A few moments earlier in a coliseum waiting room, Kai was resting her head on Ruby's lap, as Ruby and Sophia were sitting on a bench. Kai let out a quiet monotone yawn as Sophia ruffled Kai's hair.

"I wish Star could be like this when she isn't sick," Ruby remarked as she was looking at the wall-mounted monitor displaying the sixteen contestants(as playing cards) that are participating in the tournament.

"It's a shame the roster for this year's tournament is so slim but things like this happened every now and then," the super tall, muscular, dark-skinned male, with long dark royal blue hair, pale greys eyes with no pupils and wearing light cyan desert dweller leggings, boots, a white skin-tight tanktop, long dark blue scarf and a dawnite gauntlet on his right wrist, remarked. The giant continued to stare at the monitor as Kikou appeared on half of the screen.

"Ooh~ seems like the tournament is starting," Ruby remarked as Kikou began to speak; While Kikou and Kiki started to bicker on the monitor, a tall lanky, yet somehow still lean, dark purple male oni with super long grey hair with dark purple tips, purple eyes and wearing biker style gangster clothing entered the waiting room. The oni rubbed his eyes and strolled over to the giant.

"You sure took your time, Helios," the giant remarked as the oni yawned and picked up the two large-bladed axes next to the giant.

"I had to run an errand, Trikore, but things must be dire if they're letting kids... well a kid participate," Helios stated, causing Kai's ears to aggressively twitch and Trikore chuckled to himself.

"Remember the last time you commented on someone looking like a kid in this tournament?" Trikore rhetorically asked as Helios rolled his eyes at the question.

"It wasn't my fault that four-hundred-year-old elder seraph looked like a ten-year-old," Helios stated. The cards on the monitor flipped over and shuffled together before splitting into eight pairs of two. The contestants watched as the first pair rose and revealed the first fight was between Kai and Helios as Kikou announced it.

"What are the chances..." Helios said slightly sombrely, with Trikore sneaking a quick grin.

"Knowing your luck, someone might have it out for you," Trikore snarked as the duo glanced over at Ruby and Sophia before being slightly surprised when they didn't see Kai anywhere, not even after looking around the entire waiting room. Helios sighed defeatedly and walked towards the exit of the room.

"Let's hope she's more benevolent than the supreme guild master," Helios joked as he left the room.

Meanwhile, Chronia smugly grinned and quietly let out a sinister snicker as she rubbed her hands together.

"Are you still bitter over him calling you a ten-year-old?" Zalkutaro asked telepathically. Chronia opened her eyes and spotted Zalkutaro standing on the other side of the coliseum's roof before Kunai waved at Chronia.

"Of course not... he made a remark towards Zalka so he deserved some punish- retribution... wait no instant karma," Chronia replied telepathically. Zalkutaro amusedly sighed causing Chronia to huff and pout.

"Call it whatever you like it still seems petty to me," Zalkutaro stated. Chronia stuck her tongue out at Zalkutaro(which he could see her do) while wrapping her arms around Zalroth's neck and waking him up.

"Zalroth you're cool-dude half is calling me petty, could you say something to fix this injustice plz?" Chronia pleaded as she rubbed her cheek against the face of the still-dazed Zalroth.

"you're very... re..." Zalroth managed to say before falling back asleep.

"Wow... he managed to say two full words before falling back asleep," Nola snarked before eating a curly potato chip from her chip bag. Zallino asked Chronia if she'd like him to wake Zalroth up; Chronia shook her head but told him to wake them up when Ruby and Sophia face off before she rested her head on Zalroth's arm and fell asleep.

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"It's almost impressive how in tune with each other they are," Xelphia mentioned as she stood on Zalkutaro''s head. Zalkutaro sighed and mentioned it's bound to happen when two people have been around each other for such a long time.

"Oh, Chronia mentioned that you were in your humanoid form, in her future vision," Zalkutaro mentioned as he sat down and began to meditate; Xelphia nodded her head and hopped off Zalkutaro's head. Her body glowed bright pink before her body morphed and increased in size.

The glow faded away revealing Xelphia in her semi-humanoid form(a spider lower half with eight legs and a seven-year-old upper half: with pale white skin to the point it's faintly cyan, spikey maroon with pale pink tips, eight small pale pink spider eyes and two pale pink human eyes with dark pink marks around them) wearing a grey crop top, a pink cardigan and a pink tiara.

Xelphia quickly scuttled to the edge of the coliseum roof and peeked over the edge when the intensity of the crowd's roar skyrocketed.

"It's starting!" Xelphia yelled out as she cheered in unison with the spectators when Kai and Helios walked over to the arena at the centre of the coliseum.

Kai jogged while Helios easily kept up with her by briskly walking as the two made their way to the arena. The two hopped onto the elevated arena and walked over to opposite corners. Kai got into a fighting stance before something crossed her mind; Helios tilted his head as Kai started to pat down her body and scratched her head when she couldn't find whatever she was looking for.

"Forgot something?" Helios inquired as he rested the top of his axes on the ground.

"I forgot my fan..." Kai muttered as she shook her fur coat, with nothing falling out.

"It would appear contestant Zalka has forgotten something... perhaps her weapon," Kikou said from the announcer booth. Vivo quickly flew over to Kikou and whispered into his ear. Kikou said it was okay since Kai's opponent has his weapons. Vivo flew over to Zalroth and dived into his tails.

Kai took her her coat off and violently shook it, making a bunch of different coloured yarn balls fall out of her coat. She quickly covered the yarn balls with her coat before pulling the coat backwards and revealing the yarn balls were gone.

"Looking for this?" Vivo asked as he slowly descended in front of Kai while he held a super long dawnite bo-staff with a ring on one of its ends. Kai rapidly nodded her head as she scrambled to put her coat back on and took the bo-staff from Vivo. Vivo told her to take care before he flew back to the announcer's booth.

"Alright contestant! From the count of three: three... two... one... FIGHT!" Kiki shouted into her mic.

Kai slammed her foot onto the ground and darted for Helios while threading three of her tails through the ring of her bo-staff, as Helios got into a defensive stance. Kai ran directly in front of Helios before darting to the side and swinging her tail at Helios. Helios blocked the strike from Kai's bo-staff with his axe before flinging Kai away.

"I should probably only use my paralysis magic to defeat her," Helio thought as he covered his axe blades in lightning mana. Kai landed on the ground and balanced on her bo-staff as she covered her hands and feet with her condensed orange mana.

Helios charged at Kai and slashed his axes at her; Kai backflipped and opened up her dawnite bo-staff into a comedically large hand fan to block the axes. The area below the hand fan began to glow red. As the hand fan unobscured Kai, Helios abruptly jumped backwards upon laying his eyes on the fireballs in Kai's hands.

Kai smashed the fireballs into each other with such ferocity that they melded together into a single highly concentrated fireball; Kai flexed her arms before unleashing a massive concentrated fire beam that almost entirely encased the arena, save for the space behind Kai. The flames soared through the air before it collided with a magic shield that automatically appeared between the arena and the spectator stands.

Kai's attack eventually died down and she looked down at the arena stage with surprise at the fact it showed no signs of damage. She crouched down and inspected the arena stage before noticing it had a layer of darksteel covering it.

"It sure was a good thing the guild master had you reinforce the arena stage last night, right father," Pink Hika remarked as she and the other Hika's sat on Zuno's shoulder whilst the four of them stared at the arena.

The flames soon subsided revealing Helios standing within a small magic shield, that quickly faded away.

"That seems a little overkill for the first match of the tournament, don't you think?" Helios remarked as he put on a poker face but mentally he had a completely different reaction.

"This is a complete repeat of last year; I mean the guild master made sense to be freakishly strong but this kid is literally a child!" the shock Helios shouted in his head.

"Right...?" Helios added as he reconsidered his preconceptions of Kai's age.

Kai pondered if she wasn't restraining herself correctly since she only intended to push Helios back while she imagined herself making a super-condensed fireball before firing it at Helios and pushing him away in her head. Kai sighed in annoyance as she raised her head and slapped the sides of her head; she flexed her arms and stretched her legs along with her tails before getting into a combative stance and rushing for Helios.