“You can’t be serious…” Kali threw her hands up in frustration as she read the very familiar letter. “How many champions does this person want us to kill?” Her eyes lingered on the anonymous signature of their client for a long time, contemplating seriously whether she should accept this request or not. To be fair, the last time Kali completed it, she received quite a lot of money which was nice for a while until a bounty got slapped on her head, too. The risk factor here was a lot higher than before. Exposing herself to a large crowd and committing murder in the open is bound to get more bounty on her. She also had to consider how well people are starting to recognize her.

“Heck…” Kali threw the letter away from her in thought. She sighed and just sat still for a long time before walking out the door of her barely-a-place-to-live shack. Regardless of the risk, the money was worth it. Maybe the next city she goes to, she could even afford better accommodation.

Kali remembered Kaiser as she walked to the destination, a colossal arena situated at the Great Baska Rock. If she did not guess wrong, the partner that will join her again, as stated in the letter, should be that beautiful Joyan woman from the other day. ‘Such a powerful character with so many striking features, it’s hard to forget’. The last battle between the champion and her was also incredible, she heard all the juicy gossip and news from others since Kali could not stay until the end of the fight. It did not come as much of a surprise. If anything, Kali had quite a pleasant inkling that today’s mission would go just as smoothly as the other one with Kaiser beside her.

After finding that exact spot she was leaning on last time, Kali went into hard déjà vu mode as she began waiting for Kaiser. This time, the void mage already signed them up since she remembered all the details from their previous tournament. Another thing that surprised her was that although the tournament is taking place at the same venue as before, the rules have changed and now it is a tag team battle. Two people battled two others at the same time. They were more difficult and of a larger scale tournament since both mages in a team would need to work together well. So, ‘I have to keep up with Kaiser?’ She wondered with a tilt of her head. What a tall order that will be. How about Kali just stand back and let the purple-haired woman do her thing?

She chuckled, amused at her own thoughts. It is not that Kali could not hold her own, but that the girl had no desire to waste effort on something that could easily be achieved by someone else’s effort. Basically, just extremely lazy. Having Kaiser do the job is an easy money-making deal in her eyes.

Anyhow, just like the last time, Kali scanned the whole area for the previous champions while she waited. ‘I can’t find them.’ The previous champions were rumored to be a crazy couple of mages with complementing magic. No one had much to say about them for some reason as if they are scared of being found out that they talked. Almost everyone Kali approached had the colors stripped off their face and stiff refusals to acknowledge them.

575/2500

It was morning tea time at the temporary villa when Kaiser received the letter from her recent client—a mysterious person who wanted to defeat the current champion of the tournament at the Great Baska Rock. As Nona read the letter out loud for her, the vampire arched an eyebrow in confusion. Was there no end to this client’s request? Did they want all the current AND future champions dead? And the fact that they needed someone else to do it for them. Kaiser could not help but think of how pathetic that person was. But that was not her concern. Her concern was getting money. At the end of the letter, it was added that she was to complete the mission with her previous partner. An image of the short-haired mage who went by Kali flashed before her eyes as she folded the letter and placed it on the tea table. Maybe they were bound by mission fate. Kaiser could not remember a time when she did missions with someone more than once, or maybe that was because she was a bit of an amnesiac at the moment. Sleeping for more than two years can do that to you, so don’t try that at home, kids.

“Prepare an ice bath for the evening,” she instructed Nona who nodded and started to clean up the tea table, knowing that Kaiser was about to go out. She never asked what Kaiser was doing every day out in the city, and her lack of curiosity was truly a blessing for Kaiser. She considered it as oversharing if she was to talk about her daily activities.

Kaiser dressed up in her casual but suitable for combat outfit and headed out for the tournament venue. Though the sun had risen, the fall weather was nice and cool. You didn’t need to wear a sweater, but it wasn’t hot outside either; the kind of weather Kaiser enjoyed most. Second to that was probably summer because she liked to flaunt her curves and thiccness wearing the latest and trending bikini sets. But summer was hot and she did not enjoy sweating. Anyway, so basically the weather was nice today and thus, the vampire decided to walk for the most part of the journey to the stadium today. It was still quite early too. However, she came to a part of the city where she thought it would be best if she just hired a carriage and so she did. The carriage took her straight to the tournament venue and dropped her off at the entrance. Since she knew her way inside and remembered where she met Kali last time, she just relied on her memory and went to that spot. The last time she took this request, Kali was the first to arrive and...Kali was the first to arrive this time as well. Kaiser gave her a small wave as she walked over to where her partner was waiting. “Hello again,” she said, looking at the badges Kali held in her hands. She had even done the registration for them already.

Kali spotted Kaiser from a distance this time, unlike their last meeting where she was practically jumping in surprise at the sudden tap on the shoulders. “Hey! This one is for you,” Kali handed out the number 5 badge to Kaiser this time having felt previously that the purple-haired woman was somehow dissatisfied with the number 16 she gave her before. ‘Must be some kind of OCD,’ she shrugged and just took the number 6 badge for herself. Kali cared less about their number and more about when they will be getting off work this time. Maybe if they are fast enough, Kali can go out and play for the rest of the day again.

It would have to wait though because the tournament was about to begin and Kali followed the large crowd all sorts of people in all sorts of get up to the lacrima screen in the middle of a large hall again. She waited patiently to the side as the screen blinked a couple of times and eventually moved on to an introductory video on the tournaments and how much of a big deal it is in Baska. With the way they were phrasing some of their achievements, Kali got frog-in-the-well vibes from the organizers. They praised their contestants and previous champions up a high pedestal but the truth is, ‘They have clearly not seen the world yet.’

Kali gave Kaiser a ‘do you see this bullshit?’ look before turning back to the screen with a yawn. “I don’t know what they are smoking but most of their sponsored champions are just big clowns,” she spoke in a voice that only Kaiser can hear. Kali was not one to underestimate her opponents but if their top contestants were anything like that Hagrid 2.0 and Wabbit 2.0, then they were definitely not in their right minds. It made some amusing stories to tell though.

Anyhow, after that lengthy and completely unnecessary introduction video, the lacrima screen slowly started to pair up opponents for the first match. “Number…”

“NUMBER 5 AND 6, SHOW YOURSELVES!”

Kali sighed at the loud voice that interrupted her. She turned her head slightly to look at the rather energetic young man with…’ what in the seven realms is that?’

Her eyes twitched at the hideously bright orange hair color of the man dressed up completely in black, spike-covered clothes. He wore a dark choker with a cross on it and there were all sorts of accessories from head to toe that almost made Kali go blind with the light it reflected. In contrast, the shorter man standing next to him with…well, equally hideous green hair at least looked calmer.

“This is going to be a loud fight,” Kali nudged Kaiser before taking a turn on her heels and walking over to the arena. She didn’t know about Kaiser but that loud mouth was hers to take on. From the looks of it, they were not even trying to hide the fact that one had fire magic and the other had wind magic.

1086/2500

Kaiser was handed a badge and she immediately noticed that it was the number five and the badge Kali took for herself was the number six. Her face lit up like a Christmas tree as she nodded and accepted the badge. Since it was their second time taking this same mission, the process was already familiar to Kaiser and the next step was to wait for the matchups. Before that though, Kaiser was not prepared to witness the silliest part of this tournament—the introduction of their most recent champions. Maybe this really was a circus show and not a fighting tournament. “I can’t believe we have to take part in this circus show. We could have just stalked and killed the champion somewhere else,” she scoffed, keeping her voice down so that the other contestants near them could not make out what she was saying. She believed Kali had the same, or at least similar, thoughts and ideals as hers and she believed that was why she was on this mission, with the goal of getting the extra money.

Once the introduction video was finished, the lacrima screen returned to its normal function of matching up the contestants. However, today the contestants were to fight in pairs. Kaiser found it interesting and exciting. She had never been in any sort of tournament to fight with a partner, so this was a first. Upon sighting the opponents they were matched with, Kaiser had really no reaction to exhibit. She could not expect anything less after all. An amused chuckle escaped her thick, red lips as she headed towards the arena. “I’ll take the traffic cone, you can handle the broccoli,” she told Kali. Hopefully her partner agreed to her proposition. There were two starting circles on each side of the arena today, four in total. Kaiser took her position so that she would be standing right in front of the orange haired man. Even before the match started, he was flexing his magic by doing some tricks like making a rose out of flames to get a reaction out of his opponents, although Kaiser showed no form of emotion on her features. Some of the people in the audience did make some ‘ooh’s and ‘woah’s after seeing his cheap tricks.

After all contestants on both sides had settled in their circles, the starting signal was given. Kaiser raised an arm and opened her palm. It would have been mistaken with the motion of waving at someone or saying ‘hi’, if it was not for what came after the motion. A beam of crash energy shot out of her palm and pushed the human traffic cone right off the arena, and that was one down on the opponents’ side. Kaiser would not interfere with Kali’s fight if it was still ongoing once hers was finished. She would step aside and watch while waiting. She did not want to take the fun out of this mission for her partner, because she knew she would not have liked it if someone interfered with her fight as well.

Name: Hidden Viper Rank: B Mana Cost: 100 Requirements: Crash Magic Type: Offensive Element: Arcane Range: 15 Meters Cooldown: 3 Posts Duration: Instant or Sustain Effect: Kaiser opens her palms and releases a cylindrical beam of invisible shockwaves that is 2m in diameter, causing damage to anything in its path and knocking anyone in the blast zone back 10m from their original position. She can choose to release two beams instead of one and in this case, the damage is split evenly between the two beams. The beam(s) slowly dissipates upon reaching their range limit.

“Traffic cone and broccoli, uff, why didn’t I think of that?” Kali mumbled, lightly hitting herself on the head for the missed opportunity. She couldn’t believe the kind of freakshows that showed up for the tournament; Hagrid and Wabbit were prime examples. At least more than half the contestants in Baska looked like they were dressed for a costume show rather than a solemn tournament. It made her question its authenticity and fame but of course, none of that actually mattered to Kali. She just needed the money that came with the mission.

“Ah? I wanted to handle that one. Oh well, I guess you can get the traffic cone. It’d save my ear some trouble, I guess," Kali answered, shrugging her shoulders in an I-don’t-mind manner, as they made their way over to the arena. The large space was built in sections, housing more than one platform for the fights just like last time. But, unlike the day before, perhaps because it would be team battles and magic could easily fly out of control, Kali noticed that the organizers had invited some mages to keep up a huge, almost invisible yet visible under the sunlight, dome-like barrier around the whole arena intended to not let any stray “fireballs” get to the audience.

Once the battle began, Kali was quick to notice the Broccoli’s intentions to get to his partner as soon as possible and intervened, stopping him right in his tracks. With a wave of her hands, Kali produced some strings of void magic around her, swishing and slashing all around in crisscross patterns. Unable to stop his movement in time, Broccoli ran straight into the zone, only to get himself knocked back and out of the platform in one swift motion. It would probably break some of his bones but will still leave him alive just barely.

The first fight was won like that, the fastest in the whole tournament with how the MC had to take a moment to realize what happened to announce it. His voice blasted through the lacrima-powered sound system all over the arena while Kaiser and Kali walked out, pretending not to see or hear the loud cheers and excited calls for attention.

“That made me hungry,” Kali placed a hand over her stomach as she sighed. “I knew I should have eaten something more than a piece of bread in the morning. Oh, how I want the cheesiest cheese burger ever right now," Kali let her inner thoughts take over her voice, describing exactly how she wanted to be able to bite into some cheese and juice dripping burger. It would be delish and it would sate the little monster called hunger growing in her, too. “Haaah, when is this going to be over?”

Kali was starting to go off on a tangent when someone intentionally ran into her, almost knocking her over. It was intentional because unless taken by surprise, Kali would be able to sense someone if they were to walk into her. This one was definitely someone who stepped into her path at the very last moment because even by the time she noticed him, she could do anything about it. Still, Kali managed to balance herself and throw the giant ball of a human being a glare until her eyes stopped at the amount of food he was holding in his arms; burgers, fries, hashbrowns, and even some chicken nuggets.

Kali watched the burgers of her dream being munched on one by one by the ball. For a moment, Kali wasn’t sure what aggravated and offended her more; the intentional run-in or the burgers. He had a smug smile playing on his round, balloon-like face that looked like it will pop any second, and there was a light of challenge in his barely visible-under-all-that-fat eyes. Kali raised an eyebrow, intending to end the dude’s life right there when she saw some of the men in charge of security moving around in her peripheral view. “Tch”

1752/2500

Kaiser could not help but laugh out loud at the end of the match. It was more fun in pairs, it seemed. The winners were announced way too fast compared to any other match going on at the tournament. Walking out of the arena, Kaiser turned to listen to what Kali was saying and completely missed the round person coming straight into the path that Kali was walking in. The vampire was caught off guard but noticed that he was carrying a hell lot of food, with a glossy layer of grease rimming his thick lips. Such a food mongering person would not have struck Kaiser as a contestant in this tournament. It would have made more sense if he was a spectator who was bringing food back to his seat to devour as he watched the upcoming matches.

“Let’s eat something first,” said Kaiser and headed to the food court with the assistance of the arrows and signs over their heads. There was time for them to finish a meal at least. The tournament today was not as fast paced as the last time, probably because they were fighting in pairs this time. Kaiser took a quick glance at the screen that displayed a countdown timer and noted that it was about half an hour until their next matchup. It was convenient for the participants that they had installed one of those screens within the food court. The food court itself looked like every other food court she had been to; surrounded by a bunch of stalls selling different types of foods from all over Fiore. She even found some stalls selling Joyan desserts and could not stop herself from buying some. Kaiser mainly bought snacks for herself since she was not really hungry. She just wanted something sweet and savory to munch on before the next match.

After purchasing some tasty looking snacks, Kaiser would wait for Kali at one of the vacant tables in the food court unless her partner was there first then she would situate herself in the seat opposite of Kali. “Bon appetit,” she said and started to eat her snacks while observing the rest of the people milling about the public area in search of their lunch. Since Kaiser was not exactly a social butterfly, she kept to herself as she snacked on the Joyan desserts without saying a word which was how she normally was unless she was accompanied by someone she was really close to. The only reason she would speak up right now was if she was spoken to. She did not enjoy small talk either, so it was...kind of hard to get close to her in the first place. Kaiser would be the first to finish her food, since she was just having some snacks, and if Kali had not finished yet, she would wait for her, otherwise they would be off on their way back to the match up area to find out who their next opponents were.

True to her earlier words, Kali went straight to the shop selling cheeseburgers and bought one along with some French fries. The earlier run-in with the contestant was forgotten as the void mage took a seat opposite her companion and began digging into her food. She noticed the joyan snacks that Kaiser bought and silently nodded in approval. Kali had only gotten a few opportunities to try them before and she could tell the other’s choices were good. She would offer her some French fries but it seemed Kali wasn’t intent on eating too much. And just like her, Kali wasn’t one to take the initiative with topics either. So the short break just ended like that with both of them finishing up their food in silence.

Once they were done, Kali and Kaiser made their way back to the screen to see that they were already getting matched up with their target champions. “That was…really quick this time,” Kali muttered, more to herself than Kaiser, and crossed her arms across her chest. She noticed the big-bellied one watching from across the room. “Ahh that one is definitely mine,” she told Kaiser, walking over to the arena.

It seemed they got there first. Kali, along with Kaiser if she followed close, and the MC were the only ones present besides the spectators slowly returning to their seats after the break. A couple of minutes passed by before Kali heard footsteps behind them, one lighter and the other heavier. “Oh, here we go with the funny pair-ups again…”Kali whispered as she saw them. One was, of course, the big ball she ran into before and the other one looked no better than a stick. There was hardly any flesh in that body that looked like it would just break from a breeze. “Does the other one eat his share, too?” Kali wondered, taking her place on the opposite side of the arena as the MC began getting ready to announce the start of the match.

2089/2500