Mimi callously slashed through the endless waves of ice golems with a large scythe made from water mana, dispatching the golems with such ruthless efficiency it managed to send chills down everyone's spines (including the audience, who loudly cheered from the sensation), aside from Trikore.
"Sheesh, that girl's scary...," Luna muttered nervously as she watched Mimi slaughter the ice golems with a torrent of scythe slashes and yellow Judgement Chains.
"But the scariness is sorta cool though..., right Fifi," Ruby asked awkwardly as her tail fidgeted behind her. Sophia didn't respond to Ruby's question, and the continuous silence rattled through Ruby's nerve-wracked mind; until she couldn't take it anymore, Rudy spun her head to look at Sophia, only to see Sophia was too engrossed with the construction of the tower.
"Oh...," Ruby muttered before figuring she should probably help, followed by her climbing up to the top of the towers and helping Sophia.
On the other team's side of the arena, Storm washed a horde of ice golems away with a wave of water filled with large curved-shaped coral; he raided his staff into the air, encasing it in lightning mana before blasting a storm of lightning bolts into the wave of water and electrifying the ice golems until they shattered. Storm exhaustedly (from mental exhaustion) sighed and glanced over at the other team's side, only to see Mimi massacring two ice golem dragons.
"Now I feel stupid for being glad that Zalka got removed...," Hex muttered as she sat at the top of the tower as Olivia and Trikore were building their team's tower.
"Yeah... I sure hope the boss challenge doesn't include...," Olivia managed to say before Hex placed her hands over Olivia's mouth while telling her not to jinx their situation. As the two were continuing to discuss whether Olivia's words will jinx things, Trikore silently stared upwards at the key lodged in the ceiling.
"I'm sure you'd be able to reach the key if your mage friend stood on your shoulders," Trikore mentioned nonchalantly as he stood on his feet, and raise his gauntlet free arm; he flexed his arm, forcing small spurts of flames to form around his arm before he lowered his arm and aimed it at the ice golems in front of Storm.
Storm clicked his neck and pulled his staff back as royal blue mana began to form around his body; however, the moment Storm was about to attack, a barrage of large fireballs rocketed over Storm and obliterated the ice golems leaving Storm a puzzled goober. Storm heard Olivia calling out to him, and once Storm turned around he was able to make out what Olivia was shouting.
"Storm get your butt up here and help get the key!" Olivia shouted, frantically flailing her arms around as she shouted. Storm, somehow sensing nothing good was going to come from this, let out a pessimistic sigh before he launched himself to the top of the tower using a Water Launch spell (a spell that creates a puddle of water below the target before it blasts upwards like a geyser to propel the target).
Ruby was placing the last tower piece onto her team's tower when in the corner of her eye she spotted Olivia balancing a standing Storm on her shoulders. Ruby signalled to Sophia to get her attention, Sophia peered to her left and spotted what Ruby want her to notice.
"Seems, they had the same idea as Luna," Sophia stated as she stood up, "Ruby.". Ruby nodded before she cupped her hands together, Sophia jumped onto Ruby's hand. Ruby hoisted her hands upwards and balanced Sophia over her. The crowds of cheering spectators watched in nerve-racked anticipation as both teams were moments away from completing the challenge.
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"Here it is folks, we're moments away from seeing which team will go onto the-" Kiki excitedly proclaimed, but was cut off by a massive sun-coloured erupting through the centre of the arena.
"Eh?" Kiki confusedly blurted out, repeatedly blinking as she stared at the massive sun-like blade and wondered what was going on while Kikou couldn't help but stifle his smug smile.
The massive blade splitted apart into multiple long and thin nova-like blades that ripped the ground of the arena stage, avoiding the contestants but not the ice golems until the blades reached the edge of the arena, in a split second. Everyone was left in a state of shock, especially the contestants, as the floor and the arena as a whole shook before ultimately collapsing into a sinkhole. Luna and Hex screamed like crazy as both teams plummeted into the sinkhole, while Ruby and Olivia, respectively, looked at their screaming teammate, wondering why they were screaming given they can fly.
Mimi ducked and weaved through the debris and ducked past the falling debris, racing past the other contestants where Kunai grabbed them with smaller Judgement Chains (red) until she had grabbed everyone aside from Trikore; Mimi jumped off a large bolder and launched, herself, along with the others, and over to Trikore. The moment the group were close to Trikore, he raised his gauntlet over his head before energy erupted from his gauntlet and created a sphere around the contestants and himself. The sphere bounced against the many falling debris until it landed at the bottom of the sinkhole followed by the large falling debris' crashing into the ground.
"I know we're enemies, well opponents, and all, but I'm sure glad you rescued us," Xinia remarked from inside the energy sphere, as it dispersed. Luna was frantically clinging to Ruby while Ruby was clinging to Sophia, who let a disgruntled and embarrassed sigh as she felt Ruby's chest pressing against her back.
"Ruru...," Sophia whispered, her lips twitching as her cheeks turned a faint pink. Ruby immediately jumped off Sophia, along with Luna floating off Ruby at the same time, and apologised for jumping on her.
"Sorry, Fifi; guess my cat instincts got the best of me... heh...," Ruby stated apologetically, to which Sophia said it was not like she need to apologise. Ruby looked a little surprised at Sophia's response before she embarrassedly/nervously scratched her cheek.
"Oh...," Ruby murmured happily.
"So, she really does act like a tsundere after completing their tsundere arc... when she's around her and here I thought you were being hyperbole, Heather," the voice of Zuno remarked callously, making Ruby, Luna, and Xinia freeze. The group slowly turned their heads and were greeted by the silhouettes of Zuno (in his full armoured attire), and four fully armoured and masked kunoichis (Charlotte, Alex, Elizabeth, and Heather) standing on top of a darksteel construct as the light of the sun beamed past them.
Meanwhile, on the flying airship carrier, Callie was giddily and energetically, to the point it was over the top, bounced on the sofa as Zuno was revealed on the TV. Destiny too joined Callie in her Zuno-filled excitement, and her cheering was so infectious that it even made Kara cheer, although it was vastly tamer than Callie or Destiny's cheering.
"Hah! What does your prediction say now? Do you think your purple girl can beat my body pillow?" Callie said confidently as she gave Lumios a smug grin. Lumios cautiously stared at the TV before rubbing his eyes, only stopping when what Callie had said fully sank in.
"Your... what?" Lumios asked perplexedly, as he and everyone in the room turned to look at Callie with puzzled looks. After a split second of thought, Chronia quickly darted her head around, wondering why everyone had gone silent before she looked back at the TV.
"What?" Callie uttered with a genuinely confused tone, whistly she tilted her head and her fox ears twitched from agitation. Providence amusedly chuckled, choosing to rest his chin on the back of his hand as he looked back at the TV.
"I don't know what's more humorous, you not realizing how strange what you said was, or Zuno saying Tsundere with her work voice," Providence chimed, grinning like a fool as he sensed Callie's frustration leaking out of her body. While the older members of the Zelkio Empire talked amongst themselves, Kara narrowed her eyes and focused her vision solely on Mimi and Kunai with an unwavering fixation.