Seeing so many small spikes surrounding him while the cage held him in place, there was no way he could leave this place.

At the same time, the cage itself was created with bars, so without slashing it twice with both swords in all different directions, he couldn't create an opening before the spike hit him.

Kai gritted his teeth, feeling that he might require a sacrifice for this.

He analyzed all the needles for a second as they flew toward him.

"Take this." Sofia grinned. "This is my payback."

Kai calculated the impact and immediately used his chance to deactivate his Vibration Sword and spun the cage as the bar struck down every single needle.

"Haha, you might need a bigger cage to trap me. And don't forget to connect it to the ground so I can't spin it." Kai laughed before shouting. "Tasha, I know what you are trying to do!"

Tasha smiled and released her arrow without thinking much about what he said.

The arrow was unlike Sofia's needles that only randomly flew at him. Tasha had calculated everything, including the spin.

The arrow flew past the cage, and Kai noticed it in disbelief. He shifted his body to the side and gritted his teeth. "Kh!"

It was too late.

The arrow pierced him in the right forearm.

"Oh, Kai! You shouldn't underestimate your Sister so much! That kind of spin is not enough to stop my eyes and arrow. Isabelle should be able to do something like this." Tasha laughed.

"Our archer is damn too good." Kai didn't think about it that much as he just realized how skilled the one supporting them from behind was.

"Haha. Do I get anything since I am the first one who hit you?" She laughed out loud.

"I will think about it! Probably!" Kai laughed too while enduring the pain before throwing the cage away toward Sofia's direction.

"Ice Wall." She immediately created a wall to stop the cage.

Kai took this chance to go toward Sofia since her vision was covered.

"Sofia!" Michelle and Ayaka shouted.

"I can see him!" Sofia replied as she looked at the hiding giant energy ball that represented Kai. She created another magic circle, planning to hit him with this magic.

However, Kai had predicted this as he summoned his Sound Blast. Sofia's eyes could only see someone's danger level, so he couldn't really see if that person currently used magic or not. When the Sound Blast launched him to the side, she was completely taken aback.

"!!!" Evan widened his eyes as he screamed. "No! Why the heck are you targeting me again?"

"Come here, Evan." Kai laughed as he shocked Sofia, Ayaka, and Michelle at the same time. Rather than cutting Sofia, who seemed to be the perfect target to eliminate, he aimed at Evan first.

"NO!" He aimed at him and released a couple of bullets, only to not a single bullet to hit.

It was at this time, Tasha suddenly appeared beside Evan, planning to rescue him with her teleportation magic.

When he saw this, there wasn't a shocked face. He simply smiled as though he had predicted everything.

"Wait! He is—" Evan suddenly recognized his plan this whole time and looked at Tasha.

"Too late." Kai created another magic circle he had prepared earlier. It was his Sound Blast. The magic launched him like a bullet, traveling at his maximum speed.

"Targeting you!" Evan finished his sentence, but it was already too late. Despite the magic circle that slowly formed underneath them, Kai almost reached their position.

'I can't make it!' Tasha had no words to say. It turned out that his real target was her all along. Because she was the only one who could see his movement at that time, she reacted this way to protect Evan, only to find herself getting targeted instead. She created an arrow in her hand while swinging both arrow and bow, trying to strike him down.

Unfortunately, no matter how experienced she was, her place was never in this place. She planned to challenge Kai in close combat? That might probably be the last thing she wanted to do. And yeah, it wasn't like she had an option.

Kai struck her bow and arrow simultaneously as the swords continued on their paths, slashing Tasha.

"Nice fight." She smirked while closing her eyes. Her body soon disappeared from the battlefield as her consciousness went back to her real body.

Meanwhile, Kai swung his sword toward Evan, but Ayaka and Michelle already appeared next to him, protecting him from the sword.

Michelle's Shadow Slash was behind Ayaka's enhanced spear, so she was there to give support for Ayaka.

When he saw this, Evan released another sword, forcing Kai to leap backward.

They had a distance from each other again. Kai fell silent as he didn't like how things were going.

He realized that fighting against all of them was very taxing for his magic power and his mental strength. Not only that he needed to avoid all their attacks, but he also needed to find a perfect time to kill them.

Luckily, he managed to eliminate Tasha first, so there wouldn't be any more teleportation. In other words, they had no chance to run away from him.

"Ice Field." The ground began freezing and created a quite huge freezing arena that seemed to be advantageous for them since they had trained for this.

Kai used his Sound Blast first to fly to the sky, not wanting to be frozen at that spot.

"No, you won't escape." Ayaka used her Fire Wing to catch up with him, trying to best his speed so she could hit him back to the ground.

Unfortunately, Kai's Sound Blast gave a more powerful boost that let him escape.

"Ice Mountain!" Sofia had been waiting for this moment and immediately activated her magic, creating a slide that went toward the sky like a tower.

Michelle nodded as her sword already hit the tower and sent a Shadow Slash toward Kai.

The ice then started expanding to the sky, trying to catch up with him.

"It's faster than Ayaka's speed?" Kai muttered in a low voice before he used another Sound Blast to avoid this attack.

Ayaka didn't let him and summoned a few fireballs that turned into birds.

The birds flew toward him in all directions before he used his Sound Blast a few more times to avoid them.

Suddenly, he realized that every single time he avoided this, the firebirds turned around. In other words, Ayaka must be directing them manually. With that in mind, he planned to visit her first, especially since she only had one arm.

Ayaka looked at him and smiled. "I know you are coming."

A Fire Net suddenly appeared between them.

Michelle and Sofia, on the ground, nodded at each other. An Ice Wall emerged from the ground and hit right their feet, launching them into the sky.

"Shadow Manipulation." Michelle activated her magic again after getting close enough.

Kai's shadow became alive once again, trying to stop his movement in the air. At the same time, Sofia wanted to stop his movement by using the same Ice Cage like the one from a while ago. This time, she didn't forget to add the bottom to make sure Kai couldn't escape.

Ayaka then thrust her spear forward.

Kai dodged to the side before finding something wrong with her spear.

"Magic Bomb." Ayaka smiled as the tip of her spear exploded.

The cage fell down while being covered in smoke.

They stared at this silently before Sofia shouted. "Not good. He is still alive."

Kai cut the cage and retreated a few meters back while smiling. He panted a little bit as the symbol of them pushing him this hard.

"What is funny?" Michelle furrowed her eyebrows, feeling something was wrong with his smile.

"Nothing. I just know how the protector felt when they fought us. Although this can be considered praise, don't be complacent. I have no tough skin like the protectors that make me keep moving to avoid your attacks. On the other hand, the protector is like a fortress, so there is no need to avoid any weak attacks. But I can see our progress. I still remember how weak we were in the past, and I can proudly say that we have been through a lot." Kai smiled.

"Indeed. That's why you shouldn't feel too proud right now. We are coming for your neck." She smirked.

"Such an ominous phrase, especially coming from my own girlfriend." Kai looked sad and wronged.

"Quit your acting. You have defeated Tasha first, so you are the last one who can lecture me about that." She shrugged before raising her hand. "Plan C."

"So, you have several plans?" Kai smiled as he saw the other three started moving according to their plan.

"Since you have been quite a rascal, I will tell you. You are going down with this. The wound that Tasha gave reduced the performance of your right arm, so just surrender while you can."

"If you have Plan C, I have Plan E." Kai laughed.

"You are still joking around, kill him now!" Michelle decided to stop listening to his bullsh*t and ended this fight because Kai must be buying time this whole time.

"No, no. I seriously have Plan E." Kai shrugged as he saw the three moved at the same time. Evan went toward Michelle's behind as he planned to attack him from there. Sofia and Ayaka occupied his two sides while Michelle walked toward him.

"Why don't you explain to me your Plan E?" She smiled.

"With pleasure. In fact, it's pretty simple." A magic circle suddenly appeared right in front of his feet.

"Wha—" Michelle suddenly realized what he was aiming for and shouted. "Stop him!"

"Too late." Kai stepped on his magic circle and flew to the sky while looking at them. "My Plan E is simple. Escape! Bye, have a good day!"

"…"