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News traveled through the cardmaking department like wildfire. Within minutes, streams of students began climbing the mountain path, their excited voices carrying across the evening air.
"Holy shit, the main team members are actually fighting each other!"
"When's the last time that happened? Wasn't it when Jean joined?"
"This is gonna be insane. I heard Russell's the guy who beat Grant."
The mountaintop arena filled rapidly, students clustering in groups as they settled in for what promised to be an exceptional show. Russell found himself both fascinated and disturbed by how casually they discussed violence between teammates.
Different world, different values, he reminded himself, watching the eager faces surrounding the combat zone.
Across the arena, Lucian was laughing at something Sonny had said, the other three main members gathered around him in easy camaraderie. Their comfortable familiarity made Russell acutely aware of his outsider status.
"I always feel like I'm being excluded," he muttered, then caught himself. Focus. This is assessment, not a social gathering.
Looking at them more carefully, Russell began to notice individual traits he'd missed during formal introductions. Sonny's casual demeanor masked sharp eyes that tracked every movement in the arena - the habits of someone used to watching for threats. Jean appeared absorbed in a small notebook, but her positioning gave her clear sightlines to both Russell and the crowd. Yuna stood with the balanced stance of someone comfortable with physical confrontation, her attention split between analyzing Russell's cards and assessing the arena's tactical advantages.
They're all more observant than they let on, Russell realized. This really is mutual evaluation, not just hazing.
He summoned Artoria and Retsu Unohana, leaning close to whisper his instructions. "Keep Caliburn sealed. This is training, not war."
Artoria's green eyes flickered with understanding and slight disappointment, but she nodded. Her regal bearing immediately drew attention from the crowd - students pointing and whispering about her obvious quality and craftsmanship.
Across the field, Lucian was conducting his own summoning—two cards materializing with practiced efficiency. He's matching my numbers, Russell noted. Smart. Heath said he had at least three silver-level cards, so this is deliberate restraint.
The first entity was a humanoid figure wreathed in shadows so dark they seemed to devour light. The second took the form of a dragon-snake hybrid, its serpentine body coiled with predatory grace that spoke of both intelligence and lethal capability.
"Custom cards, just like mine," Russell murmured, genuinely impressed. Creating cards of that obvious quality required not just resources but serious theoretical knowledge.
Coach Carter clapped his hands, drawing everyone's attention. "Alright, you know the rules. Keep it reasonable—I don't want to explain another crater to the administration." His gaze lingered on Lucian rather than Russell, suggesting past experience with excessive property damage.
"Got it, Coach," Lucian called out, that easy smile never wavering. But something in his posture had shifted—casual confidence becoming focused intensity that made Russell's instincts prickle with warning.
The shadow entity exploded into motion without warning. Darkness erupted from its form like a detonating bomb, racing across the arena in writhing tendrils that moved with predatory intelligence.
Artoria didn't hesitate. Her boot connected with stone in an earth-shattering impact that sent shockwaves rippling through the mountaintop. The arena floor exploded upward in jagged spears of rock, each fragment spinning through the air like deadly projectiles.
"Holy shit!" Students dove for cover as debris whistled past their heads.
"Look at that raw power," Yuna breathed from her observation position. "She's not even using enhancement magic."
Jean scribbled rapidly in her notebook. "Physical strength enhancement built into the card construct itself. That's... expensive to implement."
But the shadows didn't even slow down. They flowed through the destruction like liquid night, completely ignoring the physical obstacles as they surged toward Artoria's position.
"Incorporeal manifestation," Sonny muttered. "Physical attacks won't work."
The dragon-snake struck from above like a falling meteor, jaws agape and revealing rows of crystalline teeth that gleamed with venomous light. Artoria threw herself sideways, the creature's fangs scoring deep gouges in the stone where she'd been standing.
But she was already moving, sword flashing in a silver arc toward the beast's exposed flank. The blade met scales with a sound like breaking glass—and bounced off harmlessly.
"Armored hide," someone in the crowd shouted. "She can't penetrate!"
"Natural armor plus aerial mobility," Jean observed. "Classic harassment combination."
The dragon-snake's tail whipped around like a siege engine. Artoria caught the impact on her blade, the force driving her to one knee as cracks spider-webbed through the stone beneath her feet.
"The thundering carriage, the gap of the spinning wheel; this thing has light, divided into six..." Unohana's voice cut through the chaos like a blade. "Bakudō #61: Six-Rod Light Prison!"
Golden lightning erupted from the ground, forming a cage around the shadow entity in the span of a heartbeat. The binding was perfect—six pillars of crystallized energy that blazed like miniature suns.
The crowd roared its approval. "Got it!"
"Binding specialist," Lucian called to his teammates, his analytical mind cataloging capabilities even mid-battle. "High-level technique execution."
But the shadow entity began to laugh. A sound like breaking glass and dying screams that made several students clap their hands over their ears. Its form rippled, became liquid, and simply flowed through the gaps between the light pillars.
"What the hell?" Heath's voice cracked from the spectator area. "It just ignored a binding spell!"
The reformed shadow surged toward Unohana like a black tidal wave. She threw herself backward, but the darkness moved faster than thought—
Artoria materialized between them in an explosion of displaced air. Her sword carved through the shadow wave, splitting it down the middle in a display of raw power that left glowing trails in the darkness.
"Incredible reaction time," Yuna murmured with professional appreciation. "She read the battlefield flow perfectly."
But splitting water just meant it reformed. The shadow flowed around Artoria like she was a stone in a river, reaching for Unohana with grasping tendrils that left frost in the air.
"Bakudō #81: Dankū!"
A transparent wall erupted behind the healer. The shadow crashed into it with the sound of thunder, the barrier holding for exactly three seconds before spider-web cracks spread across its surface.
CRACK!
The wall exploded into glittering fragments that caught the setting sunlight like falling stars.
Artoria was already in motion. Her sword swept out in a devastating arc, releasing a crescent of pure energy that tore through the darkness. The crowd went wild as the shadow wave split apart, buying precious seconds.
"Energy projection capabilities too," Lucian noted, his voice carrying newfound respect. "That's at least three distinct specializations in one card."
"Get back here !" Artoria snarled, pursuing the dragon-snake as it tried to gain altitude with powerful wing-beats.
( IMAGE HERE )
But the shadows were reforming, faster now, hungrier. They surged from every direction at once—a three-dimensional assault that left no escape route.
"She's surrounded!" Keith shouted from the crowd.
The dragon-snake dove again, timing its attack perfectly with the shadow assault. Crystalline fangs gleamed as it descended like a living spear, aimed directly at Artoria's exposed position.
For a split second, it looked like the end.
Then Unohana's magic touched Artoria's cheek—not just healing, but enhancement. Power flowed through the connection like liquid lightning, and Artoria's eyes blazed with renewed strength.
"Combat enhancement," Jean breathed. "She's not just a healer."
"Look at the power transfer," Yuna added, her voice tight with excitement. "That's gold-level enhancement magic."
She exploded upward with enough force to crater the stone beneath her feet. Her sword met the dragon-snake's descending form in a collision that rang like a church bell across the mountaintop. The creature's armored scales cracked under the impact. Dark ichor sprayed across the arena in a fountain of alien blood.
"First blood to Artoria!" someone screamed from the crowd.
The dragon-snake shrieked in pain and fury, its tail lashing out in a reflexive counterattack that could have shattered stone. But Artoria twisted in midair with impossible grace, using her own momentum to redirect the strike toward the shadow entity below.
WHAM!
The tail smashed through the reformed darkness like a sledgehammer through smoke. The shadow creature's perfect coordination faltered for a crucial heartbeat.
"She's using their own attacks against each other," Sonny said with genuine admiration. "That's advanced tactical thinking."
Lucian's expression had shifted from confident assessment to something approaching concern. "Russell's cards aren't just powerful—they're intelligent. Both of them are adapting to our strategy in real time."
Jean nodded, still scribbling frantically. "The healer's providing tactical support beyond just enhancement. Look at her positioning—she's predicting attack patterns and placing herself to optimize power transfer angles."
"Support, healing, enhancement, and tactical analysis," Yuna summarized. "Combined with a combat specialist who's demonstrating multiple specializations. That's not just a two-card combination—that's a complete tactical system."
The shadow entity had recovered, and now it was visibly angry. Darkness erupted from every corner of the arena simultaneously—not flowing like liquid anymore, but striking like serpents. Dozens of shadow-tendrils lashed toward both Artoria and Unohana with killing intent that made the air itself feel thick and hostile.
The crowd held its breath as the arena became a maze of writhing darkness.
Artoria moved like lightning given form. Her blade became a silver blur, cutting through shadow-strikes so fast the motions became impossible to follow. Each slash left trails of light in the air, creating a deadly dance of steel and starfire that painted complex geometric patterns across the darkened space.
"How is she tracking that many simultaneous attacks?" someone in the crowd whispered in awe.
But there were too many. A tendril slipped through her guard like a striking snake, wrapping around her sword arm like a living chain. The touch burned with cold that steamed in the evening air.
"Got you," the shadow entity hissed with a voice like winter wind through dead leaves.
The dragon-snake dove again, jaws wide, sensing victory. Its wounds had already begun to close—regeneration capabilities adding another layer to its defensive profile.
Russell's hands clenched into fists as he watched his cards being overwhelmed by sheer numbers and tactical coordination. They're good, he admitted. Better than I expected. But let's see how they handle this.
And then, as if responding to his unspoken command, something changed behind Unohana. The air itself began to shimmer with potential, reality bending under the weight of impossible architecture taking shape.
The shadow entity froze mid-strike, its attention suddenly riveted on the growing distortion. "What... what is that?"
Behind Unohana, reality tore open like fabric under immense strain. The shadow of a massive fortress-city erupted from impossible dimensions, its towers and walls materializing with the sound of mountains being born. The architectural details were breathtaking in their complexity—countless buildings arranged in perfect geometric harmony, each structure radiating power that made the air itself sing with barely contained energy.
The entire crowd went silent. Even the wind stopped, as if the world itself was holding its breath.
"What in the seven hells—" Coach Carter's phone clattered to the ground, forgotten.
From the main team's observation position, four pairs of eyes widened in synchronized shock.
"Is that..." Jean's voice came out as barely a whisper.
"A field card," Sonny finished, his usual casual demeanor completely abandoned. "That's a gods-damned field card."
Yuna's mouth had fallen open. "Field cards are gold-level constructs. They cost more than most people make in a lifetime."
"But look at the construction quality," Lucian breathed, his tactical mind still functioning despite the shock. "Those architectural details, the power resonance patterns... that's not purchased power. He made that. He actually created a field card."
The [Seireitei] manifested in all its terrible glory, dwarfing the arena, dwarfing the mountain itself. Students pressed back against each other, instinctively fleeing from the overwhelming presence of something that fundamentally did not belong in their reality.
"How?" Jean's scientific mind was struggling to process what she was seeing. "The theoretical knowledge required, the materials, the sheer magical capacity needed to sustain something like that..."
"He's a freshman," Yuna said numbly. "He's been here for what, a few weeks?"
The field card's power activated with the fury of a caged storm finally released.
CRACK!
Lightning didn't just strike—it exploded upward in a column of pure destruction that split the sky in half. The thunderclap that followed wasn't heard—it was felt in bones and souls, rattling teeth and stopping hearts across the entire mountaintop.
"Hadō #88: Flying Dragon-Striking Heaven-Shaking Thunder Cannon!" Unohana's voice somehow carried over the apocalyptic roar, claiming credit through perfect timing.
The dragon-snake, caught mid-dive, simply ceased to exist for a moment in the heart of the lightning column. When the light faded, it was tumbling through empty air, its scales blackened and smoking, wings tattered and useless.
It hit the arena floor with a sound like a demolition charge going off, leaving a crater in the already damaged stone.
The shadow entity writhed in genuine terror, its incorporeal form flickering between states as the blazing light tore at its essential nature. Darkness didn't just retreat—it fled screaming into whatever crevices it could find, abandoning its coordinated assault in favor of simple survival.
"The shadows are afraid," Sonny observed with something approaching reverence. "I've never seen a shadow construct show actual fear before."
Sunlight poured through the shattered clouds like divine judgment, transforming the entire battleground. Where moments before there had been ominous twilight, now there was brilliant day that made every detail sharp and clear.
The psychological impact was as significant as the tactical one. The arena had been transformed from a place of shadow and menace into something that felt clean, purified, hopeful. Students who had been holding their breath suddenly found themselves able to breathe normally again.
Across the field, Lucian stood frozen, his confident smile replaced by genuine shock. The dragon-snake struggled feebly in its crater while the shadow entity attempted to reform, gathering wisps of darkness like a broken thing trying to remember how to exist.
"A Field Card?!" Lucian's voice carried across the suddenly quiet arena, filled with amazement and something that might have been respect.
(End of this chapter)
THROW POWERSTONES.