Leading the way for the intruders was Mr. Bel. His stretched, blood-stained white suit was little more than a husk that barely covered his elongated body. He walked on all four limbs, using his long arms as a second pair of legs. His movements reminded those who stood witness of a large, gangly, 4-legged spider.

The rest trailed behind him. Pink with it’s large, pulsating lips. Every now and then it’s tongue would dash out, as if it were sentient, and lick it’s heavily chapped lips. The grey liquid would shy away from the tongue in a game of cat and mouse. It walked with the pomposity of the overwhelmingly powerful.

Kantsee shuffled out, it’s grotesquely enlarged eyes darting all over the arena. It hungrily stared everywhere as if it were looking for any possible outside interference. Being the smallest of the intruders, with a large and rotund head, it fluttered around impatiently behind the others.

No’ead casually walked out, hands stuffed in its pocket as if the headless body that it was inhabiting was a natural sight. Even without a head it still gave off the feeling that it was actively turning it’s gaze on the opposing candidates. The puckering maw that was once it’s neck rose and fell with it’s exaggerated breaths.

Floa was holding onto No’ead’s left shoulder. Less out of a need to be helped along and more because it appeared to be acting shy. The viscous grey liquid that kept it afloat swirled around beneath it’s destroyed legs, constantly branching out and keeping Floa floating along.

Bringing up the tail of the group was Nubs, arms now missing all the way to it’s shoulders. During the wait to be released it had grown bored and decided to chew on the remainder of its arms. The viscous liquid swirled around it as well, constantly changing shapes and reforming into random objects while connected to its shoulders.

The grotesque group eyed their opponents hungrily. Even the ones that lacked any eyes gave off the impression that they were sizing everything up.

As they approached the middle of the arena Mr. Bel let out a loud, foul belch as he grinned wildly at the candidates.

From behind him Pink spoke up in its low, rattling voice. “Hello lunch.”

_______________________________________

Unlike the other group finals the Group 2 finals were not shown to the other candidates. It had occurred at the same time as the Group 3 finals so the Siblings Sone and Mai were currently preparing for their own Match.

They were aware of their opposition, a group of 3 who appeared to be from the Land of the White Clouds.

After their argument that had occurred earlier in the day Mai had kept her doubts to herself. She didn’t want to start another one. Unfortunately, the feelings of forgetfulness had only gotten stronger. The further they got into the tournament the more details she felt she was losing a grip on.

The feeling was gnawing away at her. It felt as if every memory was slowly being consumed as the price of admission for this tournament. But she also felt that even if she wanted to back out she wouldn’t be able to. The inexorable hand of fate had laid itself on them and there was no turning back.

What worried her most was the way her brother was acting. She could tell he had his doubts too but he was trying his hardest to ignore them. And it worried her how easy it had become for them to just flip the switch and go about causing willful harm to other candidates.

“You know, we win this and we gotta fight the Tu’i.” Mai’s tone was quiet and matter of fact. It sounded more like she was talking to herself.

“Yeah. Kinda crazy.” Sone replied as he scratched the back of his head. “Really didn’t think we’d come this far.”

He appeared unfazed but Mai could feel the ripples of excitement and fear just beneath the surface of his facade. As they walked towards the middle of the arena both siblings felt the now familiar tingling in the tips of their fingers. The electric current that reminded them of where they were..

“One more.” Sone said as he held his fist out towards his sister.

“One more.” She replied, dapping him up as they entered the middle of the arena. Just like that, the flip was switched. As easily as breathing they were now prepared to handle their business. And it scared her. But something inside her made sure she wouldn’t dwell for too long.

The familiar chimes rang overhead and both sides readied themselves for what would definitely be the final match for one of the groups.

Instead of charging ahead in their usual manner, the siblings decided on a reserved approach for this match. They were aware that the 1 of the 3 Long Cloud natives was extremely proficient in using their Le’o.

In response to the siblings wary approach, the natives had fanned out. The middle candidate began chanting in a lilting voice as the 2 outer candidates activated their tatau.

“Kia ata!”

Both siblings felt the immediate effects of the Le’o. To them it felt like an immaterial hand had reached down their throats and lodged itself, keeping them from speaking. Sone immediately knew it was a silencing effect and was relieved he hadn’t tried to lead off with his usual taunt. As the silence set in the other two candidates moved in to engage the siblings.

Sone’s first reaction was to activate his left hand. He grabbed Mai’s shoulder and gave her a boost as she shot off to meet the candidate who was beelining towards her. He then called out his buckler and met the charge of his foe head on. The man had enveloped his whole body in mana and tried to bulldoze through Sone.

Sone received the charge attempt and entangled the man, grabbing hold and twisting as he kicked out to trip the man’s feet out from under him. As they fell he pushed his shielded arm into the throat of the attacker, trying to use the momentum to crush the man’s throat. Upon landing the man was able to reinforce his throat, just enough to keep it from being crushed. He still ended up being winded from the transferred energy as Sone scrambled around on top of him.

Mai was working on slowly pushing her opponent away from Sone and towards the Le’o invoker. Conserving as much energy as possible, she had her guard up as she walked her opponent down. Her opponent had chosen to stand down after noticing Sone and the other attacker become entangled, wary of leaving their invoker exposed. Despite having the number advantage the Long Cloud users were well aware of the limits of their abilities and the abilities that the siblings had demonstrated. They had made it to the group finals by making smart decisions and were not going to be goaded into making rash decisions now.

As Mai continued to walk her opponent down the invoker used another incant on Sone. “Whakaata!”

Sone had been in the middle of pummeling his opponent, who was trapped in an unfavorable position under the young man. As his punch landed it suddenly felt as if his fist were caught in a thick gelatin. He felt his hand get sucked towards his opponent before he was violently launched backwards and off of the man.

Momentarily Mai’s opponent glanced over at Sone as he was flung off, giving her the opening she was waiting for. With a quick activation of her leg tatau she propelled herself forward, cutting the distance between the two. The speed of her movements surprised the man, who had barely any time to react since his attention had been split. She swung her right arm, imbuing her fingertips with mana as she aimed for his eyes. Her imbued hand essentially became a blade as she was just barely off the mark, leaving a gash just above the man’s right eye.

The blood from the gash quickly leaked down into his eye as he stumbled back. Now that she was within range Mai quickly followed up with a mana imbued kick to the man’s unguarded midriff, landing flush and claiming a couple ribs. The force of the kick lifted the man up off of his feet and winded him as he doubled over the girls leg. As he was about to fall over from the pain the Le’o invoker let out another incant aimed at him. “Tu!”

He was forced upright by the incantation as he was hit with a second incant. “Whakamarie!”

The second incant was able to erase the sensation of the pain momentarily. It didn’t do anything about the damage, it was just to help him ignore the pain so he could regroup and retreat to the invoker. Despite possibly having had a rib pierce one of his lungs, the man was able to scramble backwards and regroup.

On the other end of the arena, Sone and his opponent were both standing up. Sone adopted a stalking posture, much like his sisters, and proceeded to walk his injured foe down. Due to the Le’o invoker having released the initial silencing spell, Sone was now able to use his own Le’o. His opponent, slightly battered and dazed, wasn’t aware of this. As he turned to try to help his companions Sone let out a roar. “Come!”

All 3 Long Cloud natives immediately focused on Sone. The power of his incantation was doubled by activating his throat tatau. Unable to look away, all 3 opponents began moving towards Sone.

Taking advantage of the momentary distraction Mai quickly lashed out with a vicious roundhouse kick to her opponents face from the side. Her whole shin was able to land flush on his lower jaw, knocking him unconscious before he even hit the ground. She then dashed over to the Le’o invoker and unleashed an enhanced overhand left to their jaw, dislocating it and putting them to sleep.

Sone summoned his shield and quickly shuffled up to his opponent, unleashing an enhanced right straight using the edge of his shield to incapacitate his opponent.

With that the siblings earned their trip to meet with the Tu’i.

Despite her initial misgivings Mai was still proud of their performance. She felt uneasy due to how ruthlessly they had fought but she couldn’t really word it. Flipping that switch felt good, even afterwards it felt right. But she didn’t like that she was getting used to how it made her feel.

As she pulled even with her brother he tenderly patted her head. “One more.”

____________________________________

Wha couldn’t help herself as she grinned wildly. The excitement of watching the siblings had been scintillating. She felt a mixture of pride and sadistic pleasure at the thought of getting to accept their challenge.

“I can’t wait to see their faces.” She said to ‘Ekolu as she lay her head against his shoulder. The grin on her face appeared even more sadistic due to the large tatau that contoured the lower half of her jaw. Her eyes seemed to glint with a sadistic ferocity at the thought of getting to beat down what she had helped build.