"Say it louder,

" Noah whispered into his ears, like a demon in someone's sleep.

"We surrender, please don't kill me!

" he said out loud, almost crying, before dropping to the ground trembling as Noah pulled his dagger away from his neck, breathing a sigh of relief.

'We almost lost this time…' Noah thought, as he saw the swordsman drop to the ground. He could've won using the imps or demon form, but that wasn't something he wanted to show off just yet. He looked around to see a couple of his companions being taken on stretchers, leaving few behind. But something he didn't expect happened.

"Are you retarded?! We were about to win, why didn't you just let yourself be taken out?

" the warrior who had the blessing of heating up his sword said angrily while walking towards Noah and the team leader.

Realizing this had nothing to do with him, Noah quickly walked away, taking his distance from the defeated leader and his angry teammate.

"Wait, you!

" he heard the enemy team leader's voice calling from behind as he got a haldful of meters away,

"What?

" he turned around with a poker face, wondering what this guy had to say to him at this point.

"I'll find you and her, and make both of you pay for this humiliation,

" the guy, who had stood up once again said while pointing at him angrily.

Noah, coulnd't really care less, and just sneered,

"Good luck, then. I'll be waiting.

" Before turning his back towards the man and walk off to where those of his group still standing awaited him. The bearded warrior had went off to get healed, so only the scout, Michael and the healer remained, all others having had to go get some healing. Noah also silently ignored all the profanities yelled at him from behind by the guy from the other team, but he know he couldn't do anything against him at this time, so he just brushed it off as being a sore loser.

"Good luck there, it wouldn've been problematic if you didn't take care of him,

" Michael welcomed him as soon as he arrived, with a facial expression that made clear his discontent.

"I can't believe they pulled such a stunt… This will ripple a lot, I wonder whether the arena itself will be hurt in the long term.

" he muttered, making Noah's interest piqued.

"Did something happen?

" Noah asked, having not understood the whole picture yet.

"Yeah, those guys weren't C Rank Blessed…

" The scout exhaled, tired.

"It's a miracle we managed to even hold them off. The only reason we even survived this fight is because you took out the flying blessed and Michael took the waterstringer, else it would've been impossible.

"

"Waterstringer?

" Noah asked, without losing his pokerface.

"That guy who she said used water strings to make blades, he's an infamous blessed in the underworld. He's known to have reached B Rank Blessed strength despite being a C Rank Blessed. His blessing is just too hard to predict and too lethal,

" Michael took his time to explain to Noah, as he put his bow aside.

"Those guys hired B Rank Blessed to fight with them. Almost half of their numbers were far beyond the average C Rank Blessed. I don't know why that flying blessed woman ran away, but I'm glad she did.

" He ended his sentence with a shrug, which reassured Noah that while he did realize the truth, he also didn't care that the woman had died.

"That healer of theirs was C Rank Blessed, but there's some talk that she was a mercenary. To think any of the families would stoop this low for no reason.

"

Noah saw the scout and healer shaking their heads as they heard Michael, and just asked something he was curious about,

"So, that group was stronger than the one we'll be fighting next?

" But contrary to his expectations, Michael's face turned sour.

"I don't think so,

" he said while shaking his head.

"While there were some B Rank Peak blessed in this group, they had no relationship to one another, and never fought together. They weren't a team, per se.

"

"Long story short, the Hyu guys are also stupidly strong. And, to boot, we'll probably fight them with less people,

"the scout shrugged with a dejected expression.

"So, all we need is more people, isn't that it?

" Noah asked as a matter of fact, without as much as batting an eyelid.

"Are you… Oh, right, you have those imps!

" Michael stopped mid-sentence as he recalled something very important.

"… Why didn't we use them yet, by the way?

" the scout asked, looking at Noah with curiosity.

"One, because they are expensive to invoke.

" A blatant lie. But they didn't have to know that.

"And two, because we were trying to hide as much of my power as possible. We don't know what kinds of things the families are willing to pull off to look more powerful than each other, like what we just saw last fight,

" Noah started walking towards the stairs at the corner of the arena, while the scout and Michael accompanied him. One person, however, remained behind, thinking to herself.

"They got hurt…

" she muttered, just loud enough for Michael to pick up and stop both himself and Noah, while turning around.

"They got hurt because of it! Couldn't you just have used all your power and kept them safe?

" she asked, teary eyed, but before Noah could answer, Michael did it in his stead.

"This is an arena, people are bound to get hurt. If they don't want to risk it, they shouldn't join.

" Noah looked at him through the corner of his eye at the same time as he saw the healers mouth open and close a couple of times without saying a word. As Michael turned away and started walking away with the scout, Noah stood and watched as the healers tears slowly fell.

Noah stood, not walking away with the others, as the healer slowly stumbled forwards, almost falling. As Noah held her by the shoulders, stopping her from faceplanting, she started crying over the chestplate of his armor.

"Let's go, they'll start the next fight soon,

" he called her out, making her hold her tears back a little.

"Thank you…

" she said, while walking alongside him down the flight of stairs towards their team's waiting room. With the corner of his eyes, Noah saw as her hand extented itself, and was pulled back shortly after, flirting with the idea of grabbing his hand. He thought about the idea, but let it slide since this whole place was being recorded, but as he got into their room, he held her hand, just a bit, until she sat down and he sat across from her. Back where they were before.

'Now, I can finally check what that hability of hers gave me,' he thought, excitedly, as he opened the status, but someone's voice pulled him away from it.

"Noah, there's something we need to talk about.

" It was Michael's. Noah had already forgotten about what happened last fight, but Michael still wanted to know.

"It seems everyone is saying that the flying blessed on the other team took a run for it when you put her on fire, and that you worked with her to make it easier,

" he said while looking down.

"I don't believe it, not after hearing her scream like that. Now, Noah, tell me. There's only the four of us here. Where is that woman?

"

Noah had already guessed he would be probed about that sooner or later, but he didn't expect it to be Michael who would've asked him.

"Honestly, I don't know.

" Noah said, not knowing for sure which afterlife she'd gone to. But Michael wasn't satisfied with just that.

"Did she really escape those flames somehow? Did she teleport away?

" he asked, the pressure he was emanating told Noah that he better not lie this time, and just leave things to settle on their own.

"I don't think she did,

" Noah answered, making Michael sigh.

"Why the hell did you hold the flames back last fortress, then? That ** was amazing.

" Michael's answer surprised Noah quite a bit, he though Michael was angry he would have helped someone scam another person from the families, or killed her, but instead, Michael was angry because his flames were much stronger.

"Ah, but I didn't. My flames have a trait that they burn stronger or weaker against some people because of some parameter or something,

" Noah shrugged.

"I was also surprised to see how well she burned.

" Noah's straightfoward explanation made a smile appear on Michael's face, from knowing Noah had good intentions and hadn't held back his own power in a time of need, like againt the vampires.

"Good… Rather, great!

" Michael stood up.

"Now, us four can watch the Hyu family fight the semifinals while planning how to defeat them!

" Michael's spirit renewed, everything fell back in place, including the healer's normal behavior.

But one person wasn't happy in the slightest, and that person was Noah.

'But I wanna know already the hell that skill does! Why can't I have one free second to take a look at it!' he yelled inwards, as he over and over tried to look to the middle of nowhere, where his status was open in his field of view, only to have Michael call him out for dozing off.

'Bearded warrior, where the hell are you when I need you to keep him at bay?!'