Michelle Light.

"Join your team? Hm." Although Erik was prepared to fight when he got there, he had to admit that joining a team wasn't a bad idea. Especially since two of the three regulars remaining would be powerful allies. But, there was one problem he needed to address.

Turning towards the yellow-eyed girl, he said, "You, I'm still curious as to why they have you on their team. You don't seem like you're strong enough to be here at all."

The yellow-eyed girl didn't seem to take offense to Erik's words as she just smiled and responded calmly, "I know I'm weak, you don't need to tell me. The reason I'm on their team is not because of my strength, but my intelligence. My teammates are strong enough. So, as my teammate asked before, would you like to join our team?"

'She seems nervous but she's trying to put up a front. Though they might be good at strategizing, these "intelligent" types are usually selfish and disloyal. Hm, I'll watch her and see what happens...', Erik thought to himself. Giving it a bit more thought for a few seconds, Erik finally came to a fair conclusion.

Stabbing his sword into the ground, Erik looked at them intently and said, "Alright, this is what will happen. The three of you will fight against me so I can gauge how strong you are. We have about 3-4 minutes left so that should be enough."

"Hahahahaha!"

The girl that had asked him to join the team first laughed heartily at Erik's comment. It seemed like what she just heard him say was an absolute joke.

"You really think we're that weak huh? Fine, I'll handle you myself!"

WHOOSH!

The girl instantly boosted forward and attacked Erik with a punch without warning.

BOOM!

'Her physical strength is tremendous! But...'

Erik blocked the attack with both hands crossed and as if she took that as a challenge, the girl continued hitting his guard with a barrage of powerful punches. Although her hits were heavy, Erik could tell that she wasn't using her full power.

'Underestimating me will be her downfall.'

Erik concentrated his senses on the girl and accelerated his perception, causing him to see her moving in slow motion. As she was about to land another punch, Erik dodged to the side and with one swift motion, landed a roundhouse kick to her head.

'Niko Style: Ironbreaker'

He had already tensed his muscles in his feet since the battle started as he was looking to land a decisive blow at any moment. But unfortunately, the girl only got pushed back a bit. Erik raised his eyebrows in surprise when he noticed that she didn't get knocked out immediately.

'I noticed that most regulars I fought before had high attack power but low durability. This one seems to be an exception.'

Wiping the blood off of her mouth, the girl smirked and stared at Erik with a challenging look in her eyes.

"Heh, not bad. What's your name?"

"Call me Erik."

Pumping her fists together, the girl responded, "Such a boring name for such an interesting guy. My name is Androssi Jahad. I'm a princess of Jahad!"

Erik was immediately interested when he heard her call herself a princess of jahad. He remembered that the girl who called herself Yuri was also a princess of Jahad.

"You know that tall girl Yuri? Is she your sister?"

Androssi's face twitched as her expression changed into one of annoyance.

"Y-yes, I know her..."

Although it seemed that Androssi wasn't on the best terms with Yuri, it didn't seem like they were enemies. Erik was glad to meet another princess of Jahad so soon. 'I've only seen two so far and they're both beautiful. I wonder how many there are...', Erik thought.

"Well, Erik, let's cut the pleasantries for now and continue figh-"

WHOOSH!

"EVERYBODY FREEZE! TIME IS UP! THOSE WHO SURVIVED PASSED THE TEST! THE ONES WHO PASSED WILL BE SENT TO THE NEXT WAITING SPOT!"

Androssi clicked her tongue and outstretched her hands to call back something looking like a hairpin that was floating behind Erik. He raised his eyebrow and thought, 'So while she was talking she sent a weapon to strike me from behind huh? Not bad...'

Erik picked up his sword and looked back at the yellow-eyed girl who he was still wary of.

"And you, what's your name?"

"Michelle Light."

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

A/N: Crown Game Explanation: The Crown Game is a Bonus Test that takes place on the Second Floor. With special rules, losing in this test carries no disadvantages in the following tests, unless one is injured during the battle. However, winning the game will give an automatic pass to the next Floor. The Crown Game is played in a large arena with a large throne in the middle on the Second Floor. The teams participating in the game start in the individual rooms and move to the center room to fight over the crown.

The goal of the Crown Game is to both steal and maintain possession of the crown.

Stealing the crown means wearing the crown and sitting on the throne. Possessing the crown means the person must maintain physical contact with both the crown and the throne.

In addition, the team member who actually steals the crown and sits on the throne cannot leave the throne for the rest of the duration of the game. If at any point that team member loses possession of the crown or comes off the throne before the game ends, that team loses the game.

The game lasts for 5 rounds and each round lasts either 10 minutes or until someone steals the crown. The team in possession of the crown at the end of the 5th round is the winner.

In each round, up to 5 teams can participate. The right to participate is determined by pushing a buzzer. The teams that push the buzzer first, get to participate in the round. If there is a tie at button pushing, the teams that participated in more rounds in the past gets to participate again. Teams that have possession of the crown automatically get to participate.

At any time during one of the rounds teams can forfeit the game by going back into their rooms.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

[About 30 minutes later]

"So what you're saying is a team can't consist of 4 people for this test, so I'll have to choose teammates from the people who will fail the first few rounds of the crown game? That's a huge disadvantage."

Erik was extremely annoyed at his current situation as he stood facing a tall yellow-haired man named Lero-Ro. Looking nonchalant, the man responded, "This is just part of your 'luck'. If you don't do this, you can't participate in the crown game nor the coming tests. Think about your answer carefully."

Erik rubbed his head in frustration as he heard the situation he was in. Initially, when he got to the waiting area and noticed that everyone else was in teams of 3, a bad feeling started came over him. Now that he was told that he had to leave the team he was in, Erik confirmed exactly what he thought. Furthermore, all of this hassle was caused by an irresponsible test administrator, the same one in charge of his last test.

"Tch! I'll choose two teammates from the ones who fail then. I can't afford to fail here just because of this setback."

Lero-ro seemed to be happy that Erik chose this route and sent him into a room by himself where he can watch the game. Whenever a team gets disqualified, he would be able to pick whoever he wants from it.

It was disadvantageous because his teammates would already be tired or injured and the longer the rounds go on, the higher the chance that a team who participated early would steal the crown.

But, it did have its advantages. Even if another team takes the crown, they would also be injured/tired from all the fighting. Meaning that if Erik plays it smart enough, he could just let them fight it out among themselves and come in to sweep the rewards at the end.

It was a good plan but Erik was sure that almost every team thought about that exact strategy. The real difference was Erik actually had the capabilities to fight the strongest regulars in the test, something most of the other teams lacked.

"NOW! THE CROWN GAME BEGINS! I WILL COUNT TO FIVE, SO THE TEAMS THAT WANT TO PARTICIPATE MUST PRESS THE BUZZER DURING THE COUNT! ONE! TWO! THREE! FOUR! FIVE!"

BUZZ! BUZZ!

Erik watched carefully as two teams stepped out in the open. Just from first glance though, he could tell which ones would win.

'And now, it begins.'