"So this is how it's all going to pan out." Wu said, handing out tiny pieces of paper taken directly from Lera's Book of Casts, "The shrinking bubble is just like any other battle royale games out there. There are heavy incentives for avoiding the bubble, and that incentive is..."

"Wave draining." Lera continued, picking up where Wu left off, "It's was in the rulebook. Those that stayed within the bubble will have their Wave slowly drowned out from their body."

"Ok...? So what's the plan then?" Yuna asked, holding the piece of paper over her eyes as she examined the Cast lines written over it.

"As far as I understand..." Wu said, "it's a gaseous Cast of some sort. It affects your respiratory systems and leeches the Wave out that way."

"Excuse me?" Yuna tilted her head and scrunched her brows before turning to Lera, "Is that how he usually talks?"

"The Cast attacks your lungs." Lera explained, "This is a...gas mask. Made from miniaturized Void Domain and pieces of paper. If you attach it onto pieces of cloth, that should help filter out the majority of the Cast elements floating in the air."

"I verified its functions." Ver said, her fingers dipped in the Kraken's fluid, "Though it does smell a little."

"This is part of our advantage." Lily said, taping the piece of paper to a piece of cloth over her nose and mouth, "We will split up the strongest squad, dump them into the bubble, and wear them out while attacking them with specific groupings."

"And how do we make sure those in the strongholds won't participate?" Matty asked, and Yuna wrapped her arm over his shoulder before pulling him down to her height.

"You will work with me and Lera." Ver said, pointing straight back at Matty, "We will create a veil over each of the strongholds and block them out from each other."

"Righty-O." Matty saluted.

"Remember, this plan assumed that we will each be able to take on our opponents. And this will be the fight of our lives, with the caliber of each of those Wave users." Lily said, looking all around as a fire burned through her special-made armor, "You may get hurt. You may get knocked down, and you may fall. But when that happens, get the hell back up, and know the rest of us here have got your back. We are all in this together, and we will execute this plan to perfection. We will defeat the strongest squad, and take over all of the strongholds!"

"That...was a pretty good speech," Wu said when the eyes of the ten turned to him. He swallowed and opened his mouth, but nothing came to mind right away.

"Come on, say something." Fatera said, slapping Wu in the head, "It's ya squad, remember?"

"When Augen approached me all those months ago..." Wu said, looking towards the pale young man with green hair, the majority of his face now hidden behind pieces of cloth with one around his eye and another around his nose and mouth, "He told me that I will be a part of ten incredible people. That those people will help me to save the world."

Augen smiled, and he turned in the direction of Wu's voice.

"I am not sure if the ten standing here, are the ten." Wu said, "Heck, I am even not sure why I am ever chosen as the Savior. When I came to this world, I used my water bottle, threw away my phone, made an aqueduct, made a pistol, some other exploding things...None of us truly knows where fate will take us, but I do know one thing.

"I know that without the help of each and every one of you, I will not be standing here today. Without you being a part of my journey, I would have been lost a long time ago. I know Lera might get a little mad at this, but...I love all of you." Wu said, his eyes scanning from one face to another, "We may not save the world together, and I may not be the real Savior this world needs. But it does not matter.

"Because each and every one of you is fucking incredible, and we will go on to do incredible things in our future." Wu continued, his tone rising with his hands by his side, "All of that grandeurs future starts today. It starts with all of us here. So let's go out there, and show the world what we can do!"

"Not bad~" Fatera chuckled, playing with Wu's head before turning and looking towards Ver.

"We ready?" Ver said, "Let's start with the pairings. Yuna, Braka, and Matty. You three will be facing off against Bez Aro, a Manifester with Perfect Synchrony. And his manifest is..."

"...is a far worse version of himself? No kidding." Matty said, calling back to Ver's intelligence a little earlier. If he is being honest, he wasn't the keenest about them three being the only group with three people, but from the moment Bez pulled away the chains from around his shoulders and dropped it onto the ground, the untamed power from his Manifest immediately started to overwhelm each of the individual fighters on his side.

"Don't be intimidated." Braka said, his low voice acting as a calming presence before he stepped forward, "I will probe him."

"Too...too small...Won’t even be enough to fill my teeth..." Bez's demonic side growled, yanking the other half of his body forward before Braka echoed the Wave over his body as his blood started boiling from within.

Then, with pairs of blood blades in his hand, Braka slashed forward right as the claws of Bez cut through the air, glowing black trails left behind in the air like pieces of half-moon. The blood blades were torn through easily, and Bez followed through with the attack as the claws cut straight through Braka's chest, bits and pieces of his body opened up like fillets.

"Huh?" Bez turned around in confusion when Braka spun around and kicked him with far greater force than his initial attack, solid curds made from his blood reinforcing around his feet. Bez's shocked expression didn't hold for much longer as he hit the dirt and bounced away, "What the heck was that..."

Not giving him a moment to breathe, Yuna pounced on him, her fists empowered by the Wave as she slammed it into the normal part of Bez's body, the white Union armor pieces yielding without much resistance. As the shockwaves expanded out from his body, Bez was hammered further and further into the dirt, when suddenly, Matty, Braka, and Yuna all started hovering off the ground.

"You dare come into my kingdom and shit all over?!" The low growl from Bez's demonic side returned as countless black whips grew up from the ground and wrapped around the arms and legs of the three like super elongated fingers.

"Eagle of Glory!" Matty shouted, his hands reaching forward before a silvery wing manifested over his hand, the sharpened tips slicing through the whips and freeing Braka and Yuna. As their feet hit the ground, the two brawlers leaped forward, hoping to take down Bez before he moves further.

"Asymmetry Exacerbation." Bez said, the demonic part of his body growing out even further until his left leg split into two and his left arm duplicated to be four. His normal side seemed to have shrunk simultaneously and he moved through the air with a ghostly silence, almost as if he existed as nothing more than a figment of imagination.

His hands flashed in front of Braka's face, and gaping wounds opened across his body as his trunk was sliced straight through by the claws of Bez. Yuna called out in anger, both of her hands glowing white as the Tiger's Claws clamped onto one of the hands of Bez. However, he had many more to spare, and another three slashed through the air, ready to cut up Yuna the same way he did Braka.

"You shall not touch her." Braka's relentless voice came from behind, and he held together the columns of flesh in his trunk with one hand before he emptied out his stomach, conjuring up a massive crossbow with his intestines as a massive orb of Wave mixed in with blood and grime became concentrated and ready to be fired.

"Why don't you just die..." Bez asked, his right eye now completely pinched as his left side took over, "You are nothing more than pests that shall be crushed under my feet..."

"And you are nothing but a pebble for the journeying three." Yuna's voice came from behind right as Matty stomped his foot down with his body engulfed in flames, duplicating Lily Watt's fire Mecha before the fiery of her Wave burned into the skin of Bez's as the earth around them became torched.

Then, through the flames, Braka fired off his concentrated blast, a swirl of red Wave energy expanding briefly before collapsing inward, creating a peaceful sounding TOM before a crater was all that remained on the ground.

"Did...did we do it?" Yuna asked, turning and looking through the cloak when suddenly, the ground itself started quaking as dark trails of smoke rematerialized into the figure of a man. A demonic, broken man.

"Now you've done it..." Bez's voice returned, this time filled with untamed rage.