With more than half of the competitors eliminated, things started to calm down. But, on one side of the arena; ten people formed a team and were defeating anyone that they came across. At that rate, they would eliminate everyone else and have a bout amongst themselves to see who gets to the top four.

Their formation was quite peculiar in a competition; they looked exactly like soldiers ready for battle. There were three shield users in front, two mages in the back, and two swordsmen behind the two spearmen.

It was as if they had made this formation the day before.

"Now that I look at it, aren't those the people from the stage that coincidentally only had ten people because everyone else dropped out?"

Yoko asked Akane.

"I wasn't conscious at the time but I have heard of it."

Akane shrugged.

The pace that they were eliminating enemies slowed down after they removed half of the competitors, the competitors were now focused on them but were still separated. The formation that they had made was nearly unstoppable against an uncoordinated bunch of people.

Some mages and archers tried to attack them from afar but the shield users blocked them. The swordsmen that came near were stabbed with spears. The ones who got through the shields and spears were intercepted by the swordsmen. The mages and archers were eliminated by the two mages after being blocked.

"They probably decided this tactic because of experience."

"I think so too. It shouldn't be their first time, it's probably their second or third time participating."

"There are no rules that forbid it too."

Yoko and Akane conversed as they rested. But before they could continue their talk, three people went near them.

"Akane."

"Nn."

Both of them stood up and readied themselves for battle but just as they were about to attack, the three people called out to them.

"Wait! We want to negotiate."

A swordsman at the front waved his hands in front of him as he tried talking to Yoko and Akane.

"...Speak."

Yoko answered after hesitating for a bit.

"You see those ten people over there?"

The swordsman tilted his head in the direction of the ten.

"Yes, they've teamed up so it'd be quite a problem to defeat them."

Yoko answered all of the questions.

"Well, we saw your skill and think that with you two; it might be possible to overthrow them."

"...You've got a point."

Yoko narrowed her eyes as she tried judging the strength of the three people in front of her.

"So, would you like to join our team? We'll try and find more people just to take out those people then go back to fighting with each other, deal?"

The swordsman held out his hand that signified a handshake.

Yoko looked back towards Akane and they both nodded at each other.

"We accept."

Yoko shook his hand and they all ran towards other people and talked.

They managed to gather ten people who were willing to join them. The others who refused were blown away without mercy by Akane, if they didn't join; they were still enemies.

The other members thought she was quite ruthless but they'd have to do it eventually.

"So we've got a rogue, a shield user, three swordsmen, two spearmen, a brawler, two mages, and an archer. Quite the variety, our formation will be quite difficult to maintain."

The free for all became a team battle. No doubt, the other ten already took this into account. Their formations were perfect counters for each and everyone who wants to go near.

"Alright, let's see."

The swordsman told each of them the plan and formations, the shield user in front with the three swordsmen at his side. Two spearmen behind the shield user and swordsman, the brawler and rogue charge out in front of the shield user, and mages and archers provide cover fire.

Their goal right now was to remove the mages of the enemy team.

All of a sudden, three [Shadow Balls] were headed for them. The shield user charged forward and released his shield.

"[Barrier]!"

An illusory barrier appeared around the shield and its surroundings, it blocked the attacks perfectly.

[Barrier] was a skill that didn't use any elements; it was a simple defense skill used by most shield users; specifically the ones that have no defense skills for their elements like darkness and light.

"That's quite the strong barrier."

"Thanks for the praise, I'm confident in my skill to defend."

The swordsman and shield user exchanged pleasantries and began to take formations.

"Alright, everyone charge!"

"Haaah!"

The shield user charged forward and the swordsmen at the side prepared to intercept the incoming attacks from spearmen.

The mages began chanting and the archer began shooting arrows.

Akane and Yoko waited until the shields from each side clashed before jumping in to eliminate the mages.

Akane was the brawler and Yoko was the rogue, it referred to their weapons. A brawler was someone who fought with fists, gauntlets, leg attacks, and many other forms of close combat. A rogue was someone who used daggers, knives, hidden blades, and other short weapons; you could also call it an assassin.

Kai would be called a swordsman since he held Superbia and [Ice Blade] as his weapons. But, that's only because Reo can't train him in other weaponry without a body of his own, so Kai chose the simplest weapon to use.

Akane and Yoko jumped on their shield user's shield and managed to reach the spot with the swordsmen. Akane and Yoko quickly knocked them aside and headed for the mages; their goal was to eliminate the mages, not to fight the others.

As Yoko was about to slash and defeat the mages; their chants finished.

The mages suddenly pointed towards Yoko.

""[Intertwining Dark Beam!]""

The two mages brought their staffs together and launched an attack, it was as the name implied; [Dark Beam] but with two times the power as it comprised of two [Dark Beams] coiling around each other. It was combination magic; it was quite rare to see in a team fight because of the amount of effort one has to use to actually successfully do this. The mages must've been friends since they were young and trusted each other quite deeply.

But, how could that beam hit Yoko whose eyes could see wider, faster, and clearer?

Yoko dodged the beam as it headed straight for the swordsmen that they had knocked aside. That was two opponents down. Merely knocking out an opponent would count as their loss but if they somehow regained conscious and still in the ring, they'd be counted as safe.

Akane instantly leaped forward after the beam stopped.

The mages went into turmoil and casted the fastest magic available to them.

""[Shadow Ball]!""

The three mages casted the same spell on Akane.

Akane crossed her arms to block the attacks, she was only two meters away from them so she had no choice.

The explosion from the [Shadow Ball] sent Akane flying back towards their teammates; leaving Yoko alone in the enemy ranks.

"Yoko!"

Once Akane regained her footing, she immediately jumped back. But, just as the mages turned their eyes on Yoko; she disappeared.

Next thing they knew, a dagger was stabbed into the abdomen of one of the mages.

The other mage panicked and cursed.

"Damn you!"

But before he could use magic on Yoko, Akane arrived with the help of [Fast Movement] and knocked him down with an elbow to the back of the head.

That left six people on the enemy team.

Akane turned around and saw that there was only one swordsman on their side left; it was the same one that invited them. The spearmen on their team were also down for the count which left six on each side.

Surprisingly, the single shield user managed to hold out against three shield users and two spearmen.

"[Dark Thorns]!"

Black spikes began growing from the shield, when the spearman's spear hit the shield; the spearman's arm that struck it had bled. It reflected the damage of the spear back to the spearman.

Even if what it hit wasn't organic, it seemed to still reflect the damage given; it was as if it was a game's skill for tanks. If Kai was here, he'd definitely be convinced that that move was a move from a game.

The three shield users from the enemy side seemed to have defense skills with no variety; the three of them have nearly the same move set. This quickly became the shield user from Akane and Yoko's team's advantage, the enemies had predictable patterns.

But that didn't mean that they were incompetent, the two swordsmen and spearmen were eliminated because of the combination of the three shield users. Not only that, one of the spearmen acted as if he was the leader; he gave commands to his teammates. Other than the mages and swordsmen who were taken by surprise; none of the troops under his command had been removed from the competition.

Yoko managed to slip through the defenses by running around the side; the spearmen were too busy to intercept her.

With that, there were six people facing each other in combat. But, just as they were about to do the final clash; a man's voice resounded.

"Hoooh, what's this?"

A man with a great sword on his back stepped in the middle of the two fights. He wore a black scarf around his neck, had black gloves, black clothing, black pants, and black boots. Strangely, nobody seemed to notice him before; even though his attire gave him away.

"Who...?"

The spearman from the enemy side furrowed his brows; the man in front of them wasn't normal.

"Well, I ran out of opponents. I had to look for more; I found you people fighting here in teams."

Yoko's eyes widened and scanned around the area. Sure enough, there was nobody else in the arena; they were all lying down on the outside.

"When did he...?"

Akane also seemed to notice the situation.

The man stabbed his great sword into the floor and looked at both sides.

"All of you, come at me!"