Alec leaned forward and waved at Sloan happily, the best he could do from where he was sandwiched between his parents. He turned to watch the floor with interest.
The contestants were divided into different groups based off of skill level and weight. They started at the lowest end and slowly worked their way up. Each of the four blue squares supported one pair of opponents, meaning four pairs fought simultaneously while four referees watched closely and coaches either stood nearby or paced. There were only six schools in attendance, two medium-sized and four smaller schools, but not every student of each school had come, meaning it was a small pool of contestants, and each bout only took maybe five or ten minutes. It still took nearly fourty-five minutes before it was Xander's turn.
Xander took a deep breath and stepped up to the edge of his designated square. He bowed to his opponent across the way, and his opponent did the same. They crossed into the square, paused to bow again, and then squared off. The ref snapped a word, and they stepped in to grapple. It was a fast and looked like a lot of weird jerking and dancing around with both of them getting a tight grip on the other's gi, yanking back and forth as their legs swept at each other. Suddenly, they went down, and for a moment, it resembled a good-old wrestling match. A match where Xander came out on top. He won!
The pair separated at the ref's call and stood. They bowed to each other, shook hands, and parted.
"He won, Mama! He won!" Alec cheered.
