The next fight was between Albedon and a group of heavily armored knights from some northern country. It was a bloodbath. Goron and his group made no attempt to draw things out. The knights were under the impression that their armor would protect them from whatever was thrown at them. They found out they were wrong very quickly.

On Goron's team was a woman who had tanned skin and blood-red hair. She was clad in a form-fitting red dress that revealed entirely too much. The darks and reds on her body made the glowing green gem that adorned her bracer stand out so much more. She incinerated her opponent with a torrent of fire that she materialized out of nowhere. His armor was left as a puddle when he appeared on the side of the arena.

His other teammate was a white-haired woman who was tall and curvy. She wore a leaf green dress that reminded me of the third fairy sister. She held two blades in each hand, a black one and a white one, which she wielded with frightening speed and grace. They were clearly magic and shred through her opponent’s armor, which I assumed were also magical. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little excited to be fighting her. She had a similar green gem in the center of her chest attached to her dress.

Goron himself was monstrous. He slowly walked toward his opponent and took a direct hit from the knight's glowing bastard sword. I noticed a darkening around the impact area as the blade stopped in its tracks, dealing no apparent damage. He laughed and grabbed the man by his head, lifting him from the ground and then crushing his skull with one hand.

The match ended, and they walked off the field with a bored expression on their faces as the crowd watched in utter silence. The results were to be expected when doping with Aura, but I would have liked to see a bit more of their skills. Goron shot a glance my way, probably to take in my shocked face. His eyes went wide for a bit and then he shook his head and looked forward again. He had not expected to see my toothy grin.

The next match was more interesting. One side consisted of some sort of imperial country, Ethstasia, verses an island nation, Talai. Everyone was clamoring that the king of the imperial country was participating. Razule, as he was called, was an imposing figure standing over six feet tall and ripped with muscle. He had on no shirt and what looked like blue jean shorts and thick boots. He had a long beard that hung down to his chest that had a white streak down the middle. His weapons were twin over-sized blacksmith hammers.

His team consisted of his daughter, who looked like some sort of field medic, and a man clad in armor that almost made him look like a bat. His daughter, Crystal, seemed timid and apprehensive to fight. She had short blond hair and a silver outfit with a blue-grey cross embroidered on the front. I could see a small dagger on her side, but no other weapons.

The armored man looked hunched over and his gauntlets had large claws coming off of his fingers. Black cloth-covered every inch that was not covered in his gold armor. A crimson cape on his back was split in two to appear as wings. He looked like an assassin if I had to guess. His name was Komori.

The island nation had a creepy looking girl named Megora clad in black robes with little bones all over it. Her skin was pale white and her hair was raven black. She had an odd bent posture and held a large bone scythe.

The second team member was an elderly man named Agni who looked tribal in appearance. He was long and lanky. He had on a tattered green poncho and grey pants with no shoes. He had bones stuck in holes in his ears. He had a staff of wood that came to a point and then curved out like a bird’s beak. It had many different colored feathers attached to it.

The last member was the crown prince, Jegg, who was sporting a robe with metal bracers. He looked like he was in his lower twenties and had messy brown hair. He looked as though he was a martial artist.

Razule was the kind of guy I admired. He was all about bravado. He exuded charisma, even on the battlefield. While he went toe-to-toe with Jegg and the scythe girl, he continued to instruct his daughter with a parental tone. He continued to compliment his opponents on their good points and correct them on their flaws. Jegg must have known the king because even as they fought, he had a gleam of respect in his eye and kept referring to him as ‘Sir’.

The complements only seemed to aggravate the scythe-wielding woman, however. Several times she made an attempt to break away and attack the King’s daughter, but it was made very clear that Razule’s skill meant that Jegg would fall quickly without support. At one point, the bone witch made contact with the King, he complimented her form, and his daughter jumped forward and touched her father’s back. A pale silver light emitted from her hands and a yellow flash covered the King and strengthened his barrier again. So healing magic seemed to work on the charms as well.

The battle between the assassin and the tribal guy was more intense. The old man fired off bullets made of stone in rapid succession. The assassin was much quicker then he looked. He darted around fast enough that I was pretty sure he could keep up with my blinking. The tribal guy began to use magic to shift the field up and down, creating walls and pits that the assassin had to navigate as he attempted to close the distance.

The battle seemed to be at a stalemate until the tribal man decided to change things up and attempted to rotate to attacking the princess. Crystal jumped away from a forming pit and then rolled as stone bullets peppered the ground around her. A few hit her and weakened her barrier a she yelped.

Razule was having none of that. He knocked Jegg into the bone witch and threw one of his hammers with all of his force. It smashed through a stone wall and decimated it. Chunks of rock and dirt flew everywhere. The tribal man tried to build more walls to block the hammer, but it just kept on smashing though. He dodged the hammer at the last minute, but the field around him was in carnage from the dust and dirt flying in the air. Razule flicked his wrist and his hammer reappeared back in his hand. I hit Rox in the arm and grinned.

‘See, that’s what we should have gotten put on your spear!’

She just rolled her eyes and laughed nervously. She seemed a lot more nervous than I was about fighting one of these teams. I felt like my blood was going to boil in anticipation.

The tribal man realized a bit too late that he had lost sight of the assassin. That was always the first rule of fighting assassins; don’t lose sight of any part of them. The bat gut appeared behind him and dug in with his claws. I imagine the attack would have been very bloody if it had actually made contact, but instead, the man burst into yellow light and vanished. Razule chuckled and shrugged.

‘I guess that means that it is time to end this? Good work everybody! I like the effort I saw here today. You can leave this battle with honor.’

The bone witch screamed and charged at him. He swung both of his hammers together and they grew to enormous size, crushing the woman between them with a metallic clang. You couldn’t even see the yellow light in between them. The crowd audibly gasped. He turned to Jegg, who bowed his head in defeat and removed his charm, crushing it in his hands and vanished.

The crowd went wild at the show. I stood up and cheered and shouted, caught up in the thrill of the fight. I looked over to see Clem looking at me, slunk a little in her chair, and with a slight blush on her face. Doey had an annoying smirk on her face.

‘Looks like someone’s fangirling ovah here!’

‘Oh shut up, it was a good fight. It’s easy to get caught up in the energy of it all.’

‘Ah wasn’t talking about you.’

Clem slunk deeper into her chair and turned a darker shade of red. Rox and Doey broke out in a fit of laughter as Clem pouted and I looked around confused. I wonder if she had a thing for Jegg? Definitely not that old guy.

At the last minute, I decided to get a little aggressive. As the winning team walked off of the field, I jumped over the rail to the ground below. It was about a two-story drop, so I had to slow my fall with a few semi-condensed platforms of air. I landed with a little flourish and then stood up and crossed my arms. I was only about ten feet from the Razule’s group.

‘Hi, nice fight by the way.’

The princess looked at me in shock and looked up at the height I had jumped from. I looked up too to see Clem, Rox, and Doey leaning over the edge looking down. Razule let out a hearty laugh.

‘If it isn’t the famous Samantha Rye von Ancelot. Newest princess in the local royal family. Edwin has told me a lot about you.’

It just occurred to me that I had never actually heard the first name of the King. Well, I was assuming Edwin was the King’s name, but it was probably a safe bet.

‘Hopefully, he didn’t reveal too much. I hate it when someone spoils the surprise.’

‘Of course not! He was uncharacteristically tight-lipped about your abilities, but I can tell he has a lot of respect for you, if not admiration. It takes a strong will to come into a family and sweep them off their feet like that. I admire that about a person. Come! This is my daughter Crystal! She is about your age. I hope that after today, you can become great friends.’

Crystal stood shyly behind her father. He pushed her forward and she meekly shook my hand. The assassin stood like a statue, although I had sensed a straining in him earlier when I had jumped. Crystal never made direct eye contact with me.

‘Nice to meet you. Still new to combat?’

‘My girl here is a bit more reserved than her old man. Get’s it from her mother. I’m trying to get her to open her shell a little. Now! I’m sure you didn’t jump down from that height just to meet my beautiful daughter! Or maybe you did, by what I've heard! But I have a feeling you want to say something else.’

‘Mostly, I just wanted to give you a warning.’

His eyebrow raised as a concerned look crossed his face. I noticed the assassin tense up a little bit.

‘A threat? A challenge perhaps?’

‘No, no. A warning about the desert people. I recently dispatched the younger brother of the big man.’

‘I doubt Albedon took that well.’

‘No, they didn’t. But that doesn’t matter much to me. What matters more is the fact that he had transformed into a class three Revenant before I killed him.’

Crystal’s eye shot open in fear. Razule’s eyebrows furrowed in disgust.

‘Surely you jest?! That is not possible by any stretch of the imagination!’

‘I wish. Those green gems that each of them holds. It’s crystalized Aura, the driving power of the Revenant. If that power goes haywire, we will have three class three Revenant or stronger in the center of the city along with the whole world’s ruling body.’

‘Do you have any proof?’

‘On me? No. If you want to talk to the King before our next match, he’ll confirm it. My suggestion would be for you to drop out and leave as fast as you can. I doubt you will, so keep Crystal in the back, and plan an escape route if things go south.’

‘And what do you plan to do if things…go south?’

‘What I do best. Crush them. I can’t promise there will be no collateral damage though. And there is someone behind this as well, so hopefully, I can find out who that is in the process.’

‘We will keep that in mind. Hopefully, it will not come to that.’

‘Indeed. Well, see you in the finals. Try not to get in my way.’

We grinned evilly at each other for a minute and then he let out a hearty laugh and slapped a huge hand on my shoulder.

‘Alright, girl. We’ll be careful.’

I turned and walked away, back in the direction of our waiting room. As I walked, I heard the dark gravelly voice of the assassin.

‘Do you think we can trust her, Sir?’

‘Unfortunately yes, Komori. Unfortunately, yes.’