Meh Thod looked at the two fighters in the ring. Nicole seemed shaken and panicked, while Midas just looked different together. His boss hadn’t interceded, meaning nothing occurring was against the rules.

“Today, we have Midas of Team Etravonia facing off against Nicole of Team Norn! Will the golden child best be the Dark Flame Princess? Find out now.”

“I’m sorry, Nicole, I have an unfair advantage. But I won’t be able to go easy on you.” Midas(Marigold) said as they summoned two golden rods and entered a martial arts stance. One rod was by their right ear, while the other was next to their right ribs.

“My aren’t you a cocky one. Where do you get off saying things like that?” Nicole immediately summoned her three-headed dog and brought out her flame serpent. The serpent coiled around her left arm like a whip.

“Ready? Fight!” Meh Thod yelled, signifying the start of the match.

Nicole swung her left arm in an arc, letting out a string of small fireballs that would detonate before they landed due to their instability.

Marigold moved into the attack, swinging his rods in a manner meant to deflect and redirect the incoming projectiles. Usually, something like that wouldn’t have worked, but due to the rods being made mostly from light mana, he could knock each incoming bolt aside as he closed the distance into whip range.

The three-headed dog engaged Marigold, attempting to bite with all three heads.

Marigold evaded two strikes by moving to the side, then slammed both rods into the monster’s rightmost head. Leaving behind two runic symbols showing where each rod is connected.

Nicole, the opportunist, waited for him to commit to the counter before whipping out her serpent and causing its teeth to sink into the man’s ribcage.

“Raaa!” Marigold let out a roar, and suddenly, his golden rods began to shine brighter as Her body doubled in size and became more muscular. Her clothes and weapons growing with her.

He now stood at the same height as the Cerberus on its hind legs, which worked well to close the power gap.

The Cerberus moved to bite him again but missed the larger target altogether as an afterimage took the blow.

Marigold appeared to attack the Cerberus at its side again. Leaving behind further symbols as she struck and stuck again.

Nicole sent the fire snake forward, but only with more power this time.

The snake passed through Marigold’s glowing body into the Cerberus, causing it to writhe in agony.

Marigold, now in front of Nicole, began a series of quick and undodgeable strikes, each landing and causing burns that added up before sending the fire princess flying ten feet back.

A black sword appeared in her right hand as the dog vanished. The snake turned from a whip into a shield as she began to block and parry the blows.

Each strike that hit the shield caused Marigold to take some damage from the coiled serpent’s flames. Which forced her on the defensive as their form began to flicker. Despite her heritage, she wasn’t innately durable; she needed time to cure the poison in her system, and holding that form was a massive mana drain. Now that she had done so, however, she had no reason to keep up this method of attack.

Marigold brought both sticks down onto Nicole’s head in an attempt to get her to commit to a block.

When Nicole blocked, both rods seemed to continue to press down as her opponent retreated and shrunk in size. Both of her palms let out a strange golden light.

The rods disappeared, and Nicole attempted to close the distance.

Rods of light shot from Marigold’s hands and impacted Nicole in her right shoulder and left leg. Chains shot from the rods into the ground, anchoring her to her position in the arena.

Nicole summoned a torrent of purple flames and let them loose at her opponent with a twisted expression as she poured most of her remaining mana into the attack.

Marigold countered by summoning a large shield of gold, which she used to absorb the purple flames and convert them into her own mana. The shield returned to Marigold and vanished as though it reentered her body.

“Did you just absorb my attack?” Nicole looked dumbfounded for a brief moment.

“That’s the short of it.” Marigold then released a torrent of golden flames that sent Nicole flying through the arena’s wards, defeated.

Marigold had put all of the mana she had left on top of the power Nicole had thrown at her into that attack. She was drained and moments away from falling to her knees. But she wasn’t done yet. Worse of all, she wouldn’t be able to use that shield against her next opponent as it required rest to repair. She would have been using it if it had been a once-a-day spell.

“I Midas! Supposed son of the King of Etravonia, denounce me as a potential heir to the throne! I do not deserve to fill such a role! Nor do I have the right! After this tournament I will be joining Cecil’s Harem to atone!” Midas nodded to the spectators, who seemed confused by the outburst. Then, out of nowhere, a string of claps echoed from the clouds as her statement was slowly accepted.

She then, of course, exited the stage. Her next fight would be much harder than this one, and she needed to regain as much mana as she could.

Sinbad squinted as his teammate returned but didn’t bother bringing anything up here or now. Such a change in personality was odd. If he was being mentally manipulated, then he’d be sure to make sure the aggressor was rightfully punished. If Midas hadn’t been manipulated, then Sinbad’s claim for the throne just increased, and he wasn’t sure he wanted that.

Midas was apologizing to his coordinator, which seemingly raised her defenses and caused her to retreat. His attempt to gain forgiveness creeped her out exponentially.

The rest of the matches played out as usual until the fight between Ander and Damian was slated to begin.

Damian had arrived ready for a good fight. Ander entered the ring wearing a pair of sunglasses and using his spear as a cane.

“Today we have!”

“I surrender! Now, let me get some sleep. Gods and chickens, it all caught up to me at once. Sorry, Damian, but I seem to have overdone my training. Let’s do this another time.” Ander seemed more than a few inches taller, not that his current hunched-over state revealed much as he leaned heavily onto his anchor. His core was chaotic as his body seemed to be a bit disjointed. He had no complaints as he had lost once and didn’t intend to cheat his way to victory this way, sick or otherwise. Damian won fair and square the first time. And if Damian didn’t remember that fight and is unaware that he revealed a card, then oh well.

Damian looked dejected as Ander walked off the arena toward the resting room. As his consciousness faded, he fell flat on the ground right at the exit and began snoring.

“Damian wins by surrender! We will take a bit of a break to give our contestants time for lunch and any healing they need to be done immediately. Then we will begin the third round!”

No one clapped, as this was a rather anticlimactic encounter. Given the showing, the audience seemed to expect.

Cecil scowled from the stands as he observed Ander. The sunglasses fell off his face and revealed dark rings that were very out of place on his face. A spirit master of Ander’s level could stay awake for a week and be unaffected by exhaustion so long as they hadn’t expended all their mana or energy.

Damian shook his head and exited the stage. Dragging his would-be opponent through the doorway to at least get him out of the public eye.

There were some laughs and quite a few boos as those who bet money on Ander winning felt betrayed by the way they lost their coin.

“What’s really going on? I get the feeling that I’m missing some information that I should have.” Cecil said from their waiting room.

“Same here. Why does Midas look so different, and why is he acting all humble. It’s weird.” Max added.

“No, this is who she really is. A creature born from the goddess herself. One who had been taken from their adoptive parents and thrust into a country in which they didn’t originate. From there various spells and curses were used to bind their main affinity along with their mind.”

“She does kinda look like her mother. So Imala’s already married? Wait. She?” Bella tilted her head.

“It seems she got me rather fairly. Yup she. Although I don’t think it matters with her kind. As they seem to be able to alter their physical being relatively easily.”

“Wait. He…er she went from being the son of a king to the daughter of Imala? How is that fair?” Max seemed irritated.

“I mean. I’m 90% sure Rion’s going to be irritated when he gets back. His mother is what one would call a devout disbeliever of the goddess. And he’s encountered her in two ways, it just so happened that the core she gave him increased his ability to rip away at necromantic energy. Demons require that energy to stay in this world, curses create it and steadily generate more over time.” Kyrie kept the reason why his baseline took the ability to himself.

“Aren’t you Rion?” Hel asked confused.

“Don’t think too hard. I think he’s starting to lose it.” Minah whispered, patting her friend on the shoulder.

Brion entered the booth carrying a passed-out Ander. “He muttered something about a training room in the forest and needing his noodles in a cup.”

Cecil raised an eyebrow but didn’t say anything as he began to eye Kyrie more suspiciously.

“Ah right. My dungeon is located there. When these wrap up we have some training to do. Or well Ander and I do. Although in his condition he should actually get some rest. Which sucks as I needed to pick his brain. “Kyra added as Kyrie took too long to respond.

“You want to spend the remainder of the day training. That isn’t like you at all.” Tiffany raised an eyebrow.

“That was a statement. And of course. Who wouldn’t?”

“Isn’t that dangerous with the tournament already going on?” Cecil adjusted his glasses and looked at Rion.

“One, I’m a healer. Two, I know how Milo fights, you know, the monster Cecil’s fighting tomorrow. Three, so long as we sleep there, we can save time.” Kyrie said matter of factly.

“When could you have fought Milo?” Cecil scowled.

“The fight took a lot out of me. But I learned a bit about his power. I think the term is radiation, or antimatter. It’s confusing and you have a better grasp of this sciency stuff..”

“Who won?”

“A draw, well technically Ander, then a certain healer, who found the fight annoying. I won’t go into detail as we will have a visitor in three… two… one...”

The door opened, and the headmaster of the team, Drisil, entered. “Why is it so quiet here?”

“No, reason. Just giving me some peace and quiet. Do you know where one can find a good chili dog around here?” Ander did a few stretches as he leveled his head toward the headmaster and tilted his head innocently.

“Is that so? I’m surprised that you’d ever willingly surrender before even trying.”

“How does he know what a chili dog is?” Bella asked Cecil, who ignored the question as they were not alone.

“You know me less than you know.” Ander turned his head and adjusted his sunglasses, revealing not just bags but bloodshot eyes and a strange white mark in the center of his pupils shaped like lightning.

“If you’re fit enough to talk, you could probably stand.” Brion probed.

Cecil scowled as he took Bella’s hand and left the room, his expression serious.

“Hel, did they overhear anything important?” Rion asked.

“No, the ward kept them from snooping properly. I did manage to plant a bug on him however.”

“Great. Keep an eye open for anyone tailing you. From here on, we’ll split; those with fights left shall take care of those. After that, we’ll reconvene at the supposed location and review logistics. My head is pounding a bit.”

“Understood.” The group nodded and got to work. They were aware of listening ears and were OK with some groups overhearing this part. So long as they weren’t the enemy or pretending to be someone they weren’t.