When Kiyomi went into the cave, she conjured up a black chair by the wall and sat.

The rest of the team went further in, closer to the center by the lake to start the fight.

Some of Kiyomi’s best spells relied on her shadow. Once it was present, she could use the spells, including Shadow Eater. She looked to the ground, hardly able to see her shadow. Well, as long as she would get her team’s consent when it really mattered, she could just use their spells, especially Razor’s; his own mattered the most. But it was too early to tell whether her team was reliable.

A wide circle of nagas spawned and surrounded them. There weren’t any safe spots, so the closest ones began slithering Kiyomi’s way. The further ones didn’t notice her, thanks to her Night Cloak that made her a little harder to detect from a distance in the semi-darkness.

Kiyomi opened black puddles under the approaching nagas. They sank into the puddles and vanished. The holes shut. Problem solved. That trick worked with weak mobs. She resummoned her chair and sat again to watch.

Rika summoned her skeletons, which easily outnumbered the nagas. The giant ones crushed some of the nagas under their feet.

Razor went all over the place and killed each naga with just one cut from his dagger. He cut down the numbers with impressive speed.

Everyone else spread out, going heavy on their AOE attacks and hitting as many as they could because they knew they only had 30 seconds. And if they didn’t kill all 100 nagas by then, the phase would restart.

Kiyomi thought about Chelsea. Her Weapon Art would be ideal here. The team had good AOE Weapon Arts too though from what she had seen during the PvP match. The Arts would help, but the issue was time. It was hard to fill up a gauge before 30 seconds unless they killed an absurd amount and popped a long chain of skills that was faster than one could consciously think.

“WEAPON ART: SHOCKWAVE!” Razor yelled.

Wow, that was quick. Kiyomi was amazed.

He had knocked down a good portion. He plunged his dagger into the ground below him and dispersed a shockwave in a wide radius around him, hitting most of the nagas.

The other DPSers with the tanks’ help and Rika’s skeletons finished off the remainder with their blades at close range. Arrows rained down from the air to add damage.

The last of the nagas fell. Corpses littered the ground.

“Yeah! We made it through phase 1!” Rika happily jumped.

“Don’t celebrate yet.” Razor looked around, keeping his guard up.

Everyone fell quiet and stayed vigilant. Phase 2 was about to start…

~~~

“Drink! Drink! Drink! Drink! Drink! Drink! Drink! Keep going! ” Princess Vanescka watched as Enya forced the chocolate milk down her throat from the glass.

Enya gradually lifted the bottom as she downed it. She lowered the empty glass.

“See? It wasn’t so bad, was it?” She grinned. “Now for the strawberry!”

Enya dropped the empty glass and covered her mouth. She wanted to puke.

~~~

Nobody moved.

Sako stood at the edge of the airship. She had used the ring to fly up onto the deck.

The hat girl from earlier stood at another end of the ship, pointing two long revolvers—one at Sako and one at Le Francia who stood at the center.

Chelsea floated in the air not far away, sword drawn at Le Francia. Her cape flapped freely in the wind.

“If ah had a third one, you’d get one too.” The girl kept her eyes fixed on Le Francia while she chewed on something. But they all knew that remark was for Chelsea.

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“Can… we talk this through?” Sako didn’t know why she had bothered asking. It was a habit.

As expected, they all ignored her.

Sako took one of her usual combat stances: hands up and apart, fingers curled slightly inwards, forming a half-fist to help limit the strength of her blows, feet apart. She was ready to get semi-aggressive.

Le Francia adjusted her glasses with a hand. Her sword casually revolved around her protectively. She held a book in one hand.

The girl fingered her triggers.

Chelsea glanced at the girl.

The girl glanced back at Chelsea and even turned her head towards her.

Le Francia followed suit, eyes on Chelsea.

Sako’s intuition told her not to look at Chelsea, so she remained still as a mannequin, eyes straight ahead at the girl. She focused on the girl’s gun barrels, unsure of why she and Le Francia were looking at Chelsea. “So…”

Everyone was still. The only sounds were distant screaming and clinking far below on the field with the whirring of the blackhole.

Curiosity nibbled at Sako. Don’t look. Don’t look. Don’t…

A minute passed…

Another minute passed…

Another…

Sako gave in and turned her head to look at Chelsea.

BANG! The bullet left the gun barrel.

Sako had fallen for it. She shifted her face in line with the bullet’s trajectory, caught it between her teeth, and spat it at Le Francia, full speed.

Le Francia didn’t react as if she had seen it coming. CLINK. Her sword deflected it to Chelsea.

CLINK. Chelsea deflected it to the girl.

CLINK. The girl deflected it back to Sako with one gun.

Sako ducked. The bullet zipped over her head. Enough of that plan. It wouldn’t work. And how the girl had managed to deflect that with her gun was beyond her.

The girl focused both guns on Le Francia and emptied them.

Le Francia looked her way. The sword stretched, morphed into a black wall between Le Francia and the girl, and absorbed the bullets. It turned back to its original shape and flew at the girl.

While Le Francia had her eyes off Chelsea, Chelsea took the chance and swooped down from the air and swung her blade at her neck.

Le Francia pulled a dagger out and parried.

The girl knocked the sword away with one of her guns.

The sword came back to stab Chelsea.

Chelsea flew back, avoiding it. It followed her as she flew higher and higher into the air.

With Le Francia’s back turned and unguarded, Sako closed the distance and swung her half-fist.

At the last moment, a portal opened between Le Francia’s back and Sako. Sako couldn’t stop her momentum in time, so she fell in.

The portal opened by the girl and Sako’s half-fist went right into her side.

The girl cried out as Sako hit her into the air. She went across the ship and crashed into one of the masts and fell.

“Sorry!” Sako shouted.

Chelsea was busy with her own sword fight with Le Francia’s sword.

Le Francia tossed her dagger at Sako.

Sako caught it by the hilt and threw it over the side of the ship.

A deafening DING sounded from around them. Everything changed.

The distant whirring stopped.

Le Francia’s sword dropped from the sky and hit the ship’s deck. All the life and magical energy it had earlier was gone.

Chelsea fell from the air. When she fell on her feet, she rolled across the deck to roll out the impact and help her landing. Her blade fell near her.

Le Francia’s expression turned tense. She looked annoyed. She went to the gunwale where Sako had tossed the dagger overboard and looked down at the field, scanning the area. “Did they actually…” She mumbled to herself.

The girl lying on a far side of the ship hadn’t gotten up.

Sako had questions. Last time she checked, her Agility was higher than Le Francia’s, yet Le Francia had been able to counter her easily. It was a mystery to be solved later. And as for what had just happened—

Everything began tilting to one side. Sako and Chelsea slid across the deck.

Le Francia took up her sword, plunged it into the board under her feet, and held onto it tightly to avoid sliding and falling.

Chelsea had the same idea.

Sako free fell to one side and crashed into a cabin door, smashing her head against the glass. The glass window on the door shattered on impact.

The unconscious girl's body slipped across the deck and bumped into Sako's feet.

The wind around the slanted ship turned violent. The air pressure grew intense.

She took a minute to collect her jumbled thoughts while holding her head in her hand. She had a heavy, throbbing headache. Once her head cleared a little, she lifted it. “What's going on?!” she yelled to Chelsea who was across the deck.

“We're falling!” she replied.

“Why?!”

“I think the engines failed! There's no magic!”

Sako looked at the ring on her finger and tried to summon the magic in it and fly, but it didn’t work. Uh-oh…