That was easier said than done, especially in a field of eleven fighters... the burly man he’d just kicked into the wall had been carried out by healers, leaving only eleven combatants standing.

All of them were staring each other down like hawks... weighing threats and looking for opportunities, even without the other fighters complicating things, cutting down Zephyr was crazy talk.

Klaus knew this and he wasn’t delusional about his abilities.

As much experience as he had with the twelve basic sword forms, if Zephyr started using even one technique from Royal Swordsmanship... the advanced style reserved for nobility and masters then there was a genuine chance Klaus would lose but Klaus took in a deep breath and closed his eyes for just a moment, centering himself.

’You’re being promised hefty wealth and a resource dungeon,’ Klaus reminded himself. ’Don’t chicken out now.’

He opened his eyes and the next instant, the whole dynamic of the battlefield shifted.

Four fighters turned toward Klaus with their stances becoming aggressive as their weapons rose and five fighters turned toward Zephyr, recognizing him as the greater threat despite his blindfold.

The man leading the group facing Klaus... a seasoned-looking fighter with a scar across his jaw looked over at the man leading the group facing Zephyr.

They nodded to each other.

"Listen up!" the scarred man called out, his voice carrying across the arena. "Everyone here has formed a temporary alliance!"

The crowd’s cheering quieted slightly as they were curious about this development.

"We take out the main threats first!" the scarred man continued, gesturing at Klaus and Zephyr. "Once they’re eliminated, then we can have a fair battle among ourselves!"

The man leading the attack on Zephyr picked up the explanation.

"No matter how strong these two are..." he said, "they can’t face multiple experienced fighters at the same time! Numbers win!"

Klaus couldn’t deny it... They were smart as fuck.

If he wasn’t currently one of the centers of attention, he probably would have joined them. Tactical alliances were the correct play in a battle royale scenario but wait.

Klaus thought for a moment.

’What’s stopping me from joining them?’

He cleared his throat and raised his sword slightly, drawing attention.

"What if I joined you?" Klaus called out to the group. "What if all of us attacked the Masked Man together?"

There was a pause.

It was actually a good proposal, strategically speaking. As long as they somehow got rid of Zephyr first, then the playing field would be much more even.

However, all nine of them just laughed and Klaus thinned his lips behind his cat mask.

The scarred leader grinned cruelly.

"Boys..." he said simply. "Attack."

Five fighters rushed at the Masked Man with their weapons gleaming and four fighters charged toward Klaus with bloodlust in their eyes.

The crowd erupted into deafening cheers.

The first one to reach Klaus was surprisingly the burly man who’d been turned into a spinning top by Zephyr earlier.

He closed the distance fast with his thick greatsword raised high.

"We saw what you did to the Masked Man’s sword!" the burly man shouted as he approached. "That magnetic trick means you’re a Wizard Apprentice! Which means you’re easy pickings from here!"

He brought his heavy blade down in a devastating overhead chop.

It seemed the guy was so afraid to go after Zephyr that he’d chosen to target the "weaker" opponent instead.

Klaus parried the strike with a sharp upward deflection.

CLANG!

The force of the parry sent the man’s sword flying wildly to the side, completely out of his control and the blade swung in a wide arc... almost hitting another fighter who was charging in from Klaus’s left.

That second fighter ducked desperately under the wayward sword and lost his footing, stumbling forward off-balance and Klaus immediately closed the distance with that stumbling fighter.

He drove his knee upward, catching the man directly in the nose.

CRACK!

The fighter’s head snapped back, blood exploding from his broken nose. His entire body lifted off the ground from the impact and flew backward through the air.

He collided mid-flight with one of the fighters who’d been charging at Zephyr instead... both of them crashing together in a tangle of limbs.

The impact sent both men tumbling directly into Zephyr’s range and Zephyr moved without hesitation.

His katana flashed once in a perfect horizontal slash that caught both men’s weapons simultaneously.

The redirected force sent both fighters spinning like tops with their bodies rotating uncontrollably as they flew out of bounds and crashed into the arena barriers.

The referee’s voice rang out.

"Two eliminations!"

Now it was three versus one for Klaus...

The burly man who’d attacked first had recovered his sword and was charging again with rage evident in his posture.

He brought his greatsword down with both hands, putting all his considerable strength into the blow; however Klaus sidestepped smoothly making the blade slam into the dirt where he’d been standing a moment before but Klaus didn’t counter yet.

Instead, he focused on the other two fighters who were trying to flank him from both sides... a lean woman with twin short swords and a wiry man with a rapier.

’I’ll save the big guy for last...’ Klaus thought. ’For now, I’ll deal with the faster threats first.’

The woman attacked from the right, her twin blades coming in with rapid strikes... left, right, left, right as her attacks became blurs of steel.

Klaus’s sword moved efficiently, parrying each strike with minimal movement, deflecting rather than blocking to conserve energy and the man with the rapier thrust from the left, aiming for Klaus’s exposed ribs.

Klaus twisted his torso making the rapier point pass by him harmlessly then Klaus counterattacked. He feinted toward the woman, making her raise both swords defensively but his real target was the rapier user.

Klaus’s blade came around in a tight arc and slashed across the man’s sword arm... immediately blood sprayed.

The rapier user screamed and dropped his weapon, clutching his bleeding arm but Klaus didn’t give him time to recover. He planted his foot and kicked the injured man squarely in the chest.

The fighter flew backward, hit the ground rolling, and tumbled out of bounds.

"Elimination!" the referee called.

It was a two versus one now.

The woman with twin swords snarled and pressed her attack, moving faster now and more desperately with her blades came at Klaus from multiple angles but Klaus had fought Nameless earlier, who’d controlled six swords simultaneously.

Two swords was nothing.

Klaus parried her right blade high, forcing it up and away. When her left blade came in for the opening, Klaus stepped inside her guard and shoulder-checked her hard.

She staggered backward going off-balance then Klaus’s sword came down on her left wrist.

SLASH!

It was not a killing blow, but it was enough... a deep cut that made her drop one of her swords with a cry of pain.

Before she could recover, Klaus swept her legs out from under her with a low kick and she hit the ground hard.

Klaus pointed his sword at her throat.

"Yield..." Klaus said simply.

The woman looked at the blade, at Klaus’s unwavering stance, then at the burly man still standing nearby.

"I yield." she said through gritted teeth and the referee flew over on his platform.

"Elimination by surrender!"

Now it was just Klaus and the burly man left on his side... The big fighter hefted his greatsword while breathing heavily.

"Just you and me now, boy..." the burly man growled.

"Looks like it." Klaus agreed and they circled each other slowly.

The burly man charged suddenly, bringing his sword in a wide horizontal slash designed to bisect Klaus at the waist but Klaus jumped.

He vaulted over the low swing, his boots passing just inches above the blade and as he came down, Klaus slashed diagonally across the man’s shoulder.

Blood sprayed, but the burly man was tough... he roared through the pain and spun, his sword coming around in a backhanded strike and Klaus ducked under it, feeling the wind of its passage ruffle his hair.

He came up inside the man’s guard and drove his elbow into the fighter’s solar plexus.

THUD!

The air exploded from the burly man’s lungs and Klaus followed up with a pommel strike to the jaw. The burly man’s eyes rolled back and he collapsed like a felled tree.

At the exact same moment across the arena, Zephyr’s katana caught his final opponent... a skilled duelist and sent the man flying out of bounds with a perfectly executed counter.

Both eliminations happened simultaneously, in opposite directions, the two bodies hitting the arena barriers at the same time with identical thud sounds.

Klaus and Zephyr both had minor wounds... Klaus had a shallow cut on his left forearm from the twin-sword woman, and Zephyr had what looked like a slice across his right shoulder that had bled through his shirt.

The crowd went absolutely silent then exploded into the loudest cheering yet. Now Klaus stood opposite Zephyr across the blood-stained arena floor.

Among all the contestants... all thirteen who’d started this battle royale... only the two of them remained standing.

Klaus held his sword in a ready stance and Zephyr smiled behind his fox mask though Klaus could not see it.

"I permit you to go all out..." Zephyr requested. "I’ll do the same."

Immediately, aura coiled around Zephyr’s entire figure like visible flames and he shifted into a different stance entirely with his sword held low.

The announcer’s voice boomed across the stadium, barely containing his excitement.

"Ladies and gentlemen! The Masked Man has taken the stance of his legendary Scorpion Trap technique! When he uses this, there has NEVER been a fighter who could defeat him!"

Klaus lifted his own blade up and mana coiled around his figure like Zephyr’s aura... though Klaus’s energy was a brilliant blue rather than white.

The two of them stared each other down across the bloodied arena.

’I’ll charge first and fight normally,’ Klaus thought up a strategy. ’I’ll use my swords to catch him off guard when I want to end it.’

His goal was simple... Make Zephyr enjoy the fight. Push him hard enough that the man would get fully immersed in the battle to forget about his positioning and if Klaus was unable to overpower Zephyr through pure skill... which was likely then he would make the legendary swordsman step out of bounds.

It was in the rules, after all. Elimination by being forced outside the arena. Klaus took his stance which was a hybrid of Kress and Riven forms, designed for momentum and counters and the announcer raised both hands dramatically.

"This will be the FINAL BATTLE!" the announcer proclaimed. "Everyone CHEER!"

The crowd’s roar was deafening with the voices of screaming and stomping creating a wall of sound.

Klaus and Zephyr charged at each other simultaneously. Zephyr was faster... noticeably faster as his aura-enhanced movement making him a blur.

He threw a slash aimed at Klaus’s center mass but Klaus had anticipated the speed difference.

He used the momentum from his charge and the slickness of blood on the ground to drop into a slide, bending backward at an almost impossible angle as Zephyr’s blade passed inches above his face.

Klaus slid past and came up behind Zephyr, immediately pivoting and throwing a slash at the man’s exposed back.

CLANG!

Zephyr had twisted impossibly fast and deflected the strike without even looking, as if he could sense the attack through the blindfold.

They separated and immediately re-engaged.

Steel met steel in a rapid exchange... Klaus using what was at his disposal, combining the forms he’d mastered, adapting to Zephyr’s superior speed with better positioning and prediction.

CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG!

Klaus was actually pushing Zephyr back onto the defensive, forcing the Prince to react rather than attack.

He combined Talos’s overwhelming pressure with Vane’s spacing control, never letting Zephyr settle into a rhythm.

Zephyr managed to break through Klaus’s offense a few times with quick counters that came like lightning but Klaus parried them completely using Riven’s counter techniques, redirecting force rather than absorbing it.

He flowed from Kress to Hekat to Oros, blending forms together seamlessly to create combination strikes that came from unexpected angles and behind his fox mask, Zephyr grinned.

’It’s really fun Eli... I can sense how bad he wants to beat me. Do you think I should let him?’ Zephyr thought with a small blush on his cheeks and the Spirit’s voice sounded in his head.

’My Prince, stop being gay!’

Immediately, Klaus summoned his swords. Four blades materialized from his storage ring in flashes of light, floating in the air around him being controlled by his Magnetic Field and the crowd gasped.

Klaus pressed his attack even harder now, using his held sword in combination with the four floating blades... attacking from five angles simultaneously while Zephyr’s grin widened behind his mask as he deflected them.

’Excellent...’ Zephyr thought then he moved.

With a blur of motion enhanced by aura, Zephyr pushed Klaus back, breaking through the multi-sword combination.

His katana became a silver arc of light.

CRASH-CRASH-CRASH-CRASH!

All four of Klaus’s floating swords shattered into metallic shards that rained down on the arena floor as Zephyr’s eyes flashed with power behind his blindfold and mask.

"Watch... This is the first time in a long time that the Masked Man will use the First Form of the Scorpion Trap Technique!" the announcer screamed in excitement.

Zephyr spoke the technique’s name clearly.

"Scorpion’s Tail."

Klaus’s eyes widened behind his cat mask. He reacted on pure instinct as mana from the surrounding air coalesced rapidly into a shield of solid metal that formed in front of him but before it could finish, Zephyr thrusted forward and the katana struck the shield.

BOOM!

A massive shockwave exploded outward from the point of impact.

The force rattled the entire stadium as the stone walls trembled, the ground shook and wind blasted in all directions with enough force to nearly knock spectators out of their seats.

Up in the stands, Mirela’s cat mask almost flew off her face from the wind blast. She fumbled desperately to keep it in place, her hands clamping down on the edges.

Down in the arena, Klaus’s metal shield shattered completely... fragments of solidified metal exploding outward like shrapnel.

Klaus himself was blown backward with his boots skidding across the blood-slicked ground and he came to a stop at the very edge of the arena boundary... mere inches from being out of bounds.

His hands were trembling from the impact and his arms ached but he regained his stance with his sword still held firmly.

Zephyr didn’t give him time to recover. He burst forward, closing the distance in an instant, aura blazing around him.

Another "Scorpion’s Tail" was forming... the same devastating thrust technique with the katana’s point aimed directly at Klaus’s chest but as Zephyr grew closer, as the blade approached, a grin formed on Klaus’s face behind his cat mask.

A small metal board that was thin and barely visible formed beneath Klaus’s feet from Forge.

Just as Zephyr arrived with the blade almost touching Klaus’s chest, Klaus spun out of the way like a top, rotating on the metal board as if it were ice.

Zephyr’s momentum carried him forward with his thrust missing completely as Klaus pirouetted aside and the prince ran past Klaus’s position and came to a stop several feet beyond.

He had turned around immediately though, already preparing his next attack as his stance changed again as aura gathered intensely creating another burst of wind that made the announcer’s elaborate wig fly off his head.

The announcer’s completely bald head was revealed to the entire stadium... The man let out an undignified yelp and chased after his airborne hairpiece, jumping and grabbing it mid-air before clutching it protectively to his chest but Zephyr wasn’t paying attention to the comedy.

He was focused entirely on Klaus and ready to unleash another technique—

"STAND DOWN!" the referee’s voice cut through everything.

Zephyr blinked as all the gathered aura vanished instantly, dissipating like smoke.

"Heavenly Commoner is the winner!" the referee declared.

Zephyr stood there with a confused expression then he looked down.

His boots were standing clearly outside the white boundary line of the arena.

When Klaus had spun aside on the metal board, Zephyr’s forward momentum had carried him two steps past where Klaus had been standing and those two steps had taken him out of bounds without him realizing it in the heat of battle.

"Checkmate..." Klaus said as the metal board dissipated beneath his feet. He lowered his sword and looked at Zephyr across the short distance.

"I win."