I’m useless in these kinds of condition. Why do we had to face those Buddyz? If it wasn’t for them, I could have saved Rulend. My entire body was crushed thanks to the double attack that Team Buddyz had done to me. If it wasn’t for Sonozaki's arrival, we would have been annihilated. The damage has been done. There’s no turning back. My Infinitum energy was running out and now Blax was berserking.

It happened again…The same thing that happened few days ago. Kaym was sent to the hospital on that day. It made him go into berserk. Blax couldn’t control his feelings. The Black Knight Armor forced its way into him.

“Rulend!” Blax was furious.

Blax charged in with his giant sword and slashes the monstrous plant. The plant was cut into half but Rulend was not in that plant anymore. Suddenly, dozens of the same plant appeared around the area. Both me and Rider were still downed after the fight with Team Buddyz. We couldn’t do anything. Blax, who was now almost covered in black mist cut his way through all the plants.

“Lore…” Rider crawled his way to me.

“You okay, Rider?”

“What happened?”

“After both Team Buddyz and Team Purity left us, a wild plant appeared and it swallowed Rulend.”

“Rulend? Where is he now?”

“I don’t know but he might be in one of these plants…”

“I only have a few energy left in my body…”

Rider tried to stand up but he graciously falls down. I know Rider was doing his best not to be a burden for all of us but he didn't need to do all of this.

“Don’t push yourself, Rider.”

“I’m trying not to.” Rider was catching his breath, “Who would know that we would be exhausted in the preliminaries?”

“Preliminaries?”

“It is another word for qualifier…”

“I see.”

Rider looked over Blax who was raging against the monster plants, “That gauntlet he is wearing…”

“It’s called the gauntlet of The Black Knight. It was included in a full set of The Black Knight armor.”

“The Black Knight, huh…I heard stories about it before. He died deep inside a forest and cursed the world for betraying him, right?”

“The Black Knight was a very loyal knight. To be betrayed by his most trusted men was a fatal blow to him mentally.”

“And to be stabbed in the back was a deathly blow to him physically.” Rider finished my sentence.

That goes the same for Blax, I guess. He was very loyal to his friends. That’s why he was ready to sacrifice his own body to save his friend. I don’t know about him being betrayed but I know he always takes these kind of things seriously. Why does Blax and The Black Knight had to have something in common between them? Is Blax going to become what I think he might become?

If that were to happen then I’m really afraid of what’s to come. Especially when a higher power decided to do something to what he might have become soon. I don’t want that to happen. I started to feel a little despair when thinking about all of these. Why such a predicament happened to us? Why can’t it be somebody else?

“Hey, Lore. Snap out of it.” Rider tried to stand up.

Rider snapped me out of my worries.

“Rider…”

“Even if both of them have the same principles, doesn’t mean they are the same person. Do you forget already?”

“You’re talking about Yin Kirin, right?”

“Him and Blax. Even though he is no longer here. He is probably watching us right now. We don’t want him to see Blax like that…”

I finally calmed myself down, “You’re right. We need to bring Blax back. For everyone's sake. For Yin's sake as well. We can’t let his sacrifice go away just like that.”

Rider helped me to stand up. The Blade and Shield was standing side by side, ready to bring back Blax from the darkness.

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“Let’s do this, partner!” Rider issues his order to me.

Another dozens of wild plants appeared in front of us, preventing us from reaching Blax. We both smiled at each other. I Changed into Throw Mode and threw my shield to the plants. The shield spins around us while cutting all of the plants that were surrounding us. I caught my shield as it returns back and raised it up. Rider jumps onto the shield and I launched him into the air.

Rider Transform his armor into his Fire Armor and burns his way toward Blax. I Changed into Chase Mode and charged into the plants, crushing them down with my formidable shield while ignoring the other. One plant almost caught me but it was burned down by Rider just in time. Rider continued to cut his way through with his Fire Blade.

The plants keep on coming and coming. We didn’t really know why and how such a monstrous being would work together and try to eliminate us from this game. Especially when we were almost at the climatic moment of The Treasure Hunt.

We saw Blax who was still in full berserk was slashing away all incoming plants. His eyes were filled with hatred towards the plants. We need to calm him down! I Changed back to Throw Mode and saved Blax from an unsuspecting plant that was about to reach his legs. The shield then came back to me safely while cutting down other plants along the way.

“Lore! It’s time!” Rider called me.

“I’m coming!” I charged my way toward Rider.

I threw my Shield and Rider jumped on it. The Shield was spinning around the area while both the Shield and Rider was cutting down all the plants. Rider activated his Fire Blade and the fires started to spread all over the plants. The spinning effect had made a Fire Tornado deep inside this man-made forest. We are The Blade and Shield!

The shield returned back to me. I caught it and continued to throw it back but this time directly heading to Blax. Rider jumps away and burned all of the wild plants that was surrounding Blax. Rider then crashed into him.

As the flames of the forest started to rage. Blax was lying down on the ground together with Rider. I got back my Shield and headed toward them.

“Are you guys alright?” I asked them as I looked around for any more wild plants.

“We’re good.” Rider gave a thumbs up at me.

Blax gauntlet started to fade away slowly as he was fully unconscious of the situation. After the gauntlet was gone, Blax finally woke up.

“Woah. What happened?”

“You asked for help from The Black Knight.” Rider told him.

“Oh. Now I remember.”

“Are you okay now?”

Blax checked his body for any injuries. Meanwhile, I was scanning the area to make sure there were no other wild plants that might attack us. Once Blax was done checking himself, he stood up and grab Rider and carried him by his shoulder.

“Yeah. I’m good. What about you guys?”

I replied, “We’ve used up all of our energies…”

“I told you guys to conserve it, you know…” Blax started to laugh.

“What else can we do when even you are ignoring your own advice?” I laughed as well.

“Precisely.” Rider agreed and laughed as well.

“In any case, guys…Where is Rulend…?” Blax was still trying to catch his breath after that skirmish.

“He is right here, Stardust.” I heard a familiar voice.

We looked at where the voice was and saw Rika and her teammates, Team Supernova. The fact that I could see that Rika was holding a wand proved that Team Supernova had already finished the hunt. So why did they help us anyway?

“We’re just happen to see you guys struggling against these plants.” said Rika

“Thanks for saving him.” Blax thanked her.

“Don’t worry, Blax. Rulend is still my classmate. Of course I would help. Besides, we’re just about to leave this forest so why not help you guys out.”

“I see. Well then, thank you very much.”

“I think you should say thanks to Sally. She’s the one who stopped these plants.”

Rulend was placed next to us. Sally then bowed politely to us.

“Thanks, Sally.” Blax thanked the girl who uses Tree Of Life.

“You guys are no ordinary team from the looks of it. I thought you guys would be just another team.” said Sally as she gave us a little energy to all of us. “Here. Use it to finish the search.”

“Thanks a lot guys.”

“Well then. We will be leaving now. Good luck, Stardust!” Rika waved at us for a goodbye. She then stopped, “Oh. And send my good luck to White as well. Bye guys.”

Team Supernova then left us. We couldn’t be more glad when Team Supernova gave us a portion of their Infinitum to us through Sally’s ability, Tree of Life.

“Glad that’s over…” Rider gave a sigh of relief.

“It’s not over yet.” Blax said.

Rulend stood up, “We still need to find that wand, guys.”

“What are we waiting for then. Let’s go, Stardust!” I stood up and raised my arm.

We decided to continue the hunt by searching the wand at the so-called abandoned city that our teacher had made. Meanwhile, on the other side. Supernova was glad that The Treasure Hunt was over for them.

“Wow. That was an intense game.” said Asia Mercury as she stretches her arm.

“I agree.” replied Sally Mahogany.

Rika was a bit gloomy, “You shouldn’t have done that Sally. You made Blax berserk.”

“I’m just a bit angry about what happened last night that’s all.”

Rika seemed a little agitated with what Sally said. Especially when they might interpreted things wrongly about something.

“It’s non of your business, Sally.”

“It is, Rika. He is our enemy and you dare to consort with him?”

“But he…”

“What is he to you anyway? Who is White to you? Why White?”

Rika didn’t say anything and they all continued to walk out of the forest. Team Supernova has completed their task to find the wand. Team Supernova successfully completed their task without any sorts of problems at all. No injuries, no problem. Except for the things that we don't know they did, it was a big win from them. It proved to us that those team were far better than us.

The Treasure Hunt was about to end as its reaches the conclusion. Where was White in all of these anyway? I know that he was the wild card in all of these but it doesn’t mean that he have to literally be like a shadow. Hopefully our strategy worked out in the end. In addition to that, I wonder what’s up with Hosuke and Airi. Those two can be a lot of trouble if they ended up fighting with each other. Always a mess. But still, I hope they are all alright as well. Almost there, everyone. We’re about to end the preliminaries soon…

TO BE CONTINUED