"Woah, that was...incredible," Remarked Sakura in amazement.

"Yeah, I'd definitely lose if she used that again me," Added Jane with a frown.

​​

Holy crap...I don't think I have a counter for an attack that powerful. Though, from the looks of it, Katie just wiped out nearly all her remaining XFE, she was stumbling back to the waiting room looking absolutely drained. Normally, a move that consumes all your XFE would be a risky ploy, but the range and power of that blast is nearly impossible to dodge or counter.

Maybe if I use Cut to delete as much of the lightning as possible and then counter the rest with a full power blast from my Square Blaster...and even that might not be enough. Frankly, I'm willing to bet that that attack is strong enough to do some serious damage to an Ace Mutant.

The door to the waiting room then opened and Katie walked in with a tired sigh...that's the most emotion I've ever seen on her face. She walked over and plopped down next to me, her shoulders slumping as she sunk into her seat, her eyelids fluttering a bit.

"Hey, that was so amazing, I don't think I've ever seen an attack that powerful!" Exclaimed Sakura, walking over to Katie.

I have...my sister's Manifestation Overdrive was a bit more powerful, I'd say, and if she put more XFE into it like Katie just did, it'd probably be even more destructive.

"Thanks," Came the reply, though she was looking like she was barely listening and on the verge of passing out.

"It certainly was impressive, but a bit reckless, you're clearly out of XFE and you're hardly even conscious anymore!" Chimed in Jane...but her words fell on deaf ears, Katie had dozed off already...and her head had fallen onto my shoulder.

It was a little bit uncomfortable and I wanted to push her off, but at the same time, she kinda smells nice, and I'm sorta maybe enjoying this...so I'll let it slide. Besides, she's exhausted and I do owe her one for buying me time when I unlocked Tier Three, so yeah, I guess I'll put up with this till it's time for my match...

...

"Hey, wake up," I remarked as I poked Katie's shoulder, about forty minutes later, the eighth match was about to end, after which it'd be me vs Jane.

"Hm...? Where am I...?" She mumbled groggily, her eyes struggling to stay open.

"Sorry to interrupt your nap, but I kinda need to get up, so...," I replied sheepishly.

"Huh, what do you-...," She began with a stifled yawn, before coming to her senses and rapidly taking her head off my shoulder as if she'd been struck by lightning, a slight tinge of red appearing in her cheeks, "Sorry about that."

She's usually so monotone and expressionless, but from the looks of it, that's not so much the case when she's tired...and I have to admit, she was super cute just now. I mean, when you're so used to someone being so unreadable, even the tiniest hint of emotion seems like a big deal, and this was more than just a hint of emotion.

"Oh, uh...no problem," I replied, a bit awkwardly as I stood up and stretched.

The eighth match of the second round then ended, and the participants for the ninth match were called up...namely, Jane and I.

"Good luck," Muttered Katie in a tired voice.

"Thanks, I-...," I began to reply as I turned around...but she was already asleep again.

Huh, that was fast.

"Hmph, if you're done flirting, hurry up so that I can crush you, Dud," Scoffed Jane, as she headed out ahead of me.

"You know, you have the ability to win every one of your fights in a literal instant, barely anyone knows just how much you're holding back, after all," Remarked Sakura with a wry smile, as I began heading for the exit.

"Heh...well, if someone does prove to be enough of a challenge, I just might consider going all out," I replied with a smirk, as I walked out and closed the door behind me.

Not that I plan on using Tier Two at all during this tournament, it's just too easy. And as for Tier One, I've been setting Save points before each of my matches, just in case I mess up badly or something. It feels like it's been ages since I really used Load though...oh, wait, I used it a lot when investigating those crimes. But other than that, I haven't used it in quite a while.

As I stepped out onto the arena and took my place, a silence falling over the crowd as the Duel Field activated around us and the announcer declared the start of the match, the countdown beginning to tick.

", !" Exclaimed Jane, reciting her activation chants.

She manifested her twin scythes with a confident look on her face, swinging them around as I drew out my X-Blade handles and activated them, preparing myself as the countdown reached three...two...one!

The moment the countdown hit zero, she and I both shot towards each other, I fired out a barrage of Dark Attribute XFE bullets at her from my X-Blasters, she swiftly responded by defensively spinning her scythes in front of herself but continued charging forward, despite failing to deflect all my shots, a few grazing her arms and sides.

As we began to close in on each other, I dropped my arms low and swiftly connected my X-Blade handles vertically along each other, re-forming the XFE manifested as twin medium-length blades into a single, longer and wider form, before rapidly swinging it up at her.

Right as I swung my energy blade up, she halted and tilted herself backwards, just in time to avoid getting slashed, my blade leaving a small vertical cut on her right cheek instead. She then quickly bent forward and regained her balance, as I swung the blade straight down at her, which she just barely blocked by crossing her scythes above herself.

I then quickly removed my left hand from gripping my combined X-Blade handles and fired at her midsection...right before my shot could pierce her, she shifted herself across to her left to narrowly avoid a major hit, my bullet instead grazing her right side as she let out a sharp gasp of pain.

I began to fire a barrage of bullets at her, but she quickly reacted by letting go of her scythes and springing back, before rapidly backflipping away as I fired at her...she's really agile and fast, even with my accuracy I'm not able to land a finishing blow...but several of my shots are grazing her, and that's good enough...slowly but surely, my Dark Attribute will poison her, I just need to keep her on the defensive in a battle of attrition-...

Suddenly, she leapt straight up into the air, leaving herself wide open and unable to dodge. It's over, I win. I fired out a couple of shots at her chest and neck, as she crossed her arms in front of herself...and yelled out her activation chant.

"!" She exclaimed, before wincing in pain as my bullets struck her right shoulder and left forearm.

She partially deflected them both and avoided fatal hits, but...even if she does win this round, she won't stand a chance in the next round, she'll be far too weakened by my Dark Attribute. Time to end this.

As I began to take aim, she let out a determined roar before firing out a barrage of wind slashes at me, her eyelids starting to droop and she was sweating a lot.

She definitely won't stay conscious for even another couple of minutes, let alone till the next round. This is futile, and her aim is slowly but surely getting worse and worse, I'm having no trouble dodging at all. Her barrage initially kept me from firing at her, but now that her aim was all over the place, that's not a problem anymore.

I then began firing out a clip of bullets from my X-Blasters, she leapt out of the way, a look of desperation on her face...impressive, she still hasn't given up on beating me...but at this point, that's nothing more than a delusion.

As she narrowly evaded my shots, she then flung one of her scythes towards me, which I dodged easily and took aim again. And then, right as I fired...her eyes widened, her expression familiar...and that's when it hit me, it was the same expression that Zarina had on her face right before...right before she unleashed her Manifestation Overdrive for the first time. This is bad...!

"!" She exclaimed, flinging her remaining scythe at me, which was swirling with intense, powerful wind, which rapidly expanded in a massive, spinning disc of wind, right as I fired a couple of shots aimed at her head.

The moment she flung her weapon at me, my shots reached her, and before they could drill holes through her head, the Duel Field teleported her out. I began to jump out of the way of the spinning scythe, but it was too big and too fast, and right before it could slice off my right arm and leg, I got teleported out too.

Okay, note to self, avoid backing Prodigies into a corner. That...was way too close...

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