"And last but not least is Piros versus Scale!" Eleanor announced as the ruddy Pirian native looked at the screen as he saw his face next to a scaly green fighter, their names displayed on the bottom.

"What?!" Piros stared at the screen in disbelief.

Perfect timing.

"And last but not least is Piros versus Scale!" Hwa Hae Ji heard the announcement.

"Look!" Alexandra said to the hybrid phoenix, "Isn't that the redhead we met a while ago?" The angel asked her.

"It is." Phixa confirmed, though she didn't expect him to be quite... muscular. On the screen he looked liked he was smiling, when she met Piros, he was nervous.

"Why would he omit that he was also fighting in the tournament?" Alexandra cupped her chin as she looked at the screen.

Phixa also had the same question until she noticed something earlier, Herring was on the defensive when they were talking about Piros. "I saw your name under mine earlier." Phixa mentioned.

"When?" Piros asked, Herring's eyes darted at Piros and then at Phixa in a panic.

"An hour ago, when all the names of the fighters were shown in bullets before the tournament started. Are you going to fight as well?" Phixa asked him, looking at him in the eyes.

"No." Piros responded.

"Believe it or not, Piros is a common name, the land where I was born is also named Piros." Herring interjected as he slung his arm around his best bud.

Alexandra snapped her fingers as she caught his drift. "Like Paris!"

"Yeah! She gets it!" That explained why he was acting so suspicious. Phixa thought to herself.

"Unless it wasn't him," Alexandra murmured to herself, "if that were the case, it must've been--"

"HERRING!" A yell snapped them out of their thoughts, the winged women saw Piros trek angrily as Vilma got out of the restroom and ran up to Buid and Grim.

"Did I miss it?" Vilma asked.

"No." Grim smiled darkly.

"You came just in time for the show." Buid replied while his serene smile got creepy.

"Should we go check it out?" Alexandra asked the phoenix hybrid.

"I don't think that's a good idea." Phixa replied before she saw Alexandra open her wings.

"If you say so, but I'm not gonna miss this." The angel added before she flew up to follow him. Phixa was hesitant at first but she then thought, someone had to stop them. Phixa opened her fiery wings and flew to catch up to them.

"HERRING!"

Mochi saw Piros furious, the feline ran up to Haeji to warn her. "Haeji! Where is Herring?" Mochi meowed.

"I don't know, we have to find him." Haeji picked up Mochi and ran, looking for Herring.

"You haven't told him?!" Hae Ji asked him in a surprised tone.

"No, he doesn't know that I signed him up to fight in the match so I'm asking you to keep it a secret." Herring asked her, begged her to not tell Piros.

"You gotta be kidding me. Everyone knows that Piros is going to fight except him. How he didn't find out about this when everyone saw our names on the screen, including his is beyond me." The Daiotu thief was baffled at the absurdity of this.

"Piros can't read HaeJi. We don't come from a world or an era where everyone can read or the blind can read like you or the others. Where I'm from, only the rich and noble could read. Finding a literate commoner is slim to none." Herring told her.

"You have to tell him before he finds out from someone else." HaeJi warned him while she held her scythe as she held it behind her shoulders while June kept an eye on Mochi.

"Don't you think I know that?! He's still traumatized about what happened the last time we participated in a tournament. I just want him to regain the courage to fight again. Duke it out like how we used to, like old times." Herring stated. "When we were sparring near the arena, I could see the Piros that loved to test his strength. Even if he was holding back a little, I could see that he was having fun."

Herring, where are you?

"And last but not least is Piros versus Scale!" Eleanor announced as the ruddy Pirian native looked at the screen as he saw his face next to a scaly green fighter, their names displayed on the bottom.

"What?!" Piros stared at the screen in disbelief. How could he do this? He thought to himself.

"No, I'm not going to participate. Did you forget what happened last time?" Piros asked him.

"I know, we barely made it out alive the last time. It's all in the past, water under the bridge."

"The same water where I almost drowned." Piros reminded him.

Herring approached Piros as he looked at him straight in the eye, "you don't have to participate, I just want you to come and watch me fight the other competitors. We're basically brothers, we root for each other."

You lied to me! You lied straight to my face and you didn't care that we nearly died the last time. He thought to himself as his nostrils flared, his red eyebrows furrowed. He knew that he didn't want to partake in another tournament and Herring signed him up behind his back. He remembered exactly what happened the last time they joined the last tournament back in Ja.

Urdinak beat Herring to a pulp despite that he dodged most of his attacks, he broke Herring's pivoted femur and dislocated the young fisherman's right shoulder. He saw how Urdinak knocked the wind out of him when the Caerulean Guardian broke Herring's ribs in one swift motion as Herring coughed up globules of blood, Herring's fish hook technique was useless when Urdinak slammed him to the ground. Herring held onto Urdinak in a headlock, the Caeruleum Guardian elbowed him in the gut, then dislocated his jaw with one punch before Herring fell to the floor unconscious before one of the sponsors had to run out of the stadium to search for a medic to stop the bleeding. When Piros ran out to stop him, he summoned his fire to attack Urdinak, the cyan haired guardian used the waves of the shore to quench the fire and splashed Piros. The mistake the ruddy lad made was to follow Urdinak to a bridge that was near the capital and shot a wide flame at him when the cyan haired guardian controlled the waves and shrouded himself with a watery shield before he raised the waves from the bridge to pelt him with gallons of water before encasing his head and upper body with water and tossed Piros overboard for him to drown under the bridge while the cyan haired man ran away to find the missing priestess. If Sardin hadn't been rowing nearby and found him, he wouldn't be alive today. Piros balled his hands into fists as he gritted his teeth, auburn eyes glaring as his skin turned red with fury. "HERRING!"

Piros ran out to find him while Scale was having the heebie jeebies. That massive crowd will have their eyes on him, thousands of them. Scale was fidgeting until Annabell put her hand on his green, scaly shoulder. "Don't worry Scale, you'll do great out there." Though he appreciated the moral support the human evolution gave him, he himself wasn't so sure about that.

"I'm waiting for the drama to hit any moment now." Grim said as he stood next to Buid while Vilma was inside the restroom.

"Believe me, the calm comes before the storm. And the storm will hit sooner than expected." Buid responded nonchalantly while Grim scrutinized him closely, the Shadow Soldier didn't trust the zen receptionist and even he was supposed to be the most machiavellic out of the Shadow Soldiers. Not even Blade's evil twin can hold a candle to that. He didn't believe in Buid's buddhist façade either, no matter how convincing it seemed. Oh, how he would love to wipe that smile off his face.

"HERRING!" Grim and Buid saw Piros trek angrily as Vilma got out of the restroom and ran up to them.

"Did I miss it?" Vilma asked.

"No." Grim smiled darkly.

"You came just in time for the show." Buid replied while his serene smile got creepy.

Herring was drinking sake, a real one, instead of the mediocre sakes that the new japanese restaurants were selling. With a satisfied sigh, he put down the sake on the table.

"Finally! Quality sake. You should consider selling your own sake, Master Yin." Herring stated before taking another shot of sake.

"I'm flattered though I'm more of a trainer than a brewer." Yin admitted.

"I don't know much about sake, but I agree with Herring here. This is really good." Faim agreed as he took a bottle of Yin's sake. "Eimy and Mewmi will love this."

Just as Faim walked out of the foodstands, Piros spotted Herring and gave him a surprise uppercut as the young fisherman fell down from the chair he was sitting on as he hit his head against the floor before Piros grabbed him by the collar of his tunic and punched him again.

"Enough! Both of you." Yin used his fingertips to poke the gap between the two of them, releasing a current from his Yamitzu force to seperate them, or at least make one of him dodge his attack.

"What was that for?" Herring asked him, dumbfounded, before Piros grabbed Herring by the collar of his tunic again only this time, he glared at him.

"YOU LIED TO ME! I already told you that I wanted no part in the tournament, and you signed me up behind my back!" Piros glared at Herring. "You took advantage of me because you know I can't read yet you set me up to fight without my consent!" Piros pushed him, hard. Nearly knocking Herring back again. The onlookers where watching them now. Erica, Marie and Brandon caught footage of what was happening. "You knew what happened the last time we joined to fight in a tournament. We almost died Herring! DID YOU FORGET THAT!?" Piros reproached him as the young fisherman glared at him.

"No, I haven't." Herring started, taking a good look at him. "I haven't forgotten what happened that day. That's why I have the courage to keep on fighting! I'm not afraid to stand up and keep on fighting again, even when Urdinak broke my bones and nearly killed me, I was determined to stand up against all odds." Herring reminded him. "What happened to you? You were fearless, light, you were the torch that kept fire going. The Piros I know wouldn't have stayed in the dark for long. He would've gone out and got back up to take his stance and fight! What happened? Who quenched your fire?" Herring asked him.

"YOU DON'T GET IT!? I drowned! I almost died, Herring! Urdinak knocked you out cold, he drowned me using his hydromancy against me. I felt the air leave my body while I sank like an anchor. I don't want to fight anymore!" Piros yelled, eyes red and glossy, holding in the urge to cry. "You have no idea how it feels like. I felt my life slip away, every passing second felt like an eternity when I plummeted into the abyss. Not knowing if I will survive or breathe again."

Buid, Grim and Vilma showed up to see what was going on. Buid stroked his beard, maintaining his serene smirk.

"But that's over now, we're here, we're fine, we're in good company." Herring said as he stood next to Master Yin, trying to lighten the mood though the Yamitzu master shook his head in disapproval, knowing well that what the young fisherman did was wrong.

"Right, who needs enemies when a traitor is standing right in front of you?" Piros remarked dryly, while Grim stole another bag of popcorn as he greedily watched the show.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Herring questioned him.

"I almost forgot that you're just like the infamous general Coral. A fisherman, an ambitious fighter, and a traitor. Same face, same attitude, same blood." Piros sneered before Herring punched Piros in the face.

Master Yin had to stand between them in order to seperate them both.

"Worth every single coin." Grim commented referring to the price of the ticket.

Piros glared at Herring while he felt the blood running down his nose before wiping the blood away with his wrist. "You proved your point." He said before he turned away from Herring.

"This isn't over! Get back here and face me!" Herring yelled.

"Herring, that's enough! Let him go." Master Yin coaxed him before the Rubrum let out an agitated sigh and looked at the Yamitzu master.

"I just wanted him to overcome his fear. Is that too much to ask?" Herring stated before he noticed the stares of the onlookers. "What are you looking at?" The crowd that were watching immediately dispersed, except for Haeji.

Haeji stood beside Herring with a sad smirk. "I-uh saw what happened over there. Are you ok? I mean I bet it didn't hurt as much as my punch did but..." She looked down at Herring. Then took her scythe and hit Herring on the head.

"You should feel relieved. At least you don't have to tell him dum dum." Haeji said, putting Mochi on his head, "Here have Mochi now." Herring heard Mochi meow, then they saw Haeji give a close eyed smile. "Well," she let out a yawn, "Imma sleep now. Tell me who is General Coral later." She sat on a chair laid her head on a table to take a nap, leaving Herring with Mochi while they looked at each other briefly before the young fisherman removed the tabby from his head and laid him on the table next to the owner. Mochi curled himself into a ball and fell asleep just as quickly.

"I feel bad for the Piros guy. At least we chose to fight in the tournament, but he got tricked into fighting in one. All I wanted was to prove my worth as a Phoenix, but now that I saw him so upset. I don't know." Phixa confessed.

"I still can't believe that there are still people who get a kick out of playing with their emotions and break someone's trust." Alexandra commented. "If someone did that to me I'd be furious."

Breloq was in plain sight before he spotted Ryan and Felin. "Did we miss anything?" Ryan asked, the 10 ft deity looked down on them and unzipped his jaw.

"No, the match hasn't started yet." Breloq responded before the aforementioned Piros entered.

"Thanks Annabell." Scale gave a nervous smile.

"No need to thank me. Before I entered to this tournament, the only friend I had was Eros. You were the first friend I made here. In my world, the humans saw me as a freak of nature and I've been around for over a thousand years. If you need anything, all you have to do is ask. You're welcome to my world anytime." Annabell replied before the silver haired wizard showed up.

"Come with me m'lady, I prepared your seat amidst the spectators." Eros responded before Annabell gave a bright smile.

"Good luck." Annabell said before she waved goodbye and left the Reptilian alone as he looked out in the arena, he saw the judges return to their seats.

Piros saw the scaly Reptilian look out in the arena while he stepped forward, his waraji sandals moved closer and closer to his opponent. His amber eyes boring into Scale's soul, glaring, his thoughts racing recalling his last encounter with Urdinak. What happened to you? You were fearless, light, you were the torch that kept fire going. The Piros I know wouldn't have stayed in the dark for long. He would've gone out and got back up to take his stance and fight! What happened? Who quenched your fire? Herring's voice hammered in his head as he recalled the moment he got thrown under the bridge as he sank, as if a millstone was thrown over him and made him fall to the abyss, pockets of air escaping him. He clenched his fists, his jaw tightened as he passed by Scale not bothering to give him a glance.

The Reptilian felt something off putting about the red-haired fighter as he watched him pass by the judges. Grim finally caught up and sat down to his seat. Blade and Melon took a quick glance at him, the Shadow Soldier looked quite perturbed.

"What's wrong?" Melon asked though Grim was more focused on the match.

"Ignore him." Blade told her when Grim saw Piros enter the arena. The ruddy hue-man glared at the reptilian that entered into the arena. The referee stood in the middle of the arena while Piros glared daggers at him and at his opponent.

"The rules are simple: no magic, no killing." Glen had stated before holding the whistle and blew it. Piros dashed towards the Reptilian while the referee backed away.

Scale dodged the first punch, but he wasn't lucky enough to dodge the next one. The reptilian rubbed his nose, then darted between his opponent's legs before camouflaging himself against the ground. Piros turned and charged in the direction of Scale as he spotted a sudden movement. Just as Piros reached him, he stuck out his tail and sent Piros crashing into the side of the arena.

Scale got out to run again, but Piros grabbed him tightly by the tail, dangling him in the air, before launching Scale across the open space. The red haired combatant got closer while his green scaly opponent tried to recover. Piros's silhouette loomed over Scale while his eyes focused on him.

"YOU LIED TO ME! I already told you that I wanted no part in the tournament, and you signed me up behind my back!"

"No, I haven't."

"You took advantage of me because you know I can't read yet you set me up to fight without my consent!"

Scale's eyes darted to see Piros's glare. He tried to slither away but before he could do so, he got grabbed by the neck. They were both at eye level with each other.

"We almost died Herring! DID YOU FORGET THAT!?"

"I haven't forgotten what happened that day. That's why I have the courage to keep on fighting!"

Scale shrinked before he felt Piros's grip tighten.

"What happened to you? Who quenched your fire?"

Piros let out a yell while he threw Scale, nearly getting him out of the arena. The Reptilian held on the edge as he saw his opponent yank his red curly hair out of frustration then kicked the sand.

I can't go on like this. His breath got agitated as he recalled the moment he got thrown off the bridge. Scale crawled back into the arena and used camouflage to blend in with his surroundings.

Scale could feel the wrath of this fisherman, as he gripped him tightly, squeezing out his will to fight.

His eyes drooped in defeat, as he felt his cowardly fear rush back to him. He felt foolish acting as a triumphant hero, when all he had ever known, was how to run away.

Grim inched closer to the scene, letting his buttery treat melt tastefully in his mouth. He smiled wickedly, as he sensed the fight coming to an end. Scale was soon to be defeated and his reign of power was to commence.

He could hear the screams of his people, as they fell at his knees.

"I can't. Not like this." Piros said as his tone wavered. Scale revealed himself, removing his camouflage as he was inches behind Piros. The red haired opponent turned around and stood in front of Scale who was scuttling in all fours like a salamander before he stood on his own two feet. "I'm not supposed to be here for Rot sake. I only came to watch the fight not be part of it." Piros looked above the arena as he saw a strange screen which he saw for a giant glassy round crystal. "I should've known Herring would do something like this I-" Piros confessed before he spotted the aforementioned fisherman. He glared at Herring before looking at Scale. "I resign."

Scale was overwhelmed with relief, but Grim was enraged, he stormed out with eyes of hell as he felt his plans crumble around him.

He knew there were more chances for Scale to fail, but Grim knew his strength would only grow.

Herring's determined glare changed into disappointment. He frowned, then walked away. Piros put a hand on Scale's shoulder. "I'm sorry about earlier. You were here to compete like everyone else. I just got in the way without knowing." Piros said sheepishly before he removed his hand from Scale's shoulder. "Good luck." Then the ruddy hue-man walked out of the arena as the judges watched him leave.

"Well that's the end of today's match ladies and gentlemen." Johnathan started.

"Up next, the judges will give the results after the commercial break." Eleanor concluded before the commercial came.

Liz Loon! The trusted sportswear.

Durable. Daring. Do.

"Now we're back live and the results are in! What will the judges have to say about the match between Piros and Scale?" Eleanor asked before the camera switched to reveal the judges on their seats.

"The match was a dramatic one, Piros was relentless when he attacked his opponent before he crumbled halfway." Johnathan commented.

"I would give Piros 8 points for his speed, defense and accuracy, he had a good defense but it slowly toppled over like a house of cards. Scale did a good performance and stood on the edge of the arena. He persevered despite being tossed like a ragdoll, so he gets 2 points in speed, 1 point in defense, 1 point in evasion and 1 point in accuracy." Marie responded as she gave her critique.

"I agree with her though I would give Piros 8.5 points in total, he did great, too bad he chose to forfeit. Scale did good when it came to camouflage, since he's a Reptilian and it's natural for his species to hold on to surfaces and stealth. I would give him 7 points in total; 2 points for speed, 2.5 points in evasion, 1.5 defense, and 0.5 points in accuracy." Lizzy gave her critique before the camera showed Adrian's resting grouch face.

"The fact that Piros came in despite being signed up without his consent he made a decent performance, I would have given him nearly nine points in total if he were a legitimate combatant; 2.5 points in accuracy, 2.2 points in defense, 1.7 points in evasion and 2.5 points in speed. By forfeiting, he reduced his performance to 0. Scale on the other hand, won by default." Adrian then directed his attention on the Reptilian. "Judging by your performance... to be brutally honest, if it wasn't for your natural abilities as a Reptilian, you would have been eliminated in a minute or less. If a human had displayed the abilities you've demonstrated, it would've ended in disqualification. However, due to recent events, I will re-evaluate your performance. Your defense is left to be desired. You barely managed to escape and certainly you evaded your opponents attacks with little success. So I give you 1 point in accuracy, 0.2 points in defense, 0.5 points in evasion, and 2 points in speed meaning that you get 3.7 points in total for your performance. Consider yourself fortunate that your opponent had dropped out, and his participation became nullified for that matter." Adrian gave his critique.

"And that's the end of today match for the Melee Division." Johnathan announced.

"Don't forget to stay tuned for the Gladatorium Tryouts tomorrow morning at 8." Eleanor announced. Erica then switched the camera to show the hostess in a dark lighting, shedding light to one side of her face before she spoke.

"The tournament is not over yet. Tonight, the defeated competitors will have a second chance to prove their worth to stay in the tournament in the REDEMPTION ROUND. The rules are simple, defeat your opponent. The only difference, they will have to use all of their abilities to stay in the game. They'll have to face obstacles, dodge traps, and best of all... Take down bosses, but the round doesn't end until one of their opponents is defeated. Tonight at 8. Be there!" The hostess announced before they ended the recording.