Drel found himself completely on the back foot, forced into constant defense as Zarah relentlessly pressured him from every angle.

Every time he tried creating distance, another frozen arrow came flying toward him.

And every time he attempted to overwhelm her with vines, she either cut through them or weave around the vines, subtly redirecting their path so his momentum carried him out of position.

Still, Drel refused to go down easily.

Even while losing ground, he continued adapting throughout the fight, forcing Zarah to remain careful instead of simply overpowering him outright.

In the end, though, Zarah won through pure battlefield awareness.

At some point during the exchange, she deliberately gave Drel an opening and retreated toward one side of the arena as if she were being cornered.

Drel took the bait immediately.

The moment he charged forward to capitalize on it, frost suddenly exploded beneath his feet.

His movement halted instantly.

Ice locked around his legs tightly enough to pin him in place before he could properly react.

And then dozens of ice spikes formed around him from every direction.

The entire arena temperature dropped sharply as they pointed toward his body.

Drel’s eyes widened.

Then he shut them tightly, genuinely believing he was about to die.

But the spikes stopped.

Just inches away from piercing him.

Cold mist spread outward from the frozen weapons while silence briefly fell across the arena from the sheer tension of the moment.

Even the nearby goblins looked shaken by how close the attack had come.

Then the realization hit everyone at once.

Zarah had won.

The crowd erupted immediately afterward.

Cheers spread across both groups while several goblins slammed their fists together loudly in excitement.

And honestly?

I couldn’t even hide my own excitement.

I clenched my fist instinctively before joining the applause myself.

’That’s my girl. That’s my girl, everyone.’

I desperately wanted to say it out loud.

But I held it in.

As chief, I needed to maintain at least some level of dignity and elegance in front of the others.

Even if, internally, I was nowhere near as composed as I pretended to be.

As Zarah stepped out of the arena, Drel remained standing exactly where he was, staring blankly ahead as though his soul had temporarily abandoned his body.

I almost felt bad for him. Almost.

The sheer decisiveness of Zarah’s victory had clearly shaken him far more than the actual injuries did.

One moment, he had been fighting normally, and the next, he’d found himself completely immobilized with enough ice spikes pointed at him to turn him into minced meat if Zarah had decided not to stop.

The shock from that realization seemed to have genuinely rattled him because he didn’t move a single muscle afterward.

At some point, Kharos walked over beside him and waved a hand in front of his face.

But there was no response. 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

He literally had to drag Drel out of the arena so the next match could begin.

And the next fighter turned out to be Zarah’s pet troll, Boro.

The moment the massive troll stepped into the arena, the atmosphere shifted again.

Several of Caius’ goblins looked eager at first, probably thinking they were about to fight a slow brute that relied entirely on size and toughness.

That assumption didn’t last very long.

Boro tore through the first opponent surprisingly quickly.

His regeneration alone already made him difficult to deal with since wounds that should have slowed him down barely seemed to matter, but the real problem was [Hellbrand].

The flames coating portions of his body gave his attacks terrifying force, and every direct hit left behind burning damage that continued eating at his opponents afterward.

The first goblin lost.

Then the second stepped in.

And lost too.

Then the third.

Same result.

By that point, even Caius’ followers had stopped underestimating the troll.

Despite the fighters being relatively high level, Boro’s combination of regeneration, raw physical strength, and Hellbrand made him absurdly difficult to put down once he built momentum.

Meanwhile, Zarah was loudly cheering for him from the sidelines the entire time.

And unfortunately, that seemed to inflate Boro’s ego almost immediately.

The troll puffed his chest up proudly after the third victory before pointing toward the three goblins he had just defeated.

Then, with complete confidence, he gestured for all of them to come at him together.

Which, unfortunately, led directly to his downfall.

One-on-one, Boro had been overwhelming.

Against three opponents coordinating together, things became far messier.

The goblins stopped trying to overpower him directly and instead focused on wearing him down little by little, constantly moving around him, attacking from different angles, and forcing him to waste energy swinging at targets that refused to stay still.

Boro still landed some terrifying hits whenever he managed to connect properly, especially with [Hellbrand] active, but his stamina was draining far faster now.

And eventually, the three managed to drag him down through sheer persistence.

One of them latched onto his arm while another climbed onto his back, and before long, all three were struggling to pin the massive troll against the arena floor while Boro roared and thrashed around beneath them.

The whole thing looked far less dignified than the earlier fights.

Honestly, it was borderline ridiculous.

But it was entertaining enough that the crowd completely lost it.

The arena echoed with laughter and cheering as goblins from both groups shouted at each other excitedly while watching the chaotic mess unfold.

And while all that was happening, I noticed something important.

The goblins were genuinely starting to relax around one another now.

Earlier, there had been caution in every interaction, especially from Caius’ side, but that tension had mostly faded after the tournament began. Small groups from both factions had started talking among themselves naturally between matches, commenting on fights, mocking each other, laughing together, and occasionally arguing over who should fight next.

The atmosphere felt...lighter.

More natural.

Which meant this entire thing had accomplished exactly what I wanted.

Well, mostly.

Because...