Scrimmage

It wasn't as big of a crowd as the first arena game, but it was still a decent amount of people in the stands which seemed to have shrunk along with the rest of the arena to a slightly smaller size than when he last entered the arena.

The first few team games had gone by fairly quickly, usually with one team wiping out the other almost immediately. The arena was a small village that had changed every match so no one could get used to it, but aside from the layout of the structures, the general type of town-environment remained the same for each match.

"Let's hope we don't see the guys from the first match later in the tournament." Gilt said, eyes still locked on the magic broadcasting screen. Kaos figured he was actually talking more to himself than anybody else and felt at least a little relieved that he wasn't the only nervous one.

The loud bell rang, and the gang grabbed their weapons and headed into the arena. The familiar golden sand glowed at the top of a tower similar to the one he had seen at the last arena game, but this one was much thinner.

[ROUND: 5/10]

"We get one shot at this scrimmage," Kaos said, looking at the other three members of his team, "so let's do our best to-" before he could finish his sentence, the sand once again swallowed him from beneath.

[ENVIRONMENT: RUINED TOWN]

"I was at least right about the 'town' part" Kaos thought to himself.

[WILL YOU LET OTHERS HAVE YOUR GLORY?]

[OR WILL YOU TAKE IT FOR YOURSELF]

"So the arena is getting inspirational now?" Kaos mumbled inside the dark sand cube.

Something was different about these messages in a strangely familiar way, but he didn't have time to dwell on it, because at that moment, the sand thrust him back up to the surface.

This time he managed to land on his feet, as he looked around he saw Vasai standing close by, as well as Gilt and Nolly who had evidently not landed on their feet and were in the process of getting up. The environment was indeed that of a ruined sandstone village, mostly consisting of small huts near them, but after a quick survey of their surroundings, he noticed that it still contained a few larger and taller structures more towards the middle.

The bell rang, snapping Kaos's brain back into combat mode.

"Gilt, we need to get you up on that watchtower." He said, pointing at one that didn't seem too far away. "It's a bit risky, but take the rooftops closest to us and keep a lookout to make sure we don't get flanked."

Gilt thought for a moment, seeming to evaluate the risk of Kaos's plan, then swiftly jumped on top of a building using his wish.

"If my Wish was like that, I'd already be in the Dek class." Kaos mumbled to himself. "We gotta keep up with him!" he said, this time in an audible tone, before jogging after Gilt, who was moving at a startling pace across the rooftops.

Gilt evidently saw something, and motioned for the group to stop. He quietly landed beside them, unnecessarily showcasing the stealth functionalities of his Wish.

"We're going to need a plan B", he whispered, "Somebody is already climbing the watchtower."

"So if they aren't stupid, the rest of them are nearby." Kaos whispered back, a little worried.

At that moment there was a loud clang behind Kaos, who whipped around to see Vasai blocking an attack from another student's short sword. Evidently while the other three had been coming up with a backup plan, he had been actually paying attention to his surroundings.

"Good save!" Kaos called before quickly drawing the crossbow from his side and aiming it at the enemy who was a little too close to Vasai for Kaos to comfortably take a shot. "There's probably two more here and one still in the watchtower, so watch each other's backs!"

Vasai was driving back the student that had ambushed him, causing her to fight much more defensively, favoring the usage of her small shield. Another student had come out from behind another building and had managed to knock Nolly to the ground using a morningstar.

Kaos pivoted to the tall, morningstar wielder and fired a shot from Mallyjax's crossbow, missing, but coming close enough to cause the student to dive behind a broken wall for cover.

"I'll keep him pinned down!" Gilt yelled, firing an arrow at the wall the student was hiding behind.

Kaos ran to get a better shot on the student Vasai was fighting, but wasn't confident enough in his aim to not hit Vasai.

"I got this one! Help Nolly!" Vasai yelled, still somehow maintaining his casual tone while kicking his opponent's shield and causing her to stumble.

Kaos turned around and realized that another student had already begun an onslaught on the now standing Nolly who was fending off most of the attacks, but still not faring as well as Vasai.

"Keep the other one pinned down, I'll help her!" Kaos called to Gilt who was now perched on top of the building he had recently hopped off of.

Kaos didn't bother looking for an angle to use the crossbow, and instead drew his short sword and charged at the enemy who took a few steps back and twirled his spear in preparation to combat multiple opponents.

Nolly took a few swipes at him using her halberd, and it was enough distance for Kaos to fire his crossbow using his other hand. This time, the bolt hit, smacking into the student's shoulder and knocking him off balance momentarily, but still leaving him standing.

There were footsteps to his right, the morningstar wielder was now rushing at Kaos and only left him with enough time to partially parry the strike with his short sword. The morningstar had too much power in it though, and knocked the short sword out of Kaos's hand.

"You were supposed to be keeping him pinned down!" Kaos yelled, stealing a glance at Gilt's rooftop, only to see him falling off of the rooftop with a massive arrow protruding from his chest, the size of which would have required at least a small ballista to fire.

Gilt hit the ground and his body vanished into sand particles.

Kaos dodged another swing and fired a half-aimed crossbow shot at his opponent, missing, but giving him just a moment to think.

"There's still one in the watchtower!" he yelled, "Stay close to the buildings!"

Vasai clearly had his opponent on the ropes, but Kaos didn't know if he and Nolly were even going to last that long against the remaining two, especially with the threat of more ballista shots.

"FIGHT THEM!" the voice in Kaos's head screamed as he fired a shot almost point blank into his opponent's side. While it was a substantially damaging shot, the only reason the student hadn't dodged his aim was because the morningstar was mid swing. So while Kaos did land a fantastic blow on his opponent, the morningstar also hit him, sending him reeling to the ground in a daze.

Kaos struggled to get up, hearing a thud accompanied by a short yell from Nolly that ended a little too abruptly. He had hoped she got rid of her already wounded opponent, but he figured the ballista hit her before that, she was definitely a pile of sand now, and it was two against four.

"FIGHT THEM ALL!" the voice yelled, giving unrealistic advice.

Kaos finished getting his bearings, and began to run towards Vasai. They had to at least group up or they were finished and would have gotten wiped out just like all the other wannabes.

"You're our showstopper!" Kaos yelled, flicking his wrist, and activating his wish on Vasai.

"NO!" The voice screamed again, "NOT LIKE THIS!"

Kaos almost deactivated his wish instinctively due to the voice's sudden vehement objection, but shook his head and kept running towards Vasai, maintaining the activation of the halo and wings.

Kaos still hadn't reached Vasai by the time he overpowered his opponent. While Vasai still hadn't fully grasped how to use the wings, he understood the regeneration of the halo, and put all his effort into attacking, quickly turning his opponent to sand with a few well placed stabs from his miniature lance.

"It's just us now!" Kaos yelled as Vasai turned around and began to float using the wings.

"Oh if you can keep me like this, then we're gonna be fine." Vasai laughed before using the wings to burst past Kaos and begin a flurry of attacks on his pursuers, immediately finishing off the one that Kaos had managed to shoot in the shoulder.

They were going to win.

"NOT LIKE THIS!" the voice in his head screamed, causing Kaos to doubt himself again.

"Maybe I'm just playing the role of a support, but winning is winning." He grunted back to the voice, trying to convince himself that he wasn't also a little disappointed with how poorly he did in the actual combat.

"Just the last one in the watchtower." Vasai called, launching himself off of the ground towards the tower with the remaining enemy.

A brick landed near Kaos's feet, then another, then another. Kaos glanced upwards to see where this sudden rain of sandstone bricks were coming from, and saw something that only would have made sense in the arena, the sand had begun rising behind him, and in doing so had tossed a small ruined sandstone building up into the air.

He didn't know if it was panic or sheer confusion that made him freeze, but he didn't have time to think of that, because everything went black.

As his body reformed in the sandy cube, the first and only thing he saw were the letters made of golden sand.

[NOT LIKE THIS]