As soon as Hayato sent out his signal, his team moved into action. The meaning of this signal was clear. As they were setting up their strategy, Hayato had informed them of the need for a signal just in case things went south. "Simply enough, should the plan be thrown into disarray for any reason, I'll send out the signal."

"The signal being?" Jayden asked.

"I'll set off a controlled explosion that will travel down through the floors. That's what I've been doing right now." Hayato said as he stood up from the pipe he was tinkering with. "Once you receive the signal, it basically means that the plan has gone to shit, and to do whatever you think is best.

Kayden looked unimpressed. "That's your big backup strategy?"

"Don't complain, lackey."

The room chilled considerably.

"Who are you calling a lackey?"

"Just get in position."

In the present, Kayden smiled to himself as the signal went off. "Just get in position huh?" Standing in front of him was Touka. Currently, she couldn't move, due to the fact that her feet were encased in ice, as well as the entire staircase. But it wouldn't last.

She easily sliced the ice away with her Katana. "Magic will have no effect this deep." She slowly began to walk down the stairs, holding her 75 cm katana out to her side, letting it scrape against the wall. "Fortunately for me, I don't rely on magic."

"Are you insinuating that I do?" Kayden allowed the ice under them to crack, as he waited for Touka to get closer. Once she was on the third step from the bottom, Kayden allowed the ice to shatter completely, revealing the trap he had set. Multiple ice stalactites that had been hanging on the ceiling came down. Touka sliced through them easily with her sword, and it was followed up immediately with a spike of ice that Kayden fired.

Touka jumped out of the way, and as she landed on the ground, another spike of ice shot out immediately. She barely managed to spring back up and unto another spot on the ground before another one erupted from the ground as well. Noticing the pattern she launched herself into the wall, where the same thing happened. She somersaulted unto the railing, where the endless wave finally ceased.

"This was caused by Emma's ability, wasn't it?"

Kayden nodded, smirking. "The law type magical ability, 'Status Effect.' Able to apply a certain outcome or effect, once a certain condition is met. In this case, if a pressure of over 2 psi is applied to it. Once that happens, a spike of ice will be shot up 6 feet into the air."

"Was there really a need to explain the specifics?"

"Of course there was. I needed to have a villain-like monologue overexplaining my plan."

Touka looked at him with a dead expression. "Unbelievable."

"Unbelievably, badass, right?" Kayden's smirk grew wider.

"Unbelievably idiotic." Suddenly, Touka had teleported directly behind him, and there was a slash on Kayden's chest. She landed on the opposite wall, launching herself back onto the railing in what seemed like an instant. Another slash appeared on his chest.

"Even with the magic nullification, your ability is just as strong as ever."

"Shame I can't use it to its full extent. If I don't unsheathe my blade, I cant cut." Touka re entered into the attack position, her hand on the hilt of her sword, and her stance wide.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

"You'll regret not aiming for the neck." Kayden jokes.

"If I really wanted to kill you, you'd be bleeding out right now." Touka said without a hint of humor in her voice.

Touka prepared for attack, and Kayden tensed as he prepared to dodge. However, just before Touka launched another attack, a glowing light seemed to flow from her body as some sort of magic was released. Touka froze, as she noticed it. Then, she immediately teleported forward. However Kayden caught this moment of realization on her face, and instantly summoned an ice wall behind him to block her path. Touka landed on it, not allowing her momentum to die and instead using it to pivot on the wall, face Kayden and attack. Kayden jumped out of the way, and attempted to use the same strategy to catch her once again, but once again, she pivoted easily and counterattacked.

She began to bounce off of the two ice walls created, creating a multitude of back and forth slashes at Kayden, who weaved and dodged to the best of his ability. But the attacks were coming at such a frequency that it was impossible to dodge them all.

However, after a few seconds of this, Kayden collapsed one of the ice walls, essentially pulling the seat from under her. Touka flew past, and would've crashed directly into the railing if it wasn't for her fast reaction speed. She barely managed to recover and slide along the railing. This left her completely open to the follow up punch that Kayden landed directly to her side. It sent her straight into the wall, and immediately ice reached out and grabbed her, trapping her against the wall.

Kayden stood on the railing, admiring his handiwork. "Looks like I will win."

Touka, who was unable to make any major movements, smiled. "I guess this is the cliche where the villain thinks they've won but the hero pulls out a secret they've been holding just for this moment."

Kayden's mind paused as he processed what she meant by that. Instantly, his eyes drifted towards her hand, where her katana was still unsheathed. She made the slight movement of flipping it so that the handle faced the ceiling, allowing the sword to completely enter the sheath. As soon as it did, it felt like a separate space was created around the entire corridor, where every single slash that Touka had made with her sword in the last minute was visible. The lingered in the air for a few moments, allowing Kayden to bask in the feeling of horror. And then the space seemed to shatter, and all the previous slashes returned, their power doubled, slicing straight through the entire floor, and sending them crashing down.

* * *

Lucius dodged a kick, before grabbing Raiden's leg and tossing him straight into a group of mirrors. Raiden spun in their air, recovered quickly and launched himself back at Lucius. They clashed once again, and reengaged in hand to hand combat. They were mostly trading blows, Lucius playing defensively, waiting for a chance to counterattack, while Raiden was playing pure offense, not giving Lucius time to do anything but dodge. Raiden aimed a sweep that Lucius jumped over. Raiden immediately followed up by grabbing Lucius' shirt and tossing him straight through the wall. Lucius rolled over the table, grabbing a vial of acid and tossing at Raiden who dodged easily. Raiden vaulted the table and kicked Lucius. Who blocked it and moved to create more distance.

Raiden looked over across the table at Lucius. "This is no fun if you're going to spend the entire time just running away from me. You know that?"

Lucius just smiled. "Who said I was just running?" Suddenly, the ground under Raiden collapsed, and he dropped down another floor. Lucius jumped down immediately and attacked, grabbing Raiden and propelling him into the ground. As soon as Raiden hit the ground he immediately began to roll, as both of them fought to get on top.

Raiden managed to get up, but instantly, Lucius shoved a hand in his face and let off a bright light flash. The magic was weak, but being a point blank attack, it didn't need much strength. Lucius followed up by pushing Raiden off and kicking him. Raiden skidded backwards and rubbed his eyes. Across from him Lucius stood. "You're still just as sneaky as ever." Raiden said with a smile.

"You're just as much of a junkie as ever." Lucius returned with the same smile.

However before their fight could continue the floor above them was destroyed, as Hayato and Alice dropped down, along with Kayden and Touka. Before anyone could react however, Luke threw multiple barrels of gas that Yuka detonated with her flame's. The floor exploded in a vibrant flash of color as the fell down onto the next floor. Debris and smoke rained down onto the next floor. And the next. When they finally stopped falling, they appeared on a completely barren floor. The magic nullification was almost suffocating.

Instantly, a massive blast of wind generated from some sort of massive fan at the end of the long barren corridor cleared the smoke, revealing the situation. At the end of the long corridor was a massive sign and arrow that pointed to the left, reading, 'Basement Floor.'

Akira and Suijin were standing right next to each other, the exit just a hallway down. In their way?

All of the other students.