Author's POV

D-10 before the invasion

The woods started to die out as the dark magic consuming its life for its resources, thick fog blanketed the dead forest and it is getting wider. Underneath the fog is a massive army of dark creatures gathered, a lot more and stronger than usual, roaring hungrily tasty magic core, Mort keep supplying them with dark magic, perfected it to be a better dark creatures. A dark shadow floating steadily beside Mort's throne, closing its eyes and in idle mode, waiting to be commanded. Mort whisper some magic spells to the shadow and it opened his eyes with a dragon's eyes activated, bright red, he waited for a bit until he can see the other end, which is BoA's point of view. He stand in front of the shadow before said "Hello there BoA, sorry for the sudden interruption. I just want to offer you to join me or duel with me later on during your visit to my base, only you and me fighting each other to death. No intervention. I'm looking forward for your answer when we meet." an evil laughter escape Mort's mouth as he deactivate the dragon's eyes again to continue making his troops stronger and better.

meanwhile at the base

BoA is standing on the balcony, observing the kids that is having a training using the bracelets with Taeyeon and Tiffany on the training ground below. Sunny and Hyoyeon keeps on monitoring the kids' wavelength while BoA is taking notes on the things that she saw it can be improved. Suddenly BoA fell down to the floor on her knees, holding her eyes and she tried to hold her pain not to scream so the kids wont notice what happened at the balcony so they can concentrate on the training. Sunny kneels down and checking on BoA's condition worriedly. Sunny told Hyoyeon to take over the observation for a while. Hyoyeon nodded before she take care all the things needs to be observed while Sunny is keep checking worriedly on BoA's condition. 

"take.. me out.. from here... now..." BoA said while closing her eyes tightly worrying that Mort can see the trainees capabilities, holding the pain as Sunny fly immediately with BoA in her arms towards one of the closest empty room available. BoA held unto Sunny's hand and squeeze it tightly as she tried to hold the pain, she screams and opened her eyes as Mort communicating with her. The dragon's eyes gradually become normal after a few minutes, uneven breathing can be heard filling the empty room. A red mark can be seen on Sunny's hand as she is still holding BoA's hand. BoA leaned her head on Sunny's shoulder tiredly, trying to control her breathing, black blood traveled through her veins, it started to getting more visible nowadays. She tried to reach her pocket to grab a bottle of purple potion but keeps on failing as she keep holding her pain, tears started to formed on her burning eyes, Sunny then reach her pocket and help BoA drink the potion. After a few minutes, BoA's body started to relaxed, she release Sunny's hand and mouthed thank you before trying to sit properly, massaging her forehead. "What did he said to you?" Sunny asked carefully as she tried to help BoA sits properly. "He want me to join him or a duel with him, only both of us to death. No intervention from anyone. He is expecting my answer by the time we invade his HQ. I can vaguely saw Mort's army around his base, something different about those dark creatures." BoA slowly opened her eyes that is already back to her normal brown orbs only to see Sunny's one hand is turned ruby red due to her grip. "Did I broke your hand?" BoA asked worriedly while checking on Sunny's reddened hand. "No you didn't. I set a thin layer of barrier on my hand so you only broke some of my barrier, not my hand. don't worry about it. I know you will not accept the offer to join him, so will you accept the duel challenge?" Sunny asked again while helping BoA to stand on her two feet. "Most probably yes. I will calculate all the odds that could happen and choose the best option. If that duel is the best chance for us to win this tiring war, I will do it." BoA said while giving a small smile.

"I will support whatever decision you made because I know you will make a decision that you think it is the best for everyone. But I cannot guarantee that Taeyeon will accept your decision to die for the sake of everyone. She might want to step up and stand in that position instead to protect you. Try to talk it out to her personally, so she will accept whatever decision you made later on, although I know you already have your decision based on your emotion but knowing you, you always consider the logical perspective as well. You will need all the support you can get to convince the whole board to agreed with your plan. Will be waiting for your analysis to came out. I'll be there for you, my dear best friend" Sunny wraps her arms around BoA and help her walk back towards the balcony. Taeyeon did notice BoA leaving the observation balcony in a not normal state but she doesn't want the kids to know something wrong is going on so she keeps on continuing the training while silently communicate with Tiffany through their shared mind. Tiffany also trying her best to show emotionless face so the kids will not notice anything, inside their mind, both of them are really worried. After several minutes, BoA is back and motioned to Taeyeon that everything is okay now. A sigh of relieved can be heard escaping their mouth. The training continues until sunset, the kids started to get used to the feelings of being entirely connected to their partner as Taeyeon and Tiffany teach them how to use their shared cores to the fullest. Seohyun and Yoona received more rigorous training since they're considered more capable than the other soldiers. The soldiers can already make a stronger attack and stronger barrier using their shared cores although they still can barely manage to control the output. Tiffany blow a whistle to mark the end of the training session, all soldiers collapsed to the ground, panting tiredly as smiles of satisfaction also carved on their faces, their weapons immediately turned off, They tried to regain their last bits of energy to stand up to listen what their instructor has to tell them

"Okay guys, thank you very much for your hardwork today. Here is today's scoreboard, Seohyun and Yoona are excluded on the scoreboard due to their different level of experience, Krystal and Amber still in the first place, Suzy and Jia in the second place, and third place goes to Jokwoon and Gain. The highlight for today, all of you have improved a lot since our first training and your wavelength is getting to sync better with the bracelet, but some of you still struggling to control the magic consumption, resulting in burning much more energy than it needed but the attack or the barrier is not as strong as it should be. Try to train on that more so you can use this weapon as efficient and effective as possible. Maintain your concentration so you can stay connected for a further distance. Personal feedback on each one of you will be sent to your device, including the feedback from General BoA, Sunny and Hyoyeon. We will meet again first thing in the morning tomorrow and we will have a little surprise for you, so be prepared. Class dismissed." Taeyeon smiled and they gave a proper salute before dismissing themselves. Taeyeon expand her wings and headed to BoA right away, waiting for her explanation on what's going on. BoA let out a small chuckles to her worried 'little sister'.

"I am fine now. It was Mort, trying to contact me using the dragon's eyes. He challenge me to a duel to death, no intervention. He is expecting my answer by the time we arrived there. I think I will do it." BoA said earning a deathly glare from Taeyeon. "No. Definitely no. We will be able to take him down better if we all together" Taeyeon said coldly, Tiffany came to stand beside her and wraps her arms around Taeyeon to calm her down as she can feel Taeyeon's anger within their still connected mind. "Hold your anger against me, I will analyze every possible odds and let the number do the talk. I guarantee you that I will choose only the best option we have, not based on my personal preference. I will present that analysis in front of you and the board to ask for your agreement upon the new strategy with the new challenge from him. I wont die that easily" BoA smiled and pats Taeyeon's shoulder. "Great work by the way, they are getting a lot better than they used to be. I believe they'll all be ready within 10 days, Seohyun and Yoona already have a stable connection, ask them to share their experience with the other students so everyone can learn from them as well. I'll see you tomorrow, okay?" BoA let out a genuine smile, trying to reassure Taeyeon that everything is going to be fine. "Fine. Are you sure you're okay? You don't need Dr Jung to check on your condition or something?" Taeyeon asked worriedly while raising one of her eyebrow. "Nah. I will be fine after a good rest. I am just annoyed with how Mort contacted me. I wished I can take out