Team Hex's door opened and the group hurried through it.

"That riddle was so dumb; how were we supposed to know a tomato was the answer?" Olivia complained as she kicked a small pebble. Storm joked it was actually quite obvious, and the only reason Olivia had an issue with it was that she didn't know what a panini was.

Olivia poutingly huffed as team Hex entered a large room, right as Team Zalka entered the large room from the other side. Both teams got on guard and Kai glared at the group as her pupils narrowed, shortly followed by them unnarrowing, when Kai noticed the reflective surface that split the room in half. The others quickly noticed the reflective surface dividing the room and lowered their guards.

"And with that, we are at the final challenge before the boss battle, and since I want to keep things neck and neck, my bro will explain the challenge so the teams can start straight away," Kiki happily announced as she handed her brother a piece of paper. Kikou sighed and checked the note Kiki gave him.

"This challenge consists of the participants needing to build a tower using various materials so they can reach their key while defending the tower from being knocked over by projectiles... oh and the flying participants cannot touch the key," Kikou stated. Once Kikou finished speaking, the entire room lit up and revealed it to be a cyberpunk-street-themed sports hall, along with multiple light blue magic circles appearing all over the floor. The teams looked up to the ceiling and spotted their respective keys lodged into the ceiling.

"Ok, me and Kai will protect the tower while you two build the tower," Luna said to Sophia and Ruby. The two nodded their head before they sprinted off in search of materials while Olivia and Xinia did the same. Trikore crossed his arm and began to meditate before he began to surround his body with a thin veil of royal blue mana.

"I don't mean to be rude but shouldn't we be on guard?" Storm asked, to which Trikore shook his head in response while keeping his eyes closed and continuing to meditate.

"Given how nothing had come out of the magic circles and the description of the challenge; it's most likely no opposition will appear until we begin to build up to the key," Trikore explained.

Kai was staring down Trikore with her pupils in a semi-narrowed state as she grounded her closed dawnite fan into the floor before she threaded her tails through the fan's ring-shaped pummel and lifted herself over the fan before she sat in the air. As she was inspecting one of the ice magic circles, Luna noticed that Kai was rapidly shaking and heavily breathing.

"You... good?" Luna asked as she tapped Kai's shoulder which snapped Kai out of her trance state. Kai glanced behind herself with a confused expression and looked at Luna, who repeated her question.

"Oh... yeah, why do you ask?" Kai asked as she lowered herself to the ground, pulled the dawnite fan out of the floor, and continued to carry it with her tails.

"You were acting kind of weird just now, and I noticed your adrenaline level spiked," Luna explained. Kai seemingly realised what Luna was referring to and wondered how to formulate her response.

"Oh, I think it has something to do with how I'm an ego of Master Zalroth," Kai replied. Luna slowly pulled a notepad out from her pocket and asked if Kai could elaborate. Kai nodded her head before pausing and then lightly rubbing her forehead as she was deep in thought.

"Well... Master Zalroth basically said that kitsune egos tend to express personality traits of the kitsune they were formed from," Kai mentioned, as Luna jotted into her notepad.

"And what... would... that personality trait be, in your case?" Luna asked, although slightly apprehensively.

"Well... from what I can tell I get this weird feeling in my chest whenever I see a really strong opponent," Kai stated excitedly as she pointed at Trikore.

"That's probably because Sensei's a battle maniac," Sophia remarked as she and Ruby walked past the shorties while carrying large neon crates. Kai felt as if she should be offended by Sophia's words since they were indirectly applied to her but knew what Sophia said was unquestionably true.

Sophia and Ruby placed the large crates on an elevated platform the crates shattered into pieces before reforming into the shape of two-meter-tall scaffolding. The scaffolding fully formed and the ice magic circles seemed to react to the created scaffolding. Ice mana began to gather around the ice magic circles. The girls instinctively got on guard but Luna told Sophia and Ruby they should focus on getting more crates. Sophia and Ruby agreed before Sophia teleported herself and Ruby away.

Kai got into a combat stance while Luna flew over to the scaffolding and landed on top of it. The ice mana collected together and formed into lean, opaque-ice armoured, ice doll-like golems, along with a small dragon-shaped ice golem. Kai's ears twitched and she made an audible huh when the mana of the ice golems seemed oddly familiar. Kai didn't get a chance to properly sense the mana of the ice golems before she evaded an attack.

Kai opened her dawnite fan and covered it in condensed orange mana before she slashed through multiple of the golem's legs. Kai jumped into the air to avoid a barrage of ice bolts while blocking a few of the ice bolts that were aimed upwards with her dawnite fan. Kai coated her fists in orange disruptive pulse mana, and dived bombed toward the pile of leg-slashed ice golems; she pierced through the ice golems and flooded the ice golems with disruptive pulse mana, which ripped through the very structure of the golems before exploding them into an icy mist. Kai let out exhausted/heavy breaths before eyeing the icy mist of mana and getting an idea that even by her skewed standards was dumb.

Kai strongly inhaled and breathed a huge amount of the icy mist, her body instantly shuddered and she instinctively coughed up the mist. The golems halted their approach as Kai continued to dramatically cough up the mist and strongly pounded her chest before falling to her knees. Kai balled up her fist before strongly punching her chest and holding her breath.

From within the private booth, Chronia amusedly giggled which made Zalroth cover his face and even blush a little when Chronia cheekily peeked through Zalroth's fingers.

"It seems trying to eat things you shouldn't, really is an intrinsic part of your being, Hubby," Chronia cheekily said as she wriggled a finger between Zalroth's hand and pulled his hand away from Zalroth's face.

"Aren't you being a bit exaggerative?" Zalroth asked defeatedly.

"Well... all your egos and visages have eaten things they shouldn't while Kutaro's haven't, not even by accident," Chronia mentioned. Zalroth rolled his eyes which made Chronia giggle but her giggle was cut short by one of Zalroth's tails flopping into her face. Lola asked if her parents could be quiet since she was trying to focus on watching the tournament. As the group continued watching the tournament, Zalroth whispered something into Mimi's ear; she affirmatively nodded her head before she hopped down to the ground and sped off, using Extreme Speed.

Luna and the ice golems watched in disbelief as Kai continued to punch her chest while holding her breath. Luna scratched her head as a fire magic circle formed next to her and blasted a large flamethrower at the ice golem standing next to the scaffolding. Kai pounded her chest one last time and coughed up the last of the mana mist.

"Ok... that was dumb," Kai muttered between heavy breaths. Kai froze and felt a huge wave of nausea course through her body. Kai tried to cover her mouth when she felt like she was going to vomit but wasn't fast enough; she struggled to hold back whatever was trying to vacate her body as Luna noticed what Kai was doing.

"Oi, don't do that!" Luna shouted. Kai perplexedly looked up at Luna, who was going on about how Kai shouldn't hold back vomiting while giving various reasons why doing so was a bad idea. Kai's ears and tails flopped downwards while Kai mentally complained about how embarrassing doing that in front of the audience would be. Luna, and even the ice dragon golem, looked at Kai with an unwavering authoritative glare. Kai sighed before her cheeks puffed up while glowing a faint red.

Even though she wanted to, Kai couldn't force herself to open her mouth. Kai's slumped her arms and defeatedly sighed at her inability to overpower her body's control. Mimi (in her teen naga form) speed blitzed behind Kai at such a high speed that the audience couldn't see her and placed a hand on Kai's shoulder.

"Boo!" Mimi loudly whispered into Kai's ear. Kai's eyes shot open before she uncontrollably screamed and unleashed a massive, unruly torrent of flame mana from her mouth; the flames steamrolled through the ice golems in front of Kai while Mimi used Kai's fire breath as a distraction and got out of the arena without anyone seemingly noticing her.

Kai embarrassedly covered her face with her dawnite fan as small spurts of flame mana escaped from her mouth.

"How unladylike...," Kai muttered sheepishly while sulking; Kai only stopped sulking when she heard Luna calling out to her. Kai looked in Luna's direction and noticed Luna was struggling to fend on a barrage of ice bolts using large magic platforms as make-shift shields. Kai sporadically jumped to her feet and rushed over to assist Luna.