Tarvas frowned at "hand to hand combat". He didn't have much practice at that, although he did develop reflexes as a result of hunting for as long as he did. Still, he hoped for the best and the opportunity to be one of the later ones to go, so he could at least see what he was up against. He didn't expect to get those 20 points in a shot, but hopefully he would learn from this. He fought strategically - but he didn't have much fighting hand to hand skill to speak of, let alone any special amount muscle to back it up. Not that he was weak, of course.

He shook his head when a guy burst in right after the announcement of who would be fighting first. Typical Principle he thought.

The first fight was over in a minute or so. It was pretty fair, he thought - they both gave and took some punches.

Finn nodded and moved to the nearest empty space on the wall, letting out a sigh. It looked like they were doing some hand to hand combat first. Well at least the day wasn't all bad. John knew how to fight, at least a little bit. Alessa had taught him a lot of things, but when his parents had died, that was the first.

Flashback
"Do you want to die?" a tall, dark haired woman shouted at a young boy. The two stood in a lavish entry hall, they're bare feet on the cold, white tile. "Answer me Finn!" she shouted again. Her hands had boxing gloves on them, as did the boys. The child was soaked in sweat, although she looked like she had barely done anything all day.

"N-n-no," Finn stammered at the tall, imposing woman. It had been like this all day. She'd said he was going to train today. He thought she meant with his powers. Instead she meant with his fists.

"Then fight back! If they discover what you are, there isn't anything you'll be able to do but fight or run! And I know you Finn. You won't run. Now let's go," the woman shouted before glove clad hand to smack Finn in the top of the head. To her surprise, Finn ducked, and landed a blow to her side, making her stagger. She looked at the boy, a look of new found determination on his face and she grinned. "You're parents would be proud."

Back to the Present
Finn leaned against the wall, his blue eyes surveying the others. This was his chance to prove to the others that he wasn't some rich kid from Principle. This was his chance to prove that he deserved his spot just as much as anyone else did. He just prayed that he got paired with someone he actually stood a chance against.

Dinner was slow for the most part and Seril didn’t find much amusement there so he ate in silence and went to sleep after with a stomach full of some of the best food he had ever eaten. In the morning he put on his guard uniform and rushed downstairs leaving a copy to study more out of the books there. He realized he was late and started running through the halls getting lost and ending up in the gym. He saw another boy there and decided that was his only chance. “You know where our class is supposed to be?” He said to a boy who was running on a treadmill with his music plugged in. The boy looked at his watch and jumped off the treadmill.

----

Chess gorged himself at dinner figuring he might as well get all the weight on him he could while he was here. If worse came to worse he could say that he ate well. He listened to the banter at the table and became familiar with most of their names except a few. One boy from Till didn't talk at all and ended up just walking into his room without a word. Chess found that odd but he hadn’t said much at dinner either, and he eventually after heading to the library to get a few books he crashed out himself. In the morning He woke up and got himself breakfast, heading to the gym.

One thing Chess loved more than anything was running, and he was entirely caught up in his blissful jogging when the boy from Till came in asking something in his thick accent. He looked at his watch taking his headphones out, his eyes almost popped out of his head. “Dude, do you know how late we are?” He said jumping off the treadmill, and running up to the boy. This guy dwarfed him and got him thinking that there must be something in the water down in Till. He didn’t look like to bad a guy though, he hoped they wouldn’t have to be enemies here.
----
“There was a map in your room, boss” The small tan skinned boy told him putting his headphones away and opening the door to the gym back the way he had just come. Seril followed him and wondered where this boy could be from. He hadn’t introduced himself or said much really at dinner, but he didn’t seem like many of the other people here, there was something different about him that Seril couldn't but his finger on. He followed the boy as he began to jog telling him to come on. Seril thought on his copy in the room, and it walked over to the back of the door taking the map there, the real Seril took a moment of agony while they jogged to familiarize himself with the floors.

It bloody hurt too. As they ran he was forced to scrunch up his face, balling up his fist he let out a little grunt and turned the corner with the kid “My names-” He almost hit a corner as they turned sharply, but quickly caught back up.

----
Chess laughed as the kid almost clocked himself on a corner but swiftly spun out of it and kept jogging. He had noticed the guys screwed up face while they were jogging but he didn't think much of it. He picked up the pace as they reached the doors, “This is it,” He said putting out his hand and putting an palm on the door handle, “names Chess by the way.” He said offering his hand toward the other boy as he shook it.
“Seril.” The other boy said as Chess shook his calloused hand. He liked that name, Seril. Seril it wasn't like many of the city districts names, and ass he pushed the door open he looked at the other kid. “Well Seril, let hope we don't have to duke it out to day eh? It looks like they stay feedin you boys good down in Till. Well ‘Sanguis stillent gladiis hostium damno.’ and all that” He said taking his position in the line and as a fight started, he looked at the Till boy who was focusing on the two fighters in the ring. Chess so hoped he didn't have to hurt one of these people, hopefully he would get someone weak and be able to just pin them down or something.

@AgentFallenSoul@ScarlettWaters16
A few minutes after the fight Sarah began to stir and she got up propping herself up on her knees and elbows. Blinking rapidly to clear her vision and holding her head she cursed herself "Dammit" she whispered to herself as she swallowed a very coppery amount of saliva. Hitting the ground in frustration, she tried to stand up and stumbled as she was still groggy from the knockout. Leaning against the wall she took a moment to gather herself before turning to face Sky and Dyana.

Bowing to her opponent first Sarah said "Today you were the better woman and I wish you the best in the tournament, however I would love a rematch in the future" Turning to Sky she bowed and said "Sir, I can only apologise for my defeat and vow to you that I will improve with time, my best is yet to come" WIth that she took her place next to Citrine on the wall.

Alda's heart skipped a beat. Did I hear that right? she wondered, but she didn't protest. Instead she stepped up and cracked her knuckles. If she won, she would apologize later, and if or when she lost, she'd hope for an apology. She took a deep breath and hid her limp like she'd told herself to do, before turning to face her opponent. Her new friend. So much for that, maybe.

Derric looked over at the girl and muttered only one word to her. "Shit." With that he stepped into the ring with her and stretched his arms slightly. If he wanted to get both her, and him kicked out of this place the best way he could do it was to go easy on her and they both knew it. Hopefully they could make it up to each other later...

Surreptitiously she stretched her leg, and Alda was ready. She didn't make eye contact, but she went straight to business and threw a punch right at his throat, putting all her weight into it.

As the punch came, Derrics eyes widened in surprise. He had expected to maybe bow to her, shake her hand, anything but apparently he had underestimated her. In fact if it hadn't have been for his gift he would have taken the punch straight on, however thanks to his sixth sense he barely managed to move the punch, electing to allow it to hit his shoulder as opposed to his throat. Immediately he stepped back just slightly, putting up his hands and getting his bearings before returning with two punches of his own, one towards her face in order to distract her before throwing his next one directly at her chest.

Alda was taken aback by the quickness of her opponent's reaction, so much so that she barely managed to avoid the punch to her face and took the one to her chest. Ow, my tits. With a grunt of pain, she swung her good leg to kick at Derric's shins. If she could just get him on the ground, maybe...

At that point Derric was reminded of his abilities greatest weakness: it's unreliability. He knew a attack was coming, and so he struck it at her again, unfortunately his gift didn't tell him the attack was a cheap shot at his legs. As soon as he felt it connect he cursed and fell back slightly, mostly out of surprise than anything else.

She turned her head to the side and spat on the floor, then lunged at him again.

As she lunged Derric jumped right back at her, iniating a contest of brute strength. Honestly he wanted to end this fight as quickly as possible, and he knew this wasn't an area she could beat him in.

This had been her mistake. He knocked the breath out of her lungs and she struggled hard to overcome him, to no avail.

Derric murmured quietly "Sorry." Before ramming his full weight into her, making sure to use his shoulder as a battering ram for her jaw. Hopefully she would just stay down...

Alda hit the ground hard and gave a shuddering gasp. This was going to need an ice pack. The fight had triggered an adrenaline rush that made her lightheaded, and she felt everything go black until...
Shit. This is just great. I lost and I projected all at once. This is fucking ridiculous.

Derric frowned as the girl went down, seemingly for good. He was actually surprised the blow had taken her out, and even more confusing he felt a hill to up his spine... As if someone was right next to him. Maybe his sense was just messing with him again? Either way, he turned to the front and nodded at the instructor. "She's down."

@tabbycat
"Estella Zaneux vs. Paige Michaelson."

She knew she was going to fight eventually, but now that it was finally her turn, she got nervous, really nervous. She looked at her opponent, Paige, and while she was not as large or strong looking as some of the people from Till, she still looked like she could fight.

They both got into fighting position and when Sky said to start. Paige was already going at Estella with a full on attack of kicks and punches. Estella gracefully dodged, but she couldn't win if she kept that up. She tried to look for a chance to make a counter attack. Soon enough, Paige's punches began to slow down and Estella saw it as an opening. She threw a punch hard, hitting Paige in the chest. Paige fell back a little, and Estella got back some momentum. But, Paige quickly recovered and the two girls seemed to take turns dealing heavy blows on each other, both unwilling to go down without a good fight. Estella, hoping to end it at last, got ready to deal a finishing blow, a strong right hook. Unfortunately for her, Paige quickly blocked the punch with her left hand, and swung the other, hitting the left side of Estella's face, knocking her out.

By the time Estella woke up again, her head was killing her. When she rejoined the others on the wall, She got a mirror out of her bag, and nearly had a heart attack when she looked at her reflection. It looked bad, really bad. She had a black eye from the fight that ruined her perfect face. She held back a high-pitch scream and instead held a hand over her face, covering her horribly swollen eye. She just wanted to go back to her room and hide until it healed. She hoped no one would look at her until she was her beautiful self again.

@_Middle_
Colt looked up from where he was standing as Sky then called his name, followed by “Lincoln Fristen.” Colt glanced over and met the eyes of the young brunette fellow. He nodded to him and they walked out into the middle of the floor. Colt noticed that Linc’s right hand twitch a little bit and he cocked an eyebrow. They walked to opposite sides of the room and Colt sent a cocky grin Linc’s way. “You nervous, Slightly?” Instead of Slights, like most people called them, Colt tended to call Slights “Slightlys” because it tended to rub them the wrong way.

Linc growled under his breath and Sky narrowed his eyes at Colt. “Colt,” he hissed. “Enough.” Colt snorted and Linc drew up his arms like he was going into a boxing match. Colt raised an eyebrow but didn’t say anything to the motion. Sky counted down and began the match. The two young men immediately began circling each other, no one ever attacking. Linc still had his hands up and now was bouncing side to side like a boxer. Colt raised an eyebrow again, but he wasn’t much for sizing up the opponent.

He sprinted at Linc, and Linc swung a punch directly at his jaw. Colt ducked under it and dropped down to one leg, kicking Linc’s legs out from underneath him. Linc realized that this moment that boxing was not going to help him very much here. He jumped back up to his feet and ran at Colt, who tried to side step him. Linc saw him try to do this and changed his course. He punched Colt directly in the jaw. Colt stumbled backward, holding a hand to his jaw. He spit out blood on the floor and wiped the extra from his mouth. He stared at his now red hand and chuckled.

“Damn, Slightly,” Colt said. “You got some punch in ya.” Colt then ran at Linc again, who braced himself. Colt, who had trained with multiple football teams, was prepared for this. Lowering his body, he knocked Linc off balance and whipped his left fist around in a backhand across Linc’s temple. Linc fell to the ground dazed and half way close to being knocked out. He would just feel dizzy for a moment.

Colt turned to look at Sky and smirked at him. “That’s how you fight old man,” he said starkly at him before walking up to lean back up against the wall. Sky narrowed his eyes after the arrogant blond and muttered, “Winner: Colt.”

@ScarlettWaters16

Lincoln was not very fond of the outcome, and was mostly pissed off at himself. Linc realized that he can't use his boxing skills here. All those years of boxing doesn't pay off in the real world. He knows that now. Linc looked at a Sky with a What the hell look, Sky ignored it and announced Colt being the winner. Lincoln walked up to sky, his lip bleeding a little, "I wasn't done yet, I still would've fought. You know-" Linc said in a low voice but Sky interrupted, "Lincoln. Just step off the mat." A bit of understanding was in Sky's voice. "How the hell is he suppose to use that against a Anomalous anyways, they have powers. I wasn't even-" Linc objected, his voice raising a bit higher, but again, was interrupted by Sky, "Lincoln." Sky chided in a stern voice. Linc was frustrated, but understood.

All Lincoln wanted to know was if he fought a good fight. He didn't want to be a sore loser, but he felt that he wasn't done yet, even though he was half knocked out. Lincoln looked at Sky, "Rematch?" Sky stared at his clipboard for a bit, "No." Lincoln heard the sternness in his voice loud and clear, and walked off the mat. He knew that Colt was stronger than him before they even started, but he thought that he could out-move him with agileness. Lincoln wasn't a sore loser, so he wanted to acknowledge the opponent, no matter the outcome. Lincoln walked by Colt, "Good fight." Lincoln said, nodding his head.

Mason watched as the recruits pummeled each other. He glanced in surprise at Sky, who announced he and Lilith would be sparring. Lilith stepped to the mat, looking ready to fight. Mason stepped forward, about a foot shy of the mat. "Mr. Foster?" Sky prompted.

"Sir, I'm not going to hit her." He said, meeting his gaze.

"Why not, Mr. Foster?" The man asked, pointedly and with a challenging gaze.

"Sir, I don't believe in hitting women."

"Unless you wish to be failed from this class, I suggest you suspend that belief for the duration of this fight." The man commanded. "Fight!"

With a clenched jaw, Mason stepped to the mat. He looked at Lilith, seeing that she was good and ready to punch him. If he tried hard at all, he'd win the fight. He already knew it would happen. He had height and weight and strength all in his advantage.

Sky signaled for them to begin, and Lilith surprised mason by delivering a very fast kick towards his head, clipping him in the chin and earning a couple cheers from the onlookers. He stepped back, teetering on the edge of the mat. He pushed forward, forcing Lilith backwards to give himself some room. Her second kick landed in his side, and actually hurt. That surprised Mason - he'd expected her hits to glance of harmlessly. When her punch came faster than he anticipated, he barely managed to sidestep it, turning to face her back. It was a dirty move, but he realized that he wouldn't be able to finish this without putting her on the floor - so he delivered a heavy kick into her side, sending her to the mat and earning a couple "Oooh!"'s from the observing recruits.

He watched as she slowly worked to her feet. "Lilith-" His apology was interrupted when she swiveled and kicked him in the back of his knee, forcing him to kneel on the ground. Now that was a dirty move. As she took another heavy kick towards his head, he wrapped his hand around her thigh, then grabbed her ankle with his other hand; he threw her to the ground, and she rolled to the edge of the mat. Another set of "Ooooh!" and "Ouch!" came from the recruits.

Mason stood and turned to her as she was getting to her feet. What happened next was rather interesting in Mason's mind... See, he was six feet, six inches; he weighed around 240 pounds. However, when Lilith charged him, he actually stumbled backwards a few feet - she didn't slam into him and get thrown back like he expected she would. When she came at him with a punch towards the abdomen, he sidestepped, bringing his knee to her stomach. Holy crap, she's determined... He thought. Before she could retaliate again, he grabbed her by the shoulder and slung her to the ground like she was weightless. Yes, he knew using his anomaly was dirty, but at least it looked realistic for someone his size...

"Please stay down." He muttered. Nope - she got right back up. What was this girl? An Anomalous? He rolled his eyes as as charged again. She was pulling into a punch, but Mason kicked her in the side, sending her to the ground. This time, she rolled to the edge of the mat, and stayed down.

"For someone who doesn't hit women, you did a number on her..." Sky observed. Mason really wanted to do a number on him.

"Jerk." Mason muttered, to quiet for anyone to hear. It was clear that he wasn't supposed to help Lilith to up. He gave her the best apologetic look he could as he walked back to the line. He pulled up his shirt and saw that an angry brown bruise has surfaced on his side from where she'd kicked him. He waited patiently for the next fight.

When Tarvas heard the announcement of going into the arena being one of the first sets, he was disappointed. He was slightly relieved by the fact that his competition didn’t look like a professional - and yet, she seemed to be prepared as well. This could go either way.

---

Both of the contestants entered the arena, sizing each other up, with both waiting for the other to make the first move. Tarvas looked over at Nya and made eye contact for a couple seconds. He acted first, charging at a slight angle in an attempt to knock down his opponent. Nya dodged and sent a knee into Tarvas’s side. He dropped and rolled, coming up quickly to swipe her foot to the side as she tried to get him to stay down. She lost her balance fell hard. As he came to finish her off while she was trying to get up, she rolled to the side and let him fall where she was just at.

They both got up and began to circle each other again when she suddenly sent a foot out to hit him smack in the chest, catching him by surprise. As he stumbled back, she let loose a punch and another kick that floored him. He got up, dazed, and threw another easily countered punch, to which she sent a solid one that knocked him down; this time for good.

@SheriffLlama

Lilith felt her side throb, she looked up at Mason with a groan. He was as strong as a bull. Lilith picked herself up from the ground, her eyes down. She felt horrible, her sides were probably red and she rubbed them. Yet as she walked over to Mason, she looked up at him with a huge smile and eyes that showed her amazement. "You're an awesome fighter, we should spar sometime. Good job, I hope you win." She went onto the tips of her toes, and gave him a pat on the shoulder.

Alda reunited with her body as quickly as she could and scrambled to stand against the wall without making a fuss. She was still huffing quietly from the exertion of the fight, and was incredibly disappointed in herself. Her eyelids fell shut as she tried to console and steady herself. Next time will be better, she promised herself, sure that she wouldn't end up partnered with Derric again but hoping to not have to end up with, for example, Colt, who was not only a strong and skilled fighter but also used the word "Slightly" which had annoyed the life out of Alda's disembodied 'ghost'.

With one side of her face red, swollen and throbbing, she watched the other fights occur. She hoped that there was good medical care here and turned her head to Derric. "Nice job," she whispered.

@CLIW

"I'm so sorry." Derric mumbled back simply, slowly turning to glance at her with a small wince. "I figured it would be terrible for both of us if I didn't go hard, so..." He slowly looked at the ground and shrugged, honestly not really focused on anything but the strange feeling he had sensed when Alda had passed out. What was that about?

Seril stood across the mat from Chess as they began to circled each other. Chess suddenly jumped to the left putting him within reach of Seril. Seril shot his fist out towards Chess but the boy quickly dodged it and Seril felt his arm being pulled forward as the other boy slipped his right leg behind Seril and jumped kicking him with the back of his left foot. Seril wiped the blood from his mouth and kicked out as the boy ran up behind him hitting him in the shins.

Seril picked himself back up off the ground and picked the boy up by the back off his shirt socking him twice before he fell back catching himself. Chess quickly swept Seril's legs and he was on his back again. The last thing Seril remembered was catching the back of a heel to the face after that, then he woke up there with blood all over his guard gear. "Shit." He said pulling himself up catching a glimpse of Chess off in the corner smiling "I told you I hoped we didn't have to fight" he said wiping away some of the blood from his nose.

@Avanhelsing@Satsuki (This is so Avan can catch back up later. Don’t worry; the bracket will go much faster after this)
Sky turned back to the board as Seril and Chess walked off the floor. He cocked an eyebrow at the next match. “Well,” he stated, turning back to the group. “The next match was supposed to be Zeph and Logan, but considering that Logan is not here…” Sky turned to Zeph. “You will have to deal with his consequences. You are disqualified from the tournament. The tournament will continue on without you and you and Logan will receive no points.” Sky’s eyes scanned over all of them. “Take a lesson from this. If you are partnered with someone at any time during training, you make sure that they are there for training.” Sky turned his cold eyes back to Zeph. “And don’t complain about if you don’t know who your partner is. That just means that you need to take care of EVERYONE in the group, not just yourself or someone else.” Sky waved his hand and Logan’s and Zeph’s names disappeared from the board. “Alright, the final fight: Finn versus Citrine.”

---

Citrine cringes when he says her name after going on that tangent with Zeph and Logan, but she slowly walked out into the middle. Finn stood across from her, smirking. She smiled back at him and, as soon as Sky said to start, he lunged at her. She deftly dodged to the side, not even touching him. He stumbled forward and nearly crashed into one of the nearby walls. In her mind, Citrine could hear her weaponry teacher saying, “Use your small stature to wear him out, then go for the kill!”

Finn rushed at her again, but she danced around him, push him forward into another wall as she did so. He crashed against it and swung back around. He swung a punch at her, but she maneuvered to side, slipping past the blow. She then zipped up behind him and hit two of his pressure points hard, causing him to fall to the ground. He stumbled back to his feet almost immediately though, and watched her as she circled him. He rushed at her one more time, trying to take her off her feet, but she jumped up and stepped on his back, throwing him down into the ground. He crashed to the ground and it was over. She had won. She turned to Sky and smiled before walking back off the floor.

---

Sky rolled his eyes at the young girl but turned back to the board. “Alright then. Citrine moves on. First up in the quarter finals is Dyana versus Derric. I’m going to put a time limit on it now. You have one minute to beat your opponent. If you don’t, both of you will be disqualified. Got it?” He gestured for Dyana and Derric to come out onto the floor.

(When I say you have a minute to fight, that means that I’m giving you 1 and half days to post, or else I’m skipping your fight. Got it? I just want this RP to get moving again.)

@Puffhead

Alda raised her eyebrows and gave Derric a rough pat on the shoulder. She gave him a sharp-toothed grin, failing to notice his distracted attitude and taking note instead of his apologetic tone. "Hey, don't you worry. I mean, you could probably tell that I was going to do the same, because I was thinking something similar. Next time though, I'll beat you so hard your grandkids will ache," she added in a teasing tone. "Unless this Dyana person does it first, of course." Talking was starting to hurt a little, so she now leaned against the wall, eager to see what the outcome of this fight would be.

@ScarlettWaters16

Sarah watched Citrine's fight intently and lived the fight blow for blow with her friend, letting out a loud cheer when she won. As she walked of the floor Sarah approached her with an outstretched hand

"Glad one of us won" she said, grabbing Cit's hand and pulling her in close to pat her on the back.

@ScarlettWaters16

"Wha...Fine!"

Her eyes would have stared holes in the head of the instructor had she the ability. Zeph's voice was almost a shout, apparently she is not one who can watch others fight without getting the urge to let loose herself. Now she must continue to watch her supposed peers in a tournament that she was denied entry by some dead weight slacker trash waste of organs ...As the thoughts went threw her head her hands shook with rage.

"It is fine."

It took her almost 15 seconds to settle herself, this was now a observational excercise to improve the orga-others. Thinking back to the matches she had already seen she did have a better understanding of what the others where capable of. Most where unimpressive but others clearly took a contest serious enough that if they matched their own efforts here that they would likely be viable in an actual combat situation. Some of the matches however left her making internal bets on how long before they get seriously injured when the training starts.

"Fine."

Zeph had shown more emotion in that last minute than the entire day prior, and it wasn't even lunch yet. She walked to a nearby wall and punched it with enough force that she pulled back bloody knuckles. Who ever this Logan was, he was going to get a match without regulations whenever she figured out who it was. After that she returned to her previous place pinching the bridge of her nose with furrowed brow.

"It is fine...I...No it is fine...No its not..I will...This..GODS DAMN IT."

Blood runs down her lip as she bite into it to silence herself. This was just. She can't even. "I will slit his F*cking Throat and send his mother tea made from his dried blood." escaped her mouth as she wiped the blood from her chin. She exhaled slowly once more and resumed her (though now much more frigidity) observation of her peers.

@Satsuki
Logan's gift if you wanted to call it had one major issue. He could not even control it but it had a negative effect on him already.In this case it made him mercurial to say the least. He got sullen quickly and sometimes could not wake up on time. His mother use to say he was stormy as a joke. Course she did not know how true she was. So right now he found out he was completely late.

Logan ran out of his door towards the training area as fast as his legs could carry him. Course he knew he was in major trouble for this but it was the first day and he could wow his teachers in other ways. He ran in just to hear that he had been disqualified. He figured that would be the case but he did not know how his opponent would react. He was standing near some gal swearing to slit someone's throat and he figured he knew who that fellow was. Him. He looked over at the gal and gave her his best farmer boy grin. He had spent years honing it.

"Sorry, darlin, Momma doesn't drink tea. Also how do you make tea from blood? I thought tea was made with leaves and hot water? Not really a Till drink but whatever." He said as his accent showed how nervous he was. "If you want to kick the hell out of me then I will happily do it. I never turn down a good fight." He said grinning a bit. "Also who cares about this one challenge. I can tell you'll do fine. Name's Logan or The Guy you want to make tea from"." He joked.

@CallaLily
Estella was sulking over her black eye. Still, she made an effort to watch the remainder of the fights. While she felt bad that Lilith lost, she was kind of glad that Mason won and hoped he would continue on winning. She made her way to Lilith and said, "You did well, too bad you were going against Mason." Her hand was still covering her swollen eye and she really hoped that Lilith wouldn't comment on it.