The gentleman thief girl seemed momentarily taken aback at how easy Mai was to dispatch, but before I could take advantage of this her fact she re-engaged and launched a fast stab directly towards me.

Just like Mai, she held a rapier, but unlike Mai she seemed to fight in a deliberately flashy and over the top way. Style over substance. I could use that.

I waited patiently for a telegraphed attack, and once I saw one coming I ended it quickly. Deflecting the wide and slow slash away with my left axe, I left her no defence against the right axe I slammed into her jaw.

Match over. Our victory.

With the top 16 done, the first match of the quarter finals began, while I took Mai aside to talk to her.

“On any other day, you’d have iced that girl without a second’s hesitation. Are you sure you’re alright to fight?”

“Dammit Shin, I said I’m f-“ Mai cut herself off abruptly, then heaved a heavy sigh. “I’m sorry. This whole situation with Kei is getting to me more than I thought.”

“I get it. The rest of us are worried too, but we can’t let that keep our eyes off the prize. We need to train our combat skills or we’ll be dead meat.”

“I know, I know. I’ll try and keep it together a little more from now.”

“Good.” I kissed her on the forehead and took hold of her hand. “And if there’s anything bothering you at all, please, talk to me about it when you can. I love you.”

“I love you too. And thank you.”

Judging that to be the end of the discussion, I returned to my seat with Mai in tow, ready to watch the next round of matches.

Unsurprisingly, the twins once again obliterated their competition. The other two matches before ours were a little closer, with each of the combatants showing significant skill in their own respective specialties.

“Looks like we’re up. It’s the telekinetic girl from before before, though I don’t know what power the other girl has. Let’s get going.”

“I’m right behind you.”

Our second match began, and Mai seemed to be more focused on the goal this time. The two of us moved up in unison, deciding to focus our attacks on the telekinetic girl since her ability could be used to remove us from the match area quite easily.

“Brace!”

Sure enough, I was hit with a strong telekinetic force as we approached, and without Mai’s pre warning I likely would have been knocked out of the ring.

I was able to brace my body enough to partially resist the force, being pushed near the boundary but stopping short of it. Mai herself was unaffected as I was the primary target, allowing her to launch a flurry of attacks with her rapier, all of which the telekinetic girl dodged backwards, steadily getting closer and closer to the edge.

Both I and the girl whose power was a mystery approached the two who were fighting at rapid speed. The enemy was closer, swinging her enormous greathammer at Mai’s body.

The swings were slow and Mai dodged easily, but lost her advantage against the telekinetic. With myself back in the fight, we switched targets to the girl with the hammer.

The two of us volleyed a barrage of attacks at the hammer wielder, who continued to block each and every one with incredible speed. Still, any person would eventually get overwhelmed by two desperate attackers at once.

Thinking I saw an opening, I prepared myself for a mighty swing with both axes, intending to either knock the hammer girl out or break the handle of her hammer had leave her defenceless.

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Mere moments before my attack was set to connect, however, I found myself being tackled to the ground.

“Mai?! What are you doing?!”

“It’s her power! She has the ability to deflect any direct attack and return it with a counter of double the strength! She was waiting for one of us to launch an attack strong enough to guarantee a knockout!”

Looking at the two opponents who were now watching us scramble to our feet, I felt stupid for falling for their trap. I should have been suspicious of the telekinetic girl standing back and letting her partner fight 2-on-1.

“Did you see a prediction of us getting knocked out or something?”

“No…. It’s something else…” as the four of us stood in a standoff, Mai stared intently at the small girl with the enormous hammer. “I think… I can understand them. Their abilities, their strengths, their weaknesses, I can see it all.” She spoke quietly enough that only I could hear it.

“Your second level?”

“I think so. Follow my lead, light attacks only.”

Without a further word, Mai once again rushed in toward the great hammer wielder, attacking her with quick stab after quick stab. While at first it seemed the approach was the same as before, I quickly realised what she was trying.

I got in as close as possible to help her, ensuring that I was close enough that any telekinetic attack would also blow away the hammer girl. Instead of looking for openings for a heavy attack, I continued to shower her with fast slashes and kicks that were too weak to waste the time countering.

The hammer girl continued to stumble backwards, and her telekinetic teammate failed to find any opening to help her. After I landed a successful calf kick that crippled the girl’s ability to dodge, it was clear she was getting desperate. We just had to keep up the pressure and…

“Duck!”

Mai’s foresight came just in time, allowing both of us to duck under the desperate counter attack that otherwise may have wiped us both out.

Having wasted her already limited range of motion with that sloppy counter, the hammer girl was powerless to stop the axe I had aimed for her abdomen, nor the rapier Mai had stabbed at her chest.

Two successful strikes at once. There was no doubt she was out.

“Good plan, Mai. Good thing they didn’t overhear us.”

“Yeah, I’m glad that w-… wait.. overhearing…”

Mai’s momentary spaciness almost cost her dearly, as the hammer girl’s telekinetic partner tried for a quick avenging kill by launching the defenceless Mai out of the ring. Had I not reacted fast enough to catch her, the match would have been rendered 1v1 again.

“Dammit Mai, keep your head in the game.”

“R-right, sorry.”

It was clear that something had distracted her once again. I felt bad for snapping, but a momentary lapse like that in a real fight could cost one their life.

“Just follow my lead and call out any foresight visions you see.”

“Y-yeah. Will do.”

I doubted her ability to keep her head screwed on well enough for the fight, but I didn’t have time to waste worrying about it.

I ran in an arc towards the girl’s right, indicating to Mai to do the same on her left. Surprisingly, she didn’t simply let out a single wave of telekinetic force this time, instead taking a defensive stance and awaiting our approach.

As soon as I attempted to attack, I understood why.

I dashed towards her and attempted a slash towards her body, only to watch her calmly step out of the way. To my horror, I was completely unable to slow my own movement, instead being pushed along by an invisible force right towards Mai.

This forced Mai to abandon her own attack and jump over my uncontrolled body, giving the telekinetic girl the chance to simply wave her hand and send the airborne Amai flying.

Both Mai and I landed just within the bounds of the ring, earning a disappointed ‘tch’ from the girl.

With so little movement, she had almost beaten both of us without any danger to herself. She was skilled.

I approached again, more carefully and with Mai running to join just a few steps behind. I lead with a side kick towards her head, but a light force pushed forward on my kicking heel and forced me to spin on the spot. Mai tried to take advantage of the girl’s focus on me but found her rapier arm being redirected away, her body weight thrown off balance by the sudden correction.

I righted myself and threw a fast slash with the axe towards her face, only to find my left foot dragged out from under me. The girl quickly switched her attention and redirected Mai’s kick to make her stumble backwards, before once again turning back to me and shoving me with a stronger telekinetic force than she had used yet.

I barely managed to stay in by the skin of my teeth. It was clear that she was originally trying to save her magic for the semi finals but was now using whatever she had to.

Fortunately for us, I hadn’t used magic at all yet.

Mai and the girl continued to fight, though it was hardly a fight with the telekinetic girl successfully using her power to casually throw off every attack Mai made.

In a desperate attempt to prevent Mai from being eliminated, I sprung into the air and fell towards the telekinetic girl at high speed. At least, that’s how it appeared to her.

The me in the air was just a shadow clone, with my true self cloaked in invisibility. The moment the girl aimed at the clone above her, I slide towards her low enough that I would avoid her magic and swept her foot out from under her.

Instantly picking up on the plan, Mai caught the falling girl on her foot and launched her with a powerful kick to the side. The girl landed well outside the ring, unable to stop her momentum even with her telekinesis.

The quarter finals ended in our victory.