I guess there was no choice. We’d have to give up on the “moderately strong dark horse rises to the top, out of nowhere” scenario. Still, I wanted to keep the fact that I was a hero hidden, if possible. There was just too much of a difference in the burden that would come with being a hero versus some powerful yet nameless fighters.

“Okaaay!”

What else?

“Ra . . . Shigaraki, can you handle those things?”

“I’ll try.”

“Let the battle . . . BEEEEGGIIIINNNN!!”

When the gong rang, the door of the cage that the griffins were in opened.

“Kweeeh!”

The griffins rushed out of the cage, glaring at us, and approached at a ridiculous speed. They were moving so swiftly that it seemed as if they might pounce upon us at any moment. Several of the masked nobility in the audience were whispering and watching us, their eyes brimming with curiosity. More than likely, these things had probably brutally murdered their opponents in a previous match or something. There was even still blood on the griffins’ claws.

“I’m going to end this in one blow.”

“Yeah, it would be a hassle if they ended up getting assistance.”

Raphtalia placed her hand on the handle of her katana.

“Zweite Aura”

Whispering once again, I cast support magic on Raphtalia, who then lunged forward into a sprint. She may have been suffering from the effects of a curse, but with her level adjustments, she could still be quick. The more I focused, the slower everything around me seemed to move. That was probably true for the griffin elites too, though.

“Take thiiissss!”

Filo flung the morning star at the griffin elites with all of her strength.

“Kweeh?!”

That must have caught them off guard, because the griffin elites started flapping their wings in an attempt to get out of the way. The morning star smashed straight into one of them and a pillar of fire shot up, engulfing it in flames.

“Hiyaaa!”

Raphtalia drew her katana and started moving even faster.

“Instant Blade! Mist! Thrusting Technique! Lethal Formation One! Lethal Formation Two!”

She delivered a strike to the alpha griffin elite that had been standing at the front and then quickly cut down the other slightly smaller ones behind. Sure, it might not have been Kizuna’s Blood Flower Strike, but she still cut through them pretty damn fast. Raphtalia spun her katana around, flinging the blood from the blade, and then returned it to its sheath.

“I’m sorry. I’m still a bit slow, unfortunately.”

The alpha griffin elite was practically split in two at the chest, and the other two griffins behind had splattered blood all over the place before falling flat on the ground. Was that a bit too much?