As I made back to the food stall, I saw some of the members from Team Buddyz were hanging out at a different stall. Suddenly, they called me to come over to them. From the looks of it, Eren and Ozzy weren’t there with them. That also goes the same for both Shallow and Mordekaizer. Which leaves me with Herone, Kurokiba and of course…Rolls. The one person who embarrassed me during the qualifying stage.

“What do you guys want?” I asked them as I approached toward them.

Herone responded by saying, “Is that the tone you want to be especially when your partner isn’t here?”

“Yeah. Where is he? Has he gone scared or something? He ditched you, huh?” Kurokiba begin to mock Lore.

I ignored his sad attempt to mock me and said, “If you just called me to waste my time then I should be going now.”

“Hey hold on, Rider.” Rolls grabbed my arm preventing me from leaving. “Leaving so soon already? We still have time to talk before the next round.”

I grunted a bit and said, “What do you want?”

“We just want to talk to you that’s it. Nothing much. Why the hostility?”

“Am I really showing you that much hostility, Rolls?”

“Or is it because you are still mad about the qualifier stage?” Rolls laughed.

“I can’t really say I’m not mad about it but I am not satisfied about it. I tell you what, the next match participants will be me and Hosuke. Why don’t you guys think of something about that because we’re going to stomp you by scoring lots of goals in that Spell Ball match later.”

Rolls laughed again, “Spell Ball? I love playing Spell Ball during my free time. It’s more than a hobby to me you know that? As a matter of fact, everyone in Team Buddyz has a profession in Spell Ball. Have you forgotten?”

“What do you mean?”

Everybody started laughing, leaving me hanging. Rolls explained, “I didn’t know that thick numb skull of yours is as dense as I remember. Team Buddyz took part in a Spell Ball Tournament last year and we’re the top 10 teams.”

“Big deal. It’s not like you guys were the champion.”

“Have you gone nuts, Rider? We are experienced players unlike you and your friends who only plays video games everyday. What do you even hope to achieve fighting against an experienced team like us?”

I replied back, “The first thing I could do is probably shut that mouth of yours once Hosuke and I beat you later today. I don’t have time for this.”

“You are really going to need a lot of help from Hosuke. Because Lore is not with you anymore. He probably left you because he know how useless you are in a team fight. Or maybe just maybe, Lore is the stupid one here. I think that might be it.” Rolls laughed maniacally.

I walked away from them feeling solemnly mad and made sure not to release my anger at them at the time. I’ll be showing them my fury later on. For now, I need to head back to Hosuke and Kaym and see what were they doing.

Nothing notable happened apart from Hosuke winning the eating contest and Blax and the girls finally returned from their adventures. Additionally, Rulend had finally done with the 2nd round of the group stage.

“So what happened, Rulend?” I asked him.

Rulend grinned and crossed his arms in full confidence and said, “We’re in the number one spot right now, guys!”

“That’s awesome. If we keep this up, this will be over quick!” Blax was very happy of the outcome that Rulend has brought out.

“Now that my job is over, I assume the next match participants is ready?” asked Rulend as he took a seat on the bench.

I answered him by saying, “Hosuke and I will handle the Spell Ball match, Rulend.”

“Splendid. Without Lore here, I figured it would be hard for you to do things right.”

“That’s not really a problem, Rulend. I can handle without him by my side...” that was what my mouth said but my mind was probably saying something else.

“I’m all pumped up now, everyone! I’ll show you guys what I have been doing all these time.” Hosuke clenches his fist in preparation for the next match.

I patted Hosuke by his shoulder, “Let’s go and score some goals, buddy.”

“After you, all mighty overlord Rider Blade.”

Serena was confused, “Since when Rider is an all mighty overlord?”

“It’s a friendly joke, Serena. An inside joke.” explained Kaym. “It’s just something we usually call him when we’re playing that one video game. We will always role play when playing the game. It’s very fun, really.”

“Yeah. Too bad the girls won’t understand a thing you were talking about.” said Rulend.

“Let’s get going, Rider.” Hosuke decided to get ready for the next match.

I followed him to the preparation room and made sure all of my equipment were ready to be summoned. Hosuke unveiled to me something that he has been meaning to show to me for a while. He have been watching a lot of video tutorial about blacksmith. After a few dozens of trials and error he revealed to me his Katana. He called it, Mizusame. Mizu means water while the ‘same’ part is a reference to the infamous Murasame blade that was told to be one of the strongest katana ever known.

“You’re going to use that in the match?”

“It’s not like I can slice the ball. That thing is as tough as diamonds.”

As we reviewed back our strategies, the screen display showed us which team we will be fighting and in a twist of fate, we were against Team Buddyz. To make it more oddly specific, it was Rolls and Herone. Those two seems to be an interesting combination. One has the ability, False Reality while the other one can control the movement of their bullet. I wonder how they are going to put their ability to a good use.

We’ve entered the field and noticed two goal post. It was a large hole with a net made out of strong woven materials designed to catch the Spell Ball. All we have to do is to throw the Spell Ball into the enemy’s goal post.

“You ready, Lore?”

“I’m Hosuke. Rider. Lore isn’t here.” Hosuke corrected me.

“Oh, sorry. You ready, Hosuke?”

“Yeah. Stay focused, Rider.”

“You too.” I nodded.

The whistle was blown and the Spell Ball appeared from the sky. This was called the first phase. During the first phase, The Ball will start to fall from the sky, the first to catch it will be the first team to make their way to the opposing goal post. Meanwhile, the opposing team must defend their goal. Magic is recommended to be used during all of the phase. The next phase happens when the first goal was scored by either team. The Ball will appear in front of the scorer’s partner. It would be a great strategy if both members are near the goal post because this will make pinning down the enemy easy.

It sounds unfair but when Magic comes into play, its all in the matter of how you use your Magic. So the game goes on until we reach the final phase which happens around the halfway point of the match where the ball will start to absorb some of the impact they received and at random interval, release the impact to nearby players. It can either be a good thing or a bad thing according to what they absorbed recently. This could be the turning point for most Spell Ball match in history.

Since I’m near to the ball, I transformed into my Dragon Knight Armor and jumped into the air and tried to grab the ball but then the ball suddenly moved away from the slip of my hand. A bullet manage to hit it and flew toward Rolls. He successfully obtained the ball and ran to our side. Herone followed suit.

“Hosuke, defend the goal!”

Hosuke nodded and made a defensive stance along with his katana still sheathed in its scabbard. As Rolls was on his way to Hosuke, Hosuke formed a titan made out of water and ordered it to stop Rolls. Rolls shrugged it off as he touched one of the incoming titan and dissolved it into nothing thanks to his False Reality ability.

A barrage of bullets started to fly around the field attacking all of the titans that Hosuke made. This doesn’t look good at all. I had to stop Herone from using his Spirit Bullet. I plunged myself toward him but he successfully dodged it. At the same time, Rolls was getting near the goal post. Hosuke wasn’t bothered by it as he was still standing at the same place where he later on begin to unsheathes his Katana. As he unsheathes it, water starts to spiral around him with the front part of the water taking form of the head of a dragon. Hosuke, The Reincarnation of The Sea God was there to save the match.

TO BE CONTINUED