When Derek returned to his resting area, he saw Ovid waiting for him. The older man smiled as he looked at him, “Good job. Both the ninth and tenth year students this year were quite strong statistically, but their specialty was not combat. Neither will advance past this round.

“So far, the martial warrior you fought in the second round of the upper bracket, the eighth year, and you have advanced. I expect Xavier Cortez to win his match shortly. Which means next round’s matches will be the fourth year and eighth year, and you versus Xavier. I guess that’s where you will be finishing this tournament.”

Derek shook his head, “Bad luck, I would rather have made it another round, at least make it to today’s final fight.”

Ovid just shrugged his shoulders, “What can you do? The placement of competitors was determined by how well they had done in the earlier matches. You losing in the third round to the guy that won overall that day placed you pretty high on the list.”

Derek nodded as he thought it through, “Since Xavier made it to the last match and the year ten got knocked out the same round as I did, I guess I got lucky drawing someone who had been knocked out in the second round. So that will put me at having lost to Xavier and Marcus, who are likely to be number one and two in the rankings. Where will that put me in placement?”

Ovid thought about it, “I don’t really know. My guess is that if you don’t get third place, it will be fourth. The eighth year that is skating by right now got knocked out in the second round in the upper bracket by Xavier and is likely to get knocked out in the fourth round of the lower bracket.

“Considering your number of matches, they are a wash, you both fought in just as many rounds, not considering your having to compete in the first round. If Xavier goes on to win against Marcus, the eighth year will have only lost to the winner of the competition, while you will have lost against the first and second place competitors, which would give him the third place position. If Marcus wins, you will have still lost against the second and first place competitors but he will have lost to the second place competitor twice, giving you the third place position.

“At least that’s how I see the ruling. Doesn’t matter that much though, you gotta make it through your next match. Your opponent is a talented magic warrior, so give it your all.”

As he finished saying that, the crowd outside had died down and the War Priest in the arena announced Xavier’s victory. Hearing this, the crowd burst into cheers again. Derek smiled listening to it, “OK master, if that is all I will focus for my next match now.”

The armsman nodded his head before leaving to watch the matches. Derek focused on refreshing his mana and preparing for his next match.

As the sounds of the crowd picked up for the next fight, a group of men barged into Derek’s waiting room. Derek stood up quickly. He examined the men in front of him, “What is the meaning of this?”

Smiling, the first one stepped forward, while pulling a knife, “Nothing much. Our master just wants to make sure the next fight doesn’t have any surprises.”

Derek used his Demon Sense on them. The man in the lead was early tier four, while the five others were tier zero elites. They clearly weren’t local considering their willingness to cause trouble in the Colosseum and their accents were strange. He had heard the accent before but couldn’t quite place it. Backing towards the rear of the room, Derek reached into the bag he had kept there, “Well, your master must not value you very highly to have sent you here. He had to have known that once you attempted to upset the tournament you would be unlikely to be able to make it out of this place.”

The man in front of him looked at him with confusion, “What do you mean?”

Derek smiled wolfishly as his medallion shone with a strange glint. “This Colosseum is a temple of the God of War. The tournament itself is sanctified by him and everything here is under his vision. Do you really believe the Warpriests here are going to let you go after you have tried to interfere with that? I am amazed at your pluck though, for soldiers to do something that would enrage the God of War? You must not be interested in pursuing your profession anymore.”

The men’s faces paled. But, they quickly firmed their resolve and stepped forward, weapons at the ready. Derek’s smile grew broader as he drew his warblade from the storage pouch within the bag. “It seems you have made your choices. Foolish, but it was your choice to make.”

As the first man rushed at him, the others spread out. The elites pulled out light crossbows and aimed them at Derek, waiting for an opportunity. Derek didn’t have time to cast his enhancement, settling for a seventh level Aegis.

The shield sprang into effect and Derek moved to engage the leader. The man had a shield spell of his own, and he utilized it to great effect while attempting to break through Derek’s Aegis. After a short clash, he jumped back, providing the soldiers with an opportunity to shoot.

When they did, the crossbows lit up with arcane energy, at first the string and arm glowed green, then the bolt itself. The bolts slammed forward with great power, hammering Derek’s Aegis. He felt his mana decrease rapidly. Slashing out to the right, left, then forward, he weapon channelled Wind Blades back at his enemies at the highest level he could output.

Blood splashed as the Wind Blades connected with their targets. On the right, he had caught two of the soldiers and bisected them at the waist. On the left, another had attempted to block with his crossbow, but the weapon’s enhancement exploded before the Wind Blade had continued on through, rising from his left hip to his right shoulder. In front, the tier four cursed, seeing the ripples of his own shield almost collapse as the WInd Blade encountered it.

Derek followed up by closing with his opponents. An orb of fire appeared over his shoulder as he used the casting technique he had partially learned from Marcus. It launched forward, striking the wall behind the last two soldiers, and expanding towards the center of the room. The soldiers screamed as they burned, while their leader had to face Derek’s blade coming down on his shield while the flames expanded from behind.

As the shield started to collapse, the man attempted to parry the blade in Derek’s hand but the warsword knocked away the knife before taking the man across the chest, destroying his ribs and the organs beneath. The only satisfaction the man got was the appearance of the shadow behind Derek in that moment.

Sensing extreme danger, Derek rolled forward through the expanding flames of his Fire Blast spell. He felt the reduction of his mana once again as the Aegis protected him from that, but he felt it plummet and a pricking sensation in his back from an attack he had barely expected. The shield quickly stabilized as he looked to the back of the room. There, just behind where he had been standing, a man was forced out of stealth by the expanding Fire Blast.

The man was nondescript. Derek’s Senses showed him that the man was a tier five. In his hand was a dagger with some blood already on it. There was a sinister look on the man’s face. “You should have just let them rough you up a bit. Then no one would have to die. But since you decided to kill my master’s soldiers, I will have to send you to the underworld to join them. Tsk, it will be a little messy for my master, but if I handle it correctly he should not be too troubled.”

Derek stared at the man, a slight shiver running down his spine. Something felt strange, but he stood firm, “It is too soon to say that, I could still kill you and make it out of here.”

The man laughed, as if hearing the precocious ramblings of a child, “No, I am afraid it’s already over. The venom on this dagger is deadly enough to kill a Wyvern, known for their poisons. You have moments to live at best now that I have already wounded you with it.”

The room began to grow dark and Derek felt his hands loosening their grip on his weapon. It was becoming hard to stay standing so he took a knee to try to stay up. The man smiled sinisterly, as he approached, ready to finish the deed.

Growing alarmed as he lost control of his body, Derek attempted to cast another spell, but his grip on his magic seemed to slip away from him, even his Aegis had long ago gone dark. Summoning the last bit of control he had, Derek gripped his weapon once more and attempted to lunge forward.

As he approached his foe, the man smiled at him with disdain before lazily slashing out with his dagger. Derek could tell it was aimed for his throat. It was then that Derek was batted aside as a new combatant entered the room. As the two men fought, Derek’s world went dark for the second time in two days.

Having sensed something strange in the nearby waiting room, Xavier had left his own to investigate. As he approached he heard fighting and saw the flash of an area of effect spell coming from within the room. He delayed no further, drawing his rapier and dagger from his storage ring. Rushing into the room, he saw his underclassman stumbling towards an assassin with a poisoned blade.

With a yell, Xavier knocked the boy aside and stormed at the assassin, blades a whirl of death. The assassin attempted to stop his assault, but when a user of petty tricks is faced with overwhelming power there can only be one result. With a flurry of attacks, the rapier scored cuts in several places on the man’s body while the dagger kept his opponent’s own blade away from him. The man panicked as his guard broke entirely open. It was then that Xavier’s rapier pierced through his chest in a well practiced thrust.

From start to finish, Xavier’s attack had only been twenty to thirty seconds, but this man had over a dozen cuts on him. Such was the speed and ferocity of the assault. Kneeling before his opponent, Xavier drew his dagger across the man’s throat to ensure that he would commit no further mischief. Turning, he found his underclassman in dire straits in front of him. He quickly placed his weapons within his ring and lifted the younger man up, running through several halls to the infirmary. He hoped he would not be late.