For some reason, I am alone in my school’s auditorium. The seats all around are empty and covered in a layer of dust, as though they had been abandoned for a very long time. Looking at the ceiling, I notice that none of the fluorescent lights are on, yet the auditorium isn’t in complete darkness. It is dim, yes, but not dark.

A groan comes from somewhere behind me and I jump, turning around. At some point, a strange huddled shape appeared on the ground near me. It looks and is dressed like a human, but something about its shape strikes me as wrong. It groans again, raising its head and looking directly at me. In the dim lighting, the sight is undeniably creepy. I keep getting the feeling that I should run, but it's almost like my feet are glued to the ground.

With its head raised, I can finally see the face and it is undeniably human. There are tears streaming silently from its eyes, and its expression is one of total despair. With a shaky, pained voice, it says, “H-help me.”

Without knowing why pity fills me. Then something behind it draws my attention. A strange shadow begins to move toward us, just as an invisible force begins dragging the pitiful-looking man towards it. The man doesn’t resist, letting himself be pulled. “Help-” The shadow swallows him.

At that moment, everything suddenly feels terrifying, the auditorium begins to get visibly darker. I begin to move slowly backward, not wanting to take my eyes off the shadow, afraid of turning my back on it. The shadow solidifies, then it focuses on me.

It dashes forward, and I immediately lose my cool, turning around and sprinting away from it. Before I can move far, an irresistible force slams into me, turning me around. My heart stops as I realize that in the short time I had looked away from it, the shadow had caught up to me. I try to raise my arms, as a sort of futile gesture to protect myself from it. Nothing happens. I look down and notice to my horror that my arms are gone. A shadowy arm grabs my neck.

I scream, but no sound comes out. Instead, the shadow opens its mouth and everything in the auditorium is sucked into it. I try to struggle against the suction but it is futile. I am sucked into that gaping black abyss.

* * * * * *

I sit up with a start, looking in alarm all around me. For a moment my brain is unable to comprehend the scene in front of me, but then I realize where I am. I’m in the Lands, waiting for my turn in the Rankings. That was just another nightmare. I close my eyes and breath deeply, trying to calm my beating heart.

“Are you okay?” I turn to see Bella looking worriedly at me.

I nod. “I’m fine.”

“The first part of the Rankings is over. It’s time for the top sixteen to begin so I woke you up.”

“Oh, thanks.” Slowly I am able to calm down. “Did anything interesting happen?”

“Nothing much. The positions from seventeen to thirty-seven have been finalized. And some guy tried to fight people in the top sixteen. They all lost,” Tobi answers.

“Oh.” I turn to look at the giant TV at the center. All other names are gone except for those in the top sixteen. A moment later the sixteen names rearrange themselves into groups of four as a tournament table is formed and people in each group are matched.

The table shrinks and is relegated to a corner of the screen as Gabe appears once more, announcing the first battle in the top sixteen. Keldin versus an unknown girl.

By the time their match starts I am wide awake. The knowledge that I would soon be on that stage, fighting someone in front of that crowd of hundreds of people is more than enough to send adrenaline pumping through my veins. The fight ends after a little more than half a minute. Unsurprisingly it is Keldin’s win.

The next match is against two people I don’t know, and just like with Keldin’s fight, a winner is soon determined. Then my name appears on the screen, along with that of a girl. With my heart pounding due to nervousness, I pour my Uua into the chair I am sitting on. I am immediately teleported into a small room with two teleportation circles in one corner. I recognize them from when I had first fought with Keldin, stepping in them had teleported us into the Arena back then.

I turn to look at my opponent and realize that she’s just a kid. For a moment, my nervousness almost seemed silly. Then I remember. Keldin had also been a kid, yet he still managed to kick my ass to kingdom come. Better to not underestimate this girl, she did manage to make it into the top sixteen so she should have a level of strength.

We start walking towards the teleportation circle when Gabe suddenly appears. He nods at the girl, then turns to look at me. “You’re Ian, right? The one who fought the Majin?”

I say, “I am.” It seems everyone knows about my fight with the Majin.

He is quiet for a moment. “Are you feeling nervous?”

How can he tell, I wonder while giving him an affirmative nod.

“Don’t worry too much,” he says, “compared to the Majin this will be a breeze. Okay, let’s get this started. Go stand in those circles.”

He disappears, leaving us alone once more. We stand in the circles, and a moment later they activate and begin moving upward, teleporting any part of our bodies they pass over. They pass over my head and the room is gone, I am now within the Colosseum I had been seeing on the TV. To the side, Gabe calls for the fight to begin.

Before I could even act, an unknowable weight pressed down on me, almost gluing me to the floor. I am surprised, having never come across such a spell before, but I can’t afford to be surprised for too long. Thinking quickly, I summon Hilla’s Barrier as a dome around and the weight disappears. At that moment I know that whatever she used on me, it didn’t actually affect my body or Hilla’s Barrier wouldn’t have been able to stop its effect since it would already be in me.

She begins to attack the barrier but I ignore her. The strength of Hilla’s Barrier depends on how much Uua you are willing to pump into it. Drew has remarked a few times about how much Uua I have, combine that with my purity which is greater than everyone on my level and which therefore decreases the amount of Uua I will have to use against them, and I am dead sure her Uua will be depleted before she can break through the barrier.

She realizes that and backs off, leaving me alone with my thoughts. I think about the first move she used on me and realize something. I hadn’t felt heavier, instead, it felt like something was pressing down on me. The only thing I can think of right now that could cause that would be telekinesis. If the move is some variant of telekinesis, then I might know how to neutralize it.

I drop Hilla’s Barrier, and activate D-three. The moment the barrier is down, I feel that weight slam into me again, but this time I am prepared. I release telekinesis from my body, but this time I direct it against the weight. The weight instantly reduces but doesn’t fully disappear. I am satisfied though. With the strength boost from the enhancement, and strengthening noer in my D-three, the weight is something I could still move through.

The girl rushes to attack me, and I do the same. When she is within reach I aim a kick at her and instantly regret it. The moment I begin my attack, she releases that strange move, making me feel instantly lighter. That sudden change causes me to misaim my kick. With her small size, she is easily able to go under the kick. Then she aims a punch at the area between my legs.

Alarmed I release Burst from the feet still on the ground, immediately separating myself from her and throwing me off balance. To prevent myself from getting attacked while imbalanced, I direct a blast of telekinesis at her to push her away from me.

When I regain my balance, I can’t help but stare at her in shock while my nether regions tingle. She almost turned me into a eunuch. Whether intentional or not, I had been holding myself back from hurting her too much, after all, she was just a kid. But while I had been playing it safe, she had gone straight for the kill. Since that’s the way things are, then no more mister nice guy.