"TRICK!"

I heard Fei scream before I close my eyes and turned my back. The ingelid is about to attack me, but a loud zap banged behind me. When I looked up, a powerful figure stood in front of me.

"Mrs. Xing!" I greeted loudly.

"Hello, dear," Mrs. Xing greeted. "Let me take care of this." Then she talked to Fei before he went to where I was. "Fei, go back and finish your task."

I saw Fei stopped and turned around to finish dealing with the ingelid in the murky aquarium. Mrs. Xing, on the other hand, dealt with the ingelid in front of us.

She just stood there and put her hands behind her. She's doing nothing, but…

Slowly, the colossal teeth were detaching from the ingelid's body and turned around, pointing at the worm. Then, in a snap, all the teeth were engraved in the worm's body, spurting dark green blood. After that, the blood remained floating in mid-air and accumulated until it becomes a size of a large ball. It went directly to the mouth of the ingelid, and the monster worm shook uncontrollably. Then, it stopped moving. I'm assuming it's already dead.

"Ingelids are naturally venomous. Their body fluids can kill anyone. However, if an ingelid's blood or saliva gets exposed in air and they have a taste or even a touch of it, they die in a matter of seconds." Mrs. Xing explained.

She didn't have to perform the wonderful sorcery that the four magical beings with me earlier did. She didn't do the binding technique to panic the ingelid. She just used the weakness of the enemy to its disadvantage. Simple but well-thought-out! That's so cool!

I looked at Fei and he helped Haru turn the water in the aquarium become murkier. Soon, the liquid became dark green. Probably the ingelid is swimming on its own blood.

Jia slammed her palm again on the earth. The land devoured both dead ingelids. Then the four of them walked towards where Mrs. Xing and I were standing. The force field protection faded away and the colors everywhere returned. I believe we're back in Upper Manhattan.

"Gramms, thank you for saving Trick," Fei told Mrs. Xing straight away.

"I just finished the call with your mother and I guess our Seoul branch is doing okay. When I went out of my office, no one's around, so I went here and it was a time most opportune, to be honest," Mrs. Xing said.

Madame Corvina bowed. "Mistress Akira, apologies for this. I tried sensing where the powers come from, but I don't know who invited the family for a Pertasurm."

"Oh, I know," Mrs. Xing smiled. "It was from the Borgs of Stockholm."

"The Borgs? Eskil? Ragnhild? Pelle? Sigrid?" Jia dropped some names.

"The Borgs have been our allies. Why did they want to fight us?" Haru looked confused.

"No, dear. It's more like they want us to enter the tournament. Before I arrived here, your father received the invitation from a memory courier, since he is more known in the European region," Mrs. Xing responded.

"Dad? Tournament?" Jia was surprised.

[What's a memory courier?] I asked Fei on the brain.

[It's like a mailman who appears like a vision of the recipient. Uncle Makoto received it.] Fei replied.

"Yes, dear, a tournament. I think they're trying to revive the WOCOSO," Mrs. Xing said.

[WOCOSO stands for World Council of Sorcerers. It's an organization that was there for centuries, until it arrived at a dissolution when the members disagreed with each other.] Fei said in thought.

[What did they disagree about?] I asked.

Fei told the story behind it. [The Sterling and the Amalgam, as they call it. Most sorcerers, magicians, witches, warlocks, and the like, come in a clan of the same race or same set of powers. Pure ones. They are the Sterlings. Now, the Amalgams, they are the hybrid ones, like me. Chinese-Japanese. Or a witch from an Italian coven, marrying a time-traveler from Brazil. Something like that. Before, consistency is a vital element in harnessing superpowers, so WOCOSO was established by the Sterlings themselves. Now, through the variety of races, powers have been shared. They have evolved. That's when half of the council feared, that they would become a threat to the Sterlings. Yet, half of the council were open about the idea of having the Amalgams join, as they are also supernaturals. It has become a world controversy, that leads to the deaths of many magical beings. WOCOSO was abolished and the people with powers agreed to disagree with everything. Maybe now, they're in the process of reuniting everyone.]

"WOCOSO…" Madame Corvina cleared her throat. "Does this mean that whoever wins the tournament becomes a member of the board, yes, Mistress?"

"I believe that is the plan. In order to protect the magical beings from the enemies, it is imperative to determine who emerges the most powerful. It is just right that the members of the board will be the strongest," Mrs. Xing diplomatically mentioned.

"Gramms! You can do this," Haru said. "I'm positive that you'll make it to the board."

Mrs. Xing chuckled. "You silly boy. I'm 99! I can only take down ingelids at this age."

"But you're the most powerful among us," Haru insisted. "Besides, I can tell that you will still live another one hundred years."

Mrs. Xing laughed. "I don't think I'll last that long. Anyway, I'm sure you're going to be able to develop your own powers. As a Xing, we're known to have never backed down on a battle. So, get ready, grandchildren."

"Us?" Fei giggled. "Gramms, you're joking, right?"

"No, dear boy. I and your parents, we can't be joining as we are focused on our family businesses. Also, I believe that a new breed of council will be more effective in handling the needs of the new supernatural beings. You are the future of this generation. Make yourself relevant to your society," Mrs. Xing stated. Then she looked at Fei, then she looked at me, and she looked at Fei again. "You're unaware."

"Of what, Gramms?" With a puzzled look, Fei asked.

Mrs. Xing smiled and she went back to the mansion. Haru, Jia, and Madame Corvina followed her.

After all that happened, Fei and I decided to chill at the Central Park. We deserve to rest after that intense battle. He treated me with a caramel macchiato and he bought himself an iced matcha latte, his favorite, in a nearby store.

"How are you?" Fei asked.

"I'm overwhelmed, to be honest. But it's a good one, I guess," I honestly answered. "What was that about, when Mrs. Xing told you're unaware."

"I'm not sure, exactly, but…" Fei held my hand and kissed it. "I'm sorry for making you take all this. I'm just being honest with you. I wanted to show my true self to you."

"That's good, actually," I agreed, and that's admirable. "I wanna be honest with you, too, and after all this time, I'm still hooked."

"When did you get hooked?" Fei giddily asked.

"Have you watched Jerry Maguire?" I queried.

Fei's mouth opened in surprise. "I had you at hello?"

With no preparation at all, I expressed myself in a form of a song. "You had me at hello… Hello… Hello… You had me at hello… Hello… Hello… It was many hours ago… Baby, when you… Stole my cool… You had me at hello… Hello… Hello…" I cleared my throat. "I changed 'years' to 'hours', since we met for some hours ago, but it felt like I've known you that long."

"Now, I can't tell the reference," Fei uttered. "But, wow, you have a lovely singing voice."

"Thank you," I deeply felt that he appreciated my talent. "That's a song by Beyoncé."

"Cool. I'm more of a Gaga, though," Fei admitted.

"Speaking of Gaga… Do you wanna go somewhere later tonight? Oh, we're gonna have to take the subway, though," I said. Well, I don't have the magic of teleportation, so we'll have to travel.

"Anywhere with you, my sweetie," said Fei and sipped on his latte.

[He said it again! My sweetie! Oh, Fei!] I looked the other way to not let him see me blushing. The wind here in the park is strong but I can feel how warm my cheeks are right now.

"Trick? What are you looking at over there?" Fei asked.

"Nothing," I replied quickly, still looking away, but he slowly pulled my chin towards his way and I couldn't hide my face.

"You're blushing," he stated. "Is it because I called you 'my sweetie'?"

"Yeah," I confessed.

"Aww…" He cupped my chin and planted a peck on my lips. "I hope you'll get used to it, my sweetie."

I don't know about that, as I can't tell my cheeks to stop blushing.

"And I don't know how long I can hold off my erection," Fei whispered. "You see, I'm still thinking about how we made out earlier. We were interrupted by the ingelids, so… Do you wanna continue? Maybe we'll finally do it."

My heart beat so fast after hearing that. I peeked at his pants and… gosh. The only question that popped in my head was…

[How did it fit in there?]