Deadly Green

"A red scarf..." Kies didn't notice it before but the thing on his pants was the anti-magic scarf. He thought it was just a part of his pants, but it wasn't the case... Actually, Taking a closer look at it now, he saw that the scarf was stitched onto his pants.

"If this doesn't prove that you cheated, then I don't know what does," the man said. He stretched his arms and smiled. "I can get you disqualified right here, but I'm going to return the favor instead." He charged at Kies with both swords and swung them at the same time. Kies jumped back and dodged the attack.

"Stand still!" He swung his swords up in an attempt to catch Kies as he was jumping back. Kies ducked his head and the swords just barely missed his head. Kies jumped back and distanced himself from his opponent, taking some time to try to get his winds under control but couldn't. The electric field from the scarf was interfering with his winds and they wouldn't listen to him.

Kies rolled out of the way as the blade came down, spewing sand everywhere. "Winds..." Kies tried to get the winds under his control forcibly, but they still refused to listen to him. "..." The two of them continued to play a game of cat and mouse. The man chased Kies with both swords while Kies ran away, trying to get the winds to listen to him.

The audience grew tired of watching Kies' shenanigans and started booing. They shouted for him to stop being a coward and fight.

'If it's a fight you want, then it's a fight you get...'

"Come here!"

Kies turned just in time to see the two swords in his face. "I got you now!" the thief triumphantly shouted... Or so he thought. Kies held his hand up and the two swords collided against an invisible barrier of some sort, bouncing off. "What-"

The surprised man didn't have the chance to figure out what happened as Kies pressed his hand against the man's stomach and let loose a jet of wind, blasting him off his feet. Kies made sure to control his power so that he didn't kill the man. He grabbed his own sword which the man had dropped when he got hit by the attack and spun it around in his hand.

The man pushed himself up from the sand and glared at Kies. "You... How!?" The man was confused as to how Kies was able to use his magic despite his scarf nullifying all the magic in the area.

"How, you ask? Well, what makes you think that I'm using magic in the first place?" The truth was that he was in fact using magic, but not his own. He was using the magic stored in the moonstone, which wasn't much, but it was more than enough to finish this fight. Kies didn't understand the reason behind it, but the scarf seemed to be nullifying his direct control over the winds. If he used the moonstone as a catalyst, as opposed to himself.

"Time to end this." Kies raised his sword and pointed it at his opponent. He needed to defeat him and destroy the scarf quickly. He didn't notice it until now, but the scarf seemed to have an effect on his core. Whenever electricity pulsed from it, he felt his core stutter for a split second. It made sense as his core relied on magic power to keep it going. It was dangerous to have an extended fight.

Kies transferred all the magic power in the moonstone and into his sword. He then sent a flurry of Wind Blades at the man, once again making sure to only put enough magic in each one to only injure him and not decapitate him. "Ack!" The man parried the first wind blade but the others behind them all hit him, leaving nasty cuts all over his exposed body.

To finish the man off, Kies sped towards the man, appearing in front of him in a blink of an eye, and slammed the flat of his blade against his stomach. The man flew into the colosseum wall and landed face-first into the sand. Kies then sent another Wind Blade at him, aiming for the scarf on his pants, destroying it, and relieving the arena of the strange electric field. Kies felt his magic return to him and his core stabilize.

What a dangerous item... Kies sheathed his sword as it became very clear to everyone in the colosseum that his opponent was not getting up. A couple of referees and medics ran over to the unconscious man lying in the sand to check if he was still capable of fighting, and when they saw that he wasn't, they waved their hands and declared Kies the winner. "Contestant 5555 wins!"

The entire audience was quiet. They couldn't believe their eyes. Kies had taken down someone twice his size and didn't even look like he broke a sweat doing so. No one was cheering, but no one was booing either. They had no more proof that he cheated the first round (even though he did), and couldn't accuse him anymore after seeing it with their own eyes how his magic was nullified, and yet he was still able to use his seemingly 'non-magical' abilities. And from what Kies understood of the rules, there was none preventing contestants from using anything other than magic. In other words, unless they could prove that he used magic, they couldn't do anything to get him disqualified;

Kies walked out of the arena so the next fight could start. He followed the fragment to Iris and the others and found a spare seat a couple of rows away from them. He chose not to sit with them for two reasons: one, there wasn't an empty seat in the front row anymore, and two, it was best if he stayed away from Iris for now, for both their sakes might he add. As he sat down, people around him shot him glances but they didn't say anything.

By the time Kies took his seat, the next fight was already starting. He looked down at the arena and saw the two contestants walking up to each other. Interestingly, one of the contestants was Nyana. It seemed that she was unlucky and went right after him. In her hand, she wielded a bow and had a quiver of arrows behind her back.

Wait... A Bow? Kies leaned closer to see if he was seeing it wrong, but he saw that he wasn't. She was indeed fighting with a bow. Her opponent on the other hand had two hand-axes and was twirling them around in his hand, showing off to the crowd before the fight started. They cheered for him and he waved back at the crowd.

Kies looked around and saw there were a couple of people who weren't impressed by what the man was doing. They all had their arms crossed and were looking at the man with disdain. Kies guessed that they had a grudge against the man or something for them to be looking at the man with expressions like that.

"Ready... Start!" At the signal, Nyana drew and fired an arrow at her opponent, who was still too busy flaunting to the audience. As the arrow traveled through the air, it exploded into a heap of leaves and surrounded the surprised man, covering him and suffocating him. The man dropped his axes and tried to pull the leaves away from his face but they wouldn't budge. They were stuck to him like parasites. If he wants to pull the leaves off then he will have to rip off his skin along with them.

The man struggled for a minute before collapsing onto the sand, completely motionless. The leaves faded away after doing their job and the referees and medics went to check on the unconscious man. They felt his body for a pulse and when they saw that he was still alive, they breathed a sigh of relief and pulled him out of the arena.

The audience quieted down. The fight ended before it even started because the fighter had been too busy showing off and didn't notice the arrow until it was too late. Nyana put away her bow and walked out of the arena before they could even announce her as the winner.

The referees looked at each other with confused expressions. Even they weren't expecting a fight to end this fast. After some discussion among themselves, they turned and called for the next two contestants to come down. A few minutes passed and the next two contestants went down, neither of which were people that he knew. Both of them were equally well-built and had swords. It looked like a fair fight.

They walked up to each other, waiting for the referee to start the match. The audience cheered again, expecting this fight to be a much more enjoyable one than the first two which both ended very unexpectedly.

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