Back where the spectators are sitting.

“Hoo, quite an interesting event this year, don’t you think so Scupto?” says a man with long spiky blonde hair which was packed at the neck region, having blue eyes. He is smiling with his left hand on his chin as he views the event from the big screen.

“Well A, can’t say for sure. For me I haven’t seen so many astounding things yet, however it seems there are some interesting participants,” a young boy sitting next to the man, replies. He has a mix of short full blonde and black hair, fair skin and grey eyes.

“Well, compared to you and the element you possess, they may not be so awesome but at least one or two of them would have caught your fancy, right?” the man, A asks as he turns to the young boy, Scupto.

“Who knows,” Scupto replies with a smile.

“You are familiar with the Falcon family, are you not? Then how do you see the twins so far?” A inquires.

“Hmmm, so far so good, I guess,” Scupto replies.

“I see,” A says. Immediately after saying this, he spots a familiar face from a distance.

“Excuse me for a while Scupto, there’s an old friend I haven’t seen in a while,” he says and gets up from his seat as he takes his leave.

“Hmmm, suite yourself,” Scupto yawns as A leaves.

Some minutes after A leaves, Scupto feels a tap on his shoulder.

“Hmph, so the useless one is here too,” a young female voice says.

“Ahh the dumb one finally arrives after fleeing the competition and losing in another one,” Scupto replies.

The young girl smacks Scupto on the head as she takes her seat beside him after shouting at some of the spectators there to make space for her.

“Ouch!!” Scupto lets out quietly while rubbing his head.

“So it’s ok for a girl to hit a guy?” he sarcastically asks.

“Shut up!!!” the girl yells at Scupto.

“As violent as ever, can’t say I’m excited to see you Sali,” Scupto replies.

“Hmph!! Same here,” Sali replies. They both turn their faces away from each other with their arms folded and after a brief moment, they both smile. Sali has short full black curly hair, dark brown eyes and ebony skin.

Meanwhile, A is standing and chatting with the person he spotted.

“Bakuzan, it’s been a while, has it not?” A says quietly bending his face cap a bit to shade his face more.

“Kensora, truly it has been a while, friend,” Bakuzan replies. Bakuzan has very long hair which reaches his knee, dark red in color having a silky and spiky touch. Some of the hair even cover some parts of his face. He also has red colored eyes with a fierce gaze like a tiger yet still having some coolness.

“Quite the surprise to see you here Kensora. What is it that tickles your fancy in this place?” Bakuzan asks in his deep strong voice.

“Well, well, can’t a man just come and watch a competition without any ulterior motives?” Kensora replies.

“But if you must know, I was invited by Hachi, Eight Blades,” he adds.

“I see. He teaches here now,” Bakuzan says.

“How about you? Being your friend for some time now, I’m pretty sure this isn’t exactly your type of stuff,” Kensora inquires.

“Hmm, feeling like you know me now eh?” Bakuzan lets out a light laugh.

“Anyway, I have a student that is competing at the moment,” he adds.

“Oh, wonderful, your student eh? I’d like to see what he can do,” Kensora replies.

“Hmph! don’t expect too much,” Bakuzan says as they both return their view to the large screen.

Meanwhile back at the competition, some distance from the vast body of water, the different teams meet themselves.

The teams present are teams: Blue A - Kiiara, May and Erraz; Red C – Dubnet, Dia and Kalium; Silver A – Tesla, Serena and Kevine; Gold D – Dayve, Sienna and Artemis; Ash H – Maka, Aurium and Armstrong; Blue G – Damian, Borro and Palma; Silver E – Gerrar, Buffy and Teru; Ash F – Jin, Arsey and Kevla.

“Gerrar, so you made it here too,” Dayve says with a smile as he moves to greet Gerrar.

“Of course, why would I lose to the likes of you,” Gerrar replies. Gerrar is quite handsome in appearance, has medium length straight black hair, dark blue eyes which appear black sometimes, fair skin and has this arrogant or proud look in his eyes. He usually has a long silver colored scarf around his neck.

“What do you mean?” Dayve asks.

“Traitors like you, I will never lose to such,” Gerrar answers, pointing one of his swords at Dayve.

“What?!” Dayve lightly exclaims with his mood slowly changing to that of anger while still maintaining a calm composure.

“Hey! Gerrar! That’s too far. Dayve is no traitor, you of all people, his best friend should know this,” Kiiara scolds him as she runs to Dayve’s front.

“He is not my bestfriend!!!” Gerrar shouts still pointing his sword at Dayve though now that Kiiara is in his front, it is pointed at Kiiara.

“Not anymore,” he adds calmly.

“The son of a traitor is a traitor, Kiiara. Though you’re my precious cousin whom I definitely do not want to hurt, however if you get in my way of fighting him, I cannot guarantee your safety,” he continues.

“Did he ask to be the child of the traitor, Gerrar?” Kiiara asks.

“Nonsense!!!” Serena yells, jumping swiftly to Kiiara’s side.

“Gerrar, touch my sister and I’ll make sure to end you right here,” she adds as sparks of lightning begin to emanate from her body.

Gerrar pauses, looking at the twins as he actually cares for his cousins, trying to calculate how to deal with the situation without endangering them.

Tesla quickly jumps to Gerrar’s side.

“Now wait a second, if you fight against Gerrar, I’ll have to go against you too,” Tesla says.

The other team members and the other teams just watch as this goes on.

“Now now,” Dubnet speaks up.

“I hate to spoil this epic battle about to happen but…do we really have time for this? Look ahead, we have some dangerous company,” he says.

“Hmmm” they all turn to see three people, two males and a female, standing just some metres away from all of them.

“Finally we get the attention,” one of the males says, clapping his hand.

“Finally,” the other adds with a gentle smile.

“What? Unbelievable!!!” Dia yells.

“Those are our teachers,” Dayve says looking unperturbed while most participants present were in shock.

“Hoo, this should be interesting,” Damian says looking down from a high pillar next to Dayve.

“Wait!! Isn’t that the lady we saw earlier? The one that was saying strange things?” Serena asks Kiiara, referring to the lady among the teachers in comparison to the lady Kiiara bumped into during registration. (See chapter one for more details)

“What’s she doing here? She’s not a teacher here, is she?” Serena asks.

“No she’s not, however, that is Lady Suiryu Antoniette of the flowing waters,” May answers.

“Who is that?” Kiiara asks.

“I don’t know the details but I heard she’s related to the queen of Aquaville in some way,” May answers.

“Hoo, that’s quite a strong one there,” Sienna, a girl with pink hair and pink eyes, from Dayve’s team, comments.

“Well then, guess you already know but we are the final obstacle to clear this particular event before the battle royale tournament,” one of the males speaks.

“So they had to use both our teachers that we have personal training classes with, Kiiara,” Serena says.

“That’s right. My own teacher, Hachi, the Eight blades, one of the blade masters that even fought in the great war against the menacing blade of Apocalypse, Shakurai and your teacher, Deva, a man of mystery and a master of the psychic element,” Kiiara replies.

“Well, well, as expected of my student, Kiiara, always knowledgeable in such things. Not to worry, we are basically projections created by Deva’s technique and can only use twenty percent of our powers. Feel free not to hold back,” Hachi says while smiling.

Hachi has short full spiky dark brown hair, dark brown eyes, fair skin and a friendly countenance. He usually wears a long black jacket, a pair of black trousers with some knives strapped to his thighs and has a long horizontal bag, like a scroll, strapped to his waist.

Deva has a calm and gentle countenance like a monk, with long hair twisted down to his waist, orange eyes though he usually closes his eyes or faintly opens them, fair skin and wears about three studs on each of his ears.

Everyone stands still, some observing carefully, some frozen a bit in fear and some waiting for someone to make a move.

“This a complex situation. After this, is the battle royale, most people are saving their skills as a surprise for their opponents in the battle royale and so have tried to minimize the techniques being used so far,” Artemis, the other member of Dayve’s team, whispers to herself.

“But having to face these people even at twenty percent of their power, we might have to use all our cards,” she adds.

“How laughable,” Dayve speaks up.

“Huh?” Artemis turns to Dayve.

“If you have to wait to surprise your opponent with your technique in the tournament, then maybe it’s not that awesome after all,” he adds.

“Supposing there was war, do you think you will have such luxury especially in a grand war that lasts for years,” Dayve says and rushes to attack Deva.

Deva is standing in the middle of Suiryu and Hachi with the former at his right and the latter at his left. Immediately Dayve goes for the attack, Hachi appears in his front and counters with a kick, giving Dayve no chance to launch his attack. Dayve blocks the kick but the effect is powerful and it sends Dayve flying some distance however he lands on his feet, screeching backwards.

“Don’t worry Dayve, you’ll be my main prey,” Hachi says as he flicks his hand, bringing out a short blade from his sleeves and makes the dash to attack Dayve.

Simultaneously, Kiiara runs towards Suiryu to attack her.

“You’re not fighting your teacher?” Tesla asks.

“No. Being related to the queen of Aquaville, I feel Lady Suiryu uses water element, so I’ll counter her attacks with my fire,” Kiiara replies as she runs towards Suiryu.

“Hoo, interesting that we meet again,” Suiryu says in her soft, smooth and calm voice, seeing as Kiiara is running towards her.

Kiiara does not fully get to her but jumps when she is some metres away and launches an attack.

“Elemental Release: Fire Style: Breath of fire.”

Immediately, she releases huge amount of fire, by blowing from her mouth, at Suiryu however Suiryu just stretches her palm at the attack and creates a big shield of water which evaporates with the fire causing the area to become misty. Suddenly, out of the mist, Serena appears at Suiryu’s front and launches a swift attack.

“Elemental Release: Lightning Style: Crippling push.”

With lightning wrapped around her lower right arm, she rushes to land a hit on Suiryu but Suiryu easily and calmly evades the attack, grabs Serena by her right upper arm and throws her back in the direction she came.

“Ugh!!” Serena exclaims as she lands on the ground.

“She easily evaded my attack?” Serena asked herself.

As this happens, Deva, now having swirls of yellow aura flowing around him, stretches his left hand and from his palm, releases a powerful force that pushes back all the participants in his front which includes: Kevine, Tesla, Buffy, Sienna, May, Erraz, Kalium, Arsey, Aurium, Teru and Gerrar. However, Kevine creates a small force field which breaks but reduces the impact.

Around the area where the battle goes on, are some nice tall trees. Artemis quickly runs and hides at the top of a tree keeping quite the distance from the battlefield.

“This should suffice,” she says.

“Come forth!!!”

She says this and a bow materializes on her hand, she quickly picks three arrows from the quiver strapped to her back. She holds two with her mouth and draws one on her bow.

“Let’s hunt then,” she says.

“Hawk eye!!!”

Her green eyes begin to glow and she quickly launches an arrow against Hachi who is engaging Dayve in battle. Hachi steps back to evade the arrow however Artemis shoots another arrow which hits the first arrow shot, changing its direction such that it is now heading towards Hachi. She quickly fires a third one which hits the second arrow and changes its direction to now aim for Hachi’s feet. Hachi jumps and turns to evade both arrows. Dayve swiftly launches a kick against him in mid-air but Hachi, quick to react, catches Dayve’s leg and tosses him behind. Dayve does a backflip and as he lands, launches an elemental attack.

“Fire release: Lion’s Roar!!!”

Dayve releases huge amount of fire in the form of a very large and ferocious lion with its mouth fiercely opened. The size of the attack is three times that of Kiiara’s mini conflagration attack. The attack is fast and quickly heads for Hachi.

BOOM!!!

The attack creates a powerful explosion with a roaring sound, causing the area of the battle to shake violently.

“Wooow,” Suiryu says as she calmly battles Kiiara and Serena while easily evading the bullets shot from Kevla’s guns through his gun release style.

“As expected of a prodigy, effortlessly pulling forth such an attack,” she adds.

“Then let us, ‘old’ adults show off a little bit too,” she says as she steps back and joins her palms together.

“Water release: Flowing style: Reverse flow.”

She opens her palms wide and a large horizontal strip of water forms from her right palm to her left palm. As the bullets come flying in, she spins and facing her front again, releases the bullets at Kiiara and Serena who are approaching her and also all the way to Kevla, all at the same speed of the bullet. Kiiara and Serena quickly dodge the bullets which hit the ground in front of them causing them to jump backwards a little. But, Suiryu quickly appears in between them, still with the horizontal strip of water, launches a palm strike each at the twins, sending them flying some distance. The bullets sent to Kevla graze his face as he dodges them but he stumbles to the ground after the dodge.

“Enough watching,” Maka says, from a distance. She bends down as if to start a race.

“Beast style: Attribute: First release: Motion of the Cheetah.”

The muscles in her legs tighten and suddenly, she dashes off at an incredible speed heading towards Suiryu. Suiryu evades the attack but is unable to grab Maka like she did with Serena.

“Attribute change: Elephant stomp!!!”

Maka does a quick turn and launches a powerful vertical kick at Suiryu but she evades the attack by stepping to her left causing Maka to land the hit on the ground which creates a very large crack on the ground with a powerful shockwave. Maka quickly moves as she has changed attribute back to the cheetah’s speed. She starts using speed to attack continuously without giving Suiryu any space, as she evades.

“Hoo, you’re quite fast, aren’t you? As expected of a prodigy. Only such can make an instant attribute change like that. I have to give it to you,” Suiryu compliments while evading Maka’s continuous fast attacks.

Borro, a young fat boy, having short hair and timid in nature, having gotten this far by being in Damian’s team, launches an attack at Suiryu.

“Wind release: Air bullets.”

He releases small balls of air and sends them, at the speed of a bullet, against Suiryu. Suiryu, while evading Maka, easily evades all the air bullets but Palma, also a member of Damian’s team, having short full black bob hair and orange eyes, appears at Suiryu’s right side and launches an attack too.

“Liquid style: Oil release: Flaming balls.”

She releases oil having the size and shape of a football, making five of them and sending them against Suiryu to surround her.

“Kevla!!!” Palma shouts.

Maka halts in her attacks.

“I got it,” Kevla replies and releases three shots from his gun, hitting the oil balls, creating a large explosion at Suiryu’s position.

They all watch as they wait for the smoke to clear.

“Hoo, you’re all cooperating now, I must hand it to you young ones, well done,” Suiryu says, clapping her hands as the smoke clears and Suiryu stands with a hedge of water protecting her in the midst of the flames.

“It’s no use,” May says as she sneaks away from the battle with Deva.

“Lady Suiryu can use the flowing waters technique,” she adds.

“Tch!!! What’s this now?” Serena says as she stands and wipes some blood off her mouth.

“It’s an ancient martial arts technique. It has several styles, one of which allows the user to move swiftly and easily like a water flowing gently. Another empowers the user to feel the flow of water in a body and predict its movement,” May explains.

“So that’s how she can dodge our attacks so easily, by reading our movements,” Serena says.

“Ugh, like Dubnet would say, this is troublesome,” Serena adds.

Meanwhile,

“Gerrar you should go and assist Dayve, Dubnet, Sienna, Artemis and Teru in fighting against Hachi, since you’re good with swords too,” Damian advices Gerrar as Tesla, Kevine, Dia, Buffy, Arsey and Kalium are engaging Deva in battle.

“I refuse,” Gerrar replies.

“Look Gerrar, We don’t talk much but now is not the time to be fighting among ourselves, that’s what the tournament is for. Besides, I can assure you, if it’s just a projection of twenty percent, Dayve is sufficient on his own. However, the time taken to achieve such may be more than what we need and the longer we spend here, the more at a disadvantage we will be. This is because we don’t know how much energy reserve the teachers have but we have been using ours since the event started and we still have a battle royale to engage in. So the faster we finish here, the better for us, do you understand?” Damian says.

“Also, wouldn’t you like to see how your sword skill fairs against the Eight blades?” he adds with a light grin.

“Hmph,” Gerrar proudly sighs and dashes to attack Hachi from behind with his sword but Hachi, without looking, blocks the attack. He grabs Gerrar by the hand and throws him to the front. Gerrar does a backflip and lands on his feet.

“That settles that,” Damian says.

“Now,” he says and turns to a young boy sitting on the ground close to Damian.

“Jin, I’m guessing you heard what I told Gerrar, I’ll also be needing you to go and assist them in fighting Lady Suiryu. Your style should be able to follow through with hers,” Damian instructs.

“Well well, giving orders as usual. Do I have any choice than to obey my Earthville prince,” Jin shrugs.

“It’s alright though I was getting bored anyway,” he adds as he stands, dusts his trousers, stretches and heads to the battle area of Suiryu.

“Good,” Damian says.

“Now it just remains you, Erraz,” Damian turns to Erraz who is standing behind him, with his hands in his pocket calmly observing the battle.

“How’s your energy coming up? Please tell me you’re back up,” Damian inquires.

Erraz laughs a bit.

“Says the one who put me in this condition,” he answers.

“Well, it’s coming up. I’ll soon be able to fully join the battle,” he adds.

“Good because I have a plan and you’re essential for it,” Damian replies.

“Now I just have to buy us time,” Damian says as he hops off from an earth boulder.

At Hachi’s battle area…

“Well, since the number has increased, time to amp things up,” Hachi says and cracks his neck.

“Three should be enough,” he says, tucking his hands into the scroll-like bag wrapped around his waist and tossing out two extra short blades from there into the air, plus the one he is currently holding, making three blades.

“This is bad,” Dubnet says as he sees the extra blades and rushes to attack Hachi.

Sienna and Teru quickly follow to assist him. Sienna is skilled in hand-to-hand combat and so does not carry any weapon while Teru carries a staff with very strong reinforced round tips and also has some chains wrapped around his arm.

Dubnet attacks with a vertical slash however, Hachi dodges by stepping to his left and places his hand on Dubnet’s shoulder, using it as support to lift himself high in the air. He quickly kicks one of the blades as it is falling down, sending it against Sienna. This halts Sienna making her to jump backwards but Hachi quickly catches the other blade he threw and quickly moves to Sienna’s location, spins and lands a horizontal kick on her stomach.

“Argh!!!” Sienna screams as she is sent flying and crashing into a nearby rock.

Without delay, Teru dashes to attack with his heavy staff but Hachi quickly throws one blade up and with one hand, easily parries Teru’s fast attacks.

“For a heavy weapon, you swing that quite easily. Quite the strong one, aren’t you?” Hachi compliments.

“However,” he says, catches the blade he earlier threw up and parries one of Teru’s attacks. Swiftly, he kicks Teru’s hand knocking off the grip of Teru from the staff. He does a quick turn and using his leg, takes the weapon from Teru leaving Teru weaponless and knocks out Teru by guiding the staff with his legs.

Gerrar, with his two swords wrapped with lightning, immediately goes for the attack against Hachi by launching continuous slashes.

“Hoo, wrapping two weapons with elemental energy at the same time, impressive, Gerrar Henri,” Hachi compliments as he releases Teru’s staff from his leg, making it spin continuously, blocking Gerrar’s attacks and also attacking him.

Hachi starts using his legs to control the movement of the staff for defence and offense.

“What the?!!! He’s easily controlling such a heavy weapon at high speed with just his legs,” Gerrar says to himself. (Gerrar is among the fastest students in the school, that is the more reason why he is surprised).

Suddenly, Hachi breaks Gerrar’s grip from one of his swords, using the staff. Artemis quickly launches an arrow which Hachi deflects to Gerrar, by directing the staff with his leg. Gerrar is quick to see the arrow and evades it by tilting his face to the right. While he does this, Hachi uses leg, turns the staff to a horizontal position while in mid-air and kicks it against Gerrar. Gerrar, with a sword in one hand and none in the other, quickly holds the staff to stop the attack but the force from the kick, taking into consideration the weight of the staff, pushes Gerrar some distance away, crashing into a tree, out of it and into another.

Hachi lands, holding two blades in each of his hands and one with his mouth. Dubnet is standing some metres from his right, Dayve is farther away but is centre to him while Artemis is the furthest, hiding at the top of a tree.

“He just took out two special class people and a prodigy. Amazing and this is just a projection of twenty percent so that’s not even his top speed,” Artemis says in astonishment, watching from her distance.

“I might have to use that,” she adds.

“Hey, Dayve,” Dubnet calls out.

Dayve turns and looks at Dubnet.

“Allow me to take on teacher here for a brief moment,” Dubnet says.

Dayve looks at Dubnet for some seconds, Hachi just stands there watching.

“A brief moment you say. Suite yourself,” Dayve says.

Dubnet lets off a gentle and confident smile.

“Well the others can’t really see us battle anyway. I don’t really like to stress myself much as I don’t care about finishing first or so in this tournament,” Dubnet calmly says as he stretches a little, holding two swords.

“I’m more interested in something else and here you just presented the perfect opportunity for that,” he adds as a powerful blue energy aura with a little tint of red begins to emanate from Dubnet. The aura is so powerful even Artemis can feel it from her distance.

“Now let’s see how far I can go against the likes of you,” he concludes. Immediately, everyone stops feeling the aura and Dubnet becomes shrouded in the blue aura.

“Energy release: Amplification.” – Dubnet.

“Hoo, you’re usually just calm about things and decided to be lazy on your own. So, not to be pressured as a genius or prodigy, you never really showed much efforts during classes. However, you are quite the powerhouse, aren’t you?” Hachi says as he readies himself for Dubnet’s attack.

“Show me your true potential, Dubnet Cris Falcon,” he adds.

“Here I come, teacher,” Dubnet calmly says and moves so fast that it appears as if he vanished, and quickly appears at Hachi’s other side to land a horizontal slash attack.

Hachi quickly turns and blocks the attack but Dubnet immediately moves to his other side and does the same attack to which Hachi does a backflip to evade the attack. The force of the attack cuts down into two, a nearby tree. Hachi, while in mid-air, quickly throws the blade from his mouth at high speed against Dubnet but Dubnet swiftly dodges the attack and as Hachi lands, he rushes to attack. The two begin to exchange slashes at a very high speed such that Artemis even with her ‘hawk eye’ can barely keep up however Dayve can still keep track, carefully watching.

“What? What sort of speed is this? I can barely even see what’s going on,” Artemis says to herself.

“However that boy is able to keep up. Is this the true power of that lazy one? The lazy genius?” she says in amazement and shock.

Some leaves falling nearby the sword clash, are torn to pieces from the force generated by the clash. After a while, they both screech backwards with Dubnet panting a bit.

“Kid, you’re good, I must say. I don’t understand why you’ve been keeping such talents hidden,” Hachi says smiling as he holds his blade in cross-like manner to shield his face.

“Well what can I say? It’s a hassle,” Dubnet replies with a smile. He calmly takes a deep breath and as he gently exhales, moves so fast that he suddenly appears at Hachi’s back and launches an attack, just a few metres away.

“Energy release: Bilateral strip.”

He swings his sword vertically and releases huge amount of raw energy, blue in a color and shaped like a crescent, sending it against Hachi who is just turning at the moment. The attack is fast and divides into two, everything in its path however Hachi is faster and quickly evades it by a hair’s breadth. Without any delay, Dubnet changes location and does the same attack but Hachi dodges it again. Dubnet, getting faster with each attack, continuously does the same attack till Hachi is now completely surrounded by the attacks approaching him at high speed, with no space to run.

Dayve quickly jumps in and adds an attack. He does a claw like gesture with his hand and swings it from his distance at Hachi.

“Lion Claw!!!”

He releases large slashes of fire in a claw-like manner at Hachi.

“Two power houses right? I never thought I would have to use that in this fight,” Hachi says as the attacks approach him.

“Oh well,” he smiles and there’s a large explosion which creates a small crater in the ground due to the collision of the attacks.

BOOM!!!

“I said a brief moment,” Dubnet says panting and smiling at Dayve.

“Well…I saw an opening,” Dayve shrugs. They both chuckle and smile at each other.

“Now now isn’t it too early to celebrate?” Hachi says as he appears where one of his blades is.

“What?!” Dubnet says as he turns to attack Hachi however Hachi quickly throws the blade at him and instantly, he appears in front of Dubnet, catches the blade and lands a powerful blow with his five fingers spread, on Dubnet’s stomach.

“Argh!!!” Dubnet exclaims as his mouth opens wide and spews blood.

“Eight path seal: Path of the conscious: Seal.”

Five small flame-like balls of colors green, purple, orange, red and yellow, appear on each of Hachi’s fingers while they are still on Dubnet. Hachi vigorously twists his hand and immediately Dubnet is rendered unconscious. He creates a spin effect from this and sends Dubnet flying some metres away.

“That’s one troublesome one down,” Hachi says.

“Well since it’s just a projection of twenty percent, I’m not sure the effect will last long though,” he adds, holding two of his blades in his hands while one is stuck in the ground.

“This is bad. I have to use that, my laser release,” Artemis says to herself as she hops to the top of another tree to get a better shot at Hachi.

She stands straight, holding her bow with her left hand and pulling the arrow with her right as she chants some words.

“The arrow is me and I am the arrow. What I see, is where it goes and how I will, is how it goes. Let this, pierce all in its path,” she chants.

“Go!!! Hunter’s beam!!!” she screams, releasing the arrow with a powerful outburst.

The arrow changes form to a red laser beam; moving at high speed, it heads straight for Hachi, piercing through every tree and object in its path. Hachi, with a fast reflex, tilts his body to his left and evades the arrow. Still in motion, he powerfully throws the blade on his left hand at Artemis. The blade moves so fast and reaches Artemis even before the light of the arrow beam dies down. Artemis is surprised at how a human can throw a short blade to a far distance at such speed. The instant the blade is at the left side of the face of Artemis, Hachi instantaneously appears and in an inverted position, grabs the blade by its handle. Before Artemis can even react, he does a spin and lands a kick at the back of her neck, completely knocking her out before she can even utter a word. He then lands on the large branch of the tree Artemis is on and catches her before she falls down from the tree.

Instantly again, he appears where the third blade was stuck in the ground and lays Artemis down.

“So you finally use it. Though at twenty percent, it’s still a pain to deal with,” Dayve says gazing at Hachi from a distance.

“What?” Hachi smirks.

“Instant teleportation using your short blades. The way of the eight paths,” Dayve says as he slowly approaches Hachi.

“Hoo, so you seem to some things about my technique young Dayve, interesting,” Hachi replies.

“Well, now it’s just you and I. We can have a good fight now,” he adds.

“We’re not done yet,” Gerrar staggeringly stands, panting as he wipes some blood from his mouth and chin.

“Of course,” Teru and Sienna add as they too struggle to stand.

“You guys…save your energy. I and Gerrar will be sufficient,” Dayve says, halting his approach.

“Tch!! I don’t have to listen to you, however… Sienna and Teru, sit this one out. I’ll work with this son of a traitor for this one,” Gerrar says after a deep exhale. Dayve lets off a light smile.