"The stronger the resolve, the stronger your shield." - Jinn Dalton

It was the day of the contest after school. All the classes were going to go against each other in a tournament. Our class, having hybrid singularity should have the biggest advantage, but the down sight is that we can only use 1 singularity, while the rest can use more than one. But having Shizuka Aizawa as the teacher of the class, we should be prepared, I just don’t feel too confident about this.

Kaiser and I were waiting for our turn in the waiting lobby behind the arena. He turned towards me and said,

“I won’t be able to fight…”

“Right, you never talked to me about your PTSD. Is it from… a year ago?”

“Yes, I think it is.”

“Then, what are you going to do?” I asked with a puzzled face.

“I might be late on my turn… but I’ll be here.” He said while getting up and walking away.

“Wait, where are you going?!”

“I’ll be back.”

“Don’t leave me alone!”

“I told Sora to come, he should be here anytime.” He walked outside, then two minutes later, Sora came into the room and said,

“Hey!”

“Did you see where Kaiser went?”

“Hmm? No, why?”

“Never mind.”

“Are you excited for your battle?” He asked me.

“Excited? If it counts as nervous, then yes.”

“I’m sure you got this, Jinn.”

“I’m going against Archdragon. I’ve heard that he can summon a dragon to fight for him and that his partner can also summon small meteorites.”

“Hmm… a materialistic singularity.”

“You know, I’ve never asked you about your singularity,” I said.

“You’ll see it in action.” He said smirking.

“We don’t go against each other in our own class, right?”

“Yes, we do. But that’s only at the end. We have tournaments of two versus two first.”

“Wait… so… KAISER NEEDS TO BE WITH ME!”

“If he doesn’t come back in time, you will have to fight by yourself.”

“WHAT?! Who is your partner then?”

“My cousin… Violetta Altanheim.”

“You don’t like each other?”

“Not at all. But since our singularities work really well together, Ms. Aizawa made us team up.” An hour later, someone knocked on the door and said,

“Jinn Dalton, Kaiser Chisei, you’re both up next. I’d advise getting ready.” Great! Just great! I have no idea where Kaiser is, and I won’t be able to deal with a dragon and meteorites.

“Don’t worry, I’m sure Kaiser has something in mind,” Said Sora.

“How can you be so sure?”

“He seems like a smart guy, and would he ever have a reason to leave you hanging?”

“Hmm… not that I know of.” I got up and decided to walk out and get ready for my battle. I have to trust that he will arrive to help me before It’s too late. But… I don’t think he will. I then heard the little voice say, “Jinn, trust in him. He’s a good person inside.” She is probably right… we have been friends for quite a while now, I can’t keep doubting him.

I went to the entrance of the arena, where there was a man that looked busy, checking through a list in front of the gate.

“Uh… excuse me.” He instantly looked up and asked,

“Jinn Dalton?”

“Yes, that’s me.”

“Where is Kaiser Chisei?”

“He will be joining the battle a bit later.”

“Alright. You may enter.” The gate opened, and I started walking in looking around. It was a triangular arena. Shizuka Aizawa was sitting on a fancy chair at the top, looking down onto all of us. It felt like I was in a colosseum of some sort. I looked at her, and we briefly made eye contact. She smiled, waved at me, and I instantly looked away. I hate being shy. Every other teacher was besides Aizawa looking at me and smiling.

I walked over to the person at the gate and asked,

“Do they all really need to be watching? I thought this was going to be something a little more… private.”

“Most of the professors are just here in case something really bad happens and need our help, especially Ms. Aizawa.”

“Well, I would like to know the rules.”

“Don’t worry, our announcer will explain everything.”

“Great.” I walked back, and the announcer quickly picked up the microphone and said,

“Ladies and Gentlemen! Welcome to the fourth, monthly singularity showdown!” Everyone started cheering. Wait, I’m doing the first battle?! Oh no… most of the attention will be on this battle! Most people usually remember first and last.

“On the left side, we have Archdragon and Blazhone from the materialistic singularity class, Orange Salamandra!” Many people started cheering. “They are known around the academy to have won the last showdown!” They are… THE PAST CHAMPIONS?! “Since you are only allowed to win a showdown two times throughout your academy experience, this might be their last showdown if they win.” Ah, makes sense, if not it would be unfair to the other participants going against people with upgraded singularities.

“On my right side, from the most elite class, Red Wolf, we have Jinn Dalton and Kaissss…- Where’s Kaiser?” Someone called the announcer on the phone and then he mumbled,

“Oh… alright.” He turned back to the crowd and said, “It looks like Kaiser will be joining late. Will the solo contester be able to hold up against the champions duo?” Hell no I won’t. I looked back at Ms. Aizawa and saw her sighing. We are from her class after all. “The rules are as always! Fight until someone surrenders or until the time is over. If the time runs out, the party with the most mana wins!” I started jumping in place to get prepared while thinking, well… I better prepare myself mentally and-

“BEGIN!” One of them quickly opened an enormous portal behind him. What the hell?! Already?!

“Just so you know, we are not really talkative, we win, then we talk.” Said the person in front of me as a dragon started emerging from the portal. There was a lot of ancient writing circling around the dragon as he came out of the portal, spreading his wings.

“ASTRAL GUARDIAN: FROZEN HOPE!” My pistol appeared on my hand as the stardust accelerator appeared behind my back making a big flash, as blue lights and glitter enveloped the whole arena. I started running around them. The more I move, the more ammunition will accumulate my stardust accelerant. As the accelerant started spinning, I activated my Eagle-eye and quickly started scanning the dragon.

“Target Acquired—Loading Stardust Magazine—Enhancing Optics—Magazine Loaded—Smart Optics Operational—Finding Enemy weak spot… … …” Both of my enemies mounted the dragon. The other one that has the meteor singularity, which I believe is called Blazhone, released his singularity. A bunch of smaller portals appeared in the sky; these must be the meteors!

“Flashy singularity, but it’s not going to help you much.” Said Blazhone. Crap… they are right. What the hell am I going to do against a dragon?!

“Jinn… breathe deeply, you can do this.” I sure hope I can, little voice. Before I noticed, the meteors started falling, after they picked up from the ground and flew high up, on top of the portals, so the meteors didn’t hit them. Huh… I see… That’s their strategy. I started shooting each meteor falling on top of me, but then I quickly realized that the crowd was also in danger, so I also started shooting some of the meteors that were going to fall on them. The announcer quickly said,

“Jinn, there is a magic barrier around the people, you don’t need to defend them.”

“O-oh! Ok!” Man, Ms. Aizawa sure must be an amazing sorceress if having meteors falling on me is legal. Now that I think about it… I don’t think there was any talk about overkill magics not being allowed.

“… … Enemy weak spot found. Middle of the oesophagus—Astral Guardian Ready. Good luck, Jinn.” That took waaaay longer than expected.

“Apologies. This is the second time I’ve dealt with a dragon.” Second time?! Is there something you need to tell me, little voice?

“...” Of course not. As I kept shooting the meteors, I tried thinking of a way I can get a clear shot to the dragon’s mouth. Hmm… I don’t have anything that can make me go that high up.

“Low ammunition!” Crap, I better start running. I let go of the pistols, making them disappear, and started dodging the meteors so my accelerant would recharge more. Think Jinn… think. I quickly got an idea and started shooting the ground.

“Huh?! What is Jinn doing?!” Yelled the announcer. Quickly, all the arena’s ground became Ice. I quickly tapped the side of my boots three times, and they released the blade that they had hidden at the bottom. I usually use this in case of emergencies for self-defense, but this is a good way I can use these blades for now. I started skating around the arena, dodging the small meteorites better and faster.

“Wow! Jinn freezes the floor of the arena to skate on it!” This is not just for shows though… I have to make some sort of ramp to reach the dragon. I looked around and noticed that the fragments of the meteorite were not disappearing, so I quickly rushed to the side of the arena to accumulate a lot of meteorites so I could freeze them all in a pile and use that as a ramp to reach the dragon. Since there was a sky limit, the dragon couldn’t fly far from the arena, or the enemy duo would be eliminated.

“Hey! You guys suck! Can’t even hit me once!” They started spawning more and more meteorites as I dodged every single one of them. I managed to pile up enough fragments in a small hill so I could freeze it and make a ramp. So I did. They quickly noticed what I was trying to do, so they tried destroying it, but I managed to shoot the projectiles away. I took a big running start and skated all the way to the ramp and jumped really high up, about to reach the dragon.

I quickly noticed that the dragon opened its mouth and started charging up something. There was no way I could dodge it in mid-air, so I shot its mouth, but as soon as I did, he shot a laser out of its mouth that burned my left arm. I groaned, landed on the ground and went up against a wall holding my left shoulder.

“Clear hit! Jinn, are you ok? Or do you want to tap-out?” I slowly got up and said,

“I got it…” The dragon quickly started charging another shot as I slowly started walking forward towards it, making sure not to slip on the ice. I… I have to save my brother from that virus if I give up here… all of this would be rendered to useless!

“Do you want to know why my singularity is called Astral Guardian?!” I asked.

“Huh?! Like it matters! This will be my dragon’s full mana power!”

Ms. Aizawa quickly gasped and said,

“If he uses all of it… I don’t think Jinn will be able to sustain the damage.” I kept walking forwards. As the dust picked up from the benches where the people were sitting. The dragon fully charged his ability, then shot a white laser towards me.

“ASTRAL GUARDIAN: DIAMOND KNIGHT!” An ocean-blue shield around the same size as me appeared on my arm. It had many diamonds and jewels at the front. The laser impacted on my shield and the ice around me quickly broke from the impact, and dust started flying all over the place. My hair was blowing from the high winds that the impact was making. My arms felt shaky while I was trying to push back the laser, but I had the determination to save my brother, so I couldn’t give up.

“I-I don’t know how much longer I can hold it back!”

“Don’t give up! Jinn!” My arms were feeling like wet noodles. I was starting to get pushed back from the force of the laser, so much that my back touched the wall of the arena, so I had no other choice than to hold the laser back, or I would have serious injuries.

“I respect your resolve to win this battle… but we are stronger!” Said Blazhone as he started making a big portal to shoot the last meteorite against me.

“It was a nice fight… Jinn. I’ll remember your name.” Said Archdragon.

“I… I can’t hold it back any longer… I feel like… fainting.” The medics stood up, ready to heal me if anything drastic was to happen. The clouds quickly turned black; the wind started to get really strong out of nowhere. Ms. Aizawa stood up from her chair and said,

“This feeling…” Suddenly, I saw a silhouette falling from the sky at an incredible speed with the corner of my eye, I think I saw devil wings, but they quickly disappeared.

“BROKEN SPIRIT…” he whispered. The whispered somehow echoed across the whole arena. The figure landed on the dragon with a typhoon behind him which cleared all the dark clouds, piercing the dragon with his sword, making all the impact of the fall push against the dragon, smashing him against the floor of the arena, while in the air quickly cutting his wings, making it groan of the immense pain. I instantly faceplanted on the ground since all the energy left my body. I looked up and saw that Kaiser finally arrived.

“And Kaiser makes an amazing entrance right at the last second!” He quickly ran towards me and yelled,

“Jinn! Are you ok, bud?!” He held out his hand, I smiled, grabbed it and got up.

“Took you long enough. Did you fall on the toilet?” He smirked and said,

“I wish it was that simple.” I looked at his arm and noticed that he had a really cool sword. It looked like a Katana, but it was broken. It clearly had something missing, but it was red and orange, with a blazing aura around it. He was also wearing some futuristic headphones, is he listening to music?

“What’s that?” He turned around to the enemies and said,

“I’ll explain later, for now, let’s deal with these guys.” Looking at him, I could see that a burden was off his chest. His eyes were a bit glitterier and he definitely gave off more of a positive energy… what happened to him? Where did he go? I quickly noticed with my Eagle-eye that the dragon was preparing to shoot another laser through the smokescreen. I stepped in front of Rukito with the shield and said,

“WATCH OUT!” I blocked the laser beam and fell on the ground again.

“Jinn! You should probably let me take care of this. You’re exhausted.”

“I haven’t just been taking all these shots for no reason…”

“Huh?” I stood up again, this time with shaky legs.

“Shield power 200% Release ready, Jinn.” I clenched my shield close to me and said,

“Any projectile that hits this shield is absorbed, and if I release it, its strength will be doubled.”

“What?!” I charged up the shield and was about to release all the energy back to them doubled.

“Archdragon… Blazehone…” The wind started picking up again, making my hair flow while the shield’s diamonds were shining white, “I agree… it was a nice fight indeed.”

“Impossible! How are you still standing?!”

“He has important things to take care of… his motivation is nowhere near as trivial compared to you guys.” Said, Kaiser.

“ASTRAL GUARDIAN: RELEAS--”

“Divine Lock.” The arena floor became a colossal yellow magic circle. Instantly, all the singularities in this circle disappeared.

“That’s enough.” Said Ms. Aizawa.

“W-what?! We were just getting started!” Yelled Kaiser.

“If they got hit by that laser at double strength, they would have died…” I looked up with one eye closed and said,

“So… do we win?”

“The victory goes to class Red Wolf.” Said Ms. Aizawa with a serious voice. All of our class started cheering, and then everyone started chanting,

“JINN, JINN, JINN, JINN, JINN!” I blushed, smiled, and faceplanted again, but this time, I don’t think I got up. The last thing I heard was Kaiser saying,

“HEY! WHAT ABOUT ME?!”