Nero stepped onto the arena, glancing up as his opponent took her place across him, a confident smirk on her face. She was from the same team as Ariodred, with streaks of flames swirling around her.

"Here we go, let the countdown begin!"

"Heh, I'm going to reduce you to ash," Smirked the woman, slamming her fists together with a gleam in her eyes as Nero began stretching and warming up, glancing up as the countdown began.

He let out a slow exhale to compose himself, cracking his knuckles before sprinting across as a couple of roaring fireballs came shooting towards him, evading them and firing out a barrage of dark arrows at her.

She raced away, grimacing as a couple of the arrows grazed her back, drawing out trickles of blood. She began to try and get more distance from him, before he swiftly chased after her.

He was faster, so the gap between them steadily shrunk as he gave chase, while continuing to fire out his dark energy arrows.

His opponent was able to just barely avoid any direct hits, but she was sustaining cuts and shallow gashes all over her sides, and she was slowly but surely slowing down from the debilitating, stamina draining effect of Dark Magic.

She then tilted her head across as a dark arrow came shooting towards her face, grazing her right cheek and drawing out trickles of blood, before she growled and unleashed a devastating wave of blazing flames towards Nero as she snapped her mouth open.

He quickly came to a halt and formed a swirling mass of dark energy in front of himself, using it as a shield to block the flames, beads of sweat pouring down his face from the heat and dripping onto the floor of the arena.

As the flames began to peter out, he swiftly got low and whipped his arm across, firing out a slashing wave of dark energy, sending it shooting towards her legs with immense speed.

His opponent narrowly leapt above the slash, the attack whizzing past the soles of her feet, before her eyes widened in alarm as a rapid blast of dark energy came shooting towards her while she was still mid-leap, the blast hitting her chest before she could react and knocking her onto her back.

As she skidded back across the arena, she let out a pained groan before quickly scrambling back onto her feet and looking around, trying to spot Nero, before she tensed as she sensed him behind her.

She quickly unleashed a burst of flames behind her as she felt a blade starting to pierce into the middle of her back, the burst pushing her forward before the blade could plunge into her body.

She stumbled slightly before quickly spinning around as she regained her balance, to see a dense cloud of dark energy where Nero had been standing.

She began firing out a barrage of fireballs all around herself frantically, grimacing as more dark clouds burst out all around the arena, always in her blind spots, as she desperately tried to get Nero within her sight.

But it was no use, he was avoiding her gaze expertly, and the more dark energy smokescreens he unleashed, the easier it got.

It wasn't long before the entire area around his opponent was covered in dark smoke, before she cried out in pain as a couple of dark blasts struck her back, sending her stumbling forward.

Beads of sweat poured down her face, before her vision blurred as another blast struck her right side, knocking her further off-balance.

As she began to try and catch her breath, her attention focused on either side of and behind herself, right as a swirling dark energy blast came shooting straight towards her from in front, colliding against her torso before she could react and knocking her onto her back.

She struggled to catch her breath as her head began spinning, her ears ringing and her vision blurring as beads of sweat poured down her face. She began to feel feverish, her face flushed, before she shook her head to try and regain her bearings.

She started to try and get back onto her feet, before stiffening as she felt the cold kiss of metal poking the middle of her forehead, before meeting Nero's gaze above her, holding a dagger above her forehead.

'Surrender or I will have no choice but to kill you' Nero wrote across the air with dark energy, before slightly lowering the dagger to get the point across, nicking her skin and drawing out a thin trickle of blood.

"I-I...I give up," She uttered shakily, barely able to think straight with the effects of Nero's Dark Magic affecting her so significantly.

"That ends the second match, the winner is Nero!"

Nero let out a quiet sigh as he moved his dagger away and stood up, his opponent losing consciousness as a sense of relief set in, before the two of them suddenly disappeared and reappeared amidst their respective teams.

"Hey, great work out there, that was impressive," Raven greeted him with a thumbs up.

"Yeah, you totally dominated that fight, way to go," Added Aster in agreement.

"They're right, you did well," Spoke up Wistari with a smile.

"So far, so good...but this contest is only just getting started," Responded Jules with a grimace.

"Come on, Commander, it won't kill you to lighten up just a little b-...," Began Akila, before trailing off and averting his gaze as she gave him a glare.

"Alright, time for the third match, participants...you know the drill!"

"Guess I'm up now. Here's hoping I've got a favorable match up," Sighed Aster, as he hopped out of his seat.

"Be careful. Don't get too careless," Frowned Jules with a look of concern.

"Hey, don't worry, I'll be just fine. Maybe try cheering me on to give me some extra motivation," He grinned in response, before turning his attention to the arena and steeling himself...

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