The round began when the bell rang. Lyra, infuriated by Setsuna's lack of conscience, charged straight for her.
"Lyra, you got this!" Soma exclaimed, worried for his friend.
Lyra glanced at Soma's hologram, but when she looked back in Setsuna's direction, she was gone.
"Where are you?" Lyra said, rage built up.
Suddenly, Lyra felt a sharp sting on her shoulder, similar to a falling kick. She staggered forward, where she regained her balance
"Oh, now this is a sight. The Yama factions' prodigal daughter being filled with rage."Setsuna said, who went for a kick on Lyra's face.
"The moment I land a hit on you, I swear, you will not walk away unscathed!!" Lyra yelled.
"I'd like to see you try, Empress." Setsuna giggled.
Setsuna then appeared and disappeared, inflicting blows on Lyra from every possible direction. from the bleachers, Soma observed Lyra's hit points. "75%" he murmured. Lyra tried to grab Setsuna when she attacked but kept missing.
"Lyra…"
Soma glanced at Hyas, shocked to see his face being filled with silent distress. Hyas was fidgeting in his seat. He looked uneasy.
"Setsuna's actually doing it.." Calder muttered.
"What are you saying Calder? Lyra's going to beat her! We know she can!!" Isla reassured.
Lyra stood in the middle of the ring, taking all the blows Setsuna landed on her. Setsuna's cackle rang in her head.
"What's wrong Empress? Surrendering already?" Setsuna said, who still laughed and mocked her as she landed blows on Lyra.
"I'm glad to have been matched against you, I gotta thank Professor Argo for this!"
This persisted for quite some time, taking knees to the shin, elbows, even her back. Lyra appeared helpless in a fight of speed, where she simply stood there and took it. Setsuna then appeared right in front of her, leaned in, and waved her hand in front of her face.
"You there Empress? Hello? It's not fun for me to kick your ass when you're not doing anything you know?" Setsuna said as she proceeded to slap her in the face, where Lyra fell to the ground.
Hyas, disgusted by this act immediately stood up and prepared to jump out of the bleachers, but Soma held him back.
"L-Let go!" He demanded
"Even if I did, you still can't jump in there, Professor Argo teleports only the students fighting." Soma said with a level head
Setsuna then held onto her sickle which started glowing purple.
"Ahhh~ what a shame, I guess i'll have to take you out before you even put up a fight. You even had shit to say, oh what was that? Don't talk about your brother? Just be glad he's scared of being a Mage now instead of being eaten by Wraiths!" Setsuna teased, mocking Lyra.
Lyra saw her approaching her, ready to take a blow, with her vision going black.
A large oriental city is on the base of a large mountain. Curved rooftops reinforced the buildings with green crystals that glowed when a gust hit them. A little girl with black hair in a ponytail ran around this bustling city with a little boy, who tried to keep up with her.
"Lyra, slow down, I can't keep up." the boy said catching his breath.
"Kouhei you need to get some exercise. Besides, if we miss the mochi, mom's going to kill us." Lyra explained, who went to hold his hand and pulled him along.
As the two made it to a food stand, there was mochi displayed in a glass container. Kouhei was mesmerized by all the different flavors and sizes.
"I'll have two dozen mochi please." Lyra grinned to the cashier.
"Hello little Lyra, oh you brought your little brother with you too" the man said, who had spiky black hair and appeared to be in his thirties.
"H-Hello..I'm Kouhei..It's nice to meet you sir." Kouhei stuttered, who immediately turned timid and hid behind his older sister.
Lyra smiled, paid for the mochi, and headed out. The Three said their goodbyes, then Kouhei looked back and gave a small wave.
"I can't wait to get back!" Kouhei sighed. "I'm so tired…"
"We'll take a break shortly, but we have to hurry or the mochi will melt." Lyra ushered Kouhei along.
As the two walked back, Kouhei noticed random reflections around them. He pulled her sleeve and she nodded, in which she jumped backwards.
"We know you're there, come on out" Lyra shouted, in an intimidating tone.
A little girl with short purple hair appeared in front of them. She wore black shorts with suspenders that matched. Her shirt is a white collared shirt with ripped sleeves with a cherry blossom print.
"What a shame, I thought you'd walk into my trap" The little girl said.
"What's your plan Setsuna?" Lyra said, who hid her brother behind her.
"That mochi. It's mine." Setsuna said, as she pointed towards the mochi in the bag.
"No way! That's for my mom!"
"Then I'll have to forcefully take it from you. How does that sound?" Setsuna said sharpening her sickles.
"Then I'll just do this! Kouhei!!" Lyra yelled and Kouhei immediately jumped in front of her and chanted.
"[Light Art] - Blinding Rays!" he said, where the path was filled with white, and the two children disappeared.
"Tsk, they got away! Umeko! Mei!!" Setsuna yelled, as two other girls appeared.
"They ran to the marketplace! Let's chase em down!" Setsuna said, as she rallied the two other girls and jumped along the walls, pursuing the brother and sister.
Kouhei and Lyra ran ahead to a bustling marketplace where they noticed the three girls chasing them. They took a sharp turn into an alley to lose them, but as they walked straight ahead they heard a voice.
"Oh what a shame, you really thought you'd escape?" Setsuna said, who appeared in front of them, while Umiko and Mei appeared behind them.
"Now, give us the mochi and nobody gets hurt." Setsuna held out her hand.
"No, we promised our mother to take this back with her! We won't give you the mochi!"
"Just give it up already, we got you outnumbered" Umiko shrugged.
"Yeah, just give it" Mei said, who held a knife in her hand.
Lyra stood there with Kouhei, who still grasped the box of mochi in the bag. They both, in sync, shook their heads silently.
"Well I have no choice then. Umiko, Mei, beat them up" Setsuna said as she pointed at the siblings.
The two girls nodded with grins, revealing their fangs and jumped for Lyra and proceeded to beat her up, utilizing reflections similar to what Kouhei spotted early on. Lyra tried to fight back but it was for naught as she was unarmed. She then tried a spell.
"Justice Art - [Restrained convict]!"
However, the chains were too slow and easily deflected by the two.
"S-Stop this!" Kouhei said, who also said the same spell but he managed to restrain the two's arms.
Lyra, shocked by this demonstration, went for a kick to the stomach for both of the girls and they immediately fell unconscious.
She looked back at the horror of Kouhei, who was celebrating her brief victory, was met with Setsuna right behind him. He was kicked on the back of the head, gave Lyra a weak smile, and was kicked against the wall, bleeding.
"KOUHEI NO!!!!" Lyra screamed, who broke into tears.
Setsuna laughed, and prepared to take out her sickle and ran towards her with full speed. Lyra then fell unconscious with teary eyes.
Some time later, she was awoken by her mother's voice who yelled her name and shook her. Lyra got up in shock, to see Kouhei in a stretcher being carried off.
"M-Mom! Kouhei and I were-" Lyra said as her head started hurting.
"Rest, child. I heard what happened, we're taking care of it."
"B-But Kouhei! Setsuna kicked him on the head!" Lyra said in distress.
Lyra's mother, who tried to keep calm for her child, had tears in her eyes.
"We know…" Lyra's mother said, as tears broke out and flowed down her eyes.
Lyra looked down and noticed a small white blade made of energy that seemed to vanish into thin air.
Lyra came to her senses, at the point where Setsuna was about to land a final blow towards her shoulder using a sickle. Lyra, without thinking, grabbed Setsuna's wrist, catching her by surprise.
"Kouhei…." Lyra said as her hands glowed white.
"Was a better mage than me…. He dreamed of becoming a mage the Tau family was going to be proud of… When he was only eight years old..."
"You sent him to the hospital, where he's in a coma! ALL BECAUSE OF YOUR
SELFISHNESS!!"
"Justice Art - [CHAINS OF IMPRISONMENT]!!" Lyra said, with her black hair's ends emitting silver flames.
Chains suddenly appeared around Setsuna, but she smirked and attempted to deflect them, but this time, they did not falter. Her smirk dissapeared when she was restrained as she was hit with silver energy blades that cut her and disappeared.
Setsuna's hit points dropped below 30%, where Lyra was currently at 25%.
"H-How did you do that?! I thought you were-"
"Subpar? You're right..I am..But, because Kouhei was supposed to be the one going here instead of me. I wanted to take his place, to carry the dream he once had. After all those hits you landed on me...It's time I returned this energy back to the sender."
Lyra then chanted as Setsuna was restrained:
"Justice Sign - [Forgiving blow]"
White energy enveloped Lyra's left hand as she built it up and sent it all to Setsuna's stomach in a punch, immediately dropping her hit points to zero, making her collapse.
"Setsuna Ea is unable to battle due to damages received. The victor is Lyra Tau!" Professor Argo announced.
Soma, Hyas and the rest of the class got up and cheered for their friend as she waved at them. She collapsed on her knees and was teleported out. Setsuna on the other hand, appeared to have sustained damage but was not bleeding.
Soma and Hyas prepared to get up but Calder blocked both of them and pointed at the intercom window, where Professor Argo was gazing from afar.
"W-Wow, what an amazing turn of events for Class Theta" Professor Argo said over the intercom.
"Who're you talking to Professor Argo?" Apollyon questioned.
"Oh, right, what I was supposed to tell you after the match! Every other class is watching you guys" She said witha big grin.
"WHAAAAAA" The whole class went, shocked at the twist.
"Anyway, we must proceed with the third round!" Professor Argo announced.
As the portraits spun to choose the next two combatants, Soma and Hyas felt uneasy due to the fight prior. Hyas gazed at the portraits for him to see the next two students, his eyes widened.
"The next round…" Professor Argo said, with buildup.
Soma looked at Hyas and nodded, whereas Calder, Apollyon, Hana, and Lopa all looked at him. Hyas sighed and stood up, hands in his pockets.
"Hyas Tempesto versus Seth Superbia!"
Hyas, before being teleported, gazed to the left end of the bleachers, to see Seth. He had obsidian hair with a snake marking on his right cheek and triangular markings on the left and right side of his chin, resembling snake fangs. He wore a black cloak where the ends were purple. The cloak's hood had similar markings, with the snake's head printed on both sides of the hood, which trailed down. Underneath the cloak was a dark purple sleeveless suit vest, with a black undershirt. Seth also wore a dark indigo scarf, which faded to a neon yellow on the ends. He sported black slacks that had a similar motif to his cloak, snake prints that trailed downwards.
"I won't make the same mistake as Setsuna, Storm Celestial" Seth declared.
"You're going to pay for your group doing that to Lyra." Hyas said, with a sudden change in personality.
"H-Hyas?" Soma said, concerned for his friend.
He gave a smile and said "Don't worry Soma, I'm fine, I just have a score to settle."
Hyas was teleported from the gym and into the arena.
"Good luck, Seth" a brown haired boy with a leaf on his head said.
"If you go next round, you better win, Trompo." he replied.
Seth was then teleported into the arena. A hologram of Professor Argo appeared right in front of them, which then spoke:
"The round begins on the count of three, take your stances gentlemen."
Hyas prepared to take a stance as he pulled out several small crystals from his pouch.
"Three"
The two shared glares, prepared to take each other out.
"Two"
Seth looked on the ground, gave a smirk and suddenly, the prints from his cloak and slacks popped out, revealing snakes made of energy.
"One"
Hyas charged his palms with electricity and prepared to flick a crystal at Seth.
"BEGIN!!!"
The moment Professor Argo said that word, a flashing line of blue and purple that came from both sides immediately zoomed past each other, grazing both combatants' cheeks.
"Oh? We're starting with this already?" Seth said, calmly.
"I'll make sure you lose this round….because…" Hyas insisted, electric sparks surging around him.
"I'M PUMPED UP!!" With a massive grin on his face.