“Astoundingly, Pang and Skrili have caught a second wind! This fight is still on!!” Soot shouted enthusiastically as the crowd’s eruption continued.

“Catching the end of their little discussion there, it seems they settled a grudge of some sort…” noted Talonvorp.

Deon clasped his hands together in front of his mouth, his legs bouncing up and down, as Phillip watched in silent anticipation.

“They’re still in this…they can do this…” Deon uttered.

But he thought of his conversation with Alex the other day. It wasn’t public yet, but this was Alex and Ving’s final competition together. Their legacy was riding on this championship. Which meant:

They wouldn’t pull any punches.

The two teams stood frozen, waiting for the right moment to pounce.

“Fight them both at once, huh?” Pang repeated beside Skrili.

“Yes. We stick with team attacks, like the Preliminaries,” muttered Skrili. “We watch each other’s backs.”

Pang smirked. “This is gonna take me back to the good old days. Alright, I’ll trust you on this.”

The crowd started chanting “FIGHT!! FIGHT!! FIGHT!!” as the teams faced off.

Alex and Ving’s smiles remained.

In a flash, act two of their duel began.

Skrili and Pang lunged forward at the same pace. Alex stood his ground, but created a gust of wind to launch Ving into the air.

“Blocking!” Skrili called. She leaped at Alex and they locked powerful arms.

Pang immediately read which combo Skrili was going for. Tapping into Alex’s imagining, she again created her own wind—this time, around Ving. Taken by surprise, Ving began spiraling, struggling to stay in the air.

Skrili and Alex remained locked, as Alex focused his bug-like eyes towards Ving.

“Smart—she can’t use her powers on you if she’s stuck dealing with that,” he commented. “But sorry: you can’t hold me off.”

With a mighty shove, Alex forced Skrili backwards.

“Thanks,” she said plainly.

As she fell back, Pang rushed up from behind and grabbed her under her arms. Pang spun, funneling more imagined air from her to the struggling Ving, until she tossed Skrili right into the wind current. Skrili shot at Ving with a pointed kick.

Ving did her best to avoid the midair attack, but Skrili still kicked her on the shoulder, spinning her out towards the floor.

“Bounce!” Pang shouted as Skrili descended.

Then a padded, spiraling spring appeared right where Skrili was about to land. Skrili twisted into position, and then bounced off it, back towards Ving like an arrow.

But Alex managed to catch up to their onslaught. He imagined another wind gust underneath Ving, lifting her back up and out of harm’s way. Skrili sped by underneath, and then rolled to a smooth landing near Pang.

“What a combo from Pang and Skrili!” Soot exclaimed over the roaring audience. “Good thing Alex and Ving broke it up, or Ving would’ve taken quite the hit!”

“Again, you sure know how to imagine,” Alex complimented Pang as the four fighters eyed each other closely. “You caught on to my wind imagining like nothing.”

Pang shrugged. “Once I got the hang of it, it was cake.”

Skrili smiled. For once, she was grateful to hear Pang’s overconfidence return.

“Then our next move should be obvious,” announced Alex.

Ving glided closer to Alex, and then the two champions charged forward. This time, Skrili and Pang stood on the defense.

Pang squinted, seeming to attempt something in her mind. “Uh-oh. Ving’s messing with my manipulating. It’s taking forever to imagine,” she warned quickly. “That’s a no-go.”

“Brace yourself,” Skrili uttered.

Alex and Ving were upon them, and began a barrage of punches and kicks. Despite Skrili and Pang’s preparation to defend, they couldn’t dodge or block a single blow.

Skrili grunted when Alex kicked her in the stomach. Everything seemed totally off: a punch appeared in slow motion, but hit her immediately. She tried to avert a kick, but would jump too soon and provide her opponents another opening to strike.

Ving locked on to both of us, she realized, rapidly losing strength.

Pang faced the same problem, trying her best to study Ving as she took hit after hit.

“Alex and Ving quickly reclaim the advantage!” announced Soot.

“This is another reason they’re such a dominating force,” said Talonvorp. “With Ving able to activate her Perceiver abilities on multiple opponents at once, they can leave their targets literally defenseless.”

The struggle continued on for a few more moments, until Skrili and Pang were almost out of breath.

“Got it!!” Pang suddenly exclaimed, regaining her composure and dodging a kick from Ving.

All at once, Skrili’s perception shifted back to normal.

“I—incredible,” Ving stammered. “She’s canceling it out…”

Seizing the moment, Skrili and Pang pushed back, now throwing their own attacks. The powerful teams came to an evenly-matched battle.

“What did you do?” Skrili called in between kicks.

“I’m manipulating Ving’s Perceiver!” answered Pang breathily. “I don’t know how to use it…but I can hold it off!”

Their faceoff raged on, the crowd’s enthusiasm growing even higher. Dragons in the highest balconies of the stadium let out thunderous roars.

Skrili and Pang breathed heavily, sweat dripping onto the fighting platform, but they still kept their opponents from overcoming them. Skrili knew she was near her limit, but they couldn’t stop now.

They had to do this.

Then abruptly, Alex and Ving both hopped straight back. Alex imagined a wind current to pull them away and place them safely towards the other side of the platform.

Pang and Skrili waited cautiously.

“Man, I haven’t needed to use this one in a while,” Alex laughed. “Thanks for giving me a reason! This is a blast!”

“Pang is still blocking me,” Ving noted.

“No worries—they’re tired; they’ll have a hard time dodging this!” assured Alex.

He crouched forward a bit, focusing all his attention on the floor between them. A gust began blowing there in one direction, and then another misty one did the same in the opposite. They breezed by and pushed against each other, until a massive spiral started forming.

Gradually the spiral intensified, until morphing into a full-on tornado. It grew taller and wider, towering high above the fighters. Skrili and Pang felt the wind tugging at them, sucking them towards the storm. The tornado’s roar practically drowned out the audience.

Even from where Deon sat, the wind whooshed through his hair. He watched on in both amazement and fear at Alex’s complex attack, as streaks of fiery light weaved into the tornado in a dazzlingly terrifying display.

“Crap…” he uttered simply.

“Look alive!” Pang shouted over the raging gusts.

The tornado leaned forward, and then began plowing its way across the arena, right towards them. Skrili and Pang struggled to keep their footing.

“Can you imagine it away?!” Skrili called.

Pang shook her head. “I can’t block Ving and manipulate Alex’s powers at the same time! We need to dodge!”

Skrili understood: if Pang switched over to manipulating Alex, Ving would immediately be able to disorient them again. They would be sitting ducks in front of an incoming tornado.

“RUN!!” Pang shouted.

They both made a break for it, splitting up in two directions. Skrili tried to tap into her Power Rebound strength, but again instead of power, she was met with nausea. She gritted her teeth and sprinted with the little energy she had left.

Skrili could barely see now, the wind blowing her hair against her face and making her eyes water. Pang was totally invisible in the frenzy. All she could do was run, shoving herself against the pounding wind.

Within a few moments, the wind began decreasing. Skrili lost her footing and stumbled to her knees, panting. She raised her head to find Pang not far beside her, leaning over and equally out of breath.

Turning around, Skrili saw the tornado fizzling out just beyond the edge of the arena.

They evaded it.

“INCREDIBLE!!! SKRILI AND PANG OUTRAN ALEX’S SPECIAL!!!!!” Soot screamed. Thousands in the crowd shot to their feet, shouting in disbelief, elation, frustration, or a combination of all.

Ving’s tranquil smile returned when Alex broke out laughing.

“You guys are something else! I love this!” Alex exclaimed, applauding them.

“Prepare yourselves,” warned Ving.

Skrili forced herself to her feet, and she exchanged a weary gaze with Pang.

Pang chuckled. “Endurance training, right?”

Skrili nodded. But Pang’s words didn’t bring her back to their training days together. Instead, she recalled the endurance training she put Deon through in No Man’s Land.

After countless tries, with nothing left, he finally managed to defeat her…but it wasn’t because of Pang and Skrili’s ‘ignore the pain’ approach. He lasted because he chose to feel all of the pain, and to remember what it was for.

Skrili’s legs shook, barely able to hold her up.

She recognized Pang’s endurance drills probably came from her father’s harsh training. It was all Pang knew to survive.

But with practically nothing left, Skrili couldn’t rely on pretending to be untouchable anymore. She stared at Pang: her past friend, then enemy…

…But she was still like a sister, who was a few punches from possibly losing everything.

Don’t ignore the pain anymore, Skrili told herself. Use it to fight.

To fight for her.

Across the platform, Alex was summoning his powerful Combustion Orbs into his hands and Ving’s. The teammates stood in place, wielding their windy weapons confidently.

“Got enough fight left in you to do Scatter?” Pang asked Skrili.

She took a deep breath. Then she nodded. “Let’s go.”

The duo sprung back into action. They zipped forward, crossing over each other several times, and then running in all kinds of unpredictable zigzag directions.

Simultaneously, Alex and Ving unleashed their barrage of Combustion Orbs. The light-laced balls of wind fired at their opponents, but due to Skrili and Pang’s erratic running patters and sheer speed, each attack missed as it popped against the platform.

Skrili tried to keep her breath steady. Any wrong move, and it was probably over.

“Again, Skrili and Pang are managing to best Alex and Ving’s techniques. Truly outstanding,” Talonvorp commented.

In the balcony, Deon noticed Phillip raise his posture a bit, his demeanor shifting away from sheer worry.

“They have Alex and Ving stumped!” Deon exclaimed. “They can really do it!”

A hopeful smile formed on Phillip’s face.

After over a minute of laborious dodging, the Combustion Orbs finally stopped coming. Skrili and Pang met in the center of the fighting platform, leaning on each other to catch their breath.

“You guys have some serious resolve,” Alex noted, his enthusiasm ever-present.

“Well…we’re…going to the championship,” breathed Pang.

Alex and Ving exchanged gazes. For the first time, their carefree joy had vanished from their eyes entirely. Skrili didn’t know what to make of this; it almost looked like sadness.

“About that…” began Alex. “Sorry, but there’s no way we’re letting you get past us. We’ve got a lot hinging on this. ‘Cuz it’s…” he stopped himself.

Ving put a soft hand on his shoulder.

“This is our final Conscious Competition together,” she finished delicately.

Alex nodded, managing a smile of acceptance.

The audience however, didn’t respond quite as calmly. After a second of sheer shock, Skrili heard the chilling sound of thousands of people gasping. Then, it morphed into all kinds of reactions: exclamations of protest, confusion, mourning, rage, and hushed discussions. A few spectators shouted their respect and admiration.

“I am sorry,” said Ving. “It is time for me to move on from the League. It feels…necessary somehow.”

“You two are awesome and you deserve the championship too,” started Alex, “but we won’t lose this one.”

He watched them closely, and then closed his eyes to focus.

“We were hoping to save this next one for the championship, but I guess we’ll need to do it here,” explained Alex. “Congrats, this is a debut: Black Hole!”

Several brief breezes passed by Skrili and Pang’s feet.

“Not feeling great about this,” muttered Pang. “If you have any Power Rebound energy, now’s a good time.”

Skrili shook her head. “I’ve had one building up this whole fight, but I never finished healing. My body can’t handle it.”

“Lovely.”

The breezes increased, their chill sending a shiver down Skrili’s spine. Oddly, as they dragged by, the air felt slow. Time itself felt slower.

Skrili watched Ving, who was focusing intently on the air around them.

It’s a team special, she realized.

Skrili and Pang both tried to move away, but they were far too late: preparations were already in place. Behind them, they found an immense and perfect circle of air. It blew in slow motion, obscuring the space around it. Before Skrili and Pang could take a step, an invisible force sucked them into the air towards the transparent hole.

They couldn’t move. Or rather, each movement took far too long. Even Skrili’s thoughts grew sluggish.

Within what felt like an instant, they were trapped, suspended side-by-side in this time-bending air.

“Whoa, what’s this?! Alex and Ving are revealing a new special attack?!” exclaimed Soot. “If this is really their last tournament, they’re pulling out all the stops!”

“Guess the cat’s out of the bag—this is our failsafe, Black Hole,” explained Alex. His speaking sounded unnaturally rushed and high-pitched inside the vortex. “It’s the ultimate combination of my powers with Ving’s.”

Skrili tried to move, but it was useless: everything was slowed down. And even if she could return to her normal speed, this strange and powerful air wouldn’t let her budge.

Ving nodded to each of them respectfully, and oddly fast from Skrili and Pang’s perspective.

“I’m glad you worked out your stuff with each other and gave us a great fight!” Alex said. “Thanks for this.”

Skrili strained against the Black Hole’s forces to think, but no escape came to mind. All of their options were exhausted. If any solutions remained, it was because they were impossible.

She looked beside her to Pang, who had turned to her at that exact instant.

“Do you concede, friends?” Ving’s obscured voice cooed.

“H…HECK NO!!” Pang managed, her fiery eyes still locked on Skrili’s. But Skrili could tell her resolve and stubbornness were all she had left—no escape plans.

Wait…no possible ideas…left…Skrili thought. We need…something impossible…

Alex and Ving accepted Pang’s refusal to surrender with a nod. They prepared to charge.

“We…have to…try that again…” Skrili pushed to say.

Pang’s eyes widened. “That? But…it’s not—”

“We have to…” Skrili repeated as sternly as possible in their slowed circumstance.

Alex and Ving were almost upon them.

“Rely on me, Pang…” she pressed. “Take it!”

“Here comes the finishing blow!” Soot announced.

“Look at that perfect form,” added Talonvorp.

Alex and Ving leaped at them.

“Try!” Shouted Skrili, briefly cutting through the time warp. “We can still—”

Alex’s foot cleanly met Skrili’s stomach, ejecting her out of the wind trap. She felt time instantly catch back up, only an instant before crashing onto a slightly-cushioned floor and rolling to a stop.

Facedown, she couldn’t bear to lift her head. She didn’t want to find out where she had landed—where Pang had landed.

But she found out swiftly enough:

“SKRILI IS DEFEATED BY RING OUT!!!” Soot shouted.

The audience, however, shouted with utter surprise. Her defeat shouldn’t have been a shock, at this point.

So what was it?

“…But somehow, Pang has DEFLECTED THE ATTACK!!!!” Soot finished even more hysterically.

Skrili weakly lifted her head. From her angle on the ground off the platform, all she could see was exactly what she was hoping for:

Pang stood, hands on hips, unaffected on the platform. Skrili couldn’t see her face from here, but she knew exactly the smug and excited smile Pang now wore.

“Huh…after all this time…” Pang noted playfully. “So this is what a Power Rebound feels like…”

“HUH?!?!” Soot and Talonvorp both yelled.

“LET’S GO!!!” Deon shouted.

Phillip shot to his feet. “What?! But that’s not even…that’s—”

“Impossible!! It’s CRAZY!! It’s HISTORIC!!!!” screamed Soot, his amplified voice clipping.

Alex and Ving stood for a moment, stunned. Then, Alex laughed.

“Man, you two…you’re something special,” he said.

He and Ving pounced right back into action, but their next attack missed like it had never happened: Pang practically vanished before their eyes, reappearing behind them.

“Never in the known history of Consciousness powers has a Manipulator been able to manipulate a Power Rebound,” Talonvorp commentated, adrenaline fueling his quick speaking.

Alex and Ving tried to throw Combustion Orbs at Pang. She imagined half away, and easily evaded the others.

“It’s impossible. Or rather: it used to be!” finished Talonvorp.

“Hmm…she is blocking my powers again,” noticed Ving, still entirely calm.

“Yet she’s imagining away my attacks…” added Alex.

Pang’s devious smile grew. “I guess when I manipulate Power Rebound, the power rush makes my manipulating stronger,” she realized. “Bottom line is: Skrili believed in me, and we did it. So yeah, I’m glad we worked our stuff out, too.”

She dodged more attacks, still blocking out Ving’s Perceiver powers. Then, she stopped with arms crossed.

“And Alex: you guys may have a lot hinging on the championship,” she started, “But I have more.”

Without moving a muscle, Pang easily imagined one of Alex’s wind tunnels beginning just above her two targets, and ending out of bounds. There was nothing they could do to escape its sudden force: both champions were sucked up in the storm, soared through the air, and the current spat them out neatly on the floor outside the platform.

It was over.

Deafened by the thunderous crowd, Skrili let her head fall back to the floor. The only strength she had left was enough to crack a small smile. A green hue appeared around her, as a few of the tournament’s healers now stood above her to begin their initial treatment.

This time, Deon didn’t care to protect his ears from the sound-splitting screams and shouts all around him. Instead he took part, hopping up and down from elation. Then, he couldn’t help it: he grabbed Phillip by the shoulders and gave him a hearty, celebratory shake, Uncle Adon-style.

“YEAAAH!!!” Deon screamed in his face. “CHAMPIONSHIP TIME!!!”

As anticipated, Phillip glared at him blankly. Deon was quick to remove his hands after brushing off Phillip’s shoulders.

“Uh…my bad.”

But then Phillip smiled back. “You don’t realize it, do you?” he asked.

“What?”

“You were a part of their team this time,” he elaborated. “You inspired them. You pushed them to reconnect.”

They both turned to observe their friends. Pang stood, staring back into the crowd as a couple healers approached her. Soon, her eyes fell on Skrili. The blue-haired fighter now sat up, still under her own healing rays.

They smiled at each other.

“Oh, come on…I didn’t say much, just what was on my mind,” denied Deon.

Phillip shrugged. “True. Perhaps it was just them.”

“Well…okay, I mean…that was pretty wise of me,” Deon backtracked.

“Just stick with the humble response.”

~~~

“…And after the biggest upset of this tournament yet, Skrili Kay and Pang Pereo will advance to the Fantasy Country Conscious Competition Championship!!”

“Hmm……” murmured Kotono, the light from her TeamTrack glowing in her round, red eyes.

Her teammate sat down close beside her, sinking onto the couch. Her warmth felt calming. Hiroko rested her dark, triangular tattoo-covered arm on Kotono’s petite shoulder, pointing at the girls on the screen.

“So this is the team we’ll fight if we get to the championship,” she noted, her voice naturally hoarse and firm, yet equally tender.

Kotono’s eyes were fixated on the screen absently. “Mm-hm. You mean ‘when.’”

“You’re right: ‘when,’ not if,” Hiroko agreed. “We’re saving my village.”

Kotono nodded. After she fell quiet for a few seconds, Hiroko turned to meet her eyes, some of her purple bangs interweaving with Kotono’s wavy locks.

“I know those eyes. What’s bothering you? The fight?”

Kotono shrugged.

“You’re still bummed out about yesterday, huh?” Hiroko figured. “I’ll sneak you up all the Phoenix Floats you want tonight. I know which guards I can get to look the other way.”

Kotono puffed a single laugh. “Thanks, but…” she paused. “It’s not just the float. Something else happened at the Phoenix yesterday. Something…really weird.”

“Yeah? what?”

“I—I saw Zayza there.”