Split Into Two

"Wake up." Kies felt someone shaking him and opened his eyes. Everything was pure white for a moment as his eyes adjusted to the lighting. He saw Sirks standing in front of him, still shaking him even though he was already awake.

"Stop, I'm awake," Kies told him.

"Oh, you are? That was fast. Sorry, I can't see your face because of the mask so I couldn't tell."

Kies touched his face and felt that the mask was still there. He was actually surprised that Iris didn't try anything funny while he was asleep like going through his stuff or even taking off his mask. Of course, if she had tried any of those things, he would've instantly known about it as it would have woken him up. Speaking of which... Where was that little rascal?

Kies looked around and found Wompa sitting in the same exact place as before he went to sleep. Wompa waved at him as if she was trying to say, "Did you have a nice nap?"

Kies continued to look around but didn't find Iris anywhere. "Where's Iris?"

"Hm? Oh, that? Uh..."

"Did something happen?"

"No, she's... Ugh..." Sirks shook his head in a manner that made it look like he was tired or fed up with something. "She's-"

Before Sirks could tell Kies where Iris is, he felt a pair of hands clasp onto his shoulders and heard a loud, "Boo!" from behind him.

"..."

Sirks sighed. Kies turned around and came face to face with a certain immature princess with red hair.

"Really?" The mask blocked his face so she couldn't see that he was giving her an unamused look.

"Did I scare you?"

"No."

"What do you mean!? You definitely jumped! I got you, didn't it!?"

"Once again, no. That was you jumping."

"What? No! I- Hmph, you're no fun!" Iris didn't bother to argue with Kies and just crossed her arms and pouted. But since she also had her mask on, no one could see her facial expression either. The princess went back to her seat and sat down in a frustrated manner.

Kies just shrugged his soldiers. If he was here for fun then he wouldn't be here at all. He was here for one thing only, and that was to obtain the fragment. Other than that, he didn't care about what happened. He just had to do his part, which was to win the tournament and then it was smooth sailing from there, hopefully. He didn't know how much more he would have to do after, but there was no point in worrying about that right now.

"So, what did you wake me for?" Surely it couldn't have been for Iris' little prank. Sirks wasn't that kind of person, was he? No, Kies refused to believe that someone who was as serious as him would do something like that. But even though he was telling himself that, he still had a small amount of doubt in his mind that Sirks really did wake him just for that... Kies anxiously waited for Sirks to tell him what he woke him up for, hoping that it wasn't what he thought it was.

"It's our turn soon," Sirks told him.

Phew, so it was something important. He didn't know why he had been so worried. It was Sirks he was talking about. The man was just as tired of Iris' 'fun' as him. Hearing this, Kies looked around at the sun and saw that it was still up. Comparing it to how high it was before, it seemed that only a few hours have passed since then. "Already?" Wasn't it too soon? Hardly any time had passed and it was their turn to fight?

Sirks noticed Kies' obvious confusion and so he explained to him what happened while he was out. "A bunch of people are not here because of the change in schedule, and so a number of the hundred groups are missing people. Because of this, people are being moved forward so that they can fill the missing spots. And as you might've guessed, there are also people who are not here waiting and are outside."

"Oh, so that's how it is." One thing led to another and that another thing led to something else. This was mainly on the organizers since it was their fault for changing the date. But, they probably didn't mind disqualifying all those people since the competition was already loaded. The more people that get out, the faster they can start their main event, which is what they want. "So, how many more until it's us?" Kies asked while looking down at the arena. The current fight was just about over with most of the contestants out.

"Depends. We might have to split into two groups," Sirks told him. He didn't sound happy about it.

"Two groups?"

"Yes. You see, depending on how many people are missing the next group, we might end up fighting separately," Sirks told him the dreadful news. They were bound to be targeted since they made it clear to everyone here that they were a team. Getting separated would make things harder for them.

"There's a chance. Let's hope that-" Iris couldn't finish her sentence as she was cut off by a loud whistle signaling the end of the fight. They looked down at the arena and saw that only ten contestants remained from the initial pool of a hundred. Out of them, there was one female with long pointed ears.

"An elf? That's a rare sight," Sirks commented when he saw her.

The other nine contestants didn't look happy about her winning and they were glaring at her murderously, but the elf didn't care. There was nothing that they could do to her, unless of course, they wanted to be disqualified. The fight was over and the ten survivors walked out of the arena and came back up into the spectator's area.

While the other people left, the elf went over to an empty seat and sat down. She wanted to continue watching even though she didn't have to stay anymore. Did she want to see how the rest of the fighters performed and take note of the strong ones so that she can prepare?

"That's enough staring, you three. Can't you see you're making her uncomfortable?" Sirks told them to stop looking at the elf who was looking right back at them with a cold face.

But even without Sirks telling them, they turned away when they heard the announcement for the next group to go up. "Contestants 4556 to 5556, come up."

"Sh*t!" Sirks cusses the moment he hears the numbers. "F*ck!" he cursed again like the others didn't hear it the first time. "We're split!"

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