Leiaura

Burning ever brighter

Story: Dragon Gladiators
Powers: Heat
Team position: Midline

This is Leiaura's second season in the arena. Last year, she played with a friendly but low-ranked team, eliminated very early into the season. Thus, she spent much of the last year bored, waiting for the current season to end, and for lack of anything better to do she spent that time training. She outpaced her former teammates and caught the attention of the upper management, who decided she was worth giving a change on a team with better prospects. The next season was drawing uncomfortably close and management still didn't have a third for Tally and Yevka's villain team, so Leiaura was thrust in to fill the gap.

She's out of place here, and it's pretty obvious. She doesn't have a chip on her shoulder the way Tally and Yevka do, and the increased attention on her now that she's on a higher ranked team is more than she's used to. She's a terrible actor and even though she aims to please, she struggles to put on the tough-girl facade the PR teams want to see from her. Frustrated, they pivot at the last second and basically tell her to just "look scary and keep your mouth shut." So, Leiaura becomes "the mysterious one." She knows this failure is dangerous, though. Playing the part is a major facet of success in the backstage life of the arena. She doesn't want to lose the opportunity she's been given by being placed on this high-ranking team.

So she trains. She trains, and trains, and trains. She becomes indespensible. She becomes one of the most versatile athletes in the games. And, later on, she is the first to discover the secret—something the government's been hiding from its conscripted riders. A dragon and their rider, when they achieve their joint potential, can reach an elevated state of capability. They can break through government-imposed barriers in their physiology, and they can access powers they aren't supposed to know they possess.

This is the reason the government has confiscated all the dragon eggs. This is the reason they conscript the riders from birth. This is the reason riders and dragons must submit to implants placed in their skulls. This is the reason many talented, popular riders have met untimely fates in the arena, accidents orchestrated to befall them just as they're at the cusp of reaching their full potential.

The government sees it as a cause for fear. The riders see it as a call to rebellion.