As the Forest Crown Hunt began, Team 12 explored their surroundings and discovered a cave.
Elowen then said, "Should we start a camp here?"
Princess Misaki responded, "Well, first we have to see how far down the cave goes."
"And if there aren't any dangerous animals in here or in these areas, then we will set camp here for now.".
Princess Misaki then turned to Prince Magnus, saying, "Prince Magnus, could you please go down there and explore the cave and tell us if there's anything dangerous down there?"
"Scared to go down there, Princess?" Prince Magnus answered with a smile and laughed.
And Princess Misaki replied, "Never mind; I'll do it myself."
But before Princess Misaki could take a step forward, Prince Magnus vanished, leaving everyone perplexed and wondering where he went.
However, after a few seconds, Prince Magnus returned, crossing his arms and saying, "Oh, relax; there's nothing there to begin with."
Princess Misaki sighed and murmured, "Thank you.". Causing Prince Magnus to smile arrogantly in response.
Princess Misaki then informed everyone that, because the cave was safe, they would make camp there for the day.
Several minutes later, Princess Misaki, Jack, Xavier, Elowen, and Aria were debating a strategy for winning the game.
As numerous options were being tossed around, Xavier suggested, "Why don't we just let the other teams eliminate each other, and when the numbers get low, we eliminate the remaining team to win the event?"
"That's a great idea, Xavier," Elowen remarked.
But then Princess Misaki added, "That's a good idea, but there's also the possibility that other teams will come looking for us or ambush us."
Aria answered, "Well, we could always make traps near this cave and inside to ambush our enemies.".
Now that they had a well-thought-out plan, Jack offered a squad position for combat in a closed space battle, adding, "Now for the squad stance, Princess Misaki, you will be in the center of this team because you hold our most valuable asset."
"Prince Magnus and I will take a stance around Princess Misaki's left and right sides.".
"Elowen, you will be right behind Princess Misaki to not only protect her but us as well from any ambush.".
"And lastly, Xavier and Aria will be ahead of everyone else.".
After several hours, Prince Magnus, who had positioned himself outside the cave, noticed that enemies were approaching in their direction.
Prince Magnus smirked and stated sarcastically, "It appears that we have some guests approaching."
As a result, everyone promptly geared themselves to fight the approaching enemy.
When Team 4 arrived at Team 12's site, they discovered that there was no one present.
"That is strange; I would have sworn I heard sounds coming from here," one of Team 4 members commented.
The team leader then said, "Well, there appears to be a cave here."
"And it could be a hideout for one of the teams," he added.
Two members of Team 4 then entered the cave to explore it, while the remainder remained outside, surveilling.
As the two members entered the cave, they noticed no signs of anyone having been there before.
One of them commented, "Hey, look, the cave goes even deeper."
And their comrade answered, "Well, we can go check it out for a little while, but not too long."
"Okay, let's explore it then," another colleague responded.
As they were about to go further into the cave, they suddenly fell to the ground just as they were going to continue inside the cave. As a result of falling into the trap, Princess Misaki's squad was set up.
As they tried to escape, Elowen then used her gifted abilities to imprison them in the manhole, creating tree veins to immediately subdue them, demonstrating her gifted ability to control natural itself.
One of them screamed at the top of their lungs, "It's a trap!" and alerted their companions outside the cave.
But before their companions outside the cave could even react, Princess Misaki, Xavier, Jack, and Aria immediately ambushed them from above, immobilizing them on the ground and preventing them from moving.
Princess Misaki, pointing her katana at the leader of Team 4, asked in a cold tone, "Are you going to hand over that crown peacefully, or would you like me to take the top of your head with it?"
In terror, Team 4's leader quickly handed over his crown to Princess Misaki.
As he did so, Xavier expressed amazement: "This was easier than I expected."
"Yeah, and everything went according to what you said, your highness," Aria exclaimed.
Princess Misaki giggled and remarked, "Well, we were able to beat them because of our ability to work perfectly together as a team."
Then Princess Misaki looked up to Prince Magnus, who was sitting comfortably on one of the trees, and remarked, "How about helping us eliminate the opposing teams next time?"
To which Prince Magnus responded coldly, "No."
After Team 12 defeated Team 4, a few professors and medical professionals arrived to carry away the injured and defeated opponents.
As the sun began to set, Team 12 established a pattern in which each member would take turns watching the cave entrance every three hours.
They built a campfire in the cave and proceeded to eat the food provided to them.
Elowen then excitedly questioned Xavier, "So, how does it feel to be the sibling of two geniuses?"
Xavier replied in a friendly tone, "It's amazing, but it can be overwhelming to be related to such talented people."
"As people are sometimes afraid to approach me because of my family name and being related to my big brother Aleksander and sister Violet," Xavier carried on.
"Oh, that must be a heavy burden on your shoulder," Aria exclaimed.
Xavier answered, "Yes, it is."
Princess Misaki smiled and added, "I know how you feel, Xavier.".
"I too find it difficult to talk to people or even make friends because of my royal status.".
"And everything I ever accomplished was always associated with the fact that I was royal.".
Xavier responded, "Yeah, I understand what you mean."
But then Jack asked, "Wait, where did Prince Magnus go?" when he observed that he was nowhere to be seen.
Princess Misaki sighed in frustration and apologized to everyone, stating, "I sincerely apologize for Prince Magnus's selfish and stupid actions.".
"It's okay, Your Highness; you don't have to apologize for something beyond your control," Xavier remarked, comforting Princess Misaki.
Princess Misaki then stated, "Prince Magnus has always been like this, even when we first met as children at noble banquets."
"He would always do reckless things, not caring about others," she continued.
Jack then remarked, "Has he also always been so hostile towards others as well?
"Especially toward you and Xavier," he added.
Xavier replied, "Well, in my case, it's more of a river because of how he treated my best friend Jupiter in the past.".
Princess Misaki then stated, "But in my case, it's quite normal.".
"As the Flashstride family and my family, the Yamato house, have always been on bad terms for many millennia now,".
Elowen then expressed disbelief, "Oh, so a generation conflict then?"
To which Princess Misaki responded, "Yes."
"And it's been happening even up until the days of our founders.".
"That's insane!" Jack exclaimed, dumbfounded.
Princess Misaki went on to say, "It is insane.".
"And Prince Magnus' hostility towards me is completely normal."
Xavier then inquired, "Why are your family and the Flashstride family on such bad terms?"
Princess Misaki responded, "Well, that's because the Flashstride family is known for their gifted ability to travel at unfathomable speeds."
"They could travel faster than light and even travel through time."
"That is incredible," Jack and Elowen gasped in wonder.
"It is, but that naturally made them enemies to the Lee Family because the Lee Family were blessed with the ability to control time.".
"And they were vehemently opposed to the use of time travel because they believe it is dangerous and stupid to do.".
"As they could endanger many lives by traveling back in time to correct things,".
"But they later signed a pack with the Lee family, forbidding those who were fast enough to time travel to go back in time, except for the head of the Flashstride family.".
"But in the case of my family, we were blessed with the power of the skies, allowing us to call upon the powers of the heavens.".
Princess Misaki went on, "Like lightning, storms, and hurricanes.".
"And since the Flashstride had very similar abilities to generate electricity, topped with their being power hungry, it caused many conflicts and battles between my and Prince Magnus's families.".
Xavier then joked, "So, does every royal family randomly hate each other because of power?"
Princess Misaki responded with a laugh and said in amusement, "Well, I guess so.".
The next morning, Princess Misaki and her teammates defeated another team with their raw power alone, resulting in two golden crowns worth 105 points.
Even though Prince Magnus had not returned after departing the night before, Team 12 was able to manage despite being one player short.
As they had just finished eliminating their third team, giving them 210 points and three golden crowns in total, Prince Magnus appeared out of nowhere, lining up on a tree with two golden crowns in his hands.
"It took you guys that long just to get three golden crowns?" Prince Magnus said it mockingly.
To which Xavier responded, "Well, we did quite well without having a deadweight making things difficult for us on our shoulders."
Irrigated, Prince Magnus said, "You sure have a big mouth for someone as weak as you.".
"How about I shut it for you?" Prince Magnus asked as he instantly appeared before Xavier.
With a burst of energy emanating from him, Xavier smirked and responded, "I'd like to see you try," activating his aura.
Prince Magnus smirked and ignited his aura as well, clashing with Xavier's with ferocious intensity, causing a powerful wind to blow everyone away.
Then, suddenly, heavy clouds began to form, and the roaring sounds of thunder began to emanate from within them.
In the flash of an eye, Princess Misaki summoned a bolt of lightning from the heavens, which struck the exact place Xavier and Prince Magnus were, pushing them back from the result of the shock impact.
"That's enough already!" exclaimed Princess Misaki, irritated.
"I'm tired of you guys always wanting to kill each other, every moment given," she added.
Prince Magnus stood back up, cleaned the dust from his uniform, and said arrogantly, "I don't need to be bossed around by a wanna-be king."
"Then you don't have to be here," Princess Misaki slapped back.
To which Prince Magnus replied, "I don't care about being in a team with a bunch of lousy ants.".
Before Prince Magnus left, he turned to Princess Misaki and told her, "Before I leave, I advise you to leave this area as soon as possible."
"As Jason's team is on their way to your current location as we speak".
Aria was surprised and asked, "What?"
"How did they know we were here?", she continued.
To which Jack said, "I don't know, but either way we will have to fight them since we are too far away from our base."
Princess Misaki took some time to reflect before declaring, "We will face Jason's team head-on."
"As that is our only current move, for if we were to return to our base, they would follow us back there".
"And potentially corner us", she added.
"And Jason isn't someone we can easily fool with our surprise traps", Princess Misaki emphasized.
Now that Team 12 was prepared to fight against Jason's team, Prince Magnus began to walk away, murmuring, "Good luck."
in a smoking manner.
As he left, Princess Misaki and her team proceeded to go deeper into the forest, toward Jason's team's location.
As they did so, a raven swooped overhead, keeping track of their every move.
The raven then flew back to where it had come from, landing on Jupiter's arm.
It then informed Jason and his crew that Princess Misaki and her team members were approaching their location and would reach them in 10 minutes.
"And they seem very motivated to eliminate us", the raven added.
Jason grinned and responded, "Good job, Sophie."
"You can turn back into your normal form now.".
"As we are about to have our hardest battle yet,".
"And we sure ain't losing it," Jason said with a confident smile on his face.
Sophie then promptly returned to her humanoid form and took out her weapon.
Jason and his squad then began to walk in the direction Princess Misaki and her squad were in, having high confidence that they would come out victorious.