Before the placement exam tournament, a dove soared over an unknown forest with poisons of all types of colors oozing from the tree’s, the ground and even within lakes. It gracefully flew down, landing on a branch before immediately curling over, falling to the ground, dead; it had only touched the branch for a moment…

Inside the middle of a shallow poison lake, Kenji was meditating, going over the previous conversation he had with the elite now in charge of him, Aegis, since Temin had been defeated.

No one had seen or heard from Temin since, but once you’ve been removed as an elite, if you don’t qualify to teach, and if those beneath you choose not to give their spot up—since you can never challenge down, you’re officially removed from serving the empire. Some might call it an early retirement, and Temin wasn’t one to join the military as he found it disgraceful towards his previous position.

“Kenji,” Aegis said, appearing beside him within their hall.

“What do you want,” Kenji said. “Don’t expect me to bow over to you now that you’re the elite in charge of me.”

“I don’t expect anything of the sort, you may do as you wish,” Aegis said. “In truth, I’ve come for a different reason.”

“Yeah, what’s that?”

“The tournament is in a couple months from now, how is your training going?”

“I’m doing just fine,” he said, getting up to leave.

“I know of a place that can aid in your training,” Aegis said, causing Kenji to halt. “My father often sent people there to collect samples as a means of assassinations, particularly of nobles within the empire or it’s kingdoms. Many would come back dead… However, eventually he stopped sending them.” Aegis walked over to a cabinet, pulling out a book and opening it. Placing it on a table before Kenji, “Since I’ve become an elite I’ve been given access to more confidential information. It would seem the reason he stopped is because the empire had sectioned it off, placing it within one of their forbidden zones that normal citizens aren’t supposed to be aware of.”

“Why’re you telling me this?” Kenji said.

“It’s true that Rai and company are friends of mine, however my duty first goes to the empire, and that stands to say being a worthy elite whom you can look to for advice and such.” Flipping the page, it revealed a map of how to get there. “I’ve already received permission from the emperor, allowing you to go there to train. I believe it will greatly enhance your current abilities, should you survive the ordeal,” Aegis said, shutting the book and handing it to Kenji. “Plus, there’s a Minus within those woods I believe you would be best suited to deal with, making it also beneficial to the empire.”

Kenji, picking up the book said, “You’re aware that I won’t be holding back against them, even if it means taking their life.”

“I’m sure even they are aware of it, however, I don’t believe you’re someone who would do such a thing.”

“And what makes you say that?” Kenji said.

“You may want to be the strongest, but I’ve known killers. I myself have killed countless people since I was a child, something my father forced on me. You can tell by looking in their eyes,” Aegis said, gazing into Keji’s eyes. “Anyways, you leave tomorrow, unless you wish not to proceed. The area is incredibly dangerous, even I cannot venture within those woods for long.”

Kenji, grabbing the book, turned to leave, saying, “You can tell the emperor I’m heading out today,” causing Aegis to smile.

Inside the coliseum, the dome started to close, while many lights beamed toward the stands and the arena, illuminating the entire area.

“What’s going on?” Lily said.

“Their changing the arena lighting?” Chloe said.

“Guess so,” Ayame said.

“I kind of like it,” Peon said in a gloomy yet satisfied tone.

“Lily! Woo!” Eiji hollered, waving another flag with her face on it.

“Where are you getting these?” Alan said.

“I’ve got plenty,” Eiji said, revealing a few more flags.

Glowing roots emerged under Kenji’s feet, and the cloak behind him formed into a scorpion’s tail, ramming into the earth.

Leaning back, Lily avoided the tail bursting through the ground, grabbing it and yanking it further out, however, Kenji appeared before Lily. She held her guard up as his fist collided heavily, sending her back, however she was fine. Glancing over at where Kenji was before, she noticed the end of the cape slither back into the hole, before exiting the other end, wrapping itself around Kenji once again and forming into the tail. “No vile of poison this time around?”

“I dropped that act a long time ago,” Kenji said. The tail of the scorpion stabbed the ground, and from it, liquid poured out at a rapid rate, flooding the arena.

Mochi, who was at the entrance, peering in, ran away, running back and forth as the poison wave rushed toward it, shouting, “Mochi mochi mochi mochi!”

Daichi, casually seated on the ground enjoying one of many snacks he brought him, noticed the wave of poison. Leaping in fear, he quickly activated his roots, building a mound of earth along the entrance to block it. “Phew.” Falling on his back, he heard the pop of a bag of chips.

“Quickest I’ve ever seen him move,” Rai said gazing at Daichi who was pouring the bag of chips into his hand to see them in the form of crumbs, instead of their perfect triangle shape; tears poured down Daichi’s face. Meanwhile, a Link progressing in his core repair collapsed behind him. “See, I told you. Just get Hanabi, she’s the only one who can work on my core.”

The tournament committee in charge of hiring the Link’s for the competition were speechless, scratching their head as the fourth Link was dragged away.

Lily eyes widened, jumping high into the air while activating four legacies, bringing about her rooted-earth form. Slinging her arms forward, she shouted, “Discharge!” and the earth and roots slipped from her entire body to the very tips of her hands. One by one, mounds of earth, which were at first small, launched from her hands, expanding and slapping heavily into the large area of poison below.

A small drip splashed on Eiji’s coat, “Ah!” he shouted, tossing it aside as the poison deteriorated the flag bit by bit until only half of Lily’s face remained.

Alarms around the coliseum went off, and almost instantly a flux shield produced by Lulutech overlapped the entire stands, creating a cylinder that cut the audience off from the poisonous gas emitting from the arena.

Lily landed on one of the platforms she had created. The arena was now layered with multiple mounds of earth, some larger than the other, floating in the green lake below.

“Under normal circumstances, a person would die from the poisonous fumes within the lakes emitting,” Reezo said.

“Yes, but it seems Lily’s Nefarian bloodline is capable of sustaining the effects,” Mu said.

“She may be able to contain the damage done by the poison, but not for long,” Alderai said.

Lily, fell to knee, sweating profusely. She gazed at her hands which we shaking uncontrollably, before clenching them into a fist, recalling her training with Bura.

After her thousandth thrust into a muddy field, she fell forward, mud splatting across her. Gazing up at a Kalumi of Solomon descent, she muttered, “Bura, how is this supposed to help me build my flux-guard?”

“It does what it does,” Bura said, combing the one strand of hair on his head with a small delicate brush.

Lily’s face slapped back into the mud, not knowing what type of question she needed to ask to get an actual response.

Later that week, Lily was in a field wearing a large basket many times her size which she filled with wheat. Plucking another, she barely managed to toss it into the bag, before falling to the floor, muttering, “Is this going to help build my flux-guard.”

“It’s rather hot today, wouldn’t you say?” Bura said, wearing an umbrella hat which shaded his single strand of hair.

This continued in multiple different forms for quite some time…

Smiling, Lily ripped a portion of her outfit off, wrapping it around her nose and mouth.

“Poor kitty. Already falling over?” Kenji said, walking through the poison lake as if it were never there.

“Afraid of a little poison?” Kenji said, cupping the poison while lifting his hands, showing it seep through his fingers.

“I’ve fallen over a lot in life, but I always stand right back up!” Lily said, getting into a fighting stance.

“Who cares!” he said, jumping out of the lake on the attack.

“With all the poison on him, if he hits Lily with a direct attack?!” Neptus said.

Kenji’s fist came crashing down. Smack!

Lily’s fist met Kenji’s, however, it didn’t seem to bother her at all.

“What?!” Kenji said.

Lily hugged Kenji, “Take this!” flipping backwards, she slammed him directly into the large mound of earth, cracking it slightly.

“Gah!” Kenji spat up blood, before twisting his body around and jumping away.

“Retreating?” Lily said with a smirk.

“Nice one!” Rai said, watching from under the arena. “Yeeow!”

“Rai... stop moving,” Hanabi said, focusing on healing his core.

“How was Lily able handle such an attack without the poison effecting her?” Otto said, his voice echoing over the audience.

“Quite an impressive flux-guard she’s got,” Knox said. “It’s almost completely neutralized Kenji’s poisonous effects, on the surface that is.”

“Is this your handy work Alderai?” Marco said.

“She came to me in need of a way to progress her flux-guard. So I referred her to Bura,” Alderai said.

“Ah, Bura,” Mu said, whipping up a cup of tea out of thin air; it floated before him, tilting backwards so he could sip it. “How is that unruly pig doing now adays.”

“After you took his spot in the elites, I hear he’s been spending the rest of his days tending to his farm north of Excalibur,” Knox said.

“How did she do?” Marco said.

Alderai smiled confidently. “She passed.”

“Retreating?” Kenji said, lunging at her. They exchanged blows, but as another of Kenji’s fist collided with Lily’s stomach, he was shocked, seeing as Lily didn’t flinch even in the slightest, returning the punch with one of her own, causing him to grab his gut as the wind was knocked out of him.

Gripping the back of his head, she yanked him toward her, smashing her skull against his.

Stumbling back, he lunged once again, “Damn you!” but Lily brushed his fist away, hitting him in his jaw, causing a cracking sound to resonate throughout.

Grabbing his arm, Lily flipped him over his shoulder, tossing him far off into the poison lake.

“Hell yea! She’s totally kicking his ass!” Rai said.

“Talk about girl power,” Rina said.

“I love it!” Ayame said.

“Never thought I’d see the day Ayame turn into a fan for anyone other than Eloise,” Alan muttered.

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

“Her Nefarian strength and durability is simply too much for him to handle,” Neptus said.

Kenji rose from the lake. “If you think you’ve got the other hand, you’re dead wrong.” The scorpion tail stabbed him in the neck yet again. Now, the colors of green and red pulsed in the veins along the surface of his skin; after, the tail wrapped around his right arm, forming a blade of sort that was also wide enough to act as a shield. Swinging his arm skyward, the lake split in front of him, racing toward Lily at a very fast rate.

Her cat ears twitched, sensing something off. Quickly she jumped to another rock pillar as the one she stood on was split in to, dissolving from the attack. “Close one,” she said looking at the melting rock.

“Above!” Eiji shouted.

Looking up, she noticed Kenji crashing down with the poison blade, but she quickly crossed her arms to block the attack. As it collided, she noticed her flux-guard being sliced through like a knife to warm butter, before it broke through completely, slicing directly across her body and splattering blood on the floor while sending her flying back into the arena wall. She fell from the wall, directly ont the floor of one of the many platforms she created, preventing her from plunging into the lake. Gritting her teeth from the pain, she looked up, Kenji was inches away from her face—the cloaked blade drove straight into the arena wall as she shifted her head out of the way!

Kenji swiftly smashed his leg into the side of her stomach, sending her hurdling further away where she rolled over many times on another floating mound before halting at the edge where her leg happened to dip over into the lake slightly. “Gah!” she shouted in pain as her skin sizzled from the poison. Pulling her leg away, she gripped it with both hands, biting her lip, which caused blood to trickle down. “Forgot to keep my flux-guard up…”

Kenji sucked the poison into his cloaked blade, stretching his arm out, shouting, “Poison hell fire!” From the tip, countless sharp crystallized poison shot out rapidly.

Lily rose immediately, running to her left as the poison shards pierced into the wall behind her. Quickly leaping off the floating mounds of earth, she switched to the arena walls, running along it as the knives inched closer. “I can’t keep this up forever,” she said.

Kenji cloak seemed to be growing slight bigger as the poison around him seemed to be transferring into it, through him, almost acting as a filter. “Who’s retreating now!” Suddenly, he launched a large dagger twice the size of Lily which smashed right in front of Lily. It expanded quickly, causing Lily to quickly activate her second legacy; seconds later, it exploded. Many shards erupted from the large poison crystal in the wall, all of which would have hit her directly, had it not been for her slime form. Each dagger slipped right off her, however one or two managed to find their mark in her leg and waste.

Falling to the ground, Lily spat up blood, grabbing at her stomach, and rolling in pain as the poison coursed in her body. “Ahhh!” It felt like a thousand knives were ripping her organs apart in an attempt to escape from her body from the inside out.

Eiji watched, a look of worry on his face. “Come on…” he knew in competitions like this, there wasn’t anything he could do. Besides the conversation he had earlier with Lily, settled the deal. Moments before she split with Rai to the under-ground waiting area where the contestants were to wait, she said, “Whatever happens, I don’t want you to help.”

“But…”

“Promise me,” Lily said.

“…Okay, I promise.”

With a smile, Lily said, “Thank you Eiji.”

“Hey, don’t even sweat it. We didn’t put all that training in for nothing,” Rai said, waving Eiji off as he and Lily departed.

Eiji’s look of concern, transitioned into a smile, raising the tattered flag with Lily’s face on it, shouting, “You got this Lily!”

“How is he so confident she’ll win?” Seppe said.

“Yeah, it totally looks like Kenji’s got the upper hand,” Ayame said.

Inside Crumbly Catteno’s, where many guests were watching the fight on screen, Tamarri said, “The poison produced from Toxic Scorpies is strong enough to kill a human within an hour… With Kenji’s added flux enhancing its effects, even with Lily’s Nefarian blood-line, if she doesn’t find help soon…”

While on the floor, she barely gazed up, noticing the lake seeping over the edge of the platform she was on. She glanced at the other mounds of earth in which she had been relying on to stay afloat over the poison, realizing the others were steadily melting over time from the acidic properties of Kenji’s poison. Pushing herself to her knees, with arms outstretched, she punched her gut a few times, with one final thrust at the mound of earth, causing it to crack, before standing. Her eyes were red and tears fell from them.

“She’s willing herself through,” Knox said.

Alderai watched carefully, curious as to how she would overcome this challenge.

“Losing it already,” Kenji said with a smile.

“More… like bringing it back under control!” she said, gritting her teeth. Raising her arms, her fifth legacy activated, “Discharge!” she shouted, and flames burst out toward Kenji.

“Dammit!” he said, using his scorpion cloaked arm as a means of defense, before getting blasted himself into the wall of the area.

“Wait, but that’s her ace in the hole?!” Rai shouted.

Hanabi finishing her job, said, “Working on you when you’re all riled up is nearly impossible…”

“Look at that!” someone shouted.

The flames that burst out from her, slowly sucked back into her flame form, as if she had never fired it off in the first place.

Kenji, breathing heavily, landed on one of the floating platforms. His weapon was partially burnt, revealing small holes that the flames had burned through.

“Now its my turn!” Lily said, crushing the platform beneath her as she jumped ahead.

Kenji jumped as Lily’s fist smashed into the ground, and flames erupted from the punch, propelling him away. “You punk!” Kenji twisting mid-air, slammed his fist down, causing the end of the blade to dig into the lake and bust out of the surface under Lily, scratching her cheek.

Lily slammed her fist into the hole Kenji made, “Discharge!” and from the other end of the hole, the crust exploded, blasting Kenji high into the sky where he landed inside the lake, unable to be seen. A ripple in the lake, caused Liy to quickly leap onto another mound, avoiding yet another attack. “That’s not going to work on me anymore,” she said, gazing over the shallow lake to see where Kenji would appear from next. Before long, the lake started to shimmer and a purple color mixed with it. “Come on, where are y—” Lily spat up blood, hunching over. After a second she straightened up, wiping the blood off with her arm. Soon after, Kenji’s head slowly appeared, eyes filled with rage.

“I thought maybe… I could have taken this a bit easier… But it appears, you really do have a death wish,” Kenji said. Steadily, the white and black cloak wrapped around his body, hiding him from the rest of the people viewing the fight.

Lily readied herself, but to her surprise, unlike last time, the cloak continued to expand double, tripling in size! Soon, the size had doubled her home! Unvieling itself, waiting within the cloak which seemed to finish wrapping along the legs of the creature, a giant black and white scorpion which veins all along its body that glowed red, green and purple.

“It looks like Kenji has somehow transformed into a giant scorpion! How is Lily going to claw herself out of this one?!”

The giant scorpion roared, its screech booming into the stands of the audience, causing Alan Seppe jaw to drop to the floor, shouting, “Is that Kenji?!”

“N- No way…” Lily said, gazing up at the beast. Holding her hands out, flames erupted, covering the arena in smoke before she sucked it back into her. I can’t continue that pace of pulling it back in for long, it causes an incredible amount of stress on the core. “Ugh!” A large tail slammed into the earth mound, obliterating it and propelling her backwards where she was about to fall into the poison, however she burst flames yet again, altering her direction so she would land on another large rock instead. This time however, she wasn’t able to pull them back, leaving her flame form partially gone.

In a horizontal sweep, the tail sprayed acid in everywhere!

Quickly, Lily smashed the circle earth mound so that it would rise skyward, acting as a shield to block the acid, however it dissolved quickly, prompting her to jump away.

The scorpion raced after her, slamming claw after claw, into every mound of earth she attempted to jump too next.

“This isn’t good,” Rai said.

Hanabi was beside him, hands close to her chest. “She’s nowhere left to run…”

Lily was on the last mound of earth, breathing heavily as her own sweat nearly blinded her. “I haven’t much time…” she said, feeling the effects of the poison only progressing further.

The scorpions tail came crashing down!

Within a matter of seconds, Lily managed to avoid and swing her arms around scorpion’s tail, hugging it while it slowly dragged her back until she was nearing the edge.

“Lily…” Eiji said.

“She’s stopped it?!” Jack said.

“Kenji’s form is definitely quite the development, however, it’s still a version of his power; with her Nefarian strength, holding it back to an extent shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise,” Marco said, from the elite’s viewing area.

“With that said, she hasn’t much time,” Reezo glanced at the earth crumbling under her feet.

Pressing into the ground, it cracked allowing some of the poison to seep around her feet, burning away at her skin. Gritting her teeth, she yanked the tail with all her might, ripping the telson off.

The creature squirmed about, crashing into the walls of the arena as blood spewed out from the portion Lily tore off. Angered, it smashed its claw down, destroying the last mound of earth, however Lily jumped above it, falling down and slamming it straight into the back of the creature.

“DISCHARGE!” she yelled, and the tail and the scorpion started to expand as the flames welled up within it.

A huge explosion of flames erupted within the arena, causing Mu to activate his roots, effectively turning the flames that were about to tear through the audience into butterflies, however the swirling storm below instantly evaporated the poison lake.

“In a final attempt to stop the creature, it seems Lily attack has consumed them both?!” Otto shouted.

When the smoke had cleared, Lily was on the floor, barely able to move; meanwhile, Kenji was still standing.

“How… dare… you…” Kenji’s right side of his face was seared, undoubtably a scar that would stay for life, blood seeping from a small exit wound in his back. Inching closer to Lily who could only look up, Kenji pulled out a needle with a liquid in it, slamming it into his neck, thus allowing him to move better. Bit by bit, what was left of his cloak-like scorpion tail, hovered behind him.

“It looks like both contestants managed to survive that intense explosion!” Otto said.

Lily watched as he inched closer, before blacking out, however, moments later she was wide awake. “What?” she noticed Kenji was holding her up, his hand on his throat. In her back was the tip of the scorpion’s tail.

“Why would he do that?” Alan said, realizing he use a poison to wake her up. “He’s already won, he didn’t need to bring her back into the fight?”

The apprentices were puzzled, as was Otto and the audience.

“You’re not getting off that easily… after hitting me with an attack like that,” Kenji said, thrusting his fist into her stomach.

Lily spat up blood, clutching her stomach and falling to her knees, but before she could do much else, the tail of Kenji smacked her sending her rolling across the arena floor. She tried to stand up, but then from beneath the ground, the tail emerged, smacking her high into the air, before she came crashing down. Again, her vision blurred, before passing out. Suddenly, she awoke once again, this time seeing the tail stabbing into her leg.

“Bastard,” Rai said, clenching his fist. “Daichi let your wall down!”

Daichi watching the fight, nodded, pulling the wall down, causing Rai to run toward the arena entrance.

“Go in there, and you’ll be forfeiting as well,” Gaius remarked, gazing at Rai. “Not like I care much.”

Rai stopped for a moment, looking into the arena at Lily who was steadily rising to her feet.

Standing in front of him, Haruki prevented Rai from going any further.

“Haruki?” Rai said.

“If she didn’t want to continue fighting, she would have forfeited by now,” Haruki said.

Rai, clenching his fists, stood by to see the outcome. “Come on, quit already.”

“Kenji… what’re you doing?” Hanabi said.

Lily, huffing, tried to swing at Kenji, who instead slammed her to the ground, picking her up and continuously wailing on her.

“I’m going to crush that core and make sure you can never fight again,” Kenji said.

Eiji was watching, the flag in his hand snapping from the anger welling up inside of him.

“Ladies and gentlemen, this… isn’t exactly what we expected to see,” Otto. The next time Lily almost lost consciousness from being smacked far away, Otto shouted, “The winner is—”

“Winner?” Kenji interrupted. “Can’t you see she’s ready to fight?” The tail had dug under the ground, lifting her once again to her feet while injecting the same poison that kept waking her.

Lily, understanding the situation, tried to mutter, “I for—” but the cloaked-tail had wrapped around her mouth.

“That’s bullshit!” Rai shouted. “She was about to forfeit!”

Kenji walked up to Lily who had tears in her eyes. “In case you’re wondering, yes, I find you weak because you’re a girl. I find you pathetic, because your kind, and most of all… I find you useless because you’re Nefarian,” he said slamming her down onto the ground before unraveling the tail. “Now you can forfeit,” he said. Lily was on her knees, unable to move or speak, hunched over with her hair hanging to the floor. Hearing something, Kenji said, “What was that, I couldn’t hear you?” Her body was trembling.

Alderai stood up, ready to stop the fight himself.

“Sc…. Sc…” Liliy tried to get the words out of her mouth, prompting Kenji to lean in. “Screw you!” Lily cried out, thrusting her fist upward straight into Kenji’s chin, sending him hurdling high into the air.

“What?! In a last-ditch attack, Lily has landed a direct hit on Kenji!” Otta shouted.

Afterwards, Lily fell straight to the floor, unconscious.

“She got him?!” Eiji said.

Moment’s later, Kenji’s body came flying down from high above, colliding heavily with the ground.

Lu-cams hovered by the both of them, showing that they were both unconscious.

“Uhm… it would seem we have ourselves a draw…” Otto said. “According to the placement tournament rules, a draw consists of a double elimination!”

The crowd, unsure of how to respond, instead of roaring with excitement, talked to each other with a hushed silence.

Rai, running into the arena, leaned over to Lily, who barely opened her eyes. “How’d… I do?” she said.

“You were amazing,” Rai said.

“I guess… you’ve made the finals… Congrats…”

“Don’t talk too much, the poison still coursing through you,” Rai said, helping her up, wrapping her arm around his shoulders. “Let’s get you to a doctor, pronto.”

“Right…” Lily said.

From up top, Eiji sighed, happy the fight was over at last.

Meanwhile, Kenji managed to wake up as well, gazing over at his opponent. “I… lost…” Slamming his fist down, he stood, limping his way out of the arena. In the waiting area, Hanabi awaited him. “Hanab—” she slapped him across the face, tears running down her face.

“How could you,” she said, causing shock to appear on Kenji’s face. “Now sit down so I can heal your core.”

Swiping her hand away, he said, “I don’t need your help,” and instead he walked down the dark corridor. Turning around, he tossed a small vile, which Hanabi caught. “That’ll cure the poison.”

Disappearing into the shadows Hanabi muttered, “Kenji…” Seeing Lily enter with Rai who was helping her over. “Here take this,” Hanabi said, pouring it down her throat, instantly easing her pain.

“Thanks,” Lily said as Hanabi placed her hands on her back, repairing her core.

“Ahem, will the next contestants please enter the arena!” Otto announced.

Gaius calmly walked into the arena.

Daichi on the other hand was sweating profusely, shivering as he inched his way into the arena.

“Phew, these matches are seriously stressing me out,” Ayame said.

“No kidding,” Neptus said.

“Hey look!” Jack said. Waving a flag with Daichi’s face on it, “Let’s go Daichi!”

“Hey, that’s my flag…” Eiji said.

“Has Daichi gotten stronger as well?” Chloe said.

“You bet! He’s going to surprise the world! Ain’t that right Daichi!?” Jack said.

Daichi gazed up at Jack, attempting to place a chip in his mouth, however it snapped in his trembling fingers, falling to the ground.

From the throne room, the emperor seemed more focused than before as his own son entered the arena.

“Are both fighters ready?” Otto said.

Gaius smiled, gazing into Daichi’s eyes, like a lion looking at their prey.

“I… I… I quit!” Daichi shouted at the top of his lungs.

“WHAT?!” the crowd hollered.

Knox placed his hand on his head, shaking it slightly.

“Q-quit?!” Jack fell over in disbelief.

Daichi quickly ran outside of the arena, tears flowing from his eyes as he munched on his chips.

“Um…” Otto said, scratching his head. “It would seem we have our winner. Congratulations Giaus!”

“That was a little anti-climactic,” Alan said.

“Will the final contestants please enter the arena,” Otto announced.

Mochi walked into the arena, followed by Haruki.

“Haruki…” Lily said. “Bring the win home for our hall,” holding a thumbs up.

Haruki, not looking back, held out a thumbs up, before continuing into the arena.

“Are the fighters ready?” Otto said.

“I am,” Haruki said.

“Mochi mochi mochi!” Mochi said, and the two separated to their end of the arena.

“Let the fight, begin!”