Ryan was seated on the edge of one of the desks, watching everyone get ready again. They had just taken a bit of a longer break, now that half of the Duels had all been fought. Just from those six duels, Ryan learned a lot of things.

All the Duellists were unique, and as Richie had said, they all had their own gimmicks. There was one that detached its limbs from its body, letting them move around independently. Another that flew with thin butterfly-like wings. By now he had either fought them himself, or got to watch them fight other duels while Ryan and Maximus were taking a break, and Ryan couldn't wait to get his turn. It was all so impressive.

There was only one person that he hadn't seen fight yet. Rather, that person wasn't even here right now. This person called 'Vanda', who had already been pushed to the back of the turn order, but was still running late.

"Hey, everyone," before the first duels post-break were to start, Richie made a short announcement, "So, Vanda is on her way, there was an emergency she had to take care of. She'll be here in around ten, maybe fifteen minutes. Because she's a bit late, it's probably going cause some issues with the duel order, so anyone that doesn't have the time, or simply doesn't want to, stay later to get their turn with Vanda's Duellist is obviously free to leave at any point."

Ryan glanced down at his phone to check the time. 3pm. Silvia and him didn't have anything to do today, and even Modak didn't have work, so they could all stay here until basically the end. Though, ever since earlier, Silvia's been kind of on-edge. It felt a bit uncomfortable to Ryan, but he also understood why she reacted as she did. It wasn't the kind of thing you saw every day. Maybe she wanted to leave earlier, maybe she was going to stick around. Either way, Ryan wanted her to do whatever she felt was right. Though, it did mean that him and Silvia were stuck in an awkward silence while Ryan tried not to let his mind run too far with what Silvia could possibly be thinking about.

Modak wasn't here to fill up this awkward air either; he was busy talking with the club members about their projects, and even showed off his 'Magic Cassette' to them.

Before long, finally breaking the silence, Richie came up to Ryan, "Are you ready to go?"

"Hell yeah, we are," Ryan replied with a broad grin, pushing himself off the edge of the table, "I've been watching your duels the whole time, looks like you improved Roxie a bit since last time."

"Just some fine-tuning," smugly, Richie turned around, quickly walking to the 'arena' for this duel, "I've been watching you two as well, you've got a pretty damn good win record going."

Ryan smiled lightly, for a moment focusing on Maximus as he sat in the domain, getting ready to come out, "Yeah, I guess so," he agreed. Ryan and Maximus had won most of the fights, with a only four total rounds being taken from them so far. Once they got used to the gimmick of the specific Duellist, they were able to react pretty quickly and figure out some ways to beat the duellist.

As the duel was about to start, Maximus quickly stepped out of the domain, getting into the position on his side of the arena.

"Ready?" Richie asked, putting on those special Technomancer gloves of his. Ryan quickly nodded, activating his Spirit Link skill. It actually levelled up once today, just before that longer break earlier.

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[Spirit Link]

[Level - 4] [Proficiency - 4%]

[Allows for the user to mentally link with the target Spirit, guiding their actions. During the activation period, the user has an extremely strong understanding of the target Spirit's body and the effect of their skills]

[Effect - Spirit Link for 11 Minutes]

[Cost - 10.75 MP] [Cooldown - 40 Minutes 30 Seconds]

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It wasn't a massive difference, obviously. 20 more seconds for the effect, ten more seconds for the cooldown, and a slight increase in the mana cost. There also seemed to be a bit of an improvement in the actual 'Link' between Ryan and Maximus, but he wasn't sure if that was actually because of the skill or because he had spent all day very actively using it.

The magical thread formed between Ryan and the spirit standing in front of him. Ryan glanced at the countdown, waiting for it to reach zero. And the moment it did, both Maximus and Roxie started moving. However, they didn't run at each other, as was the case with a lot of other rounds and duels in general. Instead, they were both acting very cautiously. Roxie had extremely high power output and could move in ways that neither Ryan nor Maximus were really used to. Flying or jumping around mid-air even were things that you could gain some insight into, to a degree at least. But with Roxie, its movements could seem almost random at times as its momentum suddenly just changed completely. Whatever that thing that Richie was using to make this happen was, it was a ridiculous invention, and Roxie was an even more ridiculous application of it.

Similarly, Richie was cautious of the pair in front of him because they were just good at fighting; there was not much more to say about it. The skill and control they showed during all the duels so far was something that really put Richie on edge, whether it was when Ryan was the one in control, or when Maximus was acting on his own.

Maximus slowly crept forward, trying to close the distance between himself and Roxie. The problem with Roxie was that it could start moving at literally a moment's notice. Richie could use his magic to manipulate the flow of energies throughout Roxie's bodies with the help of that energy transformer inside of it. That meant that Roxie could reach sprinting speeds without a moment's hesitation.

Of course, at first it seemed a little confusing why exactly Richie was doing this; it was extremely wasteful, and you couldn't sell any new inventions or applications to others if actually making use of them meant you needed to use technomancy. But the moment that Ryan heard that Richie already had a job lined up for after his graduation, things started to make sense.

Different to all the other people in the club, Richie wasn't trying to advertise anything with this project. He was really just trying to have fun. He didn't have to worry too much about energy-efficiency, and he also didn't need to create something marketable, and could just do whatever he wanted to.

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Before long, Maximus and Roxie were close enough for a proper collision to happen any moment now. Ryan and Maximus decided to take the initiative.

Ryan threw a punch forward and Maximus copied it perfectly. Roxie immediately blocked the attack, as a sudden jolt of movement practically pushed the robot out of the way. Maximus immediately closed the gap and struck at Roxie once more, but as the two came into contact, sparks flew around and Ryan could feel an electrical heat flowing through Maximus' arm.

While Roxie lost some points, so did Maximus, even if a bit less than the robot. Clearly, this was a type of fight that Ryan and Maximus had to be particularly careful of; even if they did everything right and Maximus was never hit, he would still take damage from the specific type of defence on Roxie's body.

"So annoying," Ryan muttered, a broad grin plastered on his face. What followed was a quick-paced exchange of attacks, all of which were relatively weak. It felt like both Ryan and Richie wanted to stretch the fight out as much as possible; if either Roxie and Maximus landed a couple strong hits on the other, the round would be over, and that was something neither side seemed to want to come all too soon.

But what made things particularly rough for Ryan and Maximus was just the ridiculous ways that Roxie was moving. During the last fight earlier this week, that 'momentum cancelling' was used on Roxie's body as a whole. It would stop moving and then start moving and then stop and start; it was jarring, but it was something that still had some level of predictability because there were a limited number of things Roxie could do next. This time around, however, this seemed to have been applied to every small part of the robot's body separately.

While running around, its leg would suddenly stop moving, or its upper body would slow down while its arm sped up. These movements were erratic and almost seemed random, as if Richie was just having fun messing around. Of course, there were plenty of attacks mixed into the fray, but in the end, due to Maximus' defensive capabilities, especially with his 'Knight's Guard' skill active, it wasn't anything all too troublesome just yet. It was just that Maximus and Roxie were practically dancing around each other, hit after hit whittling down on each other's points, until they both ended up with less than ten.

Roxie - 8 | Maximus - 9

It was to the degree that a single perfect hit could end the whole thing. Ryan and Richie glanced at each other, locking eyes for just a moment. And as they did, Roxie was suddenly pushed forward. When close enough, its body leaned backward, as if locked in space, while its lower body rapidly sped up and a kick was quickly directed at Maximus. The knight stepped back and returned a kick on his own. Their legs hit each other with a clang and sparks flew out.

Roxie - 4 | Maximus - 3

After the legs impacted and were bounced back, Ryan pushed forward his arm to have Maximus reach out to Roxie's leg, using the momentum from his own leg being bounced away, but just before he could grab it, the leg suddenly stopped moving and seemed to change directions almost instantly. Ryan smirked lightly as Maximus' other arm was already in the way of the new direction, hidden in Richie's narrow blind spot right behind Roxie's body. Maximus managed to grab the leg and lock it down, but sparks immediately flew as Maximus pulled at Roxie's leg, forcing the distance to close one way or another, while throwing a punch.

Simultaneously, the contenders snapped their heads toward the Monitor.

Roxie - 0 | Maximus - 0

"Wait, seriously? It's a tie?" Ryan scoffed loudly, though he really wasn't mad about it. It was a fun match, all things considered. Similarly, Richie didn't seem to be upset about the outcome either.

"Well, that's some good data... I guess?" Richie laughed, quickly looking over at Ryan, "You ready for round two?"

"Right away? Don't you need to check on Roxie first?"

"Already have. I can passively sense every type of electronic around me, and if I concentrate, I can look a bit deeper. And when I'm directly synced with it like with Roxie, I just know everything right away," Richie explained quickly, snapping his finger to reset the points on the monitor. Roxie also moved back to its initial position, and now the only one that had to make a choice was Ryan.

He looked down at Maximus, locking eyes with him. He didn't hesitate to nod.

"Alright, sure. We're good to go right again as well," Ryan replied, and Richie immediately started the countdown. The moment it hit zero, Maximus and Roxie started inching toward each other. Different to before, they had a good feeling for the other, and had less of a need to be this hesitant.

This time around, the first strike came from Roxie. It was a simple jab that Maximus could easily dodge, but the distance was closed immediately. Roxie's momentum stopped, but in return, its fist shot forward like a bullet, scraping by Maximus' armour. However, the attacks weren't boosted through electricity.

'So he's just forcing the full body's electricity into just the arm?' Ryan thought to himself, trying to think about a way to react. And that was when the next jab came. Just then, Ryan threw up a punch on his own targeted at the underside of Roxie's arm. Maximus broke the robot's balance and moved in closer, almost not giving Roxie the opportunity to move back. Even if Richie created momentum for the robot, that momentum wouldn't be fast enough to escape right away.

Maximus reached out and grabbed Roxie's shoulder, pushing down onto it to try and stop any further movement. Though a strike from Roxie came, Maximus had the opportunity to easily target the robot's body. As he did, a large shock of electricity flowed through Maximus' body as Roxie also grabbed the knight's shoulder. It was like being tased, a massive flow of electricity shooting through his whole upper body. It didn't hurt, but it felt quite bad for another reason.

Either way, Maximus had to release and step back, but this time, Roxie closed the distance. Maximus tried to raise his arms to block, but something stopped him.

A sudden jolt of confusion flowed through him as he felt something approach from behind. A familiar energy, together with a strong pull that forced Ryan and Maximus both to turn around immediately. This seemed to come from Maximus, but Ryan felt something else as well. In her domain, Gaia's fragment was shivering.

But all that he could see was a young Hobgoblin making her way into the room, sweat running down her face and heavy breaths making her chest rise and drop rapidly.

"What the-" Ryan let out confused, but just then, Maximus was struck by Roxie, and it pulled the two of them back out of that sudden sensation. Ryan looked at Richie, "Sorry, but... I just... Is she a member?"

Richie looked at Ryan confused, trying to understand why exactly he just interrupted the duel for no reason. He looked past Ryan and at the door, "Yeah, that's Vanda, what about her? Come on, let's just continue. Your skill doesn't last that long, does it?"

"I mean sure, but..." he had been completely taken out of the situation. He knew that there was something going on, but how the hell was this random girl supposed to have a fragment?

Maximus seemed quite focused on the fragment as well, but after him and Ryan locked eyes for a moment, it seemed like he understood what Ryan wanted to do. He couldn't just walk up to Vanda and demand the spirit core. After all, he had no idea what she was doing with it, or why she even had it on her.

'I mean, the last one was inside a dungeon heart... something sketchy is going on, so I need to be careful', Ryan thought to himself. A spirit core's fragment wasn't the sort of thing you could just find laying around on the street. Obviously he wanted to just demand it from her right this second, but that seemed far too risky.

Before continuing the round, though, he looked inward. He looked at the fragment of Gaia, floating in the middle of her domain, 'I'm sorry... I'll get you fixed up soon, but I can't be rash. I hope you understand'.

With anxiety welling up in his stomach, Ryan looked back at the gnome across from him. He took a deep breath, and got ready to continue.