“Jinsol, to your right!”

“Got it! Blue Betta, Type One!”

“Affirmative. Mode Shift calibrated. Initiate Strike Forme.”

A boom of thunder echoed within the closed off area of the gymnasium-styled arena occupying BBC’s seventh floor. A bright bolt of aureate lightning accompanied it, striking an exposed heptagon-shaped crystal embedded into the side of an assault rifle. Its black finish accented with highlights of cobalt,  subdued noises of rattling metal and shifting gears sounded off from its insides as its frame began to reassemble itself. The entire firearm rapidly emitted steam, tiny exhaust grilles lined around its edges hissing quietly.

The owner of the firearm in question, a tall blonde-haired sorceress with a confident smirk printed on her face, was quick to pivot on her heel as her armament started to come undone. While the sides and top of the weapon quickly retracted backwards through automated mechanisms, she pulled down a small latch on the gun’s collapsible stock, removing the of the firearm entirely.

What was left of the rifle’s main body hastily reconstructed itself into a small pistol with its original trigger and grip unaltered, though its new form yielded a muzzle wider than that of its previous. The removed end in her other hand hurriedly went about its own sudden transformation, mobile parts of its fascinatingly engineered casing twisting and turning as it shrunk in width and ejected steel upwards through a slit on its top.

The firearm’s separated end revealed itself to be the hilt of a blade as the iron which sprung upwards finalized its altered shape: a double-edged short sword two feet in length. It sported an unrefined industrial look, constructed just in time to meet a downward strike from a titanic slab of frozen steel considerably larger than it.

Vastly overpowered by her opponent in both size and strength, the electric sorceress raised her reformed firearm as she fought a losing battle against the greatsword pressing down above her head. Taking aim on her foe’s abdomen in front of her, she pulled the trigger and held it down for a calculated moment. Lightning began to arc in front of the open muzzle as it gathered energy, inciting a sharpened odd eye of bright cyan to narrow in response.

“Firing!”

Her anticipated strike charged and ready, she released her gun’s trigger. 

A compact sphere of pure electrical essence was blasted forth from its open barrel. Small in size though it may have been, it packed enough voltage to persuade the frozen swordswoman to take evasive action. Forfeiting their clash of blades, she pulled herself away from their interlocked steel and avoided the projectile with a clean sidestep. It crashed into the far wall of the arena, summoning its barrier and spreading further damage of already fairly spread out cracks.

Before she could re-engage with her primary target, the swordswoman heard rapidly approaching footsteps from her flank. Turning halfway, she was into another meeting of steel against steel as her second opponent took initiative.

“I don’t know what’s crazier, the fact that Sooyoung agreed to a two-on-one match or the fact that she’s actually holding her own…”

From the sidelines, a young girl’s thoughts escaped her as she watched the ongoing spar. With curious brown eyes, she paid close attention to the display of action beyond the reinforced glass barricade in front of her. Absent-mindedly flipping a dagger between her fingers, she pouted slightly as the pommel of a mirrored dagger sank into her cheek. “Do they do this a lot, Hyunjin?”

“From time to time,” a voice above and behind the girl responded. “It's a bit more common on days like today where we get back from excursions sooner than expected.”

Laying on her side atop the length of the bleachers’ seats, the earthen pugilist was entirely relaxed as she watched the fight unfold with special focus on her partner. “It’s not as bad as it looks, honestly. Two-on-ones are a good way to push yourself and see what you can really do under pressure. If anything, an uneven difference in rank is the only thing that would make it go from a proper challenge to something downright unfair.”

“Like if Sooyoung were up against two other Masters?” a third spectator asked, seated closely to the dagger flipping sorceress. Her eyes tracking the motions of all three combatants equally, she twirled the ends of her vibrant lavender hair with her fingers.

“Right on the mark, Yerim,” Hyunjin affirmed the Neophyte’s assertation. “The fighter being outnumbered needs to be a bit stronger than the opposing duo’s combined strength. Not by too much, though. You don’t want either side to get completely washed. That’s just no fun.”

“Yeojin, we should challenge an Intermediate!” Yerim suddenly suggested to her adjacent friend, smiling brightly even through Yeojin’s immediate reactionary grimace. “It’d be good practice for all of us!”

“Uh...maybe after we get some more experience,” Yeojin hesitated, skirting around the idea. “We’ve only got one completed excursion under our belt, and that was, you know...today. Jumping into player-versus-player content and fighting anything beyond a moving doll might be pushing it for now...”

“Whenever you’re up to it, I’ll take you guys on,” Hyunjin offered nonchalantly. With her eyes glued to Sooyoung’s movements, she failed to realize the fearful shudder her words brought about from Yeojin.

“That’d be one way to get our asses kicked,” Yeojin muttered under her breath. Shaking her head, she brought her attention back to the bout of practice at the gymnasium’s center. Her eyes were glued to Jinsol as she called out once more, her summons answered again by an electronic voice.

“Blue Betta, Type Two!”

“Affirmative. Mode Shift calibrated. Initiate Assault Forme.”

Much like before, a bolt of electricity shot forth from Jinsol. For what must have been the dozenth time, Yeojin paid close attention to the Adept sorceress as she watched the display in awe.

The source of Jinsol’s bolt was a contraption fitted onto her by means of a black leather harness around her torso and waist. Strapped onto the center of her chest atop her deep blue tee shirt, it was a thick piece of machinery fitted with small moving parts and ventilation grilles much like her firearm. 

Sharing the heptagonal shape of the bright yellow crystal embedded into her weapon, Jinsol’s metal centerpiece had a similarly colored stone of its own in its center. It was encased in glass and suspended in a dense cloud of her mana, reminding Yeojin of the crystal found within Kahei’s staff. There was an easy to see difference in size, however—Jinsol’s crystal was noticeably bigger than Kahei’s, and the fog of dust which surrounded it was perceptibly heavier.

All around her mechanical core’s showcased crystal, small LCD screens were arrayed in a form that made little sense to Yeojin. The information they displayed made even less sense. The only thing Yeojin could understand was one that seemed to designate its remaining amount of battery life, as indicated by repeated scrolling text which an electronic tone announced through small holes hiding an internal speaker.

“Charge remaining: sixty percent.”

Through a small circular opening in the center of the crystal’s protective glass, Jinsol’s strike of lightning surged outwards. It manifested straight from the golden stone and accurately struck its smaller counterpart on the side of her compact wide-form pistol. With the release of its finely directed bolt, Yeojin watched the scrolling numbers of Jinsol’s power indicator drop steadily to fifty-eight percent.

Like a well-oiled machine receiving new instructions, the sides and top of Jinsol’s pistol instantly began to expand outwards. In no time flat, it had reversed its mesmerizing self-applied metamorphosis. Her industrial sword of makeshift scrap iron began to revert in unison with her gun, undergoing a hasty bout of reconstruction back into the rifle’s collapsible stock which she quickly reattached.

Though she had already seen the transformative capabilities of Jinsol’s weaponry several times in the past few minutes alone, Yeojin was as dumbstruck as she was the first time she witnessed it. 

“I still can’t wrap my head around it. A transforming gun powered by...whatever the hell that thing on her chest is. Reminds me of Iron Man’s arc reactor,” Yeojin mused to herself in curiosity. “I swear, if she goes all the way and brings out a full suit or something...”

“Yeojin, what’s an Iron Man? Is that something from your world? Earth, was it?”

Yeojin blinked upon hearing Yerim’s question. She scratched her head pensively as her eyes began to wander in thought. “Yeah, uh...Iron Man is...well, he’s kind of…”

Yerim tilted her head with confusion, her attention captured by Yeojin’s loss of words. The girl of wind eventually gave up, incapable of summarizing an answer far more detailed than Yerim could’ve anticipated. “I’ll explain it some other time, I promise. If I talk about him, I’ll end up talking about the Marvel Cinematic Universe and how Endgame made me cry and then I’ll basically never shut up.”

Their attention resettling onto the ongoing battle, Yeojin’s focus shifted to the heated engagement between Sooyoung and her second adversary.

Repeated sounds of blades striking against blades echoed throughout the arena as Jinsol distanced herself from the pair. A furious bout of close-quarters combat was raging between Sooyoung and a younger black haired magus. Standing a head shorter than the woman of ice, her wavy locks swept wildly as she met the Master sorceress’ steel with her own to an almost rhythmic beat. Between each strike, manifested odd eyes of frozen sky blue and charged gold peered at one another with immense focus.

With eyes trained on the younger girl’s sword, Yeojin was in continued disbelief as she took in the sight of it.

Bearing a blade measuring longer than most at just over two and a half feet, she held it with both hands evenly spaced on the handle. Forged with a moderate inward curve along its steel, the single-edged sword had a bright yellow wavelike ridge present along the length of the blade. It’s hilt was made of interwoven black leather and gold fabric, decorated with what appeared to be eight lines of glass tubing which circled the handle. Shaped like vials, they were partially embedded into the hilt and were filled with cloudy colored substances.

Yeojin was left particularly surprised as she watched the girl match Sooyoung’s strikes with relative equality. “With how quickly Sooyoung can swing a greatsword that huge, I can’t say I expected a katana to be an even matchup against her, but Heejin’s really making it work…”

“Look at where Heejin is deliberately trying to make their swords meet.”

Hyunjin’s point of interest was silently absorbed by Yeojin and Yerim. Their focus shifting to Heejin’s movements, they studied them in great detail.

Heejin was paying clear attention to her footing as she and Sooyoung stepped in and out of each other’s range with each hit. She appeared to be exercising due caution in landing each of her slashes specifically towards the end of Sooyoung’s greatsword. Sooyoung’s physical strength clearly eclipsed Heejin’s, but with vigilant spacing and deft swordplay, the Intermediate sorceress was preventing herself from becoming overpowered by any single strike.

“Oh, I understand, now!” Yerim affirmed with a nod and a smile. “With a weapon that large, the weight of Sooyoung’s slashes is mostly placed on the bottom half of her sword. By striking closer to the tip, Heejin can deflect it much more easily!”

“That’s why Jinsol lost the clash just now when she had her sword and pistol, then,” Yeojin realized. “She met Sooyoung’s greatsword in the middle. If you’re not as physically strong as Sooyoung, that’s a death sentence. So she had to fire that shot...”

“Spacing is everything,” Hyunjin summarized the brief lesson. There was a subtle seriousness in her voice as she advised her juniors. “You have to know where to strike. Don’t ever forget that.” 

With her comrade fast approaching on the enemy’s flank, Heejin broke away from her dance of iron against Sooyoung.

Pulling back from their clashes with a backwards hop, Heejin landed firmly on her feet as her left hand grabbed hold of something affixed to her waist. It was the opening of her katana’s black leather sheath, decorated with woven gold fabric much like her blade’s hilt. She brought her sword to her waist and carefully ran its flat edge along the scabbard’s opening before sliding it in, sheathing it in a single fluid motion.

With her left thumb on her katana’s crossguard, Heejin curiously twisted the blade’s hilt with her sword hand two times in quick succession. Through hidden machinery veiled beneath its form, the hilt rotated in place with both twists, a loud clicking sound audible each time. With the rotation of her sword's handle, the order of the embedded glass tubes shifted accordingly, moving with the hilt until Heejin suddenly reversed her motion.

A backwards twist of Heejin’s hand forced her hilt’s moving mechanisms to a stop. With its cessation, the sunken vial now right under her thumb rose ever so slightly. An open end was revealed, and with a flash of stunning gold from Heejin’s odd eye, the substance within flew outwards.

Dense verdant dust escaped the confines of its cylindrical prison. The pre-converted wind-based mana at Heejin’s command spread outwards by her will, breaking up into pockets that occupied the air around the three of them. Collectively manifesting with her breath, each cloud of jade burst with a small flash of light as roughly a dozen runic circles of wind materialized.

A silent exhale from Heejin brought forth a small cloud of her natural golden mana. The dust didn’t evolve further into an effect of any sort, instead rapidly moving into the emptied tube from her sword’s hilt. Refilled at capacity, Heejin pulled back on her katana’s twistgrip once more. It made another clicking noise as the replenished vial sank back down into its housing, locking into place.

In the next moment, a cacophony of gunfire and clanging iron exploded through the gymnasium.

Keen not to give Heejin even one more second of respite, Sooyoung’s offense resumed with the abrupt expansion of ice beneath her feet. Icy frost burst forwards and upwards, solidifying into a small spire which launched her into the air with sudden acceleration. Heejin unsheathed her blade in the nick of time, mere moments away from having her barrier viciously slashed into from above by her senior’s behemoth of a sword.

From Sooyoung’s side, a mobile Jinsol took precise aim at her target with burst-fire rounds. Heejin and Sooyoung’s clash of swords wasn’t interrupted as Sooyoung’s somewhat damaged shield glossed over her body. Each golden bullet collapsed inwards on itself as they crashed into the already cracked reflective light protecting Sooyoung, falling to the ground with unceremonious clinks. 

Despite the lack of immediate damage, Jinsol continued her mission of applying further pressure to Sooyoung’s barrier. She slid to a stop and brought herself down to one knee, bringing her sights to sections of Sooyoung’s barrier which were now suffering the most critical levels of damage. Her experienced marksmanship proved sensational as she continued to land shot after shot even in spite of Sooyoung’s ongoing movements against Heejin.

Yeojin winced at the sight of Sooyoung’s protective coat of light becoming more and more fractured with each of Jinsol’s well-aimed shots. “Jinsol might only be doing chip damage, but it’s really been adding up over time. At this rate, it’s gonna be enough…”

The girl of wind didn’t see the smirk which accompanied Hyunjin’s response from behind her. “Don’t be so sure about that.”

With her barrier nearing extinction, Sooyoung’s eyes narrowed as she enacted a plan which her sparring partners failed to calculate.

Pivoting on her heel as she broke away from Heejin, a noiseless exhale from the woman of ice brought to life another instant expansion of frost from beneath her. Launched into the air, she now had her sights once again set on Jinsol. The speed of the maneuver left Jinsol with little opportunity to do more than a quick panicked somersault out of harm’s way. 

Safely avoiding the sudden attack, Jinsol made quick sense of Sooyoung’s abrupt shift in targets the moment she touched ground.

Sooyoung’s quarry was not Jinsol herself. It was a sizable runic circle of light which she had swiftly coalesced behind Jinsol from a barely held breath in the middle of her leaping approach. She cleaved it in two with her descent, her greatsword slamming into the floor’s barrier beneath her. With the bisection of her converted circle, Sooyoung’s odd eye flashed.

From the resulting mana, a mixture of effects simultaneously broke free. A series of chains manifested themselves with haste and shot themselves upwards into the air. Meanwhile, a solid phosphorescent ring took shape around Sooyoung’s waist. Pouring warm light outwards, the barrier runes inscribed upon Sooyoung’s burgundy tank top and black jeans glowed faintly as they absorbed the light.

Hurried footsteps came about in response to the gradual healing of Sooyoung’s extensively damaged shield. It was Heejin, bearing a markedly focused look in her mixed hues. Through her tightened grip on her katana’s hilt, she exhibited barefaced determination as she sought to interrupt Sooyoung’s defensive tactics. 

Despite the onset of a frenzied offense from Heejin, Sooyoung remained perfectly still as she approached. Calm and unbothered, the swordswoman held her greatsword over her shoulder and pocketed her other hand. Eyes wandering between the approaching Heejin and a cautious Jinsol, Sooyoung showed a faint smile as Jinsol seemingly came to understand her weirdly relaxed demeanor. 

“Heejin, wait!”

“We’re this close, Jinsol! Don’t let her heal back up!”

In the same moment Heejin brought her sword down against Sooyoung alongside her shouted proclamation, a veritable rush of gale force winds halted her assault.

Planting her feet as hard as she could against the ground, Heejin brought her eyes up and strained to look through the gusts whipping against her. She caught a glimpse of the source of the ill-timed localized windstorm—it was her own runic circles of air she had set up prior, all of them prematurely broken at once by Sooyoung’s multiple chains of light.

Ongoing streams of battering winds continued to divert themselves around Sooyoung, pushing harder and harder against Heejin. Jinsol wasn’t spared either, struggling to stand her ground against the fierce turbulence as she stood back up. All the while, Sooyoung took a leisurely breath, recollecting herself as her lustrous ring of healing continued to restore her shield’s vitality.

With heavy focus on Heejin’s winds purposefully avoiding Sooyoung, the inquisitiveness burning within Yerim escaped her. The lavender-haired girl leaned forward, watching the scene closely with her elbows propped on her lap. “Why isn’t the wind hitting Sooyoung? It’s being aimed specifically at Heejin and Jinsol. It shouldn’t be possible to assume control over another magus’ mana or effect…”

“I think it’s more that Sooyoung knew what kind of effect was contained in the circles,” Yeojin offered as a possibility, tilting her head with wonder. “Well, she can’t be psychic...maybe she didn’t know, but she had a really strong hunch?”

“A good lesson in what happens when you let yourself get too comfortable.”

Hyunjin’s response brought the Neophytes’ eyes to her. Sitting up properly, Hyunjin wore something of a proud smile as she leaned back and crossed her bandaged arms across her yellow shirt. “I told you this wasn’t the first time these two have specifically challenged Sooyoung. Think it’s the first time Sooyoung’s ever seen Heejin set up a bunch of wind-based effect containers like that?”

“So they’ve used this strategy in the past, then,” Yerim inferred. “But what sort of tactic would involve pushing yourself away instead of your opponent?”

“A defensive one,” Yeojin deduced with a nod. “I think they were meant to be triggered at a distance by Jinsol if Sooyoung cornered either of them. I can’t imagine any other reason Heejin would set something up that only served to distance them with that kind of force.”

“Heejin and Jinsol are well aware of Sooyoung’s weakness to wind, though,” Yerim contested, struggling to make sense of the duo’s play. “Knowing that, why would they utilize it for defense instead of offense?”

“Because that’s exactly the obvious plan you would expect, isn’t it? And if a Neophyte elementalist would expect it, don’t you think a Master would, too?”

Yerim found herself submitting to Hyunjin’s claim as she listened to her continued response. 

“Sometimes, avoiding and countering offensive tactics involving your weak point can be way easier than breaking through a defense built around it,” Hyunjin lectured. “Using your enemy’s weak point in a defensive way to protect yourself can prove more effective than trying to hit them with it. In a way, it’s a mixup. A pretty good one, at that. Like any mixup, though, overuse it and—”

“—it’s not a mixup anymore.”

Hyunjin was surprised to hear Yeojin finish her train of thought for her. Looking to the Neophyte, Hyunjin smiled as she watched a high level of understanding take root in her expression. Her sights trained on the cool and collected Sooyoung, Yeojin nodded to herself as the swordswoman fully recharged her barrier in peace.

“Of course there’s no way Sooyoung could’ve known what kind of effect Heejin was storing in those effect containers,” Yeojin suggested, “but the more they get comfortable with a tactic and the more they rely on it, the easier it is to guess when they might be going for it. It’s even more obvious if it looks the same every time. So yeah, it was a risk, but it was a calculated one, and it paid off. She knew it was coming so she baited them and used their own effect against them.”

“Huh...well, . Didn’t expect such an expert breakdown from a fresh Neophyte. Good stuff, Yeojin,” Hyunjin praised her junior, complete with a rather enthusiastic pat on her back. “Calculating a risk, making educated guesses, mixing up your opponent...all good things to keep in mind, no matter who or what you’re up against.”

“Yeojin, where did you learn that?” Yerim asked with boundless interest. “That wasn’t brought up in any of our lessons…”

“Street Fighter and Super Smash Brothers, I guess?” Yeojin half-answered with a shrug. “Lame as it might sound, years of experience with fighting games suddenly became relevant when I had to start actually fighting things in real life.”

Before Yerim could press her interest with further questions, a stern declaration from Sooyoung cut her short.

“You guys lose some points for thinking I’d fall for that wind defense a third time. Otherwise, good hustle. Anyway, no point in dragging this out any further.”

Following Sooyoung’s words, a wave of force erupted from her center. 

Though Heejin’s winds had come to their end a second before, the two electric sorceresses were left to stand their ground against the cascading blast which exploded from within Sooyoung. They were rooted in place as it passed, and when it did, Jinsol grimaced. “. Here we go...”

Across the gymnasium, a serene Sooyoung stood with her hands in her pockets and her greatsword stabbed into the ground in front of her. Surrounding her body were three massive runic circles of frost, several feet in diameter and composed of an abnormally excessive amount of their glyphic symbols. 

With Sooyoung’s frame acting as their center, the three circles began to spin in place while dense roads and bridges of her cyan mana came to life around her. They connected the circles to each other, growing thicker by the second and gradually covering the area around Sooyoung in a thin veil of dust.

“It’s getting late,” Sooyoung said plainly, her breaths noticeably producing more mana than she was breathing in. The circles set about her were rapidly picking up in speed, now spinning with haste. “I’m gonna wrap this up now.”

“Uh...what’s happening?” Yeojin inquired from the sidelines, sounding halfway between nervous and stupefied. Feeling the temperature in the room drop, Yeojin’s teeth began to chatter. With her sensitivity to cold quickly resulting in bodily shivers, she zipped up her open orange hoodie and hugged herself. “More importantly, why the hell is it freezing all of a sudden?!”

Yerim was equally mystified. “Hyunjin, what is Sooyoung doing...?”

“Gonna close it like this, huh, Soo?” Hyunjin remarked quietly with a wide grin and growing excitement. “Buckle up, kids. Things are gonna get wild.”

From the edge of the arena, Jinsol rushed to Heejin’s front. Raising her firearm, she steadied her sights on Sooyoung, but ultimately bit her tongue and held off. Behind her, Heejin was experiencing a similar sort of silent frustration.

“Jinsol, what do we do?” Heejin asked quietly. Her hands were trained on her sheathed katana, eager to act. “Can’t we interrupt this?”

“Not a smart move,” Jinsol answered with a shake of her head. “She’s got way too much mana at her disposal now. No telling what she’d do if we just ran in...this just became a battle of endurance.”

“Then what’s the play…?”

“Blue Betta, system check.”

“Charge remaining: fifty-five percent. System-wide operations: all green. Overclock sustainable.”

“Alright. That’s the play.”

Heejin bit her lip at the electronic voice stemming from Jinsol’s mechanical harness, hesitant at the implication made by Jinsol’s inquiry to it. “Are you sure about this, Jinsol? Shouldn’t we hold back and focus on evasive healing?”

“We won’t last long enough,” Jinsol dismissed the notion. “I’m gonna have to do it if we have any hope of holding her off. I was saving it for this possibility, anyway. So, Heejin—”

“Time’s up.”

Paired with a burst of light from her greatsword, Sooyoung’s voice cut the duo’s impromptu planning short.

At the other end of the arena, Sooyoung grabbed hold of her blade. The entirety of it was bathed in luminescent cyan as she lifted it out of the ground. The runes etched into its steel emitted mana which fed into the paths of dust connecting Sooyoung’s circles, adding to their density.

Sooyoung wore an expression of disturbingly tranquil calm as her odd eye flashed one final time in unison with her greatsword. The hue of her altered iris overtook the white sclera surrounding it, breaking free and illuminating the entirety of her eye with a sea of brilliant bright blue.

The three runic containers which encompassed her now spinning faster than ever before, an exhale from Sooyoung brought them to a collective stop. Following her breath with a sweeping inhale, Sooyoung took in the remainder of the massive amount of her mana around her, clearing the area as her circles vanished into nothing.

When the light pouring forth from her weapon died down, Yeojin and Yerim both noticed it.

Though it appeared to be largely the same, Sooyoung’s greatsword now had indented horizontal lines across its center which spanned its width across the length of the blade. There were more runes imprinted upon its surface than before, and its edge was seeped in shining frost.

“Best of luck.”

Sooyoung’s well wishes were followed by a torrential downpour of ice.

In a manner which rightfully dumbfounded her Neophyte spectators, the Master sorceress had just shattered a horizontally floating effect container of her own creation high in the air from her position on the ground. The altered form of Sooyoung’s greatsword made instant sense as she lashed at the air above her with it, revealing its apparently upgraded capabilities.

With her slashing motion, Sooyoung’s sword had disengaged into separated sections, breaking apart in segments denoted by the indentations running across it. Connected by a thick blue wire at its center, Yeojin’s eyes shot wide open in surprise as she watched Sooyoung’s heaving slab of frozen steel effectively become a long distance whip.

Her elevated effect container pierced by her swordwhip’s extended tip, Sooyoung’s refulgent eye of submerged frost flashed harshly as a storm of sharpened icicles began to rain down towards her adversaries. 

Substantial in size and plentiful in quantity, Yerim was more confused than amazed as to how Sooyoung was producing such an extreme amount of projectiles from a single runic circle. They formed themselves instantly and continuously as they shot down with tremendous speed, inciting Heejin and Jinsol to act quickly without preparation.

Breaking off in different directions, the two sorceresses sprinted with urgency as Sooyoung’s furious hailstorm continued to track them down without mercy. Jinsol was left unable to run and gun as Sooyoung’s aerial assault refused to let up, forcing her to move at top speed lest she suffer immense damage. With her ranged support unavailable to assist Heejin, Sooyoung made her move.

Bursting forward into her own hurried sprint, Yeojin and Yerim couldn’t help but take keen notice of how much quicker Sooyoung was moving. There was an almost astronomical increase in her general speed as she ran perpendicular to Heejin, closing the distance between herself and the Intermediate sorceress in an instant.

With only a few feet separating them, Sooyoung released the length of her swordwhip with a swift cut of the air in front of her. Effectively cornered with the arena’s walls to her flank and front and with no time to think, Heejin could only act on instinct. Clenching her teeth, she unsheathed her sword and struck back in kind, bringing it down against Sooyoung’s incoming steel.

“Damn it…!”

In a standoff heavily against her favor, Heejin found herself stuck in place as Sooyoung coiled half of her segmented iron around the length of her katana. Trapped in a contest of strength, Heejin braced herself and exerted as much force as she could muster against Sooyoung’s attempt to disarm her. 

From her comfortably advantageous position, Sooyoung maintained a clear supremacy in physical might as she gradually pulled up against Heejin’s grip. Unable to move, Heejin was helpless as Sooyoung’s icicles began to crash against her back and sides, digging into her manifested barrier. Earlier damage began to spread like wildfire, the force of Sooyoung’s attacks evidently more substantial than before.

With projectiles still chasing after her, Jinsol was left without an answer as she watched her partner succumb to the arctic ascendance of Sooyoung’s frozen brawn.

In the selfsame moment that Sooyoung wrested Heejin’s katana away from her, the younger girl’s shield experienced total collapse with a final icicle striking her back. With impeccably synchronous timing, Sooyoung’s cancellation of her hailstorm coincided with the gradual dissipation of Heejin’s barrier and weapon, preventing the young sorceress from undue harm.

A blaring buzzer sounded off across the gymnasium. With an exasperated sigh, Heejin closed her eyes and fell over backwards. Sprawled out on the floor, she shook her head to herself. “Jeez...I’ve still gotta figure out an answer for that…”

“Hey.”

Opening her eyes, Heejin was met with the sight of Sooyoung kneeling towards her with an extended hand and a genuine smile. 

“Overall, I’d say you handled yourself pretty damn well. Nice work.”

Taking her senior’s hand, Heejin rose to her feet with Sooyoung’s assistance. She was left speechless for a moment as she stared into Sooyoung’s overtaken odd eye, her body shivering with a terrible chill as a result of merely standing next to her. “Thanks, Sooyoung. I’ll, uh...I’ll get to the sidelines.”

With a slight bow towards Sooyoung, Heejin scurried to the far end of the arena. She gave Jinsol a remorseful look of apology before fully exiting the battlefield, though the Adept sorceress’ smile of encouragement deemed it unnecessary.

A portion of the glass wall separating the spectators from the battleground had receded into the floor, allowing Heejin passage to the stands. Finding the others, she took a seat next to Hyunjin as the glass quickly shot back up, sealing Sooyoung and Jinsol back in.

As opposed to Yeojin’s continued state of disbelief, Yerim was able to pull her eyes off of Sooyoung’s mystical transformation long enough to acknowledge Heejin as Hyunjin spoke to her. “What’d we learn?”

“Guess I’m getting predictable,” Heejin lamented with a pout. 

“You sure are,” Hyunjin agreed with a teasing laugh. “Good learning experience, though. You taught these two a nice lesson.”

“It just worked so well before,” Heejin stated adamantly. “I couldn’t have imagined she’d ever do something like triggering my effect containers herself. Then her going Absolute was just icing on the cake. I still don’t know how to win against that...”

“Absolute?” Yerim parroted. “Does that have something to do with—”

Yerim’s question was interrupted by a single buzzer sounding off again, signaling the recommencement of the duel. With it, Jinsol’s voice echoed throughout the gymnasium.

“Blue Betta, execute command line zero-six-one-three-one-nine-nine-seven.”

“Instructions received. Preparations underway. Releasing limiters.”

“Like I said earlier, Jinsol, it’s getting late.”

In a show of confidence, Sooyoung lashed the air in front of her with her blade. Its chained segments linked up back together, returning it to its complete form. Holding it over her shoulder, she turned around and directed a small sigh towards her remaining opponent. “Sure you wanna go for this?”

“Only other choice is to accept defeat and give up,” Jinsol replied. Equipped with an open smirk, her tone was purely pertinacious. “Ever see me do something like that, Sooyoung?”

“Nope,” Sooyoung conceded, a wry smile showing itself on her face. “Not once in our damn lives.”

Her focus shifting to the Jinsol’s mechanical harness, she gave her an understanding nod as meters and bars on its displays suddenly grew in length, quickly filling to their new maximums. One display in specific showcased a transcription of the markswoman’s cryptic instructions, reading 0-6-1-3-1-9-9-7.  “For better or for worse, calling it quits just isn’t something you would ever do...alright, then.”

“Operational voltage exceeded. Emergency cooling activated.” 

From the central crystal encased in Jinsol’s chestpiece, sparks began to crackle. 

The hairs on Jinsol’s arms and neck started to rise as static electricity began to encompass her body, visible bolts of lightning flashing around her. Loud, almost violent sounds of hissing steam came forth from her gun and central core alike. Jinsol could feel her hands and chest growing hotter as the internal components of her equipment swiftly rose in temperature, but her composed countenance didn’t falter.

“Really gonna sit there and let me bust it out?” Jinsol questioned with a cocky grin. The electricity surrounding her frame was multiplying fast, her body now practically shrouded in a coat of lightning.

“Yeah, why not? It’s not often we both go all out like this. Besides, I’m doing you a favor,” Sooyoung reasoned with a shrug and a smile of her own. “I’m betting you really want to show this off to Yeojin.”

Out of the corner of her eyes, Jinsol could see a thoroughly bewildered Yeojin nearly pressed up against the glass. With a small wink to the girl of wind, Jinsol’s smile widened as she looked back to Sooyoung. “Impressing newbies and looking cool is part of the fun sometimes, isn’t it?”

“Should’ve expected that from you, Jinsol. You really never change.”

“Thermals stabilized. System-wide operations: all green.”

The smile on Sooyoung’s face faded as Jinsol’s central crystal began to discharge stray electricity with a subdued burst of light.

“Overclock initialization standby.”

The static bolts encompassing the Adept sorceress’ body continued to intensify as her fingers found the smaller gemstone slotted into the side of her rifle. Removing it from the firearm, she held it in front of her with an extended hand. 

“Blue Betta, Type Zero.”

“Affirmative.” 

Jinsol’s smirk grew especially playful as a bridge of arc lightning took shape between her two crystals. 

“Mode shift calibrated.”

Sooyoung tensed up as both of Jinsoul’s golden cores began to glow in unison. Her knuckles going white, she tightened her grip on her greatsword and steadied her breathing.

“Final security check. Awaiting voice signature confirmation.”

“Execute overclo—”

The sudden eruption of an especially loud buzzing siren slashed through Jinsol’s voice and smile alike.

The sorceresses scanned the area with puzzled looks as the glass walls of the arena began to glow faintly. The numerous runic circles spread across them were emitting mana, their shields automatically deactivating with the advent of their slow ascent back up into the ceiling. 

“Sorry to interrupt.”

A voice from the end of the gymnasium brought forth attention to its source. It was a gray-haired woman with fatigue caked into her eyes. Having just come out of the stairwell leading to the floor, she closed the circuit breaker on the wall she had operated to force the duel to a stop.

“Jungeun...?”

Jinsol was the first to speak. Confusion took hold of her as her rifle, core, and harness all quickly dissipated, her unchanging odd eye of gold curiously taking in the sight of Jungeun’s equally mixed hues. “When did you get back?”

“More importantly, did something happen?”

Sooyoung’s voice followed. She approached next, her transformation still active as her overtaken cyan eye peered at Jungeun. “You wouldn’t have stopped us otherwise. Is everything alright?”

Jungeun didn’t reply immediately. She held her breath for a moment as the four spectators left the stands, coming forward to join one by one. As they approached, Jungeun’s gaze wandered back to Sooyoung’s still transformed eye. The sight of it seemed to strike Jungeun with some form of visible grief, something Sooyoung took instant notice of through Jungeun’s slight frown.

“Jungeun?”

“It’s Sunmi,” Jungeun stated quietly, preemptively deflecting further questioning. “We got back a little while ago. We brought back a group of five, and—”

“Five? Seriously?!”

“Way to go, Jungeun!”

“I didn’t expect your team to be the first ones to bring back rescues, Jungeun! No wonder you guys took so long to come back!”

“—Sunmi wants to introduce everyone, so she’s asking for everyone in her office,” Jungeun interrupted cheers from Heejin, Hyunjin, and Jinsol, stepping back as they came closer to her. Sooyoung tilted her head slightly as Jungeun rubbed her forearm. “Like, right now.”

“Well...best not to keep her waiting then, I guess,” Jinsol admitted quietly, uncertain of what to make of Jungeun’s distant aura. “But, uh, Jungeun...are you feeling alright?”

“I’m fine. Just tired. Been a long day,” Jungeun claimed. Turning around, she pushed the door to the stairwell open and held it for the others. “The sooner this is over, the sooner I can get to bed. So, if we could, y’know...go.”

A slow round of nods came in response. Jinsol went through first, with Heejin quickly catching up behind her and taking hold of her hand. Hyunjin followed, leading Yerim up the stairs. Yeojin proceeded next, but found herself stopping in the doorway as her eyes were glued to Sooyoung. 

Yeojin’s focus was intently set upon Sooyoung’s fully luminescent odd eye, and with the opportunity finally presented to her, she sought answers. Before she could, however, Sooyoung spoke first, predicting the curious Neophyte’s inquiries.

“We’ll talk later, Yeojin. Go on ahead. We’re right behind you.”

Silent acceptance was all Yeojin could respond with. Turning back around, the girl of wind became enveloped in a gentle veil of swirling air which lifted her off the ground. At her behest, her winds carried her up the stairs in an attempt to quickly catch up with the others.

“What happened?”

The room cleared of all except for the women of ice and fire, Sooyoung spoke up once again. The cold chill seeping out from her being continued incessantly, causing Jungeun to quiver in discomfort. “Do you really still need to be in that form, Sooyoung? Duel’s over. Can you give it a rest already…?”

Though it was more than likely an unintentional side effect of her weary state, Jungeun’s comment was laced in annoyance so slight that Sooyoung almost missed it. Unsure of what to make of her comrade’s tone and her continued avoidant demeanor, Sooyoung exhaled slowly.

With the steady disappearance of her swordwhip, Sooyoung’s odd eye returned to its normal state. “If you need to talk about anything, Jungeun, I’ll listen.”

“Sunmi’s waiting, Sooyoung.”

Jungeun had lifted her head again, looking the taller girl directly in the eyes. She held her glance for a moment before motioning to the stairs with her head. “Should get a move on.”

In an awkward situation of wishing to understand whatever underlying problem was currently plaguing Jungeun but not wanting to press more than she should, Sooyoung temporarily relented and proceeded into the stairwell with a silent nod. 

Jungeun sighed upon finally being freed from questioning. Regardless of well-meaning intentions, the spearwoman was more exhausted than she could care to describe. In truth, with more errant thoughts assaulting her mind than she could count, she wasn’t even sure where she would have begun.

With a slam more forceful than she intended, Jungeun shut the door behind her and went after her allies with heavy footsteps.