A burst of violet light flooded the arena at once. From that glow erged a small hovering figure, just about the size of an eye. At its center was a luminous purple core made entirely from lightning. Four translucent wings extended from its body, beating slowly in the air.
"Woahhh! She’s got a Fairy-type! The Lightning Departnt might win this?" the crowd roared in unison.
The Steel student responded imdiately. tal compounded upward behind him, individual plates locking in place and forming a massive shape: The Iron Thread Spider.
Each leg ended in needle-like tips that plunged themself into the arena floor. From those anchors, thin steel wires began spreading outward across the battlefield.
Yuna raised her hand in response.
"Lun Motes."
A small violet sphere blinked into existence near her shoulder, humming faintly. Then another, and another, until there were around 20 of them.
They drifted on the battlefield lazily, scattering across the platform like floating lanterns. So hovered at knee height while others floated at chest level. A few lingered just inches above the floor.
Up in the waiting tier, Aren narrowed his eyes.
They both seem to be Controllers? This’ll be an interesting match.
Neither of them rushed, locking eyes on each other, trying to anticipate the next move.
That was when the Steel student flicked his fingers.
From the spider’s legs, more threads shot outward—not from the body, but from the ground. Each thread was embedded directly into the arena surface, anchoring deep before connecting to another point.
Aren noticed it imdiately, even from the stands.
He wasn’t projecting threads from himself, but was grounding them on the floor instead. That single detail told Aren everything.
If a Lun Mote detonated on a thread connected to him, the charge would travel back to its source, and he definitely wouldn’t be able to withstand the damage. But if it struck a wire on the ground...the charge would bleed into the floor instead.
The opponent seems to have read up on us, huh...
Yuna snapped her fingers.
A mote near the Steel student flared violently, discharging itself until it disappeared.
"Lun Strike."
A bolt of violet lightning rushed toward him. The Steel student reacted instantly. A wire tightened around his body, pulling him sideways as the attack just barely grazed his shoulder. The bolt slamd into the floor and detonated, leftover sparks jumping wildly across the nearby threads before dissipating.
Yuna didn’t let up the pressure. Motes started disappearing one by one as bolts fired at him from multiple angles. The Steel student was basically doing acrobatics at this point, as he moved erratically to avoid being hit directly at all costs.
He almost tripped as his heels brushed dangerously close to a drifting mote.
"Lun Detonation!"
The sphere flared in energy, discharging it all at once but in a radius this ti.
The student’s eyes widened as he twisted at the last second, a wall of thread snapping upward to intercept it.
Hmmm...seems like Yuna has the upper hand. The Steel rep’s probably close to bottoming out on his reserves.
That’s when the student finally tried a counterattack of his own, planting both feet before extending a palm toward Yuna’s direction.
"Wire Shield!"
Multiple threads shot upward, crossing in front of him like a tallic lattice shield. Yuna tried striking the shield head-on, so threads snapped on contact but the structure as a whole remained.
The student flicked his wrist, causing a line to snap straight across the battlefield, aiming at Yuna’s feet.
Shit...it was a feint the whole ti.
The line skimd across the floor and tightened the mont it touched her ankle.
"What the..." Yuna muttered.
But more threads followed, snapping around her wrist while another coiled around her waist before she could fully disengage.
"Thread Constrict."
The Iron Thread Spider behind him lowered its body, tallic legs pulling back as all the wires themselves stretched to their maximum capability.
For the first ti since the match began, Yuna’s movent halted.
The Steel student stepped forward before smiling brightly.
"Haha! Got cocky cus’ you think you got lucky going into us?!" the representative shouted out loud.
"Advantages don’t matter, it’s skill that does!"
Yuna felt the pressure increase around her wrist and ankle, steel biting into fabric as the lattice constricted another fraction of an inch. The Iron Thread Spider lood behind him, standing high and mighty.
But that was when his eyes widened as he realized his greatest mistake. Aren noticed it too, and it was sothing Yuna surely wouldn’t miss.
He bound her with all his wires, even the ones that lead straight toward him.
"Lun Cascade."
Every mote still remaining on the battlefield ignited at once. Dozens of violet spheres popped instantly, bolts flying straight into the wires themselves.
Charge traveled upward like a highway as the Steel representative tried severing the wires. But it was too late—
The Iron Thread Spider convulsed as electricity tore through its projection, limbs spasming uncontrollably. The Steel student’s eyes widened as voltage raced up his arm, across his chest and right through his core.
All the wires on the battlefield snapped in rapid succession, light flooded the arena before...silence.
Smoke curled faintly from his sleeve as he collapsed forward into the platform, unconscious before he hit the ground.
The Iron Thread Spider dissolved into shimring particles above him.
The referee’s voice echoed through the do.
"Lightning Departnt — Victory."
Yuna exhaled softly as the broken threads fell away around her, faint sparks still dancing along her fingertips.
Up in the waiting tier, Aren allowed himself a small nod.
Not bad, she noticed his mistake fairly quickly.
Below, the attendants hurried onto the platform to carry the unconscious Steel representative away. The barrier began dissolving around them as the match concluded.
Yet, Luna didn’t move at all.
She just...stood there. The fairy projection behind her flickered once before dissolving into purple light that faded into the air.
The platform beneath her glowed, signaling her return to the waiting tier. She stepped onto it.
Aren frowned slightly.
When the platform locked into place beside him, she didn’t say anything. She didn’t even look at him.
But when she got closer, Aren noticed the details. Her hands were trembling faintly at her sides, her breathing was uneven, and her pupils were dilated.
"Yuna...?" he called, reaching out to confirm.
Suddenly, she dropped to her knees.
Aren rushed toward her, bending down to look at her expression.
"Hey!" Aren yelled. "Yuna! What’s going on?!"
...
"It’s scary...Aren, I’m scared."
"What are you talking about?! You just won."
She shook her head weakly.
"The pain... it hurts..." Her fingers curled against the tal floor of the platform as if trying to hold onto sothing solid. "When it went through the wire... I felt it too..."
"Well, of course. But weren’t you prepared for that—?"
"I don’t want to do it again," she whispered. "It feels like it’s still there."
Her shoulders trembled.
"This school sucks..." she said softly.
"I’m going to surrender."
"What?!"
Aren condensed ether into his eyes, trying to look for external pressure anywhere around her body.
What he saw made his expression harden. Around the edges of her fading violet glow, sothing darker clung. A black haze that definitely didn’t belong to soone like Yuna.
Her pupils were far too wide.
"It’s loud..." she whispered, though the stadium noise had already begun to die down.
This wasn’t fear.
Even if she was frightened, even if she was overwheld, she was still a ’princess’. There was no world in which she would willingly destroy her image in front of half the academy without reason.
Unless the choice wasn’t entirely hers.
Down below, the intermission ended.
The arena projection flared to life, emblems rotating slowly in suspended light. This ti, Aren didn’t get to choose.
The screen flashed once more before the matchups were finalized.
Opponent — Curse Departnt.
That was when everything clicked.
"Those damn cheaters."
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