The crowd cheers as a green-haired male raise his sword into the air.

"Dai Kajuto is your victor!" An announcement is relayed to the audience.

I sit in the crowd with my arms crossed and head in the air.

`I was really rooting for you, big guy. That dude really needs to be put in his place!`

Tatsuo walks over to Dia and offers him a handshake.

"Tch." He smacks his opponent's hand and walks away.

`That prick!`

They both walk towards the coliseum's arena exit.

"Next up, we have Minori Sugai versus Saori Kojo!" The announcement blared throughout the arena.

The crowd cheered as a pink-haired girl with a katana and a white-haired girl clenching two daggers walked to the middle of the arena.

The crimson-knight walked forward and put his hand up. "Same rules, same consequences—Are both fighters ready?"

Saori nods as she clenches her blade.

Minori twists her daggers in her hand and performs a nod.

"Three… Two… One…"

The knight jumped back and threw his arm down.

"… Begin!"

Minori wasted no time and threw her daggers toward her opponent.

—SHING SHING

Saori equips the blade from her scabbard and knocks the flying blades away.

Minori jumps into the air and collides with her opponent's sword with an extra pair of daggers.

The impact causes a small cloud of dirt to circle them.

"You're pretty strong…." Minori's hand staggers as she clenches her blade.

"…You as well.." Saori pushes her opponent back and rushes toward her.

Minori spins and throws several jagged-edged daggers at her opponent.

Saori deals with most of them by slashing her sword, deflecting them at different angles.

"Gah!" A dagger whisks past her left leg as blood starts to drizzle down.

Minori stops her assault and runs toward her impaired foe.

She throws a kick at her abdomen, but Saori is quick to jump back and dodge.

Upon landing on the ground, she runs towards Minori with her blade in front of her.

—SHING

Their blades clash as they each throw a series of fast strikes gaining speed the more they fight.

Saori raises her blade and comes down, but Minori sidesteps and kicks her in the leg.

Minori bends down as her eyes catch a gleaming light.

She ducks her head while avoiding a solid strike from her opponent. Her pink bangs get cut mid-attack as the locks fly into the wind.

Saori grits her teeth and raises her blade aiming at Minori's stomach.

Minori grabs the blade as she swipes at her adversary's neck.

"Egeh!" Saori lets her blade go as she performs a backflip away from her opponent.

Beads of blood start to extrude from her neck.

Minori licks the blood off Saori's katana then throws it back at her, smiling.

Saori smirks then runs at her whilst throwing her blade in her direction.

Minori deflects the attack with her right blade.

On impact of the deflection, Saori teleports to her side and throws a punch at her face.

Minori waivers back and lifts her leg up, landing a kick squarely into Saori's jaw.

The dagger-wielding girl continues to flip backward while throwing two blades at her foe.

Saori deflects them both and falls to the floor.

Minori grins while extracting another blade from her black coat.

Saori shifts her sword so that the width of the steel is seen by her opponent.

"… I won't be losing today."

She dashes towards her opponent, katana clenched to her side.

Minori meets her halfway, throwing a kick toward her opponent.

Saori sidesteps the attack and thrusts her sword at her stomach.

Minori uses her left dagger to slow the blade's momentum, tilting it in her foe's hands.

She then spins, creating sparks off her opponent's daggers, and elbows her in the face.

Saori staggers back, and Minori throws her right dagger to her neck.

A katana counters the thrown dagger, and they spin in the air.

Saori teleports to the katana in mid-air and uses the momentum to throw a powerful kick at her opponent's face.

Minori gets sent flying to the floor but quickly recovers on a single hand. She looks up, and Saori is seen with her blade at her neck.

The tip pierces blood, and Minori's hazel eyes look at her opponent. She laughs then drops her daggers in front of her.

"I surrender."

The audience cheers and applauds their performance.

Saori offers her a hand smiling. "I had fun, thank you."

Minori takes it with a grin. "Same here."

"Today's first match goes to Saori Kojo. She'll be advancing to the semi-finals!" Calina broadcasts to the stands.

I stand from my seat and jump over the ledge leading to the arena.

Yuumi follows as she takes a leap and stands in front of me.

We both walk towards the middle of the arena, not averting our gaze.

Yuumi stops walking and faces me.

"I've been waiting to take a crack at you the moment I met you."

My head looked into the sky as my torso started to glow with a bright light.

"You probably already know this, but I'm gonna hafta' whoop your ass."

Yuumi sneered while her arms started to gleam.

"HELENA!" Our voices exclaim in unison.

Both bodies started to shine being, the rays disperse, and a brilliant set of armor is shown covering us head to toe.

The crowd cheers in amazement with murmurs of interest.

"Are those Holy Knights?"

"Look, mommy! Their armor is so pretty!"

"Aw man, this is going to be awesome!"

Yuumi looks to the side and grins.

"See? Quit your bitchin'. Regardless of if we make of the scene, these power-hungry aristocrats only care for a good show. They don't care if others get hurt."

A lavish silver and gold claymore appears in my hand; I clench the handle.

"You're right, I don't know you, or what you've been through. Maybe we could sit down and talk about it sometime…"

"Are both competitors ready?" Kali raised his hand in the air.

I hold my sword in front of me, the polished steel reflects my light-brown eyes.

"… But that's not how I roll."

Yuumi's two blades appear in her hand as the chain connecting them clinks to the ground.

"Three… Two… One…"

"… Fight!"