The crowd were cheering louder than ever before, the back-to-back knockouts exciting every spectator that had showed up. Judging by how full the seating area was, I estimated that the majority (if not the entirety) of Hana’s 300 had now shown up to watch.

Among them was Saki, who had taken a direct hit from the special attack unleashed by the twins, and Hana, who had been beaten down so badly that Saki had carried her off the arena ground.

“Mai, you still got that rapier?”

“Yeah, but it won’t last a second against a pyro.”

“We only need it for finishing blows. Prepare to draw at a moment’s notice.”

“Way ahead of you, hun.”

Both Mai and I had powers based on utility, while the twins had offensive abilities. In short, we were massively outgunned. But as per the rules of the fight, we only needed a clean hit with a weapon to take one out.

“Shin, Mai, I’ll deal with Kyouma, just focus on the twins!”

Before I even had a chance to consider the threat of the flying chuuni, Nao had already descended upon her with the speed and power of a hunting falcon. The two of them became interlocked in an aerial duel of such speed it was difficult to keep up with by eye.

“You lovebirds gonna stand there gawking all day, or are you gonna fight us?”

Hikari taunted myself and Mai, reminding us that we were fighting a match and not watching a falconry show.

With the two leaders down and the two aerial aces locked in combat, the four of us left on the ground were free to openly engage at a moment’s notice.

Romantic love against familial love. We were ready to test which was stronger.

“Shin, do you trust me enough to guide you through this?”

“You’ve got me this far. I won’t start doubting you now.”

“Good. Then let’s get this show on the road.”

Mai and I had a single trump card left: the twins didn’t know the nature of Mai’s power yet. That meant we had one reckless idea left that could possibly clinch victory.

I sized my opponents up with one quick look. They were close enough to protect each other, but not so close as to limit one another’s movement. Body type wise they were effectively identical, but Suzume was consistently half a step slower than Hikari.

Determining Suzume to be the better target, I nodded at Mai before running with everything I had toward Suzume’s flank.

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“Dodge right!”

Following close behind me was Mai, calling out to me every time her clairvoyance predicted an attack.

We both stepped right and continued moving forward, dodging the icicle launched for our heads.

“Slide!”

A jet of icy wind blew over the top of my head as I heeded Mai’s advice, sliding underneath the attack and getting extremely close to Suzume in one single move.

I used my last bit of magical power to show a momentary illusion of me aiming a punch for the liver, causing Suzume to lower her hands from her face and leaving me an easy window to land an uppercut that threw her up and off her feet. I spun as she arced through the air and landed a chest kick as she fell toward the ground.

As Suzume went sailing through the air, her sister slid underneath and landed a powerful punch to my stomach, followed quickly by a hook to the cheek that momentarily dazed me. She almost finished me off with a direct fireball to the face, but was interrupted by the point of a sword, Mai having predicted the attack and countering in my defence.

Hikari narrowly dodged the stab from the rapier, but failed to predict my follow up low kick to her right leg, causing her to momentarily stumble. She just about rebalanced in time to deflect the Mai’s second stab, but I was able to immediately bat the blocking hand away and land a straight left to the nose. As Hikari reeled and held her face with her left arm, she raised her right arm to launch a desperate fire blast, but I grappled it and threw my leg behind her, performing a throw that sent her to the ground hard.

Mai moved to finish the job with a stab, but suddenly switched to a defensive stance, just barely protecting against the surprise flying kick from Suzume who had quietly returned to her feet.

Suzume continued to attack Mai, hounding her with ice blast after ice blast. I interrupted her with a kick that forced her to turn her attention to me, at which point I unleashed a quick one-two into her guard followed by a devastating liver punch that forced her to retreat in pain. I stepped forward finish her off with a hook, but was surprised to find myself suddenly pushed back by my own fiancée.

“Wai-!”

Mai cut me off by just about pushing me out of the danger zone of the fire blast from Hikari, though she was engulfed in the (nearly harmless) flames herself.

Mai was out, but with quick thinking I caught the rapier she dropped before it hit the ground and dashed forward at lightning speed, finishing Suzume off with a stab to the chest.

All that remained on the ground was myself and Hikari.

Neither of us wasted a moment of time, with Hikari firing her largest flame blast yet towards me. The blast failed to affect me at all, however, and I pushed straight through it to strike Hikari with the now burning rapier, eliminating her from the match.

As she smoke settled, Hikari looked confused at my complete lack of smouldering, right up until the hero who saved the match landed next to me.

“Thanks for the last-second barrier, Nao. Kyouma give you much trouble?”

“You wore her down quite a lot for me. Good work on the ground.”

The reality of the situation set in for Hikari as she heard us talking.

Just as Hikari eliminated Mai, I had noticed Kyouma sailing out of the arena and into the wall outside of the marked area. Putting my faith in Nao, I chose to push through the attack in hopes of receiving a barrier instead of continuing to dodge and losing the chance for a finishing strike.

My gamble had paid off, and I was able to win the match with some help from my quick-thinking teammate.

Saki and Hana, now able to walk on her own again, rushed over to us. Hana grabbed one of my hands and one of Sunao’s, raising them above our heads and pointing us toward the now-enormous crowd.

“After a hard fought battle, I hereby declare Saki’s team the undisputed victor!”

The arena erupted into cheers, and for the first time in her life Nao got to be the centre of attention for an adoring crowd.