The sound of a massive explosion had rung out throughout the warehouse. Rooms shook, boxes were knocked off of shelves, and some entire sections began to collapse. Raiden walked through the destruction calmly, as he analyzed his surroundings. He much preferred to work alone.

The pressing feeling in his chest was slowly starting to grow as he descended lower and lower into the warehouse. He could already tell that his magic was weakening, and so was his ability to sense other people's magic as well. However he could tell that just a floor or two below him, t14he two groups had met up in an all out clash. Just a few more floors below them, and magic would become completely useless. That was also where Raiden predicted Suijin would be.

Raiden's entire strategy was to essentially break off from his own team, and trust that the chaos that would come from the two teams meeting, would be able to mask his movements, as he attempted a flank on Suijin. Normally, he would have no chance of catching up to Suijin, however, he had a plan? He took a look at some of the barrels and vials that lay around the room he was currently standing in. A few minutes earlier, he had noticed that some of these barrels were labeled. A majority of the barrels were actually filled with high pressure gas. That had given him an idea.

He picked up one of the vials, noticing that it was filled with a very corrosive substance. He moved onto the next one, which wasn't anything special, besides an extremely basic liquid. He pocketed multiple vials of the corrosive liquid, before returning to where his base of operations was. There was an entire room filled with barrels of high pressure gas. He had used his insane speed to go around the building and gather as many of them as he possibly could,

Now, he turned and made use of the corrosive liquid, by pouring it into a hole he had created in the ground. The stuff was much more potent than acid, and within a second, multiple floors had massive holes in them. Then, Raiden began to flip the barrels on their sides, in a position where if you pushed them even slightly, they would all go rolling down into the hole. Then, He punched the ground as hard as he could without destroying it. Instantly every single one of the barrels slid down the hole he had created, through the multiple floors that had been completely corroded with the acid. Over a hundred barrels were falling through the warehouse. Then, for the final touch. Raiden snapped his fingers, allowing a singular spark of lightning to fall down the hole.

Raiden smiled, as he prepared for his huge surprise. It seems Yami was right. "Not being able to use magic really changes the way you approach situations."

And for the second time that day, the warehouse suffered another massive explosion.

* * *

After a brief momentary stare down, Hayato immediately jumped into action. He knew that he would be alone in this encounter. He was the highest person up, or the first line of the defense. The only other back up he might have had would be Jayden, who was most likely caught up by whoever had slipped past him. So Hayato's first move was to get a better understanding of who he was up against. He used his wind magic to clear out the smoke currently blocking his vision. Along with Alice, he saw Yuka and Luke. That left either Akira or Touka as the one who had just rushed past him. While it did make the most sense for Akira to have tried and cut straight through, he didn't have to worry because Kayden would be right there to stop her.

Alice would know that though.

So that is why he was sure Akira was hiding somewhere in the smoke. However before he could spread the reach of his ability and blast through the rest of the smoke, another, even larger explosion tore through the metal frames and floors. The building shook violently, knocking Hayato off of balance.

The hell was that!

The explosion continued to tear through the warehouse, multiple floors below their current position, which told Hayato that this explosion was natural, and not caused by magic. However the second explosion didn't have his attention for long, because there was suddenly a leg inches from his face. He ducked downward, narrowly avoiding Alice's kick, and the follow up which came from Yuka. He flipped over the railing of the stairs, trying to create some distance. Yuka used her flames to boost herself forward, while at the same time, Alice stretched out a hand and emitted a blinding bright gold light.

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Shi-

Hayato's thoughts were interrupted by the jet powered kick that had just hit him in the side, sending him crashing down the stairs and sliding into the end of the corridor. Hayato stood up just as Alice and Yuka appeared from the staircase.

"Cheap tricks, eh?" Hayato joked as he rubbed his side. The side of his uniform, a simple blazer, was burnt up.

"Nothing personal." Alice said, creating a bow of pure light.

"This is very personal." Yuka said at the same time, as she punched her fist, emitting flames.

Instantly, another wave of blinding light was emitted.

Before any of Alice's arrows could be fired, Hayato punched the ground, knocking them down to the floor, before doing the same thing again. This time, as they burst into the next floor, the crushing feeling intensified, and it felt like all the Mana circulating in their bodies had begun to freeze, turning into ice. Alice's magic made flare's effectiveness drop significantly, allowing Hayato to react to the light arrows fired, batting them away with just his bare hand. They landed onto the ground, and instantly, Yuka launched herself at Hayato. However this time, as opposed to what happened only two floors above, Yuka's jet boosted attack was easily dodged by Hayato, and he grabbed her arm. Yuka tried to instantly emit flames from her body, but they were too weak to actually affect Hayato, and he pulled her in, throwing her arm into the air, and then landing a direct punch to her gut, sending her crashing, straight through the wall. Yami's lecture popped into his mind once again.

"The lack of magic changes the way you think in certain encounters. Your decision making is very different when you can just summon a wall of fire to solve your problems, as opposed to having nothing but your surroundings to rely on."

As Hayato turned he barely reacted to see a light arrow, centimeters away from his eye. He grabbed it, stopping it just before it pierced him. He turned to face Alice, who already had another three arrows ready to be fired. "Was this strategy your idea?"

Alice didn't respond. Behind her, floating bows of light appeared, with multiple arrows ready to fire. All aimed at Hayato. Hayato simply smirked at the sight of this. Then, he used a little bit of wind magic to flare the small flames lingering around. The flames detonated another controlled explosion that traveled down and deeper into the warehouse. Alice instantly knew what this was.

A signal!

What for, she couldn't tell. And with a majority of her team spit up, it would normally be impossible for her to warn them of the upcoming danger. But the magic nullification had yet to reach zero, so she had time for one more effort. Muttering something under her breath, she seemed to release some sort of magic that she had been holding around her. Hayato noticed that the same magic also began to release itself from Yuka's body flowing into the air.

"So you had a back up plan as well." He removed his blazer, allowing it to drop to the floor. Faint wind magic began to swirl around him, causing his hair to flow softly.

Alice did not release the bow from her hands, instead allowing a pair of hand made of light to remove the coat that hung around her shoulders. Her white dress seemed to glow just as much as the light magic surrounding her. She chuckled. "I forgot to thank you. For finally getting Lucius off of his ass." Then her expression turned serious. "But I do think you need to be punished for the methods that you used."

And then she let a thousand arrows of pure light rain down on her opponent.

* * *

Raiden made use of his shortcut to descend down straight into the path of the oncoming Suijin. She stopped in her tracks, and Izumi and Emma moved to stand in front of her. Raiden stretched his arms as he looked at them, a smirk on his face. "Looks like I found you, Ms. 'Checking them out.'"

Izumi and Emma looked rightfully confused, but Suijin's fist clenched. "Didn't I already explain that that was a misunderstanding.

Raiden put a finger to his chin and pretended to be in deep thought. "Really?"

Suddenly, he was behind Suijin, Winding up a punch. "Cuz I could've sworn it w-" In the middle of his sentence, he was caught by a punch straight to the face, which sent him skidding backwards. He turned to see and Lucius was standing in front of him, a grin plastered on his face.

"In the middle of your sentence and everything."

"Damn. I thought you were still lying on your ass on the top floor."

"And let you get away with that cheap shot?" He scoffed. "Yeah right." Suijin, nodded towards Lucius, and continued making her way down.

They were standing on a floor that seemed to be filled with mirrors. Each one of them is broken. The cracked and distorted mirrors reflected an image of the two boys facing off that almost made it seem as if they were enemies, locked in a battle to the death.

They dashed at each other at the same time, the force behind their clashing fist shattering what was left of the already cracked mirrors.