Pesky Questions

Six people, Kies counted. All of them were at least a head taller than him and had a hundred times more muscles than him, but that didn't matter. Even if they were all winners from the previous round, he could easily deal with these people.

"Time to put you in your place!" One of the men advanced to attack Kies but was pulled back before he could.

"Don't," the man who pulled him back told him. He had a long messy beard and short hair. He looked like he was in his mid-thirties and was the tallest one here.

"What do you mean, don't?" the man who got stopped by him angrily asked him. Just like the bearded man, he had short hair, but no facial hair. He looked a lot younger too and if Kies had to guess, he looked like he was in his early twenties. He seemed like the impatient type that didn't like it when people told him what to do.

"There's six of us, and only one of him. It's only fair if we fight him one on one," the bearded man reasoned. And even though the man was trying to be fair, Kies found it pretty funny that he was acting like that even though they're forcing him to fight with them.

"Then who will go first?" another man asked.

"I will," someone else immediately volunteered. Before anyone could say anything, he took a step forward and drew his sword. "People like you never learn unless it's beaten into you," the man said to Kies as he stretched his arms, getting ready to fight.

"Guess that means that I won't be learning anything today, will it?" Kies taunted the man.

He scowled and replied, "We'll see about that." He charged at Kies, only to suddenly find himself facing the sky. "Huh?" The man fell onto the ground with a loud thump. "What!?" He had no idea what just happened and tried to get up but before he could, Kies swung his blade again and sent him rolling across the sandy floor.

"That's one." Kies looked at the five remaining men. They all took a step back, shocked by how fast the first guy was taken out. They looked around at each other, silently asking each other if they saw what happened. One moment, he was standing right in front of them, and the next moment, he got swept off his feet. They didn't even see Kies swing his sword the first time and were confused by it.

"Now, for the rest of you," Kies prepared his sword to cut down the rest of them all in one go. He wasn't going to wait for them to come at him one by one. Looking around, he saw that he was drawing a lot of attention. As people walked by, they spotted Kies surrounded by the group and men and were stopping to watch the show. There were only a few of them right now, but it was only a matter of time before a bunch more people showed. He had to get rid of them before that happened.

While the five men were still stunned, Kies called upon the winds to aid him and swung his sword horizontally, sending all five of them flying back in a fury of sand. Using the falling sand as cover, he escaped the area as fast as he could without being spotted and appeared back at the entrance of the arena. There, he saw that the competition was about to start and also saw Nell walking around, still trying to find him. He carefully put himself in the crowd and tried his best to blend in, but it was difficult with so many people looking at him.

Eventually, Nell found him again and ran up to him. Kies muttered a curse and turned to face her. He couldn't run away anymore since the second part of the tournament was starting soon and he had to stay on the line and enter the colosseum unless he wanted to get disqualified. Speaking of which... Where were the other three? Even though he was not looking forward to seeing Iris after her little stunt yesterday, they needed to be here or else they would get disqualified.

"There you are," Nell said when she finally caught up to him. "You had me on a wild chase..."

"For a good reason too." Kies really didn't want to answer Nell's question. Luckily, it didn't seem like she was interested in asking it anymore either. She looked around the entrance with a concerned look on her face, "Hey, where are the other three?" she asked. "They passed the first round, didn't they?"

"They did."

"So where are they?"

"Give me a moment." Kies closed his eyes and sent out a pulse of magic to sense where the Windstone was and discovered that it was heading in their direction right now. From the speed, Kies was pretty sure that they were running here right now, likely after realizing how late they were. "They're coming," Kies told her, pointing behind him.

"How do you know?" Nell looked around in the direction that Kies indicated, but didn't see them anywhere.

"They should be here soon," Kies told her, not bothering to answer her question. A couple of seconds after Kies said that, three people wearing terribly drawn cat masks burst through the crowd, and approached the end of the line where Kies and Nell were.

"You're late," Kies told them when they made it. The three of them were breathing heavily and had to take off their masks for a minute so that they wouldn't suffocate. The entire time, Kies had his eyes on Iris, making sure that she wouldn't try something funny like she did yesterday. Iris, on the contrary, avoided making eye contact with him and turned her head the other way. This awkwardness lasted for a couple of seconds before Sirks finally broke the silence and said something.

"D*mn it... I never knew it was possible to get lost inside of your own room until now..." Sirks mumbled after finally catching his breath.

"Lost inside of your own room?" Kies asked.

"A certain 'genius,' somehow-"

"No!" Iris covered Sirks' mouth before he could continue. Sirks grabbed her hand and threw it away.

"Ah, whatever. We may have barely made it here in time, but we made it here, didn't we?" he shrugged his shoulders, though based on reactions, it was pretty clear who is the one responsible for them being late. As for how one could even get lost in their own room, he might never find out the answer since it didn't look like Iris wanted anyone to know.

"So, what are you here for?" Sirks asked Nell, just noticing that she was with Kies.

"Me? I'm here to watch the match and make sure that the thieves don't try anything."

"Uh... I thought that you said that you wouldn't do that?" Kies asked Rui, remembering that she told them that she couldn't participate in the tournament because it would cause the thieves to be aware of her presence and act more cautiously. This wasn't that much different from participating in the tournament since it would make the thieves know that they were being watched.

"Well, there has been a change in plans," Nell told Kies. She explained to them that ever since he found the thieves' hideout, or rather, the Black Fang's hideout, not only were the wild animals not a threat anymore, but they also recovered most of the gunpowder that they've stolen which was hidden in the storage room. As for where the rest went, it was likely made into weapons, but since they didn't have enough gunpowder to create a bomb, they didn't need to concern themselves about that threat anymore.

"I have to say, you did a great job..." Rui complimented Kies on his terrific work.

"Hey, I helped too," Iris butted in, a little upset that she wasn't getting any credit. "And so did my sister," she added to make Wompa not feel left out.

'Helped...' Kies wasn't sure if that was the right word to describe what Iris did. In his opinion, it was more like she dragged him down. But he didn't say anything.

"Oh right. Good job you two as well," Nell also said to the two. After saying that, there was a brief moment of awkward silence where Nell just rapidly blinked at the two girls. A huge grin stretched across her face, causing Kies to have a mini heart attack as he knew exactly what she was about to say.

"So which one of you is it?"

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