West Drop, Sunflower Lounge:<\/p>\n
While Liana was calling Neely, Jaquan picked through the heavier pieces of the crew\u2019s luggage.\u00a0 According to Justice, fighters in these tournaments \u201cpreferred victory over pride.\u201d\u00a0 Jaquan didn\u2019t know exactly what this meant. \u00a0Perhaps they trained nonstop.\u00a0 Maybe they just avoided publicity.\u00a0 Either way, they were probably stronger than the fighters he was used to in the arena.\u00a0 If Jaquan was going to have a chance against these new fighters, he would have to become stronger.<\/p>\n
Jaquan got several long strong chains out of his bags.\u00a0 They were some of the many weapon modifiers he used with all his weapons.\u00a0 By combining the different parts, he was usually able to make the perfect weapon for the variety of fights.\u00a0 Today, the chains had a separate purpose.<\/p>\n
After a bit of planning, the luggage was lined up and tied together into a larger package.\u00a0 He then padded his shoulders, looped his arms into the chains, and carried the heap on his back.<\/p>\n
Walking with the pack was a lot harder than he remembered.\u00a0 It didn\u2019t look at all glorious, but the feeling was quite nostalgic.\u00a0 He hadn\u2019t done this training since before he was the Circuit Champion.\u00a0 Since then, he rose to the top and relied on more measurable training tactics.\u00a0 However, those times were gone.<\/p>\n
By choosing this path, he had renounced his championship.\u00a0 The World Circuit was all he knew for the longest and it was great being on the top.\u00a0 However, two<\/em> Holy Talent users had told him this was the best road.\u00a0 He changed paths with a good amount of assurance but knew the consequences.<\/p>\n There was little chance that he would be welcomed back into the World Championship Circuit.\u00a0 Those that promoted him would have nothing to do with him.\u00a0 So now, all he had was his friends and the leftover winnings from his past fights.\u00a0 However, the weight on his back reminded him of the freedom this path had given him.<\/p>\n He struggled to make it out of the building, while his companions walked easily in front of him.\u00a0 Jaquan\u2019s efforts made the load exceptionally lighter for the other two.\u00a0 Justice carried a few bags leaving Liana\u2019s hands free to continue her call.\u00a0 Quite unfair given that her powered mech suit had a communicator installed.\u00a0 All she had to do was talk to speak with Neely.<\/p>\n How did I do this so easily<\/em>? \u00a0Jaquan couldn\u2019t help but think to himself as he staggered out of the door. \u00a0He knew that he looked silly.\u00a0 He also knew that the news casters would not know anything about his side of the story.<\/p>\n The media was having too grand a time dragging his name through the mud.\u00a0 However, that was expected from a group of sensationalists.\u00a0 It made a bit more sense to him that the stronger fighters were unknown.\u00a0 At times, Jaquan wished to be a broke and unknown rather than a rich media target.<\/p>\n The news crews seemed to only make money from what people read.\u00a0 People only read stories that seemed exciting enough to finish reading.\u00a0 The stories didn\u2019t have to be true, only true enough<\/em>.<\/p>\n For \u201cauthentic stories\u201d; they haunted people going though celebrations, ruining the spirit; and hounded people going through tragedy, never giving them time to heal.\u00a0 Granted reporters would apologize for incorrect information, but apologies were never as entertaining.\u00a0 Most of the public only remembered the original report.<\/p>\n Today, stories about former Circuit Champion Jaquan Zu\u2019s \u201ccowardice\u201d gave them ratings.\u00a0 Knowing Orien Quan, the story will be in the forefront of the news until the next Circuit Championship fight.\u00a0 Apparently, people wanted to hear it.\u00a0 It wouldn\u2019t be long before the story would appear again.<\/p>\n By the time Jaquan reached his friends on the street, Liana was finished talking with Neely.\u00a0 She told him something about the two adventurers staying there for the night.\u00a0 That was so much like them.\u00a0 They were best friends and trouble makers long before Jaquan had met them.\u00a0 Neely and Catlin could take care of themselves.\u00a0 However, they were still on a side quest when he preferred them to be near.<\/p>\n He and his whole crew knew that Orien Quan would do something like this.\u00a0 He used the media and the media seemed to enjoy being used.\u00a0 Jaquan had a counter plan but with the two still looking for their reporter, it seems to have failed.<\/p>\n Just as well.\u00a0 He still hated<\/strong> reporters.<\/p>\n #1<\/a> \u2013 Opportunity #32<\/a>\u00a0– Opportunity #34<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" West Drop, Sunflower Lounge: While Liana was calling Neely, Jaquan picked through the heavier pieces of the crew\u2019s luggage.\u00a0 According to Justice, fighters in these tournaments \u201cpreferred victory over pride.\u201d\u00a0 Jaquan didn\u2019t know exactly what this meant. \u00a0Perhaps they trained nonstop.\u00a0 Maybe they just avoided publicity.\u00a0 Either way, they were probably stronger than the fighters […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[32,3,45,21,24,31,28,152,170,73],"class_list":["post-748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bigbad","tag-champions-of-battle","tag-holy-talent-set","tag-jaquan-zu","tag-liana-hu","tag-neely-yin","tag-orien-quan","tag-strength-stat","tag-uncategorized","tag-west-drop"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonsofsword.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonsofsword.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonsofsword.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonsofsword.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonsofsword.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=748"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sonsofsword.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":814,"href":"https:\/\/sonsofsword.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748\/revisions\/814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonsofsword.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonsofsword.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonsofsword.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}