The slave trader wiped the sweat off his forehead as he handed me a piece of paper. It had our opponent for the next day’s match written on it. The name on the paper was . . . Nadia. It looked like she had been placed in the bracket as a seed. I guess the time to fight that woman had finally come.

“Is that the participant that Rishia mentioned?”

“Yeah, it is.”

“Huh? The person we fight tomorrow?”

Filo was staring intently at the paper in my hand, like she was really interested.

“She uses lightning magic, but she’s not a magic user, so to speak. She’s a formidable opponent that can handle herself in close combat, too. She’s been fighting her way through team battle tournaments all by herself.”

“I wonder just how strong she is.”

Then again . . . The way we had been fighting up until now was pretty atypical, too. Defeating the enemy as soon as the announcer screamed “begin” was the norm for us. That was pretty much how all of our matches went. It was only natural that we would end up becoming famous.

“If we can make it through this one, all that will be left is the championship match. The money to buy the village slaves back is almost within our reach!”

“Yes! But . . . lightning?”

“Fehhh . . .”

“You’ve done a lot to make this happen too, Rishia. You and Raph-chan better be rooting for us.”

“Rafu!”

Raph-chan jumped up on Rishia’s shoulder and howled. There was no avoiding it. In the end, winning this match and advancing to the next round was our only option.

The next day, we were getting prepared for our fight in the waiting room at the coliseum. Outside it had been erupting into cheers all day. Our next opponent was an infamous freak of nature that had fought her way up through the team battle tournament all alone. Still, surely she couldn’t be stronger than Kyo or the Spirit Tortoise, right? Even so, there was no denying that letting our guard down for even a moment could prove to be fatal.

If we won today, tomorrow we would be fighting in the main event—the championship match. They publicized the event ahead of time. The schedule was ridiculous.

“Maaaster! Can we gooo yet?”

“I guess it is about time. Alright, let’s head out, then.”

“Yes, and then if we win tomorrow, we can finally rescue the village children.”

We had to be careful when facing our opponent today. There might be some kind of catch. I could think of several possibilities.