Caeden looked across campus from their ready room in the Academy Arena. It was the official arena the school used for its biggest, most important fights. They tucked up against the border of the campus grounds near one of the entrances, so the public could easily access it. There were lines of people streaming across campus from other entrances, all heading for this massive arena. They would be watching him fight.

"It feels dumb, considering we fight in life and death battles all the time, but I'm kinda nervous." He admitted, turning to look around the room. His friends were in the small ready room as well, along with division leader Jared, the nervous, hefty man from Bronze Seat. If he expected sympathy, he shouldn't have bothered.

"Nahh, this'll be fun. We get to kick their snooty butts and show off while we do it." Erik was all smiles, as relaxed as ever.

"Same. Fun, butt-kicking, hoo-rah." Cat was actually sprawled out on a bench set up against one wall, staring at the ceiling.

Caeden looked at Lily, but she was staring at her clenched hands resting in her lap. He didn't think she even heard him. Ever since this special ranking day was announced, Lily had grown increasingly distant. She seemed lost in her own world.

"I-I agree. I-It is a bit much." Jared smiled tremulously at Caeden before looking past him out the arena window. Seeing the endless line of audience members headed their way, he gulped. Which was unsurprising. Despite being a powerful and competent fighter in his own right, Jared was perpetually timid and nervous.

Before this rank day, the Forged had their own little competition between each of the division commanders to see who would fill the fifth slot. No one tried to argue against any of the group taking part, not even Cat. All the division commanders had sparred against each of them, and they had all lost. Despite the knowledge gap closing, Caeden and his friends were still on another level compared to everyone else in the Forged. Jared had won against all the others, though they were each close fights.

"We'll be fine." Cat waved a hand nonchalantly without looking toward either of them. "We know what's up. Some of the fights are going to hit hard, but we've got good plans. It'll be fine."

The setup for this ranking day was a series of matches nested in a round-robin format. Each faction would end up facing the others eventually. The matches themselves were stacked elimination battles. Each side would send up one fighter, and whoever won would have to face the next shrouded sent by the other side until they lost themselves. Whoever lost all five first was the losing faction.

The match order was Metal Knights vs Twilight Guard, Metal vs Ether Soldiers, Metal vs Solar Radiance, and finally Metal vs the Forged. After that, it would be Twilight vs Ether, Twilight vs Solar, and so on and so forth until every faction had faced each other. It also left the Forged fighting Solar Radiance in the very last round.

In preparation, Caeden and Lily had used the Forged to gather information on the strongest members of each faction to predict which ones would be a part of this event. They didn't have any guarantees outside of a couple that were obvious shoo-ins to participate. The faction leaders from each group would have to take part. Not doing so would leave their faction open to losing face.

The turn order actually placed the Forged in an advantageous position. They would see every other faction's fighters before they had to fight themselves. It was possible that some factions would be able to make it through all their rounds without revealing every member of their roster, but it was unlikely. Everyone involved was extremely skilled. It was far more realistic to have a fighter win their battle only to immediately lose to their next opponent, who would come into the battle fresh and ready against someone who had already been through a hard fight.

Even better, Caeden and Lily hoped to get a look at fighting styles and mnemonics in greater detail. They had some basic information other Forged had managed to gather, but it was likely most of those fighting today would have one or more trump cards held in reserve that they didn't use. They might be forced to do so under these circumstances.

A loud ringing resounded through the room. It was followed by a familiar voice. "Fighting will begin in five minutes. The first match will be the Metal Knights vs the Twilight Guard. Please take your seats and secure any refreshments. Fighting will begin in five minutes." The voice was that of their General Education instructor, Elune Forna. Caeden realized halfway through the announcement that it was probably being broadcast not just to them but to the stands and all the islanders sitting down to watch a bunch of young adults fight death battles.

Moving away from the outward-facing window, Caeden went to the one looking down on the arena. They had placed each faction in their own private box. Presumably, the information deprivation was meant to be a part of the challenge for this ranking day. "C'mon, Lil. We need to plan this out." He sat down on the provided bench, waiting for the fighting to begin.

{}

"It was every single time. I'm pretty sure we can bet on it at this point." Caeden argued. He and Lily were planning their own matches against the Metal Knights, which were about to begin. Watching all their previous matches had been enlightening, and they had learned as much as they had hoped.

Lily shook her head. "I don't know… For a fifth time? Why would he?" She still felt distant to him, like her mind was elsewhere.

"Because he has more pride than sense. I mean, come on, Lily." Caeden felt like throwing his hands up in frustration. "Why would he change?"

She bit her lip, indecision written across her face.

"I've got it. Don't you worry." Erik butted in. Caeden could feel his friend's attention move to them ever since their conversation moved to his part of their plan.

"I don't know…Maybe I should just take care of him. I totally could." Lily shook her head.

Caeden wasn't sure how to handle that. It was true. Lily was second rank in the entire school for a reason. But… "Why? Erik can handle it. If he can't, he'll step down. We shouldn't be sending you out first."

"I just feel like we're putting him in unnecessary danger." Lily frowned.

Caeden and Erik looked at each other, both of their mouths hanging open. What? "Uh, we're still talking about Erik, our Erik, right?"

Lily turned to look at him, still frowning. "Yeah. Why should he have to be in danger? I can handle it."

Caeden was thrown. Lily was a lot of things, but overprotective wasn't one of them. Before he could respond, Erik jumped in.

"Lily, my whole life is unnecessary danger. What are you even talking about? I nearly got hit by flaming bird poop on the way over here. Twice! I don't even know why or how it was on fire! David can't do shit to me."

Lily just frowned harder and shook her head, looking away from them. "Fine, have it your way."

Caeden sighed. He had no idea what was going on with her other than having to be closer to her brother than she had been in months. He might have chalked it up to that, but this wasn't her normal response to his presence. That tended to be equal parts annoyance and homicidal anger. She was acting like they were glass. He'd never seen her like this before, worrying over their safety.

Erik shrugged. "Whatever, I'm going to end this so fast; you won't even have a chance to be worried."

Elune's voice filled the room. "The first fight between the Metal Knights and the Forged will begin in one minute. Fighters, move toward the arena floor."

Caeden watched as Erik left for the arena, only to reappear a minute later, walking out of a tunnel set underneath their current position. From another tunnel, David Mercuria exited. He had been the first fighter from the Metal Knights every round. It was a solid strategy, letting their strongest do as much damage as he could. He had pulled varying results. The Twilight Guard sent out two weaker members to soften him up before one of the three brothers who co-led the faction. Running low on shroud, he had been defeated soundly, and the brothers had worked their way down to the very last man from the Metal Knights before the third brother lost. It was close.

Caeden wasn't sure if David was actually strategizing by going first or if he was just showboating, letting his ego run rampant. He was leaning on the latter because in the last round against the Solar Radiance, Ander had decided to go first as well, and he was definitely running on pure ego.

David and Erik faced each other from opposite sides of the arena. It was a round space 300 feet in diameter. Easily much larger than the standard arena. Another difference was the exposure to the open air. This particular arena wasn't enclosed but instead open to the elements. Erik wouldn't be able to stitch himself to the ceiling as he had done in many previous ranking battles, which was fine. That wasn't the plan.

As the two were squaring up, the crowd was going wild. David had proven his proficiency over the last hour of fighting, but there was plenty of love for Erik mixed in. The Forged were a large faction, much more so than the others. The citizens in the crowd outnumbered the students but seemed to draw inspiration from them since those living at the Academy actually knew who to cheer for and why.

"King Mercury!" Cried out fans of David. Caeden could swear he picked out the title for himself.

"Jester! Jester!" Forged in attendance shouted back. Erik was a popular figure internally among the faction. His constant positivity and humor, as well as his willingness to lend a hand, made him something akin to a mascot for the Forged. His fans were loud and fanatical. He encouraged it all, waving and doing various acrobatic maneuvers interspersed with pratfalls and amateur miming.

Caeden held back a laugh. No one outdid Erik in showboating. He was a born entertainer.

Finally, the match was ready to start. The referee, an actual Adjudicator, appeared in the middle of the ring, pointing silently to each contestant. It was a signal to prepare for combat.

"Our first match between the Metal Knights and the Forged will be David Mercuria, King Mercury!" Elune's voice reverberated across the entire arena, opening up the fight. "His opponent will be Erik the Jester! David is currently ranked fifth in the Academy, while Erik holds ninth place. Their shrouds are Mercury and Stitch, respectively. Neither holds any splinters. AAAAAAAAAAND BEGIN!”

The Adjudicator vanished once again, and the fight was on.

Before the fight even began, Erik had taken a stance, legs shoulder-width apart, one arm tucked up close to his chest and the other held out, facing David. Both hands were clenched into fists. He was turned slightly, so his whole body was in line with his outstretched arm.

With a BOOM of displaced air, Erik flew across the arena, covering the distance in a flash. He slammed his unextended fist right into David's guts before he could even begin to establish his defenses. Another BOOM and David was launched away from Erik, bodily slamming into the wall.

This was all part of the plan Caeden and Lily had established after watching a few of David's initial fights. He was incredibly formidable, with a suite of dangerous attacks and even more impenetrable defenses. However, he was something of a slow starter and would take time to show his truly dangerous attacks. Every fight where his opponent let him get established ended in an overwhelming victory for David. Battles where his attacker rushed in were much more even. Erik was easily the fastest of their group in short bursts, despite Caeden's best efforts. His spring stitching allowed him to produce explosive speed and impressive attacks.

The other reason they sent Erik out was because he was mostly unknown. As much as Erik was acknowledged as powerful internally among the Forged, the same wasn't true for other factions. When they looked for threatening, powerful shrouded among the Forged, they usually looked to Caeden and Lily, maybe the division commanders. Erik and Cat lived in the shadow of Lily's high rank and Caeden's showy fighting style. Plus, his goofy antics didn't exactly inspire fear, despite him currently being ranked ninth.

So when Erik walked out onto that arena floor, David almost certainly thought oh, so they're sending the weak ones in to soften me up. He couldn't have been more wrong, as Erik just proved.

Of course, David still wasn't a pushover. He had infused his body prior to the fight, so even that massive blow from Erik hadn't taken him down. He merely got the wind knocked out of him and a bruised stomach. Staggered and surprised, David immediately tried to form up his defenses. "Barri-augh!"

Erik wasn't going to let that happen. For all his joking, he was dead serious in a fight, and he wasn't going to give David a chance to stop him. He burst forward immediately after his attack blasted the Metal Knight into the wall, following up on his momentum without delay. Just as David tried to get off a mnemonic, Erik's formshifted and physically enhanced fist slammed into his face.

As it did, small strands of Stitch connected Erik's fist to David's face. They twisted together strangely, only to unravel in an instant, producing a loud BANG and slamming Erik's fist back into David's disoriented face. What followed was a rapid cacophony of noise, BANGBANGBANGBANGBANG, as Erik's fist blurred into David's torso and face over and over, beating his way through the man's infusion to knock him senseless.

None of the blows Erik was throwing out now weren't a match for the ones he threw at the beginning of the fight, but they were hefty hits. It wasn't long before Erik let David slump to the ground, having beaten the faction leader unconscious. His face and chest were a mass of rapidly forming bruises, Erik's fists hitting hard even through the man's physical enhancement.

The arena was dead silent. Through all the fights so far today, none have ever begun so explosively, nor ended so abruptly. The audience was stunned.

Erik thrust his fist into the air, and the arena went wild.

"JESTER, JESTER!"

Up in their booth, Caeden smiled, shaking his head. "He's always so dramatic."