?
Night had fallen, but the arena was still bustling and brightly lit. Its lights seemed to be trying to outshine the "Sunwell," which glowed like a fireball above the palace at the center of the floating island.
At that moment, five people sat in silence in a war room provided for the competitors to rest in: Emperor Barnhardt of the Rayguard Empire; Lyon, commander of the Azure Dragon Knights; Egbert, head of the Black Dragon Archmage Corps; Vargas, commander of the Flame Dragon Legion; and Imelda, the female commander of the Ice Dragon Legion.
They had no interest in the commotion outside. The expressions on their faces made it clear that they were all troubled by something, and none of them seemed to be in a particularly good mood.
And small wonder!
Things had gone from their full confidence when they first arrived to a complete mess after the competition. By now, all five of them—including the imperious Emperor Barnhardt—had some idea of how things might turn out.
They hadn't expected their empire's strongest knight, Lyon of the Azure Dragon Knights, to be eliminated before even making it into the top thirty-two. And Egbert, head of the Black Dragon Archmage Corps and supposedly the empire's strongest dark mage, had fared even worse: a little girl had knocked him out on the very first day. Add Vargas to the list of those already eliminated, and only two of them remained: Emperor Barnhardt, who had advanced by sheer luck, and Imelda, who had yet to face any particularly formidable opponents.
But those two weren't much use, either.
How much farther either of them could go, or how many more rounds they could survive, was still anyone's guess.
At any rate, the five of them were all of one mind: their empire