"Fu...fu...fu..." With rapid breathes drawn in and out of her chest, Fatera stared Lera in the face with her cheeks puffed up and red before she finally made her decision. With her mouth opened, Fatera bowed her head forward and said loudly, her eyes closed together as she became too nervous to see Lera's reaction, "I...I am sorry, Lera!"

"It's okay." Lera replied casually before smiling, “you don’t look like you are used to apologies much.”

“How do you know?” Fatera opened her eyes quickly while staying in her bent-over stance. It's actually quite a nice hamstring and back stretch here,“So...ya don't hate me? Can we be friends still?"

"Of course." Lera smiled as Fatera jumped up with joy to hug her, her big fingers playing with her cheeks again, "What else did you expect me to say?"

"I...thought ya might be really mad at me." Fatera said, playing with Lera's long black hair before giving her a big smooch on the cheek and letting her go, "I won't be mean any more to ya! Ya are too adorable!"

“I know, right?!” Yuna said from far away before Lily pushed her away from eavesdropping the moment.

"And what you said was a wake-up call for me..." Lera said, glancing to Wu briefly as he watched the two alongside Ver and Augen, "From now on, I will make sure to be able to stand on my own better."

"And with that, the team is back together again!" Wu threw his arms up in the air, "Just in time for the mid-week team battle tomorrow!"

"I'm ready." Fatera said, bumping her fists together and creating a low boom, "I still want ya all to fight with me, and fight around me...but after some thinking, I think ya probably knows more about how that could be done more than I do..."

"Fatera, did you go on a spiritual journey or something?" Ver asked, and Fatera giggled before winking towards Augen, whose face turned red as he scratched his face and turned away. Speaking of which, Augen had been disappearing from the squad houses during the night...

"Anyhow, so let's put everything together then." Wu said, "The midweek battle tomorrow will follow a similar format as the Summer selections and like what we have back then, so let's organize our team to reflect our strengths and weaknesses..."

There were a lot of discussions and a lot of experiments. But with their doubts all out of the way, there was also a lot of laughter.

The next day arrived as the group woke up refreshed and knowing their roles in battle. As the group of ten Wave users sat around the kitchen for breakfast, Lily went ahead and explained the objective of today's training.

"All across the island are sets of coconuts that we left behind." Lily said, pointing to a circle on the ground that's supposed to be a map of the island, "There are special Casts written over them, and your job is to capture the coconuts and bring it back towards the individual's bases on either side of the island. All the coconuts will have an individual signature in the Wave. You are allowed to attack another team that has possession of Coconuts, but you may not destroy those coconuts to prevent the other team from scoring, and once the coconuts are dropped into the base, then it would have already been added to the tally."

So the game is simple. Take control of as much of the Island's area as possible and bring all those coconuts back.

"The first team to capture 50 wins!" Lily said, "And the other team has to clean!"

There are five minutes of strategizing before the official start of the midweek battles. The base on Wu's side of the island appeared to be a stack of rocks with a basket secured within. The handful of Casters in the group were responsible for the creation of the game itself, and Matty and Ver combined to drop the coconuts all over the island.

From the design of the game, there are clearly two balancing aspects of gameplay. If one of the groups is to gather the coconuts while the other ambushed the other, the ambushers will have an advantage in both obtaining the coconuts and preventing the others from getting it, thus leading to doubling the advantage compared to if either group just minded their own business and farmed out the coconuts on their side.

The island's size is small enough to ensure that either strategy is viable, and it's up to the groups to decide.

The bells for the start of the so-called Coconut Game rung, and immediately, Wu's squad split into two groups with Augen and Fatera making a straight line dash forward to the other side of the island with Wu, Ver, and Lera staying behind.

"Rapid Layering!" Lera said, her hands reaching outward as a massive spanning network of her Cast array were rapidly deployed forward, its reach covering the span of a quarter of the island immediately. Though with the reach of her Cast array stretched out, the resolution of the individual positions was reduced as a process.

"Got anything?" Wu asked, slowly powering up his Void suit before blasting off the ground lightly.

"One moment...got it!" Lera said, as she continuously shrunk the size of her Cast array until the resolutions of the individual blocks became enough for her to pick up on the locations of the coconuts. With her other hand, Lera created a projection on the ground which reflected the distribution of all of the coconuts on their side of the island.

Even though the two strategies are both equally viable in theory, the balance may be rapidly tilted one way or another due to the individual's skill sets. Lera's Rapid Layering enabled Wu's team to locate many of the coconuts at one time, and Ver's teleportation through Whirlpool Purple then took advantage of that.

"Someone is coming from the South-side!" Lera said, gesturing to a moving red dot on the projection.

"I got it." Wu said, blasting off the ground and making a dash towards the direction of the invader.

"Be careful." Lera said out of habit as she watched Wu's dashing figure. Then, Ver emerged from a Whirlpool Purple with half a dozen coconuts already in hand.

In the meanwhile, Fatera and Augen, the group's vanguard, charged forward with Fatera leading the way, her body completely coated in the Wave and Augen traveling rapidly beside her. With a card that had the painting of a shard of ice over it, Augen was able to conjure up thin layers of ice on which he skated on, keeping up with Fatera's incredible travel speed with ease.

Whenever they encountered any rogue coconuts laying in their path, Augen will also pick those up to hand it to Fatera who tossed those far behind her in the direction of Wu's camp with her vastly enhanced strength.

"I gotta admit. Ya Casts are so much cooler than Lera's." Fatera said, glancing briefly towards Augen who chuckled.

"You just made up with Lera, and you are going to piss her off again?" Augen joked.

"Come on, Lera's more self-aware than that." Fatera said, when suddenly, their expressions both changed with a flash of light went off right in front of their eyes. They split apart with Fatera dashing to the side and Augen making a sharp turn on the ice, his body crouched so low that his fingertips brushed against the ice like a skilled skater.

The flash of light came from a reflective item that was planted on the ground. Then, they looked up to see Shin standing his ground with a knife held in his hand. Shin had pale skin, and it looked rather sunburnt after only a few days on the island. His tall slender physique barely propped up the light armor he's wearing, and he carried a subtle presence in the Wave.

"Lily knew you will charge in from the front." Shin said with a hint of accomplishment, "As expected of the meathead."

"Of course." Fatera said with a smile on her face, "That's how I fight, after all."

"No time to waste." Augen reminded, and Fatera nodded before she instantly powered up into her Hard Mode.

"Then I shall achieve complete victory," Fatera said, dashing forward as a trail of sand jetted out behind her. Her rapid movement creating a loud hissing sound as Augen swapped the cards in his hand with a sleight of hand, bringing out a card with a lotus drawn over it.

"Summer Lotus!" Augen said, massive leaves forming over his body before he sent forward massive beams of Wave all focused onto Shin's body and bending just around Fatera.

"Not so easy." Shin said, leaping back before turning the knife in his hand to its flat side and rapidly increasing its size. Then, Augen's blasts were bounced off the side of the blade before the reflections rammed into Fatera's body.

Is this the same power as the Sky Splitting Sword?! Fatera thought quickly, though her fist moved even faster as she easily broke through the large knife. All of the individual shattered pieces rained over her body before they bounced away and dissipated into thin Wave lines that guided back into Shin’s hands.

Then, Shin reached both hands outward, his fingers extended before outlines of more knives formed in between his hands. And they looked like...chef's knives?