Anna appeared within a small room, faint, flickering light entering from outside. With a quick look around, she realized that it was barely a room.

  More like an alcove, really.

  Following the light outside, she entered a hallway that led to a wider room that connected to more hallways with what she guessed were more alcoves like the one she had appeared in.

  “Are those lights mimicking a flickering light?” she mumbled. “What is the deal with my family?

  Just like she had, people began to exit from every hallway that she could see.

  Looking around, she quickly managed to make Alex out in the distance. His figure was incredibly distinct to her eye. He wasn’t uniquely tall, at least not in this new world, but she knew what to look for to identify all her friends.

  Alex seemed to have also recognized her and both of them began to make their way toward each other at almost the exact same time.

  However, Alex came to a sudden stop, and nodded, as if understanding something. Anna furrowed her brow, curious about what was happening, but after she blinked, Alex was gone.

  She was about to panic and rush over to where he had been, but soon she saw more and more people begin to vanish as well.

  None of them looked particularly troubled, Anna thought. I guess that means that it’s nothing to be worried about. For now, anyways…

  “What is this about?” someone beside Anna asked.

  “My question exactly,” Anna mumbled as she glanced around, looking for any clues.

  Then, a screen appeared before her.

  Please prepare, your matches will be ready shortly.

  With that simple message, Anna understood what was going on.

  We’re probably at some preparation area, right before we enter the arena. She looked around, her sights setting on a stone bench near one of the walls. Who knows how long this will take, better be rested and ready for it, though.

  “These fights better be worth it,” Anna said, anticipation building within her as she walked.

  When she was about to sit, a message appeared before her:

  Match ready.

  Continue: Yes/No

  ----------

  Anna opened her eyes to find herself in a small, rectangular arena. With a quick glance she confirmed that every side of the small arena was covered in the same foggy walls that had been erected between each of the sections.

  “I know this is the arena stage. Why the secrecy?” she asked while looking at the sky.

  When her head fully tilted, she saw the edge of something directly above her. Taking a few steps back, she made it out clearly thanks to its inclination. It’s a screen, probably projecting each of the battles for everyone to see.

  Ten!

  A floating number appeared before her, accompanied by a robotic and emotionless voice. Quickly, Anna fixed her posture and set her sights on her opponent.

  Through a quick assessment, she noticed her opponent’s more noticeable features. They were taller and wider than her, and that was as far as her assessment went before her attention was drawn to something far more obvious about them.

  “They’re covered in fur…” she muttered to herself.

  Before her was a tall and furry person with wide shoulders and a tail. The fur was almost the color of rust, and it didn’t have any patterns. They wore simple and loose clothing, barely better than what you saw peasants wear in movies.

  Anna tried to discern more about her opponent, like age, but everything eluded her. Is this what the stories meant by saying that other species were always hard to discern?

  Seven!

  While she was still bewildered by her opponent’s appearance, more people appeared beside them. She was now facing a total of 5 people; her original furred opponent, a human, two more furred opponents and what she was sure was an elf.

  Four!

  Her eyes glued to her opponents, Anna barely reacted when she heard a slight whirl on both sides of her. She didn’t even have to turn to know that more fighters had appeared beside her.

  My team, probably.

  Two!

  Hearing the announcement, Anna quickly regained what little composure she had lost and tried to summon her sword, only to lose all composure entirely when she felt a strong rejection.

  At first, she thought that the rejection came from her storage ring.

  Maybe my command wasn’t correct, I did give it in a hurry after all, she told herself.

  When she repeated the command, this time clearer than before, she felt the rejection once more.

  But this time, she had been fully aware of what she did. Following the mana that traveled into her storage ring and the command that accompanied it, she saw the true cause of the problem. The rejection came from the sword itself.

  “What?!” she exclaimed with surprise.

  One!

  Begin!

  Taking advantage of her flustered state, or maybe even having missed it entirely since emotions might not translate between species, her opponents lunged at her.

  The one with rust colored fur briefly lowered themselves to all fours, only to dig their front claws into the ground and launch themselves with even greater speed and power.

  While flustered, Anna was more than capable of analyzing and reacting appropriately.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  By the time her opponent reached her, or at least where she had been, she had sidestepped. She instinctively tried to swing her sword, a bit of hope within her that it would appear mid swing, only to fail at doing so when it once again refused to be summoned.

  Another of her opponents noticed that she had made some kind of mistake, and while they were unaware of what had caused said mistake, they wouldn’t waste the opportunity that presented itself before them.

  With dagger in hand, the red skinned elf lunged at Anna’s leg, clearly aiming to immobilize her.

  But to the elf’s great misfortune, Anna’s prowess went beyond the sword. With a slight tilt to the side, Anna quickly raised her leg, stomping down on the blade of the dagger with incredible precision.

  The elf couldn’t even marvel at the act that a flustered Anna had done because immediately after her dagger was caught, a spear pierced their skull at an odd angle, killing them instantly.

  With a savage swipe that aimed at her face, Anna was momentarily brought out of her daze.

  She had barely been able to lift her right arm up in time to defend herself. The claws tore through her flesh, immediately causing a river of blood to flow through the five gashes that now marred her arm. Though, this still did little to get her to focus on the match.

  Third time’s the charm, she said to herself as she once more tried to summon her sword.

  This time it wasn’t a simple request to her storage ring to bring forth her sword, it was coupled with a direct command to her sword to come out. She could feel the sword struggling to react and ultimately refusing both her command and the storage ring’s efforts to eject it from within itself.

  “Fuck.”

  ----------

  From within the stands, Stella observed Anna as she struggled to bring her weapon forth.

  “Her weapon is incredibly broken,” she mumbled, her words barely audible. “I doubt that there is anyone that knows just how broken her sword is other than her family. So, it makes sense that its use is restricted. The problem is that I’ve never seen Anna store any other weapon. Still, what are you waiting for, Anna?”

  “On the other hand,” Ed said, interrupting her thoughts. “Alex already finished his fight,” he added, pointing at a floating screen that showed Alex vanishing once more.

  “How did he do?”

  “His opponents were mostly green looking humans who used a bow with a mix of mana and real arrows,” Ed said, gesturing the motions of a bow. “They were good. All the mana arrows went for the same spot, and they were fast, but Alex just blew his way through. Once he was close enough, it was over. His teammates were barely able to do anything.”

  “Green humans? Like those?” Stella asked, pointing at the stands to her left.

  Squinting since he couldn’t see as well as Stella could, Ed nodded.

  “Did they not put up a fight when Alex got close?” Stella asked.

  “They—”

  “No, they didn’t,” Alex said, approaching from behind and interrupting Ed. “Well, they did, but barely. It’s clear that at least the ones I fought—which are clearly elves, by the way—specialized in ranged combat.”

  “Did you only see elves?” Stella asked, curious.

  “As opponents? Yes,” Alex answered. “But as teammates no. There was one that looked like a fox, and this huge, robed person. Pretty sure that they’re from over there” He gestured toward the stands on the other side of the arena, where he could make out similarly worn-out robes.

  “Ok,” Stella said, considering. “And where did you go?”

  “Underneath the arena,” Alex answered, pointing down. “You can leave when you’re done with your match. And from what an attendant told me, from here on out, some time before their match is up, the contestants will have the option to either directly appear on the stage or go underground beforehand.”

  “What’s the point of the underground area if its optional?” Stella asked.

  “The underground has an increased regeneration effect for both healing and mana,” Alex answered with a smile. “It might even have a calming effect, but I’m not entirely sure. But enough about that, how’s Anna doing?”

  “I guess it makes sense. You can’t really have an effect like that going on everywhere. Or can you…” Stella said, ideas forming in her head as she remembered the hub upgrades, before she quickly came back down from her musings and answered. “Anna? She’s right there, have a look for yourself.”

  Alex furrowed his brow, seeing how Anna was just dodging as she clutched her wounded arm. “What’s wrong with her? Why isn’t she bringing her sword out? Or fighting at all.”

  ----------

  Since the windows not only showed the fight but even had the name of those that were fighting, it was easier for those that were watching to identify the fighters.

  “It’s her,” the young man with the katana said, a vicious grin on his face.

  “Who?” the man in his fifties asked.

  “The blade of Solace. We were right, she is the Korean.”

  “How can you tell,” the man asked, not doubting, but merely curious.

  “Each of the three chosen children was given a special sword. Each one of them held a unique concept… or they were concepts… I don’t actually know that much about how they crafted them, but they were strong.”

  “And?”

  “An even greater concept is being used to keep her weapon in check, preventing its appearance. Or maybe, it’s more like overriding? Anyway, look,” the young man with the katana said, his eyes peeled. “There… and there. Did you notice?”

  “No, I didn’t.”

  The young man groaned, “You really need to up your conceptual power knowledge.”

  “I will when I get one.”

  “Sure,” the young man answered with a knowing gaze. “Anyways… She keeps trying to summon her sword from storage with both the normal method and with her unique connection to the sword, but every time, her request gets overwritten by a higher concept. The arena itself is probably imbued with it, stopping the special children from having too much of an advantage.”

  “And they weren’t told in order to see how they would react to the unexpected situation,” the older man added, seeing the thought process.

  “Yes! Now you’re starting to think like the old man,” the young man said, snapping his fingers. “Realistically, it would only work once and on a single person. But something tells me that she was the target all along.”

  “Interesting,” the older man said, crossing his arms as he fixed his gaze on Anna’s fight.

  “Right?” the young man asked with clear excitement in his voice.

  Beside the two, sat a black haired, young woman, whose eyes kept shifting from screen to screen with incredible speed.

  ----------

  While she was struggling to summon her weapon, Anna hadn’t been completely defenseless, or at all for that matter, she only appeared that way.

  Anyone who had been paying attention would have noticed, the problem was, that during the heat of battle, it was hard to pay attention.

  It was how, through her repeated dodging, while clutching her wounded arm, she had managed to direct her opponent toward the edge of their small arena, and with a mana reinforced leap, she had boxed her opponent in. The same opponent that had wounded her to begin with.

  That being said, the dodging served two purposes, one was the obvious entrapment of her opponent and the other was to create time.

  She didn’t need much, a second or two at most, but having already seen what her opponent was physically capable of, she needed to guarantee those few seconds, otherwise the damage she would receive would be more than she was willing to allow.

  Letting her arm go, as if she had never felt pain to begin with, she took a small breath and gathered herself. With her gaze set on her opponent, she extended her wounded right arm, completely horizontal and pointing toward her opponent.

  Her opponent, sensing that something was about to happen, stopped whatever they were about to do immediately, backing away as they lifted both arms in defense, quickly hitting the wall.

  Anna lifted her arm completely vertical, and the air around her changed, turning cold like steal.

  At this point, only three others remained in the arena. Two from Anna’s team, and one from her opponent’s, and they all stood still, unsure of what was about to happen.

  ----------

  Rust covered fur stood on end as Anna’s opponent braced themselves, ready for the impact that their instincts told them was headed their way, but it never came.

  When they opened their eyes, lowering their guard, they saw something completely different than they expected.

  A simple fist was making its way toward their face, and yet, they knew they had lost.

  ----------

  Anna had at no point been worried about losing the fight. She was flustered because of the way her sword was acting, and the reason she needed some time was to merely test something.

  With her hand raised to the sky, she felt her conceptual power of sharpness starting to form, like an invisible blade. And that was all she needed to confirm.

  If my control over the concept is still there, then that means that only my sword is being restricted. Good to know.

  With her doubts dissipated and her mind clear, she was now ready to join the fight in earnest. Channeling mana to her legs, she darted forward, much faster than her opponent had.

  When her opponent lowered their guard to see what had happened, Anna stopped right before them, her stance firm as her fist traveled forward, directly toward her face like an unstoppable force.

  The next sound that was heard was a soft thud as Anna’s opponent, who she still didn’t know the name of, hit the foggy division that had been erected, falling unconscious.

  ----------

  “You can help me win?” Jeff asked, his lips trembling.

  “Yes,” the voice answered.

  “How? Have you seen them? They’re all monsters,” Jeff said, his trembling increasing as he remembered the brief period of free for all killing.

  “It’s but a small effort for me,” the voice said, their voice suddenly sounding far away.

  “It is?”