Embarrassing Defeat?

"That was... Expected..." Nyana commented. Iris lost her fight and although Kies wasn't happy about it, he couldn't blame her. Even he wasn't sure if she would be able to beat her opponent had he been matched against him without going all out. He just hoped that he wouldn't have to fight him in the future but he knew that it would be impossible. Considering how skilled that hooded man was, Kies would have to fight against him eventually if he wanted to win the tournament. Well, that was unless someone else would be able to take him out before then, and if that happened, then he had an even tougher opponent to worry about.

Out of interest, Kies asked the elf, "Do you think you could beat him?" He wanted to know what her thoughts were on the mysterious contestant that even the guards couldn't suppress.

"Him? I'd like to recruit him as well if I can, but he turned me down."

"You already tried asking him?"

"Yes."

"Oh..." Kies was not expecting that, but he should have. After all, this was her purpose for coming here as she told him.

"He told me that he had an important mission to do here and he couldn't help me with mine," she explained to Kies the reason why he refused her offer, putting her hand on her chin and looking quite displeased as she did so. "A shame, really. I would've loved to have his help as well, but oh well..." She couldn't force someone who was busy to help her so she had to give up on him.

"But to answer your question, no. I don't think I can win against him in a fight," she said as a matter of fact. "And I have no reason to since we're not enemies... Well, unless we are placed together in a match..." The elf looked really worried just thinking about it. It really seemed that he was not an opponent that she wanted to face, much let Kies as well.

"What about you?" Nyana asked Kies. She answered his question honestly and she wanted to hear from him his thoughts on it as well. "Do you think you can win against him?" she curiously asked.

"Me?" Kies thought about it. He knew it was going to be a difficult fight but he wasn't sure if he could win even if he went all out. That man was also hiding his strength and until he saw him fight with everything he had, he wasn't sure if he would be able to win. He might be able to if he could figure out how it was that he survived Iris' magic. Was it a magic tool or was it his own abilities? If he knew that then he could think of some way to deal with it. But for the time being... "It's hard to say," he answered the elf.

It really just depended on who was willing to give up their cover first. Since both of them wanted to keep their identities a secret from everyone, they show off too much of their strength, or else it might blow their cover. Though... It should be the same case for Iris but for whatever reason, she decided to use her magic which attracted the attention of everyone here...

"Ugh..."

Nyana noticed that Kies was rubbing his forehead like he had a headache and asked, "Something wrong?"

"No, it's nothing..." Kies told her. He looked around for Iris and the other two people from his team but couldn't find them anywhere in the crowd. 'Did they move?' Kies sensed the fragment's location and saw that it was moving towards him which made him confused. How did they know where he was? Actually... The answer to that question was quite easy. Who wouldn't notice a shady person with a mask and cloak walking with an elf in the colosseum even with how many people there are?

Kies looked in the direction of the fragment and saw the three of them walking to him like they were in a hurry. As they did so, they drew even more attention as many of the spectators were more interested in them, or more specifically, Iris, who exposed herself as a mage. Kies shook his head. Wrong way... If they were trying to get away from prying eyes, they were going in the wrong direction. They were practically attracting the attention of the entire arena, and to make matters worse, they were walking towards him and Nyana, who was also attracting a lot of attention.

"..."

"Hey!" Sirks greeted Kies and Nyana, holding his hand up when he got close to them. The two princesses were right behind him, following his tail, and just like before, Iris refused to make eye contact with Kies and just stared at the floor.

"Blessings," Nyana greeted the three back. She held her hand out to her left, showing that there were three empty seats next to her. "Or if you like..." she started to get up from her seat but Sirks stopped her.

"No no no, you don't have to." He put his hand on the elf's shoulder, sitting her back down. When he saw that he was touching her, he quickly took his hand back and apologized for it. "Oh, sorry! I didn't mean to-"

"No, I don't mind it," Nyana told Sirks. Most elves hated physical contact, even more so if it was from a person of another race so Sirks' reaction was normal. "Other elves might hate it, but it doesn't matter that much to me..." The elf paused for a second and reworded what she just said. "Well, it does matter actually. I'm not keen on people touching me for the sake of touching me, but yeah..."

"I get what you mean," Sirks nodded his head. "Come on you two, sit down," he gestured for the two girls to sit down on the seats next to the elf. The three of them took the empty seats and looked around. When they saw that there were still a bunch of people with their eyes on them. "Ugh... You really have to go and do that, don't you?" Even though Sirks' head wasn't turned to anyone, they all knew who that was directed at.

Iris lowered her head and looked at the floor. She didn't say anything. Looking at her posture, Kies knew that she wasn't in the best of moods, especially after her fight. Even though Iris did everything she could in order to win, in the end, her opponent brushed it all off like it was nothing. She probably felt very powerless after facing someone like that and needed comfort, but instead of that, Sirks was rubbing salt in her wounds.

Even though Kies' relationship with Iris wasn't that good, he didn't like seeing her down like this. Something about it just didn't feel right with him. Iris was always so cheerful and it didn't make sense for someone with her personality to be sad like this.

"Look on the bright side, you got him to expose some of his tricks," Kies tried to cheer Iris up. Even if she did lose, she lost to an opponent that was almost a hundred percent certain to make it to the last round. Exposing some of his tricks now made it easier for the future contestants that were going to fight him. Though he tried his best to hide his abilities when fighting Iris, he didn't expect that she could use magic and ended up having to do something to block her magic. And although they don't know how he did it, they do know for a fact that he has some way to do it.

"T-thanks?" Iris didn't know if that was a compliment or not, but it was, it was a very bad one. Wompa looked at Kies, shaking her head and telling him to say something else as a compliment.

"Uh... The way you fought was very... Unique?" Wompa held her hands out and shook her head. That wasn't it either. "...Your magic was very impressive?" Wompa shook her head again. No, not that either. "..." Kies didn't know what to say to cheer her up. He threw his hands up in frustration and just said, "Look, the person you're fighting was beyond our expectations. You did well. None of us are blaming you for the loss." If someone did blame her for losing then it meant that they themselves were confident enough to beat him, which Kies doubted anyone here had the skills to say so.

Kies couldn't believe that she was really blaming herself for something like this. She got unlucky and got put against an opponent that was of very high caliber. But, it seems that Kies' words got through to her and her mood lightened a bit. "Thanks..." she slowly managed with a cracked voice. She looked up at Kies, meeting his eyes for a split second before looking away. She was still embarrassed by what she did yesterday and didn't want to face him.

"..."

Sirks saw that the atmosphere was starting to become awkward and he cleared her throat, getting everyone's attention. "This fight is about to end," he informed them. They all looked down at the arena and saw that one of the contestants, an old man with gray hair, was on his knees while the other contestant, a much younger man, was standing over him with his sword pointed at his neck.

It was interesting to see someone so old participating in the tournament but Kies guessed that age didn't matter. All that mattered was strength. But still, for someone that old to join the tournament... It was very unexpected. Anyhow, the old fighter surrendered and the referees escorted the two out of the arena.

"I wonder who is going to be next..." Sirks asked out loud. As he said that, two tournament staff walked up towards them and stopped right in front of them. "Huh? It's one of us!?"

"The lady over there," the tournament staff pointed at Wompa. The princess slowly got up from her seat, a little surprised about being next. The matches were supposed to be random and the chances of everyone on their team going so early on is super low. Nevertheless, Wompa followed the tournament staff, glancing back at the four as she left, a little concerned about.

"Don't worry, you got this!" Sirks shouted to encourage her.

Wompa gave a thumbs-up back as if to say, "Yes I do. Thanks."

As she walked away, Sirks looked around the colosseum for another person that was being escorted as they were going to be her opponent. "I think I see them," Kies told Sirks, pointing at a person in front of them. They had long white hair, fancy armor, and a beautiful sword at their side. "Wait..." Everyone's eyes shot up when they realized who it was.

"Is this some sort of joke?"

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