Grace diverted her attention from the match to grab Sunz's water bottle inside her purse. Holding the water bottle in her hand, her face is flushed with question marks, then she turned back to the match, mostly focused on Sunz.
…
Sunz: Ok, this is good, we might actually have a chance.
Laikan: Great job Jihu, you protected our Ace.
Jihu: I definitely underestimated him. I didn't think he would be that strong.
Sun: Aren't you supposed to be the most humble out of us three?
Jihu: Not in this situation.*dashed at ONE to duel against him* Hey Sunz, more mirages are spawning in as I'm getting closer, is normal right?
Sunz: Yeah, don't worry too much about it, that's my job… Once the blade is near your body, all you can see is one mirage at most then after that it will spawn more after contact.
Jihu's water-blades and ONE's blades collided with each other, but both of their weapon easily went through each other, which created an opening for Jihu to pierce his sword through ONE's eye, and ONE had the chance to cut Jihu in half.
Jihu's attack successfully hit ONE, and he successfully evaded ONE's attack after being knocked back by Laikan.
Jihu: Thanks for the save.
Laikan: You welcome, you got a critical hit on it. Might make this a bit easier.
Jihu: He can one-shot me! We are both one step away from heaven.
Laikan: Then let's continue the pressure! *dashed into ONE's zone as he pulled the sword out of his eye*
After pulling the sword out of his eye, there was no visible wound, the water-blade was pulled out smoothly and is being use to attack Laikan. Before the water-blade has a chance to hit Laikan, it slithered out of ONE's hand and turned into a blob of water floating next to him.
Laikan was planning to punch ONE with his electrified fists, but decided to punch through the water blob first and hit ONE second. After coming in contact with the fist, the blob fused with it like a glove and give Laikan the feeling that his power is more concentrated.
The attack from his fist landed and knocked ONE back just as he expected, but the water-glove was gone after the first contact.
ONE pulled himself together to dash at Laikan, then Jihu to quickly finish the battle, but when he was about to move, his body was shocked by an extreme concentrated amount of electricity, which stun lock him for a bit.
Laikan: Your attack didn't do anything to him, Jihu and you also provided him a weapon.
Jihu: That did do damage, it just doesn't inflict visible wounds outside. And you are correct, he is a robot. There are no internal organs.
Laikan:… the combo that we just did was all him, right?
Jihu: The ability to change water quality is rarely useful in combat, unless you want to make the enemy sick with diseases.
Sunz: Since our enemy is a robot, diseases won't work, so we will use highly conducted water to buff your attack… ow! (Where are these mirages coming from?)
Jihu: You ok, buddy? We can take a more defensive tactic.
Sunz: Don't worry, everything is still under control. Keep attacking or else we are fuck.
Following Sunz's direction, both Laikan and Jihu delivered barrages of attack on ONE at the same time and at different moments while managing to escape death many times.
After many waves of attack, Jihu and Laikan managed to stay alive while also receiving light injuries, but the same thing can't be said for ONE, who is still totally fine after taking so many hits from them.
ONE: Well, well. I think that's enough joking around. You three make a decent team… well, mostly you, if it weren't for you, they wouldn't be able to fight that long. Let's change that!
Suddenly, all of the mirages appeared in their vision all disappear leaving only the real on standing before them. Then only one mirage appeared, perform a straight line dashed attack targeting at only Sunz.
A cloud of dust appeared where ONE was standing when he dashed in to attack. Jihu and Laikan both tried to stop the attack as they both dashed in to strike ONE with their weapons. Their attack was stopped by a force field shockwave created from his weapons, knocking them back and slamming them into the arena wall.
Less than a second after knocking Jihu and Laikan out of the way, ONE closed the distance between him and Sunz to only a few steps.
Sunz didn't attempt to run away because he knew he couldn't dodge it. All he can do is accept this face and see through his vision a sword pierce through him.
…
When ONE got close to him with the final step, Sunz felt a jolt of pain through his chest and saw a blade pierce through his back and out through his chest, piercing into ONE, stopping the attack.
ONE: What!? What is thissssss!?
Sunz: ha ha, I'm as surprised as you are… you're such a Yandere, Grace.
Standing behind Sunz was Grace with her rapier piercing through him and ONE.
Grace: Still don't know what that means, Sunz. *Staring at ONE with the most soulless eyes* You think I'm just going to let you kill him as you please. Go kill yourself.
ONE: Sure!
*Digitally remove the flesh skin of his body to reveal a metal robotic body underneath, and his body starts glowing red*
Grace: MERDE!
Immediately encase ONE in ice, then pull her rapier out of ONE and Sunz, then she grabs Sunz, turning her back and hugs him tightly in her chest to protect him from the explosion.
A loud explosion was heard by only the people in the area, and in an instant, ice fragments shot in all directions. Grace felt a few shards shot in her direction, cut her hair, graze her outfit, and skin, but none impaled her through the back.
Jihu and Laikan easily defended themselves from the ice shards, and while Grace was protecting Sunz… Sogae was protecting both of them.
Sogae: This was not how the tournament should have gone.
*Jihu and Laikan group up*
Laikan: That was all it took to defeat it? Feel kinda disappointed, all the struggle we experienced, and she just went in and easily killed it.
Jihu sees that Grace's body is being covered in a blackish pink aura, and the amount of this aura feels similar to the purple aura he saw on Sunz before.
"In her current condition, she can easily kill us both. Probably can defeat our grandpas."
Laikan: What the hell? Did her love for him give her that much strength?!
Jihu: That is the only answer right now, but it's not correct. The power of love or adrenaline can only give you a boost up to a certain point. This is abnormal.
*Sunz and Grace*
Sunz is tightly holding on to Grace.
Grace: It's finally over… I was so scared when I felt that you would die.
Sunz:
Grace: Sunz?
She can feel his breath on her until it stops, and he stops holding onto her as his body goes limp. Trying to hold onto him, she felt something oozing out of his back with a hint of iron.
Grace: No no no no no Sunz please! That was my only choice, other options would have left you dead…
"JIHU! HELP ME SAVE SUNZ!"
Jihu also noticed that something was wrong when he couldn't see Sunz's aura anymore and immediately rushed to their side.
Grace gently laid Sunz down while still holding on to him, then Jihu immediately summoned a water blade and stabbed him in the heart. After a few seconds, the blade was absorbed into Sunz.
Jihu: He is stable now, but it seems he won't be waking up anytime soon.
Grace: That's… ok. I'm happy that he is still alive.
Sogae: Ok everyone, time to get out of here. Jihu, gather up your group and return to the hotel, I have to stay back for clean up. We'll discuss more about this after everyone rests up.
Jihu: Uhh, ok, but I don't think any of us know how to drive.
Grace picks Sunz up and carries him on her back in the piggyback ride position. Then she whispered to him with a little smile, "You are ok now, we'll do our best to take care of you."
Both No Name and Yama jump down to regroup.
No Name swinging the key between her fingers: So, any of you know how to drive? Here's the key.
Yama: Not me.
Grace: Not me.
No Name: Are we all gonna be stuck here?
Yama:…
Grace:…
Jihu: Well, the new member hasn't spoken yet.
Laikan: Hello you three, the name Laikan, was part of this group before but has to temporarily left due to personal stuff.
Yama: Hi, I'm Yama, the youngest in the group.
No Name: Name is No Name, currently in vacation mode.
Grace: Hi, I'm Grace. Sunz's nightmare.
Laikan: Great first introduction, give me a few seconds. *Placing a finger on his earpiece and about to say something before getting interrupted*
Archibald's voice can be heard clearly despite not yelling: Young Master, I won't be able to help driving your group back. I'll stay back and help with the cleanup.
Grace: Well we are staying here until the clean up is done.
Familiar voice: I think I can help drive your group back to the hotel.
A hooded figure walks into the arena toward the group.
Grace: Mr.Grimm… Is that you?
The hooded figure removed its hood: You're correct! Long time no see. When did your group get a new member?
Jihu: Grimm, this is Laikan. Sunz and I knew him before meeting everyone here.
Laikan: Uh, hi.
Grimm: We'll discuss more later.
Grace: Long time? It's haven't been a week since we last saw you, and why are you dressed like a black market dealer?
Grimm: This is just my travelling outfit, and you're right, it hasn't been a week yet. You know what they say, time flies when you having fun.
"But enough of that for now, let's get you all back and rest. Hey Sogae, you don't mind me driving them back, right?"
Sogae: That would be a great help… you don't seem that much stronger than before.
Grimm: Strength is not my specialty, so why should I train it. Ok, all of you follow me outside, then tell me which car it is.
Grimm takes the group out and then drives them back to the hotel to rest.