Sophia and the other contestants stood in cautious anticipation as Zuno, and the kunoichis on his team loomed over them on the darksteel construct. Xinia was sweating buckets as she looked up at Zuno, deciding to stand at the back of the group in an attempt to keep herself from being seen by Zuno.

Ruby placed her hand on her chin, pondering something so deeply she almost forgot to breathe, and her face turned slightly red for a second. The microphones around the coliseum sprung to life.

"Would you look at that folks, It would seem that the tournament has taken a sudden turn as Mr Death and Destruction has hijacked his own tournament," Zalroth smugly said into Kiki's mic as he lent on the announcer booth table while Kai was sitting on his tails and eating some strawberry swirl ice cream.

"You betcha, Mr Zalroth; who would've thought something like this would happen?" Kiki exclaimed excitedly with genuine surprise on her face while Kikou tried to not let his cocky expression break into a laugh.

"Attention, contestants, from this moment forward the mandatory teams will no longer be required, as you move into the boss challenge," Zalroth stated, snapping his fingers under the desk. A small collection of pale teal, cyan and green mana collected at the top of the darksteel tower before forming into a bronze bell in a wooden frame.

"To make things simple, whoever rings the bell will win the tournament," Zalroth states, before he stood up from the mic.

Sophia lightly blushed and involuntarily covered her face in embarrassment as she heard Zalroth's voice over the magic speaker system. Ruby felt a slight giddy sensation in her chest as she caught a glimpse of Sophia's sheepish face. but Ruby pushed through the sensation when a thought occurred to her.

"Say, Fifi, what do you think our odds are?" Ruby asked, her words startling Sophia out of her embarrassed state.

"Well..., I... um," Sophia mumbled, attempting to ignore her embarrassment as she struggled to assess their odds, but Sophia eventually came to a conclusion; however, the moment Sophia was about to speak, Zalroth landed on top of the darksteel structure, slamming into it with enough force that the structure cracked. All the contestants glanced over at Sophia, who had an exasperated look on her face.

"We're dead," Sophia muttered defeatedly, as she transformed her bracelet into its bow mode before she got into a combative stance. Ruby sighed defeatedly at hearing their odds, jokingly mentioning if Sophia thinks they're doomed then they've really got no hope.

"Indeed...," Trikore stated as he looked upon the group's opposition, Zalroth and Zuno in particular, before getting an idea.

"Although it was stated this is a free-for-all, I propose we all work together if we wish to see any form of success," Trikore stated to the others, to which they agreed. The group discussed amongst themselves, coming to the consensus that whoever rings the bell will get the azure gems while the others would split the prize money evenly; the group sprung into action, entering their Surging Mana States before everyone (excluding Sophia, Luna, and Storm) dashed for the darksteel structure.

"Alright girls, let go!" Charlotte ordered before all the kunoichis entered their Surging Mana States (Elizabeth a bright beige mana aura, Heather a lime mana aura, and Alex an orange mana aura), along with them all being covered by an additional silvery golden wavey-flame aura and glowing dark gold marks all over their bodies. The kunoichis lept off the darksteel structure, landing on the ground before rushing at the tournament contestants as everyone readied their weapons.

"If you're using your Guardian azure ability, then I'll use mine to its fullest extent," Ruby thought as she balled up her fists inside her dense mana box gloves; Ruby's focus and her dense mana erupted out of her body, swiftly concentrated her mana into dense/concentrated mana tendrils that were attached to her back.

The groups' close-range fighters collided like crashing waves, unleashing a torrent of close-range attacks while long-ranged fighters fired attacks from a distance. Zalroth and Zuno watched the battle from a distance, as Novathane and Hakai-no-Michi encircled Zuno.

"So... are you just going to stand here?" Kai asked, licking her ice cream between her words.

"Indeed, we will only react to the contestants, and won't actively pursue them," Zuno stated monotonously, as he flicked a mana projectile away. Kai blinked a few times as she was in the middle of licking her ice cream before looking over at Zalroth with an unsure stare.

"Wouldn't it be pretty impossible for the others to stand a chance, if both of us were to take an aggressive approach?" Zalroth asked inquisitively, lunging his arm behind himself and grabbing Sophia's wrist, right as she teleported behind him. Kai and Sophia both stared at each other with an equal amount of shock and confusion on their faces. Sophia mentally groan before she was hoisted forward before Zalroth hurled her at the battling contestants.

"Should have seen that coming," Sophia mentally muttered. She front-flipped through the air, drawing her bow before firing a barrage of light mana arrows and Tempest Drill Arrows (wind mana arrows that create vortexes of wind as they fly through the air) at Zalroth, and somewhat at the bell.

Zalroth flexed his hands, encasing them in water mana before slashing through the arrows with flowing hand slashes and leaving a trail of water mana as his hands moved. Sophia watched Zalroth's unusually effortless movements, causing her to wonder if he'd been on the verge of collapsing from his aether blood illness this whole time and was just putting up a front; She thought back to the entirety of her time training under Zalroth, recalling his constant oversleeping, his inconsistent healing factor, and low eating habits in contrast to Lola.

Ruby glanced upwards and spotted Sophia hurtling through the sky, in a seemingly inactive state. Ruby panickedly gasped and frantically extended the length of her mana tendrils, along with the amount of them. Ruby ducked underneath a lightning bolt before she spun around near the ground. Ruby's mana tendril rapidly spiralled in every direction, lashing out in every direction, and forced everyone around her to break away from the scuffle into smaller battles. Ruby slammed her mana tendrils into the ground to launch herself into the air.

"Oh... gods... I beat up a sick person...; well, he asked me to do it so...," Sophia muttered mentally as she cringed at all the times she aggressively awoke Zalroth from his deep sleep. Sophia soared through the air for a little while longer before being caught by a large mana hand from Ruby.

"This is just like when I fell through the roof of the treehouse and made Little Whispers unintentionally dustify her favourite toy," Sophia muttered in shame as Ruby landed on the ground and lowered Sophia to the ground.

"You ok, Fifi? You zoned out there for a second," Ruby asked, slightly poking Sophia's cheek as Sophia seemed to be in a self-imposed dazed state. Ruby worriedly waved her hand in front of Sophia's face until she came to reality.

"Huh? Yeah, I'm fine... didn't expect Sensei to respond before I even fully teleported," Sophia uttered meekly. Ruby relievedly exhaled before she felt strong wind blasts past her; the two teens glanced around in the directions of the wind blasts and noticed the three mini scuffles taking place (Luna Vs Heather; Trikore Vs Alex, and Elizabeth; Olivia, and Storm Vs Charlotte). The two noticed that Mimi and Xinia were missing, and after looking in the direction of the darksteel structure they saw the two missing contestants rushing straight for the darksteel structure.

"I guess we can leave the bell ringing to Mimi, heh," Ruby remarked before she and Sophia split up; Sophia hurried over to assist Olivia and Storm while Ruby hurried over to Trikore.