A machine like voice spoke up from Cassandra’s armor. The armor reveals to her its status. “TWENTYFIVE percent armor damage. Decca armor at SEVENTYFIVE percent.” Cassandra was shocked that he landed a blow. She turned to look at the scoreboard. Everyone in the stadium as well was shocked too. Cassandra however, regained her composure and put on a serious face.

“I’ve got to focus, no more games.” Cassandra was disappointed with herself, letting her thoughts get the best of her. She tried playing it off as if the damage Kaito did was not a big deal for her.

“I can’t believe I just damaged her armor.” Kaito knew it wasn’t the time to let up on his attack. For some reason he just knew that Cassandra wasn’t giving it her all. She was distracted. He wondered if she was alright but at the same time he wanted to win so badly. He decides to see if he could actually distract her like she had mentioned before. He wanted to frustrate her even more and use it against her in order to throw her off her game.

Kaito didn’t want to make her mad but he had no choice, he desperately needed to win. He spoke up to distract her. “You always have that look.”

“What look? What are you talking about?” Cassandra was breathing hard, still shocked from the blow of the last attack. What was making it worse was the fact that her lack of sleep last night was making her first match more difficult than it really was. Cassandra rubs her eyes, slowly noticing that her eyes had a stinging pain. She was getting more and more tired. Because of how physically demanding Decca was, how nervous she was feeling inside and the lack of sleep, Cassandra’s deteriorating performance was affecting her ability to go on.

“Like as if you’re mad at the world… Or mad at someone.” Kaito wasn’t really making any of that up. He was watching her during the opening ceremony and he could see this anger lurking within her eyes. Then the anger in her eyes would turn to sorrow. Cassandra wanted Cassidy so desperately to be there by her side. That’s what was making her angry and bitter inside. Somehow Kaito could tell, he could see that somewhere inside her she was fighting a losing battle.

“Not only is she fighting me, but she’s fighting something inside herself. I can feel it. She’s losing both battles and I just don’t want to…”

“Look! Can you cram it with the small talk? If you haven’t noticed I’m trying to fight here. People are watching.” Cassandra stepped forward towards Kaito, getting ready to continue the fight.

Kaito laughs a bit, putting a tough guy face he takes a few steps towards her and began to sprint and then went into full on running as Cassandra prepared herself. "That’s right, we can’t disappoint the fans! Here I come!" As he spoke he drops a card on the ground. The card began to hover over the ground. It stopped and stood face down motionless in midair. Flames materialized around the card and it began to glow red. Kaito kept running towards Cassandra. Cassandra knew that wasn't a good sign.

The announcer of the tournament began to speak. ”Woah! It looks like this time Kaito is going to play a Focus card. He dropped it on the ground, yes, it appears to be a Focus card onto the field. He’s hoping to increase the power of his fire elemental attack. He’s now on the offensive again, and he’s moving fast. What is he planning to do!?”

"Kaito dropped a Focus card on the ground. Not good. He's powering up for a big attack." Cassandra thought to herself as she looked at the card she drew earlier. "Come on! Think!" Cassandra yelled out to herself as she started to grit her teeth.

Kaito now shifts a card from his left to his right hand as he ran towards her. The card in Kaito's hand was now engulfed in flames. The crowd then began to yell out in anticipation. They wanted to see Kaito's big attack.

"If I destroy his Focus card, his attack will fail. That's the first thing I need to do." Cassandra was thinking of what she needed to do to avoid getting any damage from Kaito’s next attack. Getting hit a second time would be embarrassing for her. It was time for her to put an end to the match. She looks quickly at her hand. "These two cards... Yes! I can use them to destroy it." Cassandra now confident in her strategy, proceeds to throw one card straight past Kaito towards his hovering card on the ground and threw her other in the air above her head. The third card still in her hand activates. Cassandra’s card began to surround itself with lightning. The card now disintegrates and her hand is now completely covered with sparks of lightning. Cassandra looks at her hand and she felt confident that her new strategy was going to work.

“Look! Cassandra’s using one of her electric attacks”. Mr. Zyta pointed that out to Daru and Sarafina. They could all clearly see the sparks of lightning forming in Cassandra’s hand. They could see everything that was happening from the jumbo screen that was hanging in the middle of the stadium. “I’ve seen a dozen or more of these matches but I still can’t believe how real it all looks. Yet no harm is really inflicted on the person. The suit may vibrate and push the other fighter back or slow down their movement but other than that the elemental attacks don’t actually bring any physical harm to anyone using these cards.”

“Yeah, at times it amazes me too. The technology behind the holograms is incredible. The power comes not only from the suits they wear but you can’t forget the nano chips in the cards. Also a lot of the technology is embedded in the stadium as well Mr. Zyta.” Daru explained a little of the tech of how Decca works to Cassandra’s father.

"A lightning attack!? Is that all you got?" Kaito said that out loud racing towards her trying to fake his confidence in his victory. Kaito was secretly worried about the two cards she had thrown away from her hand. Kaito knew he was outmatched but he needed this victory very badly. If he could defeat one of the top Decca fighters, he could gain a high ranking score in the tournament and the respect from others for the victory. It would be an added bonus to his already broken ego.

“I got to win this. I can’t be eliminated in the preliminaries like last year.” Kaito thought as he pushed on towards Cassandra.

“Cassidy, I hope you’re watching. This one is for you!” Cassandra looked at her card in the air then looked straight at Kaito coming at her, getting closer and closer with flames coming out from his hand.

"Everything is set!" Cassandra began to smile as she held her hand up surrounded by bright lightning. She had a plan, she knew just what to do. "Get ready Kaito. I have something in store for you!"

In the lower level of the stadium, closes to the field where the match was being held, stood a young girl observing the match between Kaito and Cassandra very carefully. She was talking to someone on a cellphone in a low voice. “Don’t worry sir, I’ll make sure I select the right fighters for the job.”

A deep strong confident voice over the phone spoke back to her, “And make sure to do it fast. We don’t have a lot of time.”