Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari (LN) - Volume 10 - Chapter 18

Chapter Eighteen: Exhibition Match 

After a short pause, the audience burst into cheers. 
“We win.” 
It had turned out to be a pretty blatant farce, but we still had a lot to do after this. First, we would have to go work something out with the merchant that Sadeena was working for. Otherwise, there was a good chance that Raphtalia’s fellow villagers might end up being sold off as compensation for Sadeena’s debt, before we even got our hands on the prize money. 
Either way . . . the next fight was sure to be a throwaway match. I didn’t even want to consider the possibility that our opponent could be as strong as Sadeena. 
“Sheesh . . . You sure surprised me with that one.” 
Sadeena offered us her insincere felicitations. Then again, the plan had been for her to throw a match from the very start, so surely an upset like this wouldn’t be a problem. At least that’s what I thought, but apparently the people running the tournament weren’t happy with how things turned out. A messenger ran up to the announcer and passed him something, which the announcer then read out. 
“Ahem . . . The organizing committee would like to express their heartfelt appreciation for the excitement shown by our guests today. Furthermore, they would now like to conduct a quick survey in an attempt to provide our guests with an even more enjoyable experience.” 
 
Even the announcer had a suspicious look in his eyes while reading the message. I had a good idea what was going on, but there was no point in complaining. The spectators broke out into a commotion. They hadn’t called it a disqualification or anything like that, since the underground coliseum basically had no rules to start out with. But they could still take action under the guise of providing additional entertainment. That was my guess. They probably couldn’t do anything to us directly, due to the involvement of the slave trader and the accessory dealer. So they had decided to deal with us right here like this. 
“The members of the tournament organizing committee will now be making an appearance.” 
After the announcer finished speaking, up near the top of the coliseum, near the seating area reserved for distinguished guests, several pudgy merchants appeared. The one that looked vile enough to be their representative raised both of his arms into the air, as if waiting for applause. 
“Members of the audience! We, the organizing committee of this tournament, come before you now in an attempt to provide you with an even more enjoyable experience today.” 
He spoke slowly in a loud voice to ensure that everyone in the audience could hear him. The match was already over, so what was he planning on doing? 
But actually, I’d felt this kind of atmosphere before. I could sense that something really bad for us was about to happen. The whole thing about the tournament champion having been decided from the start annoyed me to begin with, and now they were trying to mess with us on top of that. It reminded me of the shit I’d had to put up with from the Church of the Three Heroes and friends. 
 
They hung up some kind of banner behind the distinguished guest seating. 
“How would you all like to see our fighters here compete once more in an exhibition match?! What say you!” 
“Whaaat?!” 
I tried to express my disapproval. Raphtalia, Filo, and Sadeena obviously felt the same, but they had been left speechless with shock. 
“Oh my . . .” 
Damn! So they could just deal with an unexpected result by obstructing the contestants and making it look like part of the entertainment. In stark contrast to our expressions of disapproval, the audience clapped in excitement. This was bad. If we tried to refuse, they would just declare it a loss by default or something. 
“And noooooowwww! Their opponent!” 
The merchant snapped his fingers and three figures appeared at the fighters’ entrance of the arena. Huh? What was up with them? Was the way they were walking supposed to look . . . natural? Some weirdo dressed like a clown came walking out along with two masked, life-sized puppets . . . or whatever they were. They looked like mannequins that had been dressed up. I had no idea what they actually were because of the masks. 
“Little Rock, this could get a liiiittle bit dangerous, just so you know.” 
 
“Why is that?” 
“That fighter has gotten popular lately for going around and wreaking havoc at all of the tournaments in this area. She’s incredibly strong. I was under the impression she wouldn’t be participating in this tournament, though . . .” 
Had they brought someone in that wasn’t even participating? Maybe they bribed her? I seem to remember Rishia saying something about watching out for this one. Regardless, surely we should be able to win with someone as strong as Sadeena on our side, right? 
“That’s right! It’s Murrrdeeerrrr Pierrot!!!” 
So it was some messed up clown? Talk about a creepy ring name. Of course, whatever her name really was, that was just how it had been translated so that I would understand. An earsplitting roar of applause came from the audience. 
“An exhibition match featuring Rock Valley’s Party and Nadia versus Murder Pierrot! The survey results will be tallied in three minutes! Bets will be accepted for ten minutes following the beginning of the match! What say you?!” 
The spectators all began noisily talking it over with each other, but the way they were looking at us . . . Their eyes were filled with bloodthirsty curiosity. Well, there you go. I guess we could give up on the possibility of the survey results being in opposition of the match. 
“Furthermore! All bets made on the Rock Valley’s Party versus Nadia match will be refunded immediately! Everyone! Why not use that extra cash to bet big now and perhaps win big?! So tell me, yay or nay?! Those in favor, raise your hand!” 
 
More than half of the spectators in the venue raised their hand in response to the merchant. Bah . . . They played right into his hands. 
“But seriously, how can they get away with pulling something like this off?!” 
“Little Rock, take a good look at what’s written on the banner behind the merchants . . .” 
“Why? What does it say?” 
It was written in several different languages, but it took me a while to find the only one I knew, which was Melromarc’s written language. 
“It says that, as a special exception, all bets placed on Nadia will remain in effect at the predetermined odds, should Murder Pierrot win. Anyone that originally bet on me will be in favor of the match, since that means they haven’t lost anything yet. Did anyone bet on you prior to the match, little Rock?” 
Ugh . . . I wanted to win big, so I’d gone out of my way to make sure my bet was placed anonymously. Aside from us, the slave trader, and the accessory dealer, there may not have been anyone else. 
“Hold on! Can they really do that?! Surely they can’t just decide on a rule that ridiculous, even if it is the underground coliseum!” 
“That’s why they took a vote, and the vote ruled in favor of it.” 

The organizers were rotten, but this audience was no better! They all just improvised to get whatever they wanted, no matter how ridiculous it might have been! 

Then again, if I thought of it from a merchant’s point of view, I did kind of understand. The organizers had sent Sadeena in as an assassin, but she ended up being defeated unexpectedly. They would have to make up for that loss somehow. But relying on their authority to interfere with the opponent would be difficult. In that case, the only real option would be to force their play by winning the support of the audience. 
The announcer was averting his gaze. He wouldn’t be able to make things any more disadvantageous for us than they already were now. If they went too far, the spectators would become suspicious. In all actuality, some of them already seemed to be confused by the survey. It was a heavy-handed move, and if they took it any further than this, their true intentions would be exposed. That meant that winning this match would essentially be the same as winning the championship! 
“Alright! Might as well use this time to cast some healing magic.” 
I figured we should treat our wounds and recover our strength as much as possible, before the match started. I tried to cast healing magic on Raphtalia and Filo. 
“Zweite Heal!” 
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! 
Hold on . . . I’d gotten my hands on a shield in Kizuna’s world that would probably be useful at a time like this. It had come from the White Tiger materials. I was pretty sure it had a support nullification special effect. That could be useful right now if a debuff counted as support magic. 

I started messing with my shield but then paused. I didn’t have enough materials on hand to power it up adequately. I tried using what I had and then checked the status screen. Hmm . . . It was really iffy. Since it was only partially powered up, it was far inferior to the Demon Dragon Shield, which was fully powered up. The difference was big enough that it would be a step down, even if I took the debuff into consideration. 

“Ra—Shigaraki.” 
“Yes?” 
“Weapons made out of the White Tiger materials may be able to nullify debuffs.” 
This time Raphtalia checked her status screen. 
“My stats aren’t high enough to handle the katana anyway, but there’s no support nullification effect on the weapon.” 
Oh well. We would just have to keep using the same weapons we had been. 
“In any case . . .” 
Sadeena glanced over at the spectators and organizers before swinging her harpoon around lightheartedly and then giving me a wink. 
“I guess we’ll just have to do this, won’t we?” 
“Yeah.” 
“Yes. Let’s overcome this obstacle and get the villagers back!” 
“They won’t beat meeee!” 
Raphtalia and Filo agreed with us. Right around that time, the survey tally was completed, and it was officially decided that the exhibition match would be held. 
Realistically, it would be impossible for us to use magic. We had powerful debuff magic being cast on us, and the enemy was buffed. What kind of bastards would make us to fight under such conditions?! I mean, I knew what kind of people they were already, but give me a break! 
 
Should I order the slave trader and accessory dealer to crush them later? They could do that, right? If I exerted my influence as a hero as well, surely we could end them for good. Either way, I needed to focus on winning the fight right now. I’d just look like a whining loser if I tried to pick a fight with them after being defeated. 
Something bothered me about how the organizer merchants turned around and left before the results of the survey had even been announced. We needed to finish the match quick. I was sure they were up to no good. 
“And noooowww! Let the baaaaattle . . . BEEEEGGIIIINNNN!!” 
The gong sound echoed out, and our fight with this Murder Pierrot freak began. Right now, our top priority was to quickly finish off this . . . puppeteer? The clickety-clack of the two puppets out in front as they quickly came running our way was just creepy. 
“Let’s do this! Aim for the one controlling them in the back!” 
“Understood!” 
“Here I go!” 
Since we couldn’t use magic under the circumstances, Sadeena didn’t even try to cast any spells and just took off after Raphtalia and Filo while still in her animal form. She was fast . . . but yeah, not that fast. She tended to lag just one step behind Raphtalia and Filo at her current speed. Watching Raphtalia and Filo dash out into the front made it obvious to me that she’d had support magic cast on her earlier. 
My job was to stop these two puppet things! 
 
“Ha!” 
I leapt out in front and blocked the attacks of the puppets, which were brandishing swords and axes. I could feel the heavy impact travel through the shield and into my body. Still, it hadn’t been enough to surpass my defenses. 
“. . .” 
“. . .” 
The way they jerked around while making clickety-clack noises was seriously creepy. Murder Pierrot was holding a ball of thread and seemed to be using it to control the puppets. 
“I harbor no ill will toward you, but I want to end this ludicrous match as quick as possible, so please don’t hold it against me!” 
“We’re gonna win!” 
“I’m sure it’s no fun to get stuck cleaning up after a girl like me, is it? But we have our reasons, so don’t hold it against us!” 
Before I could even tell them to, Raphtalia, Filo, and Sadeena all brandished their weapons and rushed in to attack. Our opponent was supposed to be strong, but . . . surely they weren’t strong enough to handle all of us. We’d gotten here by overcoming every obstacle that had been put in our way, no matter how great! Losing was not an option! 
“Spider Net . . .” 
“Wha—” 
“Huuuh?” 
“Oh?” 
The three of them had tried to attack, but their weapons came to an unnatural halt right in front of Murder Pierrot. Huh? What was going on?! 
 
“Something’s . . . stuck to my weapon . . . Thread?!” 
“It’s stuuuuck!” 
“Looks like things might get sticky, doesn’t it?” 
The thread that their weapons had gotten tangled up in suddenly came into view, as it wrapped around the weapons tightly. And then, as if it were alive, thread after thread shot forth and began wrapping around their bodies, as well. 
Was it an immobilization attack? Was there seriously an attack that worked like a spider web?! We must have been dealing with some kind of therianthrope or something that had insect-like characteristics. Or maybe it was actually a monster that was using a human form like Filo did. 
Murder Pierrot held the ball of thread out. 
“Bind Wire” 
Thread shot out of the puppets that I was holding on to with a hissing sound and came straight for me. 
“Damn it! Let go!” 
I yanked at the thread forcefully as it tried to wrap around me, and it gave easily . . . but it wouldn’t break! I could have just written it off as being futile, since I wasn’t able to attack by nature. But regardless of that, this elasticity was just unreal. What in the world was this?! 
“Ugh! This thread!” 
“Ewww!” 
“Little Ra—Shigaraki! Little Humming! Let go of your weapons!” 
 
Filo and Sadeena each let go of their weapons, but Raphtalia was holding a vassal weapon that she couldn’t let go of if she wanted to. 
“Little Shigaraki!” 
“I know! But . . . Take this! Instant Blade! Mist!” 
Raphtalia tried to force a skill to cut the thread, but it just resulted in sparks flying. No way! Just what kind of material was this stuff made out of to be able to take one of Raphtalia’s skills and still not break?! Or was that it? Could we not cut it because the gap between our stats had been made so massive that this was all futile? If that was the case, I might just have to incinerate everything with the Shield of Wrath. 
Using brute force, I overpowered the thread that was binding me down and placed my hand on my shield. 

Due to interference, the shield may not be changed. 
A message appeared in my field of vision. Huh? 
“I won’t let you.” 
Thread after thread wrapped around my shield. You couldn’t even tell whether it was a shield or just a big jumble of thread anymore. 
“Change Seal Wire” 
“Damn it . . . What the hell . . .” 
I knew that our opponent was supposed to be crazy strong, but even so, something about this just wasn’t right! I couldn’t imagine attacks like this coming from anyone other than a hero! 
 
“Fire Paralysis Wire” 
The thread in the area surrounding me burst into flames and started reaching out for me. Damn it! The heat didn’t bother me, but the enemy was clearly trying to eliminate me, the leader of our team! 
“Mr. Na—Mr. Rock!” 
“Hurry up and put your katana away! Use your other weapon!” 
“Un . . . understood!” 
I needed to put some distance between us quick, while I could still move! That said . . . How could I do that? That’s it! I’d repel them with Shooting Star Shield! 
“Shooting Star—” 
“Skill Seal” 
The thread wrapped around my throat. It wasn’t the least bit uncomfortable. But . . . 
“Wh . . . what?!” 
I was trying to cast the skill, but for whatever reason I couldn’t say the name of the skill! 
“What the hell is going on?!” 
This made no sense! This Murder Pierrot freak was blocking my skills! Not even magic could explain that! The fact that she was using status effects on me, despite my resistance to them, must have meant . . . there was a good possibility that they were trap-type attacks. It depended on the game, but sometimes traps could apply status effects regardless of resistances. I couldn’t deny that such a thing might exist, and in all actuality, I must have been experiencing it right now. 
 
“Take thiiiis!” 
Filo ducked under the thread and rushed at Murder Pierrot to attack barehanded. I don’t know if it was underestimating Filo because she was barehanded, or just being focused on me and Raphtalia, but Murder Pierrot threw up a web of thread, in what appeared to be a really half-assed attempt to guard against Filo’s attack. 
“How about thiiis!!” 
Filo transformed into her filolial form with a loud boom and leapt high up and over the thread, kicking it as hard as she could. Murder Pierrot seemed surprised, turning to Filo and scattering several threads in her direction instantly. 
“I’m not done!” 
Murder Pierrot must have gotten careless after seeing how bulky Filo was in her filolial form, because the thread she’d scattered wasn’t dense at all. Regardless of the magic interference, Filo changed to her human form, went into the accelerated state that she had learned from Fitoria, and squeezed between the threads. The instant of the attack, she switched back to her filolial form and delivered a swift kick. 
“Ugh!” 

Murder Pierrot took the full brunt of Filo’s attack and was sent flying. But as if to dampen the force of the impact, the thread spread out and wrapped around Murder Pierrot. It formed a cocoon for an instant and then unraveled before Murder Pierrot landed on the ground, unscathed. The unraveled thread wrapped up into something like a cocoon and rolled off to the side of the arena. 

“We’re not finished!” 
Raphtalia brandished her katana and prepared to deliver a follow-up attack. 
“Spirit Blade! Soul Slice!” 
“Useless . . .” 
“Oh really?” 
Raphtalia’s katana passed right through the thread and cut into Murder Pierrot. 
“—!?” 
Murder Pierrot seemed to be saying something, but all I could hear was static. Why? What was that noise? Regardless, we had to keep going. Raphtalia had a katana that could be used to attack nonphysical entities, immaterial opponents like ghosts. 
“Okay then . . . Next is . . .” continued Raphtalia. 
“Mind Line” 
Thread shot out rapidly, as if to protect against Raphtalia’s next attack. The new thread wrapped around the katana that had passed through the previous thread. 
“I’m still here, toooo!” 
Filo followed up and tried to deliver another kick, but thread shot out across the whole area . . . Wait! Those puppets that I thought were near me had now suddenly appeared in front of Filo. Damn! I could barely even move! 
 
“Next——y turn. Needle Shot!” 
Now there were needles coming out of the ball of thread?! The needles had thread attached to them. All of these attacks made me feel like I was watching an instructional video about sewing! 
“Little Rock! You okay?!” 
Sadeena came over to where I was to check on me. If we had no weapons and couldn’t use magic, we would have no way to fight . . . Was that it? 
But wait, what happened to assistance being bought and weapons being thrown in to participants when the fight is too one-sided?! As the thought crossed my mind, I looked up and noticed that the thread had carefully intercepted all of the weapons that had been thrown in. The arena had turned into a mess of spider web and the weapons couldn’t make it down to us. 
As for magical support, I couldn’t say definitively what was going on from here, but it was safe to assume that the organizers were blocking any attempts at that. 
Damn it . . . If things kept going like this, Raphtalia and Filo could end up in trouble. I was being pulled by the thread, too. It was stuck to my limbs and was trying to force me to walk. Judging from the direction, it seemed like Murder Pierrot was trying to use me as a shield against Raphtalia’s attacks. 
I’d thought that Sadeena was about as formidable as they came, but I guess there’s always going to be someone stronger. Then again, that’s just how it felt to me now, and this might not have been a problem for us if we could use magic and didn’t have the debuffs or curse effects. 
 
“Big sis! Mmhem . . . Mmhem . . .” 
Filo returned to her human form and took a few big steps back before clearing her throat several times. Then . . . for whatever reason, she began to sing. 
“Why are you singing at a time like this?!” 
I yelled at Filo. She looked at me and started signaling something to me with her hands. Umm . . . Judging from the hairdo and the way she posed with the imaginary weapon . . . Kizuna? And she was singing, so . . . Was it the ability she had gained in Kizuna’s world? I knew she could do that when she had been a Humming Fairy, but did that mean she could do it in this world, too?! Now that I thought about it, I was pretty sure she had been saying something or other about lullabies earlier! 
There was a pounding sound and the thread surrounding Filo began to shake. Moments later, the thread caught fire and quickly returned to the reel that Murder Pierrot was holding. I knew it! The thread must have been weak to magic-based attacks. 
“Fire Sooong!” 
I was pretty sure it was just Filo singing, but the song was echoing throughout the area. So it wasn’t magic, then? In that case, they wouldn’t be able to block it. After that, Filo took a deep breath, changed into her filolial form, and then held her wings up to her mouth like a megaphone and screamed. 
“Air Block Voice!” 
 
There was a loud boom, and then I saw something like a shock wave shoot out of Filo’s mouth and toward Murder Pierrot. She had some pretty ridiculous secret moves. Why hadn’t she used that on Kyo, for crying out loud?! Then again, I guess just using magic like normal might have been more effective. 
“Thank you, Humming!” 
Raphtalia was making her other katana appear and disappear as needed, while she slipped through Murder Pierrot’s obstacles, in what appeared to be a graceful dance, and then closed in to attack. We were overwhelming the opponent . . . but how long would that last? 
Ugh . . . The weight of the debuff magic had become noticeably heavier. Raphtalia and Filo were moving more sluggishly now, too. 
“Little Rock.” 
Sadeena had been bound just like Filo, but she transformed to break free and came over to me. This thread I was wrapped up in had turned into a real flame war, but Sadeena reached out and touched me. 
“What’s up?” 
“It’s not that I forgot to mention this, but there is a way to use magic in a situation like this, you know?” 
“Huh? How is that?” 
“Have you not studied magic?” 
I thought back to when I had been studying magic while we were peddling. Counter-magic was something that could only be used on an individual opponent, but it was possible for multiple people to cast counter-magic. But what if multiple people were performing a single incantation? Aha, so if it were several people casting cooperative magic, then it might just work. I remembered seeing Filo do it several times before. 
 
Sadeena brought her mouth next to my ear and quietly explained. 
“So you and I can work together to cast cooperative magic, little Rock.” 
“But they’ll notice us chanting the incantation and just interfere, won’t they?” 
“Leave that part up to me, darling. I won’t fail.” 
Sadeena winked at me and started focusing on the incantation. 
“You focus, too, little Rock. I’ll help you out. We’re going to cast support magic.” 
Fine, whatever. I started to focus. I felt a flow of magic power coming from Sadeena . . . Strange. It was like the flow of power that I felt when casting magic with Ost . . . but something was different. I closed my eyes, and in my field of view, something that looked like a square block appeared. Next to it was a sculpture of some random shape? No, that wasn’t it. It was a puzzle piece. What was going on? 
“Is this your first time casting cooperative magic? Basically, we form the magic power into predetermined shapes.” 
Damn it. What she was asking me to do wasn’t easy. 
“Power of two, lend your strength to support them! Re-spin the threads of fate and turn their defeat into a victory!” 

I could feel Sadeena rapidly forming the pieces of the puzzle and converting each one into the language of magic. 
 
“Here, let me see that, little Rock. I’ll help you with it.” 
She started working on forming the block that I had been trying to shape. Although, it wasn’t going as smoothly as hers, since it was a section that would normally be up to me to complete. Still, what was this feeling? Something about what Sadeena was doing felt really similar to what Ost had done. When I thought about that aura, a blurry image of one of the pieces Ost had shown me came into sight for a split second. 
“If you don’t stop getting distracted and finish this soon, little Raphtalia will be in trouble, you know?” 
Raphtalia and Filo were still putting up a good fight, but it was probably only a matter of time before that changed. I could see Murder Pierrot reeling in the weapons that had been thrown at us and trying to swing them around with the thread. Right now, I needed to focus on this magic, and after that we’d just have to figure out a way to overcome this opponent, even if by brute force. 
“Dragon Vein! Hear our petition and grant it! As the source of your power, we implore you! Let the true way be revealed once more! Give us the power to overcome the obstacles before us!” 
Sadeena completed the cooperative magic and raised her left hand into the air. Dark clouds began to form above us, and the sound of thunder echoed throughout the arena. 
“Oh? So this is the magic we ended up with, is it?” 
“Descent of the Thunder God!” 
Without even trying, the name of the spell came out of my mouth at the same time Sadeena shouted it. A target icon appeared in my field of vision. 
 
“Little Rock, I’m sure you know who we should target with the magic, right?” 
“Yeah . . .” 
Without hesitating, I chose Raphtalia. Sadeena must have agreed, because she pointed her finger at Raphtalia. The thunderclouds moved over to the air above Raphtalia and lightning came crashing down. 
“Ahh!” 
Raphtalia shouted out in surprise. 
“Now . . .” 
She had left herself open, and Murder Pierrot’s thread shot out toward her. But the thread bounced off, unable to wrap around her. And that wasn’t all. 
“Ugh!” 
With a loud crackle, Murder Pierrot received a strong electrical shock and reeled back slightly. 
“What . . . is this?” 
Raphtalia was standing there with a shocked look on her face. I couldn’t blame her—I felt the same. Raphtalia’s whole body was surging with electricity, after all. 
“My stats have all skyrocketed!” 
“Little Ra—Shigaraki! That’s our powerful cooperative support magic, darling! Don’t waste it!” 
“Un . . . understood!” 
 
“I won’t lose.” 
Not to be outdone, Murder Pierrot shot out a barrage of threaded needles, but Raphtalia repelled every one of them and closed in on Murder Pierrot at a speed that made her earlier sluggishness seem like nothing but a bad dream. 
“I can withstand any attack!” 
Murder Pierrot shot a web out of her ball of thread and tried to put some distance between them. 
“We’ll see about that! Brave Blade! Mist!” 
Raphtalia was dual wielding now. She faced Murder Pierrot and fired off her skill. Raphtalia’s blades followed a cross-shaped trajectory that cut right through the web of thread and into Murder Pierrot. 
“Ahhhh!” 
As if to follow up her attack, lightning shot from the blades into Murder Pierrot, who was sent flying. Still not ready to give up, Murder Pierrot broke the fall and sprang back up, ready to fight. 
“You can’t beat ussss!” 
Filo took a deep breath and fired off another Air Block Voice. 
“Ughhhh . . .” 
It hadn’t seemed that powerful this time, but apparently it was still more than enough to create a shock wave that did some damage to our opponent. 
“Now to finish this! Combo Skill! Blade of the Thunder Emperor!” 
Raphtalia swung one of her katanas down hard. When she did, the blade was enveloped in bluish-white lightning that radiated outward brightly, and a rain of thunderbolts fell on Murder Pierrot. 
 
“Gaahhh!” 
The violent impact shook the whole arena with a loud boom, leaving a large crater in the floor. It was almost as if the ceremonial magic spell Judgement had rained down from the sky. The only thing left standing inside of the crater was Raphtalia. 
We won . . . I think? It sure seemed like we had won, but Murder Pierrot’s thread was still wrapped around me tightly. Raphtalia shook the blood from her blade and went to check to make sure that Murder Pierrot was incapacitated. 
“. . . ?” 
Raphtalia looked closely at her katana and then used the sheath to roll the fallen Murder Pierrot’s body over. 
“This is . . .” 
She poked at Murder Pierrot’s torso lightly with her sheath, and it made a hollow sound. It sounded just like . . . wood? And then the ball of thread that Murder Pierrot had been holding started to roll along the floor. That’s right. It went rolling off toward a pile of weapons that had been wound up in thread and tossed aside into a corner of the arena. I had a really bad feeling about this. 
“Scape-Doll” 
A pair of scissors appeared and cut open the cocoon of thread that had wrapped around the pile of weapons, and something came crawling out. 
“I’m guessing that buff is——?” 
 
A second Murder Pierrot was standing there right before us. Raphtalia raised her katana and readied herself. 
“That won’t be enough to———me. You’re simply not strong enough.” 
“Huh?” 
Murder Pierrot spoke so softly that I could hardly hear what was being said! 
“You have to———no one can stand up to you. Otherwise, you’ll be destroyed by other———. You shouldn’t be struggling against someone like me.” 
What was this clown going on about? 
“I’ve fought enough to earn my pay. Truthfully———fight———th. Eventually——ssshhsssaa . . .” 
Was it just me or was I hearing static again? I kept hearing crackling and hissing noises when this clown was talking to us. 
“You have to work harder, or you’ll die.” 
I heard Murder Pierrot clearly that time. And then, after waving to me, there was a small explosion and Murder Pierrot disappeared, leaving behind a cloud of smoke. 
So . . . a ninja? It was pretty much exactly how you would expect a ninja to disappear. At the same time, the thread that had been strewn out all over the arena disappeared, too, along with the puppets that Filo had been fighting. 
“What the hell was that?!” 
Not only did I have no idea who she had been, but the way she talked made it sound like she had been testing us. And then she just up and disappeared. 
 
“Murder Pierrot has vanished! We have a winner! Rock Valley’s Party and Nadiaaaaaaa!” 
What started out as just a few spectators clapping here and there quickly turned into a roar of cheers and applause. I guess they didn’t actually care which side won in the end. 
“We did it, little Rock.” 
“We won!” 
“Filo wiiiins!” 
“You mean Humming!” 
I scolded Filo and all she had to say was “whoops!” Jeez . . . It was just in one ear and out the other with that bird! 
“But . . . what was that? That Murder Pierrot freak . . . When did she even switch places in the first place?” 
“When the cocoon was formed, I’m guessing. Something about it just didn’t feel right, you know?” 
“But she hid it super-duper good, right! Soooo, it wasn’t magic, then?” 
I had a feeling Sadeena and Filo were right. As far as I could tell, continuing the fight shouldn’t have been a problem, but it was as if our opponent had achieved what she came for and just left. And that was after telling us we needed to get stronger . . . 
I wasn’t sure if Murder Pierrot was supposed to be our enemy or an ally. But no . . . Ally wasn’t right. This was just a hunch, but there was something eerie about it all. It felt similar to when I first encountered Glass. I’d have to ask about that weird weapon next time we met. 
 
But right now, we had to prioritize Raphtalia’s fellow villagers. We waved as if to announce our victory and then quickly headed back to the contestants’ waiting room.