Lock made his way downstairs and into the arena after the break was announced. He had some things to say to Harald and Ino, and as he entered the grassy fields surrounding the stone platform he finally nailed down what exactly.

Joining the two, who had been watching him approach while sitting against a wall, while the other fighters mingled with their supporters, he began speaking. “Good job, both of you.” He said with a nod, at which the two exchanged a confused look. Rolling his eyes Lock continued. “Harald, it seems to me that killing intent was effective enough for you to easily win the match. However, don't discount the possibility that your enemy was simply a coward and thus affected more.”

Harald nodded. “It might be a family thing. His brother also lost due to a mind-trick, probably.” He said, at which Lock tilted his head.

“Brother?” He queried and nodded after Harald explained the kinship of Sylas and Silas. “Might be a genetic predisposition, but whatever. You're fighting my cousin next. Any plan?” He asked.

“Tire him out, as you said. He became exhausted while fighting Melinda already, while I'm fresh, it shouldn't be hard.” His pupil said before pausing. “Wait I can't do that, if I let him attack for too long he's just going to trap me.” He said with a sigh.

“Let me propose a strategy.” Lock began, seeing something out of the corner of his eye and quickly ordering his thoughts. “The rubble that was used to entrap the cat-girl is getting cleared off the platform.” He said with a nod towards the Legil official who was waving his hands at the rocks, making them fly off. “So he'll need to create it anew if he wants to use his entrapment skill. I say you let him, and use the lowest level of your intimidation skill during that time. He's smart enough to suspect something if he feels nothing, considering how you won your first fight, but he's prideful enough to simply brush off your bare minimum intimidation as your first opponent simply being weak. I noticed earlier that he needs to speak to activate the skill, so, when you hear him say the magic word. Bam, crank it up to the max, his casting will likely be disrupted and he'll be tired from creating all that rubble. In that moment, go in, and finish it.” Lock finished, noting the visible confusion in Harald's eyes. Likely at the use of intimidation instead of killing intent. There was nothing to be done though, Ino was sitting right there and as they'd discussed, Lock would prefer him not knowing.

“You sure he'll try to use the same strategy?” Ino suddenly piped up.

Lock shrugged. “It's the only thing I've seen him do, so it's the only thing we can prepare for. Do keep in mind that he might have hidden aces up his sleeves of course.” He said, at which Ino nodded, and dropped the issue.

“I understand.” Harald eventually said. “I'm pretty sure I could just beat him in a straight out sword-fight though now that I think about it. Should I really waste my own stamina on him?”

Lock stared at him. “You might be right. If you notice it's not working, you can still fall back on the other strategy.” He concluded. Master and student nodded at each other, before the former turned to his brother-in-law.

“Okay, your turn. Any idea what that beautiful girl used to make Silas basically surrender?” He asked.

Ino nodded at the change of attention and began speaking. “It's charm, basically. A skill that makes the enemy fall in love with you. Or more like, it amplifies any love that was already there. So for example if you're a girl, and it's used on you by a girl, it will only have a slight effect. However if you're a man who really likes beautiful girls with green eyes and black hair, then you're in for a bad time. You'll refuse to fight them, for example, even if you should.” He explained succinctly.

Lock nodded. “Any counter-strategies?” He asked, at which Ino simply shrugged with a helpless look on his face.

“Well, pain, I guess. But I don't think I'll remember to hurt myself if I'm under her thrall. It seems very distracting.” He eventually said and sighed.

“How about covering up your eyes so that you can't see her face? It's the main feature considering the clothes that she's wearing. She'll hardly strip if she notices that her skill isn't working due to you only looking below her waistline.” Lock suggested.

Ino smiled ruefully. “If I did that she'd just throw a dagger at me, or something else. I don't know about you, but I can't dodge or block that without seeing it.”

“How about using some linen that's thin enough to see through, but makes everything blurry?” Lock asked, at which Ino nodded with a thoughtful expression.

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“I'll have Harald cut some strips of cloth off of my robe later. Any other suggestions?” He asked

“Yes, block your nose somehow. She might be or using some sort of alchemy product that forces attraction, or lust, through the use of the olfactory senses.” Lock said, at which Ino grinned.

“Sounds stupid, I'll do it.” He said. “Guess I'll need a bit more from my robe huh.” He muttered.

“Also, regarding the pain thing. I would suggest that you just take a dagger and stab yourself somewhere non-lethal.” Lock said with a serious expression. Ino looked at him as if he'd seen a ghost, and then shook his head.

“No way.” He said.

“Pussy.” Lock replied. “At least stick a stone or something in your shoe then.” He said.

“Alright...” Ino replied and started glancing at the ground around himself in search of stones, obviously going to great lengths to keep Lock in the corner of his eye. Likely afraid of getting stabbed.

Which was a ridiculous fear to be perfectly honest. If Lock just went and stabbed Ino in front of all these witnesses then he'd get arrested.

“One last piece of good news. Mia is on my side, so in the next match just use as much mana as you want and forfeit against her.” Lock said, at which Ino visibly relaxed and leaned back, stopping his search of a stone.

“You should have just started with that.” He complained, relief evident on his face. “This will be easy. She's got no chance.”

“You won't tell me to surrender as well will you?” Harald asked suspiciously with narrowed eyes. Short brown hair bristling a bit. Unlike Ino he'd been planning to enter the tournament the whole time, and thus naturally wanted to win it.

Lock shook his head and turned to leave. “No, I'll go talk to her and tell her to surrender if she meets you in the finals.” He said before beginning towards Mia, who was leaning against a partly shaded wall of the arena, talking to some guy. The winner of the very last match? The insignificant one.

“Come on baby, let's have a little fun together and I'll forfeit.” The man was saying while standing in front of the ninja in a blustering manner.

“No.” Mia dead-panned at him.

Deciding that this was a conversation that did not deserve his politeness Lock simply stepped forward and began speaking to his former subordinate, completely disregarding the other male.

“Hey, I see that you found me.” He as in lieu of a greeting, making fun of the fact that he'd told her to find him all those ‘years’ ago, but that in the end he'd been the one seeking her out.

“Don't you see that we're having a conversation here buddy?” The harasser asked, puffing up his chest and threateningly laying a hand on Lock's shoulder.

Turning around to muster the unimpressive and unassuming man, he was just about to tell him to fuck off, perhaps with a bit of killing intent involved, before Mia beat him to the punch.

Suddenly there were two senbon lightly touching the man's nether regions, and Mia with a sickening smile and murder in her eyes, started counting down from five.

The man scrambled away before she even got to three.

Suffice to say Lock was impressed. Although the effect was slightly ruined by how the girl turned to him afterwards with a beet-red face and barely stuttered out a greeting, before coughing and managing to compose herself.

“You said you were participating in the tournament.” She pointed out with a smile, at which he could do nothing but sigh. He clearly remembered saying that he would be found at the tournament, not that he would fight in it.

“I said I would be present, but not that I would be a competitor. Spectating has its own charm.” He said

“I see.” She muttered. Thoughts clearly firing through her head.

“Did you not see me in the stands?” He asked with a raised eyebrow.

“I did, once I saw that you weren't in the arena. Although I also considered it possible that you were participating, under a disguise that is.” She answered.

“Why continue fighting here then?” Lock asked curiously. “The entire point of you coming here was to find me.” He elaborated.

The girl seemed a bit taken aback at the question, shrinking in on herself a bit. “Well, I thought that I'd show you how strong I am by fighting here...” She whispered while tapping her pointer-fingers against each-other and pouting.

“Oh, I thought that you'd gleaned the message hidden within the fact that I brought two friends to fight in the tournament and were attempting to help me set everything up.” Lock said nonchalantly, enjoying seeing the girl freeze.

“What hidden message?” She asked before furrowing her brows. “Wait no, bringing people to participate. You obviously want one of the rewards. You don't need the monetary rewards of place four and three, and the military academy admission isn't transferable, so you must be after the magical academy.” She quickly concluded, impressing Lock.

“Yes, the magical academy shall be the staging ground of your test, therefore it would be useful if I could get that admission.” He said.

Mia nodded. “I see, I will forfeit if I enter the finals.” She said decisively.

“With the admission to the military academy also on the line, it would be better if you didn't forfeit unless you're fighting one of my friends, Harald.” Lock amended, at which Mia nodded before a confused expression passed over her face.

“Wait, Harald, isn't that the man from the dungeon?” She asked and looked over to where the aforementioned man was chatting with Ino to check.

“Yes, but it isn't very important, he didn't seem to recognize you, and who could fault him, it seems like almost 40 chapters ago.” Lock answered quickly and beckoned the ninja to return to the previous topic.

“So you want me to fight in the finals unless I meet Harald there?” Mia asked once to affirm that she'd understood correctly.

Lock shook his head and he brought up a hand to run it through his hair. “No.” He said with a sigh. “I don't want you to fight in the finals, I want you to kill in the finals.”