Hideo and Reno were at each other's throats once again as both stood in an open expanse overlooked by some cliffs.

"Wanna go, you elitist brat?" Reno asked, pushing Hideo.

"Yeah, you sorry excuse for a noble!" Hideo yelled at his face. The air around the two grew warmer and warmer. One could start to see the heat rippling around them.

"Hey!" Kiara yelled, pushing the two away from one another. "Stop arguing! If you two want to lose that badly, then, by all means, continue."

Hideo and Reno pushed the other away.

"Tsk, I wish I could've joined Master Roa," Reno said, grumbling.

"Miss your man-crush, huh?" Hideo said, snickering.

Reno's face turned red. "I do not have a 'man-crush' on him!"

Hideo grinned. "Right, sure."

The red-haired boy turned his back to him. "Hmph. I'm going to go track down Tetsuya's group and take them on myself."

"Eh? You do recall that Tetsuya defeated me, right?" Suzuki asked, putting a hand on her hips. "Of course, with the help of others."

"Right, I had forgotten about that. Well, together, the two of us should be able to defeat them!" Reno said, puffing his chest out.

"So full of yourself," Kiara said as she shrugged and let out a sigh. "You are just like my big brother here."

Suzuki chuckled. "Indeed. The two share a lot in common." Her eyes peered toward the long yellow grass around them. "Perhaps if things had gone differently, these two would've gotten along as much as Tetsuya and Roa do with their cousins."

"That wouldn't happen!" the two said in unison as they bared their teeth to the other.

"Stop acting like a bunch of uncivilized apes," Kiara said, shaking her head at them. She took another deep breath. "Suzuki, let's go. If these boys don't do anything, then the two of us should."

The red-haired young woman nodded. "Agreed."

"Hmm, fancy meeting you here. I was sure that I would run into Rosalba or Tetsu's group first," a voice called out from on top of a large rock.

Hideo quickly transformed his necklace into its gun form and looked into the scope of the riffle. It was Kohri.

"Flaming Bullet!" the Gun-knight yelled. A ball of fire shot out of the barrel of the gun, flying at the older knight at incredible speeds. Though, Hideo found himself being pushed back by the force of his own weapon.

"Hey, learn to hold that better," Reno said, holding his cousin's shoulders.

"Let go of me! I can handle this by myself!" Hideo shouted.

Reno unhanded him and jumped into the air. A sphere of flame exploded overhead. Water rained down on all four of them.

"What? He dodged my bullet?" Hideo said. He looked up at the air as the Seven Hill knight flew overhead.

"I didn't dodge it, I flicked it away with my hammer," Kohri said, spinning the silver hammer in his hands. He grinned. "I wanted to face one of the other groups, but I guess this isn't too bad. It should teach you a lesson on how to get along with your teammates."

"Hmph, these two are only my teammates for this event!" Hideo yelled.

Kohri chuckled. "You don't have to tell me that. I'm on the same group as them, after all." He spun his hammer slightly, creating a cold gust of wind. "Sadly, for this, I am alone. No hard feelings, buds."

"Buds? Really?" Suzuki asked, giving him a deadpan look.

"We aren't?" Kohri asked, frowning.

"First Nico, and now you," Suzuki said, sighing.

"Nico?"

"He called us buds before we split up last night."

Kohri chuckled. "I see. Nico does seem to be a friendly guy."

The icy-eyed knight gasped and moved slightly to the side, barely avoiding another flaming bullet.

"Darn, I almost had him!" Hideo yelled.

"You three stay here. I'll deal with him!" Reno covered his hands in flames. "Rise and roar, Alabaster!" A blade of concentrated light formed in his hands until it turned into a solid dark silver sword. Red flames rose from the black hilt of the blade and made their way toward the tip as if the blade were covered inoil.

Reno jumped into the air as crimson wings sprung out of his back, covering his thin yet tall body.

Kohri stopped spinning his hammer. Rather he smiled. "Do you wish to fight one on one?"

"Yeah," Reno said, grinning as he swung his sword in front of himself. "I want to take this time to test myself. After all, my parents did raise Suzuki and me to take down one of our generation's Seven-Hills. Both of us can take down the princess in a one on one, but you are at another level if you're at the level of your older brother."

Kohri closed his eyes and nodded. "I see, I see. So what you wish is to test how far your power goes. Though are you sure that you can defeat me when your sister lost against Tetsuya and Rosalba? I hate to brag, but I'm far stronger than those two combined."

Reno flew back. "Wait, how do you know that my sister lost against those two?"

Kohri opened his eyes and chuckled. "I overheard you speaking!"

"You were eavesdropping all this time? Then why didn't you attack while we weren't paying attention? You could've greatly hurt us with a sneak attack."

Kohri glanced down at his silver hammer. He closed his eyes again. "Because I prefer to fight without the use of cheap tricks. Even though it may seem foolish to others, it's the path I walk."

Reno's eyes glistened. "Wahhh! That's really manly!" He turned away. "I mean, that's cool."

The older red-haired young man chuckled. "So, how about we begin? I'll let you make the first move. Oh, but first, you three, move as far away as possible."

"Tsk. Why does Reno get to fight you?" Hideo snapped.

"I could fight both of you if you like. I got no problem with it."

"No. Hideo, stay out of this. Take both our sisters far away from here and don't think about coming back. If I win this, I'll meet up with you three," Reno said, turning his sword on its side.

Hideo crossed his arms. "Fine! The three of us will go search for the peasant's group. You better not lose against this guy, you hear?"

Reno grinned. "I'll try my best not to."

"Ehhh? How humble of you. In the past, you would say something like, 'Of course I will'," Suzuki said as she walked away. A slight smile plastered her face.

Reno shrugged. "Yeah, yeah. Now get going so that we may begin."

Suzuki and her cousins moved like a gust of wind, quickly vanishing in the distance.

https://youtu.be/vIByMaDzxx8

"Now, let's begin!" Kohri said, turning to look back at Reno. The two flew at each other. Their weapons clashed, unleashing a wave of hot and cold air on opposite sides. Kohri was moving fast, too fast that Reno's eyes couldn't even keep up. Yet, the djinn within his sword told him where he would come next.

"How can you keep up with his, Alabaster?" Reno whispered.

"I feel I've dealt with speeds higher than this before," the djinn inside his angel tool said.

"I see," Reno said as he aimed his sword at Kohri. He grumbled as the Seven-Hill knight ducked his sword. He needed to break their stalemate soon.

Reno unleashed a wave of light from his sword and flew away from Kohri as fast as he could.

"Flames of Nuha!" Reno yelled at the top of his lungs, swinging his blade in front of him before Kohri realized he was gone. Plasma-like flames sprung out of the edge, slicing through the air at incredible speeds.

Kohri formed a shield of ice and moved to the side, knowing that it would be unable to last long. Indeed, the ice barrier melted before the flames could even touch it. Though the cold water weakened the power of the flames, shrieking them enough for Kohri to remain unharmed. The remnants struck the ground several miles away, lighting the nearby grass on fire. Though the fire quickly died off, leaving a large dark patch on the floor.

"Wow," Kohri said, panting. "You actually almost got me there."

Reno, who was sweating profusely, grinned. "Dang, I almost had you."

Kohri tilted his head at him. "Tired already, but we're barely getting started."

Reno flew higher as fast as he could. He quickly held his head and hands toward the sky while Kohri watched from afar as if confused. Particles of light began to fly into the teen's hands and were absorbed into his body.

"Calling forth the prana to heal you, huh? You are quite talented for one your age, even I can't do that," Kohri said, grinning as he drew closer. "Then again, you do descend from Renata."

Reno lowered his hands and head. He cupped both his hands together as a red sphered formed between them. "Phoenix Beam!" The energy shot out of his hands and sent a surprised Kohri crashing into the ground. More sweat poured down his face as he watched the cloud of dust. The temperature was growing colder despite the rising sun not being obscured by any of the forming clouds.

"Ouch, that really hurt," Kohri's voice boomed from within the cloud of dust was now silver colored. "Though it seems you used a lot of your energy for what is classified as a 'Level 3' attack."

The swordsman flinched.

"You're pushing yourself beyond your limits to keep up with me, aren't you? You even had to result to blinding my eyes." He wiped his eyes with the sleeve of his blue shirt. "I can still see green dots floating around."

Reno's hands quivered. Even against his best attacks, Kohri was barely affected. The man was on a whole other level than Rosalba was.

He clenched the hilt of his sword tightly. "Alabaster, grab him," he said in a weak tone.

"Huh?" Kohri said. Behind him was a smokey green figure. A pair of large hands had grabbed the unsuspecting knight without warning. "A djinn?"

Reno smiled slightly. "Yeah. I am a djinn tool wielder, not an angel tool wielder. Alabaster, finish him off!"

Kohri grunted as the djinn tightened its grip on his body.

"Let go of me!" he cried out in pain.

"Try to get out," Reno said as his eyes grew lazy. "Win this for me, Alabaster... Please..."

"Master Reno!" Alabaster yelled as the teenager descended like a comet. He let go of Kohri and appeared under Reno, catching him once again.

"This was unexpected," Kohri said as he covered his shoulders in ice to reduce the pain. "Though with your master out cold, that means you only got a few minutes of precious time to fight."

Alabaster set Reno down on the grassy plain and turned to look at the icy-eyed young man. "You, you're one of those Seven-Hills my Master was told to hunt down."

Kohri gulped. He held a hand out and formed shields of ice all around him.

"I thought that Reno was done doing that. Didn't he tell you we're allies now?" Kohri exclaimed.

The djinn nodded. "Worry not, I know everything about Master Reno's objectives. Though that doesn't mean I'll go easy on you."

"I rather not continue fighting, seeing how I already defeated Reno. Continuing this won't help me reach my objective at all," Kohri said, turning his back to him. "Though do tell the boy to work on conserving his energy. He uses far too much." He came to a halt and gazed back at the djinn who wasn't pursuing him at all. "Then again, I can kind of see why now. A djinn tool is energy consuming, especially when said djinn's powers are called upon."

Alabaster chuckled. It faded from view like a ghost, only to reappear in front of Kohri, completely bypassing the ice shields.

The duke's eyes widened.

"You won't get away from here without a fight! My master didn't call upon me just to watch you walk away!"

He reached his large hand out, but Kohri swung his hammer, unleashing a straight row of seven-foot-tall ice spikes which went on for as far as the eye could see. The djinn grumbled as he collapsed to the ground.

The gas-like being glanced up. "Incredible, so this is the power of a Seven-Angel tool."

"Say, mind telling me how you became a djinn?" Kohri asked as he glanced down at his fallen opponent. "Or better yet, what type of djinn are you?"

Alabaster rubbed his forehead. "I... I don't recall. Though I've given up trying to remember."

"You don't wish to?" Kohri asked.

The mysterious being smiled.

"What use is recalling the past? Especially one which could be filled with tragedy?" the wild angel said as its body disintegrated into smoke. "Take care of those injuries, and good luck."

Kohri winced as he gazed down at his side. The ice he had used to cover his wounds was now deep red.

The Seven-Hill knight stepped back and sat on a nearby rock. He hadn't expected to go up against an opponent that strong right away. He would need to change his approach for the other participants.

"Reno!" a voice echoed. The Seven-Hill knight turned around and saw the boy's sister running back. Why had she returned? Kohri hoped he wouldn't need to fight her because, in his current condition, he would end up losing.

**Solar Note: Hope that you enjoyed this chapter, if you did then be sure to press on that star :3! Think that Kohri will be alright against Suzuki? Why do you think Suzuki returned? To aid her brother or do you think something happened to Hideo and his sister?**