Swift Entrance

Kies was up. His number was 5555 and he was just barely in it. If there had been two more people in front of them then they wouldn't have to split up into two groups. But since luck wasn't on their side, there was nothing they could do about it. It will be tough, but they needed to pull through somehow.

"So, which one of you is 5556?" Kies asked the other three. They all registered after him, but he didn't know who registered second. Who was going to be his partner? He was pretty sure that they told him their numbers before, but he forgot. But if his memories served him right, and he really hoped that it didn't, it was-

"Hehe, I wonder who it could be~"

"Don't tell me..."

"Yep! It's me!" Iris threw her arms up and started dancing around Kies.

"..."

"Is it possible to swap numbers?" Kies urgently asked Sirks, begging for the answer to be yes.

"No. Stop acting like a child and get down there already! You're going to get disqualified!" Sirks told the two. He waved for the two to look down at the arena where all the other contestants were already gathered.

"5555 and 5556, you have one minute to come down! The clock is ticking!"

"One minute?" That wasn't enough time to make it down into the arena in time. "D*mn..." Sirks was right. Why was he being so childish? It shouldn't matter who he got paired with. The four of them were on a team and in the end, their goal was to win, not make enemies of each other.

"Go! Why are you still standing around!" Sirks shouted frustratedly at them. He didn't get why the two were still standing here when they had seconds to get down before they got disqualified.

Iris grabbed Kies' arm and tugged on it. "Come on! We need to move now!" she told him, realizing the seriousness of the situation.

"No, we won't make it in time." Kies saw that if they took the normal way down then they wouldn't make it in time.

"Thirty seconds! Last call. 5555 and 5556. Get in here now! 5557 and 5558, get ready to come down just in case!"

"F*ck!" Sirks stood up and gestured for Wompa to do the same. It was clear that Kies and Iris didn't have the time to make it down anymore. They were the next two so they needed to start moving. The organizers gave very little time for the contestants to go down due to the number of people. Normally, there would be a couple of minutes of break in between the fights for the next batch of contestants to get ready.

"Sorry..." Iris apologized in a wimpish voice.

"No, it's not your fault. It's the tournament's fault that we barely have the time to even make it down there. They want to get rid of as many people as they can before round two..." Sirks assured her that it wasn't her fault.

"Ten seconds!"

"Anyway, we'd better head down before they disqualify us as well," Sirks and Wompa began to walk away but Kies stopped them.

"No, there's still time."

"What? There's only-"

Kies didn't let Sirks finish what he was saying and grabbed Iris. He lifted her up and carried her like a person would carry a heavy box or crate. "What are you doing?"

"Winds," Kies called upon the winds and had them come to him. A strong gust of wind blew into the colosseum and surrounded them. Kies sprinted at inhuman speeds off the edge of the spectator's area and jumped into the arena.

"We're going to die!" Iris screamed at the top of her lungs as they flew down into the arena from a height of several meters. She pounded her fists on Kies' shoulder to get him to stop but it was too late. They were already airborne and he couldn't stop even if he wanted to now. The winds roared in their ears as they plummeted down into the sandy floor.

"Five, four, three, two-" The announcer stopped counting down when he saw Kies and Iris fall into the arena, creating a huge cloud of sand when they landed.

"We're here!" Kies informed the announcer. "5555 and 5556." He let Iris down and he crumpled to the floor gasping in shock about what she just experienced.

"You're crazy..." she mumbled in disbelief, clueless about how they survived that fall.

The announcer, along with everyone else in the arena and also in the spectator's area, stared at Kies and Iris wide-eyed. They were also in shock at what they witnessed the two of them do.

"Announcer?"

It took the announcer a couple of seconds to regain his mind and he shook his head, rubbing his eyes to make sure he wasn't seeing things. When he opened them again, he saw that Kies and Iris were indeed standing in front of him, perfectly fine even after jumping from that high. "Uh- Um..." the announcer stuttered for a bit before he found his words. "You two made it just in time... Um, what weapons?" he asked, not sure of what else he could say.

"Two swords."

The announcer pointed at the ground where there were two swords laying on the sand. Kies went over and picked them up. He shook the dust from it and went back to hand one to Iris. She looked at Kies for a second before she hesitantly took the weapon.

"You have a lot of explaining to do when we're done." Iris got up from the sandy floor and stretched her arms. Kies wasn't looking forward to it since it meant that he needed to come up with something to lie about his magic. He could once again tell her that it was one of his items, but just in case, he needed to have another excuse up his sleeves if she didn't believe it.

"Wait," the announcer went up to them and suddenly stopped them.

"Is there something wrong?" Surely he wasn't going to disqualify them now, especially after he even gave them the weapons already. So what was the issue here? What was he stopping them for?

"Sorry, I should've asked this before, but I need your slips. I need to know that it is actually you."

"Oh." Kies reached through his pockets and took out his slip with his number on it and showed it to the announcer.

"Mhm. And her?" he gestured at Iris. He needed to see her slip as well.

"Oh, of course." Iris went through her pockets and also pulled out her slip and showed it to the announcer. The announcer took a look at it and confirmed that they were the right people.

"Okay. You can proceed." The announcer moved to the side and welcomed the two into the ring where the fight was happening. As they walked in, Kies saw that everyone's eyes were on them, specifically, on Iris. She was the only female participant and she was nearly half the size of the average fighter in the group. It was safe to say that they were planning to target her.

Kies looked around and saw that he was the second shortest person in the ring right after Iris. But there wasn't anything he could do about his height. It wasn't like he had illusion magic like Falte or some other sort of magic that can make him taller. His body stopped growing a long time ago and he has been stuck at this same height for years. He normally didn't care about his height, but it really looked like it mattered here. Everyone was looking down on them, both literally and figuratively. The third shortest person here that Kies could see was an entire foot taller than him.

"Iris, how tall are you?" Kies asked Iris out of curiosity. She was shorter than him, but it wasn't by that much. If he got her height then he could figure out roughly how tall he is.

"Me? I'm five feet and... six inches, I believe?" she shrugged her shoulders, giving Kies a guess of her height. "Why do you ask? Oh... Never mind" Iris took a look around and saw everyone else's heights. They were giants compared to Kies and Iris.

"Hey, who knows, you might grow taller than them in a few years. Don't be too down on it," Iris told him in an attempt to try to get him to cheer up.

"I'm almost thirty..."

"You are!? Wait, no you're not. You're the same age as me, aren't you? Don't lie to me, I saw your face the other day in the stream."

"..."

"Yeah, I don't know who you're trying to fool, but cheer up. You won't stay like that forever."

"Mhm." Kies didn't want to waste time trying to explain his age to Iris since he knew that she wouldn't believe him no matter how hard he tried. He also didn't have the time anyway since the fight was starting soon.

"Everyone, get in position. The fight starts in one minute!"

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