*Kun*

So Serah has made herself a union of five groups. If we are to stand against them, we might have ally ourselves with another, but who? Xian attacked our group and I doubt that Kyuu Seishin would like to form one given the bad blood between our nations.

That left Sefa and Mina. Perhaps if Nyima asked Iah then he would accept...

"Why so pensive?" a voice called out. I turned around and saw the blue haired princess.

"S-Serah! Why are you here?"

She put a hand on her hips and sighed. "I came to see what you're up to. I don't trust your declaration at all. You're plotting a trap, aren't you?"

I snickered. "And if I am, then what will you do? You followed me by yourself, did you not?"

She narrowed her eyes and turned around. "Yes, but I can hold my own."

I smiled. "Still got that same old 'I need no one' personality going on, even though you decided to rely on four other teams."

Her face reddened. "Great, I'm sounding like that guy..."

I raised an eyebrow. "Who are you talking about?"

"An."

My smile faded. I crossed my arms over my chest. "An, huh? Interesting that you relied on that guy."

"Well, more like he offered to help. He's really strong. His whole team is. In fact, before Hal and he appeared to offer to join up, I considered offering the fourth spot to you guys."

My eyes perked up. "Us?"

She chuckled. "Why do you sound happy? Wait, did you actually come to offer us an alliance?"

I scratched the side of my face. "Nah, I really did just ran into your camp while picking fire wood," I said.

She turned around and leered at me. "Ohh? So, where is the wood?"

I gulped. "I-it's..."

She smiled. "Come on, Kun. I was not born yesterday."

I put back on my mask, even though it failed to cover all the blush on my face.

"Hey, Sarah."

"Yes?" she asked, tilting her head at me.

I smiled. "I want to wish you good luck. No matter who makes it to the next round, I hope that it's the best teams."

She sighed. "Same... here..."

I walked over to her and placed a hand on her shoulder. Much to my surprised, she didn't swat it away.

"You're bothered by having to fight us, aren't you?"

She lowered her gaze and laughed. "Hard to believe, huh? When we first met, I could only think about my country. To care about the wellbeing of other groups in a competition, that is so unlike me."

"I guess it is," I said, putting my hands behind my head. "Though there's nothing wrong with caring about one's country, so long as that doesn't come at the expense of others.

"Anyway, while I'm unsure how the others would feel, you don't have to worry about having to go against me. If you somehow manage to win, I won't hold any hard feelings."

Sarah's blue eyes seemed to glisten. "Thanks, Kun."

I grumbled internally.

Suddenly the image of a city of fire popped into my head. I stepped back. "S-sorry..." I said, grabbing my head.

"Huh? For what?"

I gasped as I returned back to reality. I looked up at her. The image of girl who resembled her popped into my head.

I turned away. "I-it's nothing. See ya!" I ran back to Wahkan's camp, but even as I got away from Sarah, those images continued to appear in my head. The destruction of Pubu City decades ago. The event that led to the ruin of Sera... caused by so-called 'warriors of light' seeking out the Ruler said to be inhabiting that town.

I fell to my knees and began to pant. It had been so long since these images had surfaced... they had appeared partially back in the academy, but they hadn't been this bad since before my death...

"Kun, what are you doing here? Yen and Lei are looking for you," a voice called out.

I kept my head down. "Hika... please, make it stop..." I said before my arms gave in.

"Hey, this isn't a good place to sleep! Kun..." he yelled, his voice gradually growing more distant.

*Hikaru*

I sighed and squatted down next to my unconscious friend.

"Hey, Kun, are you listening?" I asked, poking his head with my index fingers. "Kun?" I put my hand next to his nostrils.

I smiled as I felt his breath against my hand. Good, he was still alive.

I put my hands on my hips and rose to my full height. Now all I needed to do was figure out how to get him back to camp. I looked around. I couldn't hear either Yen or Lei, meaning they must've been very far from here.

That meant I needed to do it myself. I sighed and picked up Kun. Thankfully he was light... perhaps a little too much.

It was odd that he was so lightweight given how much he ate. He should've been as heavy as his triplet sister at the very least. I mean, they did eat the same amounts and had the same amount of physical activity.

Then again, he was a boy, we boys tended to burn calories faster than girls. But didn't think the difference would be this much.

I stared at him again. Kun... you aren't sick, right?

"Look who I found! A couple of Wahkanians!" someone called out. I gasped as the lady who had fought Lei in the tournament event jumped down a tree.

I stepped away as she manifested her scythe. This was bad... really bad!

I took a deep breath, slowing down time around me. I then ran for it. Though running while keeping my breath in wasn't easy to do. I formed a metal angel and had it attack Gat.

The cat-like lady raised her scythe but her movements were too slow. My angel sent her flying into a tree and sent a furry of metallic feathers at her.

"Yes!" I yelled. I gasped as time returned to normal. Gat grinned and sliced through my spell with ease.

"Nice try, boy," she said, forming a sphere of darkness in her hand. "If you want to flee then do so after you've surrendered your marbles!"

"I have none on me!" I yelled.

"Xià yǔ liánhuā!" a voice yelled. Suddenly lotuses rained down from above. Each lotus exploded like water bombs. I stopped and glanced around.

"Who did that?" Gat yelled. She was completely drenched.

"It was me," the princess of Shui yelled as she charged at Gat with her rapier.

Gat spun around and blocked the princess' attack.

"Hikaru, run!" Sarah yelled.

"What? Why are you helping us?"

"I owe Kun a favor. Please tell him I've payed off my debt once he wakes up!" she yelled as she avoided a downward slash from Gat.

"Okay!" I yelled and I turned tail. I gulped. What was I doing, running away? No, I needed to get Kun to safety. Once he was safe, I could return back.

"Was that, Sarah?" Kun asked as his eyes opened.

I chuckled. "Yeah."

"Hika, you're carrying me?"

I pouted. "What's with that surprised tone?"

Kun chuckled. "No offense, but you aren't exactly known for being physically strong."

"Shut up, you twig!" I yelled, my face turning red. I turned around and saw as Sarah nearly had her head chopped off by Gat's scythe. "If you're feeling better then we should..."

"Thanks, princess, but I can handle this one," Kun said as he appeared in front of Gat's scythe.

I blinked. How did he get there so fast? Did he teleport?

"Hmph, is that so? Then she's all yours," Sarah said as she turned around. "Oh right, we'll be attacking you soon. So you better be prepared. That goes for you too, Kyuu Seishinian."

Gat glared at her. "You aren't getting away so easily!"

"You are the one who isn't!" Kun yelled as he raised the earth around the cat-woman's legs. "Prisión de Tierra!"

The woman yelled as he movements were locked.

Kun placed a hand on the lady and covered her in a pillar of light, warping her to who knew where.

"You really are amazing, you know that?" I said, walking up to him.

My childhood friend snickered. "Tell me something I don't know."

"So, I take it you're better now?"

He smiled. "Yeah, sorry for scaring you there."

I smiled back. "Well, it's not the first time, nor the worst scare you've given me."

He laughed. "Y-yeah. Sorry about that."

I wanted to ask about what he had said before he fainted, but something told me I shouldn't. I was afraid that he would collapse again if I did.

"You aren't going to ask what happened?"

I gulped. Did he wish for me to ask?

"I pondered it, but I doubt you'll give me a straight answer."

He snickered. "You know me well, Hika. Please keep this a secret from Lei and Yen. I don't want them to worry about me again."

"Alright, but if this happens again then I'll tell them, so from now on start taking better care of yourself. You weight far less than you should, given how much you eat!"

His face reddened. "So, is that why you suddenly called me 'twig'?"

I grinned. "Yeah, though you have always been scrawny."

He elbowed me on the side. "Hey, so have you!"

I laughed. "True."

"Good to see you two bonding," Yen said as she waited for us on top of a cliff.

"Jealous?" Kun asked, trying not to laugh.

She laughed. "Hmph, why would I be? You can have him if you want."

"W-we're only friends!" I shouted.

Yen snickered. "I know, you dumb-dumb"

I grumbled. Why did I kept allowing myself to get dragged into their teasing?

"Anyway, enough joking around. Sarah's group will be attacking us very soon! Seems Kun gave them our location!"

"I didn't. I just said we were in the lake further up," he said, grinning.

"Why would you do that?" Yen exclaimed.

Kun smiled. "Well, it helps us know that an attack is coming. We can also predict as to which direction it'll come from too, from below."

Yen laughed. "That's rather naïve, little brother. You seriously think that Sera will only attack us from one side? We assumed the same about Tora, and you saw what happened. They attacked from three sides. The north, south, and east."

"But Sera only has three members," I said.

"Two of them are well known knights despite their young age. Kun here had difficulty against them before. We would be wise not to underestimate them."

"That's true," the third triplet said as he walked down the mountain trail.

"Actually, it's not only Sera we're facing."

"Huh?" the three of said in unison.

"Uan, Hoin, Harun, and Aief forged an alliance with Sera."

"What?" Yen said, taking a step back. "Five groups against one?"

"T-that's insane! We could barely fend off Tora and Azie when they attacked us back to back! How will we fend off five teams!" I yelled.

Lei rubbed his chin. "I think we could. Sirius and the others are awake now. If things start to go sour, we can have Stella and Yuzuki warp us away. However, if things go well then we can easily obtain the remaining two stones we need."

"We only need the white and yellow stones," I said.

"Xue had white, and I'm sure one of them has a yellow stone," Kun said, putting his hands behind his head.

Lei smiled. "Then we should aim for Xue's group, though they might've traded them out to throw us off..."

"How many people will we be up against?" Yen asked.

"Well like you said, Sera has three. Uan has four members. Aief has five," Kun said. "Hoin also has five plus a puppet, and Harun has two. So counting Hoin's puppet, they got twenty, unless if I missed someone."

"How do you know that?" I asked.

"Based on observation."

"Hmm, meanwhile we got us four, Nyima, Ayawamat, Hota, Stella, Yuzuki, Sirius, Orion, Wanikiya, Zelde, Nahimana, Tahoma, Kachina, and those noisy twins. That makes eighteen," Lei said, looking up at the sky.

"Putting it like that, we aren't nearly as disadvantaged as I thought," Yen said.

"The opponents we're up against though makes things more difficult for us. There's An with that crazy rank three familiar, and then there's Vita who can transform one's attacks into another element and use them against a person," a voice called out. It was Nyima who was accompanied by Hota and Ayawamat.

"Right. An and Vita are dangerous," Lei said.

"Aief also has Yanyu, and Ning," Kun said.

"Who is Yanyu?" Ayawamat asked.

His brother started laughing. "You wouldn't want to find out, trust me... that girl alone will be a hassle." He sighed. "And here I thought we could avoid a confrontation with Aief."

"You fought her, I presume?" Yen asked.

"Yeah... I have. I was no match against her."

"Well, that doesn't really tell us much," Ayawamat said.

Hota grabbed his younger brother and ruffled his hair. "You brat, you're calling me weak?"

"No, but you aren't strong either," Aya said, trying to free himself from his brother's grip.

Hota gradually let go of him. "Right, I'm only a middle tier at best..." He took a deep breath. "Though if it comes down to it, I think that I can fend off Yanyu for at least a few minutes while you focus on the others."

"You can?"

He glared at his younger brother. "You should really learn to have more confidence in me, Aya! Of course I can! Plus, I know Yanyu's fighting style the best. She relies on her axe and on casting barriers. One of which can restore he health... not that she's ever used that one on herself in our spars..."

Ayawamat narrowed his eyes at him. "Oh, let me guess, she used it on you instead?"

Hota grabbed him again. "Stop giving me that look!"

The triplets, Nyima, and I broke out into laughter.

"Hey, stop laughing!" the brothers snapped.

"S-sorry!" the triplets said.

Ayawamat glared at them.

"Hmm, so Hota will take on Yanyu, but what about the others?" I asked.

"I'll take on An," Kun said, grinning. "Been wanting to have a rematch against that guy for a while now."

"Don't make it into a battle for Sarah's love now," Yen said, giggling.

Kun's face reddened.

"You like the princess?" Ayawamat asked.

"My brothers are into royals or water girls it seems," Yen said, grinning at Lei and Kun.

"Well Lei and you are also into mages with rare powers whom you grew up with," Kun said, glancing at me.

"C-can we please move on from the love topic?" Lei asked, his face as red as a tomato. 

"I agree!" Nyima exclaimed, as bright red as Lei was.

"As I was gonna say, we should split up into groups of five," Lei said, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Then you triplets should be one. You're stronger when you're together," I said.

Yen, Kun, and Lei smiled at one another. "True, we are," Lei said.

"Plus, I want to get payback on An too after losing to him in the entrance exam!" Yen yelled.

I laughed. "I had almost gotten that his team was our opponent. Though Hal, Sarah, and Xue will also be fighting."

"Hmm, kinda feel bad to go up against Hal after he helped us out the other day."

Kun snickered. "Well, sadly he will soon regret it."

Yen sighed. "If possible, we should spare his group."

"Then we should spare Sarah's too. She helped Hika and me out just now. Plus she has a blue gem, we don't need that."

"Alright, so our focus will be on Uan, Aief, and Harun!" Lei said. "Now let's go back to camp! I'm starving!"

"Okay!" Kun and Yen said, following after him.

I smiled. Those three sure were carefree when together.

I turned around and gulped. We were at the cusp of what could very well be our final match of this event.

**Solar Note: Hope that you enjoyed the chapter :3. Please let me know your thoughts ^_^!**