Aren looked at who spoke, the same dude that had been speaking to Luka.

"Don't start," one of the girls said. She was playing with something in her hands, a Rubik's Cube. She had jet black hair that was tied into a ponytail and was wearing a purple jogger up and down.

She solved the cube in only a second and then proceeded to scatter it before solving it again.

"Stay out of this." The guy shot at her, but immediately she tossed the cube up into the air, and then the cube disassembled into parts, each part fired forward at the speed of bullets toward the guy.

He saw it coming and frowned, pushing himself up from the chair. He moved so fast that the cubes seemed to move in slow motion for him as he got away, but they did not slam into the chair. Rather, they changed direction and attacked again, moving faster this time.

Even then, he managed to evade each one cleanly before they all returned back to her and assembled into a cube again.

"Tch, you made me stand up from the chair," he said, angry at that.

"That's a win in my book," she said before proceeding to scatter and then rearrange the cube again.

The dude looked at Aren, still seeing the amused look on his face, but decided not to push it. He walked back down and sat down, laying on the chair.

"Alright, since that's out of the way now, you'll probably get to know everyone soon," Luka said.

"Aren't we meant to be part of the tournament? Why are we here?" Aren decided to ask.

"No one briefed the noob?" another person said. He was a man, probably twenty or above in age. Brown hair, a turtleneck, and sleek black trousers. He sat on the chair and looked at the screen.

"We aren't meant to be involved in the tournament the way that the others will be," he said, turning to look at Aren. "For the first stages of the tournament, we are going to be what the others fight against.

"The hosts of the tournament believe that if we are placed against ourselves, it could cause someone that had the potential to lose, so until the end, we'll be testing ourselves against them." He then pointed at the screen.

"This is why we are inside this room and watching what is happening there," he finished explaining.

Aren looked at the screen, and it finally made sense. They were the core of this tournament and the ones to bring the difficulty up.

"Have a seat, it's about to start," Luka said.

Before they could sit down, the door opened again, and this time two people walked out, the lady Aren had fought and the man that had flown in on a sword.

"Oh, seems you made it before us," he said as soon as he saw Aren.

Aren looked at both of them. The lady looked at him like she was going to rip his face in half at any moment. She was still enraged at the fact that she could not kill him back there.

"Yeah, I guess so," Aren replied.

"The damage you two caused is extremely massive, but the city is chalking it up to issues caused by the tournament, so you don't have to pay for anything," he said.

"You fought someone?" Luka asked in shock.

"Yeah, he fought her before coming here," the man said, tapping the lady on the shoulder, but she shrugged it off and looked at Aren.

"The next time, you'll die," she said.

"If you come after me again, I'll not hold back like I did the last time," Aren replied, and then he walked off as well. He did not want to bother with the people here. He had better things to worry about now, like the safety of Athena and if she would be attacked during the tournament.

He found a chair and sat down, looking at the screen. Luka walked over and sat beside him.

"Yo bro, how did you survive her? She is extremely powerful from what I heard," he asked.

Aren paused for a moment, then he spoke. "She was strong, but I'm not that easy to kill," he said casually.

"Hmm, so what is your ability like?" Luka decided to probe.

"Summoner," Aren replied casually, not putting much thought into it, but Luka did.

"He is a summoner? How was he then capable of fighting her and survive? Did he sacrifice all his summons to fight her? Her way of fighting is powerful penetrative attacks." He scanned Aren a little, then smiled. "I guess this will be fun."

Aren focused on the screen, scanning through the several angles of the Hall, and then he saw the group standing together in the corner. For some reason, his eyes lingered on Raze.

He strongly believed that Raze had power that could compare to some of the chosen, but he was not chosen. He did not dwell on that for long though, because Athena and Zero were also extremely powerful but were not chosen as well, so it was not a serious thought.

But right when he was about to look away, Raze's arm twitched in a weird way, and a golden mark showed on the arm for a brief moment, a small pulse. Aren did not know what it was or if it was some sort of ability related thing, but he found it suspicious since this was the first time he had seen it.

Now that he was away from Raze, his suspicion continually grew, and the moment he got the chance to meet Raze after, he was going to ask some difficult questions. He was not leaving anything up to chance. After all, they all met Raze by chance, and he stuck with them after that.

A few minutes passed and the tournament started, as one door in the Hall opened and a figure walked in. A man dropped in complete slim fitting armor, only his head was exposed. From first glance, you could tell this was a full soul weapon armor.

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