Author's Preface
The shadows swallowed the arena completely. Darrien smiled and pulled the hood of his cloak over his head.
"Watch this shit guys."
He disappeared. The battlesuit did exactly what Olivia said it would. He melted into the darkness, no sound, no aura, nothing to track. He moved through the German formation toward their backline, targeting the three A-rankers who hadn't anticipated being the first targets. He sliced across their legs and ankles in one pass as Samantha sent lightning crashing down simultaneously. Elias shouted something in German. The remaining members pulled together into a tight circle, back to back. Eve sent vines crawling across the arena floor to lock them in place while Blue and Chris moved in from opposite sides. They didn't reach them. Darrien had already removed two of the A-rankers from the arena before they got there. He stopped, turned toward the stands, lowered his hood, and raised his arm to give Olivia a slow thumbs-up.
"BEHIND!" Blue screamed.
Darrien turned. A blade met his throat, and his bracelet activated before he finished turning around. He reappeared in the stands next to Olivia. Her hand met the back of his head before he fully materialized.
"Yeah, yeah." He was already grinning. "But did you see it?" He grabbed her arm. "Holy shit, I was awesome."
Elias shouted something in German again. The formation shifted instantly. Elias and his two S-rank assassins moved together, all three targeting Cynthia. They'd figured it out. Whatever she was building had to be stopped before it started. Chris and Blue read it without needing a translation. Chris drove straight into Elias, shield up, absorbing the lightning strikes and pushing him back, forcing him to deal with something in front of him instead of across the arena. Samantha raised her hands. The clouds were no longer needed. The runes on her forehead lit up as the spell began to form. A dagger caught her in the forehead. Her bracelet activated. Eve moved immediately. Cindyr surged forward, and a wall of flame rose between the team and Elias, cutting off his sightline. Blue and Eve pushed toward the two assassins. Blue engaged the first one. Eve took the second. Cynthia dropped her bag. The metal poured out. She went still, arms loose, eyes focused, the pieces beginning to move, bend, and weld together the way they had against Russia.
Elias saw it through the wall of fire. He looked at the A-ranker still standing beside him. The A-ranker raised his hand. Aether gathered and shaped itself, a large rifle forming in his grip, the barrel long and heavy, resembling a .50 caliber. He dropped to one knee, looked down the scope, and found Cynthia's chest in the crosshairs. He pulled the trigger. A ball of aether left the barrel with a massive boom that shook the arena floor. Chris turned at the sound. Eve turned. Blue turned. Nobody could react in time.
The aether ball closed the distance. Cynthia looked at Eve and smiled. "You got this." Cynthia's bracelet activated. The metal collapsed back to the arena floor.
In the center of the arena, something else moved. Nomi stood still for a moment. Then a flash of dark fluorescent light surrounded her, deep and consuming, the kind of light that felt like it came from somewhere else entirely. She rose ten feet into the air. When the light faded, Nomi was gone. In her place, a woman hovered above the arena floor. Long black hair fell past her waist. Her eyes were pitch black without whites, her lips purple. A black kimono covered in stars that seemed to move as she breathed. The crowd went completely silent. Not the silence of confusion. The silence of something ancient and beautiful appearing where a fox had been standing a moment ago.
The woman turned slowly and looked down at Eve. She smiled. "My name is Kuk." Her voice was quiet but carried across the entire arena. "I cannot maintain this form for long... But allow me to help."
Kuk turned toward the assassins. Everything stopped. The crowd mid-cheer. The flames frozen in place. The Germans locked between one breath and the next. The entire arena suspended in a single moment. Time froze. In the same instant, Kuk appeared directly in front of Blue. He was the only one moving. She looked at him, black eyes staring into his, stars shifting slowly across her kimono, and spoke quietly.
"Let us end this foolish competition. You have much work to do... Champion."
Blue stared at her, then looked at the two assassins suspended in place beside him. He turned back to the one in front of him and slashed once. Clean. As he turned, Kuk was already behind the second assassin. Black flames bloomed from her tails and wrapped around the German completely. She walked toward Eve, looked back at Blue over her shoulder, smiled, and waved.
The arena came back to life. One moment nobody had seen. Two assassins gone. No explanation. No transition. Just gone. The crowd erupted, trying to process what they'd witnessed. Replays showed nothing. One frame, the assassins were there. The next, they weren't. Kuk was back in her fox form, curled at Eve's feet. Eve reached down slowly, picked her up, and set her on her shoulder. She looked at her for a long moment. "What the hell are you?"
Chris turned. The assassins were gone. Eve and Blue were still standing. Nobody could explain what had just happened. He screamed to get their attention. Both of them looked like they'd seen a ghost.
Blue turned to Eve. "How about it, Ms. Druid?"
Eve smiled. The vines came first, spreading across the arena floor and catching Elias and his last teammate by the legs simultaneously. Virelen rose from the earth beside her, and the ground swallowed Elias completely, an earth prison closing around him from all sides.
Chris was still catching his breath. "Took you all long enough."
Eve summoned Rhyla. A wave of water built behind the A-ranker and carried him smoothly out of the arena and back to his seat. Eve, Chris, and Blue formed a triangle around the earth prison.
"Go ahead, Virelen."
The prison crumbled. Elias gathered his mana the instant the walls fell, hands already moving, then stopped. A sword was at his throat. Blue had crossed the distance before Elias finished the thought. Elias looked left. Eve. He looked right. Chris. Both ready.
He looked at the sword, then slowly raised both hands. "I'm not sure what the fuck just happened." He looked between the three of them. "But can we be friends? Because that was incredible." He grinned. "Let me buy you all a beer after this. You have to tell me how you did that."
Blue, Chris, and Eve all laughed at the same time. Elias reached over, grabbed Chris's arm, and raised it into the air.
"A beer sounds good," Chris said.
The arena shook.
"Michael... I cannot explain what I just witnessed."
"Neither can I, Bob. The two S-rank assassins simply disappeared and ended up in the stands. No explanation. No replay that shows how. And someone has finally defeated Germany."
"Michael, Team Columbus looked like a completely different team from yesterday's match against Russia."
"They did, Bob. Almost like they had something personally invested in this fight specifically."
"Folks, this is a massive upset. Germany falls to rank two. Team USA Columbus takes rank one for the first time in tournament history. I don't think anyone is challenging Columbus after that performance, Michael. I'd say they've earned the right to relax. Grab a bratwurst. Maybe a beer."
"Can't find a better brat or beer anywhere in the world, Bob. Hold up, did you eat mine?"
Bob shoved a brat into his mouth. "Of course not, Michael."
A few hours later, Klaus took center stage one final time. The arena had quieted. "What a fantastic evening of battles." He looked out across the assembled teams. "The rankings were shaken up quite a bit this year." A small smile crossed his face. "I encourage all of you to train harder. Clear your gates. And prepare yourselves to take rank one from Team Columbus."
He stopped for a moment as his eyes shifted through every team. He raised his arms to the air. "Until next year, happy hunting."