"Nervous, Cat Girl?"

  "Shut up……how could I not be?"

  I was on my way to the Rustlands Stadium with Persia, the tournament would continue at 11 AM, which was about an hour away, and we were about ten minutes from the stadium now. She looked pretty tense though, as she was nervous about her next match.

  She had won both her first two matches with ease, but her next opponent was the toughest possible one in the whole tournament.

  "If it makes you feel any better, my next match is far from a cakewalk too, you kno."

  "Whatever, it's not as tough as mine. Guess I just have to face it and do my best, though winning against that much literal firepower is too hard to even imagine. Well, anyway. Why'd you leave so soon yesterday? You missed out, the food was so good. Especially those fried frog le."

  "I-I told you, I had to find a new dagger and get some replacement gear for the pairs that got damaged yesterday," I interrupted.

  I mean, I guess it was good that she was trying to change the subject instead of continuing to mope, but not if she planned on talking about frogs. Last night I'd dreamt that I'd been captured by giant frogs, and they kept chopping off my limbs and eating them after deep-frying them. My limbs kept growing back, and they kept chopping them off and eating them.

  I'd woken up this morning in a cold sweat, that had been one of the most terrifying nightmares I'd ever had in my life. Or well, lives. And all it took to trigger it had been a brief glimpse of fried frog legs.

  "So, did you?"

  "Huh?"

  "Did you find replacements for everything that got damaged in yesterday's matches?"

  "Oh. Well, I bought a couple more pairs of battle gear, but I wasn't able to find a dagger that felt right. I'll have my left hand free today, so I'll use it to fire more lightning bolts and use my needles, wire and throwing knives more too," I sighed, recalling my futile hunt to replace my broken dagger.

  I'd searched all over the place, but all the options I came across just felt a bit off one way or another, either the weight felt wrong, or the length wasn't quite right, or the shape was the issue.

  And I'd rather not use a weapon at all than use a weapon I'm not fully comfortable with, so I decided to use my short-sword on its own while carrying a lot more smaller throwing weapons like poison needles and the like.

  "We're almost there. Oh yeah, after you left, I heard someone mention that the Rustlands royal family will be in the stadium to watch the remainder of the tournament," Commented Persia, as the stadium came into view.

  "Huh, is that so? Speaking of which, I wonder what the royal family's name is, I just realized that I don't know a thing about them."

  Yeah, beyond the fact that they're in charge of the major decisions in the running of the country while leaving the more minor management decisions to the government, I didn't know a thing about them, not even their family name.

  "You're kidding right? It's literally what the country is named after."

  "Wait, for real? So the last name of the members of the royal family is Rustlands? Does that go for the other countries too?"

  "……your lack of general knowledge is a bit concerning sometimes. Yeah, every country is named after the royal family that runs it. How do you not know that?"

  "Uh……oh, look! It's Rai and the others."

  Whew, that conversation had been starting to make me look pretty stupid, so for once, I was glad to see the blonde hyperactive pinball.

  "Hey, you two! Bet you guys are feeling pretty excited, huh? The crowd is even bigger than yesterday!" Greeted Rai, gesturing at the scores of people streaming into the stadium.

  "I must say, I was quite surprised by how much each of you have improved. After your showings yesterday, I wouldn't be surprised if you two advanced even further. Although, your opponents certainly cannot be taken lightly. I wish you both the best of luck," Chimed in Key encouragingly.

  "Mhm……congrats on yesterday, and……good luck today," Yawned Azyl, brief as ever.

  "Oh right, I forgot that you two were watching from the audience yesterday," I remarked.

  "Um, thanks, you guys. We'll do our best," Replied Persia, a bit awkwardly.

  After we exchanged a few more words with our group-mates, we headed through the participants' entrance and made our way to the waiting area. Everyone else was already inside, and there was a bit more tension in the room today. It wouldn't be too long before the next round begins.

  Oh, before we get into that, I should mention one more thing about the tournament match ups to avoid any confusion. So far, it had followed the normal knockout tournament format, but there would be a small change in the semi-final round.

  If it had followed the pattern that the previous rounds did, then the winners of the third rounds' first and second match would be matched up in the first semi-final, while while the winners of the third and fourth matches would fight in the second semi-final.

  However, the way it was actually set up, the first semi-final would be between the winners of the first and fourth matches of the third round, and the second semi-final would be between the winners of the second and third matches of the third round.

  Don't really know why they did it that way, but it meant that I'd fight Misen if I got to the semi-final round, so whatever. Well, he'd have to win too, but he was almost guaranteed to do so, I just couldn't imagine him losing against Arg.

  "Hey, Kuro! I'm looking forward to seeing what you're made of today! And good luck to you, Persia!" Exclaimed Vi, coming over to us.

  She seemed completely oblivious to the tension that everyone else was feeling. Or maybe she just didn't care.

  "Oh, uh……thanks. I'll give it my best shot," Said Persia, a bit half-heartedly.

  "You're definitely stronger than me. But I have no intention of losing, Miss Loubder," I replied confidently.

  "Ugh, so formal. Just call me Vi, I feel weird when someone calls me by my last name," She responded, "But I definitely like your confidence, I look forward to a good fight! And Persia, perk up! You definitely have a chance!"

  Huh, she was being a lot more encouraging than she was to Rai yesterday, even though Persia was facing the same opponent. Well, Persia's abilities did make her a better match against Ekai than Rai, or even I, was.

  Thanks to the size of his flame attacks, you were left with a lot less room to move around on the ground, but Persia's Propulsion gave her the option to use the height of the arena to move around, not just the length and width.

  Vi chatted with Persia for a while longer, before the room returned to tense silence as the time ticked away, with less than a couple of minutes to go for the first match to begin. Persia kept taking deep breaths, trying to calm herself down. Maybe a little useful advice might help.

  "Hey, Cat Girl."

  "Yeah, what?"

  "Go on the attack immediately, and strike with as much power as you can, as hard as you can. Don't let the fight drag on, the more flames he uses, the more oxygen gets burnt."

  "Huh? Oxy……what?"

  Oh, right……

  "Er……I mean, the harder it'll get to breathe, the barrier is an enclosed space, so the heat will continue to collect within it the more flames are used, and as the air gets hotter, the more difficulty you'll have breathing."

  "I see……yeah, that makes sense, I'd have never of thought of that. Alright, I'll keep that in mind. Um……thanks, Kuro."

  "S-sure, no problem."

  She now looked to be deep in thought, as she forgot about her nervousness. Looks like it worked.

  Not long after that, the participants for the first match were called up.

  "Here I go," Muttered Persia to herself, taking a deep breath.

  She still looked a little bit nervous.

  Maybe I should offer some subtle encouragement……

  "Hey, Persia," I said, placing a hand on her shoulder.

  "Y-yeah?"

  "You aren't planning on letting me get ahead of you without putting up a fight, now are you? Heh, maybe I should wish you good luck, after all, high enough luck can sometimes compensate for a lack of skills," I smirked teasingly.

  "You jerk……I have no intention of losing! And don't talk all big, at least not until you win your next match, otherwise you'll end up looking pretty lame. Oh, and I have no need use for luck, I'll rely on my skills instead," She said firmly, before a small smile spread across her face, as she lightly punched me on the chest.

  "Well……good luck anyway."

  "Don't need it, but……thank you, Kuro."

  With that, she headed out with a determined look on her face.

  "Well, you two sure are close, aren't you?" Came an amused sounding voice from behind me.

  "Wha-!? Oh, it's just you, Vi. So, how long were you listening for?" I sighed, trying not to show my irritation at being snuck upon.

  As an assassin, letting someone else sneak up behind you felt extremely disgruntling.

  "Long enough! That was so adorable-!"

  Okay, I didn't want to hear this.

  I mentally tuned her out and focused my attention towards to arena. Both fighters were in place, and the barrier was activated. Extroverts are hard to deal with……she was acting way too familiar for someone who I'd only met yesterday.

  "Ready……FIGHT!"

  Without wasting a fraction of a second, Persia shot straight up to the ceiling at full power and began gathering wind around her foot. Looks like she was opening with the same dropkick she used in her last match.

  She blasted herself back down towards Ekai with her foot raised, as he fired off a massive ball of flames towards her. She didn't change her trajectory, instead intensifying the wind swirling around her left foot and bringing it down as hard as she could as the fireball reached her.

  Streaks of fire scattering all across the arena upon impact, her kick successfully countering the fireball, as she readjusted herself in mid-air so that her feet were behind her.

  I felt a bit……angry, as I noticed a part of her left boot had been scorched off, with her skin underneath slightly burnt as well.

  She then propelled herself down again, this time swirling wind around her right fingers and expanding them in the shape of long, windy claws. As she neared her opponent, she swung her wind enhanced right hand at his head as swiftly as she could, right as he conjured up flames to defend himself.

  As their attacks clashed, the resulting shockwave pushed them both back away from each other, streaks of flames and blades of wind spreading out from the impact point, her right hand suffering a few burns as a part of her glove burnt off, while he got a few small cuts across his arm and face.

  Ekai then fired a few snaking streaks of flames towards her, which she narrowly maneuvered past using Propulsion. As they both regained their balance, he fired fireball after massive fireball towards Persia, as she narrowly dodged and weaved past the first few, before being forced to take off into the air as her ground movements became more restricted.

  He was forcing her into one of the upper corners of the barrier, if she got trapped there, she'd have no where to evade to. As she began getting backed into the corner, he joined his hands and conjured the largest ball of flames I'd ever seen, and fired it at her.

  Even if she blasted herself straight down at full power, she wouldn't be able to fully evade the range of that fireball.

  As it neared her, she inhaled deeply, and then opened her mouth and fired out an incredible blast of wind, the force was so powerful that she got pushed back with her back firmly pressed up against the barrier corner.

  The wind blast shot through the middle of the fireball, extinguishing a large chunk of the flames in the center of it. Before she began to fall down, she quickly planted her feet against the barrier wall and bent her knees, before propelling off of it at full force, blasting herself through the gap she'd carved out in the fireball and shooting towards Ekai, a few streaks of flames kissing her skin……she flinched a bit but ignored the pain and kept going.

  She then began extending wind claws from both her hands, then spread out her arms, and began spinning herself across rapidly towards him. He attempted to jump of out the way of her shredding attack as she neared him, the impact tearing apart and slicing into the ground.

  She stood up amidst a dust cloud, the ground beneath her absolutely in pieces. She was breathing heavily as beads of sweat trickled down her body, her face, arms and legs covered in burns. I felt my chest tighten as I saw the burn marks all over her body. She also looked a bit dizzy after rapidly spinning like a top.

  "Well, how about that. She actually managed to hurt him. Impressive," I heard Misen remark in amusement from across the room.

  I turned my attention towards Ekai, and saw what he meant. That last attack had inflicted some damage, his left shoulder had been slashed fairly deeply, blood was running down his left arm and dripping onto the ground.

  The crowd had been watching this intense clash in stunned silence, but now, as both fighters were catching their breath, cheers began echoing across the stadium around them.

  As Persia composed herself and began preparing to use Propulsion again, Ekai ripped off a bit of his tank top and tied it around the wound to slow down the bleeding, before charging up fire in both hands and shooting out continuous streams of flames from each hand.

  It was like two massive snakes made of flames were slinking across the entire arena.

  Persia was just barely evading them, she was starting to show signs of slowing down. I could only imagine how hard it must be to breathe within the barrier right now, Ekai had already conjured up a lot more flames in this match than he had in his fight against Rai, and the air inside was starting to shimmer.

  Persia had her right hand balled into a tight fist, and she was rapidly spinning and compressing wind around it, as her speed continued to wane and more burns began appearing on her.

  What was she trying to do? The way she was charging her fist up, it didn't look like it was going to be a long or mid ranged attack.

  She suddenly stopped evading and charged straight for Ekai's left side, towards his injured arm. In response, he put his hands together and merged the two flames, increasing their intensity and directing them towards Persia's approaching figure.

  She picked up her speed and continued charging forward, and slammed her right fist towards the approaching, blazing flames. The compressed wind sphere around her fist then rapidly expanded and scythed through the flames, extinguishing them upon contact.

  However, as she kept shooting forward and cutting through the length of flames, her sphere of wind began to weaken, it would most likely dissipate before she could fully extinguish his attack and reach him.

  But she didn't stop.

  Even as her sphere of wind around her fist began to fade, she drew back her left arm and clenched her hand into a fist, and began charging up wind behind her elbow. She was nearly upon him, as the sphere disappeared and she began driving forward her left fist towards his chest. He started to try and dodge, but she was already too close. Her punch slammed into him, sending him flying back and crashing into the barrier.

  She slumped down onto one knee, struggling desperately to catch her breath with a light-headed look on her face. Her right arm was completely scorched. Ekai had taken some damage from that last hit, but he was still standing.

  He too seemed to have a bit of difficulty breathing, but he had used up a lot less stamina than she had.

  Propulsion requires her to hold her breath while using it, and when she stops to catch her breath, she's breathing in thin air that's also bound to be rather hot, so it's no wonder that she looks so exhausted.

  As Ekai approached her, he began saying something, I couldn't hear him from where I was, but I could just about read his lips.

  "You are impressive, first year. However, this fight is over. As a sign of respect, I shall now defeat you by using my full power and my most powerful attack."

  Flames began sprouting around his feet, as two rings of fire appeared around his body across each other. Persia immediately began racing around and then circled him, dashing around him rapidly and gaining momentum in preparation to strike. She was on her last legs though, and was struggling to gain enough speed.

  Ekai lifted his foot and slammed it down onto the ground, while raising his hands. In the blink of an eye, flames were spinning around him, and rising higher and higher. It looked like……a massive flaming tornado that was growing rapidly, with him in the center.

  It went all the way up to the ceiling of the barrier, and continued to spin and rotate faster and faster as it rose. And then it expanded, spreading out and filling the entire barrier.

  Persia suddenly appeared outside the barrier, looking like she was on the verge of passing out.

  The barrier looked like a giant box of nothing but flames. As the intense heat began expanding the air inside, cracks began appearing all over the barrier, extending and deepening until……the entire barrier shattered outwards like glass, and an intense, stifling heat wave spread out across the entire stadium, even reaching us up in the waiting area.

  That was some seriously intense heat……I can only imagine how sweltering it must have been inside the barrier.

  The air all around the stadium was shimmering like a desert mirage, and at the center of the now scorched arena stood Ekai, trying to catch his breath.

  An instructor rushed over to Persia, helping her up and guiding her towards the stadium's infirmary.

  "The winner is……third year student, Ekai Zabel!"

  As the crowd began cheering, I found myself rushing out of the waiting area towards the infirmary before I realized it. Instructor Tabbs, who was standing outside the waiting area, called out at me.

  "Where do you think you're going? Your fight is coming up soon, you'll be disqualified if you aren't here when it's time for your match to begin."

  "I……just give me five minutes, Instructor. I'll be back soon. Besides, they can't use the arena in its current state, and it'll take at least a few minutes for someone with earth magic to fix it, so it shouldn't be a problem. I just need a few minutes to visit the infirmary, I'll head straight back here as fast as I can when I'm done."

  "……very well, you do have a point. But I will not be held responsible if you don't make it back in time."

  As I hurried towards the infirmary, I ran past Ekai, who was heading back in the direction of the waiting area. I only caught a glimpse of him as I dashed past him, but his slashed arm and all the cuts he'd gotten looked like they had healed.

  Those healing Spell Scrolls were on par with my own Healing Factor in terms of speed of healing, though they couldn't heal fatal injuries or regrow limbs. I reached the infirmary and pushed open the door, walking in. Persia was sitting up on one of the beds in there, I let out a quiet sigh of relief as I saw that her burns were all gone, though she looked completely drained.

  "Kuro? What are you doing here, shouldn't you be getting ready for your next match?" She said in surprise.

  "Well, they have to fix up the arena, so even if the second match does end as soon as it begins, I still have a bit of time before my match."

  "What, were you worried about me or something? Just kidding," She laughed, smiling weakly.

  "Y-yeah, right! Why would I be worried? I'm just here because I felt like it, I don't have to justify my reasons for being where I want to be!" I retorted unconvincingly, then continued, "Though, you know……if you want to vent or whatever about your match, I d-don't mind listening."

  "Heh, you're kind of an idiot sometimes, you know that? I don't really have any reason to vent, I mean, I fought a lot harder than I ever thought possible, I used all my strongest moves in that fight, that was probably the absolute best that I'm capable of with my current abilities. I guess……it's just frustrating, you know? That attack he used at the end……I may have been exhausted by that point, but even at full power I can't imagine a way to counter that. After I landed a couple of blows of him, even though I was in much worse shape, I began to think about winning this match. Hehe……how cool would that have been, me defeating the strongest fighter of the tournament? But after that last attack, it was clear that he hadn't been taking the fight fully seriously till the end. And that kinda……irritates me, you know? But it's not like I can complain, since I was too weak to make him draw out his full power from the beginning."

  "You can be kind of an idiot sometimes too, Cat Girl. If there's one thing I know, you're a lot of things, but you're definitely not weak. I can only imagine how powerful you'll be in a couple of years time. So, uh……cheer up, I guess……" I trailed off awkwardly, not sure how to continue.

  "Wow, you really suck at this kind of thing, but nevertheless……thank you. Well, you should get going. I'll never hear the end of it if you end up getting disqualified because you spent too much time in here. And……I'm sorry, I don't think I'll be able to watch your match, I'm just barely able to stay conscious now as it is, my body is screaming at me to pass out already. But, you better win, got it? Now quit wasting time, and get moving!"

  "Sheesh, fine! I'm going! And don't worry about it, you don't need to watch my match, the result is obvious after all……there's no way I'll lose. Also……I wasn't wasting time, I-I'm, uh……glad that you're alright."

  With that, I turned away and headed out of the infirmary, shutting the door behind me and rushing back to the waiting area, as I saw Misen and Arg heading for the now repaired arena, the second match about to begin. It wouldn't be much longer now before it was time for my match.

  And after what I'd said to Persia, there was no way I could let myself lose. What the hell was I thinking, acting so cocky?

  "……the result is obvious after all, there's no way I'll lose."

  Well after saying that, guess I don't have a choice in the matter. I could only allow one outcome.

  I'll win.

  _____________________________________________

  Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Don't forget to vote, and feel free to leave a comment, I appreciate any and all feedback and criticism! Also, check out my Instagram account @aimdaqs for posts relating to this book.