Army Of One

Immediately upon hearing Kies' decision, the news of the challenge was announced to the rest of the contestants, which excluding the few that were eliminated from the previous fights in the second round, was practically everyone who made it to the second round. When Sirks and the two girls heard this, their jaws dropped to the ground.

"What in God's name is he thinking!? What!?" Sirks banged his head against the back of the chair in front of him. "What is he actually thinking..."

Nyana, who was sitting next to them, smiled, finding it rather entertaining that Kies would do something like this. "Don't worry. If he wants to do this, then surely, he has a plan of some kind..." she told the three.

"He better!" Sirks corrected her. He really hoped that Kies wasn't going to challenge the entire arena without a plan. No matter how good his skills were and how strong he was, he wasn't going to win against that many people. Furthermore, he was also challenging Rui, the red-scarf soldier, the hooded-man, and the rest of the top-brass of the tournament, and they were all on the same team.

"Scratch that, he's not winning," Sirks corrected himself. The situation was hopeless. He had no faith that Kies would be able to win... But even still, Iris believed in him... A little. She knew his secrets and knew that he wasn't human. Kies was hiding something big and she was actually quite excited to see what it was.

"Is he a dragon... He has to be..." she mumbled to herself. There was no other race she could think of that would be able to take on that many people at once... Well, other than a demon that is. But she knew that he wasn't a demon since he already passed several of the hidden tests and traps they set here in Otane. There were magic barriers and magic traps set all over the kingdom that would trigger if they detected dark magic.

Nyana heard Iris talking to herself and smiled. "No, he's not a dragon. He's something else."

"Huh?" The princess turned to the elf, surprised by her sudden comment. Her eyes lit up and she quickly asked her the question that had been bugging her all this time. "Do you know what he is!? No, since you said that, you have to know!"

"What are you two talking about?" Sirks asked, not understanding what Iris was asking Nyana about. "Not a dragon? What is that supposed to mean?"

"Uh... Never mind." Iris gave the elf a look, hinting that they should talk about this later and not right now. Nyana smiled and leaned back against her chair.

"Okay then..." Sirks also leaned back against his chair. He had no idea what Iris was hiding from him, but knowing the girl, she was probably not going to tell him no matter how much he asked. Furthermore, he wasn't all that interested anyway. He was more interested in the fight and how Kies was going to manage his way out of this one...

Back down in the arena, the contestants were all gathering down there, ready to teach the person that challenged all of them at once a lesson... A harsh one.

"So he thinks that he can take on all of us, huh?"

"With his measly skills, I'd be surprised if he could take down one of us."

But not all the contestants were underestimating his abilities. A few of the contestants knew that he was dangerous and didn't dare get close to him. They positioned themselves at the edges of the arena where they would be the furthest from Kies.

"Look at these idiots... It's almost like they're blind or something..." the red-scarf soldier mumbled to himself. He knew that Kies was dangerous... Extremely dangerous. Even after getting hit by that magic-nullifying field in one of the previous fights, he somehow was still able to use magic... Why was this... Had it been a deficient scarf? No... he checked it himself. It was perfectly fine. Actually, was it even magic that Kies used? The soldier wasn't sure. For now, his best option is to wait in the back and watch the fight play out. Maybe then he could figure something out about Kies and his ability to use magic in the nullifying field.

Or better yet... "I hope one of those cannon fodder can bring him down." If possible, he really didn't want to fight him since it was too risky. It wasn't that he wasn't confident in his skills, since he was. The only problem was... The soldier glanced at the royal guard to the left of him. She was rather far from him but he could feel her glare on him. "Tch... What a headache." The moment the fight started, she was going to ignore everyone else and go right for him. Even though the person in the center who challenged all of them was probably the bigger threat with his mysterious powers, Rui didn't care about him.

"And also..." The soldier looked on his right where the other threat was. He had a hood on and was also concealing his identity like the person in the middle. And unlike Rui and the person in the middle, this man was not bothering to conceal his magic aura. The soldier could feel it all the way from here. He could potentially be the biggest threat out of them all. He was the only person that the soldier was not confident about winning against. And worst of all, he could be an ally of that pesky royal guard...

"D*mn..." This wasn't a good position for him to be in, but whatever. He could just hide amidst the confusion and chaos for the first few minutes of the fight and avoid Rui and the other contestants.

After some time, the final few contestants were escorted down. Not surprisingly, the arena was big enough to fit all of the contestants with plenty of room to spare. The referees went around, asking if everyone was ready. One of the referees came over to the soldier and he waved him off before he could ask. "I'm ready," he told him.

Finally, after checking that everyone else is ready, they went over to Kies and asked him. "Are you ready?"

"Yes."

"Good. I hope you won't regret your decision," the referee said to him before walking away. The referees all left the arena and went up the stairs to the spectator's area. They took the first-row seats. They were safer up here than they were down there. After everyone got into their positions, one of the referees started the countdown.

Everyone drew their weapons and turned to Kies. They formed a circle around him a couple of meters away, the exact distance that the referees permitted them to stay away from Kies. Many of them were smiling and anxiously waiting for the number to hit zero so that they could slaughter them.

However, they weren't the only ones that were anxious. In the very back of the colosseum, sitting away from all the action were the other three from Kies' team and also Nyana. Excluding Nyana, the group was very worried about Kies... Well, varying degrees of worry. Sirks and Wompa were worried out of their mind while Iris was more curious than worried. Although she didn't want him to get hurt and knew that this was a reckless idea on Kies' end, she really wanted to see what Kies was capable of and waited eagerly waiting for the fight to start as well.

"-Three, two, one... Begin!"

Even before the referee said to begin, a couple of the contestants already started moving. With their weapons and ran at Kies.

"Time to die, brat!"

"Too late to regret your decision!"

Kies, expecting that this would happen, was well prepared for it. He clenched his fist, calling upon the might of the winds, and punched the ground as hard as he could. This created a shockwave, sending sand flying outwards from Kies and blinded the contestants that were close to him.

"What is this!?"

"Don't stop, he's hiding in the sand."

"Don't break formation! Don't let him escape!"

The other contestants quickly figured out his strategy and continued advancing through the dust, tightening their circle to prevent Kies from escaping... Or so they thought. But Kies never intended to escape. Under the cover of the sand, Kies took a moment to count the exact number of enemies that were surrounding him. After making sure, he held out his hand and released the same number of wind arrows as there were enemies. They flew in all directions and took out all the enemies surrounding him.

"Ack!"

"Ugh!"

They all flew towards the walls of the arena, almost hitting Rui as they crashed into the hard stone surfaces before crumpling into the sandy floor. Rui took one quick glance at the center where the massive fight was happening and raised an eyebrow. She was rather impressed by his quick thinking and skills. To take on this many enemies, and all at once too. This wasn't an easy feat at all, but it seemed that he was going to stay true to his word.

"I look forward to fighting you in the end..." Rui silently said to herself. For now, though, she had a rematch with a certain someone... She turned back to the red-scarf soldier who was standing in the same exact place since the match started. He had his arms crossed and was staring back at Rui, waiting for her to make the move. None of the other contestants were going after them since they didn't dare try to fight them. Plus, they were all preoccupied with another opponent...

Another explosion occurred from the center of the arena and several more contestants came flying their way. One of them also collided with the soldier but he nimbly shifted out of the way, letting the man crash into the wall. "Hmph... How violent."

It was only a matter of time before they were all dealt with. Those idiots were charging in like brainless predators, trying to hunt prey that was far stronger than they could imagine, and even after losing so many of their own, they kept challenging it, thinking that they had weakened it enough to take down. They kept repeating this, not knowing how futile it was.

"Where do you think you're looking!?" The soldier turned back around and saw a sword in his face. He quickly drew his blade, moved back, and barely blocked the attack in time. The soldier and Rui locked blades, their hands shaking as they tried to push each other back. "Your opponent is me!"

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