Against The Odds

"Break!" Kies cast Wind Cannon and destroyed the rocks before they could cover his body. He rushed out through the hole before it could close on him. Upon stepping out of the earthen prison, he stepped on something and heard a breaking sound. Without thinking, he dashed to the side, hitting the ground rolling. Behind him, spikes shot out of the sand, chasing after him.

Kies jumped back onto his feet and ran as fast as he could. The spikes continued to follow him, creating a trail of spikes behind him as he tried to escape. "Sorry, but it doesn't stop here!" the man shouted. As if being chased by spikes and having to dodge the holes in the ground wasn't enough, the man was also attacking Kies with other spells while he was trying to escape those.

The man fired off more magic at Kies in the form of large stones, making it so that he was being attacked on all sides at once. Since it was too dangerous to stay down on the ground, Kies decided to take to the air once again. The winds empowered his legs and he leaped high into the air. He twisted his body so that he was facing his opponent and returned attacks at him.

The man moved away, letting the Wind Blades fly past him, and proceeded to shower Kies with more magic attacks. Kies cut the attacks that the man sent his way with his sword and landed safely on the ground, right between two of the fissures. Since the man couldn't win against his sword, he was resorting to taking him down with his magic instead.

Kies' magic was nowhere as powerful as his opponent's in his current state, but that didn't matter. His basic magic wasn't meant to be destructive and overbearing. That had been his original plan for his magic, but ever since he obtained the Aeronite sword, he decided to dedicate his basic magic to complement it. So in short, all his magic that he could use without having to unleash his seal was to assist his sword skills, and that was why they lacked firepower. But it should be enough nevertheless.

"Winds, to me!" Kies called the winds to help him. A fierce draft roared into the arena, surrounding Kies' entire body, creating a miniature tornado with him at the center. When he moved, the tornado moved with him.

"What is that?" the man asked, a little concerned about what Kies was up to. Since he had a bad feeling about it, the man quickly called forth several stone walls, separating him and Kies.

'So that's his plan... It's not enough.' Kies held his sword out to his side at chest level. He pointed one of the edges towards the man and sprung at the walls. He flew over the holes and cracks that were in his way, tearing through layer after layer of earth that was also in his way, making it to the man in a flash even with all the obstacles.

It was so fast that the man couldn't react in time and was almost stabbed in the chest. Luckily for him, Kies stopped just a centimeter short, holding his blade right before his heart. Strangely though, the mean didn't react even after all that.

Kies expected him to stumble back or fall down, but he just stood motionless, like he knew this would happen. "Not bad..." he finally said after a long pause, complimenting Kies.

"..."

The man turned around and waved his hand, signaling to the referee and everyone else that he was surrendering. But if that gesture wasn't enough, he also announced his surrender to them to make sure that the message got through. "I give up!" he shouted loud enough so that the other people in the arena could also hear him. There were a lot of dissatisfied voices in the crowd but not one spoke up or disagreed with Kies' victory. In that moment that Kies moved across the arena so fast that it looked like he teleported, he had shown them what he was capable of.

But it wasn't the time to celebrate yet. Kies looked back at the other two contestants who were still in this fight, Rui and the soldier. The two of them had watched the entire fight play out and were both stunned by what they saw. After noticing that Kies was looking at them, the two of them turned to one another.

Although Rui's eyes showed that she still wanted to continue the fight where they left off, the two of them made a silent agreement and both turned to leave the arena. "I forfeit!" Rui shouted.

"Same goes for me!" the man followed up on her statement of surrender with his own right afterward. The arena was destroyed and it was difficult to keep fighting in this place.

"We settle this some other day," Rui told the soldier.

"Yes. Yes, we will," he agreed. They will have their rematch another time as it wasn't possible right now. "You better be ready for it."

After the two of them left the arena, Kies waited for the referees to come to him and announce his victory, but no one did anything. The crowd wasn't cheering either even though the competition was over, but Kies couldn't blame them for that since this was supposedly the biggest event of the year and he ruined it by defeating all the competitors in only the second round of the tournament.

A few minutes passed and still nothing. Kies looked around for the organizers of the tournament and saw that the referees were also clueless. The audience was confused and they were calling out to the referees, asking what was going on. A couple just got up and left since it was taking too long.

Finally, after ten or so minutes had gone by, a referee walked over to Kies and explained to him the situation. It wasn't the same referee as before and this one had a worried look on his face. "I'm sorry to have to inform you about this... But the tournament cannot accept your victory," he explained.

"What?"

"Eek!" The referee flinched, expecting Kies to lash out at him, and took a step back. "Please forgive me!"

"...Why not?" Kies asked the referee in a light tone, seeing that he was afraid of him. It was likely that the other referees and the tournament officials didn't; want to be the ones to personally tell Kies this in fear of him attacking them and so they sent him. Although Kies was very angry, there was no point in taking his anger out on the referee when he was just doing his job.

"W-well, they didn't like the fact that the Iceblade gave up before even fighting with you. Many of the contestants believe that she would've been the winner of the tournament if she didn't forfeit, and they don't accept this."

"Okay... What about the deal I made with them earlier? It was announced to the entire arena that if I won against all the other contestants then- Oh..." Kies shook his head. 'If he won against all the other contestants...' Technically, he didn't win against them if he didn't directly beat them or if they didn't say that they surrender. With this definition, he did not beat any of the contestants that he had fought against before that man showed up... They fled the arena without saying anything and in a sense, they could still be considered as in since they weren't defeated.

The referee saw that Kies figured it out and didn't have to explain the entire thing to him. "Yes... It's as you guessed. Since you didn't defeat everyone... It doesn't count."

"And what does the tournament plan to do about this?" Kies asked. There were still enough participants to move onto round three but it was pretty clear by now that Kies would be the winner since the only threats in the entire tournament were gone. There was no one that could beat Kies in a duel.

"About that..." the referee scratched his head nervously, trying to figure out a way to tell Kies what the higher-ups decided without upsetting him. He glanced around, looking to see if there was anyone else that could do it for him, but when he saw that he was alone in this, he took a deep breath and broke the news to Kies.

"They want you to fight both the Iceblade and Ayrete. If you can beat the two of them then you will be declared the winner," the referee informed Kies.

"Ayrete? Who's that?" Kies asked. This was his first time hearing that name and he didn't know who that was.

"He's the one that was fighting with the Iceblade," the referee pointed out to him.

"Oh, him?" So Ayrete was that person's name.

"Yeah... You don't sound particularly mad about it..." the referee noted. He was expecting Kies to get angry and at the very least shout at him, but Kies didn't do that to his surprise. He was calm about the entire thing which was the complete opposite of what he envisioned when he told him about this news.

"Mad? I am mad..." Kies told him as a matter of fact. He just wasn't showing it. Even if he tried to argue this matter against the officials, they would just come up with some excuse and force him to continue fighting. It wasn't like he had anyone on his side either. Everyone in the tournament was against him other than his teammates and a few select others. "Is that all?" Kies asked the referee, wondering if there was something else that the tournament wanted him to do.

"That's... All I was told," the referee said after a slight hesitation, recalling everything that he was told to tell Kies.

"I'm guessing these two fights will happen tomorrow?" Kies asked one last question. The day was about to end and most of the spectators had already left. It didn't make sense to carry out the fights now, especially when the arena was in such a mess as well.

"Both tomorrow? No, that won't happen. You'll fight Ayrete tomorrow and if you win, you will fight the Iceblade the day after."

"What- I mean... I got it. I'll take my leave now." After hearing all he needed to hear, there was no point in staying down here any longer. Kies left through the exit that was closest to him and joined up with Iris and the rest. After telling them about the tournament's arrangements, they left together. The day was late and they decided to go get dinner and hit the hay early.

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