To the six players who stood in the arena, they saw themselves in an expanding forest. The people in the arena audience and the other Knights saw something else.
The arena was blanketed in a thick aura of blue light. It was dark, and it formed a dome around it, making it impossible to see what was going on if not for the screen. The object that had selected the six players now showed six different screens, each following one of the participants.
Davi stood with his arms folded, focused completely on Olivia's screen. She stood next to Olem and Miranda and was explaining her plan, one that he and everyone else weren't allowed to hear, as the screen only recorded visuals, not sound.
As he was watching it, a weight settled on the top of his head as the real Ho, the one with wings, landed. The plump little elf stood on top of Davi and placed his hands on his hips. "Phoenix Flight! Care to make a few statements on who you think will win this match?" Davi remained motionless, not reacting to the Licht-Fulk.
Laerton shot the tiny creature a dirty look. "What? You want us to say how we think we'll lose?"
Ho sheepishly smiled. "Well, you guys do lose every year, but don't forget this year there are two points." He turned back to the screen, looking at it as a timer counted down for when the match would fully begin. "The winning guild is determined by whichever guild wins the most amount of games, but every player can earn points themselves in an effort to woo the princess. All you have to do is stand out and show off what you can do."
"If that's the case, then that section has already been won." Ken snorted, placing her arm on Davi's and leaning on him. "Davi's bound to win."
"Oh?" Ho looked down toward Ken. "And why is that?"
"If you've seen Davi fight, you'd understand. He has a good habit of doing the impossible and making you wonder how he came up with the plan that he did."
Davi shook his head, and Ho had to grip his hair so he wasn't flung off. "No. That's wrong." Davi stated bluntly.
"Oh come on!" Falco jumped into the conversation now. "Don't tell me this is one of those things where you refuse to accept how skilled and epic you are."
"No, I know I'm freaking awesome." Davi gave a thumbs up. "That said, when it comes to doing the impossible, that isn't me. That would be Olivia. If you're wanting a player that will show off everything she can do, even when she doesn't have any chance of winning, then it would be her. She might lose. In fact, she often does, but what makes her so scary is that it doesn't matter how strong you are or even if you did manage to beat her. You have this moment of realization that she has figured it out. This mage you wrote off as useless because of how tired she became so quickly, or how weak her strikes were, or how useless her type of magic was, somehow managed to see straight through you and find your weakness. It's like she's a snake, and you're her prey, being wrapped around slowly but surely, crushed to death. Olivia can be beaten, but you're going to struggle and give it everything you have to win. That's just the kind of fighter she is."
"Dang, you going to keep glazing her?"
"Fuck you."
Back in the arena, the buzzer rang as the game started. Cinder's group marched toward the tunnels with a confident stroll, cutting through the forest.
"We'll split the Ho's up three ways," Cinder called out. "Five each, and we'll each also take a Super Ho."
The little Ho's all picked who they wanted to follow and got in formation, marching after the three Knights as they arrived at the tunnels.
"Which tunnels do we pick?" Ash asked.
Cinder opened her mouth and was about to answer but stopped when she suddenly sensed something. Before her, there were three different tunnels, each connecting to the other side of the forest. The left one had a tremendous amount of mana coming from it and could only belong to that golem. The right one had strong mana as well, but far weaker. Finally, the middle tunnel had a very weak and faint signature. One that was around the level of Ash.
Cinder closed her mouth and smirked. "I'll take the middle. Ash, you take the right. Martel, you go left. Focus on defense and keeping your Ho's alive. I'll wipe my enemy out quickly and swap with you guys. This is our win!"
Meanwhile, back on the other side of the arena, Olivia, Miranda, and Olem all ran toward the tunnels. Behind each of them a Super Ho followed, giving them all one Ho each, but the other twelve Ho's were nowhere to be seen, save for a single one left behind to guard the crystal.
Olivia ran toward the middle tunnel while Olem and Miranda each picked different ones. Both of them knew Mana Step, and they used it as soon as they reached the tunnels, flaring their energy up and rapidly skipping through space. Since she didn't know Mana Step, she was forced to run, holding the Super Ho in her arms as she rushed through the tunnel.
The tunnels were all the same. They were wide enough that she could maneuver through them with plenty of room, and they were forged out of a series of bricks stacked upon one another. They looked sort of like a turned-over chimney, but far bigger and way wider.
It didn't take her very long before she was forced to come to a sudden halt as a figure appeared at the halfway point of the tunnel.
Cinder stood with a smirk on her face, twirling her guns casually. "Well, well, looks like I caught myself a snow-haired beauty."
Olivia winced slightly. Even without a proper Mana Sense, she could feel the energy flowing off Cinder. It was intense. Far hotter than Ken's and thicker than Davi's. Cinder was a powerful Knight. Maybe around the level of Tori. A real Arcane Knight with Knight Gear. Those guns of hers were dangerous.
Behind Cinder, one Super Ho and four normal Ho's all danced around her. "Why don't we skip the fight and you go ahead and let me blast that Ho and knock you out?" Cinder suggested.
In another tunnel, Olem came to a stop when Martel appeared before him, and in the final one, Miranda slapped her hand out just in time to swat an arrow that was fired at her.
Olivia stared Cinder down, then gave a shrug. "Sure."
"What?" Cinder blinked.
"I give up."
"You do?"
"Of course not…" Olivia held the Ho under one arm and raised her other hand, revealing a crystal she had. "Swap time!"
Cinder let out a sigh as a pink light erupted from the crystal Olivia held, and she switched with Olem, who appeared in her face.
"You're fighting me now!" Olem declared. "Let's-"
Cinder pulled her crystal out. "Swap."
Olem sighed as a blue light fired out of her crystal, and once again, he found himself facing Martel. The dark-skinned man had a casual smirk on his face. "What? Did you think she wouldn't use hers also?"
Cinder had easily deduced that she was stronger than all of the Knights she was about to face. She was just behind Whisper, her Vice Captain, in terms of strength, which meant she was the third strongest member of her guild, and unlike Phoenix Flight, she had Knight Gear. Just having Knight Gear gave her a huge boost in power and allowed her to do what others couldn't, which was use a spell that wasn't of the type she had.
Naturally, it was obvious that due to her overwhelming power, team Olem would attempt to counter her with Olem. He wouldn't be able to beat her, but he was sturdy, and from what she knew, he was good at defense. Fighting him would slow her down, so she decided to save him for last when the Ho's and other players were defeated.
When the game began, she sensed which tunnel Olem and Miranda were in, and she decided to take the weakest member first. When Olivia used her crystal to teleport, she knew that she would swap with Olem, and since she knew which tunnel Olem went down, she knew that meant Martel would be there. In the event she wasn't able to swap with Martel herself, she could hold Olem off long enough for Martel to take Olivia out. That didn't happen, however, and she was able to swap with Martel, which was even better. Now she was back where Olivia was, and Martel was still fighting Olem. Martel could likely hold him off for a short amount of time, and she could now take Olivia out, swap with Ash, take Miranda out, and then finally swap with Martel and fight Olem while the Ho's destroyed the crystal. It was a perfect victory.
"You guys lose." Martel drew his sword and charged forward. "Row Ink Blade!"
In the other tunnel, Olivia switched with Olem only to still be facing Cinder as the girl appeared before her. One benefit of using the crystals to teleport was that the Ho's they picked came with them, so Cinder still had five, while she had a single Super Ho.
"Did you really think I couldn't figure out where you were?" Cinder lazily tapped the side of her head with her revolver and also showed zero trigger discipline. "I sensed where your two teammates were. It was kind of stupid for them to use their mana like that. I knew a Squire like you wouldn't have access to Mana Step, so it made hunting you down so easy. After that, I just had to swap with Martel. Even if I did somehow get it wrong, I could still beat that other girl on your team easily."
"I think you're being a little cocky." Olivia placed the Ho down and stepped in front of it. "I don't have to beat you. I only need to defeat the Ho's behind you."
"And how are you going to do that?" Cinder smiled.
"You really want to see?"
"I do." Cinder held both her guns out and cocked her head to the side. "I was told you can only use three spells, and then you collapse. I'm pretty sure you're not going to win in that short amount of time."
"Well, then you don't know who I am!" From her sleeve, Olivia's wand dropped down, and she gripped it tightly, slapping it through the air. "Vil Blood Cerberus!"
Cinder's eyes widened slightly as Olivia's blood flowed from the tip of her wand and ignited into a fiery mass. She had been told by Ash that 'useless Olivia' only had Row level spells, so the shock of seeing one on the level of Vil made her pause for a split second. Her surprised look faded and was replaced with a smirk as she lazily held her gun up and fired.
Heat built up in her black revolver, and with the press of a trigger, Cinder launched a compressed beam of fire that split the Cerberus in two, destroying it in an instant. She was about to make a remark, but then, from the ashes and smoke, Olivia jumped toward her, leaping through the flames.
Cinder raised her guns as Olivia pointed her wand. "Row Blood Bolt!"
"Row Flame Shield!" Cinder formed a barrier of fire around herself, ready to block the beam of blood, but it never came. Her eyes widened as Olivia didn't cast any spell and instead twisted her way past Cinder. Purple blood was split as Olivia tore her knife through Cinder's Super Ho, killing it instantly. "You bitch." Cinder pointed the black gun at Olivia and pulled the trigger. This time, the beam was smaller so as to avoid killing her four remaining Ho's. It was also much slower, giving Olivia enough time to use her own spell.
"Row Blood Shield!" Olivia grabbed her shield just in time as the fire mage's attack slammed into her. She was picked up off her feet and hurled through the tunnel, smacking into the ground and rolling across it. Her shield bubbled and melted down her arm, but she had other concerns. That had been her third and final spell since Cerberus took two up. The world was spinning, and Olivia resisted the urge to vomit.
Cinder let out a sigh of relief when she saw the downed Olivia. "I can't believe I let her actually defeat one of my Ho's." She muttered in annoyance. This time, she aimed the white gun and pulled the trigger, a wave of ice sprouting up around Olivia, freezing her arms and legs to the ground. "Looks like you're done." The fire mage grinned and clicked her guns together.
They were her Knight Gear. The black one was an ancient elven item that absorbed flame mana and fired it out through various beams depending on the amount of raw mana channeled into it. It allowed her to use powerful attacks without casting a single spell.
The white gun was her actual Knight Gear. She was a fire mage, which meant she could only bond with enchanted items that fell into the fire category. The gun had started off the same as the first, one that would fire beams of fire, but it had been merged with a powerful ice blade and became Knight Gear that was forcefully bonded with her with Haru's mana, just as all Knight Gear was.
She couldn't use ice magic. Knight Gear wasn't like the concept of a Core Mask. The gun only had a single built-in spell, which converted all raw mana that entered it into ice mana, allowing her to freeze the ground and trap her foes.
With both guns, she had basic control over ice and a mastery over fire. She didn't need to say a spell name, and she could blast her foes with dual elements from a distance while preserving her mana for defense. These two items became a Godly pair while they were in her hands, and Myth swore up and down that she would be the next Tori. Everyone would know her name.
"Don't feel too bad." Cinder walked past her four Ho's and marched over to the downed Olivia. "You're actually not that bad. It's kind of a shame you were placed into such a shitty guild."
Olivia held the vomit back and tried to push herself up, the ice cracking as her limbs moved. "S-Shut up. Don't call my guild shitty."
"But it's the truth?" Cinder hummed. "I mean, you weren't able to get any pills or any good spells. If you had been part of another guild, you'd be at least five times stronger. Maybe even more. You just got unlucky. That's kind of fitting though, right?" The Pantheon Knight smiled sadly. "All you guys are unlucky."
Olivia turned her head and glared at the flame mage. "Since I've been part of that guild, I've made a difference. I've gotten to save lives. I got to really live. I wouldn't be the me that I am now if I didn't join Phoenix Flight, so don't you dare say that I got unlucky, because the truth is, I've never been luckier."
"Cute but delusional. Such a shame."
"You are pretty delusional, I agree."
Cinder's smile faded, and she frowned as her eyes met Olivia's. There was this look in them. One Cinder couldn't put her finger on, but for some reason, she was reminded of what Ash had warned her about.
"You should have taken my Ho out when you had the chance," Olivia stated in a cold tone.
Cinder felt her heart stop for a moment; the air was so tight and restricting. She twisted around just in time to see the pink Super Ho murder the last blue Ho.
The rules had stated clearly that a Super Ho could take down multiple regular Ho's all on its own. She had been so sure she killed it in her earlier blast that she hadn't even thought about it.
Cinder's attention was then forced to change when she heard the sound of ice breaking, and a golden light seeped out.
Olivia activated her Polymorph, regaining her mana, which allowed her to easily shatter the ice around her, and she swung up with her knife. Ash hadn't known the full extent of Polymorph because she never told him about it. That meant he couldn't really tell Cinder to expect this, and Cinder had no way of knowing she'd regain all her energy, allowing her to perform a sneak attack. Even with the surprise, though she was still dealing with an Arcane Knight, Cinder was able to twist herself out of the way, only getting a small cut on her shoulder.
That was enough, though.
"W-What the fuck?" Cinder froze as everything began to grow dark, and her vision went out. "W-What the hell did you do to me!" The cut burned with a familiar dark pulse, and Cinder's look shifted to one of horror. "A-Are you actually using a cursed weapon?"
Olivia stood up fully, donning her witch uniform, and in her hands she held a knife that Davi had given her. One he had stolen from a Spell Sword. A cursed object that he had been unable to use, but one that had responded all too well with her.
The knife of blinding.
"I'm part of the cursed guild." Olivia snorted. "People cursed my existence for so long and threw so many insults at me, and the revenge I want to take on the bastard that destroyed my home is like a curse as well. It all bubbled up inside of me and kept building and building until I grasped this knife and poured out all of my malice and my hate into it. The world cursed me, so I'll gladly curse it back, because unlike Davi, I'm not a good person. I'm a witch. One that will help him out any way I can because he's the closest thing we have to a modern-day saint. I'll be the witch that curses the foes that stand in her way."
"I knew your guild was full of psychos," Cinder sneered. She could feel the curse rubbing into her core. It wouldn't last long; soon, her mana would rip it apart and undo it, but even so, the blindness was annoying. "Sorry, 'witch,' but I don't need my eyes to fight you." Cinder lifted both her guns and aimed them at Olivia, and without warning, she fired a mix of ice and fire!
Olivia watched the beam rapidly approach her, and she smiled. "Swap."
Cinder's vision returned to her just in time for her to see a flash of pink light, and her beam was blocked by a rocky hand as Olem appeared directly in front of her. He batted the attack away, his limb cracking a bit, but that was it.
Cinder took a step back in utter shock as she stared at the golem. "W-What? B-But how! Did Ash lose? I-I told him to play fully defensive and stall! There's no way he would have lost so quickly! I trained him myself; he should have been able to beat anyone on this team but you!"
Olem folded his arms and let out a snort. "Miranda is still fighting Ash. The one who lost was Martel."
"T-That's even more unbelievable!" Cinder screamed. "You expect me to believe that? You're lying! Martel is almost as strong as you! An all-out fight between the two of you would have taken dozens of minutes to resolve! It hasn't even been five minutes since these games started! No way! This was my victory! What did you do? You cheated!"
"We didn't." Olem shook the closest thing he had to a head. "We just played it smarter. And now, we're going to win this thing."
In the middle tunnel, Olivia appeared, standing over the downed and burnt Martel, who was totally unconscious. She picked her Super Ho up and smiled at it.
"Ready?" It answered her by doing a little jig in her arms. "Let's storm their castle!"