The round ended.

That really shouldn’t have been too much of a surprise. It was, after all, what rounds tended to do. There wouldn’t have been much point in having a giant melee if it went on until everyone was dead. Not much of the tournament would have been left at that point.

Noah found himself pulled back through a twisting green portal and deposited back in his waiting room, in front of the window and exactly where he’d been standing before the fight had started.

He blinked. For a moment, the word spun around him in a sickly swirl. Then everything snapped back into place. He drew in a sharp breath, all the strange fog that had been murking up the corners of his mind dissipating like mist under the desert sun.

Then Noah blinked again.

The hell was all of that about?

He looked down at his hand, then flexed his fingers. Everything felt normal. No trace of the odd, disconnected sensation that had plagued him through the entire fight in the arena remained. It seemed that time had resumed its normal flow — or perhaps he’d just found his proper position in it once again.

“Spider?” Brayden asked, sending Noah a concerned look. “Are you okay?”

“I — yeah. I’m fine.” Noah shook his head. “Sorry. Just distracted.”

Did it have something to do with the arena itself? The portal made by the badge that I used to get to it? Did the Mistress lady somehow curse my — no. That isn’t it. At least, I don’t think it is. Maybe I’m reaching too far, but that doesn’t seem like the kind of motif she was going for.

“I’ll say,” Brayden said with a chuckle. “You look a thousand miles away.”

“And it doesn’t even look like you fought anyone,” Fist said. Her head tilted to the side. “Did you even have to fight anyone?”

“That depends on your definition of a fight,” Noah replied absently. He shifted his weight. Then he glanced to Lee. “Does anything smell off?” 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

She scrunched her nose at him. “How would I know?”

Noah grimaced. “Right. Sorry. I keep forgetting.”

Lee walked over to him and took a deep sniff. She paused for a moment, ignoring the baffled look that Fist was giving them, then shook her head.

“I don’t think so. Everything feels pretty normal, but I wouldn’t count on it. It’s just too hard right now.”

“That’s fine. Thanks anyway,” Noah said. He flopped back into a chair, his brow furrowed. “Did you guys see my fight?”

“Don’t think so,” Brayden replied. “It must have been in one of the other arenas. I didn’t catch sight of you once.”

“Same here,” Fist said.

Noah grunted. “I see. Well… great.”

“Why?” Brayden asked.

“Just wondering,” Noah replied. “Fist, when you went through the portal, did anything feel… I don’t know. Off?”

“Off?” Fist shook her head. “No. Nothing at all. Did something happen to you?”

Odd. Does that mean this was targeted after all? Or is there some other aspect that I’m not considering?

Before any of them could say anything else, a faint green glow lit the room. Noah glanced up. Brayden was looking down at his badge. It had lit.

And he wasn’t the only one. Lee’s badge had activated as well. It looked like both of them had been selected for the next round.

“We’re going to be together!” Lee exclaimed.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“No guarantee of that,” Brayden said. “Could be different arenas. But even if we are together, let’s avoid giving it away for now. I want to see how far I’ve come.”

A grin crept across Lee’s lips and she pressed her finger into the badge, summing forth her portal. “I wasn’t planning on teaming up. I was just hoping we could fight in the same arena. But I guess it doesn’t matter. Keep track of how many people you beat. Winner has to buy the loser meal.”

“Wait, what?” Brayden turned to Lee, but it was too late. She’d already stepped through her portal.

“She’s a confident one,” Fist drawled.

“Good luck,” Noah said. “She’s probably going to hold you to that.”

Brayden grimaced. “Yeah. I know. I’m not sure if she knows what she said, but I know.”

Then he pressed down on his own badge, summoning a portal and stepping through it.

***

Lee stepped out into the arena, the distant rumble of the crowd growing ever so slightly louder to greet her. Her nose scrunched. She still couldn’t smell anything. Aqua Terra might have been the worst city in the entirety of Obsidia. Whoever had designed this city deserved to be kicked down the side of a hill.

Mages popped into being all around her. It would have normally been a pretty trivial matter to figure out which of them would be the easiest to go after first. Unfortunately, due to her nose’s aforementioned lack of usefulness, that was nowhere near as easy as it should have been.

It’s a good thing there’s more than one way to tell how strong somebody is.

Not every powerful mage carried themselves the same way. If there was one thing that Lee had truly learned in her time between the Damned Plains and the Mortal Plane, it was that people were different everywhere. But weak people tended to have some very notable similarities.

And the melee round of the tournament had been specifically created in order to root them out. Offering the option to group up with other people — especially ones that one didn’t know — felt like the most obvious trap that Lee had ever seen. Trusting somebody that wasn’t your proven ally was a great way to get stabbed in the back.

The only people that would be willing to join up with large groups would be the ones too weak to fend for themselves. Of course, most people had already realized that at this stage of the tournament. Even in the previous round, there had been fewer big groups. Most people had gathered into medium sized ones, trying to reduce the chances of a traitor in their midst, but Lee really didn’t care.

And so she stood still as the countdown started. She didn’t bother trying to join up with any of the people that sent glances in her direction. There was just no point. She didn’t really feel the need to go through the effort of faking her way into a group to cut them apart from within — though she did briefly consider the option.

There was just no need for her to try that hard.

At the end of the day, she wasn’t even here to win the tournament. She just wanted to find everyone else. Fortunately, that didn’t mean she couldn’t test out how much stronger she’d gotten in the process. Her tongue darted out to run across her lips.

The timer was getting close to zero.

Fortunately for her, Noah was already handling the whole ‘make a scene’ aspect of their problem. That meant she didn’t have to worry too much about making a huge scene herself. It would be fine if she just had a bit of fun with the tournament.

I bet Aqua Terra has all kinds of fancy restaurants. I wonder which one I’ll make Brayden take me to.

***

Mordred crossed his arms in front of his chest as the next set of rounds started. His consciousness flitted through the arenas, though his thoughts were still slightly hung up on Spider. Something about the mage was still throwing him for a loop.

Whatever magic he’d used… well, it had been unlike anything like Mordred had ever seen before. And that set him on edge. Magic was a composite. Everyone came from the same roots. They just took different paths to get there. That was one of the fundamentals of the universe.

Sure, there were some roots that were far more unknown than others, and even some that bordered on inexistent, but Mordred had been studying magic for a very long time. He should have been able to recognize at least some element of Spider’s power.

And he’d recognized a number of the offensive abilities the man had used. But his incredible control over his soul… Mordred’s inability to keep a grasp on the mage’s location even when he knew where he was… that just didn’t sit right at all. And he couldn’t recognize so much as a single aspect of what could have created such a magic.

Is it a Master Rune? Some incredibly powerful one that I’ve just never even heard rumors of? That might have to be it. I can’t imagine that a normally created Rune would be able to do something like that without having at least some element I could recognize.

Mordred would have blown out a slow breath if his spiritual form had any need to do such things. Instead, he just let his senses dance out across the arenas. He was struggling to focus. Something about Spider’s entire group fascinated him. He’d never met such an odd group of mages.

And, given his line of work, that was saying a lot.

Then Mordred paused.

Something had caught his attention in one of the arenas. He’d just passed it, but he’d definitely heard—

Screaming.

A lot of it.

His senses pulled back.

Then he stared in a mixture of horror and awe.

It was hard to do much of anything else.

That has to be a crime. I — oh, gods. That poor bastard.

Mordred winced. Then he hurriedly pulled his attention back from that particular arena to turn it elsewhere.

I really hope the Prophet doesn’t figure out Lee is the monster she sent me to stop. If she does, I’m going to be in big trouble.