The pairings of the members from the coalition of Lily and Wu's squad continued their designated matchups, as Yuna, Braka, and Matty faced off against Bez Aro, the rest of the squad members also started off in their own battle.

"Just what is this presence..." Shin and Augen glanced towards one another, large droplets of sweat forming over their heads as their hands were pressed on the ground underneath their body, their arms heavy and bodies locked up.

Right across from them, the normal-looking boy with short black hair and winding scars that extended up to the bottom side of his jaws strolled in their direction, the strength of his presence overbearing as pulses of Wave continued pouring out from his body. That is Ilias Fals, and that is their designated opponent.

"Dominance mode really is just...so ridiculous..." Augen grunted, reaching into his pockets and taking out his deck of Forbidden Casts. Then, he reached his hand towards it when suddenly, the body's of Ilias reappeared inches away from Augen's fingers, the air blasting him back and blowing the individual cards aside.

"You won't do whatever you want here!" Shin shouted, his fingers locked around the handle of his Meat Maker Axe as it sliced through the blasts of Wave created by Ilias. However, he simply turned his head towards him, his tired eyes filled with a blinding glow before Shin's body was thrown back like a doll.

However, that wasn't before he sliced through the layers of Wave armor and scratched right along the forearm of Ilias's. The Meat Maker Axe did its job at dealing damage, but Shin was all but certain that it would have been the last time he was able to land a hit on their opponent.

Dominance mode was just such a ridiculous concept. To think an individual has the power to exert their influence on the surrounding Wave fields and nullify all other instances of Wave usage? Come on now!

Shin himself was nowhere near the level of Perfect Synchrony, nor did he have ridiculous forbidden Casts of Augen or Wu/Lera's Void Domain. As a matter of fact, he was probably one of the more normal members out of everybody on his squad, barring the fact that he's wielding one of the legendary weapons, as a failed chef.

"The powers of the legendary weapons are not to be underestimated..." During one of their casual conversations, Lily made that fact perfectly clear to him, "Their powers reflected as much on the incredible work of the weapon makers of the past, and the powers of the users in the present. They come with a certain...burden, and responsibility."

Well, Shin knew the responsibility of carrying the Meat Maker Axe perfectly well. But still, he can't help but feel episodes of doubt and depression when surrounded by the monsters all around him. That will not stop him from fighting though.

His Manifest was perfectly suppressed by the immense pressure coming from Ilias Fals, but when he instead channeled his own Wave through the Meat Maker Axe, using it as a melee weapon and an extension of his manifest instead of like his other floating weapons Manifestation orbiting around his body, Shin would be able to fight back somewhat. The inherent resistances from the legendary weapons actually became his tactical advantage.

He charged forward, the Axe in hand, and ready to cut through Ilias's attacks when suddenly, Ilias planted his foot into the ground, leaping off the ground as his body became horizontal and avoiding Shin's horizontal slash as the body of the legendary weapon grazed past Ilias's face. Then, Ilias grabbed onto Shin's wrist, twisting his hand and shattering his bones instantly as the latter screamed out in pain.

"I apologise.' Ilias said, his voice genuine as Shin looked into his tired eyes and darkened face, "This is merely...my duty."

"And it is mine too!" Shin cursed, creating countless weapons from his Manifest right over the surface of his skin as the sharp metals clashed against Ilias's Wave armor and were completely bent out of shape. However, all of that was to distract Ilias as Shin reached over and grabbed onto the Meat Maker Axe as it fell from his broken hand.

Then, he slashed horizontally across Ilias's stomach as the Axe sliced straight through his Wave like butter, armor like fish skin, and were stopped dead in its tracks by Ilias's fingers as it pinched on either side of the Axe and somehow were able to hold it in place like a vice grip.

"That is a very nice weapon you have here." Ilias said, shoving Shin straight back with so much force that he plunged like a cannon ball through the ground, "Let's finish this so I can get back to my work."

"ARGHHH!" Shin grunted as his body bounced through the ground and finally stopping near Augen who's knelt in place with his fingers glowing over one of his playing cards, "Shit. You gonna do something?"

"Yep." Augen nodded, his face completely covered by the eye patch and the face mask so his voice sounding muffled. However, before either of them can continue, Ilias let out a roar, the ground starting to quake around them as a faint outline of a serpent formed over his body.

No...that's no serpent. That's a dragon.

"So that's the one...The dominance of the Dragon Ver warned us about..." Augen smiled nervously, his head becoming heavier and heavier as the sheer presence of Ilias' Dominance mode acted like invisible hands, forcing them to kneel and acknowledge his power.

"Maybe I really should just stick to cooking..." Shin said, his arms shaking in place right as Ilias surged into the air, the wings of the dragon flapping a single time and then divebombing towards the two, "Tell me you got a plan."

"I got...something. Something stupid." Augen said, turning towards Shin's ever-weakening presence in the Wave, "Mutually Assured Destruction. Forbidden Summer: Rupturing Intensity!"

A pulse shot out from the playing card right in front of Augen, and that was when Shin took a good look at the drawings over its surface. It painted a sun that was smashed up into pieces like the crumbs of a pie, and silver cracks filled in the space in between each of the slices.

"What..." Shin glanced at the playing card when suddenly, silvery cracks grew out from the body of the card and started spreading forward, seemingly latching to nothing at all as a mesh of made from those silver cracks grew right in front of their face.

Ilias squinted his eyes as the Dominance of the Dragon took him straight at Augen when the Wave from of his forbidden Cast clashed against the outer shell of his dragon Wave armor. A sharp pain slammed him right on the dome, and Ilias grunted before rapidly changing his direction, instead sweeping around the silvery cracks and trying to attack Shin and Augen from behind.

"Come!" Augen said quickly, grabbing onto Shin's shoulders as they both rolled forward, sensations of shocking pain swiping through Shin's body and making him wince.

"What exactly does the Cast do?" Shin asked, spinning the Meat Maker Axe in his good hand as a massive shockwave came from behind as Ilias's body slammed into the ground like an asteroid.

"It evens out the playing field, at the expense of damaging the local Wave field." Augen said, looking through the smoke around Ilias's landing crater, "And all those who passed through it."

"So...we are both damaged now?" Shin asked, when Augen hovered his hand over his wounded head and quickly Casted a healing Cast.

"Well, no." Augen said lightly as the smoke is pushed aside by Ilias as he swung his hands out rapidly, "We just passed near one crack. He...he passed straight through it."

From beyond the smoke, Ilias marched straight through, the outline of the Dragon nowhere to be seen and his clothes appeared untouched though massive purple bruises ran all over his body underneath. He looked like he had aged years in a moment, and his tired eyes were also now filled with fury.

Coughing out blood onto the ground besides him, Ilias then tried to recreate his dominance mode, but his body refused to listen to his command after suffering such heavy damage.

"Let's go." Augen said, "Now, it's an even fight. You just focus on attack, and I will keep you healed."

"Finally." Shin said, the floating weapons created out of his Manifest returning, "I get to fight back."

Then, the two clashed fists with Ilias. Augen, with his movements empowered by his Casts, supported Shin with healing and movement-enhancing Casts while the latter unloaded his arsenal of weapons onto Ilias.

"I'll admit it." Ilias said, his voice cutting through the battle as he knocked aside the barrage of Shin's attacks, deflecting his wrist from Shin landing a critical hit with the Meat Maker Axe, and then returned a kick straight into Shin's torso. However, the latter was able to create a chopping board and absorb the hit completely, "You are full of tricks, Caster. But you cannot hide behind him forever."

"Well, I technically can." Augen said, healing a puncturing wound over Shin's stomach the instant Ilias's attacks sliced past Shin's defense as the chef slammed the Meat Maker Axe into the shoulders of Ilias and nearly cut his body diagonally in half.

Such physical resistance! Shin raised his eyebrows in surprise as Ilias leaped back, holding onto the nearly severed shoulder of his as blood poured out from his body.

"What is it?" Shin pointed the tip of the Axe at Ilias, "You scared?"

"I hope the princess wouldn't despite this brand new scar..." Ilias sighed and pinched the broken flesh together by force before wrapping a piece of fabric around it tightly, "You will pay for that."

"We actually might, if your dominance mode was real." Augen said quickly, a glow fading away from his eyes, "But you never made it, did you? You are nothing but a fake!"

"What?" Shin rapidly turned to Augen who stood up again, "What do you mean?"

"His dominance mode...it isn't real. Is it?" Augen continued pressing forward, and Ilias lowered his head as the air started whirling around his body. Then, he looked at Augen with a deathly glarae as his body shot forward like a bullet, his bloodied hands finding the throat of the pale young man immediately before he crushed it in his hands.

"AUGEN!"