The final group was led by Jude who, after a successful first round, was beaming with happiness and had a smug smile plastered across his face. He held his flame out. Lighting the way for his other two teammates.

Jack and AJ both were behind him. Both young men tried to stay within the light of Jude’s fire but they both were walking in his shadow. For them the path forward meant watching Jude’s back and hoping nothing surprised them from that.

There was very little conversation following between the trio. Jude believed it was from the other two being as focused as he was. Yet both Jack and AJ knew, without communicating, that they both were still feeling a bit awkward after the break and Jude’s newfound confidence was mostly made up of smugness and neither wanted to deal with smug Jude.

It wasn’t too long until they heard some strange sounds. Two different grunts and the sound of fists hitting flesh. Jude broke out into a jog, AJ and Jack readied themselves for a fight.

To say all three of them were shocked upon finding Rafe and Connor beating each other for no apparent reason, would be an understatement. Even after they explained what had caused the tussle between the friends, the group was still baffled. How are you supposed to react when someone tells you’re the reason they are fighting is because they were joking around and decided to start brawling?

The fight stopped when the other three picked them up. They had thrown punches as if they were in a street fight. Both had bruises, bust lips, and cuts. They were not playing around. But before any more could be done there was a crash and the wall around Zoe’s group exploded open.

All five ran towards the commotion to find the situation at hand. Archie’s group had arrived, explained himself to the majority of Mana-Script and was seemingly quite proud of himself.

Jude scanned the area to get a gist of what was going on himself. It was then he noticed something above them. Floating up there. It was a humanoid figure, clad in juniper green hooded trench coat. It was hard to make out, due to the lack of light, but it appeared as though they had a black skull for a face. Yet the way the minimal light reflected off it did give away it was a mask.

Jude pointed to the sky, “Is that Leggy up there?” Archie nodded. Archie himself had an interesting costume on. It was the act outfit you would expect from someone who thought everything through; his outfit was designed for movement and protection. He had a military design with armoured sections over the most exposed points. His joints were all left with easy and free moving fabric. It was all in dark uniform colours so he wouldn’t stand out. He even had a metallic headband on to protect his head, a helmet would simply be uncomfortable with his glasses.

“Yes, we had Leggy scout out the area. The gate at the centre gives off light, he points us in the direction of it and we bust it open.”

“Good plan, can we tag along, or do we have to fight you?” Jude asked as Olivia’s group caught up to them. Agni’s group was still ahead, too far around the corner to be aware of the current situation. Luckily only the candle needed to make it to the gate, not the whole team, so they could be left behind if it became necessary.

Without even consulting his team Archie answered. “Of course. Just help us break down the walls, as well as letting our candle go through to qualify first.” With that being agreed by everyone on Mana-Script team they formed a bigger ground.

Now breaking down walls were Red Jumper, the muscular girl, Connor (who had made battering ram), and Shaar (taking super strength as power). The four were heading towards the middle in no time.

One wall they broke down lead to them meeting up with Agni, Sol, and Zero. Sol nearly eliminated both teams from the qualification stage without thought. He was so quick to grab his blade that he did not consider if it was friend or foe. In most situations a sane person would assume that something that was breaking down a wall next to you was a foe, or at the very least not a friend.

Eventually they made their way to the middle of the maze, where a table sat in the middle of the open square. There was a black box sat upon the table, with sixteen cylinders to house the candles. There were already nine in the slots, another seven open. Archie placed his candle in an open slot and within the blink of an eye the whole team had just vanished into thin air.

It was Zoe’s turn to do the same. Once she did Jude was in a completely different room. It was an empty room with pedestal at the other side of it, a single button on that. However, there was gaping whole in the room with a drop onto a giant inflatable cushion at the bottom.

“Congraulations on passing the qualifying stage. You will now compete for seeding in the individual battle tournament.” Came the A.I. voice guiding them in this competition.