Handpicked To Lose

After his battle with Nyana, Kies went back to his seat. Along the way, he was met with angry glares from both the other contestants and the spectators. They didn't believe that he won against Nyana and were all accusing him of cheating. He felt their heavy eyes on his back as he went back to his seat.

Ignoring them, Kies sat back down. "Well done," Sirks told him the moment he took his seat. Kies looked at the middle-aged man and saw that he was grinning under his mask. "I really thought that you'd lose but you're a lot tougher than you look."

"Thanks." Kies reached for his pouch and wrapped his hand around the moonstone. He started transferring his magic into the rock as he was very sure that he needed it later. Kies looked around and saw the red-scarf soldier that Rui fought against on the other side of the arena. Knowing the referees, they were probably planning to have him face one of them. Or if they were even more vicious, they would match him against that person that Wompa fought.

But whoever they decide to put him up against, Kies wasn't going to let them have their way. He was going to beat them all and win the tournament despite all the odds. This was more than enough to prove to not only them but the entire crowd that was spectating that he had the skills to make it this far. His original plan of keeping a low profile was gone. He didn't expect for there to be opponents this tough in the competition and he couldn't afford to hold back anymore.

Nyana walked up to them a couple of seconds after Kies sat and also sat back down. Before she could say something they saw some referees walking towards them.

"..."

Not even a minute had passed after Kies sat down and the referees were coming to them again. "These bast*rds..." Sirks mumbled. He got up, assuming that they came to get him but he was wrong. To everyone's surprise, they pointed at Kies again.

"What!?" Sirks was astonished by their blatant bias of wanting their team to get disqualified and walked up to the two referees, punching the first one in the face. The man tumbled back and rolled down the aisles. The other referee backed off with an aloof look on his face.

Sirks raised his arm and was about to punch the other referee as well but one of the spectators nearby got up and pushed Sirks away before he could. "What do you think you're doing!?" he shouted at Sirks. The crowd around the two quickly got up and drew their weapons and a brawl broke out between the other contestants and Sirks. They all took the tournament's side despite the fact that it was the tournament that was being unfair.

"Sirks!" Iris called out to him to back off but the man didn't. He ran into the group of contestants and started thrashing wildly, hitting several of them in the face with his fists before getting bodied by the rest and being pinned to the ground. Kies dropped the moonstone back into his pouch and got up, ready to get over and give the tournament officials a piece of his mind as well but Nyana put out her arm and stopped him.

"What are you doing!?" he demanded from the elf. "Don't tell me that you're on their side-"

"No, it's not that!" Nyana told Kies. "If you go then they will disqualify you. That's their plan!" she warned Kies.

"What!?"

As if on cue, the second referee that Sirks almost slugged but got stopped before he could, raised his hand, and yelled for everyone's attention. "Contestant 5557 is now disqualified under the offense of assaulting staff!"

"What did you say, you fat pig!?" Sirks suddenly had a surge of strength from his anger and threw everyone off of him and stomped over to the referee. More contestants stood up and tried to stop him but before he could, Iris shouted at him to stop. "Sirks, it's not worth it!"

Sirks turned around and shouted back at her angrily, "What do you mean, it's not worth it!? They're basically trying to get us disqualified. I don't care about winning anymore. We can't anyway with what they're doing!"

"Stop! We're going to get arrested at this rate!" Iris told him. "Look around you!" Sirks looked around him like Iris said to and saw that guards on duty were starting to move towards him with their spears. The contestants that he knocked down were also getting up and reaching for their weapons as well. This was going to be an all-out fight if things continued.

"D*mn it..."

"Stop!" a voice shouted from within the crowd, causing everyone to freeze in their places. Rui appeared from within the crowd and she raised her hand, ordering both sides to back off. The guards saluted her and did as they were told and lowered their weapons.

"You too," she told Sirks.

"What!? But-"

"Now!" she ordered Sirks. A chill went down the man's spine and he reluctantly put his weapon away as well. Even though her voice was only directed at her, the two princesses behind Sirks also felt the danger in her voice and were frightened by it. He couldn't fight the royal guard even if he tried so there was nothing he could do but obey.

"Tch..."

Rui looked back at the contestants who still had their weapons drawn and when they met her cold glare, they all flinched and quickly put their weapons away as well. None of them dared challenge the authority of the Iceblade.

"Now then..." Rui looked at the referee who was still standing. He had a blank look on his face and was trying his best to keep up his expressionless look but his legs were shaking in fear. Although he broke no rules and was technically not in the wrong here, he was still afraid of facing her.

"W-we did nothing wrong," the referee stuttered.

Rui stared at the referee, causing him to shiver. After a moment, she replied, "Indeed, you did nothing wrong..." she sighed. As much as she hated to say it, the tournament didn't break any of the rules they made as it was perfectly fine for someone to get chosen to fight several times after each other. After all, the entire thing was 'random' and unless proven otherwise, nothing could be done about it.

"What do you mean you did nothing wrong!?" Everyone's attention turned to Nell who was as furious as Sirks about the entire thing. "We only had ten battles and he's been chosen to fight three of them!?" she pointed out. If the tournament had truly been fair about this then Kies had to be the unluckiest person in the world for this to happen to him.

"Can you prove it?" the referee asked Nell. The guard sergeant flinched and made a sour face. There was nothing she could do to prove that the tournament wasn't being fair.

"It's fine..." This time it was Kies who spoke and everyone turned their heads to him. He gently brushed aside Nyana's arm.

"Oh, sorry," the elf apologized. She hadn't even noticed that she still had her arm up and was blocking Kies.

"All I need to do is fight, right?" This was no big deal for him. He practically spent his entire life fighting... Fighting and searching for the fragments. This was nothing new. Sirks was disqualified and they couldn't risk doing anything else that might get Kies disqualified as well. "Who is my opponent?" he asked the referee.

The referee hesitated for a brief moment before turning his head to Sirks. "What!?" Sirks took a step forward, ready to cave the referee's face in but Rui stopped him.

"Stop!" Both she and Kies shouted at him at the same time.

Rui looked at Kies, surprised that he would also tell him to stop despite it being beyond obvious now that the tournament had been plotting to get rid of their entire team from the beginning. In this fight, they were planning to have the two of them fight against each other so that they could eliminate one and probably have the other face an insanely difficult opponent right after. But just like before, unless they had some way to prove it, they couldn't do a thing.

"Hmph..." Kies chuckled, finding it rather funny that the tournament was going through such lengths to make sure that they didn't win. But in all fairness, he knew that they were the ones that brought this upon themselves by coming here as a team with the intention of winning the prize.

"Well then, pick me a new opponent," Kies told the referee. He was sure that they weren't going to let him off even though his current opponent got disqualified. More than likely, they were going to choose a new one for him. No... That was exactly what they were going to do.

"Are you really doing this?" Sirks asked Kies in disbelief. If the tournament was going to keep up their act then Kies was going to go against at least half the competition if he kept winning and they wouldn't stop until he lost or was too tired to continue. In any case, it was like fighting a losing battle...

"Don't worry," Kies said, assuring Sirks that he knew what he was doing. He turned his head to the referee and said coldly, "I'll be waiting in the arena."

A strong wave of wind flew into the colosseum, causing them to raise their arms to protect their eyes.

"Huh!?"

"Where did he go!?"

When they opened their eyes again, Kies was nowhere to be found. Everyone looked around for where he disappeared to. One of the contestants spotted Kies and pointed at him. "Over there! He's down in the arena!"

"What!?"

"How!?"

In that split second that they lost sight of him, he somehow made it all the way down there. "Is it magic!?" But there was no point in asking that question. The answer was clear. There was no other way that Kies would be able to make so far this quickly.

Kies heard the commotion and confusion but didn't care. He exposed the fact that he was a mage, but it was bound to be known at some point. He stood in the center of the arena with his arms crossed, waiting for the tournament to choose his next opponent and send them down. It didn't matter how many he could have to go against. After all, it wasn't like he was a human. He won't tire no matter the number.

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