“So, what numbers did we get?” Edward asked, holding up his slip of paper for everyone in the S-Class to see, his own ‘58’ visible for his classmates.

Despite being lower on the rankings right now, no one doubted that Edward was still strong enough to take the third rank once more from Vince, and he was still the leader of the class even with his loss.

“Fifty three is mine.” Leah said softly, knowing that her number was really close to Edward’s despite being in a different quadrant from the fourth ranked student… if she won a fight or two, she’d end up partnering with Edward regardless.

“I have eleven, so I’m in the first quadrant.” Jade informed with a raised eyebrow at her number, shuffling slightly in place when she noticed that no one else seemed to perk up at the number.

It was a subtle indication that none of her classmates were close enough in number to partner up with her early into this event.

“Seventy one is my number.” Liza said softly, the strongest student of their year was also in the third quadrant along with Edward, only she was on the other end of said quadrant.

“Seventy three i-is m-mine.” Tony said, frowning at his own stutter but acknowledging that he’d be partnering up with Liza after just one fight, a good thing as both of them were very fast and powerful, capable of working together.

“And I’m seventy nine!” Vince said with a wide smile, Liza and Tony smiling at Vince’s enthusiasm, knowing he’d need to win a fight or two before he could be partners with them unfortunately.

“So, we have Jade in quadrant one, Leah in quadrant two, Edward, Vince, Liza and Tony in quadrant three, and I’m alone in quadrant four.” Kazuya said with an awkward smile, showing his own number, ‘106’ the second highest available number.

Most of the students had already gotten their own numbers and divided into their classes, and the roster for the tournament was being projected above the arena for everyone to see…

Most of the S-Class blanched upon seeing Kazuya’s name right at the bottom of the fourth quadrant.

The same fourth quadrant that was filled with almost half of the B and D classes, as well as a fifth of the A-Class students. Heck, there were only two C-Class students in that quadrant.

Kazuya just wryly smiled, noting that many team-ups would be occurring after his bout against one of the A-Class students, there was no doubt he’d be facing at least one team of two or more students in this tournament.

“Meh, I’ll win regardless.” Kazuya smirked, though his classmates noted how awkwardly he was smirking and that he seemed to be sweating nervously while holding onto his bow.

Of course, he was to fight with his bow during this tournament, as he had been neglecting his training with his third weapon, something his parents had complained about.

That wasn’t to say he wasn’t training with the bow… it was just that Kazuya hadn’t been having many fights with the weapon, against his classmates, it was impossible to win unless he used his spear or katana, using his bow would make him lose easily.

Vince was a major help, being very skilled in the use of a bow despite his dislike of the weapon, he had taken to giving Kazuya pointers, and Kazuya was hoping to test it out here…

“Hey, if you think something bad is going to happen, rather use the Spear, don’t hinder yourself to the point you get expelled.” Edward pointed out, patting Kazuya on the back, making the thinner Sage rock forward before stabilizing himself and nodding.

Liza just glared at Edward, giving him the universal ‘I’m watching you’ sign using two fingers.

Edward chuckled, stepping back while his hands rose defensively, leaving the other S-Class students confused as to the interaction.

It was an inside joke between Edward and Liza though, no need to surprise the other members of the class with the knowledge of Edward and his minor attraction to the male gender.

Really, it was minor, and if Edward wasn’t engaged he probably would have already asked out one of the girls in his year, maybe even June from the A-Class…

But his fiancée was terrifying so Edward would remain celibate.

“Jade, you should get ready to fight. Maybe get some practice in with Lumiere.” Kazuya pointed out, looking down to the arena, where the first four fights had already ended with their group having zoned out, chatting to each other about upcoming bouts.

Due to the nature of the roster, the only thing shown about their enemies were their class, not their name or ranking. Of course, after their first match, it was kind of obvious who you’d be fighting in the second round, but still, the names were obscured.

The first four fights were A versus C, A versus B, and A versus C, a repeat of last year’s situation where three A Class students appeared in the first three fights for some reason.

Someone would assume the teachers were rigging the ballots, though that assumption would be false, it truly was random.

And besides, that B-Class student managed to defeat his A-Class opponent, meaning that a change in classes would happen… Kazuya wondered if that B-Class student was one of the A-Class students from the year before that got defeated by a B-Class student, as it would explain why some students don’t quite match their Class when it came to strength.

The fourth and fifth match, which was ending now, was B versus D and A versus D, a sadly obvious outcome of the B and A-Class students winning, even if the D-Class members all gave good fights.

Jonathan had mentioned to the S-Class that the D-Class of their year was one of the strongest D-Classes they’ve ever had… they were still D-Class, obviously, but the point was there, their impact on the D-Class was a good one.

“I feel sorry for Jade’s opponent, he’s only a C-Class student…” Vince said, his eyes full of mourning for her opponent, while the rest of his face showed no such hint of sadness as he ate a steak or two.

Ah, the treatment of the S-Class students was luxurious, getting waiters and velvet pillows for their seating area, by now the other classes just looked at them with envy for a moment or two before moving on.

Emotions, contrary to popular belief, were finite, and their envy and jealousy had long since vanished for begrudging acceptance.

The battle between Jade, wielding her sabre, and her opponent who apparently did not have an Armament or Clad, began…

And ended in a really predictable fashion, even if the C-Class student surprised Jade with a bolt of Lightning in the beginning of the fight, such a weak attack would not end the fight against Jade, she was quick to close the gap after redirecting the Lightning, holding her sabre to the throat of her opponent.

“Well, it was to be expected.” No one was surprised, and Edward reminded his classmates of this fact as Jade left the arena.

“Now we wait…” it was a depressing thing to the S-Class students, but the majority of them were fighting in the last half of the round, the next one of their number to fight was Leah in the twenty seventh match…

Luckily it wasn’t actually the twenty seventh, as there were cases where students of the same Class were matched up, meaning that they didn’t even come down to fight, the roster shown above the arena showing that the two would team up for their next battle.

By the time Leah stood to enter the arena with her Storm Wand at the ready, named by Liza of course, sixteen matches had already gone by with only two lower Class students beating ones from a higher Class, one B-Class student defeating an A-Class student, and one C-Class student defeating a B-Class student.

“So far it seems that only some of the B-Class students and most of the A-Class students have an Armament or Clad… we should look out for that.” Kazuya warned, leaning back in his chair and yawning, closing his eyes even as Liza vanished from her seat, reappearing by his side, resting her own head against his shoulder.

“I’m taking a nap, wake me up when it’s my turn to fight.” Kazuya said, resting, and no one told him off for it as they understood that he had confidence in their victories.

Jade truly did want to complain, only to have her complaint die in her throat when Liza glared at her for trying to wake Kazuya after he closed his eyes.

“Winner, Leah Marx of the S-Class!” looking down to the stadium, the S-Class realized that their lowest ranked classmate had won easily, her opponent being a C-Class student much like Jade’s was.

“They just have no luck.” That was all Vince could say with a shrug, looking on the roster to check who else the S-Class would be facing…

Kazuya would be facing an A-Class student during his match.

Vince would be facing a B-Class student.

Liza and Tony would both be facing C-Class students…

And Edward was facing a D-Class student.

Vince looked to Edward, giving a silent prayer for his opponent to not get seriously injured.

“Well, I’m up!” Edward walked off with a smile to the slaughter of his opponent, his fellow classmates realizing what Vince had and as one they all clapped their hands in respect for the dead.

After Edward’s opponent was excavated from the wall she was buried into, the matches continued, the fights being only marginally interesting to the S-Class up until the match before Tony’s, an A-Class student against a C-Class student…

Normally they’d vaguely pay attention to such a match, as the result was unfortunately obvious, but now the S-Class noticed that the A-Class student happened to be June, the top A-Class student.

“Oh? Tony, you’re probably going to be facing her next.” Edward noted with a raised brow, looking to his boomerang wielding classmate with interest in his reaction to this development.

Tony just nodded, focusing on June as she walked out onto the arena, acknowledging his opponent without any fear or hesitation.

Instead of continuing the conversation, Edward just smiled, watching the fight instead of his classmate, knowing that Tony would be fine.

June, like Tony and Vince, had two weapons in one as her Armament, her rapier and dagger looking to be made entirely out of lacquered wood, yet the S-Class students did not doubt the cutting edge of the Armament.

Rather, given how it looked to be entirely made out of engraved and stylized wood… June could likely control her own Armaments extremely well in comparison to someone like say, Kazuya, whose own Monochrome Spear wouldn’t be nearly as obedient to his will.

June’s opponent seemed to know who she was, and was understandably nervous, a feeling June did not share as she nodded sedately to her opponent.

Once the match started, June didn’t waste any time, slashing with her rapier, growths appearing on the blade before shooting off towards her opponent.

The Fire Sage from the C-Class seemed to have the Element advantage as he swung his sword, a stream of Fire exiting the blade and burning some of those strange things June had fired at him.

Some got past the C-Class student’s attention though, landing on the floor and escaping his notice, Vince, Leah and Edward looking at those growths, no, those seeds and sighed, knowing that the fight would be over unless that student noticed them.

He hadn’t, too focused on the ones about to hit him, as he ran towards June, leaping forward and bringing down his axe with all his force, Kazuya could admit that it would work, it was a simple plan, and as long as it hit the enemy would definitely stagger unless they were abnormal like the Tyrant or Edward.

If it hit of course… but June wouldn’t just let any stray attack hit her without reprisal, sliding backwards while raising her dagger, the burst of Fire from the axe impact flaring off just in front of her face as she stabbed the ground.

June said something, inaudible over the distance, and the seeds left behind in the ground burst into life, growing vines with thorns and attacking the C-Class student, biting into his legs and back without mercy as a stake of what might be an oak tree shot out of the ground where her dagger was planted.

The oak tree grew diagonally, hitting the student in the chest and pushing him flying out of the arena in a particularly violent action that left some of the S-Class students wincing.

“Ouch… forgot she’s not known for mercy.” Vince said awkwardly while Tony left for the arena, his Dark Bolts appearing in his hands with a slight flexing of his power.

“Back soon.” That was all Tony had to say as he left for the arena floor, and his words were prophetic when his C-Class enemy appeared in front of Tony.

Once the fight began, Tony ended it in a very abrupt manner.

The fight began with Tony throwing out one of his Dark Bolts, the boomerang bouncing off of the enemy’s spear, and then throwing the other.

The first Dark Bolt, instead of bouncing away and onto the floor, went into the air and spun abruptly in place, the C-Class student unable to see the Dark Bolt remaining in place while he blocked the second attack.

The second Dark Bolt, upon being deflected, shot back towards Tony instead of falling to the ground, Tony flicking his wrist, causing the Dark Bolt to spin in front of him.

The C-Class student worried immediately, realizing that something was not quite right, but it was too late as Tony punched through his own Dark Bolt, his hand vanishing into the swirling portal and reappearing above his enemy, his fist forcing his enemy face first into the ground with a scream of pain.

The force of the blow actually caused the C-Class student to bounce off of the floor, giving Tony ample time to grab the Dark Bolt in front of him, stopping its rotation, and throw it at the C-Class student, forcing him flying out of the arena.

The fight was done, with three throws and one punch to the skull.

“Well, that was to be expected.” When it came to explosive power, no one in the class could defeat Tony, for a brief moment he’d be capable of overpowering Edward, Kazuya or even Liza.

This was why everyone agreed with Jade’s comment, waiting for Tony to come back to the arena while Liza reluctantly got away from Kazuya due to her fight starting.

Like June, and Tony, Liza’s opponent was a C-Class student, a sad day for that group in general…

To the S-Class student’s surprise, her opponent was actually Kevin, the previous rank one of the D-Class before he moved into the C-Class during the ICT in the previous year.

“Ah… you’re the rank one, right?” Kevin asked, already knowing he was going to lose, Liza nodding while holding Nirvana in her hands.

“And you?” Liza’s question was understood by Kevin with a bit of thought as he chuckled.

“I’m rank eight in my class right now. I was hoping to use this tourney to try and swap to the B-Class, but I doubt that’s happening… I surrender!” Kevin called out, walking back out of the arena, leaving Liza pouting slightly.

She had actually wanted to fight, having found Kevin to be an interesting student… much weaker than Liza of course, but he would have definitely have been stronger than one would think.

Liza vanished from the arena, reappearing next to Kazuya, snuggling into his side while he slept, leaving the other members of the S-Class blinking at the sight.

“You know, I completely forgot you could do that… what the heck is that ability anyway?” Edward asked, seriously confused as he could see Liza even when she enhanced her own speed by speeding up her own time, but now he couldn’t see anything.

“Time Walk. Teleportation using Time. Can’t be used in fight.” Liza explained, and it raised a few more questions… it did explain how she always appeared near Kazuya so suddenly, but how such an ability worked was still confusing.

“Ignore it Ed, it is Liza after all. I’m up next!” Vince said, looking to the arena and noticing that the two fights had ended, the two C-Class students losing against their two A-Class opponents.

Again, the C-Class really was unlucky this year. Out of the thirteen matches in the third quarter, ten of those fights were with C-Class students.

And their opponents were mostly B, A, and S-Class students, with only two D-Class students fighting the C-Class students in this quarter. Heck, one of the D-Class students won, though the other lost.

Kazuya was slowly woken up by Liza so that he could see Vince’s fight, he was the only fighter in the fourth quarter which was starting soon, so he’d need to see his opponents.

When Vince stood, facing his B-Class student, his two guns in hand, his opponent seemed ready to laugh at Vince for his choice of weaponry, despite having been around for Vince’s masterful battles last year…

“Vince is going to hurt that girl…” yes, the girl dared to laugh at Vince’s choice in weaponry, the Russian giving a predatory smile as his weaponry, the twin pistols named Komorebi, were prepared.

The name was actually Japanese, with Vince having asked around if there was a word for ‘light that shines through the leaves of trees’ and Kazuya’s father delivered.

It was appropriate despite how the name didn’t truly match the user.

Once the fight started, Kazuya was a bit surprised that the girl who seemingly looked down on Vince raised a wall of Darkness to defend against any shots that could be fired by Vince, condensing her energy into a pitch black spear while she hid behind the wall.

“Oh? Despite her actions… she’s taking Vince very seriously.” Kazuya said, watching as Vince fired two seeds to the sides of the shield of Darkness, the shields immediately bursting into spears of bamboo aiming at where the girl would be hiding.

The girl had seemingly prepared for this, twirling her spear while stepping backwards, cutting through the bamboo and getting distance from the attack.

“What’s her name?” Kazuya asked, genuinely confused on how he did not know the name of someone fighting so well.

“Uh, Sherry, she’s someone who used to be in the A-Class until last year from what I heard, she was actually highly ranked, top five at least, before a surprise defeat against a B-Class student last year swapped their ranks.” Jade explained, her odd habit of needing to know everything really helping out here.

“Why?” Liza asked Kazuya, her red eyes looking dull as they stared at the side of his head while Kazuya sighed, knowing what direction Liza was taking her thoughts.

“She’s good, surprisingly so. I’d say she could give June and her two followers a run for their money.” Kazuya admitted, and apparently Sherry used to be a top five member of their year.

Granted, the S-Class wasn’t included there, but the thought was valid.

“She is. She won’t be defeating Vince, but she’s fighting on a level comparable to those who wish to displace us.” Jade said with a touch to her glasses, watching as Vince’s nervous smirk appeared, spinning his pistols to blast at the wall of Darkness, chunks vanishing with each shot.

Sherry used the time she had to stab her own wall, whatever was left of it being absorbed to her spear, a ball of Darkness wrapped around the spear head as she rushed towards Vince.

Vince wasn’t about to just let Sherry approach, rapidly firing at the ground in front of him in a row leading towards her, every shot turning into a large thorny bramble to try and prevent her approach.

Using the orb of Darkness swirling around her spear, Sherry thrust forward, the Darkness suddenly moving to a point, gaining a drill like shape as she thrust forward, drilling through the brambles and hitting Vince…

Well, Vince blocked with his pistols while covering them in Light, so he wasn’t injured other than needing to step back, leaving the B-Class student to click her tongue in annoyance when Vince suddenly stepped forward instead of backwards.

“Vince is hoping to end the fight.” Edward noted, recognizing the move as something that helped Vince defeat Edward, it was difficult to miss from such a close distance, and this move was even more effective against a spear user than it would be against a fist fighter.

Kazuya was a bit intrigued, not by Vince’s technique, but how Sherry would respond, spear users were taught predominantly to maintain the correct distance from their opponent, too far and they couldn’t hit the opponent, too close and their attacks would be ineffective.

Vince was in a unique situation where his long range skills were abnormal, and his damage potential over a range was the greatest in the school even including the third years.

That last bit took a while to figure out.

Sherry stumbled in shock at Vince rushing forward instead of backwards, and the Kazuya sighed, knowing the fight was over.

Sherry could not react in time to Vince’s attacks, trying to distance herself from Vince only for Vince to step back as well, widening the distance to the point he felt comfortable, blasting her with concussive bullets of Light until she flew out of the arena.

“She had more than a few options available, but either did not have the reflexes or experience to pick any of them.” Kazuya said with a sigh even as Sherry punched the ground in anger outside the ring, digging slightly into the ground before she stood with a sigh, walking away from the arena while Vince moved in the opposite direction.

“What options?” Leah asked Kazuya, having been interested by a supposed B-Class student actually managing to combat Vince even for a bit… Sherry was the first student to actually manage to land a hit on one of the S-Class students so far.

“Retreat even further, rush headlong into Vince who would likely be physically weaker than her, shift her grip on the spear so that the spearhead is closer to her body, using the shaft of the spear itself to try and properly block the shots, using Darkness to cover herself and block more of the damage, even abandoning the spear entirely and attacking would have been more effective than what Sherry just did.” Kazuya listed quickly, leaving his classmates, including Vince who just returned from the arena, looking at him blankly.

“What? I have to think of all these things when I fight… because I could easily be in the situation of any Sage I see.” Kazuya’s words reminded the group again that Kazuya was indeed their weapon master…

But Kazuya was also the most versatile fighter in the entire school. With all the elements at his disposal, his skill with swords, spears, and even more weapons which he dabbled in, other than Spells, Kazuya could substitute himself into any fight he had ever seen, and learn from both sides of a conflict.

“I will admit that she is good though. Sherry’s use of Darkness to defend and then attack was awesome to see, and if she had even more control she could have done much more damage.” Edward added after the moment of silence, drawing nods from Kazuya and Tony, the only two in the class who used Darkness.

Vince, sitting there, had his arms crossed as he leaned forward to watch a few fights, noticing vaguely as Jade placed a softly glowing hand on his shoulder.

“You were more injured than you made it seem, weren’t you?” Jade asked, noticing that Vince wasn’t actually just sitting with his arms crossed but instead cradling them, and possibly covering his stomach.

“Ah. You noticed?” Vince asked with a raised eyebrow, feeling the Light soothing his bruised stomach and possibly fractured arms.

“Idiot. You could have requested healing instead of just trying to play macho.” Jade said with a soft frown, knowing that she wouldn’t be able to heal Vince any more than she had.

His arms would still hurt a bit, but his stomach was at least bruise free, Vince would be able to continue fighting.

“…I guess it is kind of dumb to let pride keep me from performing to my best.” Vince admitted while the next few fights were being performed in the arena.

“I had forgotten Jade. I had forgotten until that fight just now.” Vince spoke after watching a few fights with Jade in silence, just letting their classmates talk around them.

Jade glanced at Vince, surprised at seeing that predatory smirk he wore whenever he was in a challenging situation.

“I forgot that, in spite of all the power we possess as S-Class students… we’re in the same realm of strength as every single student down there. One good hit from even a D-Class student could take any of us out.” Vince reminded, and Jade frowned… she frowned because she couldn’t deny it.

The S-Class had an illusion of invincibility caused by successive victories without a single loss to anyone outside of their group, but…

As stated, it was just an illusion of strength.

Yes, the S-Class, regardless of year, was typically strong compared to their peers… but that was a result of skill.

Rarely had an S-Class student even allowed one of their peers to even score a blow against them that was not being guarded against, and rarer still was a blow which broke through a block.

Vince’s experience, combined with his words, reminded Jade of the truth.

Just as easily as the S-Class could take out their enemies, their enemies could do the same to the S-Class if they had the same level of skill.

Outliers existed certainly, The Tyrant Bobby Dore would not be defeated by just skill, and it was doubtful that anyone had more variety of skill than Kazuya, but as a rule of thumb, losses and victories could happen in equal measure.

“In that case… I’d like to make a prediction… that girl will probably be rank one or two of the A-Class before the School-Wide Tourney.” Jade pointed out, and Vince nodded, he could see it happening.

“Sherry…” Vince whispered, looking at the match in the arena between a B-Class student and a D-Class student as it ended, the B-Class student predictably winning.

Looking at the tournament roster, Kazuya stood, his bow in hand as he nodded to his classmates, walking down to the arena for his match, as the two ‘matches’ before his own were two team-ups.

Oddly enough, in their first year, first match teaming up could not happen, but this year it could…

Kazuya had to wonder if there was some greater reason behind the change.

It was a wonder how Kazuya would feel if he knew that the Principal just forgot to rig the lottery like that.

Standing in front of his opponent, a student from the A-Class, Kazuya breathed a slow sigh, feeling tension seeping into, and out of his form with each breath, bit by bit.

“Huh? Weren’t you a katana user last year?” The girl asked while Kazuya looked at her, finally settling his mind, Darkness coiling up his arm and covering his pointer and middle finger, resting them on the bowstring.

“I am a weapon master. For now, this is what I use.” Kazuya said, the girl frowning as she held out her arm, a large shield forming after her arm started to look like it was being turned into stone… it really was an abnormally large shield too, it was the size of a tower shield but round and curved slightly.

“Good luck punching through my shield with a weapon that isn’t your main.” The girl said with a glare, the fight starting.

Kazuya said nothing, looking at the girl with a raised eyebrow before his expression went neutral, remembering the advice his father gave him when he started training with the spear.

“Fight as you want to.” Kazuya whispered under his breath, and pulled back the bow string as far as he could, the string creaking dangerously while his pointer and middle finger were covered in Darkness to keep the string from digging into his skin.

The A-Class girl was not idle, slamming her shield in front of her as a wall of rock formed behind her, slowly moving forward, and Kazuya realized that his opponent was a tank of sorts…

Maybe her defence was on par with Edward’s?

Regardless, Kazuya would not be stopped from defeating his opponent just because she acted like a turtle hiding in its shell.

“Hah…” Kazuya sighed, yet the bow string did not even falter a bit, a vortex of force gathering at his fingers, the arrow of Fire forming easily as he let it fly.

The impact was powerful, the grunt of exertion from the girl of the A-Class was sign enough, but not even a scratch appeared on her shield as she shouted.

“Give it up! I’m just going to bulldoze you off of this arena!” The girl shouted, the arena gaining a large moving wall, her shield being a part of the wall as she cordoned off Kazuya, even he couldn’t manage to climb that wall…

He could dig through it easily enough with Earth, but, Kazuya didn’t feel like doing that.

“Try.” Kazuya said, another arrow already flying, and another, and another.

“Are you an idiot?” the shield using A-Class student screamed as arrow after arrow impacted her shield, barely damaging her at all.

“Maybe… but I figured something out.” Kazuya said, his neutral expression shifting towards a smirk that wouldn’t look out of place compared to Vince’s when the latter was feeling confident.

Shifting his legs to widen his stance, lowing his waist slightly, Kazuya twisted the bow, it was now perpendicular to the ground, and then Kazuya used all of his fingers bar his thumb to pull the string of the bow backwards, three arrows forming between his fingers.

“If these weren’t elemental arrows…” Vince said with a slight bit of annoyance, knowing that shooting like that was actually very much impossible…

But these were arrows made out of an Element, they obeyed the will of the user to an extent, making them easier to use than a plain arrow.

Not only were three arrows created, all three of the arrows were made out of Metal, looking more like stakes than arrows as they burst forward, a small burst of displaced air making a boom as all the arrows…

Struck the wall, not the shield?

“I love these fights… so much chance to experiment.” Kazuya said with a smirk, another three arrows flying, outlining the shield once more…

Only for another set of three to hit, and another, and another, faster and faster the arrows flew, until the girl began to nervously sweat, realizing that the sound of the impacts were beginning to sound like heavy rain from a storm.

“Now, crumble.” Instead of firing again, Kazuya made a claw-hand, pulling his arm as if unveiling a curtain, and all the stakes suddenly sunk further into the wall, and unseen by the watchers, the stakes began to search for each other, digging through the wall, ruining its structural integrity until with a loud boom, it all crumbled.

The girl hiding behind her shield felt fear in her heart. She wasn’t exactly the strongest in the A-Class, but after her defeat against one of those S-Class monsters, she had trained and trained…

Sweat, blood and tears went into training to up the amount of her Element she could control at once, determined to never be so easily defeated again…

And yet, her giant wall came crumbling down and her enemy probably wasn’t even winded. She couldn’t see through her own shield, but she could feel him standing through her sense of the Earth…

And then he suddenly vanished, and her entire world shook, the wall behind her pressing painfully into her back…

No, that was incorrect.

She could feel it, the shoe against her shield, acting as the hammer, driving her into the wall as if she was but a nail to be knocked down.

The foot pressed off her shield, and she looked upwards, the gap between her shield and the wall behind her letting her see the sun…

She also saw the sun vanish, her S-Class opponent aiming an arrow of Lightning right at her head… and she knew she lost.

“Ooh… he looks yummy.” Far away from arena but watching the fight with a wooden pair of binoculars was a grinning Sage, their smile oddly wide and ear to ear, their teeth resembling shark teeth rather than human teeth.

“No eating that one. The boss is interested in him.” The red haired man standing next to the grinning Rogue Sage warned.

“Oh poo… maybe I could get a nibble Blake?” Blake, a Rogue Sage working for the Apostle, looked at his charge with a disturbed frown.

“No. Come on, the boss only said I needed to show you our target, and leave. Now come on Beel.” With a sigh, the young cannibal stood, wiping the drool off of their chin.

“Alright, alright… though, why do we need to go bother with that dumb cult?” the cannibal, Beel, asked with a frown, stepping through the portal… and into rain, and an alley where someone was getting beaten up.

“Huh? F-freaks!” the person doing the beating up screamed while paling, his victim already unconscious on the floor with swollen eyes.

“The Apostle is concerned about competition, that’s why.” Blake said, stepping through his portal and shutting it off behind him, and when he turned to look at Beel he was met with a splash of blood on his cheek.

“…That’s still disgusting.” Blake admitted, taking out a handkerchief out of his jacket pocket, dabbing at the blood on his cheek, looking at Beel and their work.

“Munch, munch… You’re right, he tastes like shit.” That was not what Blake was talking about, but he supposed he’d take what he could get in regards to the cannibal.

Beel stood two metres away from the now topless corpse of what was clearly a normal human. And by topless, the man’s entire top half, torso, arms, head, was gone, leaving blood to pool on the alley floor.

“Come on Blake, show me some tasty treats… or else.” Blake nodded nervously, looking at the terrifying smile of Beel, their teeth stained with blood, before the smile changed to look more humane, the blood being licked away to reveal pearly whites.

Blake stared at the humming cannibal with fear in his heart… he was supposed to be a logical criminal…

So why was he surrounded by beasts, cultists and cannibals? Not to mention that Beel was only a four Star Sage… and yet, Beel was so terrifying…