"I'm your host, Natalie San-" as the hostess introduced herself for the viewers of their respective worlds to see, from the humble civilizations to the most advanced dimensions. Violet took a good look at the one responsible for orchestrating this event. "And I'm proud to present..." Mirror took his cue to leave the dressing room, "...the Gladatorium."

So you're the one behind this. Violet glared at the screen. You haven't realized the grave consequences you caused by gathering one of the most dangerous combatants in one place. She thought as she remembered Mirror, the one he saw in her vision. Violet may not have seen every competitor as of yet, but she could tell that Mirror was the most unpredictable of all of the fighters gathered to compete. At least she could gauge the competitors by sensing their aura.

Alexander and Astrid dashed to the checkpoint, Octavia sat on an empty seat next to Tony as she looked at the screen. "Where fighters from different worlds come to compete to test their strength, skill and ingenuity in the Arena. A chance to prove their worth not only to our judges, but to you who is watching the tournament today."

"That's right, Nat. We have a lot of competitors this year, starting from the strongest spellcaster to the average fighter." Johnathan stated.
"This year, the combatants will be placed in two categories: the Magic Division and the Melee Division." Eleanor added.

While the announcers were speaking, Alexander pressed on an application within his watch to come into contact with his teammates via video chat, only Logan had his electronic watch blocked to prevent any distractions that could slow down his search for the illegal Rave that he was determined to find.

Uiwo already paid for his taco wrap with enchilada and honey mustard as he took a sip of his iced tea by the time Eimy stood in line to order for Dirlu. As she stood in line to order, Felix stood behind her, waiting in line. Uiwo took a bite of his taco wrap before he walked back up to the second floor to return to his seat.

"Now that we have already covered up the rules of the divisions is time to introduce our judges: Elizabeth Luna," the screen showed Lizzy's full name and her nickname as Elizabeth "Lizzy" Luna while the judge smiled as her face and long black hair was seen, "Marie Johnson", the screen panned to her youthful smile, brown braided hair and her gray eyes, "and Adrian Mehrkens." Eleanor announced at the screen showed Adrian's stoic expression, his bald head nearly as shiny as Mirror's while his dirty blonde facial hair was seen as his stubby fingers stroked his chin. "The judges will determine the combatant's performance in the arena after every match. So be prepared." Johnathan reminded the viewers. Annabell, Scale, Faim, Herring and Ratu took a look at the judges as they peered out on the arena.

Tr received an incoming video call from Alexander, with a grunt he pressed the icon to stay on the video chat. "About time you found her." Tr said as she saw Astrid wave at him.
"Hey Astrid." Ash greeted as she adjusted the video camera.
"Wassup?" Astrid replied as she leaned on Alexander's shoulder.
"I was on the fourth floor looking for you. You can see almost everything from up here. They're showing the names of the contestants as we speak.
"Really?" Astrid asked her.
"Yeah. Everyone's seeing it." Ash said it as she stood to where the screen was visible.
"You're not missing much." Tr commented.

"Here are all the names of the combatants in alphabetical order." Eleanor gestured to an open space while the names appeared in bullets:

  •    Alexandra
  •    Annabell Lily Luna
  •    Astrid Matsumoto
  •    Breloq
  •    Chris
  •    Combat Mirror
  •    Faim
  •    Felin
  •    Herring Ja
  •    Hwa Hae Ji
  •    June Lily
  •    Master Yin
  •    Phixa
  •    Piros
  •    Ratu
  •    Ryan
  •    Ryo
  •    Scale
  •    Shadow Vividstripe
  •    Sora Hasaki
  •    Stella Spacey
  •    Violet 

Piros was amazed at the massive magic glass hovering in the air, revealing the faces of two uniformed strangers as they summoned runes to display the names, the only name that he could identify was Herring's, despite that he was illiterate.  ᚻᛖᚱᚱᛁᛝ᛫ᛄᚪ

"I like Annabell's full name, it has an air of elegance to it." Dirlu commented.
"I like the name Phixa, it has a sting to it. Fix-ah, fic-sah fix-a-fix-a-fix." Mewmi pronounced the name repeatedly, as the noblewoman rolled her eyes.
"Of course a stray cat like you would find that entertaining." Dirlu said before she heard Mewmi hiss at her.
"Combat Mirror, reminds me of one of the Gilded Gladiators." Ximo as he opened a bottle cap.
"Didn't Silvn used to have a similar stage name?" Uiwo asked him.
"Nah! His stage name was either Slick Silver or The Silverman." Ximo reminded him before chugging on the bottle of water in large gulps while Uiwo chewed on the enchilada.
"Stop hissing cat, unless you want me to throw you out." Mewmi laughed at her empty threat.
"Try it! I dare you! I can land on all fours. You on the other hand will be seen as an animal abuser for a wide audience to see. You'll be the one who'll get kicked out if you lay a hand on me." Mewmi warned with a Cheshire grin on her face.
"In that case," Dirlu stood from her seat, looming over Mewmi, "you will have no problem explaining to Eimy how you got her out of the stadium once I take back my refund." The shapeshifting cat gasp.
"You wouldn't..." but the way Dirlu grinned indicated that she would, and could do so since she paid for Eimy's and Mewmi's tickets.
"Try me." Dirlu opened her fan and waved it sideways as if she was signalling her departure. But before she allowed her to leave, Mewmi pounced on the noblewoman's back meowing no no no no no no no.
"Please no, she'll punish me by not making anymore of her delicious frittatas! She's the one who makes the tasty food. Faim can't even make a decent filet without it burning into a crisp." Mewmi begged her. "I'm so hungry that I could eat a calf!" Mewmi shouted.
"Mewmi, stop making a scene." Eimy came back to bring Dirlu the food she ordered. Mewmi shapeshifted back into her human form as she let go of her as she took her seat as her stomach growled. "Your change." Eimy returned the change, 480ğ. 
"Save that for later, right now I want my coffee." Dirlu grabbed the plastic cup and blew to cool off the coffee before taking a sip. Eimy returned to her seat before she gave Mewmi a bag full of fish sticks and a lemon soda. "For you." Eimy confirmed.
Mewmi's eyes lit up before she scarfed down the fish sticks with sea salt.

The receptionists took a lunch break as they watched the TV screen. Alma, the elven receptionist, had her dark hair in a ponytail as she wore aquamarine earrings to match her navy blue skirt, a white button up shirt, black pumps and a blue and white striped tie. Alma had a bottle of gin in hand. Buid was slurping on a noodle soup as he was waiting for the moment to watch the results of upcoming matches. 

"Can I also sign my friend to compete in the tournament? He would like to participate but he can't read Mandarin." Herring requested, omitting the fact that Piros didn't want to partake in the tournament.
"If that is the case, I could translate the form to your friend." The receptionist offered.
"That's very kind of you sir," Herring signed Piros's name on the form while he and the receptionist made eye contact, "but I prefer to tell him myself. Thanks for the offer." Herring put down the quill. The sneaky Pirian native exited the reception and entered the stadium with a smug expression plastered across his face, unbeknownst to him that the receptionist knew that he speed signed without him looking. He smirked at the repercussions that will come to the competitor sooner or later. Buid smiled awaiting for the drama to unravel.

Geoffrey brought rice with chicken breast, pigeon peas and gravy with a soda for lunch. "I can't wait to watch the fight." He said as he sat down to watch, opening the plastic to take out a plastic spoon. Goung brought his meal as he opened the chair to sit down. 
"Did I miss anything?" Jane Doe asked.
"No, you are just in time to watch the show." Goung replied.

"Since when did women started judging the tournaments?" Herring asked in a disbelieving tone.
"Excuse me?" Annabell balled her fists on her hips as she glared at Herring's remark. "Ever heard of Lady Justice?"
"Who's she?" Herring asked her, the human evolution was appalled by his ignorance, who hadn't heard of lady justice at this point? 
"Are you kidding me?!" She shouted before Herring tried to hush her as he squinted at Adrian, attempting to decipher his stoic expression.
"You seriously haven't heard of Lady Justice?" Faim questioned him, checking if he was being sexist or actually oblivious of the question.
"Should I know who that is?" Herring asked him in return.
"The only god of Judgement I've heard of is Rot, or RØD and even the monarchy take his name seriously." Ratu affirmed Herring's ignorance. 
"By Gonza, he's not joking." Faim thought.
Scale was looking somewhere in the audience to see if he could find any of the Shadow Soldiers until he spotted Blade and Melon.

Melon was laying her head on Blade's chest when she heard his stomach growl. "I'm in the mood for a juicy steak right now." Blade commented while Melon shifted to the side.
"I'm in the mood for Mexican food. A hot spicy quesadilla with guacamole." Melon replied thinking about the guacamole. 
"Good idea." The Shadow Soldier with the orange tinged cloak and the blonde goddess that followed him headed out for lunch, leaving Grim alone to watch the screen.

"Have any of you seen Sam or Vilma anywhere?" Jane Doe asked as she took out her lunch out of a paper bag.
"Sam is a procrastinator, I wouldn't be surprised if Soul ratted him out for loitering, and Vilma..." Geoffrey trailed off, refusing to talk about what Vilma was planning since he didn't want to know what goes on with that twisted mind of hers.

Vilma was wearing casual clothing as she had her dark brown hair tied to a small bun and wore her sunglasses, a brown leather jacket, stylized sneakers and an ocean blue scarf with brown tinged to the lower end of the scarf. Grim was watching the screen as they were announcing the official matches of each division.

"The first match for the Magic Division will be... Alexandra, the angel versus Annabell Lily Luna." Eleanor announced, Alexandra was next to Phixa when she saw the first result, Annabell didn't expect to fight in the tournament so soon.
"While the first match for the Melee Division will be..." Johnathan paused.
"C'mon..." Grim barred his teeth.
"Faim versus Herring Ja!" Johnathan announced.
"Damn it." Grim cursed under his breath, while Faim and Herring were stoked that they get to be the first ones to fight.
"Oh yeah!" The two combatants shouted in unison.

"Relax, Scale won't be fighting until the last match." Vilma said, before Grim looked to his right to see her sitting there, taking a bite out of the nachos.
"What do you know?" Grim interrogated her, glaring at her, attempting to extract fear from her though she was more focused on dipping the nacho chip.
"A little birdy told me that one of the competitors on the Melee Division is illiterate and unaware that they got signed up to fight without their knowledge." Vilma informed before chewing on the nacho chip.
"Why should I care?" Grim rolled his eyes.
"Because once the guy discovers that he's going to fight, he'll be fuming on the Asian guy you see on the screen. There's a 50% chance that he'll drop out to go after him and drama will hit the fan."
"Or he'll take out his anger out on Scale." Grim knows how spineless Scale can be, despite that the Reptilian can be quick when he wants to be. The one time he was supposed to back down, he took it in stride. Is one thing to show boldness and choosing your battles wisely is another thing entirely.
"It's the best option I had at the time. Given to the other fighters I've checked, Piros seems to be the best option."
"Why should I trust you?" He interrogated in a menacing tone.
"If I hadn't changed the line-up, your challenger would be fighting off a venomous dinosaur. The other options were pairing your scaly friend with a child, a dinosaur, or with an old dojo master. Can you seriously imagine the backlash with Scale beating a child? Or getting creamed by an elderly dojo master? How about getting eaten by a dinosaur? I did you a favor." Vilma reminded him as she scooped up the cheese dip with a large nacho chip before eating it. He hated being wrong, much less admitting that he was wrong.
"You win this time." The Shadow Soldier said while she smiled.

Felix watched the show as he was eating a drumstick. He wolfed down his lunch to prepare for the Gladatorium Tryout. Not too far from where Felix was, Logan followed the directions that he downloaded from the stadium's webpage as he scrolled down to look at the map of the stadium, zooming in on the schematics of the 1st floor. When he approached near the hall he saw Mirror pass by, the combatant's glossy skin reflecting on Logan's complexion for a quick second as the silvery fighter headed to his destination. Logan walked to the restricted area of the hallway when Patricia stepped out of the door. "Is there a problem sir?" Patricia asked in a syrupy voice as she blocked the area where Logan was about to pass.
"No ma'am, I was just checking." Logan adjusted his glasses as he got distracted by Patricia's physique, mainly the buttoned up shirt protruding from her three colored jacket.
"This area is reserved for authorized personnel only, now move along." Patricia clarified as she got closer to Logan. Her green eyes scrutinizing, Logan's blue eyes from the glint of his lenses.
"Sorry about that, it won't happen again." Logan hinted, implying that he won't make the same as he turned his heel and walked out of the hall.

Violet walked out of the waiting room when she saw Mirror right in front of her, it was just as she envisioned. A man with silvery skin as his glossy surface showed a glimpse of her reflection, she opened her fan as she headed towards the restroom.

The screen panned out to show the hostess once more. "We will start the match with the Magic Division, after this, the Melee Division. I will clarify the rules of the tournament. Necromancy is strictly forbidden, and using magic to kill your opponent is also forbidden, by breaking any of these rules will result in being eliminated from the tournament. Once the fighter is blacklisted from the tournament, they will be banished from this stadium. PERMANENTLY. With that said, enjoy the show." The hostess stated before Erica cut the camera to show the advertisement.

This advertisement is brought to you by Sherry's Burries. Sherry's Burries is the only service that will send you a disposable coffin every month. You can fill that coffin with whatever and whoever you want. Then one of Sherry's Fundertakers will retrieve your coffin and make it go away. What you do with the coffin isn't our problem and after we make it go away it's not your problem either. In fact, is not even a problem so stop asking about it. Sherry' Burries. CALL NOW!!!

"I'm so excited!" Alexandra let out a squeal of delight before she flapped her wings. 
"Good luck!" Phixa said before Alexandra shot out like a bolt of lightning. Shadow craned her neck as she felt a gust of wind fly over her, Stella looked out.
"Wow! She shot out like a comet!" Stella spoke her mind as they all watched Alexandra descend to the arena gracefully. Adrian simply blinked as he maintained the same unimpressed facial expression.
"You can do it Annabell, I'm rooting for you." Scale said.
"Thanks Scale." Annabell smiled. Scale smiled back before Faim patted Annabell on the shoulder as a sign of good luck. 
"Good luck." Faim said.
"Zhù hǎo yùn." Herring said as he gave her a pat on the back as Annabell walked out of the waiting room and to the awning where the judges waited for her to enter the arena. Annabell's brown eyes looked at Eros for a second. You can do it my lady, you will triumph. Eros thought as he let out a genuine smile. A reassuring smile that allowed her to move forward, her boots stepped on the grains of sand as she walked towards the referee and her opponent.

The angel and the human evolution were five feet apart before Glen stepped in the middle of the arena to establish the rules of the match. "The rules are simple: you can defeat your opponent by knock out, getting your opponent out of the arena or if the opponent drops out. There is a 5 minute time limit. Since one of you can fly there will be a barrier surrounding the arena to prevent any stray spells from hitting anyone from the audience having enough space to roam in the air while ensuring safety for the others present." The combatants agreed to the terms before Brandon activated the barrier from where he was as he adjusted the shape, width and density of the barrier akin to a massive snowglobe reaching up to 500 feet. Once the barrier closed, Glen blew the whistle.