Mira's PoV:

*Collapse*

"AAAND it's finally over!! The three-hour-long match between Oily, the Gel of martial arts, and Akai, the Oni of drunken arts, has finally concluded!!" - Mikazuchi

I don't believe it...

"It was a ferocious fight! No one would think that Akai would turn into such a berserker after she started to drink! Is that the "drunken fist" technique?! It's amazing!" - Mikazuchi

You can't call that something as simple as "amazing". It was incredible! And in a bad meaning! How do you destroy 90% of an arena made out of solid crystal only with just your fists and kicks?! I didn't see her activate any proper skills. Don't tell me this is the result of pure martial arts?

"This girl's a real monster..." - Mira

"However! HOWEVER!! In the end, the winner of the third match in the Thunder Tournament is...OILY!! Congratulate him, suckers!!" - Mikazuchi

That's only because the Oni-girl downed herself after she drank her 20th gourd with alcohol! How did she keep all that liquid inside her!? Did she sweat the stuff out the second she gulped down the booze? And that bamboo case she was taking the gourds out from, was that some Storage-type skill? 

I could only facepalm as I saw Akai being carried away by the medics. Her face's completely red from all the alcohol. On the other side of the area, I could see Oily the Gel being carried away in the same fashion. He's been fighting for so long that he's shriveled into a dry husk. And I bet he's likely not faring any better mentally. Akai was damn scary after she started to drink in the middle of the battle. She had the appearance of a man-eating Oni...

"I guess that's her true identity." - Mira

"Hey, we're not going to fight on that sorry thing?" - Shiro

The vampire had finally gotten the courage to show her face again. Seeing Akai in her "drunken mode" made her go pale and faint, probably from having experienced the Oni's wrath personally. 

But she's right. The arena's a sorry mess. Forget fighting on it, standing without falling off or having the stage crumble away underneath you would take a miracle to do. 

"Ah, there will be a 10 minutes break as we replace the new arena. Everyone is free to buy snacks or stretch their legs in the meanwhile." - Mikazuchi

10 minutes to fix this!? No, did she say "replace"? She did, didn't she! My head's starting to hurt. And here I thought Garami's actions were crazy.

It wasn't much time, but I accompanied Shiro and Sara as they said they wanted something easy to eat before their match to soothe their nerves. The news that they could be facing equal-ranked opponents must have calmed them down somewhat. I'm not giving them chances to escape though.

"Hey! Where are all the cheese dogs!?" - Shiro

"Sorry, ma'am. All cheese products have disappeared." - Shopkeeper

"ALL of them!?" - Shiro

"Yes. All the stand owners were complaining about that." - Shopkeeper

...whoops.

After the fruitless cheese hunt, the two settled for some cotton candy before returning... They did fix the arena. I could see the giant golem from my match leaving, so it must have been his handiwork. 

"AAAAAAAAND, we're back! Welcome, everyone, to the 4th match of the first annual Thunder Tournament!!" - Mikazuchi

It's only the first, so it's not an annual event. Nor am I going to let that happen. 

"Get up on the stage." - Mira

"Yeah, yeah. What a spoilsport..." - Shiro

It's because you have that attitude that I'm being so forceful! And that Sara won't move unless she's close to being pushed around. 

"In the loser's corner, we have the failed vamp! The eternal red numbers! The misfit of the night! The wet dreams of casino owners! The worst customer of the red-light district! The Migrant who brought nothing good from her world with her! Here's...SHIRO CHIGETSU !!" - Mikazuchi

"Are you picking a fight with me!?" - Shiro

You're late to the show.

"And here's her partner for today's public execution! There's close to no info on her, nothing at all! Because the girl's motto is "do nothing and nothing at all"!! The lazy artist of the nekomata scrolls! The useless deadbeat! The soulless cat-girl! The useless vamp's plaything! Here's SAAAARAAAA!!" - Mikazuchi

Another horrible introduction, yet the nekomata in question doesn't budge. ...or, maybe a little. She struck Shiro's side with her elbow. 

"Why!?" - Shiro

"...you're the plaything." - Sara

"Now, wait just a sec, missy-!" - Shiro

Save some of that fight to the opponents, girls. Or else...

"HIIIII!!" - Shiro

"...shivers..." - Sara

"Ehm, it seems that the two are ready for a fight, so let's bring out their opponents!" - Mikazuchi

After the Spirit Lord said that, a huge..., no, a gigantic, golden lion entered the stage. And I'm serious when I say "gigantic"! It may have a greater total body mass than the golem I fought! 

"From the winner's corner, with a weight of so much that I don't wanna say it, the lightning furball, the king of all beasts, the incarnation of power, the Lion of Babylon, give a warm applause for Shishirou, the Spark Regulus!!" - Mikazuchi

Not good. It's an honest-to-goodness C-ranker. And one of the higher beings, equal to dragons. And to make matters worse, ANOTHER Lightning-based race. 

I took a peek at the other two...and wished I didn't. They've both got their mouths open with something that looks like their souls slipping out. 

"And here is his majesty's partner! He may be foul, he may be unkempt, yet his strength shows no bounds! Wielding the cursed katana, he has traveled all over this continent of Luxuria in his search for a stronger opponent! He's the wild, the furious, the cutting, the slicing, the dicing, he's the Werewolf, Henry Gardenolf! The Champion of Chaos!!" - Mikazuchi

"Huh!?" - Mira

Chaos!? That's the panda-girl Zaria met when she looked for Lily. That "Ren Hoyoutei"-girl. 

A man stepped into the ring. He was a werewolf, no matter how you look at him. A brown-furred one. His face looks sort of familiar, but I can't remember from where. 

The so-called Champion is dressed in leather armor that looks a little better than that of a newbie, but...that katana at his hip. It's a monster. Not a literal one, but it's emitting some sort of aura all on its own. 

The sword is sheeted in a jade-colored sheet, the grip looks like it's made from black wood and golden leather, while the guard seems to be made from dark jade. The sword seems to be sealed, seeing the chains and the tags attached to it, but none of that can hide the fact that the katana is obvious Legend-tier, or maybe even greater than that. 

The impressive craftsmanship and the aforementioned aura make it look disproportional with the rest of the werewolf's equipment. Just where did he get his filthy paws on it. Ahh, I want to steal it. I want to cut with it...

"Everyone, don't blink! 'Cause this match's not gonna last a second!!" - Henry Gardenolf

Now I want to cut that guy down.

"You look like you would cut that mutt down." - Artemis

"Oh, welcome back. How's Akai?" - Mira

I greeted Artemis who had returned from the sick bay. She doesn't look like she's got any broken bones, but her face is pale from exhaustion. Classic mana-loss symptoms. She won't be useful for a fight for some hours.

"I overheard some nasty sounds from her room. It's better not to ask more about it." - Artemis

So she's also useless for some while.

"FIGHT!!" - Mikazuchi

Oops. The match started already. And the first to move is...the giant lion! It's pouncing at the duo with paws enveloped in lightning! 

"Time to run!" shouted Shiro as she picked up Sara and ran with more speed than I imagined her to have...

"She's faster than you expected, right?" - Artemis

"Mostly because her general image makes her look so pathetic...geh!" - Mira

My reaction just now is because I saw something bad happening. The lion's sliding across the arena toward our waiting area! Both of us started to run, but Artemis looked like she would collapse, so I threw her over my shoulder and carried her away. 

It turned out to be unneeded, as a wall of metal blocked the lion from falling off the stage.

"Hey, be more careful, you big pussycat!" - Henry Gardenolf

So he's the guy responsible for the metal wall. But this is strange. Ren Hoyoutei's attributes should have been Light, Darkness, and Gunpowder. While I'm not sure what metallic attribute was used to make that wall, it's not among those three. Then what is the connection between the two "Champions of Chaos"?

The lion growled back at the werewolf before it tried to stand up. It seems to have some difficulties in doing so. And what's that on its paws? Ink and...blood?

"Damn! The "Slippery Slope" plan failed!" - Shiro

Huh? Was that those two's handiwork? They're trickier than I gave them credit for! 

"[Acid Cleaning]!" - Henry Gardenolf

The werewolf used a skill that created a large amount of yellow-green water. The blood and ink on the stage were flushed away without damaging the stage or the lion, despite its name. If that's an Acid-type skill, then this guy has enough experience with it to perfectly control its damage output. Meaning...that's two attributes far from what Ren Hoyoutei has. Who is this guy?

With the stage back to being clean and slippery-free, the lion started to run after Shiro and Sara. Hey, you guys! Run! Why're you just standing there!? Crap, they got their backs right 

Ahh, it's too late. The lion slammed its front leg at the two idiots..., and then the lion started to slide across the stage again. Wait, it does what!?

"You idiot!" shouted the werewolf as he was gathering mana in his hands, but it was too late.

"O-, ou-, OUT OF BOUNDS!!?" - Mikazuchi

I dumped Artemis and ran around to get a look at this mystery. The lion had one of its forelegs on the ground below the stage, perfectly classifying it as a ring-out event. And I could see that the front paw has blood on it again, but this time there was no ink to be seen.

More importantly, I can't see Shiro or Sara either. They disappeared completely. That little judge dog is using some magitechs to detect if a player has left the stage, but since he's not rung the bell yet, those two must still be there somewhere.

"...who painted an arrow on my stage!" - Mikazuchi

The Spirit Lord's shout got my attention to the part of the stage where Shiro and Sara had disappeared from. A black arrow pointing toward the edge of the stage had been painted there before anyone had noticed. 

That makes me remember something Ciara told me before. That there existed a series of Ink-type skills she couldn't master. It could make people and objects be forcefully moved around, make them burn, create whirlwinds that blow them away, and much more. That's the "Ink Trap" series, where the painted symbols would create realistic effects if someone touched them afterward. Don't tell me that Sara-girl has mastered them-!

"Over there!" - Henry Gardenolf

The werewolf slashed with his sword unsheeted and revealed...Shiro and Sara. 

"Crap! He noticed!" - Shiro

"Now I see. Illusion-type moves." - Mira

They must have hidden at some point after reaching the edge of the stage, then one of them, most likely Sara with her Paranormal Writer class, created the Ink Trap, then they moved away from that spot and had the lion slide on the blood off the stage. 

"That was good thinking on their part. They managed to get rid of the biggest and most impossible target right away." - Mira

The lion left the stage with its head lowered in shame. I'm almost feeling sorry for him. 

"Tch! I knew that big cat would be useless. Not that I needed a partner from the start! [Steel Arrows]!" - Henry Gardenolf

The werewolf started his retaliation by shooting arrows made from the same material as the wall from before. So he uses the Steel attribute. It's harder and stronger than the other metallic-type attributes. The downside is that Steel is the hardest metallic attribute to manipulate, so you can only use it for straightforward moves like the arrows or the wall that the werewolf has been/is using.

The duo is doing some fancy dance moves to dodge the arrows...aren't there way too many arrows from a single use of that skill? ...oops. One of the arrows got caught in the nekomata's kimono and...

"Out! Contestant Sara is out!! Dragged off the stage by contestant Henry's arrows of solid steel!!" - Mikazuchi

Damn! Now it's a one-on-one fight! Please last a little longer, Shiro. Give that one more time to do her job...

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Kigal-Note/Monsters/Beast: Spark Regulus