Phase one was a bust. Phase two of his plan, activate. Think! Think! Think! Come up with a way to fight the pain, to fight the power.

Alwin had came up with an idea!

As he screamed his lungs out thanks to pain being delivered to every inch of his body from those mechanical shadow tentacles from Bion, Alwin had materialized his Spirit Hands in front of him. All five pairs of Spirit hands shimmered into existence and took stock of the situation.

Time for phase three.

Their commands—punctuated with screaming—had been issued. All ten Spirit Hands rushed towards the mechanical tentacles and grabbed onto any strand that they could find. They pulled, yanked, and every other synonym for that action as they fought to pry the metal appendages off of Alwin's body. The hands dug their fingers into the cold metal that formed the gears, yet the only thing they managed to damage were themselves. Small imprints of the gear teeth had been left in their translucent blue fingers as they tugged, hauled, and even more synonyms for the action.

"Really? That's the best you can do?" snorted Bion.

Oh no! This was a crisis! His reputation points were plummeting. Good thing at the end of phase two he had revised his three-phase plan into a four-phase plan.

Phase four: repeat phase two and three if phase three failed. It wasn't a spectacular plan, but it was practical.

Phase two was over in a flash—again. Time for phase three—again. Alwin commanded the Spirit Hands to attack Bion. They gave up on attempting to free their master from his bio-mechanical restraints and instead dove towards Bion. They too had the power of the high ground. All ten Spirit Hands formed fists and created a hail storm of punches—never mind the fact that the hail storm lasted for a second. They pummeled the gear-laden Bion, only for their punches—and subsequently them—to bounce off. Bion simply snorted, that was the only effect his Spirit Hands had on him.

Once again that plan was a bust. Alwin really needed to get stronger, pronto. Never mind that right now, he needed to begin phase four again which in turn would activate phases two and three once more. Was it pointless to include this part? Absolutely. Alwin was definitely not stalling in an attempt to gain more time to come up with a better plan.

The Spirit Hands received another scream-laced set of commands and they set off to heed the whims of their master. However, deep down, Alwin knew that they were only doing it to get Alwin to shut his incessant screaming.

They lined up above Bion, garnering the confused looks of his classmates. Even Bion himself was confused—the visor blocked his face but Alwin could tell by his body language—about what the Spirit Hands were attempting to accomplish.

All aboard the Alwin Express! The first set of Spirit Hands grabbed Bion and launched him upwards toward the second set and so on and so forth. They set Bion flying up into the ceiling of the sparring room. As Bion went up, Alwin went down. The tentacles that had traveled through the shadows were forced back into darkness as Bion went higher and higher, pulling the tentacles with him.

Alwin could feel the grip on him loosen. Another thing he could feel was his stomach lurching as he experienced the full force of gravity coupled with all of the momentum his Spirit Hands had helped to build up by launching Bion in the air. Finally, the tentacles came loose and entered the realm of shadows, now Alwin could stop screaming like a banshee. Since he was freefalling instead of being strangled, he could scream like a baby—not as loud as a banshee but still bad.

Alwin crashed into the floor while Bion crashed into the ceiling, the sound of gears cracking resonated within the room. The trail of tentacles that he had used to ensnare Alwin had exited the shadow realm. They came flying full force out of the shadow to smack Bion in the face. Another set of cracks echoed out in the room. Bits of metallic magical dust began to descend. Bion was coming down as well.

Bion and pieces of his gear armor came falling down from the sky, his tentacles flailed around him, as more pieces of gear detached themselves from his body. Another resounding crash could be heard as Bion hit the ground. Alwin had stopped screaming and was looking at the spectacle.

The Mechanized Shadow Jellyfish lay splayed out on the ground in a mess of gears. They had been split in half or otherwise so banged up you wouldn't think they were gears anymore, just amalgamations of metal squished together. Parts of his mechanical armor had fallen off his body, revealing the dark squishy jellyfish flesh underneath.

Had Alwin won? The Spirit Hands flipped over the jellyfish. The black visor that shielded his eyes had been shattered beyond recognition. They prodded and poked at the body, some even going so far as to tickle the monster. But when covered in a layer of metal, the move was ineffective. Bion made no movements. Looks like Alwin did win. This was the power of throwing hands! Time to gloat and celebrate his victory.

Alwin turned around to face his classmates, jiggling his body around as he performed his dance of celebration. Then, the mental connection between him and his Spirit Hands was severed. Alwin hadn't dismissed them yet and neither did they dismiss themselves. They had been snuffed out.

Turning around, Alwin went to confront the culprit. How dare they kill his Spirit Hands—sure, they could be revived when he summoned them again but it still hurt them. Alwin was then greeted by the sight of Bion, his body on the ground, his tentacles wiggling in the air.

The cracked gears had started repairing themselves. Metallic grease oozed out of the cracks, sealing them up. The chipped gear teeth began to regrow into all of their glorious blocky forms again. Parts of his body that were gear-free began to sprout new gears once again, they interconnected with each other to form the ever-so-familiar mechanical armor that Bion wore. The black visor he wore fell off, revealing a pissed-off Bion glaring at Alwin, only for a second visor to slide downwards from the layer of gears that shielded his head.

Unfortunately, it looked like it was time for round two. Bad news: Bion wasn't down yet and Alwin was all out of ideas. Good news: when Alwin did take down Bion he got to do his special victory dance again.

Bion's shadow stretched out towards him, but Alwin was prepared. He ran circles around Bion, the shadows chasing after him. Whenever their shadows did connect, five gear-ridden tentacles would shoot out from the shadow beneath him. They would attempt to snatch up Alwin, but he would manage to dodge them by performing his signature roll to the side, accompanied by a high-pitched shriek of fear. The tentacles would rescind into the ground and the chase began once more. It was the most dangerous game of tag in his life. When he was being chased by the humans, being caught by them meant a death sentence, but if he were to get caught here it would mean the end of his reputation—that was worse than death! And for all those who found Alwin weird for caring so much about his reputation. Well... that's mean.

Alwin's Spirit hands appeared in front of him and they went zooming off to confront Bion. The Mechanize Shadow Jellyfish lifted up a single mass of tentacles, they became coated in darkness—Shadow Whip if Alwin heard correctly between all of his shrieking—before they smacked the Spirit Hands into magical particles. That darn Bion. Why did he have to be smart enough to adapt to his throwing hands strategy?

Back to phase four... again. If Alwin couldn't throw Bion, then he would do the next best thing. As Alwin continued running circles around Bion while avoiding the mass of mechanical tentacles that popped out of the ground every few seconds, he summoned his Spirit Hands again. Instead of flying towards Bion or Alwin for that matter, they flew towards the spectators—his classmates. They hovered above the group of monsters, joining the crowd of spectators.

"Fear for your life, Bion. For I am going to use my most dangerous ability!" shouted Alwin.

The class murmured amongst themselves, discussing what sort of trick that Alwin was about to pull. Their discussion even included why Alwin had sent his Spirit Hands to spectate the fight.

"Oh yea, Al-loser, bring it. Can't be worse than you just running like a little girl," snarled Bion.

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"You asked for it. Spirit Hands Summoning: Uchronia!"

The Spirit Hands moved into position, lining up in front of Uchronia. They grabbed onto her potted plant body. Despite her cries of protest and constant fidgeting in the Spirit Hands, they never faltered. The rest of his classmates were even more confused. They looked at each other, asking if this was against the rules or whether they should help Uchronia out. There wasn't enough time for a proper discussion. A second later Uchronia was sent flying through the sets of Spirit Hands straight towards Bion.

"What is wrong with you, Alwin!" she screamed as she soared through the air.

"So many things!" he shouted back, leaping over a tentacle that was about to wrap itself around his body.

Bion looked up at the incoming projectile and immediately ceased his attack on Alwin. His tentacles fell back into the ground and his shadow returned to its usual length, no longer chasing Alwin. The gears on his body fell apart piece by piece, each one clanging onto the ground only to disintegrate seconds later into magical dust.

"I've got you, darling Uchronia!" Bion shouted.

Twin masses of tentacles were outstretched as he shuffled across the room attempting to estimate where she would land. This was the perfect distraction and definitely what he intended to happen. Might as well try out his new move—Yin-Yang Blast—because if not this whole fight would be boring. Also, because Bion was so weak that beating him didn't do anything remotely useful. This was not Alwin trash-talking in his mind and completely forgetting how Bion was a meanie who insulted him and his friends, plus there was how he almost lost to Bion when his mechanical tentacles appeared from out of the shadows and nearly squeezed the living daylights out of Alwin, thus confirming how weak Alwin truly was. Nope, none of that had happened.

Bion had his jellyfish cap tilted up, with lips puckered as he moved to where Uchronia was about to land. Alwin was at the end stage of preparing his Yin-Yang Blast. Like his Dark Tackle, he felt his mana transforming into inky gooey darkness that welled up within his core, all of it happening without his control. Unlike his Dark Tackle, there was pure bright white mana forming alongside the darkness that he was accustomed to—it's Yin and Yang, what did you expect?

If only his Spirit Blasts could be formed this fast. Do you know how annoying it is to grab a piece of liquid mana transform it into a piece of paper through some mind association thingy that not even Alwin understood, layer it around an inflated balloon he willed into existence, shove it into an oven, wait for it to dry, then poke it with a needle and make a home run using the Spirit Blasts just so that it could leave his Core? One day he would find a faster way to make Spirit Blasts, and maybe today would be the day or not. Who knows? Anyway, back to the Yin-Yang Blast.

The two accretions of light and dark mana formed into a sphere roughly the size of his Spirit Blasts which in turn was roughly the size of baseball that ancient humans used to play with. Perhaps sometime in the far future, he would smoothly figure out the size of his Spirit Blasts using a measuring tape or something—his ability to form thoughts may be miles better than when he was in constant pain being squeezed like a lemon, but come on he had better things to think about, stuff like should he do victory dance number one or victory dance number two after he wins.

The twin balls of light and darkness began to swirl about an invisible axis around each other as they went on a journey of self-discovery through his core, only to exit it and materialize in the physical world. As the norm of skills, before the twins could truly make a name for themselves in this world, Alwin had to announce them first. An itch morphed into a lump in his throat before the words erupted out.

"Yin-Yang Blast!"

Two balls of mana manifested in front of Alwin. They swirled around each other as they headed towards Bion, who was so focused on Uchronia that he was unaware of the surprise that Alwin was delivering. Unbeknownst to Alwin, Uchronia was giving Bion a surprise of her own.

As gravity was doing its thing, causing Uchronia to fall closer into the clutches of Bion's squiggly mass of tentacles, she decided to give Bion a shot. Not the kind of shot where she dated him, Uchronia literally shot at him. The brown bio-ceramic pot that acted as a protective casing around her feeble plant body was launched out at Bion. The power of her skill was effectively doubled thanks to the high-ground advantage that Alwin provided.

The aptly named 'Pot Shot' soared through the air and hit Bion square on that round jellyfish cap noggin of his. It caused the boneless head of his to cave in, conforming to the shape of the pot that Uchronia had been wearing since she had achieved her new form.

Alwin was facing his back, but he was pretty sure that Bion was smiling when he came into contact with what Uchronia had been wearing. Bion and the pot came crashing down on the ground. The pot cracked when it impacted the ground, if only the same could be said about Bion's skull—he didn't have one which made this statement useless, but it was the thought behind the message that counted!

As Bion lay on the ground, surrounded by fragments of Uchronia's 'clothes', the Yin-Yang Blast coalesced. The white and black orbs that had been orbiting around crashed into each other, causing Bion to be hit with an explosion that formed a Yin-Yang symbol. Wow! Alwin's new skill was so artistic. If human hunting didn't work out he could always take a job as a firework specialist, launching Yin-Yang symbols during celebrations.

Bion was still conscious, unfortunately. Even as he lay on the floor surrounded by fragments of bio-ceramic that dug into his jelly-like flesh causing weird black liquid to ooze out—it was probably blood—he still had two masses of tentacles that reached into the sky, albeit with a lifeless droop.

Uchronia passed through the tentacles while the now limp Bion closed his tentacles together grabbing nothing but air. Turns out when you've just been smacked on the head, had dozens of cuts across your body, and suffered an explosion of Yin and Yang, your reaction time wasn't the best.

The now pot-less Uchronia crashed down a couple of seconds later, rolling on the floor as she attacked the ground with her plant body. At least, now Alwin could get a good look at her body—no naughty in here.

A bright green plant bulb—like an onion but green and upside down—had been hidden by the pot. Unlike an onion, roots extended out of the stalk part of her body that served as feet when enough of them had gathered together. There were also green leaves that covered up the rest of her bulb-like body, including two much larger ones that most likely acted as hands. No idea what she could do with those leaf-like hands that were condemned inside a pot—maybe she could scratch her butt when it itches. From the bottom of her body which was the long stalk-like part of her, bits of brown were beginning to emerge. If Alwin's guess was right—maybe it was or maybe it wasn't, he had no idea what his correct guess rate was—that was her bio-ceramic pot armor was sprouting out.

After she rolled herself back up, using those two large leaf-like hands to push herself up, she glared Yucca aloifolia at him. For those who didn't know what that was, it was the scientific name of the Dagger Plant. It felt fitting to evolve the way Uchronia glared at him, but thankfully, if it didn't work out, he could always devolve it back—assuming his Devolution actually worked.

Ignoring her glares, Alwin went to inspect the downed Bion. That Shadow Jellyfish was still conscious, with a huge smile plastered on his face as he did bio-ceramic angels. Good thing there was a surefire way to ensure that Bion was defeated and also physically healthy at the same time.

Alwin conjured up a pair of Spirit Hands and instructed them to go grab the bottle of Small Healing Pills from the microwave-sized drawer that popped out of the wall. They returned bottle in hand and gave a thumbs up as Alwin delivered his directives. Cracking open the bottle and Bion's mouth, they shoved pill after pill into him. The cuts that were splayed out all over Bion's body began to shrink as the black slime-like substance stopped oozing out of him.

Some of you might ask, why would you heal your opponent? The answer was simple. Since pills use mana, taking too many pills would lead to mana exhaustion. So... time to exhaust Bion. He'd be physically fine thanks to the Small Healing Pills, but not manally fine—if that was even a word.

Bion got up, smacking the Spirit Hands away with his tentacles. That was rude! He gave a tender loving look at Uchronia that morphed into one of pure hatred and disdain as Alwin rolled himself in front of her so that he wouldn't be left out. Bion took a single step and collapsed onto the ground, groaning like a Zombie Jellyfish.

Yup, he had definitely won after that. Bion's squad, Concord the Chromaflora and Brie the Metalball, rushed towards their collapsed member trying to figure out what was wrong—it was actually just Concord, no idea why Brie didn't rush in to help or where she was for that matter.

Uchronia continued to glare at him, while the rest of the class whispered amongst themselves. Some of them gave cheers at Alwin's accomplishments while others were debating whether he had actually won since Uchronia intervened.

Of course, Uchronia intervened and it was a legal intervention as well. He used his super secret summoning skill to call Uchronia into battle. Before they could come to a proper conclusion, Alwin had to make his grand escape. Like the tough guy he was, he walked out of the sparring room, not even giving his classmates a second glance. Now all he needed was an explosion and a pair of sunglasses to solidify the moment.

As he stepped out of the white sparring room, he came across a monster stuck in the middle of the training grounds classroom. It was Brie. So that's where she was. Turns out everyone had forgotten about her. She was still stuck to the ground, lacking the strength to move thanks to Clavis. By all means, he should help her, but that would ruin his cool guy moment. So with a heavy heart, he walked past the struggling Brie, straight out of the classroom.

Nothing to do but sleep now. Probably. There were actually a ton of things he could do like continue training or even research new skills in the library, he still wanted to be valedictorian and then subsequently a Minister after all, but good thing he had a counter-argument prepared.

Alwin had just gone through a stressful tribulation and went through an equally stressful sparring session, he needed to rest if not his body wouldn't grow, or worse he sustained a permanent injury. Therefore, Alwin should spend the rest of the day slacking off—I mean resting—in bed.

Tomorrow would be his first day back in class. Sadly. He was already dreading waking up tomorrow. Oh well. See you then.