But . . . What was going on? I felt the healing magic dissipate without ever actually taking hold, just like when Sadeena had blocked our magic earlier.

“Little Rock, there’s something you need to know, so listen to me for a second.”

“What is it?”

“The organizers are completely blocking our magic here inside of the arena.”

“Does that mean it wasn’t you that blocked the support magic I tried to cast?”

“No, that was me. But this is different. Right now, there are dozens of magic users all working together to completely obstruct our magic. They’re casting counter-magic nonstop from several areas around the arena.”

Their efforts to sabotage us just kept getting more and more annoying . . . Whatever, if we couldn’t use magic then I’d just apply the healing medicine I’d brought. We had two minutes left before the match started. We would just have to do what we could in that time. Besides, I had seen how strong Sadeena was. If she was fighting with us, we should be able to win easily.

“Another thing, little Rock.”

“What now?”

“I’m guessing you probably suspected this while we were fighting, but the organizers had debuff magic being secretly cast on your team nonstop, during the match. On top of that, they were buffing me.”

“What the hell?!”

“In other words, now that the organizers consider me an enemy, you shouldn’t expect me to be as strong as I was earlier, okay?”

Damn it! Things just kept getting worse and worse! They went so far as to interfere with us healing our wounds, so we had to settle with the bare minimum of treatment. On top of that, the buff that had been applied to Sadeena had now been switched to a debuff.

If I made a big fuss in protest right now, would they listen? Most likely, they would just think I was making excuses and ignore me. It was the underground coliseum, after all. Maybe the very nature of the place made it a mistake to try and make a quick fortune there. I was starting to regret letting the competitive odds lure me into competing.

Plus, our opponent would be buffed. It was safe to assume that the purpose of this three-minute interval was to apply the buff. I had a feeling that my body felt even heavier now than it had earlier, too.

“You three were pretty impressive yourselves. I was pretty surprised during our fight, you know?”

“Yeah, but . . .”

I was one of the four holy heroes that protects the world from the waves. Normally, my strength was worlds apart from that of ordinary people. Damn it! If my stats hadn’t been reduced by that curse, then a little debuff magic wouldn’t have made a difference in the world!