Kyrion watched the second, round of the tournament for the second time start to finish. A clipboard in his hands and an analytical look in his vermillion eyes.

“Tiffany best Lisa in round two but gets injured. Then Cecil destroys Bracus. Atmin pulls off a close win against Yaklack, his arm won’t be fully healed by round three. Milo and Noah fight for thirty minutes straight before Noah is hit by a blow to his side that does more that break ribs.” Kyrion muttered.

“Anthony loses to Sinbad in a rather quick fight. Ander doesn’t show up or loses which is a constant as he refuses to fight a rematch. Volain best Julia with a single flick to her forehead. Showed physical prowess close to yours.”

“Yes… He’s dangerous even for me. In a battle of pure physical might he may surpass me.” Kyrion smirked.

“Lastly Midas and Nicole.”

“Nicole should have won this one easily.” Kyrion stated.

“Did you watch the original fight?”

“No. I haven’t. You?”

“I was preoccupied with personal business.”

“Burying me alive isn’t personal business.” Kyrion watched the fight end after five minutes of going at it.

Nicole charged forward to deal a finishing blow from close range while Midas was preoccupied.

Midas narrowly dodged the blow and plunged a golden sword through his opponent's stomach triggering the evac wards.

“That was close. Looks like Nicole loses. Different than yesterday but it was quite close.” Lin sighed.

“I’ll go check on her.” Kyrion began to stand when a hand landed on his shoulder.

“No you won’t. She’ll be fine. I also removed that tracking tag you placed on her. She was close to figuring out how to find you from it.” Charles said from behind Kyrion.

“Thanks. You're right. We have work to do.” Kyion slumped and watched the remaining fights.

“Tiffany surrenders to Cecil. Milo obliterates Atimn quite quickly. Sinbad loses to Damian within a minute. Volain doesn’t give Midas thirty seconds by slamming him through multiple buildings.” Lin wrote down.

“The first five seconds were spent finding Midas. The next twenty-five were getting bodied. He’s surprisingly durable.” Kyrion noted as he watched Midas regenerate after the battle.

“Still. A bit quick.”

“Yeah. Quite fast. Winning this won’t be easy.” Kyrion muttered.

“Even for someone with your amount of mana?”

“If I can’t beat my opponent with overwhelming force then I’m stuck. Playing a game of defense until my opponent drains themself. If he is as tough as he is strong I’ll have trouble breaking past his defenses with my current mastery over fire.”

“So you’d risk losing to keep your secrets?”

“No. But I’m willing to get pretty close before risking another affinity.” Kyrion stated.

“You aim to win while holding back? Good luck.”

“I can only do my best.” Kyrion shrugged.

“If your best isn’t good enough. You owe me.” Lin stated nonchalantly.

“What do I owe you? You should know not to gamble on the wild horse.”

“What?”

“Listen, I speak big. I talk a big game, and I do believe in our chances of victory. But I am not invulnerable, nor indestructible. Chances are there will be someone here who can beat me at my full strength. I’ll let Ander face Volain if we face his team. He is better at focused strikes with overwhelming power. Then again I haven’t seen him get hit.”

“Aren’t you stronger than Ander?”

“If left alone for ten minutes by magnitudes. Direct one on one isn’t my strong suit if that makes sense.” Rion lied.

“It does not.”

“Anyhow. With that done, let's go get dessert with the team.” Kyrion led Lin to the rest of their team minus Ander.

Bastion was enjoying an ice cream cone taller than he was as he left the shop he procured it from. Taking a right turn he nearly bumped into a white-haired kid around his exact height and someone looked like him, which startled him quite a bit as he watched them go. Not paying attention to where he was going. As Bastion continued forward he crashed into a tall dark-skinned young man with cornrows and a sharklike expression.

Some may ask what happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object on multiple occasions. But that was not the case. Bastion could hardly be considered unstoppable aside from his inborn clumsiness and penchant for causing trouble for others indirectly. Usually in rather questionable ways. Some would call this luck. Those people would be both right and wrong.

“Eyy kid watch where you're going. You could hurt yourself.” Volain stated as he tried to stand Bastion up.

Eden, who had been with him, immediately ran into the ice cream shop to find a taller person to deal with this dilemma that was bound to occur. This wouldn’t be the first accident that happened today after all.

Bastion looked down and noticed his ice cream had been lost. As though the cone bounced from his hand and landed somewhere with a splat followed by a surprised scream. The boy quickly got to his feet and went to see if it fell over a railing.

Bastion tripped over his own feet and stumbled near the edge nearly falling. Had gravity been working he would have met a similar fate to his ice cream. One that he watched spatter on the ground.

“Kid. You gotta be careful. It’s high up here.” Volain began to pull Bastion up.

Sadly this was not the end of his bad luck as the wooden plank he tripped on came loose and fell taking the whole area Volain was standing on while holding Bastion.

“Bastion!” Rion had dived off the railing towards the ground passing them quickly before changing direction and flying upwards to grab both Bastion and Volain. He had, however, considered letting Volain fall to see how durable he was. That idea lasted all of the time it took to see that Volain didn’t have a way to freely move about in the air.

Fire shot out from Kyrion’s heels as he flew back up and landed on a much safer area on the level they started on.

“Hey. You're that flashy git.” Volain said as soon as they landed.

“And you're that Rhino dude.”

“Rhino? Is it strong?“

“One horned elephant basically. Only the horn in the middle is quite dangerous.”

“So like a unicorn, but on an elephant. Sounds manly. Sounds brutal. How does it taste?” Volain started drooling.

“Like a mix between beef and pork, only tougher due to the muscle to fat ratio. Find yourself a good cook and anything can taste good. Why?”

“Are there any nearby?”

“There are plenty native to humid grasslands. Just outside of this country.”

“Meat… No Volain focus. Uh what were we talking about?”

“I.. don’t know.” Rion pats his new friend on the shoulder simultaneously placing a mana tag in their body just to keep an eye on this character’s movements.

“Rhino meat. Can you put me down now Mr. Ky-...Mr. Rion.” Bastion had been drooling before he focused.

“Ah right that clumsy kid of yours. Why is a kid like that even here?”

“I’m not just a kid. I’m an alternate. Don’t tell anyone though.” Bastion nodded.

“You're letting a kid fight.”

“He’s here for the experience. We shouldn’t need more than we have. Didn’t plan for the extra open slots.”

“And cause I’m an indispensable member of the team.” Bastion said.

“What do you do?”

“My job is to keep the bench warm and provide towels and water. So many things. I’m also the mask scotch.”

Volain snorted. “I can’t…Listen, if you can move that fast in the air then I’m glad I don’t have to fight you in the solo tournament. So I’ll leave you all with a warning. If we fight near water surrender.” Volain turned and started walking away.

“Care to elaborate?” Kyrion asked.

Volain ignored the question and moved forward with a grim expression.

“Mr. Rion. It seems I won’t be able to enjoy an ice cream today. Permission to cry?” Bastion asked.

“No. I can afford to buy you another. But you're eating inside and under supervision.”

“Yay!” Bastion cheered, raising a gloved hand in confusion.

“Did you summon that?”

“Not on purpose… I don’t know when it happened though. Don’t even know who’s power I absorbed if I did.”

“...Bastion. Please don’t wander off like that. You're a bit of a magnet.” Kyrion told Bastion.

Siegfried and the headmaster looked at each other and then back at Kyrion before the former sighed.

“He does know he was worse right?” Sieg looked to the headmaster.

“To be fair when trouble came his way it tended to either befriend him or get itself killed. Bastion nearly started a chain reaction that would have ended badly for everyone else involved.”

“A different flavor of a jinx is still a jinx.” Caeden sighed as he turned toward the alleyway the white-haired child vanished into. “What are you up too…”

While Lin and Kyrion continued their investigations. The rest of their team looked on with suspicion. It was no secret that they were on decent terms, but whispering conspiratorially and sticking next to each other was bizarre.

“Somethings up.” Tiffany stated.

“Does it matter? Miss betrothed?” Minah teased.

“What they do isn’t my business. Still… It’s. Weird?” Tiffany tried to put it into words.

“Tell me about it. I was rooting for K&C.” Bella sighed.

“K and C? What does that mean?” Eden asked, having tagged along.

“Don’t worry about it. Would you like to come with me to the park?” Hel spoke quickly

“No. You're the scary bug lady. I hate bugs.” Eden blew a raspberry and ran off.

“At least you tried Hel. At least you tried.” Bella patted her on the shoulder.

“Do kids hate bugs nowadays? When I was growing up, catching cicadas and widows were things I did often with my family and friends.”

“To be fair, her parents were killed by bugs.” Minah added.

“Worm parasites are not bugs. They don’t even have an exoskeleton.” Hel kicked a rock.

“Most children would disagree. If it’s gross or creepy, it's a bug.” Tiffany shrugged.

“I feel like I’m being insulted.” Hel scowled.

Bella put an arm over Hel. “We love our creepy cinnamon bun.”

"We'll see about that." Hel slinked away.

"If that's not a red flag I'm not a werewolf." Bella crossed her arms.

"Then maybe you shouldn't tease her." Tiffany brought up.

A hooded figure covered in black clothing stood in front of the remainder of the Republic's team. Their expression was hidden as they caused all of the other members to look uneasy.

Milo, the captain, seemed concerned for another reason, however.

"Where is the time demon egg?" A deep feminine voice asked.

"I don't know." Milo said bluntly.

"Is that so? Do you know who used it?" The figure asked Milo.

"No. No, I do not. I would not have authorized its use today regardless, as it was too early."

"The boss isn't going to like that Miloch. You were give clear instructions on when to use the egg and who to target."

"What?" Edwin spoke aloud before remembering his place.

"So you haven't told your lackeys?" The figure asked.

"I told them what it was but not to touch it. I haven't instructed them on how to use it either." Milo said as he eyed his comrades.

"I doubt I would be out of the hospital if it wasn't for this meeting." Lisa said honestly.

"Gergor is still incapable of moving, which is concerning, but he couldn't have done this either."

"What about White Fox?" The hooded figure asked.

"That agent is picking up something for Gamodren. A tool that could turn the tides of this tournament or kill our target." Milo said bluntly.

"Keep an eye on him. I'll go hunt our demon-possessed ally. Be sure to help them out Milo, before I kill them. That way, they will come to us when it sticks." The hooded figure stated.

"Yes Madam." Milo bowed.

"Good. If you can make us forget these trangressions, then I won't have to tell the boss. Your father won't have to deal with going against his wishes."

"All this for, Tay." The group stated before splitting off to find their rogue time demon.