Morning light spilled over Min Academy's floating arena, Sigma Field, where mist and metal blended into a war zone. The grounds stretched miles wide—half forest, half ruined fortress—designed to test every kind of Weaver.
The crowd's roar dulled when Headmaster Ryuzen's voice rolled through the air.
> "Round One: Capture the Flag. Team Fei versus Team Rook. Begin."
The horn blared.
Threads flashed across the battlefield instantly. On one side, Thane Rook's team moved with military precision—Zephyr's winds cutting through trees while Thane's gravity compressed the ground into a crater. Mist spread low as the Vale twins veiled their advance, perfect coordination between concealment and distortion.
On the other side, Kaito Fei didn't move. His eyes glowed faint red, scanning invisible currents. "They'll come from the left," he murmured. "Liora, seal the path."
Frost threads spiraled from Liora's fingertips, spreading over the terrain and freezing the very mist meant to hide the enemy. The fog hardened midair into a crystalline wall.
Ryn Altair extended her Mirage Threads, bending the light around it, making it appear like open terrain. When Zephyr dashed forward, his body slammed against the invisible wall with a violent shock. His speed nearly broke his ribs.
"Mirage and frost," Liora whispered. "You're turning illusion into structure."
"Probability likes symmetry," Kaito replied.
Zephyr groaned, struggling up as Thane expanded his field, crushing the ice into dust. "You're not escaping this, Fei!" he roared.
But Kaito was already moving.
From the trees, Kira Solen surged forward, trails of flame twisting behind her like ribbons. She spun midair, launching a fire arc toward Thane's center. The gravity field warped it off course—until Taro Min raised his arm, Steel Threads reforming into a curved blade that redirected the blast back on target. It detonated on Thane's barrier with a thunderous crack.
"Pressure's even," Kaito said calmly through the comm. "Ael, stabilize the center."
Ael Rion's Water Threads rippled outward, cooling the scorched air and condensing it into a vapor dome. "Field stabilized." He turned toward Rhea Vorn, who was already channeling Glass Threads into sharp prisms. They refracted the water's light into dozens of mirrored surfaces. Within seconds, the field became a prism maze that confused sight and sound alike.
Every step Team Rook took echoed from the wrong direction. Mira's flames missed targets that weren't there. Even Thane's gravity faltered when his senses lost direction.
Zephyr gritted his teeth. "Damn illusions again—!"
A sudden whisper behind him: "No. Calculation."
Ryn flickered beside him, threads crossing. The real one. Before he could react, a shimmer of Night Thread sliced between them, cutting the air clean.
He jumped back instinctively—and the branch he had been standing on collapsed into dust.
Kaito didn't need to shout commands. His presence alone adjusted his team's rhythm. Each thread moved like part of a larger pattern.
The ground trembled as Thane slammed his fists down, amplifying his compression field. The gravity well erupted across the arena, crushing boulders, shattering illusions, and throwing both teams off balance. For a moment, the field was chaos.
Lyn Rave dropped to one knee, her Sound Threads pulsing outward in counterwave harmonics. Each pulse canceled part of the quake's vibration. "Reinforcing—just hold!"
Behind her, Dio Fen drove his Stone Threads deep into the soil, locking the terrain like a skeletal brace. The ground steadied under their combined resonance.
"Backline secured," Lyn said.
From above, Noel Crest's voice came through comms, strained but exhilarated. "Eyes on Zephyr. He's heading straight for our flag!"
Wind blazed through the treetops. Zephyr flew like a spear toward the red banner glowing in the distance. He grinned—until he saw Kaito standing there, waiting.
"Too late," Zephyr smirked. "You can't match my speed."
Kaito tilted his head. "Speed is predictable."
The world flickered once. Zephyr's wind threads twisted, caught in an unnatural current. His own slipstream folded backward. He spiraled out of control and slammed into the ground again. The crowd gasped.
"Probability realignment," muttered one professor from the stands. "He reversed the vector's chance of stability…"
Back on the field, Thane was already charging, using Zephyr's fall as cover. His gravity threads dragged Kaito down, compressing space until the air bent visibly. Liora leapt in front, seals forming around them in glowing blue rings. "Frost Lock!"
The seals froze the space mid-collapse, halting the compression wave just meters from Kaito. Ice shattered under the strain, but it bought him a heartbeat—and that was enough.
Kaito raised his hand, red threads rippling out like veins. "Return force."
The crushed gravity reversed polarity and blasted outward. Thane's eyes widened before the impact sent him flying backward across the field, armor cracking under the recoil.
In the same instant, Ael redirected water along Rhea's glass conduits, turning them into a mirrored river. Kira ignited the surface, creating a flame current that snaked toward Rook's base. From above, it looked like a burning river cutting across Sigma Field.
"Push forward," Kaito ordered.
Taro, Lyn, and Dio led the advance, shields and resonance barriers overlapping perfectly. Behind them, the Mirage, Water, and Glass users distorted the field again, giving the illusion that they were attacking from three angles at once.
Team Rook tried to counter, but confusion spread faster than coordination. Zephyr's speed meant nothing when his direction kept flipping. Thane's gravity crushed empty illusions. Mira's fire scorched her own allies' barriers.
At the heart of the storm, Kaito walked straight through the chaos, each step a calculated probability. His threads hummed silently around him, touching every ally's pattern, adjusting their rhythm by fractions of a second. The team moved as one.
The enemy flag shimmered in the distance.
Zephyr reappeared, battered but furious, unleashing one last whirlwind that tore the trees apart. "You won't touch it!"
Kaito didn't even raise his hand. He just whispered, "Collapse path."
The whirlwind fragmented midair, redirecting into six smaller bursts that curved harmlessly away. Probability itself refused Zephyr's command.
Liora froze the flag platform while Ryn cloaked them in light distortion. Kaito stepped into the field, reached out, and plucked the banner free.
Everything stopped.
The arbiter crystal above them flared gold.
"Capture confirmed — Team Fei, victory!"
The roar from the stands shook the sky.
For a moment, the world seemed to hold its breath. Then the field began to dissolve, threads of light fading as the barrier dropped.
Team Rook lay scattered, exhausted but conscious. Thane pushed himself up, disbelief etched in every movement. "We thought we were ready for anything... but not for you."
Kaito looked down at him calmly. "You were strong. You just weren't inevitable."
Liora stepped beside him, eyes soft but sharp. "One match down."
The crowd's cheers swelled again, echoing through the arena. Above them, Headmaster Ryuzen watched silently from his tower, expression unreadable. Beside him, Professor Xuan murmured, "He orchestrated ten individuals like one thread. It's… unnatural."
Ryuzen's lips curved slightly. "No. It's mastery."
Back on the field, Kaito's teammates gathered, some grinning, some silent, all aware they had just witnessed something more than luck.
Ryn flicked a strand of hair away from her face. "You really did plan every move, didn't you?"
"Not every move," Kaito said. "Just the outcome."
The arena wind picked up, carrying cheers through the fading sunlight.
Tomorrow would bring the second round, but for now, they had proven their strength.
Kaito glanced at the flag dissolving in his hand and let the threads fade.
The first victory was theirs—clean, flawless, and absolute.