Maybe it was only because Technoblade still managed to look quite intimidating while half-dead on his feet, but Mel agreed to let him come spectate.

There was also an upside to having spent so much time in and around the armory the past few days. Nobody would blink an eye at Techno being there, even when he wasn't gearing up to partake in the upcoming match himself. Ranboo looked sorely out of place by comparison, especially since he seemed unable to straighten his spine or stop fiddling with his hands. It drew more than a few gazes.

"Stop squirming," Technoblade advised him, "You're drawing too much attention." It sounded harsher than he meant it, but it was for the Ranboo's own good.

"R-right." Ranboo locked his hands around his waist instead, but his twitchy tail gave him away. Techno was almost tempted to step in and ask to be let into the ring after all when Mel returned.

"Okay, so the good news is I managed to shuffle some match-ups around. You're in the preliminaries." He waved a piece of paper around as he spoke.

Techno hunched back, using the wall as a brace. The worst of his worries had been Ranboo taking on whoever he was originally meant to go up against, forcing the enderman to go straight into the main event. Preliminaries meant no killing, only downing your opponent. Preliminaries meant no risk of Ranboo dying. This was good.

"What's the bad news?" he asked.

"They're starting in three minutes and today's another battle royale style. No time for armor, just grab a sword and get your ass out there. Try not to be the first one to go down." The last words were directed at Ranboo who - to his credit – managed to draw himself from a stunned state rather quickly.

"Oh! Oh, that's not a lot of time, okay- Was kinda hoping for some preparation."

"You don't need preparation," Techno said, following him as Ranboo gathered up one of the blunted swords and then walked towards the arches. They could see the audience beyond, forming one tide of unrecognizable faces. "It's just Hypixel again. You're probably a stronger fighter than half the people out there."

Ranboo let out an undignified chuckle bordering more on a squeak. "And what about the other half?"

"Well, you don't gotta be stronger than them. Just smarter."

The starting shot seemed to physically rattle Ranboo, shoulders shaking before locking into place. He swallowed uneasily and Techno gave him a final pat on the back disguised as him pushing Ranboo forwards into a walking motion. As soon as he started moving though, he didn't look back. All tension fell from Ranboo as easily as shedding a cloak and his tail had gone from nervous swaying to a defensively straightened in an instant.

Technoblade smiled.

A peculiarity often observed on the battlefield, this was something he had seen countless times before on rookie recruits. As if they had a separate mindset in everyday life that was more fearful, it seemed even the most nervous of amateurs could refind their steady hands and bravery when it mattered most. In the face of violence, they adapted to war easily. If they couldn't, they would die and weren't cut out to be soldiers after all.

And on a much smaller scale, professional fighters weren't that different. Ranboo changed visibly, slipping into something hardened and experienced. Whatever part of him that was still scared had to be shoved into a corner of his mind until after the fight was won.

(If you spent too much time in that state, maybe it became easier than being out of it. Maybe you tired of shifting between battle-weary and unprepared all the time and you forgot how to be vulnerable. Maybe you were no longer a part of the war as much as the war was a part of you. Technoblade would know all about that.

He was grateful Ranboo had not yet reached that point.)

The chaos of a one-for-all tournament made it hard for Technoblade to follow exactly what was happening, lacking the bird's eye viewpoint the audience did. It took him considerable effort to focus, keeping on the lookout for any blur of black-and-white he could tell. He watched as Ranboo used his skills to his advantage, moving quicker than a lot of his opponents due to his lithe frame.

They had been training before they were brought there. Techno might have underplayed his feelings over the matter – had smothered them in the guise of making certain all Syndicate members were equally able to protect themselves and others should they ever come to conflict. But that didn't diminish any pride he felt at seeing Ranboo put the tricks he'd learned from Techno to work in the arena.

The number of fighters still upright started to dwindle, until there was only a handful left. Ranboo moved slower. Techno narrowed his eyes, seeing the telltale signs of exhaustion. In that same position, he had been mindful of making this mistake – spending too much energy early on when battle royale fights tended to get drawn out longer. Still, the odds of Ranboo winning weren't slim. He was doing well.

He was doing great, until the person that currently faced him down grinned.

Techno had seen them staring at Ranboo intently before the match. But he'd written it off as just another curious onlooker, somebody who'd never seen an enderman hybrid before and was trying to gauge their competition. Turned out that was exactly what they had been doing, as they proceeded to draw a bottle from their pocket.

And it was almost a little too similar to what the spiteful man had done to Techno with his potion of blindness. Turned out Ranboo wasn't the only one who was picking up on new tricks.

The liquid inside was not as dangerous as a potion could be at first glance, clear and almost making Techno mistake it for empty from a distance. He could tell where the sun caught in the water though, refracting the light.

For an enderman, it was much worse than any potion.

They thumbed open the cork that kept the bottle shut, using their momentum to launch its content in Ranboo's direction. With no armor to protect him, Techno could only watch as Ranboo raised his arm to shield his face from the worst of it. The thin fabric of his shirt soaked through completely.

Techno was too far away to see it, to hear it. But he could perfectly imagine the sound of Ranboo's skin melting off his flesh.

And he needed no imagination for the shrill cry that cut deep enough to cross the distance. Ranboo dropped onto the floor with a pitched scream, curled in on himself protectively. Technoblade pushed off from the wall before a firm grasp around his elbow stopped him. Mel shook his head near unnoticeably, urging Techno to stay put. The surge of energy that had seized him at seeing Ranboo hurt was already waning in the face of prolonged blood loss and his half-healed injuries, making him too aware of how much his body still hurt and how tired he was.

There was nothing Techno could do.

Besides, the man who had thrown the water had already moved on to another fighter. Within minutes the battle was over and they were declared victorious.

Technoblade managed to keep his calm. He kept it throughout Ranboo uncurling himself slowly when he realized the battle was over, kept it through him walking back into the armory with the muscles in his neck straining with how hard he was clenching his jaw, kept it through Mel's barely hidden worry and Ranboo waving him off and assuring him it was fine – he didn't need medical attention. Techno kept it up all the way until they were back in their cell, not having uttered a word to each other.

"Ah-" Ranboo hissed when he peeled his sleeves up, revealing the acid-burned flesh beneath. The wounds were red and glistening, turning gradually paler at their uneven edges before fading into his skin completely. His clothes clearly hadn't protected him at all, except maybe to keep the water from scalding even deeper than it already did. "That's not, hm, the best. Not the best, I think."

Techno held out his hands. "Show me?"

After a small blink of hesitation, Ranboo put his wrists in Techno's palms and let him inspect the burns.

Something bitter and spiteful tried to claw its way into the pit of his stomach but Techno pushed it away again.

"Get a piece of cloth and I could dab them with the potion, if you want?"

Ranboo pulled back a little too quickly for it to be ignored. "No, I- I don't want to make a big deal out of it."

I don't want you to know how badly it hurts, Techno's mind translated for him. I don't want you to use this to keep me out of the arena in the future.

That bitter and spiteful ball had turned into a clump of self-loathing rather quickly, there to remind him why this had happened. Whose fault this was in the first place. He shoed it away harder.

"Yeah, you're right. Doesn't look too bad." He forced himself to sit down, still dizzy. Weak. "And I mean, you did make top ten so, you know. Might be some hope for you yet."

Ranboo laughed feebly. "Good to know that training has been paying off."

Silence fell over them again and this time it was a lot less comfortable than before.