“Where am I?” Tired, I woke up lying on a bed, looking at the ceiling.

If I remember correctly, I should be fighting in the arena.

“Good Morning, Hiiro.” It was a familiar voice.

As I turned to my left, I saw Emily sitting in a chair beside me. “How’s your body?” she asked.

Looking around, I realized that I was sleeping in our room at the castle.

“Emily? What happened to the fight?” My head ached. “Aagh.”

Why can’t I remember anything?

“You won, Hiiro,” Emily spoke.

“I won?”

“Aria is fighting in the arena right now, so I’m taking care of you.”

How? I don’t even remember fighting my opponent.

“I was worried,” she added. “Your opponent hit you pretty hard in the head.”

I see. So that’s why I can’t remember anything.

“I’m okay now, Emily. You should go and watch Aria.”

You should go and cheer your sister.

“It’s okay,” she replied. “I believe in her. I know she will win,” she added while looking at me. “Hiiro. Thanks for everything.”

“It’s my pleasure to help you.”

“Hiiro...” She blushed as she spoke with a soft voice.

“...What is it Emily?”

Wait, what is this? I have a feeling something big will happen.

“I-I just want to say…”

Is this what I think this is?

“I-I…”

“I?”

“I-I think, I love you.”

“What?”

Wait. Wait. Wait. What just happened? Is this really a confession?!

“Hiiro...”

This is real, right?

“Emily?”

“Hiiro.” Her eyes were sparkling.

“Hiiro.”

Ahhhrrg. She’s too cute. I can't stand this.

It was like a charmed snake tamed by a flute. My hands slowly touched her face, caressing it as I watched my bony hands grind into her skin. It was as smooth as polished marble with her complexion as white as snow. Her lips were so pink, they shone as if tempting me to kiss her. Little by little, our lips were slowly meeting. For each second that passed, I could feel my heart beating faster as if it still existed. She was beautiful. However…

“Hiiro.” Another voice echoed, a faint but familiar voice, stopping me from what I was doing.

“What is it, Hiiro?” Emily asked.

“Hiiro.”

There it is again. It’s coming from somewhere but I can’t determine where.

“Emily, can you hear something?”

“I don’t. Hiiro, what are you talking about?”

“Hiiro.” The mysterious voice was not coming from Emily, yet, it had the same voice as her.

“Hiiro, let us continue. Please.” Emily attempted to hug me.

Something’s wrong with Emily. She’s acting weird.

“Hiiro.” The voice was getting stronger, louder.

“Hiiro!” The faint voice then turned into a shout.

“Hiiro!” As I realized something, I pushed the girl in front of me.

“Who are you?” I asked not the voice but the one in front of me. “You are not Emily.”

“Heh. I never thought you could break my spell.” Suddenly, cracks appeared everywhere.

The space is breaking? No, this is not reality.

As the illusion shattered, I found myself back in the arena.

“You will pay!” As I clenched my fist, anger arose inside of me. Perhaps it was because of my experience with Lily. Having my heart toyed twice was too painful for me.

This is not good. I need to calm down.

“Hiiro!!!” Emily shouted.

“E...mily?” As I looked at her, she then smiled out of relief.

Ahhh, That smile... It’s beautiful as always.

As my anger subsided, I opened my hand.

Hiiro, remember why you're here, the reason why you’re fighting. Yes, it’s for her. Remember your promise:

“I will protect her.”

Thank you, Emily, for bringing me back to my senses. Don’t worry, I’ll win this fight.

“You finished now?” My stares switched to the girl in the arena.

Standing in front of me was a girl who looked like princess with blonde hair curling from the tips to the hairs beside her eyes. Her pink dress and doll shoes surrounded her with an aura of innocence as a pink rose headpiece further magnified it.

Wait a minute, it’s a Hime-kei.

“Hello, I am Lucie Dreizehn, a succubus. Good job breaking my illusion, Hiiro. I’m impressed,” she added

What? A succubus in a hime-kei?

Curious, I stared at her.

She is really dressed in a hime-kei. How is is this possible?

Calming myself, I slapped my bony face with my two hands,

Hiiro, you need to concentrate. Anyway, based on my anime, manga and games, a succubus mostly fights at close range. This is a gamble, but I bet she doesn’t know I’m a mage since normally, skeleton knights fight at close combat to distract their opponent while the master casts a spell.

Fighting a close combat specialist, I was at a disadvantage, however, I had a plan.

I’ll use "that" to win this battle once and for all.

“I’m going to defeat you, succubus..”

“Oh, really. I love to see you try, Hii—ro <3,” she replied as she rushed at me at high speed. “Boy—, can you endure my punch <3?”

It’s kinda weird seeing a princess running towards you at full speed.

Preparing my counter, I waited for her to get close but not too much. As she met the required distance, I smiled. “Gotcha.” Immediately, I then cast a spell to block her attack. “.”

“Elemental magic?!” Her eyes widened..

After casting, I moved away. She then crashed to the wall, destroying it. However, it was within my calculations; I knew the wall would easily break---after all, it was a basic spell. What I was looking for was not blocking her attack but the dust it would produce. Since, she was not expecting it, a lot found its way into her eyes and blinded her.

“Ahh, my eyes!” Immediately, I ran in circles around her while writing a rune, preparing to cast fireball.

“I’ll use a while loop to cast multiple spells at the same time.”

Using a spell will give away my position since she can just follow where the spell came from. I need to change my position each time I attack.

As I ran, I attacked her with multiple fireballs simultaneously. “Sorry, I know this is cowardly but my experience (as a gamer) is telling me not to fight a stronger enemy head on.”

I need to attack while maintaining my distance. "Kiting" is what they call it in a MMORPG.

She then rushed in to attack me but missed. Immediately, I barraged her continuously with fireball and repeated what I was doing before. She couldn't fight back. Each time she attacked me, she would always miss. Even though her eyes had recovered, the explosions from the fireballs produced a lot of smoke which I used as a smokescreen, limiting her vision once more.

“Ahh... You pesky skeleton,” she shouted as she punched the ground, producing an earthquake. The blast stopped my movements. It also dispersed the smoke around her. “Hahaha. I can see you now~!” She then charged towards me. However, I had a counter for it.

“!!” The spell grabbed her hands.

I can’t believe it worked.

Simultaneously, I threw her upward and cast air slash at her. The force blew her away and landed into the side of the arena.

“Followed by, .” A number of spheres made of water then shoot at her producing smoke as it hit the ground.

She then stood, damaged. “How... How dare you...” She stomped the ground and a rock about the size of my head flew upward. She then slapped the rock which came flying towards me with great force.

“Uggh!!!” The rock hit me; it was moving too fast. She then immediately dashed towards me one more time. However, it was also within my calculations. After she crashed, I knew she would rush at me in a straight line so I cast water mine beforehand. It’d leave her immobile if she ever steps on it, and it did.

“W-what is this?!”

“This is the end!”. I didn’t hesitate for I knew she could break out of it anytime, so I cast my trump card: “!!!”. Suddenly, fireball runes kept appearing, surrounding her from above.

There should be over three hundred fireballs in there if my training serves me well.

“Fire!!!”. The fireball runes blasted her all at the same time, but it took all of my mana---it was a one time spell.

Draining her energy by attacking continuously then trapping her to deliver a finishing blow, did my plan work?

“I can’t believe... you’re this strong.” Wounded and exhausted, she could barely stand. “You took.. three months worth... of my you know.”

...Why? My spell was not enough?

“I only plan on playing with you at first but... I hate losing you know. You even ripped my favorite clothes!” Suddenly, a strong gale then appeared in the stage; it was coming from her. “Behold my real form!”

A black light then surrounded her. It was like a transformation sequence from a mahou shoujo anime. As the light disappeared; I saw her flying as she flapped her wings. Her headpiece was then removed as a pair of horns emerged from her head, curving front into a 90 degree angle; her pointed tail made her more seductive as it moves slowly from left to right; her dress was replaced with a one piece black bikini with two big holes in the waist turning her once innocent aura into a woman filled with lust as her doll shoes changed into a pair of high heels further increasing her charm. Also...

Did her breasts just became larger?

“This is bad.”

Her transformation was within my calculations, however, I knew my magic alone was not enough to fight it. My plan was to finish the duel before she could change.

She landed on the ground. It seemed some of her strength was restored. She then pointed her right hand at me like a gun and a black light came rushing to her index finger, forming a ball. It was small at first then it grew larger as the second passed. “Tsk. I can only gather this much power but I think it’s enough.”

“Oi. Oi. Oi. That’s overkill!” My body was too exhausted; I couldn’t move. It was like I was glued to the ground. As I looked at Emily, I heard her shouts in the crowd.

“This is punishment. Try to dodge this, Hii—ro !!!”

Oh, power of friendship, please, help me.

The spell hit me and I was blown away.

Who am I kidding? This... is reality. Plot armors don’t exist...

With my vision getting blurry, I looked at Emily for one last time as I slowly lost my consciousness.

“Emily, I’m... sorry... I... lost.”

Seeing Emily’s face close up, I woke up lying in her lap.

Wait… Isn’t this?… This is the famous lap pillow!

“Hiiro,” she spoke as she looked at me.

“Emily, I’m sorry, I lost.”

“It’s okay. It was your first fight.” She smiled.

Ahh, this smile. It’s so beautiful. It’s different from the illusion I saw in the fight. This is her genuine smile. A smile just like that of a child playing innocently in the playground.

The pain in my body slowly disappeared.

I was saved twice… by this girl I promised to protect.

“By the way, Hiiro, could you explain what was that last spell you used? I thought you only knew six spells,” she asked.

“Uhh…”

I think I should explain it to her now.

“Outside your house, after I mastered fireball, I was tempted to experiment on rune writing for a bit. You were sleeping that time, and I discovered that runes were very similar to a computer code.”

“Com...puter code?”

Oh, yeah. I forgot computers do not exist here.

“Uhm...”

How do I explain this again? Machines do not exist here either making it harder to explain.

“Basically, it’s a set of algorithms used to do a certain function.”

“I… I don’t understand, but continue,” Emily spoke.

I’m sorry.

“Anyway, I found out that each symbol drawn corresponds to an attribute or an action of the spell. For example, the circle in a fireball rune corresponds to the speed on how it would travel, however, making the speed too fast will cause an error, making a useless fireball.”

“Well, that’s basic information,” she replied.

“In my experiment, I tried to create a while-loop function.”

“While...loop... function? What’s that?” she asked.

Oh yeah. I forgot.

“Sorry. Its purpose is to repeat a certain task continuously until a condition is met.”

Looping is one of the basic functions in programming after all. It is also the reason I can cast multiple spells of the same kind that fast.

“O-Okay.”

Sorry, Emily. It’s also hard for me to explain it.

“Anyway, I was experimenting on it for a long time until I finally created it. That was the time you found me lying on the ground near your house.”

“Wait. So it means you made that giant crater from before?” she replied.

“Yes... I’m sorry for hiding it to you… And for worrying you..”

“It’s okay, Hiiro. At least, I know now that it was not an attack from the humans.”

Humans?

“Anyway, for a loop to stop, it needs a condition. However, that was my first successful loop so it didn’t have a condition.

Since I haven’t created its code yet.

“It kept casting until my mana was depleted.”

While speaking, I realized that I was still lying on Emily’s lap, so I stood.

“S-Sorry.”

“I-It’s okay. I-I don’t mind,” Emily blushed.

“Anyway, even though it would consume all of my mana, I didn’t want the spell to go to waste, so I made it a trump card.”

Suddenly, the host announced the 2nd round: “Now, at round two, we have Aria Silvermoon against Robyn Accalia!”

Round two started.