A Hundred Swords

"Die! Argh-" Contestants fell by the numbers. Anyone who got too close to Kies would get blasted away by the winds. By this time, he had already taken down the majority of the competition to the disbelief of everyone, and there were only less than a hundred left. The remaining contestants were cautious of Kies and didn't charge at him as the rest had. They knew better than to do something like that after seeing the rest of their teammates get slaughtered.

Kies, seeing how the rest weren't going to attack him just yet, took a moment to wipe the sand that had accumulated on his clothes from all the fighting. Despite being completely open to an attack, no one dared try anything. They watched Kies' every movement, not taking their eyes off him for even a second. They didn't blink either. These were all the experienced fighters of this tournament. They knew better than to challenge Kies to a fight that they couldn't win. Instead, they were all waiting and looking for an opportunity to strike, but couldn't find any throughout the entire battle.

"To have to fight a monster like him..." Some of the contestants looked at each other, doubtful that they could beat him. They nodded their heads to one another and their faces quickly turned serious.

"We don't have another choice... We need to all attack him at the same time!" one of the contestants shouted at the rest. They could deal with one another after getting rid of their biggest threat. For now, unless they wanted to lose, they needed to work together to defeat Kies.

But... Not everyone was on board with this plan. While most agreed, several of them shook their heads and backed away.

"Tch... Cowards!" the person who made the call for a truce said to the ones who didn't want to risk it. But it didn't matter that much anyway. Out of the eighty or so that were left, they had seventy that agreed to the plan. He turned his attention back to Kies and raised his hand. "On my mark!" he signaled for everyone to get ready.

"Seriously? We're really doing this!?"

"Shut up and draw your weapon!"

"Alright..."

Kies watched as the contestants all got ready. They got into their battle stance, ready to rush at Kies at the signal. The arena became silent except for the sound of the royal guard and the soldier on the other side of the arena who were still fighting. The contestants who didn't want to get involved in the fight moved further back, and that included that hooded man that was with Rui. He leaned against the wall of the arena with a smile on his face as he waited for things to play.

He was the only person that Kies was worried about at the time. No one else here at the current moment was a threat to him... But, as long as he wasn't going to join the fight, he could hold off that worry for the time being and focus on the people around him. Tension grew as the people surrounding Kies continued to hold their ground, waiting for the man to call the shot.

Kies watched the man, waiting for him to order everyone to attack. He wasn't going to make the first move. It would be foolish to be on the offensive against so many enemies at once. Just one mistake and they would collapse on him in an instant. It was better to wait for them to make the move first.

A bead of sweat dripped down the man's face as he held his hand up. He was shaking and trying to find even the slightest opening for them to attack. When it became clear that there wouldn't be one, he closed his eyes and took in a deep breath. It was now or never. "Go!" Without any warning, the man suddenly shouted the word and everyone charged at Kies without a second of hesitation. All seventy enemies converged on Kies from every single direction, forming a tight circle to prevent him from escaping.

Kies was starting to get bored of seeing this tactic since he usually fights alone against groups of enemies. But he didn't blame them for using something like this. Even though the previous nine hundred contestants already did this already and failed, it was a common tactic when fighting against enemies in the open when one had the numbers advantage.

However, these fighters were different. Kies saw that they were all very experienced just based on their movements. It was best if he didn't try to brute force these guys. But because has already experienced this circle tactic so many times before, he knew how to break out of it. He quickly did a 360, searching the formation for its weak point, and spotted it.

There! On his far-right, or rather, close right now with how fast they were closing in, there was a weak point in the formation with a huge gap between two of the contestants. Kies waited for the contestants to get closer before turning and charging at the two fighters. The two immediately halted and prepared to intercept Kies. The people around him also changed directions and started moving towards them to assist them.

Kies clashed blades with the closest one which was a middle-aged man with a long beard. He parried Kies attack, but only for a moment. With his open hand, Kies blasted the man away. "Aaah!"

But before Kies could start moving again, the second contestant came at him and slashed with his axe, forcing Kies to roll away to dodge the attack. He raised his hand, ready to blast away the man with magic but he was stopped by another attack. A sword came down on him, almost cutting his head off. Kies jumped back and sent a couple of Wind Blades as he did so. However, the attacks were blocked by another contestant before they could hit the one that just attacked him. "Not today!"

"..." Kies frowned. These guys were quick. Normally, people who had never fought alongside each other would have no teamwork at all, but this just goes to show just how skilled they were. Kies really can't afford to take them lightly.

Just like that, the contestants formed a circle around him once again, not letting him leave it. Learning from their previous mistake, they spread out their forces, making sure to secure all the openings so that Kies couldn't do that again.

"Not good..." Kies mumbled to himself. He needed to break out of this formation or else he would be in trouble. Getting attacked on all sides was disadvantageous, and even with his invincible-instantly-healing-all-wounds-inhuman-body, and his cloak that was impervious to all damage, he would still wound up getting hurt if this continued for too long.

"I still can't believe that a child is doing this to us..." one of the contestants said in disbelief as they closed onto Kies.

"You should know better than to judge someone by their looks," Kies told him.

"That is true, especially after seeing what you are capable of..."

The contestants slowly closed in on Kies. Two of them charged at him and swung their weapons at him. Kies blocked both attacks, one with his sword and the other with his bare hand. "What!? Why isn't it cutting through!?" The contestant who had his sword caught by Kies tried to pull it away but couldn't. "How are you so strong-"

"Dodge!" The other contestant screamed at him. The man let go of his sword and moved back, barely dodging the burst of wind that suddenly came out of Kies' hand. The sword he was holding flew away, impaling into the side of the arena wall.

"Sh*t!" Since the man lost his weapon, he backed away, letting someone else take his place. The other contestant, the one who was locking blades with Kies, also backed away after seeing what he just did.

"You're not escaping!" Kies fired a Wind Blade at the man, but he caught on to his attacks and ducked before it could hit him.

"Woah! That was close!" He got back up and retreated into the circle.

"Tch..." Whether he used magic or not, the result wouldn't be much different. These people knew to avoid his magic attacks and he wouldn't be able to defeat like he did with the previous group.

"Change of plans! We're all attacking him at once!" the leader shouted.

The other contestant who lost his sword ran back into the circle as well. He bent over and looted a new sword off the ground from one of the fallen fighters. After seeing that everyone was ready, the leader waved his hand and shouted, "Go!" Once again, the circle closed in, but since there were so many of them and only one of Kies, only a couple of them could really attack him at once and not all of them.

Kies pushed back all the ones that got close and sent them stumbling back into the other contestants who were behind them. "D*mn it, watch it!" The formation was slowly falling apart and the leader quickly stopped everyone and ordered them to back off again.

"Ugh... If only we had some ranged fighters..." he mumbled. Numbers meant nothing if only a certain number of people could fight him at a time. Kies could just take down them and the next batch and the next... If only they had someone who used a bow or something... Even one would make a huge difference here.

"Why the h*ll are you all melee anyway!?" the leader asked the contestants. Even though swords and blades were the most popular weapons, and over ninety percent of the fighters in Otane used them, with another six or seven percent wielding axes or spears, there should be a couple who used bows or other ranged weapons. Out of the ten thousand or so contestants, the only ranged fighter in the entire tournament was Nyana, and maybe Kies and Iris too if one included their magics...

"Are there no ranged specialists here at all!?" he asked again in wonder.

"I am one."

"Same for me!"

"Over here too..."

One by one, the ranged fighters raised their hands. In total, there were four of them.

"Then where the h*ll are your bows and cr*p!?" he asked them, pointing at the current weapons in their hands which didn't suit them.

"Because it's useless in a fight?" one pointed out. "The tournament limits ranged weapons. We can only carry so many arrows, throwing knives, and other things... Not only will it be expensive in the long run, but once we run out of those in a fight, we're done for."

"Oh..."

So that explained why no one in the tournament fought with a ranged weapon... Other than Nyana that is, but she was a special case. She could conjure arrows out of magic and didn't need to worry about stock.

"Well then... This is very unfortunate."

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