The arena was packed, many people sat in the stands awaiting epic fights.
16 hand-picked monsters of men and women stood in the four blocks.
It was easy enough to understand. Just single elimination, then a final four-man round-robin where winner of block 1 fights block 2, and block 3 winner fights block four.
The prize pool was obscene.
The betting pool was even more obscene.
And I, registered as the irrelevant name "Reiji," had 60-to-1 odds in the first round.
Perfect.
From the stands came a chorus I never asked for.
"Teacher! Win and buy me cake!"
"Jirei-kun, do your best~!
Eight academy brats plus Char, all waving like lunatics.
I gave a lazy wave back, then sighed inside the flower-hell that was the Hanamegane.
Princess Elena was apparently in the royal booth today.
Some poor organizer had cried actual tears begging me to wear it.
So here I was, looking like a walking bouquet.
The announcer's female voice then announced the fighters.
"First match of Block A!
Entering from the west gate,
The abyssal scourge himself, S-class reaver Surge Thalor—unconquered force of oblivion, runner-up in last year's quarterfinals where he unmade the Ironclad Syndicate in a single rift! —versus... uh..." The female ref pauses, as if she's confused. "D-class entrant Reiji Lago. No known feats. Just... here he is."
There was murmured chattering, a few weak claps, probably coming from Char and the 8 kids I taught recently. Most of it was jeers and boos. But not like I cared. To be honest, I didn't even want to be here.
The ref raised her hand higher, ensuring the duel. Oh before I start "No killing. Everything else goes. Begin!"
Surge didn't budge at first. He just grinned, a slash of teeth like shattered midnight. "Well, well. Look what the alley dragged in. A D-class gnat, stumbling into the big leagues."
He cracked his knuckles. "Heard you registered last minute, boy. No guild, no gear. What, did they pity-prize you in? Figures— they probably thought you'd make good target practice."
Reiji shifted his weight, eyes downcast. He sighed, a sound lost in the heckles. "Yeah... something like that." He straightened a little, forcing a weak shrug. "Look, I get it. Gotta keep going in this thing. Tourney rules, right? But... man, an S-class like you? This is gonna be rough for a weakling D-ranker. "
The crowd hooted—Oooohs laced with scorn. A beer-bellied enforcer in the front row slapped his knee: laughing. Surge threw his head back and laughed as well. "Weakling? D-rank? Boy, you're not even a warm-up. You're the joke they tell to loosen the ropes. I've crushed archmages, toppled dragon-lords. You? You're the guy who trips over his own feet in the qualifiers."
He stepped forward, channeling his mana. "Beg me, gnat. Beg, and maybe I'll make it quick. One swing, and you're fertilizer for the rooftop gardens."
Reiji's shoulders slumped further. He raised his palms in surrender, voice cracking just enough to sell the desperation. "Please, Surge. Just... finish it already. I don't wanna drag this out. One hit, yeah? Make it snappy. I've got a nap scheduled after this."
The arena erupted in laughter—harsh, derisive. Bets flashed on the spectator screens: Surge in 12 seconds. Payouts for a Reiji "miracle"? 120-to-1.
Surge's grin widened into something predatory. "Pathetic. Fine—your end's already written." He planted his feet, veins bulging like cracks in obsidian under his skin. Mana surged through him, a shadowed roar building in his chest. The air split—dimensional rifts opened like fractures in the night, black voids rimmed with writhing edges. From the depths, they came: Abyssal Krakens, colossal tentacles uncoiling from the portals, each sucker a maw of void-teeth, eyes like devoured stars glowing with eldritch famine. The crowd gasped, then cheered—this was why they crammed the annual pop-up pit. Surge's signature: The Void Call, a cataclysm that had swallowed legions—and a move that felled last year's breakout star in the quarters.
One kraken lashed out, coiling toward Reiji with the force to unravel souls. Another portal bloomed behind him, ready to drag him into the lightless between. Surge flexed, the rifts widening, the air humming with the krakens' thunderous howls. "Vanish into nothing, D-rank!"
And then—nothing.
Surge's eyes bulged. The portals flickered. A kraken tentacle spasmed mid-air, its glow dimming like a snuffed void. "Wait... my portal's closing? My mana's depleted? What's happening?"
Panic cracked his voice, his mana drained, impossible, gone. He wheezed, staggering forward, one hand outstretched toward Reiji. "You... what did you—?" He then tried to summon his mana more, and a flicker of a weak portal was forming.
Reiji blinked, tilting his head like he'd expected more. With a lazy flick of his wrist, he flicked. Not a punch, not a spell—just a casual shoo. Surge's massive frame launched, airborne in a blur, crashing over the ring's barrier in a tangle of limbs and bent girders. He hit the spectator sands with a thud that rattled nearby drones, out cold before he skidded to a halt.
Silence. Then—
Boooooo!
The crowd's roar turned sour, boos cascading down like a blackout wave. "What the hell was that?" a guild thug bellowed from the lower tiers, spilling his nachos in rage.
"Surge—the guy who upset the Dragon-Lord finals last year, used too much mana and it kicked him out of the ring?" The beer-bellied enforcer chucked his half-drunken beer at the ring, it splattering the ref's boots: "Anticlimactic as a blackout during rush hour—where's my rift apocalypse? I skipped traffic for this?!"
Boos rippled through the arena while the ref stammered into her charm: "A... a masterful upset? No, wait—technical?" Surge Thalor... disqualified? Block D advances... Reiji Lago? Folks, stay tuned—that was... weird."
Reiji scratched his head, stepping back to his corner as the ref hesitantly raised her arm.
"Huh. Guess that counts." He glanced at the exit tunnel, where shadows of the next fighters loomed. Tough road ahead, or so they'd say. For a D-class like him? Just another Tuesday.
As Reiji walked off arena his students, who knew what he was capable of, cheered him on.