"Alright, thanks man!" Jenso said, smiling at Mikey. He headed out of the tent and began to walk onto the giant white square. He faced his opponent now.

Jenso made his way up onto the Square, where Charles was already waiting. "Sorry about this, Jenso. But one of us gotta win the prize money for our village," Charles announced, drawing his purple daggers.

"Fighters ready?" The announcer asked, looking at the two entrees.

"Ready, set, brawl!!!"

---

Charles immediately faded into nothingness, like an illusion, becoming invisible to Jenso. Though he couldn't be seen, Charles slowly walked around the arena, getting behind Jenso without making a single noise, and preparing to stab him without inflicting lethal damage, right above his kidney.

"It's fine, dude. We all gotta do what we gotta do to win, right?" Jenso responded as the man turned invisible. He truly didn't see him at all, and he couldn't hear his footsteps either. A flame gathered in the palm of his left hand. He launched a flame ball into the ground near himself, in order to blast up debris and create a smoke screen. He hoped it would cover Charles's clothes in debris and give away his position. He jumped further to the right. 'He'll most likely attack from behind...' He thought.

Jenso's prediction was right on cue, and his jump revealed that a portion of the smoke was upset by Charle's blade. The dust and smoke shifted wherever Charles moved, but Jenso himself could not see very far through the smoke either. Charles retreated from the smoke cloud and turned visible for a moment, looking for Jenso's figure inside of the dust cloud.

Jenso looked around to see where Charles would have gone. He had a rough idea where he was now due to Charles upsetting the smoke. He had difficulity to spot the man completely, but when he moved out of the smoke screen he saw him more clearly. He dashed out of the smoke immediately, aiming a low-sweeping kick at the man's feet.

Charles spotted Jenso's shadow dashing forward, but he was faster than expected. With a quick pivot though, he narrowly avoided Jenso's kick by stepping back. He then arced his right hand towards Jenso's back with the Dagger ready to strike.

Jenso pushed himself off the ground to move himself further to the right to avoid the man's stab. He thrusted his left arm towards the man's wrist and attempted to get a tight grip onto it, aiming to force the man to release the dagger in his right hand.

Jenso's grip was strong enough to make Charles drop his left dagger, but he still had his right dagger, and with a sudden burst of speed, almost inhuman, Charles rammed his second weapon into Jenso's arm. It was faster than anything that Jenso had seen before, but it definitely wasn't just Charles' natural speed. There was something about that move that was similar to his invisibility.

Jenso's eyes widened as the man struck his arm and forced him to loosen his grip. 'Shit..! He's fast, but how..?' Jenso thought, looking at Charles. 'At any rate, I need to make sure he can't escape!' Jenso lunged forward with his other arm in order to grab the man's right arm while the dagger was still in his injured arm to try to hold him in place and pull him closer to him, and attempted to ram his left knee into the man's stomach.

Charles knew when to bail, and that he did, slipping his left hand out of Jenso's grip, and letting go of his other dagger as Jenso tried to grab him. He then rolled to pick up the dagger that he dropped, and as soon as his hand touched it, he turned invisible again. Now he had to think carefully. Although he could wield his dagger, Charles' left hand was bruised pretty badly, and just from a grab. 'Shit, that guy's just like Mikey' Charles thought, looking Jenso over again. 'I can't risk getting caught again, or I won't be able to fight' Charles swapped the dagger to his right hand while invisible and approached very slowly, waiting for an opening to retrieve his other Dagger. 'I'll just have to use that again, won't I'

Mikey watched in amazement, whistling. "Mighty fine reaction time, eh?" He said to James, who positioned himself behind him. "You dropped out too, huh?"

"He took out last years champion with one move," James whispered, "You know I'm weaker than you two. I wouldn't stand a chance."

"Whatever. Charles is in a pretty tough spot, huh? He lost his Light Speed and just wasted the cool down on his invisibility. If Jenso catches on, there's no way he'll lose."

"Maybe.." James muttered as he watched closely.

Jenso frowned as Charles turned invisible again. 'Darn, this wound hurts...' He thought, pulling the knife out of his arm with his hand. He began to heat up the weapon to an extremely high degree, and threw it to the side of the arena. He hoped Charles would take the bait and try to snatch his dagger again. If he didn't, it would fly out of the ring which would also be a good thing. 'Why did he bother turning visible again earlier? Was he just confident, or..' He thought. After doing so, Jenso began to dash around the arena, weaving left and right so Charles would have a harder time to attack him and to stall him.

Charles watched as his weapon flew off the stage and ran towards it. 'I'm just fast enough..!' But as he reached out, he became visible again, and felt heat burn his left hand. Without thinking, he tossed the dagger further away, letting it land outside of the arena. But now he was visible, and wide open.

Jenso smiled as Charles became visible again. 'I was right, there's a time limit to it..!' He thought. A surge of power rushed through him as he dashed at his foe. He feigned as if he was about to punch at the man's face with his right fist. Instead, with the momentum he'd gained, he attempted to grab Charles's right arm with his left hand, move his left foot behind one of Charles's heels and try to push Charles over with his own right shoulder so he'd trip over Jenso's foot and fall onto his back. He'd try to keep Charles's right arm pinned against the ground with his left hand while using his other arm to keep Charles's torso pinned down.

Charles moved back to try and dodge in the last moment and counter with a decisive blow, but his choice was faulty, and in one chain of movements, Charles was immobilized, pinned to the ground, and completely unable to move. He struggled, but after a few moments, he gave up.

"You're strong like Mikey, I can't take that on," Charles muttered angrily, dropping his dagger, "I forfeit!"

The announcer heard the call and yelled out in agreement. "Charles forfeits this spectacular match! The winner is Jenso!!" She howled. The crowd went wild, thoroughly excited by the sudden change of pace. Finally, a match that wasn't boring! Mikey smirked and watched as Jenso and Charles were finishing their fight. He waited for Jenso to return with Charles, but before they could even leave, the announcer received a note from a man behind her. "Attention, attention please! It seems that Molly has dropped out of the rankings, moving Ross onto the next round!" Mikey wasn't surprised that the weaker group of entries was dropping out, but with so few strong fighters now in the tournament, it was a little less interesting. He looked forward to a chance at Jenso, though. That was going to be exciting.

"Hey, Jenso!" Mikey called out, waving to him, "Nice fight!"

Jenso nodded at Charles as he surrendered. He smiled at him. "Man, that was a good fight!" He complimented, and released Charles. He got onto his feet and rose his fists. "YEAH!!" He shouted in a cheerful tone, and began to walk off the arena. He walked to Mikey. "Wow, you weren't lying when you said your friends were strong!" He shouted, pointing at the injury on his right arm. "If that were a fight to the death, he might have even been able to kill me with just that one attack! This fight was amazing!" He said.

"Haha, Charles would never kill anyone," Mikey commented, patting Charles on the back as he walked by. He had picked up his daggers, but that didn't make him feel any better. "Looks like you're up against Ross Next. But I don't see my opponent yet..."

It was definitely strange. So many people were forfeiting, but usually, there weren't so many powerful entries at a time! Although Feralda was a magical city, they rarely had people like Jenso, Ross, and Rajaka on site. What was going on? The announcer looked at her clipboard curiously and sighed.

"Jenso, Ross, please report to the ring. Mikey's opponent has also dropped out."

---

Ross stepped into the ring, looking awfully confused by the turnout, but excited for the upcoming match as well. He awaited Jenso's approach eagerly. Mikey tapped his shoulder, and a man in a white robe ran over, moments before the fight started. "Good luck."

The robed man grabbed Jenso's arm forcefully, and in a flash of white light, his injury was gone. Afterwards, the man slumped away, completely drained. The priests used quite a bit of energy when healing others, but that's why Feralda had so many of them!

Jenso stared in surprise for a moment as his arm was completely healed. 'That's impressive..' Jenso thought, looking at the result. He walked up onto the arena and faced Ross. He got in a combat stance. "Alright, show me what you got!" He shouted with a wide grin on his face.

Ross smiled and summoned his sword in an instant. "That's more like it," He grunted, slamming his blade against the ground lightly enough that it wouldn't shatter the white tiles. "This entire tournament has been a joke so far! I'm hoping you can give me a little more to work with! By Gaia, I've been itchin' for a fight worth my skills for a while now!"

"Fight!" The announcer shouted, prompting the crowd to shout in unison. Ross rose his blade with one hand and aimed it at Jenso.

"So, fire manipulation, Ki control, what else do ya got?" Ross asked curiously, waggling his blade ever so slightly. "You gotta have way more than what you've shown. Don't insult me by holdin' it back until the last second!"