I was still sitting at the waiting room. Waiting until the time for the match to begin. If only White was here, he would give me some pep talk before such an important match. But still, wherever he was, I know that he probably still hope for the best to all of his friends. With that in mind, a cyclops appeared and called the participants to get ready for the match. As I was tying up my roller skates, I noticed that the one that Rulend warned me to be aware of, which was Kurokiba Sho was still looking at his katana. Now that I noticed him, he wears all black as if he’s like a ninja or something. But that’s not the case of course.

In any case, we got out of the waiting room and headed outside to the school square. Once we were there, we noticed that the square was well separated for each group by walling it off. In other words, I can’t really tell what the other group was doing. I could hear the crowd getting all hype up that’s for sure. Even the announcers were trying their best to hype up the beginning of the Group Stage. But there’s something that bugged me, there wasn’t any racetracks at all.

But that problem was soon resolved when Escher appeared from the speech stand and began talking nonsense. I don’t have time listening to these adults. I just want to have fun. But I’m forced to listen to him just like how I was forced to listen to Blax or White’s nagging about my problematic behaviour.

The Champion of Chaos begins, “Welcome everyone, to the very first match of The Group Stage of The Magic Duel!”

Gosh, I thought to myself about what he said. That’s a very long title for something so simple. But whatever. I just want the party to start.

Escher continued his speech, “As you can see, there isn’t any racetracks on the square right now. That’s a bit too weird for a racing match, that’s for sure. But have no fear!

Escher revealed his staff which had an eyeball on the top part of it along with purple tendrils all over the staff. He raised it and the eyeball begins to spews out purple lasers all over the place. Escher aimed it towards the square and shoots it out towards the square. The laser doesn’t seemed to cause any types of destruction whatsoever. But once he was done, the earth began to shook and everything started to reveal itself. The floor flipped. Yes. Exactly, as I said, the floor didn’t fell down, it slowly flipped like when you are opening a lid. What’s under it was a race track. Just as our principal promised. Was this the principal ability? Creating something by flipping the ground? That was what I figured at first but it wasn’t exactly his ability when I learned about it later down the line. It was just a part of his ability.

Putting that aside, now it finally looks like a racing track. They also have a few obstacles. I tested the floor and found it to be made of a nice flooring. I don’t really remember what kind of material it was but its like one of those floor you had at the bowling alley. Or even better, it was something that seemed to be coming from a bicycle racetrack. I think that was it. The difference was that it wasn’t shaped like an oval. It was more like a racing track that came from a video game. I have to make sure I’m in the lead for 3 laps if I want to win.

“What does a junior doing over here?” Kurokiba suddenly talked to me. “Little kids shouldn’t be doing this kind of thing, you know?”

That kind pisses me off and I replied to him, “Your mouth shouldn’t be saying that kind of thing."

“What do you think I am? Just another idiot? I’ll have you know that I’m one of the fastest in this school, little girl.”

“Yeah right. You’re miles away better than Rika Lightning or Sonozaki Wakana. I can’t believe you are so popular in the school. I’m being sarcastic, in case if you’re too dense to realise it.”

“That’s enough. I’ll show you true darkness once you lose this match.”

“That won’t happen alright.” I gave him a smug.

He was a bit ticked off by my annoyance and went away. That was an interesting encounter. Here I thought Kurokiba would be someone who doesn’t talk a lot. His outfit really doesn’t show the same way as his personality was. Never judge a book by its cover, I guess.

“Participants. On your mark!”the announcer called us.

Looks like that’s my call. I got into the position and waited for the release.

“Get ready! 3! 2! 1! GO!”

Everyone started moving once we were released. One of them used a skateboard of all things to go through the track. While most of them only ran. Meanwhile, I skated my way at my own pace. It was then I noticed that Rulend was cheering me from afar.

Rulend was shouting something at me, “What the heck are you doing?! This is a serious match, Serena!”

I stopped and tried to focus on Rulend, “What? I can’t hear you, Rulend. The crowd is too loud!”

“Why are you stopping? For goodness sake!” Rulend puts his hand to his face in disbelief.

“Say what? I can’t really hear you well! Perhaps you should try saying it louder than that!”

Rulend doesn’t look very happy. He dragged Nif next to him and talked to her. After a few moments, Nif brought out a device and handed it toward him.

And then, “WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU DOING?!” Rulend’s voice started blaring inside my head.

“Okay that’s too loud, Rulend. Can’t you tone it down?”

“You’re losing! What are you standing there for? Get going!” Rulend's roar was as mighty as a lion.

“Oh come on. You think I’m going to lose this match?”

The commentator then started to say something, “Kurokiba Sho is on the lead and he has finished his first lap! Two more to go!”

“You heard that, Serena. Get going. NOW!” Rulend was very pissed.

I laughed it off and said, “Alright. Alright. I’ll get into it.”

I put on my headphone to my ear and pressed the play button on my music player and began to skate a little bit faster than before.

“Serena…please…why aren’t you using your ability?” Rulend was getting very tired of my antics.

“I am using it. Can’t you see?”

“I never expect it would be this disappointing.” Rulend cuts off his communication abruptly.

He was probably losing all hope after that. But I don’t really mind about it. I’d rather go at my own pace and finish the race my way. Looks like Kurokiba finally started to show his ability which was called Shadowcery. The word was a mix between shadow and sorcery. It’s enables him to manipulate shadows. Pretty self-explanatory. Kurokiba begins to materialise into his shadow and dashed away with it along the racing tracks.

That’s a cool ability alright. But there’s one problem with that. That kind of ability doesn’t have enough ‘heart’ to it. It’s not very elegant for such a brilliant colour like black. I’ll show them what happens when I’m into the beat. The music I was listening to was about to reach the chorus part, and it was that very moment that a blueish green audio wave started to encircle me. I flicked a switch on my glasses and it turned into an even awesome pair of glasses. I started boosting through the race track.

I passed through the first lap with ease and managed to catch up to the third place. Kurokiba noticed that I was gaining speed. He immediately increased his speed. That’s funny. He’s already afraid of me. What a disappointing person, I pressed the next button on my music player and changed the music and wow, it doesn’t sound good to me.

I guess this was as much time as I could show everyone my full ability. I focused myself and suddenly a holographic gauntlet started to appear on my left arm. There’s button and switches all over it. What I’m going to do with it? I’ll make a remix of the bad song that I just heard and make it better. Live.

“Let’s get this party started, y’all! DJ Seraph is in the house!” I begin to hype up myself and set my music to Share Mode, sharing everyone the music I’m listening to. “Let’s break it.”

The music started to hype the crowd. I know that it was kind of stupid of me to share the music with my enemy but it doesn’t work that way thankfully. I can pinpoint on who will be affected by my music. A hop, skip and a jump and there I go. I breezed through the track and passed through Kurokiba.

“Howdy!” I greeted him as I passed through him.

I slowly faded out the music once I reached the finish line. I just realised that I moved quite fast for three freaking laps. I looked at the scoreboard and saw Stardust on the first place. I smirked and enjoyed the scenery as I looked upon the surprised face of Kurokiba Sho. But at the same time as well, Kin was looking at me with a very stern look from the crowd...I wonder why?

TO BE CONTINUED