Space Knights: The Arrival by Gregory Samuelson (buy e reader .TXT) 📕

The Gray Mountain Lady Warriors won the tournament for the Fort Assault and Defense. They were now moving up to win the Battlefield tournament as well. Trance grinned with pride as he watched as Corena captained her team to each victory.

On his side of the tournament he was having similar success. However, the results were a little different. Corena’s team won the ladies tournament over Pelleena’s and Calista’s team came in fourth. For his side, Trance led his team to third place and the Amorites won over the Samurai team. Trance was delighted that the team from Kainanth defeated Rex’s team. Rex was so distracted by how well Trance was doing his team was easier targets for the slingapults.

Next on the schedule were the individual Tournaments. Trance and his teammates now had to go to several stations to compete. In the early rounds for all of the tournaments it was common for many of the boys and girls to run from competing in one event to compete in another event. Trance didn’t have to wait long before he was called up to compete in his first event, an archery accuracy contest.

Trance took his bow and ten target arrows and marched toward his destination. Once there he had to compete against a boy from one of the smaller schools. Trance was slightly nervous as he set up to take his first shot. The arrow flew nice and straight at the target that was twenty meters away and scored him six points. Not the best shot, but he had nine more to go.

His opponent shot and scored eight and was delighted to find that he was ahead. Trance’s second arrow was better and got eight points; however, his opponent scored eight again. Trance focused and tried to relax as he pulled his next arrow and took more careful aim. His confidence grew for this first contest and his opponent started to get nervous as Trance tied him on the seventh shot. It came down to the last shot to settle the contest. Trance scored his first ever ten and his opponent got frustrated and shot a six. As Trance relaxed he was called to the Ax Man Challenge.

He ran across the field and arrived to face one of the ax men from the Azarians. Trance won and had a few moments to breathe before he was called to the Swordsman Challenge. Here he had to compete against one of the knights from Kainanth. The boy was quite skillful with his sword yet Trance defeated him. Trance was slightly surprised when the boy stepped up and congratulated him.

“I’m honored to have dueled you,” he said respectfully. Trance was taken aback. The boy didn’t seem bothered at all that he had lost. He leaned closer and added, “I hope you beat Rex.” He bowed to Trance and marched off to his next competition.

Trance cheered for all of his teammates as well as for Corena and her teammates. He actually got more pleasure from watching everyone else compete than he enjoyed competing. Trance also cheered for Hamon and some of the knights from the Amorites as well as some of the Azarians. He had earned their respect and he wanted to show them that he was rooting for them also. Trance also had more respect for the knights for Kainanth and the Samurai knights. Trance watched the large brackets and was interested to see how all of the competitions proceeded.

Trance had time to have lunch with his family two days later and listened to Kyle as he talked about what he had heard from people in the stands. “I’ve talked to a few people and it appears that you may be the favorite to win several awards. It seems that many people like how respectful you are and they are amazed at how skilled you are; however, there are some people in the crowd that are betting against you. There were a couple of fathers of some of the White Knights trying to get people to root against you. They’re saying that you’re successful because your team is supporting you and that by yourself you’ll be easy to defeat.”

“Well,” said Trance slowly, “they’ll just have to watch and see. I might be beaten in my events. That’s okay if they say some terrible things about me. The truth will come out and they’ll have to eat their words. Besides if I’m eliminated early I can sit with you guys some more and watch everybody else.”

Trance got a hug from his mother, and his dad talked him up and patted his back. Ten minutes later he had to return to the field and compete in his second round archery match. Once again he advanced, barely by two points, and then had to go to the Swordsman match and then the Ax competition.

He advanced in the other two tournaments and took a deep breath before looking around at the other competitions going on. It didn’t escape his notice that as each round of competition was completed there started to be fewer boys and girls needing to run from one event to the next. Some kids that were in two, three, or even four different tournaments started being eliminated from one and then another.

Trance scanned and saw that Corena was about to compete in one of the archery contests. If he hurried he just might make it to sit with his family in time to cheer for her. He ran to the locker room and changed as fast as he could out of his armor and into his everyday clothes. With a racing heart he walked as fast as he could to the competitors’ entrance to the stands and climbed up to where his family was seated. He arrived and was very warmly greeted by his family and as he sat down he saw that Corena was about to take her first shot.

Trance shouted and cheered as Corena showed her expertise with her