===BATTLE ROYALE===

The assassins all cried out in excitement and bloodlust once Sylvia sounded the call to fight. All twenty-five contestants, Travis included, began running towards the middle of the arena at once. Their weapons drawn, their bodies fueled by adrenalin, their eyes burning with the passion and desire to slaughter their way to personal glory. In one instance, a crowd of previously complete strangers to one another became consumed by hatred.

When the ring of fighters closed up, the arena became filled with the sounds of swords and beams clashing violently. Some fighters were killed right away by their immediate opponents. Those that had killed already went straight to the next available opponent without hesitating. One group had three assassins fighting each other at once.

Travis had his blades locked with none other than Dave himself, the self-proclaimed Nightdream King. The man, still dressed in his formal V-neck T-shirt and khakis, was armed with a short beam sword in one hand—similar in length to a wakizashi sword—and a scythe-like beam weapon in the another. Despite the weight of the scythe weapon, Dave was able to block all of Travis' attacks with no difficulty. He stepped forward and swung the scythe horizontally, repelling Travis back a step and putting him on the defensive. Dave then stepped in further and unleashed a flurry of slices with the short sword, with such speed and precision that Travis was momentarily put off-balance while fending them off. Seeing his chance, Dave broke his guard and kicked him in the chest, sending him to the ground.

"Let me show you something!" Dave said as Travis struggled to get up.

He pushed a button on the scythe's handle. The beam emitting from it began to spin incredibly fast, becoming a deadly whirlwind of spinning light. Travis quickly got to his feet as Dave aimed his weapon at him; in an instant, the spinning light blade launched from the hilt. Travis rolled to one side as the beam hit the ground and exploded, just barely dodging it. He groaned in pain, though, as the blade had lightly scratched and burned his leg.

"Very impressive, Mr. Touchdown!" Dave exclaimed. The scythe grew another similar blade of light from the hilt. "That's a hard one to survive, but so far you've got—"

Someone shouted in agony behind Travis, diverting his attention to see what it was. What he immediately saw was an assassin coming directly up to him in an attacking posture. Without much time to think about it, Travis dove out of the way to dodge the attack. The aggressor then focused his attention on Dave, forcing the two of them into a scuffle.

Travis used this opportunity to look around the arena for Kimmy and Shinobu, to make sure they hadn't killed each other yet. He was able to find Kimmy fighting an opponent, but he couldn't see Shinobu amidst the melee. He tried to figure out a strategy to make his way through the battlefield to get to a closer position, but that would require fighting through the crowd of—

"Look sharp, Hero!" someone again shouted behind him.

Travis looked to his right and saw a young man headed his way, about to attack him with what appeared to be a beam dagger. Travis turned and blocked the weapon without much trouble, but the young man swiped again with another dagger in his other hand, forcing Travis to break his defense and take a step back. The assassin had short, spiky red hair and small red tattoos underneath his eyes. He wore a red and black outfit that Travis swore he saw out of one of his anime shows.

"Come on, Hero!" the young man shouted. "I've fucked up bigger shitheads than you'll ever be. You think you're Death incarnate, like all the other pussies that ever held top rank!"

The assassin ran in again, swiping at Travis with his daggers but being blocked every time. He employed impressive agility and balance with his strikes; each one seemed designed to strike at the opponent's unprotected spots, but Travis, also armed with two blades, was able to easily block every attack.

"Seriously, kid," Travis said, his blades locked with the assassin's. "How old are you?"

The assassin, struggling to hold his blades against Travis', replied, "Fuck you. I've enjoyed killing every single one of my victims! I'm the best assassin there is because no one loves killing weak fools as much as I do. The name's Kira, and you better not forget it!"

Travis pushed Kira back, and this time went on the offensive. He attacked using wide swings and powerful slices, meant to break strong defenses, which Kira had difficulty maintaining. Eventually, the two were engaged in another blade lock, with Travis having the advantage.

"Don't get ahead of yourself, fuckwit," Travis retorted. "It looks like you're having trouble keeping up with me."

"I've already killed two in this arena. And after I'm done with you, you know who's gonna come next?"

Kira broke Travis' offense and the two exchanged another flurry of attacks before ending in another blade lock. Travis got in close. "What's that gonna be?"

"Next thing I'm gonna do," Kira said, panting hard. "…is I'm gonna butcher your two girlfriends over there and keep their heads on a trophy pike, right next to yours! And then…and then…I'll open your body up and rub your blood all over my house! How's that, Hero? You like that?!"

Travis glanced down and noticed that Kira was putting all of his weight on his left leg, which began to tremble. Travis looked up and shook his head. "Nah, but I think you just made a rookie mistake."

Before Kira could say anything, Travis broke away from him and sidestepped to the right, causing Kira to lose his balance and stumble forward. As soon as he could correct himself, he attempted to turn around and swing his swords but Travis already had his katana held at his neck, causing him to hesitate.

"You put all your weight on one leg," Travis said. "That's the biggest mistake that rookies like yourself make."

"Don't talk down to me, you piece of shit!" Kira shouted, swinging his swords around to break Travis' stance. Travis easily blocked his two swings and made a clean slice through his wrists, severing both his hands. As Kira screamed and cursed in pain, Travis raised his katanas and made a clean X-shaped swath through his body. His screaming trailed off as he fell to the ground in five pieces.

"Sick fuck," Travis sighed. Beginning to feel worn down, he quickly looked around the arena to survey the battlefield. Bodies and parts of bodies scattered the blood-stained floor as others continued to fight. He estimated that roughly half the combatants were dead by now. His thoughts went straight to Kimmy and Shinobu. From where he was, he could see Kimmy fighting an opponent, but still no sign of Shinobu. He ran forward a bit, dodging a few assassins fighting each other, until he finally found Shinobu off in a corner of the arena. She was fighting two opponents at once; they appeared to be ganging up on her.

A metal claw suddenly grasped Travis around his waist, trapping both of his arms and causing him to drop Rose Nasty. He struggled to get free, but the grip was very tight. The claw then lifted him up and threw him to the left, sending him to the ground on his back. He looked up; the claw had come from a male assassin who had been severely outfitted with cybernetic attachments. Wearing a pair of high-tech goggles and his torso covered in rubber wiring, the assassin's arms and legs were massive steel limbs that caused him to tower above everyone else. The robot's right hand was a drill-like apparatus, while the left hand was the claw that grabbed Travis. The claw then retracted back into the slot in the arm and came back with what looked like a beam sword.

Travis stood up, collecting his beam swords from the ground. "Really…" he said to himself. "You think you've seen everything…"

The assassin charged and attacked Travis with a vertical slice, but Travis blocked it and countered by slicing the machine's arm with his other sword, separating the beam sword attachment entirely. As the assassin staggered back, Travis attempted to separate the other arm, though the drill extension successfully blocked all of his swings. As he continued to attack, the assassin surreptitiously positioned his damaged left arm, now covered in exposed wires and sparking frequently, at Travis' back.

Travis just happened to look out of the corner of his eye to see the sparking contraption behind him, only seconds before it lunged forward. He jumped out of the way at the last second, causing the damaged socket to come in contact with the other arm, sending a large surge of voltage through the entire machine—and into the assassin's body. The assassin began convulsing violently, screaming in agony, until his mechanical attachment exploded, sending tiny metal pieces everywhere and disintegrating the assassin's body.

Travis breathed a sigh of relief, then resumed his watch for Kimmy and Shinobu. Due to the diminished number of fighters left, he spotted them fairly quickly. The only issue was…they were now fighting each other.

He took a few steps towards them, but was stopped when someone called out to him. Recognizing the voice, he turned to the right and saw none other than Dave the Nightdream King, weapons armed, waiting for him. This time, however, Nightdream was dressed in different battle armor; over his red V-neck, he wore a dark grey combat vest with spiky shoulder pads and a hi-tech eyepiece attached over his ear. He still carried a beam scythe in his right hand, but he no longer had the wakizashi in his left. Instead, his left arm was outfitted with a small attachable cannon device. It was at this moment too that Travis realized that he, Nightdream, Kimmy and Shinobu were the only fighters left alive in the arena.

"Mr. Touchdown," Nightdream said. "What more of a perfect way to end this event than one last duel between you and I?"

Travis didn't respond at first. He looked over at Kimmy and Shinobu fighting and then back at the assassin standing before him. Nightdream took notice of this.

"Them?" he said. "You made a choice when you re-entered the rankings. If you aren't ready for the uncomfortable and the unexpected, you aren't ready for the rankings."

"You don't need to tell me that," Travis scoffed, readying his beam katanas. "I know all about that. You want a good fight, I'll give you the fight of your life."

"That's what I'm talking about. Show me what you got, Travis!"

The Nightdream King fired a shot from his cannon, which Travis dodged immediately. The projectile that fired from the cannon was a coagulated sphere, as though it were made from rubber, and it flew in an arc. When it landed behind him, it exploded in a large column of purple substance that pillared vertically up to the ceiling.

"Darkness…" Nightdream snarled. "Feel the burn!"

The assassin charged forth and swung at Travis with the scythe, with Travis deflecting every strike. When he found an opportunity to move to the offensive, he attempted to break Nightdream's guard with repeated strikes from Rose Nasty, but Nightdream was able to block every one with his scythe. After exchanging blows for a few second, Travis finally broke Nightdream's guard and attempted to slice at his neck. Nightdream raised his cannon arm to block the strike, and Travis was shocked when the device successfully stopped the beam blade.

"The fuck?!" Travis exclaimed. "How can you even do that?"

Nightdream smirked and swiped with his scythe, forcing Travis to block quickly and pushing him back. "Technology works in mysterious ways. You wanna know the difference between magic and technology?"

"Yeah? What is it?"

"Magic has never been wielded by mankind. Until I came along!"

Nightdream quickly aimed and fired another projectile at Travis, who was unable to dodge it. The object didn't explode on contact, but rather was simply absorbed into Travis' body. He recoiled in surprise, but then yelled out and fell to his knees as he became overwhelmed by extreme pain in his body. His skin felt like it was burning; his organs felt like they were slowing down. Unable to do anything to stop the agony, he dropped his katanas and pounded the ground with his fists. The pain was unbearable.

Nightdream, circling Travis as he lay struggling on the ground, began to laugh. "Your mind is elsewhere, Mr. Touchdown. I expected you to dodge that one. What could you possibly be thinking about at this time? If you're not concentrating on your opponent, what are you concentrating on?"

He looked over to see Kimmy and Shinobu still dueling each other, then looked back down at Travis. "Tell you what. I'm a fair guy, and I love a fair fight. I'm going to walk over there to rid you of these distractions on your mind, and when I get back, then we can have a proper duel. Stay right there for me, okay?"

He began walking away from Travis, towards the two girls. Travis struggled to get up, clenching his heart. "No…stop…god…damn…it," was all he was able to speak. He glanced in their direction, watching Nightdream move closer and closer to the girls. If he didn't do something soon, he wouldn't be able to stop him.

Travis summoned every residue of strength he had left to stand up. His legs felt like lead and his skin continued to feel like he was on fire.

Come on. Remember Master's training. The body is only a shell; physical pain cannot hurt the soul. Come on, get your ass up and go stop that motherfucker! Come on! GET UP!

Travis grabbed Rose Nasty from the ground and put the blades back on his belt. He took a couple steps in Nightdream's direction. Then a couple more. Then he broke into a jog. A little faster now. Then he managed to surprise himself by breaking into a full run, almost unaware of the pain.

Nightdream turned around just in time to see Travis coming right up on him. He raised his scythe to defend, but Travis did something that Nightdream was not expecting. Instead of tackling him or wrestling the scythe out of his hands like he was expecting, Travis instead leapt onto Nightdream, wrapping his legs around the cannon arm and using his body weight to wrestle Nightdream to the ground. Locking the cannon arm into a straight armbar, Travis pulled with more force than normal, forcing the metal to start to creak.

"What?!" Nightdream shouted as he tried to break out of the armbar. "No, beam katanas can't break it! This is impossible! Get off!"

Travis, still fighting the pain, continued to pull as hard as he could until the metal began to crack. Then it started to dislocate. Eventually, with enough force and pressure, the cannon became dislodged from its socket, deactivating it and completely dissolving the pain in Travis' body.

Travis collapsed in relief, breathing heavily to regain some air. Nightdream, freed from the armlock, rolled away from Travis to stand up and inspect his cannon as it dangled uselessly from his arm.

"I can't believe it," Nightdream said. "This thing was designed to stop a beam katana! You tore it physically right from its socket!"

"And there's more where that came from!" Travis said, still lying on the ground. He sighed one more time and stood up, refreshed and no longer in pain. He took his blade Peony off his belt. "What's the matter? Something distracting you?"

In his aggravation, Nightdream ripped the dangling cannon from his arm and threw it to the ground. "I've had enough playing around with you. You're dead, Travis!" He pressed the button on the scythe handle, causing it to spin once more at a high velocity.

Travis activated Peony's extensively long beam. "Come on! Bring it!"

Nightdream fired the spinning beam scythe at Travis, who deflected it with his Peony katana, sending the projectile into the wall. Travis immediately charged towards his opponent while his scythe was respawning another blade and swung. Nightdream deflected every swing, but due to the sheer power of Travis' katana, every rebound put him off balance. On the fourth swing, the force was so strong that it knocked Nightdream's scythe right out of his hands and onto the floor behind him.

Nightdream kicked Peony out of Travis' hands before turning around to go for his scythe on the floor. Travis scrambled to the ground to get Peony. Both assassins grabbed their weapons at roughly the same time, then stood up to face each other. Nightdream activated the scythe and prepared to charge again, but Travis simply turned his back and held his katana at his waist, samurai-style. When Nightdream took two steps forward, Travis activated his katana, sending the beam blade right through his opponent's gut.

Nightdream dropped his scythe. He tried to speak but couldn't choke out any syllables. Travis spoke up instead. "You are a good fighter, Dave. A great fighter, actually. But just to let you know, nobody threatens the lives of those two young ladies while I'm here." He pulled his sword up, cutting through Nightdream's chest all the way through his head. The King then collapsed in a pool of his own plasma.

Travis sighed in relief and saw Kimmy and Shinobu, still locked in a stalemate. He rushed over to their location, putting away Peony and taking off Camellia in its place. The two girls paused briefly when they saw him come close. When he got there, he swung only at their weapons, destroying Shinobu's samurai sword and Kimmy's double beam katana, all in two fell swoops.

The girls were startled by this. Once their broken weapons hit the ground, they stood motionless, not sure what to do next.

"Master, what are you doing?" Shinobu asked. "Why can't you kill me?"

"Yes, seriously!" Kimmy added. "Why can't you kill her for me?"

"Girls, I…" Travis began, rather awkwardly. "I didn't kill either of you back then because it didn't feel right to me. To this day, well, I dunno…it still doesn't. I can't bring myself to do that, because…well, uh…I…um…"

"Normally…" Shinobu interrupted. "I would be offended at the thought of being spared after losing a fight. And I sure was the first time we fought. But the fact you still can't kill me, Master, that must mean you…"

A whistle blew off in the distance, turning everyone's attention towards the direction of the sound. They saw Sylvia walking into the area, whistle around her neck, with her cronies through the carnage. As the cronies would periodically stop to dispose of the bodies with their large vacuum hoses, Sylvia strolled over to where Travis, Kimmy and Shinobu stood.

"Travis!" Sylvia stated excitedly. "Congratulations on a wonderful battle, and on another decisive victory! You have jumped up to rank 11! But unfortunately…you know the rules about sparing opponents."

"That's tough shit," Travis replied. "I told you last time, I make the rules from now on. Your company policy means nothing to me."

"Unfortunately…" a deep male voice echoed from behind Sylvia. "Your rules are no longer my rules, Mr. Touchdown."

Sylvia stepped aside, and the three got a glimpse of the voice's owner: a tall, slender man with neatly trimmed brown hair in an impeccably neat business suit and a purple tie. His shoes were beautifully polished and his stride emanated an air of authority.

"The hell are you?" Travis asked.

"It's good to finally meet you, Mr. Touchdown," the main responded. "The legend himself! My name is Nathaniel Tidas. I run the NUAA. And I'm sad to say that my rules are set in stone. The winner of the fight must execute his or her opponent, and I don't tolerate mercy."

"Go fuck yourself," Travis retorted. "When I fight, I play by my own rules, not yours or anyone else's. I don't give a shit about your corporation, or your money, or your phony goodwill mission. I'm fighting for me, not for you."

Tidas chuckled. "Is that right? That's not the case now; you're fighting under my rules. And since you're not willing to kill these ladies yourself, we'll do it for you."

He snapped his fingers and then multiple individuals, dressed in black ninja attire and each armed with their own beam katana, leapt in from behind Tidas and landed next to Travis and the girls. Three of them surrounded Travis and held their swords close to him to prevent him from taking any action, and two more grabbed the girls and escorted them away.

"Hey! Take your hands off me!" Shinobu shouted while being dragged off.

"You let me go right now!" Kimmy barked while being hauled in the same direction.

"No! Stop!" Travis tried to draw his sword but the ninja guards held their swords closer, preventing him from doing so. He turned his attention to Tidas. "If you don't let them go, I swear I'll kill you right now!"

Tidas shrugged. "Are you really fighting for you, Travis? Look at yourself. Why would enter the rankings a third time if not for your desire to kill? Where's the logic in that?"

Travis could only watch as the two were dragged out of the arena. Tidas continued, "Now, look, I know it may not seem this way, but my mission is real. I am trying to save Santa Destroy and return it to its former glory by bringing back its most famous attraction. You must believe in that in some respect, or else you wouldn't have come back. You are a living legend, Travis. Do you not realize how few of those there are in this world? Legends have responsibilities to uphold as well, you know. Once we're done here, people will look at our work and call us saviors."

Travis struggled for words. He stood there seething in rage. All he was able to say, in between his teeth, was, "You're a sack of shit. And your story is bullshit."

Tidas sighed. "I guess I can't convince you now. Give it some time, Travis. You'll come around. Congratulations on rank 11. Alright, let's go."

He turned and walked out of the arena, with Sylvia, looking saddened and powerless at Travis, walking behind him. When they had left the room, his ninja followers put their swords away and ran out of the room, allowing Travis to move again. He quickly ran in the direction that they took Kimmy and Shinobu, but after running through the empty stadium halls, he realized they were nowhere to be found. He punched the wall in his anger before finding his way out and riding his motorcycle back home. He had lots to think about now.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: The character Kira is credited to twilightnite13.