"BEGIN!"

Yami announced the start of the exercise, before vanishing, having gone all the way to the bottom. Even though this was meant to be a race, and time was of the essence, neither of the captains moved, as well as their teams. Suijin, stood above the entrance into the lower floors, staring at Akira.

"I'd be disappointed if you didn't make it to the bottom."

Akira sneered, insulted that Suijin would even suggest her not winning. "Me, fall behind You?"

Without any warning, both of them dashed downwards. Instantly, both of the team members followed. Everyone except for Lucius and Raiden. Lucius yawned, From the moment that Yami had begun to explain the rules, he knew exactly what he was going to do to avoid this. However, what he hadn't expected was for Raiden to also try and skip this exercise.

"Bored?"

Raiden didn't respond, looking down at the entrance into the lower floors of the warehouse. "Are you going to participate in the tournament?" There was a little bit of uncertainty in his voice as he asked the question he had been waiting to ask since the morning. Lucius was slightly caught off guard, but quickly regained his composure before answering,

"Yeah, I a-" Before he could even finish his sentence he was blindsided by a lightning infused punch to the face that sent him crashing down multiple floors. He landed on top of a glass table that shattered underneath him. Debris fell onto his face, as metals and wires from the floor above detached and fell down.

"What the Hell man!" He shouted, as he heard the sound of Raiden dropping down into the room. However Raiden replied in a completely unapologetic tone as he opened the door. "This is a training exercise. Get a move on." The door slammed shut, causing the room to shake a bit. Lucius slowly raised his body from the ground, glass, cracking and pinching him. He used a hand to rub the side of his face Raiden had punched.

"What the hell is that guy's problem? I mean, who goes around just punching people in the middle of a conversation?" Lucius was growing more and more irritated as he thought about it. He couldn't just go back to skipping the exercise now, no way. He had to get Raiden back.

And then he realized that had been Raiden's goal all along.

"Damn that guy."

* * *

Suijin and her teammates were racing down the building as fast as they could, they were mainly using brute force, using their magical abilities to break down floors and other obstacles in their way. As they made their way to the 6th floor down from the center, Jayden spoke up.

"Hey, he didn't tell us how far down the basement floor is, right?"

"No, he didn't." Izumi replied. By this point, the area of skin surrounding her right eye had turned a deep shade of purple.

Jayden nodded. "Then, if it's ok, allow me to use my ability to see how far down we can actually go." Everybody else stopped as they allowed Jayden some space. Jayden shoved his hand into a wall, before ripping out a long, 5 foot pipe from it.

"You're going to use your ability to cut us a path?" Suijin asked as she watched what he was doing.

"Not only cut us a path, but also to see at what point the magic nullification becomes so strong it's nearly impossible to use magic." Jayden held the pipe out in front of him, before grabbing it with his other hand, starting from the base and sliding down all the way to the tip. The blunt weapon began to glow a dark purple color.

"Absolution." That was the name of Jayden's ability. It was a law type ability that allowed Jayden to place the law of "Absolution" on anything he imbued with his mana. This law allowed him to turn pretty much anything he wanted to into an unstoppable force, as long as it was imbued with his mana.

He raised the pipe up like a baseball player up to bat, before bringing it down in an arcing slashing motion aimed at the ground. The pipe released an arcing slash of magic that tore straight through the ground, seemingly cracking the air from where he had sliced as everything below the point simply vanished. The blast traveled, continuing to tear through every single object in its way for multiple floors before it finally dissipated.

"There. That's the point where magic is so weak it becomes negligible." Jayden turned to Suijin. "We're probably way ahead of Akira's team if we take this path."

Suijin nodded. "Then we show-" However she was interrupted by Hayato who made a suggestion.

"Sorry for interrupting you. But if I may suggest. We should leave a few of us to serve as roadblocks to stop Akira's team."

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Everyone stopped for a few seconds as they considered that proposition.

"How many of us would you suggest?" Asked Suijin.

"4"

"Four! But that'll only leave two people to defend the captain? And if you remember, the captain cannot defend themselves from other opponents who aren't a captain! We'd be weakening our defenses significantly!" Argued Emma.

Hayato nodded. "Of course, I know that. So I propose that the four people we leave to attempt and get in their way, essentially be put on a sort of timer. Every few seconds or so, they move down a floor or two, while destroying most of the major paths above them. There are only so many paths that they can take, we'd be able to slow them down, if even for a few seconds, which can be the difference in winning the race." Hayato then pointed to the path Jayden had carved for them. "Thanks to the path Jayden opened up for us, we're going to be ahead. If we implement my strategy, we'll be able to slow them down as well, guaranteeing we reach the bottom floor first."

"Once we do reach the bottom floor, only the captain can enter, leaving the two people serving as her guards to stay and slow down Akira's team as much as possible. And with the four people I mentioned before coming back down, we'll be able to trap them from trying to find another way down."

"A pincer!" Jayden exclaimed.

"And due to the fact that they can't use magic, they'll have trouble breaking out of it!" Izumi added.

Suijin nodded, impressed by the strategy. "Well, I'll leave the specifics up to you!" She grabbed Izumi and Emma and jumped down.

Hayato stood, frozen for a second, as if he was shocked by the fact that Suijin had given him the responsibility of actually executing the strategy. "Tch! Unbelievable." As he turned to start giving orders, he noticed that he was missing a member.

"Talk about a hassle."

* * *

On the other side of things, Akira and her group were progressing steadily, maneuvering through the twisting halls and rooms of the warehouse with great ease. Along their way, Alice had managed to discover a map, and with only a single glance at it, had managed to chart them the quickest course down. In fact, if it wasn't for the shortcut Jayden had cut for Suijins team, they would've been ahead. Alice was all too aware of this fact, and it kept her on edge.

Akira had picked up on that fact, despite Alice's attempts to hide it. Her facial expression was completely neutral, and everything about her demeanor seemed normal, but there was something behind her that just threw Akira off, and so she asked. "What's on your mind? We're making good progress thanks to the path that you created for us. "

Alice didn't seem surprised that Akira was able to easily see through her facade of calm. "That's the thing. Good progress just isn't good enough. They've definitely made use of Jayden's ability already, which means they're definitely ahead of us. If they play their cards right, they've definitely already planted people to slow down their progress. Not to mention if they reach the basement floor before us, we're going to have an even harder time proceeding." Alice vented all of her concerns and frustrations.

"There isn't any way that we'd be able to create a shortcut either?"

Alice shook her head. "Not to their level. It's impossible. We'd probably just land ourselves into a trap as well. They know the extent of how deep you can go before magic dies, they've definitely got somebody set up there."

Akira noticed Alice's constantly down treading thought and decided to flick her in the head.

"Oww! What was that for?"

Akira chuckled. "Come on, you're overthinking it. You're the smartest in the class, remember? Take a look at your teammates, and at your environment. I'm sure you'll be able to figure something out."

Alice was taken aback by Akira's seemingly unwavering confidence in her abilities, but she soon realized that it only made sense. Ever since they were little, Alice had always been the smart one who was able to come up with strategies that baffled even teachers at the time. She was able to break down even some of the most complex situations.

"Alright. Then here's the plan." Before she could continue Akira gestured for her to speak louder. "Everyone! Here's the plan! We're going to use Luke's explosion magic to tear us a path as far as it can take us. There, we'll probably be met with resistance. As soon as we emerge, I want Touka to use her blow straight by them while they're caught off guard. Yuka uses her ability to manipulate flames created by the explosion to create even more chaos, allowing Touka to slip through. Meanwhile, Akira hides in the smoke and takes a detour path. Our strategy is to hold up as many of their members as possible, while using Touka as a decoy to distract them, so Akira can charge through uninhibitedly!"

With the strategy explained to everyone, Luke put a hand to the ground with a smile on his face, as he blew everything sky high.

* * *

Hayato stood at the staircase that led down into the next floor. He was leaning against the railing, watching the hallway in front of him impatiently. He was standing at the point just before the magic nullification really started to become an issue. When he had proposed the strategy to Suijin, he hadn't expected the task of actually setting it up and executing it to be delegated to him. "I can't believe this." Hayato felt a slight rumbling sound coming from around him, but he assumed that it was just Suijin tearing her way through the rest of the lower flowers. However, a small change in the flow of the air was all that was needed to put Hayato on high alert. The rumbling got louder and Hayato realized what was going on.

They're using Luke's explosion! Attacking head on!

Without even wasting a single second, Hayato yelled out, manipulating the wind to help carry out his voice. "Kayden! Full power Ice attack! STRAIGHT UPWARDS." In the next second, Hayato felt a massive wave of ice rush up from under him, just as a massive explosion rang out above him, releasing a massive wave of flames that seemed to bear down like the sun unto him. Flames and ice met in a warring clash of elements as the entirety of Akira's team came down through the hole, surrounded by smoke. As the ice and flames clashed against each other, the wind created from the explosion caused hair and clothes to blow.

As the team came into view, he noticed someone rushing past him, but paid them no mind. Instead, he looked to the center of the group. There he locked eyes with Alice. And for a moment, they stared at each other, the two strategists of the group, framed by ice and fire.

And then all hell broke loose.