Gakusen Toshi Asterisk - Volume 10 - Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2 
THE SEMIFINAL 
“A-ah, I’m so sorry! I—I need to go the bathroom…!” Kirin, who had been acting restless for a while now, gave them all a polite bow and sped out of the prep room. 
They had just finished their strategy meeting and were about to enter the arena. 
“…” 
After a short moment, Ayato stood up, too, quickly facing his remaining team members. “Uh, sorry. I’ll be back in a minute.” 
It didn’t take Claudia long to understand what he meant. “Thank you, Ayato.” She nodded. 
He stepped outside, scanning his surroundings. Seeing as this section of the Sirius Dome was off-limits to everyone except contestants, even his highly tuned senses could not detect anyone nearby. 
There was only the dull, roaring excitement of the many tens of thousands of spectators who had come to watch the match, like a deep rumbling somewhere off in the distance. 
Turning down the corridor in the opposite direction of the stage, it didn’t take him long to find Kirin. 
She was leaning against the wall with her eyes closed, as if to mentally prepare herself for the upcoming battle. 
“Kirin…,” Ayato called out softly. 
“—! A-Ayato…!” She opened her eyes with a start, clearly taken by surprise. 
Ayato flashed her an apologetic smile. “Are you worried about the match?” 
“That isn’t it,” she replied, her hands gripping the hilt of the Senbakiri tightly. “I’m just nervous for some reason.” 
Kirin certainly had a reserved and shy personality, but she also wasn’t the kind of person to lose her nerve over an upcoming match. 
No matter how strong the opponents she faced were, she wasn’t inclined to regret her actions, even if they resulted in defeat—that was the kind of swordswoman she was. 
“Um… I’ve just been thinking about some things.” 
“Some things…?” 
“I mean… I’m not just fighting for myself in this match.” 
So that’s it. 
There was no mistaking that being part of a team required entering a different state of mind than fighting alone. 
All the more so when you were the one responsible for facing Hagun Seikun, Jie Long’s renowned Celestial Warrior. 
Kirin’s reason for participating in the Gryps was to help her father, but both he and Julis had their own reasons, too. 
Julis was fighting for her country. 
Ayato was fighting for his sister. 
While the situation was different for Claudia and Saya, they, too, had their own reasons for taking part. 
With so many weights on each of their shoulders, it was only natural to feel troubled. 
“…You really are kindhearted, Kirin,” Ayato said softly as he placed a hand on her head. 
“Ah…” She looked up at him in surprise before quickly glancing down at her feet with a faint smile. “It feels like it’s been a long time since you patted me on the head.” 
“…Has it, now?” 
That hadn’t occurred to him, but when he thought about it, she did seem to be right. 
They remained that way for a long moment, until Kirin glanced up toward him, meeting his eyes. “Thanks for thinking about me, Ayato. But I’ll be okay. To tell you the truth, I’m not just nervous.” 
“Huh?” 
“It makes me happy, too, that I can help carry the team on my shoulders,” she said clearly, looking straight at him. 
There was no hint of hesitation or doubt in her voice. 
“Ha-ha, maybe I was worrying too much.” 
Kirin was strong. 
Stronger than he had realized. Much stronger. 
“N-n-not at all…! I mean, you’ve helped cheer me up!” she replied, waving her hands and bowing her head. 
“I see… In that case, we should probably head back. The others are waiting for us.” 
“Right…” 
Ayato led the way, with Kirin trailing along behind him. 
“…” 
“Huh?” He looked over his shoulder, thinking that she had murmured something. 
“Ah, no, it’s nothing…!” 
He had heard something, though. He was sure of it… 
“Hurry up, you two!” came Julis’s voice echoing down the corridor. She, Claudia, and Saya were all waiting outside the prep room. 
“We should hurry. It’s about to start,” Claudia said. 
“We’ll be disqualified if we’re late,” Saya added. 
“That doesn’t sound very convincing, coming from you, though…,” Julis remarked. 
They spoke in their usual, easygoing manner. 
Kirin, watching on, broke out into a laugh. 
“You don’t look nervous at all,” Ayato noted. 
“Not anymore,” she replied with a smile. 
Ayato let out a relieved sigh before turning to the others. “All right, then. Let’s win this.” 
 
“And here we are, the one and only semifinal of the twenty-fourth Gryps!” Mico Yanase’s voice echoed throughout the Sirius Dome. “We only have two matches to go until we find out who will be this year’s champions! The winners of this match will face off against Team Lancelot, who have advanced to the championship by default. Which of our two teams today will come out on top? At the east gate, we have the team that includes the tag partners that conquered last year’s Phoenix, who you’ll all remember from their last extraordinary match against Queenvale’s Team Rusalka! It’s Seidoukan Academy’s first team to make it to the best four in the Gryps in years, Team Enfield!” 
The galleries were, as expected, full to bursting. As soon as the gate swung open, Ayato and company were all but engulfed by the thunderous cheers of the crowds. 
As they all stepped out onto the bridge that led to the stage, Ayato reflexively lifted his hand to shade himself from the glaring spotlights. 
“The team leader looks to be contestant Enfield. Rumor has it that she had to be hospitalized due to some kind of trouble yesterday, but she must be feeling well enough if she can venture out here today.” 
Shizuna Hiiragi, one of the tournament’s commentators this year, seemed to be well-informed. If it had reached her, then the information was probably making the rounds at the other schools, too. 
“And now, from the west gate, we have a team composed entirely of Page Ones! Organized around Xiaohui Wu, who in the preliminaries defeated Seidoukan’s Team Chionoth?ella single-handed, and with all five members specializing in attack, they make for one of the most aggressive teams we’ve seen yet! It’s Jie Long Seventh Institute’s Team Yellow Dragon!” 
“Contestant Wu is their team leader again this time. Thanks to his spectacular defeat of Seidoukan’s Team Chionoth?ella, including that school’s fourth-ranked fighter, Hrimthurs, he’s been the center of everyone’s expectations for this match. But we should also keep an eye on contestant Wong, whose fighting skills as a daoshi are nothing short of incredible. And of course, we also have contestant Zhao, with his overwhelming speed and martial arts prowess.” 
“Those two were the winners of the Phoenix before last! After their unexpected victory over everyone’s favorite tag team from Le Wolfe, they continued all the way to claim the championship!” 
“I wonder how much further they’ve developed over the past four years? I suppose we’ll find out today.” 
As Team Yellow Dragon entered the stage, Shizuna’s commentary was all but drowned out by the tremendous roar that rose up from the galleries. 
“…What’s that?” Julis asked with suspicion as they watched their opponents enter the stage. 
Ayato, of course, didn’t know the answer. 
“What is it, Ms. Hiiragi?” 
“There’s something strange about contestant Zhao’s feet… Is that…?” 
Ayato and the others had already entered the stage and were waiting for Team Yellow Dragon to join them. Claudia was the first to understand what was going on. 
“It can’t be…” 
“The Tongtianzu!” Hiiragi exclaimed. 
At that moment, a lone figure leaped over the bridge leading onto the stage, pirouetting through the air. 
As the bridges leading onto the stage extended out of the gates at either side of the arena, they were much higher up than the stage itself. While they weren’t so high that a Genestella wouldn’t be able to make the jump, that figure—Hufeng Zhao—spun nimbly over it, seemingly rebounding off a series of orange bursts of light that materialized in the air. 
“—!” 
Of course, there was nothing there for him to leap off from. 
Hufeng landed softly in the middle of the stage before turning his gaze toward Ayato and the others. 
“Who would have thought you liked making an entrance so much, Tenka Musou,” Julis called out. 
“This kind of flashy performance isn’t really my thing, but it would have been cowardly of me not to show you all this in advance,” Hufeng responded, lifting one of the oddly shaped steel shoes that entirely covered his feet and went up to his shins. A deep-orange light emanated from the top of his insteps. 

 

“Claudia,” Ayato whispered. “That’s urm-manadite, isn’t it? Which means…?” 
“Yes, it’s an Orga Lux. This might be a problem… I wasn’t expecting anything like this.” There was an unusual tone to her voice, something bordering on self-reproach. 
“Ah, the Tongtianzu is one of Jie Long’s most powerful Orga Luxes, isn’t it?” 
“Yes. It used to be called Hermes’s Talaria back when it belonged to Le Wolfe, but Jie Long has supposedly made some improvements. It’s said to grant its wearer the ability to literally run through the sky.” 
“An Orga Lux that lets you run through the sky…?” Kirin whispered, her expression grave. 
“Yes… If all you look at are its abilities, the Tongtianzu isn’t a particularly powerful Orga Lux,” Claudia began with a forced smile. “If all it did was effectively give its user the ability to fly, anyone with abilities like Julis would still be able to defeat them, as I’m sure Le Wolfe knew all too well. However… If you give them to an already powerful martial artist, they would turn into an incredibly powerful advantage. On that point, the people we would least want to get their hands on them have managed to do so.” 
“We don’t have many Orga Luxes at Jie Long, and we haven’t tended to give them the respect that they deserve,” Hufeng called out to them, biting his lip in apparent frustration. “Daoshi aren’t suited to using them, and martial artists don’t like to rely on weapons, you see. So feel free to think of them as evidence of my own weaknesses.” 
“…Mastery of one’s tools is its own kind of strength. It isn’t something to be ashamed of,” Saya said, glaring back at him. 
Hufeng blinked in surprise, his expression softening as he turned her way. “Thank you, Miss Sasamiya. I was talking only about myself, of course… About my own shallow fixation on victory. I meant no offense.” 
“Hmm, you’ve got a sense of sportsmanship, at least,” Julis declared, her lips puckering in a grin. “But we aren’t going to go easy on you, either.” 
Song and Luo, whom she and Ayato had fought during the Phoenix, had been like that, too. It was the kind of personality that one could bring oneself to appreciate in one’s opponents. 
“The same goes for you, Glühen Rose.” 
“We’re looking forward to paying you back for the Phoenix.” 
“Hmm…?” 
The twins called out to them in challenge as the Jie Long team finally made its way onto the stage. 
Unlike when she had addressed Hufeng, Julis’s expression now was one of clear displeasure. “If that’s what you want,” she called back, arms crossed. “I’ve got a score to settle with you, too.” 
“Technically, it was Ayato Amagiri who beat us.” 
“We don’t have anything to settle with you.” 
The twins leered up at her, their shoulders shaking with laughter. 
“We’re counting on you, Julis,” Claudia murmured sharply. “Don’t let them get the better of you.” 
Julis took a step back, her face turning slightly red. “I know that. This isn’t enough to provoke me.” 
“Good… Make sure you watch out for their tricks.” 
“Don’t speak too soon, Parca Morta.” 
“You’re no better than she is.” 
The twins sneered at her as well, as if only barely containing a laugh. 
Claudia said nothing, merely shrugging her shoulders. 
“Ha-ha! You two have a way of getting along with people!” Cecily broke in, pushing past them. “But I have to admit, I’m interested in taking on the Glühen Rose, too.” She chuckled. 
“Raigeki Senka… I don’t think we’ve met.” 
“That’s true. I’ve just been looking forward to a chance to meet such a powerful Strega in the arena,” Cecily said, placing her hands on her hips. “Compared to you Dantes and Stregas, people pretty much think of us daoshi as having versatility at the expense of mastery. So it’s always been a dream of mine to take down a top-class Strega like yourself in combat.” 
“Oh? I’ll take that as a compliment.” 
The locked gazes of Julis and Cecily practically gave off sparks. 
“E-everyone’s really getting carried away…,” Kirin whispered, watching the exchange from the sidelines. 
“I guess there’s no harm in having a bit of spirit, though,” Ayato murmured back before realizing that someone on the opposing team was also watching on in silence. 
Xiaohui Wu—the Celestial Warrior, Hagun Seikun. 
His imperturbable demeanor showed not even a hint of the fervor that had engulfed his companions, quite as if it was his natural pose. Yet, despite that, he betrayed no sign of vulnerability or weakness. 
“It looks like this is going to be just as difficult as I feared…” 
“…Yes,” Kirin murmured. 
At that moment, Xiaohui’s gaze turned toward them both. 
“…” 
He said nothing, nor did his eyes seem to convey anything. It was as if he was merely looking at them because they were there. 
What in the…? Ayato thought. 
He couldn’t help but feel a sense of unease at that simple and unaffected expression. Those eyes were different than those of everyone he had fought thus far. 
“Ayato… There’s something strange about him…” Kirin, having noticed it, too, glanced sideways at him uneasily. 
But before Ayato could put his finger on the source of that discomfort, Mico’s excited voice echoed throughout the arena to announce the beginning of the match. 
 
“Let’s get this show started!” Cecily wasted no time before pulling out a spell charm. “Jí jí rú l? lìng, chì!” she cried, making a symbol with her first two fingers extended. 
A tremendous roar engulfed the stage, with countless bolts of lightning crashing down like raindrops in a gale. 
The world was dyed white by the flashes, the air filled with the scent of something burning. 
“Another fancy introduction, I see…,” Ayato murmured as he dodged the oncoming lightning and sped across the stage toward the silhouette in the rear of the opposing team’s formation—Xiaohui Wu. 
Cecily’s particular seisenjutsu certainly lived up to her name: the Flower of a Thousand Thunderbolts, Raigeki Senka. That last technique, however, covered a wide area, and her aim, it seemed, wasn’t precise. 
“I don’t think so!” Hufeng cried, leaping through the air with no concern for the lightning bolts crashing down around him. 
How can he be so fast?! 
Ayato swung the Ser Veresta in front of him. He had timed his countermove perfectly, completely in time with Hufeng’s movements. 
And yet, before it could make contact, Hufeng rebounded through the air as if kicking off an unseen wall, circling around to Ayato’s rear. 
The Tongtianzu…! 
Ayato might also have had an Orga Lux, but that didn’t mean he could respond to his opponent immediately. And to make matters worse, Hufeng was probably the fastest fighter in all of Asterisk. 
“Ayato!” Kirin called out, placing herself between the two with her sword drawn. 
“Agh—!” 
“…Boom.” 
At the same moment, several bursts from Saya’s Waldenholt Mark II homing blaster shot across the stage, arcing through the air as they descended upon their target. 
Hufeng finally relented, clicking his tongue in annoyance as he pulled back. 
“Kirin, now…!” 
“Yes!” 

Their first task was to break through the opposing team’s formation. 
In the center of the melee stood Xiaohui, waiting patiently, it seemed, for the two of them to engage. 
Ayato and Kirin exchanged a brief look before descending upon their target from either side. 
Xiaohui wasn’t the kind of opponent to keep a hidden move in reserve, and they might not have another chance to close in on him simultaneously. 
However— 
“Wha—?!” 
“Argh…!” 
Xiaohui used his staff to repel the full force of both attacks—without, it seemed, so much as breaking a sweat. 
It wasn’t so much that he had parried both attacks practically at the exact same moment, but the fact that he had parried the Ser Veresta with nothing but a simple staff shook Ayato to his core. 
“Impossible! Only another Orga Lux should be able to do that…!” Kirin exclaimed, her eyes wide in shock. 
Only then did they realize that Xiaohui’s staff—or rather, something coiling around his staff—seemed to be burning with a strange glow. It faded away after only a brief moment, but those few seconds were enough for Ayato to understand what had happened. 
“A spell charm…” 
“…Indeed. A charm for capturing your attacks and for releasing them—like this.” 
As far as Ayato was aware, this was the first time that Xiaohui had said anything to any of his opponents. 
He had no time to dwell on that, however, as Xiaohui’s counterattack soon appeared at either side. 
“Watch out…!” 
Ayato and Kirin leaped out of the way, and at that instant, the ground upon which they had been standing was blown away with a tremendous explosion. The power of the attack was nothing short of incredible. 
“These charms have been placed on my staff many times over. No matter how many times you try, your Ser Veresta will never cut through.” 
“I see…” 
In other words, the spell had absorbed the force of their joint attack and thrown it back at them. 
In that case, the Ser Veresta ought to be able to cut through that counterattack. 
Ayato still couldn’t say that he had mastered the Orga Lux, but it should be able to withstand that much. 
Just how many charms has he put on it, though…? 
When he had fought the Li twins during the Phoenix, they’d had a seemingly limitless supply of spell charms at their disposal. Xiaohui would hardly be less well equipped than them. 
“Now then…” Xiaohui raised his staff to face Ayato. “It’s time for me to quench my master’s thirst. Be ready.” 
Master? Does he mean Xinglou…? 
There seemed to be some kind of hidden meaning behind those words, but now wasn’t the time to dwell on them. 
The next instant, Xiaohui’s staff appeared before his eyes. Ayato managed to dodge it at the last possible moment, with Kirin taking advantage of that opportunity to circle around and attack their opponent from his right. Xiaohui, however, repelled her attack with his staff without so much as glancing toward her. Kirin tried to set herself up to use her Conjoined Cranes technique, but with a slight movement of his lips, Xiaohui sent the ground beneath her crumbling, and she lost her footing. “Wha—?!” 
It looked like his charms were indeed some form of seisenjutsu. 
Kirin had been distracted for only a brief moment, but Xiaohui had taken advantage of that opening to lash out with a powerful kick. 
“A-argh…!” 
She shielded herself with the Senbakiri, but the strike was enough to send her hurling across the stage. Xiaohui, on the other hand, used his staff to rebound off the ground and spin through the air, dodging Ayato’s upward slash and countering downward with all the force of a hurricane. 
Ayato was forced to take a step backward. 
Before the staff could reach the ground, however, its trajectory quickly changed. Ayato tried to correct his footing, raising the Ser Veresta to his eyes to meet the attack, when— 
“Oops…!” 
Xiaohui lashed out, landing a flurry of consecutive punches right into the middle of his abdomen. 
“—!” 
Ayato had tried to focus his prana to withstand it, but the attack was so overpowering that it cut right through. So much air had been pushed out of his lungs that he couldn’t even let out so much as a groan—but he managed, despite the pain, to force himself to roll away from his opponent and bring himself to his feet. 
“Urghk… Hghn…!” 
He fought to get his breathing under control. It was Kirin who had given him the chance to do so, standing ready at Xiaohui’s rear and preventing him from following through with another attack. But even so— 
“Hah… I think we’re in trouble.” 
Xiaohui’s abilities went far beyond their expectations. 
He surpassed them both: in strength, technique, speed—everything. In both offense and defense, his movements totally eclipsed their own. 
“Wh-what do we have here?! Contestant Wu is overpowering Seidoukan’s former and current number ones single-handed!” 
“Hmm. He’s a strong one, that’s for sure.” 
As Mico’s and Shizuna’s voices filled the arena, Xiaohui quietly readied his staff. 
Ayato wiped a streak of blood from his lips before flashing his opponent a forced grin as he raised the Ser Veresta in front of him. 
In that case, there was only one thing left to do. 
 
“You live up to your reputation, Glühen Rose!” 
“Rgh…!” 
A bolt of lightning lashed through the air, hurtling toward her. 
Julis sacrificed one of the Livingston Daisies that she had already deployed to shield herself as she tried desperately to gather her scattered Rect Luxes. 
All of a sudden, Saya’s voice rang out: “Julis, above!” 
“!” 
At that moment, Hufeng came hurtling down with an ax kick. 
“P?n!” 
Thankfully, she managed to dodge, but Hufeng quickly moved on to a series of consecutive kicks and elbow strikes, flowing from one to the next so quickly that Julis didn’t even have a chance to catch her breath. 
She managed to withstand the barrage thanks to the three Rect Lux units she had brought back under control, but that didn’t change the fact that the situation was going from bad to worse. 
Her opponent was simply too fast; even just defending herself required all her concentration. While she was able to use her Rect Lux through thought alone, that also meant that controlling it was a delicate affair, and all it would take was a lapse in concentration to find herself at a disadvantage. 
If she was being honest with herself, she had to admit that the fact that she was able to keep up with him even this far was thanks to her intense training over the past year. Without that improvement, she would have had no hope of standing her ground. 
“…Now!” 
Saya released a barrage with her homing blaster to assist her, but before the beams could reach their target, a wall of lightning bolts crashed down to block them. Lasers and lightning alike collided in a violent flash, canceling each other out in a huge explosion. 
“Stay out of this, kid!” 
“Argh… Don’t think you can talk down to me just because yours are bigger…! Stupid breasts!” 
“…I wasn’t talking about that.” 
Saya’s oversized weapons required charging before every shot, so they had little chance of matching Cecily in speed. The rate at which she could use her spell charms was nothing short of incredible. 
“…I guess I’ve got no choice.” 
Saya seemed to have realized that, too, as she quickly returned the Waldenholt to its activator and readied the Ark Van Ders Mark II. 
Among her impressive arsenal, the Ark Van Ders was the most suitable for close combat—which basically meant it could be fired while still charging. Given the situation, that was no doubt her best option. 
“You’d better not let down your guard around me…!” 
Julis had been distracted for only a moment, but Hufeng had taken advantage of that to increase the intensity of his assault. 
Julis’s close-combat abilities were no match for those of her opponent. Her Rect Lux helped to compensate for that somewhat, but Hufeng had already batted away two of the three units she still had under her control. 
She blocked an oncoming kick with the Nova Spina—used to control the other units of the Rect Lux—while using the last remaining unit to lash out at her opponent’s fist. The next moment, however, he used all his strength to shatter the ground around them, blasting Julis aside before she even had a chance to react. 
“Ugh…” 
She winced at the pain, but fortunately, it was her left arm that was injured. Even if it was broken, she could still keep fighting. She gritted her teeth, preparing to meet another of his strikes, when she felt a cold shiver run down her spine. 
The ground at her feet began to shimmer as a trap activated around her. 
The Li twins…! 
They must have used their illusion seisenjutsu to hide the spell charm. 
A flurry of chains burst up from the ground, coiling around her body. 
“This is it!” Hufeng cried out, lunging toward her exposed school crest, when— 
“Sorry, Hufeng!” Cecily called out. 
“—?!” 
Saya, having escaped from Cecily’s lightning bombardment, brought the Ark Van Ders down on Hufeng. 
Hufeng began to cross his arms in an attempt to withstand the bombardment, but before he could properly ready himself, Saya pulled the trigger. 
“Boom.” 
There was no hope of avoiding it at that range—or, at least, there shouldn’t have been. 
But Hufeng seemed to have pulled away just in time; he was simply there one moment and gone the next, as if he had somehow teleported out of the way. 
“Heh…” Glancing at the burnt edges of his uniform, Hufeng let out a sigh of relief. 
Julis, meanwhile, had used that opportunity to recall the units of her Rect Lux and break free. 
“Thanks,” she said, glancing toward Saya. 
“Don’t worry about it. I didn’t think he’d be able to dodge it, though,” she replied, her tone filled with a mixture of surprise and frustration. 
It looked like she, too, had failed to appreciate just how fast Hufeng could move. Saya’s eyesight had always been sharper than her own, so Julis had hoped that she, at least, would be able to keep pace with him. Thanks to the Tongtianzu, however, he was even faster than usual—too fast for even her to follow. 
Hufeng, having rejoined Cecily, was discussing something with her in a hushed voice. 
“I needed a breather, but what more can we do…?” 
Their opponents were more formidable than any they had yet to face. Julis was supposed to be the team’s raider, and Saya their rearguard, the two supporting Ayato and Kirin, but neither had any opportunity to come to their aid. 
“Still, we can’t give up,” Saya murmured, as if reading her mind. 
“…Right,” Julis replied with a deep nod, tightening her grip on the Nova Spina. 
 
“Heh-heh… It looks like we—” 
“—have the superior team.” 
Claudia’s battle against the twins was, compared to the others, somewhat less flashy. 
“When the Glühen Rose stepped into my little trap—” 
“—wasn’t that your fault, Parca Morta?” 
The twins appeared to be chuckling as they bolted across the stage, always maintaining a fixed distance from her, but Claudia, not allowing herself to be deceived, focused on her surroundings while attempting to discern their true locations. 
At times, their figures seemed to melt away into thin air, or else multiply in front of her, but Claudia nonetheless continued to focus on their actual positions, trying to limit their opportunities to deceive or attack. 
What she was doing wasn’t as accurate as Ayato’s shiki technique, but against opponents of this level—and given that she gave it all her concentration—she was able to make out their whereabouts fairly accurately. If she had been facing either of the twins one-to-one, she would have easily come out on top—but just as she had when Julis had been ensnared by that trap, she found herself slipping up when facing them both together. 
Which was why she was using herself as bait to try to keep the two occupied. 
But isn’t that a tacit confession that I don’t have any other options? In that case, I had better go all out. 
The twins, no doubt, wanted to support their teammates. However, they couldn’t afford to ignore the opponent in front them. They might have been able to do it if one of them was willing to sacrifice themselves, but if they did that in a team battle, they would end up losing their power balance. 
Moreover, their opponent was the other side’s team leader. If they were able to find an opening and destroy her school crest, that would be the end of the match. If they planned it properly, it wouldn’t be impossible for them to snatch victory by themselves—and for them, there could be no more enticing prospect than that. 
Claudia and the twins knew everything that they needed to know about one another, certainly enough to keep one another in check. 
She knew, however, that she wouldn’t be able to completely hold them down by herself. 
Like the spell that had ensnared Julis earlier, the twins were succeeding in spreading the seeds of traps throughout the arena. There was nothing she could do about that. 
“Hmm… You’re certainly doing well, keeping us tied up all by yourself.” 
“Are you used to being chased, perhaps?” 
“It must be tiring. All it would take is one oversight, and your friends would be finished.” 
“But no, we’re going to stay here and take you down ourselves…” 
The twins were doing everything in their power to whittle down her concentration. 
If she could maintain the present state of affairs, victory would be hers. 
However, if she slipped up, even if only for an instant, that would be the end for her. 
She was walking a most precarious tightrope, with no option but to persevere. 
Right. Even if the rest of her team were defeated, as long as she was still standing, the match wasn’t over. There might come an opportunity to do something, but with the Pan-Dora’s stock being what it was, she couldn’t afford to act rashly… 
At that moment— 
“Are you thinking about something?” came Shenyun, appearing in front of her from out of nowhere. 
“That won’t do. You need to pay attention!” added Shenhua, quivering like a ghost before disappearing. 
“Ngh!” 
Shenyun had managed to worm his way inside her guard, lashing out with his elbow, and while Claudia managed to evade the attack, he followed through with a rapid succession of punches. 
In this kind of close-combat fighting, the twins’ martial arts were much more effective than her two swords. 
“Did you think we’d just been fooling around this past year?” he gloated. 
“We’ve been training, too, you know!” Shenhua’s voice added from behind her. 
“Bào!” 
With that, she was engulfed in a violent explosion. 
…Or so it had seemed. 
“You certainly do look to have improved since the Phoenix…,” Claudia said with a smile, having used the Pan-Dora to see through the illusion. 
It was the same kind of spell charm that the twins had used against Ayato and Julis during their tag match—and surprisingly realistic when experienced firsthand. 
“I see, so that was the Pan-Dora.” 
“What a nuisance.” 
The twins practically spat out the words. 
If not for the Pan-Dora’s precognition, she would have been in serious jeopardy. Perhaps the twins were stronger than she had suspected. 
“Not to worry…” 
“We’ve got plenty of time…” 
The twins flashed her a pair of devilish grins before, once again, taking off down the stage. 
Exactly. We still have time. 
They would just have to carry out this contest of endurance all the way till its end, she thought as she took off in pursuit.