Scarlet

“Now that our resident prince and princess duo are awake again, let me truly set off the tournament,” Oberon says as I watch him spread his draconic wings out to his sides. “The first competition is officially over and the tournament begun, but we are nowhere near the heart of the tournament yet! So make sure you keep up, because the second competition will be beginning momentarily!”

Already?

“I know some of you may be surprised, after all, this is only the first day of the tournament and there are already two competitions,” Oberon says, almost like he’d read my mind. “But don’t worry, for all of the competitions after this will be on separate days, with some competitions lasting for several days instead of the several hours this first one took!”

Oh. Okay.

I hold myself back from yawning again, feeling more than a little sleepy still from my nap.

“The second competition of the tournament will be a monster hunt!”

Monster hunt?

My eyes narrow slightly.

This’ll be interesting.

The Fae King goes on explaining about the next competition for a little while before putting the rules up for everyone to see. And as it turns out, the rules are actually incredibly similar to Demon Hunt from the tournaments back on Earth. Where we go and hunt demons to get points.

Just that instead of hunting demons, we’re hunting monsters.

And just like the first competition of the tournament, this one ends up rather boring as I spend the whole thing surfing around on a tidal wave of Red Plague, devouring all of the monsters I find. Although I can’t sleep this time, unfortunately. Because the monsters are all different. And I’d rather not accidentally devour someone with my Red Plague.

That would be awkward.

By now though I’m fully awake, no matter how much I want to go back to sleep killing.

“Did you just say sleep killing…?” Tar asks, sounding more than a little flabbergasted at my thought. But I ignore him as I continue devouring monster after monster with ease.

Time passes, I occasionally pass by other competitors including Amelia, and eventually the competition draws to a close just like the first one. And to my surprise, I’m actually not the one who got the most points this time.

“Huh…” I mutter in surprise at the sight of Amelia being at the top this time.

Then again, now that I think about it, I’m pretty sure I saw a bright flash of light at some point.

“It looks like the current first place in the tournament has some competition nipping at her heels!” King Oberon declares as he flies up to the leaderboard for that last competition. Only for the leaderboard to change to show the overall tournament points instead of just the points for that last competition. “But it’s not enough to knock her from her throne just yet. Will anyone be able to defeat the Warden and her Red Plague in the combat competitions?!”

Yeah, just like he said, I’m still first overall. And I have a four hundred point lead still.

“We’ll see in the future if she keeps her lead in the skill and intelligence based competitions, but so far she seems to be the most likely to win the entire tournament!” the king continues, and despite the fact that he’s offhandedly talking about how they aren’t winning, Amelia and Leonidas look incredibly proud from the towers they’re standing on. And they’re not the only ones, considering the smug looks on Gramps’s face. “However! This will all have to wait as the next competition of the tournament will begin tomorrow!”

Nice. I can go take a nap now.

“What’s with you and sleeping right now anyways?” Tar asks, but I just shrug as spotlights begin shining on me and the other competitors. Likely to give us one last moment in the limelight before King Oberon closes out the day of competitions.

Not sure. I just feel really sleepy.

Maybe it’s because of how much I’ve leveled in just the past week? I’ve heard some people develop something called ‘leveling sickness’. So that could be it.

“Hmm…” Tar hums. “I guess that would make sense. Never really thought about it before since you’re mostly demon now, and demons aren’t anywhere near as susceptible to leveling sickness as humans are.”

Well, I did raise my level by several hundred in just a week or so.

“True,” the tanuki nods from my shoulder.

Our inner conversation is interrupted when the fae king continues speaking over the roaring audience, finally taking the attention off of the competitors, “However, for those of you who haven’t had enough excitement yet, I have a special little event for you all!”

I blink in surprise at this.

He’s not closing the day out?

And I’m not the only one surprised, considering the clamoring in the audience.

“I’m sure you all noticed the other four stadiums around this one,” King Oberon says while snapping his fingers, making images of said four stadiums appear above his head. “Well, since you’re all contractors yourself, don’t you think it’d be a waste? To have you all gathered here during these months and not have you compete in your own little games?”

The crowd is beginning to grow more than a little excited as he speaks, showing that most people seem to agree with him.

“Just for the duration of this tournament, any duels undertaken within one of the four arenas and overseen by a fae prince or princess will grant the winner of the duel the EXP they would be awarded should they kill the loser! But don’t worry! The anti-death clause will always be active during these duels, so even if you die in them, you won’t be losing anything!” King Oberon declares, making the crowd instantly shoot to a loud roar in volume, everyone showing extreme excitement and enthusiasm for this new event. “Before we begin that, I should introduce the rules for these duels!” He pauses for a second, following which numbers appear over each stadium representing the Classes. “Class I and II Guardians and demons will be dueling in the gray colored stadium, Class III Guardians and demons will be dueling in the green stadium, Class IV Guardians and demons in the purple stadium, and last but certainly not least, Class Vs will be dueling in the black stadium! Only four duels can be undertaken at the same time within each stadium, and they will be held in unique arenas determined by the fae royal and their contracted partner currently hosting the arena! Meanwhile every arena will have the fae royal and contracted partner swapping out to give them all rest between the competitions.”

I glance at Tar with a scowl on my face.

Can I punch your father?

“What?! No!” he practically shouts in my mind. “Don’t go punching people because they took away your naptime!”

I let out a huff of air and turn back towards the air.

“And why don’t we start things off with having our current first place competitor hosting the first Class V arena!” King Oberon declares with a mischievous tone of voice as a spotlight shines on me again.

So I turn back to Tar again with my scowl only growing on my face.

“No!” Tar repeats himself, even if his denial is less enthusiastic this time. “No punching!”