Another gong sound echoed out and the match began—and in the same instant, a blunt weapon that looked like a morning star was tossed down right next to where the Topak Family mercenaries were standing. From the look of it, it seemed like a pretty impressive weapon. Someone must have thrown it in, hoping the other team would use it to make a mockery of me.

“Zweite . . . Aura”

In a whisper, I cast support magic on Filo. Then I picked her up from behind and lifted her up onto my shoulders. She must have realized what I planned on doing, because she climbed onto my shoulders and held her claws up out in front of her.

There was a reason for putting her on my shoulders. I had a convenient little skill called “abilities increase while carrying (medium).” As long as someone was on my shoulders, they would receive an overall increase in abilities for a period of time. Filo was currently in her human form, so she wasn’t very heavy and wouldn’t slow me down.

“Master, what should I dooo?”

“Hmm . . . It’s probably best not to show all of our cards yet, I guess.”

Being too strong would make us stick out. We should probably just stick to a low-key strategy for this match. According to the slave trader, our opponents were relatively unknown, so there was no need for theatrics. Yeah, I’d even come up with a signature phrase to go with it.

“Alright! Make it hard, and make it quick!”

“Okaaay!”

Filo started focusing her attention like she did when preparing to use haikuikku.

“Huh? What’s that pose?! Is she getting ready to play a game?”

“This is going to be a piece of cake! Hahahahaha!” the opponents shouted. “It’s going to feel good celebrating tonight! And we even get to have some fun with a girl!”

The Topak Family mercenaries all grabbed their weapons and started running our way. One of them swung the morning star—the thing seemed like one of those special named weapons—and I blocked it with my shield. It struck with a heavy thud and flames burst from the tip of the morning star, engulfing me in hellfire. So it had a special effect, huh? I guess it was a nice weapon, after all. I deflected the flames with my cloak, but there was a pillar of fire rising up from under my feet. Although, with my high defenses, the flames were kind of just bouncing off.

“It’s hot!”

The heat was getting to Filo. Her arms and legs had extended just a bit outside of the area I had protected. The pillar of fire itself was still down there, although it wasn’t burning me. I flapped my cape and the remaining pillar of fire dissipated for a moment, but then it reappeared. So it even had a residual effect . . . That weapon was even better than I thought.