Raiden and Ketsuki enter the changing room.

  “Nice and clean… and spacious. Didn’t expect that from a place like this.”, Raiden comments and Ketsuki realizes, “Why are we even in here? I don’t need to change clothes to fight.”

  Raiden replies: “I guess it’s also just a waiting room. See that hologram up there? There we can watch the fights while waiting.”

  “You got any idea if there’s even going to be someone worth a fight here?”, Ketsuki asks and Raiden says, “Hey now! I’m almost offended that I’m not worth fighting. Wouldn’t you want a rematch in the final round? Wouldn’t that be cool? Especially since we had a draw?”

  Ketsuki looks at Raiden awkwardly for a few seconds: “I- uh… sorry. I just want to know if someone stronger than you would be here.”

  Raiden reaches out with his hand and a big smile: “Well, let’s find out, shall we?”

  Ketsuki doesn’t take the hand and they both leave the room again.

  A lot of people gather in the arena. It has concrete floors and walls, a diameter of around 40m and is caged off at the top.

  An announcer shouts: “WEEEEEELCOMMEEE EVERYBODYYYY!!! TO THE MONTHLY RED NIGHT BEATDOWN!!”

  The crowd cheers loudly and the girls are a little overwhelmed by all the noise.

  Erika mumbles to herself: “Tons of people with wild hair and hair colours and fairly revealing clothes on both men and women chanting like that… You can see so many people with cybernetic enhancements… This is a completely different world to what I’ve seen on my travels! It tickles my fingers to examine those enhancements but I need to hold back! Fuck… this is paradise!”

  She drools a little.

  The announcer continues: “TODAY’S TOURNAMENT WILL START WITH A BATTLE ROYALE ROUND!! WE NEED TO WEED OUT A LOT OF PARTICIPANTS!! OF THE 43 PEOPLE STANDING DOWN THERE, 8 WILL MAKE IT TO THE DUEL PHASE!!!”

  The people keep cheering loudly and Raiden waves into the viewer crowd. Ketsuki looks around, mumbling “weak” in repetition until someone catches his eye. There stands a man with a shiny colour blend of pink and orange in his hair who is also waving into the crowd.

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  “He’s strong.”

  “WITHOUT FURTHER ADO… LET THE BATTLE ROYALE BEGIN!!”, the announcer shouts.

  Everyone above the arena cheers extra strongly and the participants start fighting wildly. It’s absolute chaos.

  Atsume points at many people and shouts: “You see this Eri-chan?! They’ve got blades coming out of their arms!”

  She hangs on Erika who is also incredibly invested.

  Raiden gets a touch on his shoulder and some buff older man says: “This ain’t the place for a twink like you. Don’t mind me but I’ll kick your ass outta here.”

  Raiden doesn’t get to reply and the man expands his arms into an entire arsenal of blades. He attacks Raiden who looks really surprised, trying to slice him up but Raiden grabs one of the blades, stopping its movement instantly and breaking it with sheer force. He then punches the guy’s face and flings him into the concrete wall of the arena.

  “Sorry pal, but cybernetic stuff like that doesn’t hold a candle to people with powers… and it’s super scary too.”

  He shivers a little and then turns back to the others.

  Ketsuki actively approaches people. He uses his threads to block people from even expanding their enhancements and defeats three people. He then gets ganged up by a group of four and they get a few hits on him. Ketsuki then locks in for a moment, punching one guy’s face and another right after. Before the other two could react, he does a handstand and spins around, kicking the others away too. He stands back up and suddenly, everyone is scared to approach him.

  The strong guy he saw is being approached by someone with a huge build. He has gigantic muscles, filled to the brim with cybernetic enhancements and prepares a strong punch right into the man’s face. The man narrowly dodges and then throws the entire person over his shoulders. He punches the other guy once who then falls unconscious.

  The announcer shouts: “AND THAT’S OUR CHAMPION!!”, everybody cheers louder than before, “ENZOU, THE MAN WHO IS ON A WINNING STREAK OF 17 MONTHS HAS FOUND HIS FIRST BLOOD IN THIS TOURNAMENT!!!”

  Both Raiden and Ketsuki separately get distracted by him as he raises his fist in a spectacular manner. They don’t notice how everyone around them has fallen.

  The announcer shouts more: “STOOOOPPP!!! THAT’S IT FOR THE BATTLE ROYALE ROUND OF THIS TOURNAMENT!! WE’VE GOT 8 PEOPLE LEFT!! PLEASE GO INTO THE WAITING ROOMS UNTIL THE DUEL PHASE STARTS!!”

  Raiden, Ketsuki and Enzou leave the arena through a gate. A man with chin-length, black hair and violet tips, an Ocriba with purple tentacles, a really short but muscular orange man, a humanoid person made of tree branches and a man with nunchucks leave the arena as well.

  Raiden and Ketsuki enter the same changing room again and Raiden says energetically: “Whoa! That was fun and thrilling! …And? Did you find someone stronger than me?”

  Ketsuki replies: “Yeah, that champion. His name is Enzou and he is stronger than even me at the moment.”

  Raiden notices something weird: “You know, you seem kinda quick to judge someone’s strength. Why is that?”

  Ketsuki replies: “Because I simply have that ability. I can tell exactly how strong someone is compared to me by looking at them for one good moment without fail.”

  Raiden is surprised: “Wow! That’s an impressive ability to have! Any exact things you can tell me about that Enzou guy?”

  Ketsuki replies excitedly: “All I’ll tell you is… that I want to fight him!”