Kai stepped into the arena lobby, his boots echoing on the polished stone floor. The once-crowded space from the first day of matches was now half-cleared, with many of the chairs removed. Only a handful of fighters occupied the remaining seats, scattered in silence or hushed conversations.
He exhaled slowly.
He’d told Vepice he was going to train while wearing a confident smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes.
That was a lie.
The truth was, Kai didn’t even know what training could do for him in just a few short hours. After watching the terrifying potential of the remaining fighters, the gap between them all felt... unbridgeable.
He didn’t want to admit it, but this wasn’t a competition anymore, it was survival.
He accepted the tournament slip handed to him by one of the arena staff, the names written crisply in thick black ink.
---
Round Two - Octofinals:
Selise vs Grim
Alex vs Fenric
Tarnil vs Brynn
Jeska vs Cyrus Vale
Redford vs Mira
Alira vs Quinn
Karl vs Wren
Tyla vs Rurik
---
Kai’s eyes skimmed the names, stopping at the first.
Grim.
’Finally. I’ll get to see him fight properly,’ he thought, his heart beating a little faster with anticipation.
Grim had intrigued him from the beginning. Still and quiet, but terrifyingly powerful. He wanted to understand what made that boy so different.
’I’ll be fighting Fenric in the second round. That punch. Whatever it was, I’ll have to try and dodge it or take it with my barriers. Without any armour or weapons, if I’m up close, I should have the advantage.’
Kai left the lobby and walked to the spectator stands, this time following the scent of roasted nuts and the buzz of the excited crowd.
He didn’t even need to use his mana sight this time.
The arena was even more packed than the day before. The stands rippled with eager energy, and every seat was filled with spectators, nobles, commoners, and adventurers alike, waiting to see the next display of violence and magic.
He spotted Vepice waving from one of the middle rows. She had saved him a seat. As he sat beside her, she nudged his shoulder.
"Back from training already?" she teased gently.
"Let’s say... There was some spiritual training," Kai replied with a crooked smile.
The announcer’s voice thundered across the arena, amplified by magic once more.
"Today, we enter the second stage of the tournament! The Octofinals!"
A drumroll burst out from the left side of the arena, where a group of children had clearly enchanted a row of barrels into musical instruments.
’Paid actors, surely.’
"Eight fights! Sixteen fighters! The pressure is on, and the stakes are higher!" the announcer cried with an almost musical enthusiasm.
"And the first match iiiiiis...!"
He held the note long enough to make the crowd grow silent.
"Grim versus Selise! Will our dazzling sword dancer Selise finally put a stop to Grim’s instant victories?"
The crowd responded with a wave of applause, many cheers, but some held their breath. Everyone wanted to know who Grim really was.
Grim was surely a fake name. Not unheard of, Kai learned, in the Arena of Kings.
Kai leaned forward, eyes sharp. Vepice glanced at him. "Who is he?"
"The most curious fighter in the tournament. I want to see what he’s hiding."
"Hiding?"
"You didn’t see his last fight?"
"No, when you won, I tried to see if I could find you, but they wouldn’t let me see you, and I missed a few fights."
Their conversation was cut short when Selise entered through the gates of the arena. Her long lavender was hair tied back, twin sabres at her hips. Her movements were graceful, practiced, and full of energy. She waved to the crowd, earning whistles and cheers.
Then came Grim.
He walked without expression. No weapons. No armour. Just loose-fitting black clothing and pale skin that looked untouched by sunlight. His eyes were half-lidded. Almost bored.
As the two reached the tiled square, the announcer shouted:
"Begin!"
To most in the crowd, nothing happened.
Selise raised her blades, slid one foot forward, and...
She collapsed.
Like a puppet with her strings severed, her body crumpled without grace or warning. The hilts of her swords clattered on the stone before she even touched the ground.
Gasps erupted from the crowd.
Kai, however, saw everything.
The thin veil of mana that usually coated Grim’s body had expanded outward the moment the match began, an invisible dome of pressure that blanketed the entire arena stage. It wasn’t magic like most people used.
Not blasts
Not spells.
It was pure, suffocating force. Dense mana, heavy enough to drown in.
Kai’s heart dropped.
’This much mana...’
He clenched the edge of his seat.
’Maybe more than even the Devourer could absorb at once...’
And just as that thought occurred, he felt it.
A presence. Cold. Watching.
His eyes lifted instinctively to the far northern end of the stands. A lone figure cloaked in violet silk sat calmly behind a half-mask of bone and gold. No one else around them. The headmaster. The Devourer.
Kai’s blood froze in his veins.
’They’re watching the tournament? Why?’
His mind raced.
’I’ll have to be even more careful. No necromancy. No summons. Nothing they could connect back to me. I’m not ready for a fight with them. I’m not even close.’
The announcer, oblivious to the threat seated amongst the crowd, belted out:
"Our poor little Selise couldn’t even get a single hit in! Another instant victory for Grim!"
But instead of cheers, murmurs spread through the stands. A wave of unease.
Boos followed, not loud, but boos nonetheless.
It’s like they didn’t want to earn the ire of the winner.
People didn’t like what they couldn’t understand.
Kai understood that too well.
Kai leaned back in his seat and exhaled.
Vepice grabbed his hand. "That boy’s scary."
Kai nodded slowly.
"Yeah," he muttered. "And that... was only a fraction of what he can do. All he did was release his mana."
"Really?"
"Yeah..."