Group 1 Prelim Over. Group 2 Begins.

Two fighters in front of Azu. One in front of the Spartian warrior. Two in front of the foreign warrior.

None of them stood a chance.

Once they were dealt with, three fighters would remain on the stage.

A three-way standoff, as fate would have it.

And the weakest of the three was Azu.

The Spartian warrior and the foreign warrior turned their gazes toward her in perfect unison.

Her first. Their eyes said it plainly. Azu read the intent and moved before they could.

She pointed her sword not at the heavily defended Spartian warrior, but at the foreign warrior, and unleashed a lightning-fast strike.

At first she'd thought he was Kiyo, but if that were the case, she'd have already been cut down and eliminated.

He was probably a warrior from the same homeland as Kiyo.

"Not bad."

The foreign warrior, katana still sheathed, appraised Azu's judgment and attack with those words.

Then, the instant before her sword connected, he answered with an iaijutsu counter.

Azu's blade was deflected completely. The impact of the iaijutsu traveled up through her arms, dragging both hands and sword upward.

She was wide open.

"Ah."

The foreign warrior slid his katana back into its sheath and gripped the handle once more.

Everyone could see what came next.

Azu was about to be cut down.

"I would have liked to face you in two or three years."

Before Azu could recover her stance, the katana began to leave its sheath—

And a massive shield slammed into the foreign warrior.

This wasn't a one-on-one duel.

The Spartian warrior would never let an opening go unpunished.

The foreign warrior had been zeroing in on Azu's neck, but in a split second, he pivoted to the Spartian warrior. That split second cost him.

His katana met the shield and was stopped cold. The shield barreled forward and sent him flying.

He nearly sailed off the stage, but stopped himself with leg strength alone.

The foreign warrior was slim in build, but his body was forged through and through.

He spat blood from his mouth and wiped his lip.

The damage was far from trivial.

The weakest fighter on the stage had just shifted from Azu to the foreign warrior.

Azu and the Spartian warrior charged the foreign warrior simultaneously.

The foreign warrior went for Azu's neck with another iaijutsu strike, but this time she'd read it coming. She leaped clear.

He'd target her and her alone. She'd sensed that in an instant.

Mid-air, she brought her sword to bear and countered.

"I thought you were a girl, but perhaps you are some manner of karasu-tengu."

The foreign warrior pulled his katana back from the missed strike, but before he could reset, the Spartian warrior's shield and Azu's sword closed in from both sides.

The foreign warrior vanished.

Teleported out, judged as a fatal blow.

The moment Azu landed, she leveled her sword at the Spartian warrior.

But he showed no intent to fight.

Azu kept her guard up, puzzled, then finally understood.

Of course. Only two fighters remained on the stage.

The referee called a halt.

This group's preliminary was over.

A thunderous wave of applause and cheers washed over the two victors.

Azu bowed to the crowd again and again.

"Didn't expect you to be one of the last two standing."

"Honestly, neither did I."

As they stepped off the stage, the Spartian warrior murmured those words.

Azu answered with genuine honesty.

She understood why the Spartian warrior felt that way.

In a one-on-one against the foreign warrior, she would have lost for certain.

She'd simply exploited the three-way dynamic to steal a win. Nothing more.

But a win was a win, Azu thought.

Far better than losing.

Azu had cleared the preliminaries.

Group 2.

Alexia took the stage.

Her beauty and her battle dress drew every eye in the house.

Alexia showed not a hint of embarrassment. She stood tall, regal.

Whether that was the former aristocrat in her or simply who she was, it was hard to say.

She raised her battle-axe high, and the crowd answered with applause.

She was, without question, the star of this group.

Besides her, there was a Spartian warrior and a handful of promising-looking fighters.

When the preliminary began, Alexia was the first one targeted.

Stand out that much and you paint a target on yourself.

Alexia wreathed her battle-axe in flame.

Vivid enough to stain the steel red.

Then she swung it in a wide, sweeping arc.

In the party, she usually fought as a rear-line mage. But Alexia was, at her core, a noblewoman and a knight.

Chaotic melees like this were more her element.

The crimson battle-axe scattered fire magic as it swept through the fighters rushing her.

One large fighter caught her axe on a greatsword, but the fire magic heated the blade, then the handle. Before long, it was too hot to hold.

Let go of the sword, and the battle-axe's follow-up would be waiting.

Alexia single-handedly took down roughly seven opponents.

Four remained on the stage: Alexia, the Spartian warrior, a knight clad head-to-toe in black armor, and a cute young girl.

Alexia squared off against the Spartian warrior.

The Spartian warrior struck the face of his great shield with the tip of his spear, ringing out a sharp note.

Some pre-battle ritual, Alexia assumed.

A way to build the fervor.

Spartian warriors were invariably formidable, but a rank-and-file soldier didn't strike Alexia as a real threat.

Someone on Darz's level was a different story entirely. That was a class apart.

But the warrior before her wasn't that caliber.

And Alexia's fighting style was particularly effective against Spartian warriors.

Their shields were crafted from thick, processed wood.

Supple and resilient, with metal edging, they could stop arrows, deflect swords, even turn axes. Surface damage alone wouldn't compromise them.

Unlike metal shields, even a shield this large could be carried without weight-reduction enchantments.

But they were weak to fire. Other forms of magic could be deflected, but fire simply caught and spread.

Faced with the blazing battle-axe, the Spartian warrior discarded his shield and readied his spear.