem to always work and has clear limits. And it’s also obvious that it’s not the only thing his magic can do.

So I wonder what’s up with that guy?

“And that is it for the quarterfinals!!!” Black shouts, his voice interrupting me from my pondering. “The semifinal round will begin in two hours! Be sure to make it, else you will miss out! And none of you want to miss the first free for all in a solo tournament, now do you?”

A second passes before the brackets change to show all five of us participants in the semifinals, but without the added information this time. Just our names, titles, magic, and portraits.

“We’ll see you alllll...” Black says, drawing it out to be dramatic, “in two hours!”