Ravus nodded in agreement, and I pulled along with Wyn behind me.
As I had expected, Kael's gaze turned immediately towards us. His eyes narrowed, and he whispered something to the king, which solicited a nod from the latter.
Yes, c'mon, follow me. I'd like to see what happens next.
I held out my fist towards the backstage, signaling to the guards to open it up.
When they did, I stepped through the door and walked straight toward the dressing room.
"Beloved, what's going on? Why are we leaving?"
Wyn's voice reached my ears, and I stopped just outside the door to reply.
"Trust me. It's not a good idea to interfere with the game any further, and I get that. If things go south, it won't end well for anyone involved. Now come on."
I pushed the door open, revealing an empty hallway with a set of stairs leading downward.
"Where are we going?" She asked again.
"Just follow me."
We descended down the staircase until we arrived at the bottom floor. There were several doors leading to different areas, but none of those seemed to lead anywhere useful.
Finally, we approached another door that stood apart from the rest. This one had a small sign hanging above it saying 'Staff Only'.
"Remember the little deal we made the previous night? Well, I've got a feeling I'm about to put my money where my mouth is." I said it with a grin. "Let's hope this works out better than my last gamble."
I grabbed the doorknob and opened it.
–––––––––––
Stepping out of the door, we both walked back to—
"We're back to where we started?!" Wyn exclaimed, looking around in confusion. "What the hell happened?! Is this some sort of maze like the others that I'm not aware of?!"
"You mean, besides the fact that the door led nowhere? It's just a form of diversion, silly." I replied with a smirk.
She glared at me. "So, what were you trying to achieve by making us come back here?"
"Aha! Gotcha!" I said triumphantly while pointing at the empty seat beside the king, "As expected, he didn't want to risk losing his most valuable asset."
"I can see that..." she grumbled under her breath.
"Ravus, you can proceed," I instructed through the phone. "I don't think the King is going to be too happy when he finds out what we did."
"Indeed," Ravus replied with a sigh, "but there's nothing I can really do about that now."
He hung up shortly after, and I returned my attention to Wyn.
"Alright, how about we check out who's winning and make sure Kael hasn't screwed anything up more than he already has?"
My personal screen showed that the first round was almost over. Yet there was little to no progress in their battle against the regenerative Fenrirs.
In fact, the score was still pretty even despite all the damage they took during the fight. The only thing that changed was that the two sides had managed to take a few extra steps backwards since the beginning.
Bam!
Cyrus landed a hit on one of the Fenrirs, sending its body flying into the wall before it collapsed onto the ground.
That's gotta hurt.
The other Fenrir lunged forward, trying to catch Cyrus off guard, but failed miserably as the Hunter caught its attack and countered. He delivered a kick directly into its stomach, sending it crashing onto the floor.
Another slam!
This time, the second Fenrir went down hard enough for everyone watching to hear it.
Haha... What a pathetic creature.
I looked at the time; nearly five minutes had passed since I had returned to the stadium, and yet no Kael showed up.
"It looks like your friend isn't here yet."
Wyn sighed in response and shook her head.
"I don't make friends with people who are unreliable. Not anymore, anyway."
I chuckled at that. "Fair enough."
I looked back at my screen and saw that the Fenrir's health bar had gone down significantly, but they hadn't given up either. In fact, it seemed like they had been working on getting back up ever since they fell.
And then, finally, a notification appeared on the screen.
No, there were several notifications, actually. One for every participant who chose to quit the match due to being injured or otherwise unable to continue.
[Buzz!]
[Sasha Kerensky has forfeited her spot in the competition. She has chosen to leave the competition and withdraw from the game. The remaining twenty-two team leaders have been informed of this decision, and they may continue without further delay]
[23/24]
[Buzz!]
[Shiro Yagiri has forfeited his spot in the competition. He has chosen to leave the competition and withdraw from the game. The remaining twenty-one team leaders have been informed of this decision, and they may continue without further delay]
[21/24]
[Buzz!]
The notifications went on and on until the last one popped up.
A total of seven players had quit the match. That was roughly nearly a third of the participants, which meant that only sixteen team leaders remained in the tournament.
Not bad—not bad at all.
Sasha Kerensky, Takashi Fumino, Gianna Shaver, Marianne Nava, Shiro Yagiri, Tanya Sakaki, and Tomo Tsurugi had decided to throw in the towel. They couldn't keep up with the rest of the team leaders and were left with no choice but to drop out of the tournament.
"To those who dropped out of the competition, I want to sincerely appreciate your efforts and apologize for having to put you in such a position. We hope you'll give our next tournament another chance in the future. Always remember, you are better off quitting than suffering any more harm than necessary. Good luck, everyone!"
There was applause from the crowd, followed by cheers.
"Pfft! Weaklings!" Wyn snorted, clearly not impressed by those who quit. "All of them are so useless! But at least we're doing well."
She gave me an encouraging nod at the views on the screen.
[Views: 12,431,356,985]
"Now, would you look at that? It looks like our audience just keeps growing. This could be huge."
I looked over at the king, who was beaming with excitement, and I felt myself grinning too.
As for the ones who remained? Well, let's just say that none of them had won the match yet, so things weren't looking promising for anyone.
One of the Fenrirs got up from the ground, dazed by the fall. It started to walk towards Cyrus, who had turned around and was preparing another attack.
"What do you think? Can you handle this before the time runs out?" I asked him.
He shrugged and grinned.
"I dunno, sir. It seems like a lot of effort to kill a creature that's already dead but keeps regenerating until its fifth one."
The fenrir growled and charged straight toward the warrior.
He moved behind the charging creature and threw himself forward, hitting it square in the chest and sending it flying backward.
The monster stumbled as it tried to regain its balance and right itself again, but Cyrus didn't stop moving. Instead, he jumped forward and kicked the beast directly in the face, causing it to go flying through the air and crash into a pillar.
That must've hurt.
It was about time for the fucker to return to the stadium, and I was dying to see his face when he did.
I could tell from King Zephyr's expression that he was enjoying the show.
But while he kept cheering for his favorite, I kept glancing over at the door, wondering when Kael would make an appearance.
Bang!
Kael entered the stadium through the main doors, carrying something wrapped in a red cloth in his hand.
He walked down the stairs, his eyes scanning the stadium and the people seated there. When he spotted us, I could see a freshly wiped blood stain on the side of his face.