"Begin!" Marina yelled.

I rushed at Hika and swung my sword down, only for it to be blocked by his armored arm.

He pushed back against my sword and slammed me with an iron-covered fist.

I staggered back as the air was knocked out me.

Hika wasted no time, kicking me on the side.

I unleashed a gust of wind to block his next follow-up attack.

"Not bad, I can see that Yen's coaching is having some results," I said, smirking.

Hikaru smiled and formed metal stars and sent them flying at me.

I swung my sword, redirecting them back at him.

Hika shielded himself with his armored arm again and threw a blast of shrapnel at me.

Once more, I blew it off course. This time, Hika stopped the redirected metal with his magic.

"Metallum Angelus!" Hikaru chanted, clapping his hands. The shrapnel came together to form the outline of wings. Soon, a metal angel stood behind Hikaru like a sentinel.

Marina gasped. It was the spell inspired by her grandfather, after all.

The angel grabbed Hikaru and flew up toward me.

"Oh, you want to fight a sky battle? Being held isn't exactly the best way to fight."

Hikaru's angel fired multiple feathers at me.

I warped to the ground and fire off a lux at him.

His angel's wings encased him like a cocoon. Surprisingly, it remained afloat. Was it using magnetism to stay up?

My eyes widened as it dropped like a rocket even as the beam struck it.

I jumped back and watched as it crashed.

"What was that?" I asked.

Hikaru smiled as he jumped out of the bent metal cocoon.

"I reversed the polarity!" he yelled, throwing a punch from his gauntlet-covered arm.

I blocked with my sword and pushed back. "I see!"

Hikaru jumped back and fired multiple lux at me. I met them with some of my own. The collisions created spherical explosions of light that collapsed in on themselves like a dying star. Minus the black holes of course.

"Lux!" Hikaru and I yelled at the same time. Our beams of light vanished again. The two of us charged and pushed the other back.

Hikaru grunted as he formed several metal throwing-stars on his fingers. He threw them at my rays, cutting them apart.

I gasped and blocked with my sword.

"Nice one, Hika," I said, smiling. Maybe he would win after all.

I kicked the ground and covered Hikaru in walls of stone.

Hikaru threw metal spikes at the earth sphere that I had formed around him. However, it wasn't enough to break through it completely. Trying to prevent the pyramid from collapsing on us helped me learn to create sturdier walls.

I clenched my hand, causing the walls to come closing in around him.

My eyes widened as yellow light emerged from the holes the metal spikes had formed.

Hikaru coughed as he stepped out of the dust cloud that used to be my earth sphere.

He held his hands out and formed more metal throwing-stars.

"You've really grown, buddy," I said as I appeared next to him.

He gasped and threw his stars at me. Sadly for him, I vanished and appeared where I once stood.

I raised my hand and grasped his feet this time.

"Ventus Draco!" I yelled, thrusting my hands forward. A dragon of wind emerged from my palms.

Hikaru gathered as much scrap metal as he could to form a shield. My wind dragon bit down on the metal wall, tearing through it with ease.

Hikaru used the time the metallic barrier bought him to jump out of the way and form metal swords. My wind dragon disintegrated as soon as it crashed into the ground, creating a short-lived twister.

"Hey, isn't that Adela's technique?" I said, pointing at the floating swords.

Hikaru chuckled. "Yeah, but these are katana, not jian."

I jumped out of the way as the katana flew straight at me.

With a single spin of my broad sword, I blew them away, sending them crashing next to my best friend.

Hikaru slammed his hands against the ground.

I raised a hand, causing the earth to cover his hands and feet.

"The air and earth are both under my domain. There's no escape," I said, smirking.

"Don't think I know?" Hikaru asked, breaking his hands free from the earth shackles.

I clicked my tongue. Yen's training had better results than I thought. Hika used to be physically weaker than me.

Maybe I should ask Yen to coach me too...

"Metallum Radius!" he yelled, raising his arms into the air. A laser of gray energy fired out of his hands.

I gritted my teeth and held my sword out, once again forced to use it as a shield. Good thing it was big, else I would've had more difficulty against those attacks of his.

Hikaru panted as he stared up at me.

I swung his sword. "Running out of stamina already?"

He shook his head. "No. I'm just getting started!"

"That so?" I asked as I swung my sword in his direction. The displaced wind cut struck Hika, causing him to stagger back.

"Our roles seem to have reversed," I said with a slight smile.

Hikaru glanced over his shoulders and realized he had been blown toward the edge of the ring.

I stomped my foot on the floor and thrust my hands forward, sending him flying off of the edge.

Hikaru gritted his teeth as he floated in mid-air.

I gasped. He was levitating.

"Same polarity," Hikaru said, smiling.

I spun around and unleashed another gust of wind at him.

"Draco Metallum!" A mechanical-looking dragon appeared out of his hands and sucked up the air into his mouth.

So close!

Hikaru jumped back into the ring and sighed. "Almost got me there."

"Don't be so sure!" I yelled, swinging my giant sword as if it were a fan.

Hikaru grunted as the wind pushed him back once more. His metal dragon sucked up the air. Its jaw shook with the more wind it absorbed.

My best friend jumped back as his dragon's body screeched. He raised a hand into the air, causing multiple pillars of light to rain down on the battlefield.

He closed the gap between us and launched a punch aimed at my gut. I swatted it away with the flat side of my sword and knee-kicked him in the abdomen, sending him flying into the barrier.

I panted and fell to one knee.

"The winner is Kun!" Marina yelled.

I stood up and ran forward as Hikaru fell. He must've run out of prana or passed out as he wasn't using his magnetism.

"Got you!" I said, catching him. My legs gave in, but I continued to hold on to him.

Hika opened one eye and gave me a tired smile. "I almost won again."

I laughed. "You sure did. I better start taking my training more seriously, or next time you will beat me."

"Hika, Kun!" Yen yelled, running over to us with Lei.

"Hey, sis, bro," I said as my eyes felt heavy. It felt like when Mom would place a sleeping spell on Lei and me whenever we stayed up past our bedtime.

I closed my eyes and fell into the arms of one of them.

"Got ya!" Lei said.

"Sleep tight, Kun," Yen said. "I'll take care of Hika."

I nodded and dozed off.

I sighed as Yen carried Hikaru on her back. Was hoping that Hikaru would win. Maybe it was due to us both being time mages. Perhaps, he would've won if Kun wasn't immune to time magic.

Aya suddenly stood up and walked ahead. He seemed pretty mad at me when I told him that I had missed the last boat. I'd been playing with little Astra and ended up losing track of time. Aya had responded with 'What kind of time mage loses track of time?'

He had a point there. Not that I was the best time mage out there. Hika was more amazing.

"Aren't you going?" Sowk asked. In her arms was a wolf-lion cub.

"Eh? Isn't that the cub you saved back in Rios? Where did you have him hidden all this time?" I asked, startled.

She giggled and pointed at her opened backpack.

"Wait, isn't taking wildlife from there illegal?" Nyima asked, furrowing her brow at Sowk.

Sowk hugged her cub. "Maybe, but I don't care. I couldn't leave little Delten alone!" She petted the cub's neck, causing it to purr. "He sees me as his new mommy."

"So cute," I said, smiling. It sorta reminded me of the expression Dad would make whenever Mom gave him a neck massage.

"Orion, get a move on," Yuzuki said, nudging me from the seat behind me.

"Oh yeah!" I said, standing up. Good thing the ring and barrier were still being refortified.

I froze time and ran down the stairs. Lei and Yen continued to move. The former I understood had an abysmal within him, but why could Yen still move? Maybe it was because she carried Hikaru.

Ayawamat jumped a little and looked over his shoulder. "You're wasting your magic already? Seems that this match won't last very long."

I gulped. Maybe I shouldn't have wasted my prana like that after all. Though, I didn't plan to use my time magic for this match.

"Don't underestimate me," I said as I stepped into the restored ring.

"Oh?" Aya said, smirking. "You have an ace up those baggy sleeves of yours?"

I smiled slightly. "Maybe."

"Let the sixth match of this tournament begin!" Marina yelled.

I gasped as I felt something sticky strike my face. Aya had wasted no time in ejecting spider webs from his mouth.

"You should bring up that trump card of yours," Aya said. The grip of the webbing on me tightened.

I gritted my teeth as the webs pulled my arms and legs away from my torso. It felt as if my body would fall apart.

Aya dashed forward and punched me in the gut, tearing the webbing from my arms and legs. I grunted as I went rolling toward the edge.

"Here I thought that you had made some progress during the games, but you're still the same wimp as before," Ayawamat said, clicking his tongue.

I pushed myself up. "I thought that you might've been changing too. It seems that we were both wrong."

His eyes enlarged. He turned his head away and held out a hand toward me. A sphere of light green energy formed in his hand. "Sphera Insectum."

I jumped out of the way of his sphere. Water covered my fingers and took on the shape of tiger claws.

With a flick of my arms, the water claws detached. Aya smiled and formed a shield made out of spider silk. His eyes widened as the shield dissolved into goo.

"What?"

I smiled at him. "Liquification," I said, placing my hands on the ground. The area around me turned into mud.

Aya's eyes widened.

I chuckled. "Relax, though, I can only use this on non-living creatures."

My childhood friend smiled. "Good thing as I control living creatures." A swarm of spiders emerged from the sleeves of his shirt.

I raised my hands, causing water to sprout out of the ground and take the spiders with it. "Little itsy spider up the water spout. Remember that song? You used to love it."

Aya's face reddened. "W-why are you bringing up meaningless trivia?" he snapped as he snapped his fingers. A swarm of golden sparks covered the air and revealed a multitude of bees once they faded. "Get him!"

I formed a water barrier overhead and fired bullets at the bees, trapping them in bubbles.

"Itsy bitsy bees can do me no harm," I sang.

Ayawamat laughed as he stepped back. "Then, how about a big bee or a big spider?" He slammed his hands on the floor. A giant water spider appeared beneath him.

The giant arachnid raised its frontal feet and slashed the air, sending razor wind at me.

I grumbled as my water shield broke, allowing the rest of the swarm of bees to descend at me.

My clothes became soaked as I increased the layer of prana around my body to its limit. Most of the bees bounced off of it, but a couple managed to break through, stringing me.

Keeping my mouth closed, I shook my entire body, sending water bullets in all directions.

I gasped as Ayawamat's spider appeared behind me. I tried ducking its frontal legs, but its left one got me, sending me reeling.

Blood trickled down my chest and abdomen.

I smiled and raised a hand, covering the spider and Ayawamat in a torrent of water. "You shouldn't have come close, Aya!"

My childhood friend gritted his teeth and glared at me.

"Mad? I did tell you not to underestimate me." I'm not the weak kid that you knew in elementary school, nor even the same one from our first year in Nine Petal.

**Solar Note: Hope that you enjoyed the chapter ^^. Thoughts on the battles?**