Estouls and his opponents stared at each other. The vampire, Vicky, curled her hands into fists while Kaeru pointed a finger gun at Estouls. It felt like they stared at each other for a long time, but I imagine that was only my perception.

“Bang.” The shot that would start this fight went off.

A lightning bolt immediately shot out of the tips of Kaeru’s fingers. The hallway was instantly lit up. It all happened in a flash, far too fast for me to see, but the room seemed to heat up as the jolt arced at Estouls.

The electricity suddenly disappeared as fast as it was discharged. The view in the hallway cleared, and Estouls stood with the shield blocking his chest. The gem on the center of it glowed a brilliant blue light before fading back to a dull clear color.

Estouls wasted no time. He charged forward in a motion that almost made it look like he slid across the floor. His lance went directly for Kaeru’s chest, but she suddenly became a figure of electricity. Her electrical form broke a hole in her chest, which allowed the spear to pass through harmlessly. The figure then deformed into an amorphous blob which quickly slid behind Estouls.

Kaeru’s foot was the first thing to come out of the blob as it reformed into her body. She delivered a hard kick into Estouls’ back. He stumbled forward a few steps before he regained his balance.

Unfortunately, his opponents didn’t give him an excellent opportunity to react afterward. Vicky was immediately in front of Estouls while he regained his balance. She delivered a punch to his stomach that caused him to stumble back, only to get kicked again by Kaeru.

Estouls looked like he was stumbling forward, maybe he was, but he took the opportunity to lunge at Vicky with the shield in front of him. The lunge was weak, most likely because he hadn’t had sound footing, but Vicky was now cautious of the shield.

She stepped back just enough so that the shield would fall short of hitting her. Estouls, however, was prepared. With a change of footing, he suddenly switched his lunge into a strike with his lance.

Vicky was struck in the shoulder and reeled back from the blow. She took several steps away while holding her hand over the location that had been hit.

“Arg!” she yelled something, but it didn’t sound like words.

Finally, she stopped and removed her hand to look at her shoulder. There were the typical kinds of scuffs that you might expect to see in a fight, but the shoulder was in perfect shape otherwise. She sighed sadly as Estouls took a defensive stance facing the vampire.

Kaeru took the opportunity to point her finger gun at Estouls while his back was turned.

“Estou-” I tried to shout out, but I was too slow.

“Bang.”

Once again, the hallway was lit up. In a flash, the scene reappeared in front of me. Estouls was now slightly leaning to the side while Vicky had been knocked onto her back.

“You need to watch where you point that,” he said before spinning around and charging at Kaeru. She changed back into electricity and deformed. His lance struck only the air.

The ball of electricity flew around Estouls and quickly found its way next to Vicky. Kaeru’s form reappeared as she kneeled next to the fallen waifu.

“Vicky, I’m sorry! Are you okay?”

“You know that wasn’t enough to take me down, don’t take your eyes off the fight!”

As if on cue, Estouls came charging in to strike at Kaeru with his lance. Vicky quickly pushed her back so that the lance harmlessly passed through the air. While Kaeru’s back hit the floor, Vicky promptly grabbed onto the lance without moving from the floor. Estouls tried to pull it back to him, but it only shook slightly from his pull.

Vicky smirked and yanked the lance from Estouls’ grip. Before he could do anything, the vampire jumped up off the ground. I’m not even sure how she did it, but in a flash, she was standing back up and giving Estouls a kick to the chest. He flew back and landed in an upright sitting position on the ground.

As Estouls stood back up, Vicky threw his lance like a javelin. It flew directly at his head, and he had to fall over slightly to the side to avoid it. The lance smashed into the wall at the end of the hallway. Instead of impaling into the wall, the lance harmlessly bounced off it while making a loud clang sound. It was a testament to how well-reinforced the arena was.

Estouls quickly looked back to the lance before turning back to his opponents. Kaeru had just stood up and now joined Vicky in staring down Estouls. The pink-haired knight bit his lower lip while he held his shield up. It was about 8 meters from the end of the hallway to Estouls. If he tried to turn around and make a run for the lance, his two opponents would quickly close the distance and strike his back.

“Tai-kun, take the lady and make a run for it,” Estouls said out loud. His opponents began to chuckle slightly. They probably thought there was no way I could escape.

They were likely right. Alone I might be able to run away with Estouls covering my escape, but there was no way I could do it carrying Marigold. Perhaps I should consider working out more….

Nevertheless, we were in a tough spot. Estouls’ opponents didn’t give him any time to say anything more. Kaeru began a barrage of shots at the pink-haired knight. They bounced off his shield while he held his ground. Vicky did nothing to Estouls but instead watched me. Her eyes resembled a predator watching for their prey to make a move.

I looked around the area. Marigold was still unconscious, Estouls’ lance was down the hall, there was a fire alarm a little further past Marigold, and further past that was an elevator door.

I had options.

I could pull the fire alarm. That would alert the whole building and cause a mass evacuation. Ultimately, I don’t think it would do any good. There was no guarantee these waifus would give up just because of the fire alarm. Even if they did, there were no other witnesses, and they could play it off as us being instigators. I don’t think anything would come from trying that.

Next was the elevator. I might be able to get to it, but would it open in time? Since it was behind the duo, they might be hesitant to turn away from Estouls. I couldn’t be sure, however. Even more than just the speed of the door, I was sure I would not be able to carry Marigold to it. I also couldn’t be sure that Kaeru wouldn’t just be able to get into the elevator in her electrical form.

That just left Estouls’ lance. It was behind him, so if I made a break for it, he could probably block the attackers. I should be able to close the distance quickly if I sprinted as well. There was a risk that Estouls could still lose this fight, but now was not the time to doubt his ability.

I stood up off the ground and began my sprint. I took off in the direction away from Marigold headed to the lance.

“Tai-kun!” Estouls shouted. He may have tried to shout more, but an increasing number of electric shots drowned him out.

Vicky was right behind me, or at least I figured she was. I couldn’t see her, but it felt like there was an immense pressure closing in on me. A large boom and screech of an animal suddenly echoed from behind me. Vicky made a surprising shout. As I sprinted toward the lance, I heard an odd chorus that consisted of a loud bird, bangs, and electrical crackles coming from behind.

I suppose Estouls summoned his griffin to block Vicky. Now wasn’t the time to stop and look, but I couldn’t even imagine how that giant beast fit in this hallway.

I bent down and scooped up Estouls’ lance from the ground. It, of course, was heavy, and I struggled to lift it off the ground.

I turned to the battle that had been unfolding behind me.

Estouls’ griffin was now taking up most of the hallway. The giant beast was turned away from me, but I could tell it was swatting at something in front of it. Estouls must have been somewhere in front of the beast with his opponents as I could hear the sounds of the battle.

“Estouls!” I shouted. I started to run forward with the lance in tow.

Estouls griffin disappeared, and he did several backward cartwheels to reach me. As he flipped along the ground, he gracefully avoided the electric discharges from Kaeru and punches from Vicky.

When he got close to me, he pushed himself into the air with a significant thrust of his arms. Estouls grabbed the lance from my hands while flying upward and upside down. His feet reached the ceiling first, and he pushed off the ceiling down at an angle aimed at the duo. As he fell, he twisted in the air. He slammed the lance’s back end into the floor and used it to propel himself at the opposing waifus. Estouls flew through the air like he was doing a flying kick.

He held out his lance so that it extended on either side of him, presumably so it would smack both opponents if he flew between them.

Kaeru turned into a ball of electricity, and Vicky simply ducked so that Estouls harmlessly passed by the both of them.

He stabbed his lance into the ground to halt his momentum and spun around to view his opponents.

“Hey, look, a fight!” someone yelled out from behind me. I turned to see who it was.

A crowd was starting to form from random people around the arena. The shouts in the distance indicated that the match was still on. However, with all the noise we were making, I’m sure some people were drawn our way.

I turned back to the dueling opponents. Kaeru suddenly zipped past Estouls and lifted the unconscious Marigold.

Vicky pulled out what looked like a walkie-talkie.

“There are too many people here; get us out.”

She had only just finished her sentence when their bodies suddenly seemed to shatter like glass. The shards dissolved into the air before they could hit the ground. The waifus and Marigold were gone. Though, I felt like I had seen something similar to how they disappeared not too long ago.

Estouls and I quickly headed to the elevator before the crowd could begin to ask us questions. We both let out a heavy sigh when the door finally shut.

“Well, they got away, Tai-kun.”

“Fortunately, they did.”

“Didn’t they take that lady in the uniform? Aren’t you concerned?”

“We can report it to some officials. They can take care of it.”

The elevator beeped, and the door slid open.

Who should step in? Kioshi, Marigold’s partner.

He looked at us and held up his notebook.

I heard a lot of noise, and Marigold is not responding. Do you two know anything?

“She was kidnapped by some waifus…” I filled in Kioshi on the details, and he nodded along.

Do you have any idea where they took her? Kioshi asked

“No idea,” I answered as the elevator beeped again. The door slid open for the floor Estouls, and I would want to get out on.

“They took her to the labyrinth under the arena. They have been hanging out down there,” A voice said from overhead. We looked up to see the ghost waifu floating above our heads.

Estouls screamed and slid behind me.

“A ghost!”

“Since when have you been… look, she’s harmless.”

“You can’t trust a ghost, Tai-kun!”

I ignored the shaking pink-haired knight and turned to the ghost.

“Weren’t you planning to stay hidden?”

“We don’t have time now; they must have kidnapped that lady because she heard something. We need to save her!”

“Kioshi-san can take care of that.”

Indeed, I can handle a couple of troublemakers.

“Don’t you want to help her at all?” the ghost girl asked me.

I did owe Marigold for letting me get away with not having a license on two occasions, but that didn’t mean I had to fight some waifus under the arena.

“I’m sure Kioshi can call as much backup as he needs,” I said while turning to Kioshi.

He held a radio in his hand and stared at it. We watched him stare at the device before he finally held his notebook back up.

Sorry, my oath of silence prevents me from calling backup.

“Why didn’t they give you something that uses text?” I asked.

I’ll go in alone.

“He probably should have someone go with him,” Estouls said from behind me while uneasily watching the ghost waifu.

“Why don’t I call on your radio?” I asked.

You can’t. They made it so only agents with preregistered fingerprints can use it.

I sighed.

“You… uh…” I tried to address the ghost but only now realized I had not gotten her name before.

“Kura the Treasure Hunter,” the ghost answered with a smile as she realized what I was thinking.

“Kura, can you accompany Kioshi?”

“I can, but I am no use in a physical confrontation.”

I knew she would say that. It was pointless to ask, but I still did anyway. I rubbed my forehead for a moment before moving my hand through my hair.

I did not want to get involved in all of this, but it seemed like Marigold might be in trouble. And, if Kura was willing to show herself, she must think this is important. Why she felt it was important was something I did not know.

“Fine, Estouls and I can go with Kioshi. We’ll call everyone to help if we have to.”

Sounds like a plan. Kioshi pressed on the basement button for the elevator. The doors slid shut, and it began to slide down.

“Wait, Tai-kun! Are we going to trap ourselves herewith that ghost!”

Estouls fearfully cowered as the elevator slid down.