“You ready, White?”

“Of course I am.”

Blax patted me by the shoulder. All of the seven members of Stardust was there. Rulend was there behind all of us. Hosuke carefully unsheathes his blade next to me. Airi was also there, he always was. Both Rider and Lore seemed to be okay with each other after that last match with Team Brilliance.

“Rider…I got to give it to you. You're pretty good…”

“Hey, you were cool as well, Lore. It's not like you've done anything wrong back then. I mean I was the one who started it…”

“Started? Oh you mean the other day, huh...Yeah...But you wouldn't have done that if it wasn't for what I said.”

Rider slowly turned to Lore and said,

“It’s alright. You’ve given me enough time to think. You did what you had to do…And now look at me, I'm as strong as you are...”

“Rider…”

“Now’s not the time to get touchy, guys. We got a score to settle with.” Airi interrupts them.

“Oh yeah? I think you should focus more. Yu-ki-mu-ra Airi.” Hosuke mocked Airi’s true name as if its supposed to be funny or something.

“Shut it. I had a reason to hide it.”

“Had?”

“I'm not talking about it to you, Hosuke...”

“Okay, that’s enough you guys.” I playfully stopped them.

We casually laughed at each other antics. We've been resting for quite a while after that intense battle against Team Brilliance. The fight against Team Supernova was coming in a few minutes by the time we were done with lunch.

Hosuke walked next to me and suddenly said, "With you on our side, White. We will be victorious in a blink of an eye!”

I was a bit surprised at first but I quickly responded to him by saying, “That’s right, Hosuke. And you better not be a burden to us all.”

“Don’t worry. I won’t. Besides, I’ve learned what happened after fighting against Team Brilliance in the Quarter Final.”

The bell rung signifies the beginning of the match and what Hosuke said was indeed true. He didn’t become a big burden for all of us. He fought valiantly. He thrust his blade into the battlefield while sprouts of water flows all around him like the badass he was. The water acts as his shield against the oncoming ranged attack that the enemy could throw. It could be helpful but he was facing Rose. Someone that might make him lower his guard.

Rulend and Blax worked their way together to fight it out against Shay and Sally. With the help of the Black Berserker, Blax easily dominated Shay’s puppet. This was probably the first time where Shay had to use more than one puppet for a fight. Sally on the other hand used her growing trees ability to prevent Rulend from getting near her.

Asia and Fitz ended up making a great duo with Fitz being able to control the wind and Asia being able to create explosion through means of a physical object. Fitz could move the aluminum around the battlefield and Asia can blow it up at any time she wanted as her aluminum floats around. Even so, both Lore and Rider didn’t falter at all from their tricks as both of them were also a brilliant duo. Working together symmetrically and better than before.

Meanwhile, Airi and Shawn clashed in a what we call a stalemate. Why? Because Airi kept throwing stuff while Shawn kept sending out his minions. Sounded simple but in actuality, Both of them didn’t even move at all. It will probably comes down to who last the longest with their Infinitum consumption.

Which leaves me with only one person left and that was one of the top students of Soul Power High, my classmate, Rika Lightning. We slowly walked toward each other and stopped several metres apart from each other.

“Hey there, White. It’s a beautiful day isn’t it?”

“Indeed it is, Rika.”

Rika sounded kind of different than she was this morning…did something happened that I didn’t know of?

“The sun is shining. The birds are singing…”

Okay. Something was definitely different. It’s not something malicious or chaotic or anything like that. It feels like something dangerous was about to implode.

“And boys like you…should stay down and surrender!.”

“Wait, what?”

Wait indeed. Rika struck herself with lightning and absorbed it into her body like a lightning rod. Her body started to sparkle with electrical current all around her. During the same time as well, my lovely junior, Serena, decided it was a good time to share to everyone in the stadium what she was listening to. It was a brilliant song. But it wasn’t helping me to be honest…It was a freaking boss battle song that came from a video game. Why do you have to be like this, Serena…

Rika ran toward me in a matter of seconds thanks to her lightning speed. She tried to punch me at the face but I stopped time just in time and dodged her strike. Unfortunate for me, my ability has a cooldown. Rika noticed that I dodged her attack, went for a spinning kick which I dodged it with the help of my spacing ability. I was able to stay away from her kick just in time. Now I’m out of options and I have to find a way to fight her.

I pulled out my dagger but then Rika suddenly appeared behind me. I was surprised, her presence was different than this morning. She was still smiling however…

“Nothing personal, White. It’s just a competition.”

“You got to be kidding me...”

And with that, one by one, each of us was defeated by Rika and her cousin. Team Stardust lost the Semi-Final and Team Supernova marches toward The Final facing against Team Purity.

Honestly, I didn’t see that one coming…Looks like that anticlimactic problem of mine could sometime end up the worst for me. Rika was a monster back there. What a way to put a stop to our journey to winning The Magic Duel...

Well then...now what?

TO BE CONTINUED