I had a second of panic, worrying if something in the sand had blinded me somehow.

"Help, I can't see!"

"What is going on?"

"What the fuck!"

"Lantern don't work either!"

For the first time, the audience served to my use, making me realise that no one else in the arena could see as well. That meant it was definitely the work of a spell! I tried to listen hard for any sounds that might signify Griaugh approaching, but all I heard was coughing and spitting sounds from his direction. I considered charging towards him now that I knew the direction he was at, but decided against it; running blindly in the dark didn't seem safe to me. I took the time to rub the sand out of my eyes instead, feeling much better afterwards, although my eye still felt dry, itchy and covered in tears.

It felt like an eternity waiting for something to happen as I tensed. Was he not going to attack in the dark? I then realised that if he was able to see clearly in the dark, he would have pulled this card sooner. There was still the off chance he was just trying to conserve mana however.

The darkness finally cleared, easing me. Three Griaughs stood around 5 metres away respectively, spaced metres from each other. I shot a quick glance behind me to make sure there were no Griaughs, and there were none.

"Behold, my duplication technique!"

All three of them shouted in union, inciting the cheers and speculation of the audience. I myself was sure that two of them were clones of sorts, unable to even attack after my experience with the first clone. There was also an off chance that the real Griaugh was currently invisible, looking for a chance to attack while I got distracted.

I heard the stomp of a foot and turned, seeing the one in the center of the other two yelling as he charged at me. The other two condensed balls of lights in their cupped hands, evidently charging up some sort of attack. I wasn't sure if any of the attack were real, but I had no doubts they would be powerful, so I kept a close watch on them.

Meanwhile, the charging one neared me; I ripped off my makeshift bandana and balled it up, throwing it at the charger. As expected, the bandana flew clean through it, notifying me that it was safe to ignore the clone, so I put my focus on the other two Griaughs.

And I was rudely interupted.

The clone cupped it's hands over my eyes, completely obstructing my vision! Damn, that was certainly an effective and creative way to use an exposed clone! I rolled out of the way to evade the nuisance, only to hear a loud bang and the sound of sizzling. Turning my head, I witnessed a small spot of the sand charred coal black, then quickly glanced at the two ranged Griaughs. One of them didn't have a ball in it's palms, evidently the one that attacked; I concluded it was the real Griaugh!

My target found, I left the clone chasing me in a cloud of sand, running towards the real one. Griaugh grinned widely at me, beckoning.

"Come! Let us end the fight in fair combat!"

I was confused, why would he give up his advantage in the fight just like that? I expected him to suddenly vanish again once I found him; this was almost certain to be a trick! I continued charging, quickly thinking up a simple plan. Seeing my approach fist first toward him, Griaugh hefted his arms in a guarding pose. I followed with an abrupt spin backwards, punching towards thin air...

And hit something real hard.

I was honestly a little speechless that such a simple plan actually worked; did that guy expect of me to fall for the same trick twice?

"Gaaahhhh!"

Griaugh's figure appeared in thin air, flying backwards as he spat a mouth of blood. It seemed he was unable to maintain the spell after the sudden shock. He then tumbled to the ground, retching as he spat out a few droplets of blood.

"Sttttttoooooppp! Alan has injured Griaugh, thereby ending the match!"

The referee (, the injured people carrying guy) shouted, swooping down to carry Griaugh and carried him into the "loser room".

"Contestant Alan has won against Griaugh, advancing to rank 1!"

Wait, what the fuck? Why was my first matchup the champion? On hindsight, it was probably Pewjack's doing, giving the the "priority card". Well, at least that explained his sheer strength.

The audience was silent, no one cheering or jeering. Then there was soft applause from a few, nothing more than that. It was rather silent and awkward. Well, at least there were still people "cheering" for me even if they were just trying to be polite, right?