Tough Matchup

The next person to take the spotlight of the arena from their team is Iris. After Sirks' fight, around ten or so more pairs of contestants fought before it was her turn. Her number was called in the middle of the fight between the two current contestants and she was escorted down by the employees along with another man. Kies didn't get a clear look at her opponent as he was on the other side of the colosseum, on the exact opposite side of them, but he saw that they were wearing a hood to conceal their identity just like they were.

"..."

"Something caught your eye?" Nyana asked Kies. She noticed that he was looking at someone far away and followed his gaze to see who it was. But since there were so many people, she had no idea who it was.

"That person..." Kies muttered.

"Sorry?"

"The other contestant," Kies told Nyana who he was watching.

Nyana looked around until she spotted the other contestant who was being escorted by tournament staff. "Him?"

"Yes, wasn't he supposed to have been disqualified in the first round?" Kies asked. He remembered that he was the person that the guards chased out because Kies thought that he was a thief. Of course, it was Kies' mistake and he owed him an apology as he shouldn't have been disqualified, but still. How did he make it past the first round? Did he come back after things calmed down? That would mean that he registered even later than them.

"Oh yes, I remember now. He was the person that caused a huge commotion with the guards. He outmaneuvered all of them despite being surrounded by multiple enemies and unarmed," Nyana recalled. "Well, it looks like our winner is clear..." she sadly added.

It was safe to say that Iris lost this fight before it even started. Her opponent was on a whole different level. It would take a miracle for her to win. "Ugh..." Kies grimly shook his head. To get matched against such an opponent... Iris was very unlucky.

The current fight ended and the two were called into the arena. Iris was the first one to step in and the crowd booed at her. She ignored them and walked to the center. On the other side, the mysterious contestant walked up. Since no one knew his identity, no one cheered for him. The audience whispered to each other, asking about who the person may be.

"Greetings," the hooded fighter greeted Iris when they got close enough.

"Who are you?" Iris asked the man, not even bothering to hide her curiosity.

"Do you really think I'd tell you that considering what I'm wearing?" he asked back, pointing to the hood that was hiding his face. As if he was going to tell her who he was. Otherwise, why would he be hiding his face? "And I can see that you're doing the same," he pointed out at how Iris was also hiding her face with a mask.

"Ahem! Are you two ready?" The referee interrupted the two and tapped his feet, obviously impatient. They had a long line of people waiting to fight and they had no time to spare for conversations.

"Yes, my apologies," the man politely bowed to the referee.

"And you?" The referee turned to Iris, asking if she was ready to start the fight.

"Sorry, and yes."

"Okay, good." After hearing the two's answers, the referee held his hand up and started the countdown.

"Wait," the man stopped the referee before he could say anything. He turned to Iris and asked, "Where is your weapon?"

"I don't need one," Iris replied, showing the man her gloves that they stole from the thieves the other day. "This is all I need," she confidently told him, stretching her arms.

"Huh..." The man crossed his arms, unsure of how to react to her bold statement.

"Ahem..." the referee got their attention again. "I'll start the countdown now, are there any problems with that?" he asked the two.

'No," they both answered.

"Okay, good." The referee counted down from three and jumped out of the way, expecting the two to instantly go at each other, but they didn't. After running a couple of steps, the referee slowed to a stop and turned around, confused as to why he wasn't hearing the sound of fighting already. He saw that the two were still standing at their respective starting positions, not having even moved a step.

"Uh, the fight's started already."

"I know," both of them said at the same time again.

"Alright..." the referee turned back around and continued to walk away so that he wouldn't get caught in the fight. After making it far out of range, he looked at the two contestants again to find out that they hadn't started fighting. "What are you two doing!?" he shouted at them. He wasn't the only one who was confused. The audience was also bewildered and they were starting to get furious at the two contestants for just standing around and doing nothing.

They started booing and chanting for the two to start fighting. "Fight, fight, fight!" But even with the crowd pressuring them to fight, the two disregarded them and just looked at each other.

"What are you doing?" Iris asked her opponent. He didn't draw his sword and was sitting there, watching her, waiting for her to make the first move.

"If you're not fighting with a weapon, then neither am I," he told her. He refused to fight an unarmed girl. It just didn't sit right with her. In order to make things fairer, he decided that he wasn't going to fight with a weapon either.

"What!?" Iris couldn't believe what she was hearing. "Are you looking down on me?" He must be if he was acting like this. It was in the code of honor as a warrior to fight against your opponent with all you have in Otane. If he was doing this then it meant that he had no respect towards her as another warrior.

"That code of honor you speak of... You're far too young for that to apply to you."

"I hope you won't regret doing that," Iris said in an irritated voice. She didn't like how her opponent was taking her so lightly, but she will make sure to make him pay for doing so.

"I look forward to seeing you do so," the man replied. Although Iris couldn't see his face, she had a feeling that he had a smug look on his face right now. She didn't know why but this person reminded her a lot of Kies, but at the same time, he had a different aura around him. It was probably because both of them didn't want to show their faces and had the same monotone way of speaking, almost like they were fed up with everything and didn't care.

The man stood in front of her with his arms crossed, waiting for her to do something... Anything. And so Iris did. She ran at the man and punched him in his smug face. Her blow connected, but it didn't connect with his face as she expected it to. Instead, it connected with his open palm. "What!?" She didn't even see the man move his arm!

Iris unleashed a flurry of punches at the man, all of which were blocked by him again. "Tch..." Iris moved back and did a high kick, aiming to surprise him with a new attack but he simply tilted his head sideways and barely dodged the attack. Her foot brushed past his hood and Iris saw a smile appear on his face.

This only fueled her anger at the man and she sped up her attacks. Her arms and legs moved faster. She felt adrenaline rush through her body, and she didn't know if it was the heat of the sun or her own body, but she felt a fire kindle in her chest. The man, unprepared for the sudden change in pace, received two nasty punches to his stomach. He stumbled backward but nevertheless, held his ground still.

Giving the man no time to breathe, Iris kicked the man in his chest, further pushing him back. "Ouch..." the man said in an amused voice, not sounding hurt at all. He had blocked her kick with his arms and was wiping off the sand from his sleeves.

"Hmph!" Seeing how he still wasn't taking this fight seriously, Iris kicked up a handful of sand at the man, hitting his face.

"Argh!" The man moved his arms up to block the sand, causing him to lose sight of her for a moment, and this moment was all she needed. Iris moved in and jumped on top of the man, knocking onto the floor with her weight. "What!?" The man tried to push Iris off him but he couldn't as she was already attacking him without mercy.

Iris began punching the man furiously, and the only thing he could do was move his head from side to side to dodge the attacks. This continued for a couple of seconds with Iris missing all her attacks on the man until he suddenly turned his body and rolled to the side, causing her to lose balance and fall onto the sand. "Ah!"

The man got back onto his feet and brushed the sand off his clothes, choosing to keep his clothes clean rather than attacking Iris while she was down. As Iris got back onto her feet, she heard the man laugh. It was a playful laugh that sounded like he was having fun, showing that he really wasn't taking the fight seriously.

"What's so funny!?" Iris demanded from the man, not understanding what it was that he found so amusing. She also didn't know why he wasn't fighting back. All this time, it had been a one-sided fight with the man choosing to only be on the defensive.

"No, it's nothing," the man told her. "It's just... Huh, you know what? Since it's what you want... How about I go a little bit serious on you?"

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