Read The Battle at No- Man’s Land Biome, Book 1: Rise of the Champions Page 4
Day 4
I laid on my bed, looking up at the ceiling. What have I just gotten into?
Mother had made a scene when she had come back from the hospital and found me being lifted and crowned by the announcer, but the decision had been final. I was Blueberry Town’s Champion for the Great Minecraft Tournament.
Most of the strange visitors had left soon after and I would be leaving tomorrow with the last of their minecarts. I wasn’t told much, except that I would be meeting the other champions, going through tests and receiving my new armor and weapons at the Royal City once I left Blueberry. The Tournament was still a few days away.
Gareth was back at home, but he couldn’t exercise or do pretty much any kind of effort for a few days. He wasn’t as friendly as before and even looked bitterly at me when I tried to speak to him. Great, I thought, he’s going to hate me now.
If I had the choice, I’d give my spot as ‘Champion’ to anybody else. It was probably going to be the end of me. Despite trying to spend the last day of my life as a normal 12-year-old could, it was pretty difficult considering my impending doom.
“Son,” Dad said as he stuck his head into my room — geez, did he ever knock? — smiling warmly, “Come to the kitchen, we have a surprise for you and Gareth!”
I followed him curiously and arrived at the kitchen table. Mom smiled at me, but Gareth looked away angrily. There was a large meal set on the table and a cake in the very middle. It made me chuckle despite my fears. It was green and blue with two armored knights on it. They had faces and were pointing their swords at the sky like heroes. ‘G + S, Champions’ was written beneath it.
“Aww, Mom! This is awesome.” She hugged me and I sat down to eat. When we were done, Gareth sighed heavily.
“It’s dumb to be angry with you like this. How do you feel, bro?” His words calmed me down. I would have loathed leaving the town without him saying goodbye properly.
“Kind of. Any tips, Gar?”
“Sure, let’s eat and we can spend the night practicing a few surprise moves,” He said, before he spotted Mom’s glare, “YOU can spend the night practicing a few surprise moves that I’LL teach you. Better?”
The cake was delicious.
Night fell and I did as he said. He brought a shield for me to use and even his own sword.
“Always carry a shield in battle. You won’t regret it.”
I fought to lift it up and struggled with the weight. “But it’s heavy!”
“Yeah, it’s supposed to be heavy. Otherwise, you’d be dead within minutes. Now lift the shield or I’ll hit you so hard they’ll have to pick another champion!”
For a second I considered being knocked out, but I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t come back to pick another person, so I just obeyed. We had walked quite a distance away from home so our parents didn’t see Gareth actually attacking and fighting me. We both took it easily, but after a while he seemed to get dizzy.
“Hey, stop right there big bro!” I said loudly, and he nodded softly before resting against a tree. “It’s okay. I’ve learned enough with you already these past years. I should be okay.”
“Can you shoot a bow? Light a fire with flint and steel? Brew simple potions?”
I lifted a hand. “Stop. I don’t need that right now. I know enough. It should have been you, but it isn’t, okay? Let’s focus.”