“Why are all the women in this tournament criminally beautiful?” Harald grumbled as he watched the swaying hips of the red-head, who must have been dressed that way intentionally. Really? Low riding leather pants. With that waist-to-hip ratio? Was she trying to give people a heart attack? The rest of the clothing she had on wasn't any better. Expect for a tight-clinging vest that cut off directly beneath her chest the only thing she wore on her torso was a fishnet shirt. Well if one ignored the sideways hip-pouch, a similar one being strapped to her left leg. “Oh man, her skin, and the red-hair, the contrast. I can't. It's too much.” Harald groaned and slapped a hand on his face to block off his eyes.

His charade drew a chuckle out of Ino, thankfully. The boy had been feeling understandably down considering the results of his match. “Maybe she's hoping to charm her enemy into surrendering just like the last one.” Ino said before laughing again, the underwear fiasco seemingly forgotten. “Doesn't seem like it'll work though, unless we're dealing with a... homosexual.” He said, voice descending down to a whisper. Harald watched the boy bury his face in his hands out of the corner of his eye. He turned around to see the enemy of Mia, and immediately retracted his statement of every girl in the tournament being beautiful.

What stared at him was a woman, in the loosest term of the word. Taller and more muscular than him, dressed in tight-fitting leather. The clothing revealed the fact that she had no breasts, heavy exercise likely having shorn them right off. She also had the most hideous face that Harald had ever seen. Worsened even further by the fact that she was scowling as if someone had shat in her breakfast.

That's when she started speaking.

It all just went downhill from there.

“You cunt, ruining the reputation of women everywhere.” Brunhilda, let's call her Brunhilda, said as she spat to the side, hefting her war-hammer onto her shoulder as she approached the starting circle. “Flaunting you looks around just to get ahead. As if only having one of you whores in this tournament wasn't enough!” She bellowed in a ridiculously deep voice. It sounded like carriage going over a gravelly road. Her eyebrows furrowed as she spoke, two gigantic caterpillars forming a seagull on her face. Lips comically drawn downwards into a frown that reminded one of a bench one would find in a park.

Harald looked to Mia to see what she would answer, only to be confronted with a completely nonplussed expression. “I'm sorry, do I know you?” She asked, confusion apparent in her tone. He couldn't help but wince at her words. If the rogue was trying to win this match through charm, she was failing.

As if to punctuate his statement Brunhilda raised her hammer above her head giving a mighty bellow. “You don't know me? You slut, you will get to know me when I shove this hammer so far up your ass you'll be vomiting out all the dicks you've sucked to get here!” She shouted, but refrained from charging in that very moment.

The moustachioed man who'd announced all the other matches looked dead to the world, as if the tournament up to this point had sucked out all of his life. However he still did his job, beginning the countdown.

Five seconds. That was all it took for Mia to utter something that made her enemy lose her mind. “That's no way for a man to speak to a lady.” She chastised seriously shaking her pointer-finger up and down at her opponent, who at this point, was literally frothing at the mouth.

Harald almost swallowed his tongue trying to suppress his laughter. He heard Ino fail at the very same thing next to him as he stumbled, choking on his giggles.

The words that Brunhilda screamed as the countdown reached zero were so incomprehensible that nobody understood them, what everyone did understand however was the passion behind her hammer as she ran towards Mia.

Afraid of seeing the beautiful woman go splat on the ground, Harald was just about to avert his eyes. That was the moment that Mia, crouched down ever so slightly, put her hand in the pouch on her hip, and sprinted towards the meat-monstrosity rushing her. She was fast, faster than Lock, and right at the mid-way point from where they were about to meet and her right leg met the ground, she flashed forward and behind Brunhilda.

Harald was too busy to see exactly what the now still woman was doing, still baffled at her speed and the fact that Brunhilda hadn't even noticed that her foe had passed her by and was still running forward. Forward and forward, until she right off the platform and onto the ground not far away from Harald.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Because of this he was able to see the two ridiculously long needles stabbed into Brunhilda's throat as she convulsed and frothed on the ground. Harald had just enough time to note that they were glowing an ominous purple before the healer pushed his way past him towards the fallen woman cursing all the while.

There was only one thing he could do in a situation like this, Harald concluded. He turned to Ino, who wasn't laughing anymore, and gently implored him to. “Please at least tire her out before I fight her in the finals.”

-/-

Lock contemplated Mia's fight as the last one of the set commenced, by all accounts it was a banal one, two men with swords going at each other.

The ninja had grown stronger, or faster, perhaps more decisive? He couldn't quite put his finger on it. All he knew was that the feeling he got from her was noticeably different from back when he'd said his goodbyes. More sharp, more focused.

Wondering how she'd grown to be so different in just a few weeks Lock absent-mindedly compiled the information about the participants in his head. The winner of the current fight would face the aforementioned ninja, and going by the display the both of them were giving... he needn't worry about the results.

The match between Ino and the beautiful girl was the bigger issue. He had no idea how she'd managed to simply make her opponent walk out of bounds. Magic was a likely suspect, but it was hardly an answer that provided a good counter-strategy. The only tentative solution that he had was that Ino should blindfold himself partially, since the unnatural beauty of his opponent was likely a factor in her manipulation. He nodded, that would be the best solution, now that the girl wasn't bearing her face to the world, he could quickly determine through a calm mind that her beauty was quite literally otherworldly. It would also be best if Ino blocked off his respiratory organs, in case the issue was alchemical. Surely he could hold his breath for at least a minute. He should be able to win his fight even while holding his breath, and blocking his vision of everything above hip-level. After all he had one staggering advantage.

One that was quite unexpected, and that stemmed from Mia entering the tournament for whatever reason. The advantage was simple. Ino could go all out, waste all of his mana on the beautiful girl. Because in his match against Mia, he would surrender. There was no point in having two of his allies fight and waste resources on each other. It was all quite easy in the end, counter-measures and plans adapted from the information that he had.

The biggest issue stemmed from the other side of the bracket. Lock wasn't worried about Harald fighting his cousin. Despite his good showing against the cat-girl, Harald had killing intent, he had an amazing sword, and he had experience sparring against Lock, a much more difficult opponent. His cousin didn't really stand a chance.

No, what he was worried about was William. The contestant likely sponsored by the Curadors. Someone with a freakishly high healing ability, if the fact that he was currently spinning around his arm freely was any indication. An arm which had been mangled not an hour before. The only silver lining was the opponent he would face before Harald. The spear-wielding Kalen, who possessed an interesting ability that Lock had been surprised to see in a place like this. It was a more subtle thing, but its use had been apparent when Kalen's enemy had suddenly become incapable of spitting fire anymore, something he'd seemed overly fond of.

Silence. Was the name of the effect, not the skill itself. Lock didn't know which variation Kalen had, but any one of them could be immensely useful. Even the weakest variety of Silence, which only stopped an enemy from using one of their skills or magical abilities, would have to be used on whatever William was using to heal himself since that was the only skill he'd actually shown off.

It all depended on how long the silence would last, something Lock simply did not know. There weren't really any statements Lock could make about the fight. While Kalen could cancel the healing of his enemy, therefore potentially disabling the fighting style of trading a wound for a kill, William was still armoured, which was a big issue considering Kalen only had a spear. There was one thing he knew however, and that was that it would be better if Kalen won. Therefore he was going to try to cheat.

He'd only seen the barrier halt physical attacks before, so it might just be possible that it didn't halt killing intent. It was better to try it out now on Harald, so that he could pass it off as a simple joke instead of a serious attempt to mess with the results of a match. He built up the murderous intent, sent it forward, and saw Harald continue on with whatever he was doing, giving no indication he'd felt something. The barrier in front of him, however was gaining a tinge of red colour.

Damn it. The barrier blocked it.

Lock cut of the killing intent and sighed, glancing at William who was leaning on the outer edge of the arena, right beneath his Curador friend who was sitting on the lowest step. The Curador was moving his lips. They appeared to be talking about something. Strategy? Unnecessary considering there was going to be a break in which the associates of the fighters could go downstairs and talk with the competitors.

Perhaps they were afraid of eavesdroppers.

Lock turned his attention back to the fight downstairs, which appeared to be nearing its conclusion,