Enclosed, dark, cramped.

The room stood, a welcome respite from the world outside. From the towering ceilings that had seemed to stretch on to forever, and the golden expanse that had been large enough to swallow him whole.

From the chaos and slaughter that had stained the world red the first time he stood out.

For the first time since coming here, it felt almost like home. The same surety and comfort he had known all his life.

It surely would have been home, if only she was here.

Baam shifted awkwardly in the dimly lit room. Gazing out at the light at the edge.

And still it was not as bad as it could have been. Because beyond everything else, he wasn't alone again.

To his side, even more relaxed, Khun reclined against the wall. Gaze flickering out over the contestants, even as he played with a few loose strands of blue hair. That same inscrutable expression he had carried since the beginning. As though every scrap of information he took would be precious in the battle ahead.

And that he would never need it. That if he so wished it, he could toss it all away and still be fine.

By the gateway, the passage into the light Rak towered. An immense form, clad in armour, bound in a vibrant red cape that billowed in the wind. A mass of bulging muscle covered in brown scales that could overrun anything before him. Like a hero or a monster from one of Rachels stories of the world.

But beneath that Rak was more. Filled with an exuberance that dragged the whole world alongside him as he walked and carved out the future.

Like that, no matter where they would go, Baam would not be alone.

"We'll be heading out in the third round." Khun words came with a lazy certainty.

He nodded along, content in the wisdom of his friend. Half listening as the contingencies came forth, at a reasoning that went over his head.

Like that perhaps he even saw it first, rising to his feet before Khun. As the buzzer for the second match rung out. Rak standing triumphant as the light filtered in as the gate rose. "Come turtles, the future awaits."

"It could have waited another ten minutes easily enough." Khun rose despite his words. "And perhaps then we would have known what trump card was waiting in the wings, there is a merit to holding back for a moment."

Rak calmly nodded. "And then she would still be there all the same. This is the truth of the world Blue Turtle, all obstacles exist until I trample over them, so hunt well and know we will have already claimed the highest peak. Beyond that we need not fear any other."

Khun smirked. Frustration fading away into a confident swagger as he moved forward. "Then I guess you can play the bait if you want." And in the moment a blade appeared, resting easily at Khuns side even as he turned back to look at him. "Well, you can just rely on me for the moment, whatever happens I'll take care of it."

He hesitated. An unsure smile coming to his face as he slowly nodded. The tiny black needle he carried resting easily in his hand. "I'll do my best."

"He is strong." Rak's laugh reverberated through him. His overwhelming confidence like a force. "You should be more concerned with your own weakness blue turtle, fear that I alone might trample them without you getting the chance to act."

And they marched forward.

Five other attackers came forward. Heads held high.

Two defenders, against eight.

A samurai, swords resting lightly by his side even as his whole body tensed in preparation to move, and his friend in a jumpsuit, Lee Soo, unarmed and who had approached him so freely before the match, smiling in acknowledgement of their shared weakness.

The team to their left stood resolute, three people lead by a monster almost as tall as Rak himself. All armed and confident as they came to the fore.

The team on their right looked almost weak by comparison, of the two of them the girl had a small blade in her hand, and the man stood unarmed as they both advanced nervously. Almost like they lacked confidence entirely.

Realistically they should fight each other, there was only one prize and allowing anyone else to take it meant defeat. Yet with a glance both other teams fell into step beside them as they prepared to advance as one as one team.

Because above it all, the green lizard girl lounged like a tiny little doll swallowed up by the vastness of the throne, The final opponent that had effortlessly crushed those who came before looked down on them as though none of them could become a threat.

Could they?

If anyone could have been chosen, the Ranker had known she would be. Strength beyond reason and the confidence to run forward to go alongside it. The green hook in her hands had crushed all of them.

And a warmth came. Rising up from the Black March, even as that ghostly appearance of a girl appeared stepping past him. Soft voice whispering into his ear as time froze. "You shouldn't have tried to throw me away you know."

He winced, because she was right. He had promised he would return her. "I know I have to return you when the time comes."

A pout met him, her eyes running over him once again, "Can you? I could give you the strength that you need, all the power in the world if you wanted it and we'd stay together."

"I promised Yuri I would return you, you can't lie to girls or the ceiling will collapse." Rachel had told him that long ago.

"Ah that's unfair you look all cute when you get serious like that." She turned with a wan smile. " But prepare yourself, if you won't use me in the fight ahead… you'll die." And with those words she faded away on a breeze. The world resuming around him.

Rak bounded across the field ignoring everyone else as his eyes locked on the Samurai. "In the first game you faced the Lizard, truly a worthy opponent, I am Rak come face me."

"Hatsu." He stepped up. "But I am afraid I cannot fight you one on one until the others have fallen as well." Both swords came free in a single moment, the first flying upwards to hang in the sky even as he swung the other with both hands.

Rak stared at the samurai and cocked his head. "Would you like me to take care of them first for you?"

Hatsu smiled, "I will be fine so come as a group. I intend to test my limits here."

Rak nodded, and his spear fell like an onslaught crashing down against the sword. Each step slamming down like an avalanche even as Hatsu gave ground, the lightest flick of his sword pushing it away. The three other good fighters launching their own assault as soon he was dancing between their blows. Each sword swinging endlessly as he was forced back by the onslaught, yet untouched as no weapon found its mark.

They stood across from the three remaining fighters.

Khun settled almost lazily into place beside him, only his hand hidden within the bag he always carried suggesting even a hint of doubt. Settling into place on his heels as he eyed the other three. "I'd like to wait a bit and see how their fight turns out, wouldn't you like mercy as well?"

The two of them as a group exchanged glances, even as he exchanged a smile with Lee Soo. His own blade held at his side inexpertly with the hope that a fight wouldn't come. But the man with the horn stepped forward, flowing robes trailing as he eyed Khun up. "I'm strong enough to fight."

"But then I'd have to kill you." Khun sighed, "We intend to resign if Rak loses, and neither of you look ready to fight him if he wins. Consider it buying time if you will with your silence rather than your fists. Isn't that all that you're here for?" A blade flickered into being resting on his shoulder in an instant.

He raised his own needle as he stepped to back Khun up, and it burned like fire in his hand. Pain almost great enough to make him drop it lancing through him for a single moment.

"You should not have that." Her voice rang out from the throne, powerful and imposing as it echoed across the room. The tiny lizard girl rising to stand on the seat even as her gaze fell upon him. The green needle in her hand twitching as though it had a life of its own.

"It does." Black March whispered in his ear, even as her own power thrummed through him, pulling on the fabric of the world around him as it came to life. "But I'm stronger." She sounded sure of him.

He only felt afraid.

"Hatsu." She turned to the swordsman still locked in combat, and her voice fell on deaf ears. The exchange between him and his four assailants rocketing backwards across the room and away from them as he kept swinging in his own fight. "I guess not…"

Eyes focused on him she spoke again, "Give that weapon to me, or I will take it from your corpse. It is not something you can touch."

He felt the power in his own hand respond and faced her down. "No." He had promised Yuri that he would give it back when they next met. A promise he had to keep, even as he felt the blade in his hand pulsate in response to his answer.

"Very well." The green hook in her own hand rose, radiating power as she brought it up and spoke. "Green April, ignite."

The blade grew. From four meters to forty in an instant as it towered over the battlefield, like the eel on the first floor, monstrous and terrifying as its presence almost seemed to impose a weight upon him.

Not an enemy that could be fought, but a force of nature scraping against the ceiling, a disaster waiting to crush everything he knew. Khun was stepping back, Rak trembled in excitement, and neither of them would matter against it for an instant.

"Don't lose." The needle in his hand whispered back her name,

"Ignite Black March." It burned, the needle in his hand devouring the world around it as it sprung to life. A seething tide of power erupting out into the world as it leapt forth and crashed against the falling blade.

The shock pulsed through his hands, the impact drove back through his shoulder even as he felt his feet leave the floor as the world spun into motion. And then he was light, Khun resting a hand and steadying him even as he caught him mid-flight, the two of them slowing down even as that giant hook was caught in midair and deflected. And then there was pain as they hit the wall, air tearing itself free of his lungs as he shut his eyes and screamed.

By the time that he opened them again all he felt was pain, Khun sat even more injured than him having taken the brunt of the impact. But they were both alive as he turned to meet the glare from the throne.

Was she still going to fight? The girl in the throne slowly dragging her own weapon free where it had slammed past the headrest.

He couldn't take another swing like that as his hands fell limp around the blade. He couldn't afford to take the blow either, the giant hook growing even further as it seemed to split open into a dozen blades as it came loose tearing into the ceiling above. Each one swaying like the head of a serpent staring back across the expanse.

She moved to swing and froze.

Rak stood on the throne, an arm like a tree trunk slamming back against the hook before it even began to fall. Inside its reach as his spear came crashing down in a rain of red.

She caught it with her bare hand, blood flowing for a moment before it stopped in its entirety. Raks entire form straining even as she looked up at him casually, a single swing from her fist burying itself into his chest as he catapulted backwards into another wall.

But his arm was raised, the needle was pointing forward. Even if he couldn't meet her swing, even if her blade would crush him in the end… the shortest distance between them was a line.

Warm hands took his own, gently guiding them as Black March fixed his aim on the throne. "Just one more swing."

The words erupting in his head even as he failed to say them.

The needle filled with power regardless, devouring the world in a single moment as existence itself poured into the needle. Sounds loud enough to drown out the world, and everything in front of him was annihilated.

A wave of power and dust tearing the world asunder in front of his eyes as everything in front of him dissolved, the reverberations pulsating through the air as it tore the arena apart around them.

Dust swamped the room as the shattered remains of the floor and walls erupted in all directions. He squinted through the mess even as his breath hitched in his throat trying to see if he hit.

One moment

Every sound she could have made overrun by the sound of stone breaking and tearing in the wall far away. The cracks spreading up until they consumed the entire wall.

An immense green serpent unveiling itself as Green April rose once more from the cloud, slamming into the ceiling itself. Splitting and tearing its way through to the sky outside. It hovered for a moment, twelve blades expanding outwards.

And then it reeled in, dragging the entire ceiling along with it, even as the blades themselves spun to deflect the catastrophe from its wielder. He felt for Black March, panic tearing into his mind as the entire world seemed to collapse around him.

The world froze, the ceiling caught in the act of crashing down. Existence itself trembling as something greater seeped through and drowned it all out. A single shining figure bleaching the world white in his presence.

Even Black March fell silent as the new sensation tingled down the back of his spine, a thousand arcs of power spiralling out between moments as they held up the sky. An existence beyond comprehension that towered throughout the battlefield even as it flickered between moments.

"REGULARS." The word thundered through the arena, as though the only sound that could be allowed to exist. "I TOLD YOU TO STOP."

Lightly the sparks danced between his fingers as though he just had to reach out and grab them. As a tiny part of his mind glimpsed them and understood, the adrenaline fading away as he realised the fight was over. Was that really ten minutes? He didn't know it had felt like an age.

And then his body caught up with him, pain and fire running through his entire being for a brief moment as he passed out.

The ceiling was white, brightly lit and so unlike the cave he was born in.

Soft and warm to the point that he shivered at the odd sensation.

"Black Turtle you are awake." Rak boomed the giant crocodile towering over his bed with glee. "We drove them onwards, crushed our foes… even now the other teams can only quake in fear knowing we will return."

"Khun?"

"He still sleeps, I did warn him you were the strongest. Come when he awakens we will have the chance to regale him with the tale of our victory."

He nodded lightly even as he tried to curl up into the bed beneath him.

"Fruit?" He gratefully accepted the gift from Rak.

"Are we on the third floor?"

Rak smiled his arms sweeping wide. "No. Our fighting spirit was too strong, the Ranker called off the entire game, so what if the Throne was wrecked, such a thing is even better proof that we were victorious."

Oh.

The man before him let his long golden flowing hair hang loose even as he slowly drank another cup of instant coffee. The fourth cup since he'd entered the room.

"Can we start our debriefing?"

Calmly the man set it down onto the table staring back at him. "Let me enjoy my last moments at least." He drank another round of instant coffee. "What even happened in your little event down there."

He considered his words and spoke as calmly as he was able to. "Two regulars just happened to be carrying Ranker grade ignition weapons and decided to fight with them. It well… did not go as planned."

"Have you written up your will yet?" Leroro shifted uncomfortably on his feet. "Because Evankhell is going to murder us both."


AN: I know my endgame for my first arc for this, and have a whole bunch of plans for what to do in the workshop arc, but when I first had the idea did not have the time to write it. But as coming back to it its now flowed out so easily in a short period of time so strong contender for my next project.

Probably going to pick at least one other choice to go through with as well.

Although it feels weird seeing as how ffnet still has manhwa all crammed into a single selection box after all this time.