Prince Sorbek concentrated as blue energy traveled into his sword; both water and wind energy could be seen traveling up his blade. We had seen the combo of wind and water before—it was storm-like energy, right? However, I wasn't truly sure if that was the real concentrated combo since icy energy now flowed around the prince. The prince held his sword with both hands and took a swing with the concentrated energy. He shouted, "Cryogenic Crescent!" The icy air around his blade shot forward in a crescent slash. The boy on the side holding his sword was mercifully cut first; the slash was very large and also hit the professor in front. It didn't knock him down fully, but behind him, Professor Princeton was ready to capitalize.
He yelled out, "West Wind!" Wind began to form on the side of Professor Rosewald as he barely avoided the crescent blade of ice; he collided with the west wind spell. The spell cut the side of his body, bringing him to the floor almost gracefully. Kaiser, behind both of them, took advantage of the chaos. He and Arthur swooped in to clean up the rest. The blonde-haired girl, who hadn't done much in the last battle, tried to cast some kind of barrier. However, Kaiser and Arthur combined spells to cleave two opponents at once.
Arthur shot out his fire wind blade at the shy boy in the center with blue hair. He cast, "King Parrot!" A similar crescent-style slash was brought down upon the boy, who held his chest as the slash cut him to pieces he was unable to withstand the chaos unfolding. Kaiser took aim at the blonde-haired girl, who was trying to form an earth barrier around herself. Kaiser shot out from his hands a familiar move, "Nessus Storm!" A powerful rush of both wind and water surged forward, knocking the blonde girl against the barrier closest to her very hard she fell down, defeated. Only one member stood left; it was the brown-haired girl we had seen before. She called out a spell, "Black Box!" A dark square formed in front of her, shooting out a blast of dark energy that tried to wrap around Prince Sorbek.
He didn't even react; instead, in a calm manner, he held out his hand at her, "Bang." He fired a finger pistol at her. A beam shot past him as he did this, and from behind, Gwen shouted, "Aurora Beam!" Dark and light energy converged to create a powerful beam of light that completely lit up the girl before she had time to react. I was in a state of shock; it was a clean sweep. Nobody was even injured; it was amazing. I mean, our battle had technically been a sweep since we hadn't lost anyone, but it was a lot closer—we got pretty badly beat up. This was the opposite of our battle; it was a complete stomp. Team Dream received no damage.
Even Eris barely had any words as she stated, "Folks, we have a merciless victory here today in the losers' bracket. Team Starlight is out of the tournament! They have been mercilessly beaten down! We need medical staff right away; this was a complete loss for Starlight. Team Dream will move on to the next round!" Cheers could be felt throughout the audience, but I felt dread; this Prince Sorbek was very strong. Not only was his ice attack impressive, but that armor was almost cheating—I mean, he had taken no damage. Quinn seemed to agree, "Magic won't work on him; we will need to come up with something else. I think he will only go down if we physically beat him down."
Lysandra added, "Not a good match for my fire magic either." Lulith chimed in, "Yuna, Quinn, or me will have to be the ones to take him down." I nodded in agreement, "We are all on the same page then, but let's focus on our next match. In a few minutes, we will be facing Team Phantasm. Any ideas how we can get an edge on them?" Yuna added, "Try to stay out of my way, and that will be good enough." I ignored her, "Any practical strategies?" Quinn nodded, "I say we focus on the boy Altaria pointed out. I could sense she was very worried about our battle with Pilot. Whatever attacks he is using, it seems to be invisible even to me." Lulith responded, "One other thing is the other members they have are very strong. I remember Professor Makov's darkness and water attacks really did a number on Team Dream. Focus on the boy first, but keep an eye open for her."
I added, "I think the best formation here will be our melee fighters in front, with Lysandra and me in the middle. Lysandra, go all out here; Team Phantasm is probably the second-best team here; we can't be holding back." Lysandra smiled widely, "No problems here; let's blitz them like that team just now did. Out of the gates, we all use our best moves to take out their biggest threats." I smiled, "Sounds like a plan." Eris began calling our team up just as we settled on a plan of attack. Eris smiled, "Now to our winners' bracket. We have a crazy match here, folks. The mysterious Grin Reapers, who had a very close match vs Stormsurge, are taking on the newbies, Team Phantasm, who had a similarly close match vs Team Dream. I think we are in for a real nail-biter here, folks."
We took our stances on the eastern side of the gym; again, our positions were as we had planned, with Yuna to the right of Quinn, and Lulith to the left. I was in the center with Lysandra; we would provide the ranged support for our team. This will be a new role for Lysandra, who is so used to charging into battle with her fists out. Team Phantasm had a similar setup to last time, with Professor Makov still sitting down in her chair, looking cocky in the front; this time, she was facing Lulith. Pilot was in the back, the small little man looking ready to fight, but he still seemed very fragile with his small wooden cane. The boy with the white hair and now somewhat less cocky grin stood within a few feet of Pilot. The other boy with the silver hair was still in the front, facing Yuna, but looked a bit more careful than last time. Finally, the girl with the oversized hat and green hair was in the middle.
The match began as Eris yelled out the signal, "Fight!" We stuck to the plan; Quinn bolted forward with Yuna to blitz the silver-haired boy, with Pilot being the next target. Quinn turned into a wolf this time as he leapt forward with Yuna. Professor Makov, still sitting, was the first to react, "Young people these days need to learn not to just rush in like that. So desperate." She formed her dark ball in front of her like last time and chanted, "Abyssal Muck." Murky water began to surge forward towards Quinn, almost like it would drag him under if he stepped in it. We were ready for a counterattack like this; I supported Quinn with my new rune Altaria gave me. I yelled out, "Bacura! Lithora! Bastion of Bedrock!" A barrier shot up in front of the murky water, stopping it in its tracks as Quinn and Yuna shot past it.
I laughed. "What seems like recklessness may, in truth, be the most cunning of strategies." Professor Makov looked at me intensely, as if her pride had been slightly dashed. Yuna targeted the silver-haired boy, while Quinn shot past them both, making a beeline for Pilot. Yuna stated plainly, "Eyelash Slash!" One of her more basic moves, but it worked flawlessly on the boy. Her blade scattered into three slashes; the boy tried to use his fast lightning magic to counter by dodging, but he only dodged one slash—the other two cut him up. Quinn, in his wolf form, pounced at the frail Pilot, who just smiled; he never made a move. Instead, the boy next to him shouted, "Don't forget I am right here, wolf breath. Stones of Paradise!" Stones began shooting out of his hands, slamming into Quinn painfully; he squealed in his wolf form.
He was left a bit bloodied, but Lulith made her move. She decided to stick to the plan, even if there were some hiccups. She bolted towards Professor Makov, the second biggest threat there. The professor stood up, annoyed. "Seems I have been playing around a bit too much." Lulith brought down her claws, but it was met with a black ball to the face. The professor had used that ball before to block attacks, but this time I was backing her up. I cast another spell, "Alaxtrea! Nautrium! Golden Card: Cascade Barrage!" Liquid gold shot out of my gauntlet towards Professor Makov, one of my best support spells.
The hidden spell up my sleeve did exactly what I had hoped; the liquid shot out toward Professor Makov. The girl in the middle, closest to the professor, tried to shield her with a wind barrier, but perhaps due to a stroke of luck, the wind managed to block the gold awkwardly. The liquid gold instead flew down to the ground, landing on Professor Makov's feet. The gold began to quickly harden as the Professor tried to desperately shake it off. Professor Makov clicked her tongue. "What the hell is this stuff? I have never seen a spell like this before. This was not in the information we had scouted from your other matches." Lulith regained her composure; she was flung back by the black ball, but she had found her opening.
She dodged past the black ball, straight for Professor Makov, and raised her hand as she attempted to punch her directly in the face. Professor Makov, seeing the blow coming, sighed. "I suppose it will be fine to use it here." Just as Lulith brought down her fist, Professor Makov quickly chanted, "Quicksilver Cocoon!" That was when the tempo of the battle shifted drastically. Lulith's hand struck not flesh but a silver liquid. This silver liquid had been cast in a sphere around Professor Makov's body. It had quickly hardened, trapping Lulith's fist inside the hazardous material.
We had not figured out what her concentrated magic was from her last battle, but this seemed to be it. Water and darkness had created mercury. The cocoon began to shift into sharp needles that threatened to stab into Lulith. A voice could be heard within. "From what I have scouted with your power, you will survive this, so I will gladly use it. Sorry, but you left me with no choice. Argentum Acupuncture!" The silver needles shot out from the sphere, painfully punching Lulith full of spiky needles. Lulith yelled out in pain as she collapsed onto the ground, a human pin cushion, her hand still attached to the sphere. I called out, "Lulith!" It was far too late; one of our key members was taken out in the blink of an eye.