When the battle began, I immediately charged at the person directly in front of me. As the goal is to knock them out of the ring, rather than kill them, I opted to leave my knife sheathed and instead aimed for a straight punch to the jaw. The boy was barely able to raise his sword before my fist slammed into it, pushing him a good two metres back.

I love my combat boost.

To his credit, he stayed standing despite the knockback. However, seeing as he was still stunned, I decided to focus on more immediate threats. Stepping back to avoid a thrown blade, I grabbed the chain trailing behind it and used the momentum to drag the girl holding the chain towards me. Grabbing her arm to hold her in place, I punched her in the chin, knocking her out instantly. I then spun around and tossed her as hard as I could towards the edge of the ring. I took no time to see the results, and turned around just in time to dodge a blade coming down at me from above. I gave the offender a gut punch as I moved past, then swept the legs of a spearman who was busy stabbing another combatant. As he fell, I saw a fireball coming up from behind him and moved to avoid it. As I charged at the mage who fired it, I couldn't help but grin.

Now this is a battle!

The fight raged on for quite some time. I focused primarily on dodging and non-lethal takedowns. It was surprising to see so many people hacking each other apart for an exam. Only a few were actually killing people, but I decided I would rather not have blood on my hands at all for a simple test. Besides, I figure it could help my evaluation if I'm lucky. (It could also drag it down, but let's not think about that.)

There were a couple of powerhouses that kept taking out swathes of participants at a time. A blue haired boy whose attacks sent people flying out of the arena by the dozens while things were still dense, and a green haired boy who seemed to leave a bloody mess every time he swung.

Peculiarly, there was this one purple-haired girl that was sitting behind a barrier. She was reading a book while attacks bounced off the translucent dome surrounding her. Curious, I approached her barrier, wound up, and punched.

And fell straight through.

Instead of the barrier shattering, or even just a thud and some hand pain, I simply phased through the barrier in question. Not expecting that at all, my momentum carried me until I fell into the barrier entirely, landing on top of the reading girl. The girl squawked in surprise, and quickly moved as far as she could in the small barrier.

"H- Ho- How di- How did you get in here?!"

Rising and rubbing my sore spots, I responded, "I just kind of... fell in?"

"B-B-But that's impossible! Tha-That can't just... there's no... HOW?!"

"I mean, even if you ask me... Hasn't anyone gotten through your barrier before?"

The girl got up, adjusted her glasses (she was wearing glasses by the way) and replied.

"O-Of course! It's rare, but it happens. B-But this is different! It'd be one thing if you just b-broke it, but how did it just... ignore you?! That's weird!"

Yep. Figured as much.

At this point I realized I didn't really have to shout to talk to her. The sounds of the arena were almost completely muted. I took a quick glance around and saw that people were trying much harder to break through the barrier, yelling all sorts of things. I couldn't hear them, but I assume they weren't very kind.

Still, it's quite impressive that this barrier can take all these attacks without a scratch. And the sound dampening makes it comfortable to boot.

"This is a pretty good barrier."

"Eh? A-Ah, thank you..."

The girl blushed and looked at the ground, then froze and looked back up at me in indignation.

"D-Don't change the su-subject! How did you d-do that?!"

"You stutter a lot. Is it... Are you shy?"

"No! I-It's just a speech tic that shows up when I meet new people."

"....So shy then?"

"Fuck off and go die."

"..." Maybe not?

After that, we spoke for a few minutes in her barrier. Her name turned out to be Hekiria Jinnshou. A bit off theme, but I mentioned Japan to her and she had no noticeable reaction so probably not an issue. Hopefully.

Looking outside, I realized the participants had thinned to about thirteen or so. The two powerhouses from earlier were duking it out, and the rest had given up on the barrier and focused on taking each other out. There was one guy sitting beside the barrier with his back turned, watching the fights, but our little corner of the arena was peaceful. The guy did look kind of familiar though...

Wait a minute!

Sticking my head out of the barrier, I called out to him.

"Hey, didn't we meet earlier?"

The boy leapt to his feet and placed his hand on his sword immediately. Once he saw me though, he relaxed.

"Ah, you're the girl I met in the plaza, right?"

"Fancy meeting you here. I guess we wound up in the same group."

The boy rubbed the back of his neck as he chuckled nervously. 

"Funny coincidence huh? Well, my name's Deondre. How about you?"

"Aer. Nice to met you. Oh! Hold on a second, I'll be right back."

Slipping back into the barrier, I turned to Hekiria, who looked equal parts shocked and confused.

"Hey, is it okay if he comes in too?"

"H-Huh?! You... You can't just go inviting people into my barrier! Besides, I told you, people can't normally just walk through my barrier. You'd never get him in here!"

I grinned.

"Soooo, if I could get him in here, would you be fine with it?"

She scoffed and crossed her arms.

"Sure! Fine! It won't happen though."

My grin widened, and I stuck my head back outside the barrier. Deondre stood there with his head tilted in confusion. I beckoned him with my hand and whispered, "Hey, come over here for a second."

He narrowed his eyes at me a bit, then responded, "Sure?"

Once he got close enough, I grabbed his arm and dragged him inside the barrier. Unprepared, he stumbled, and fell face first unto the ground, right in front of an absolutely flabbergasted Hekiria.

"Wha-... You... That... but... HOW?!"

"Dunno. Just had a feeling that might work." Mostly based on some shows in my previous life, but they don't need to know that.

Groggily getting up, Deondre shook his head and asked, "What was that?"

Meanwhile, Hekiria seemed to be on the verge of a mental breakdown over two people walking through her barrier in less than an hour. Deondre tried to stick his hand out of the barrier, but was met with solid resistance. Beginning to panic, he shouted, "Hey! I can't get out!"

Hearing this, Hekiria let out a sigh of relief.

"It's only the one anomaly...."

Ignoring her, I tried to calm Deondre down.

"It's alright Deondre, it's not like we're attacking you or anything. I just want us to talk for a bit."

Pausing in his frantic banging on the magical wall, he turned to me and said, "Huh?"

Gesturing between the two, I said, "Deondre, Hekiria. Hekiria, Deondre."

They stared at each other for a bit, before Deondre extended his hand and said, "N-Nice to meet you, I guess?"

Averting her eyes, Hekiria shook his hand and responded, "A pleasure. I-I suppose."

And with that awkward beginning, we got to know each other as we waited for the battle to conclude.