"I can't believe you broke the family's ancestral rule," Luke's father learned of his confrontation with the bullies through a call from school. As soon as he saw Luke arriving home, he welcomed him with the first scolding he had ever received in his life. "Didn't I teach you that we should never attack other people unless we are defending someone else?"
"But, Father." Aaron replied, "Those guys were dangerous, I'm sure they were going to attack other people in the future."
"Don't give me that. The rule is not to attack unless you're protecting someone directly. What happened to you? You were always a good boy, I never thought you'd do something like this." Aaron couldn't answer, and simply remained silent. "I want you to stay at home until I get back, and reflect on what you've done."
After saying that with some intensity in his voice, his father left the house. As soon as he left, Aaron heard a voice behind him."
It feels good to have someone else get scolded once in a while."
It was Luke's younger sister. A 10-year-old girl, with long, night-black hair and wearing men's clothes. Her nails were painted with rather intricate designs, which glistened in the light of the room as she pointed at her brother with a mocking laugh.
"Theia, if you keep teasing me, I'll tell daddy and you'll be the next one to be punished."
"What a smart-ass..."
Theia pouted, but Aaron ignored her. He simply opened the door through which his father had just exited and walked out of the house.
"Where do you think you're going?"
His sister had a surprised look on her face.
"To the Training Center, I want to waste a little time."
"What are you talking about. You're grounded, remember."
"And you're going to tell dad about this?"
"Probably."
"Well... I don't really care."
After that, Aaron left the house, disregarding his father's punishment.
What the hell happened to my brother?
There was quite a buzz in the city that day because of the start of the tournament, the main attraction of Astros. Due to the high esteem in which martial arts were held in the Astron family, every four years a big tournament was held in which anyone could participate. It consisted of individual fights, with the opponents facing each other without weapons. The winner of the tournament was integrated into the Astron family through marriage. In this way, the best combat genetics were obtained for the descendants of the family. It was an event that attracted people from all over the world, filling the arena with more than 50,000 people.
"Won't you participate in the tournament, Algar?"
Aaron asked the head of the Training Center.
"Of course not," he answered while typing on a computer, "you know that no Astron can participate.
I know I'm a distant member of the family, but they wouldn't let me anyway."
That's true. To avoid inbreeding, anyone with an Astron ancestor is prohibited from participating in the tournament, no matter how distant that ancestor may be. I can't believe I forgot. Since I got my memories back from earth, some memories being Luke became a blur.
"The room is ready, Luke."
Algar put the computer aside, and led Aaron into the training room. There was a room with white walls, full of doors in all directions. Before opening one of the doors, Algar warned Aaron:
"By the way, you should be careful. There have been reports of people being controlled by monsters. It is not known how they do it, but some people who have a lot of contact with monsters suddenly increase their power incredibly and act aggressively towards other humans."
What he mentioned surprised Aaron a bit. In the video game there were certain enemies that were called possessed humans, but there wasn't much explanation given for their existence. They were not very important enemies in the game, being mostly a good source to gain experience easily.
"Is there no cure?"
Aaron asked, trying to learn more about these beings.
"Some of them are currently being tested to find out how to save them, but nothing has been discovered. That's why they have been limiting the work time of the people in charge of this Center."
"And they aren't prohibiting entry to prevent the monsters from controlling us?"
"It's just that the cases so far have only been provoked after contact with wild monsters. So far there hasn't been a case from interaction with bred monsters like this ones. Anyway, I find it best to warn you just in case, so you'll be careful, more than anything."
"I see. I guess I'll be careful, then."
Algar, after his warning, opened one of the many doors. On the other side was a huge space, filled with plants. The place looked like a savannah, with large trees, so large that not even their tops could be seen. Above them, several monkeys wearing black cloths could be seen. The clothes they wore covered them completely, except for their eyes.
"I prepared your favorite room," said Algar. "The one with the ninja monkeys."
Aaron entered and Algar closed the door behind him. Then, on a giant screen in the middle of the room, the following text appeared:
Room 16 [Ninja Monkeys].
Objective: defeat 15 monsters.
Time limit: 10 minutes.
Several of the monkeys grouped in front of him and charged at him at the same time. Aaron jumped over their heads, falling behind the group. These, confused at not being able to connect the blow against their prey, did not react to Aaron's punches hitting them all on their backs.
Those were 7 monsters, there were still 8 left to defeat.
The remaining ninja monkeys hid, taking advantage of the distraction made by the group that had just been destroyed. A typical ninja monkey strategy. Knowing this, Aaron paid attention to any movement around him to find the monkeys. He couldn't find them all, but he did find several. He ran towards one, being then attacked by several shurikens, which came from an unknown part of the forest. He dodged them and picked them up from where they fell, then fired them at the positions where he had identified the monsters to be.
He looked at the screen again to see how many monsters he had left to defeat: 3 monsters. To defeat the rest, he stood in the middle of an area free of trees, and stood still. He closed his eyes to sharpen all his other senses. When he felt the gusts of wind coming from the kunais thrown by the ninja monkeys, he reflexively dodged them and threw some shurikens that he still held after the previous attack. After doing so, a sound erupted in the area. The board in the middle of the forest began to glow, displaying the following message:
Congratulations.
You completed the objective within the time limit.
Go to the reception to receive your prize.
Through the front door appeared Algar, who entered clapping loudly.
"Well done, Luke. I see you wanted to take it easy this time, and yet you beat them in only 3 minutes.
That's already faster than anyone your age coming to this center."
Taking it easy? I gave it all I could, but I was nowhere near my 1 minute record.
"Do you want me to set up another room for you?"
"No," he answered quickly. "I have something to do."
Aaron escorted Algar to the reception. There he was going to give him his prize, some coins that were stored on shelves.
"Here, this is the prize," he said as he handed him 5 bronze coins, "I know it's not much, but as you know, this is the standard you get for completing room 16 on hard difficulty. That's all I can give you, if you had broken your personal record you would have received an extra bronze coin."
Algar's words didn't matter much to Aaron, after receiving the money he said goodbye and left the Training Center with only one thing on his mind:
I need to check what's going on with my strength.
Van Astron was Luke's father. He was the fourth son of Amos Astron, the head of the family and king of Astron. As such, he was the fourth heir to the throne. Despite his important position in the line of succession to the throne, he worked in the transportation of objects for the scenery of several events, such as dramas or the famous Astron tournament, a job of great physical effort and little remuneration. Anyway, it was a perfect job for someone trained since he was a child, possessing the perfect strength to do any transport quickly and efficiently.
That entire day was spent making final arrangements for the tournament. He was busy moving some of the decorations for the fights; several statues of past champions and important members of the Astron family, all positioned on the edges of the grounds, underneath the stands.
When he finished working, he sat in the spaces reserved for VIPs, a benefit he had for working on the tournament preparation. He rested there for several minutes. As time passed, the seats throughout the stands began to fill until there was no space for anyone else. And after certain light effects created with magic, the tournament participants entered. All the competitors lined up in the middle of the arena, facing the person in charge of organizing this edition of the tournament, Terminus Astron, the second son of Amos Astron and Van's older brother. He gave a speech and explained the rules of the tournament.
Wait, isn't that...
Among the participants, Van recognized him immediately: Luke was among them, standing in the middle of the arena listening attentively as they explained the rules.