As if about to explode, the air was full of anticipation and anxiety from everyone spectating. Four youths with resolve hardened like steel, could barely contain their impulse to clash their blades against each other.

“Ladies and gents, your oaths!”

”We, Duelists, swore to abide by the rules, respect the judge’s decision, and fight with all of our might, in honor of our opponent, and for the glory of one own self!”

“Very good! And now… Call forth your True Arms!”

Before anyone else, Mei raised her right arm, and a dark purple aura swirled, slowly rose towards her fingertips while she recites her sacred words.

‘Is that… Darkness elemental? Interesting…!’

“With your wisdom and righteousness… Inspire us towards everlasting victory! Descend from the Nine Heavens, Xuan Nu!!”

Mei’s True Arms took shape and as soon as she grasped it, she quickly swung downwards, finishing her summon.

Sigulf saw it before. Or at least, the training dummy version. A peculiar two-handed weapon which she called ‘wolf teeth mace’. Of course, it couldn’t compare to her Xuan Nu, which was bigger and more ornate.

“This,” Mei pointed her weapon towards Sigulf while grinning. “Is my actual declaration of war.”

“…bring it on. I won’t back down.”

“Heh.”

With her teammate getting into a heated pre-fight exchange, Reika resisted the urge to sigh and concentrated to summon her own True Arms. As she does so, golden sparks of electricity gathered around her body.

‘So she got the same affinity as Yuu…’

“Wardens of the Underworld, One among the Twelve… Your purifying sword shall be my guide! Rise, Rasetsu!!”

A Japanese sword formed on her hand, and as Reika drew it out from the scabbard, slicing the air, the sparks disappeared.

Her Rasetsu was longer, and most likely heavier, than Yuu’s Susanowo. Unmistakably another kind of Japanese sword called the ‘tachi’.

“Kanzaki-dono! Iza jinjou ni shoubu!!”

“Izza what?” Walter asked in confusion.

“Umm, she’s basically asking to fight fair and square.” Minato explained.

“Oh, I see, I see! Like in those samurai movies, huh?”

“And who’s being dramatic here?” Mei sighed in retaliation towards Reika.

With the Pacifics has already done their summoning, it’s time for Arctic Thunder’s turn.

“Yuu, let’s go!” Sigulf said while taking his usual pose.

“Right! Time to get serious!” Yuu followed suit.

Cold, icy wind manifested side by side with light blue electric surge just as the boys began chanting.

“Hunt… Slay… Be victorious! Break free from your bindings and run wild, Fenrir!!”

“As swift as the lightning… As impetuous as the rough sea…! Show your majesty and raise a storm, Susanowo!!”

Their familiar silver axes and black uchigatana materialized, the same time as their aura dissipated.

“Time to hunt…!!”

Sigulf’s growl was followed by loud cheering from most students, while the Pacific guests simply readjusts their fighting stance.

“En garde.”

One final cue from the system before the final match begins. One last step before the tense atmosphere bursts.

“May fortune and victory favor you.” Celina solemnly stated, with Chelsea, Vigdis and Victoria agreed in silence.

“Go, Siggy!!” Alba, meanwhile, opted to cheer with energy.

“Begin.”

Like a flash, both teams swiftly charged towards each other; more so with the Arctic Thunder due to their Arms’ weight. Moreover…

“…!?”

An unexpected maneuver from Sigulf and Yuu, namely crossing each other’s path in an X pattern, nearly caught Mei and Reika off guard.

“What the…!?”

“Hehe…”

Yuu pushed Mei for a moment before beginning to trade strikes.

“I think I figured what you are trying to do!” Mei said in-between attacks. “Trying to confuse us with unfamiliar opponents, huh!?”

“Ah, so you caught up. Well, it’s nothing deep though!” Yuu responded, blocking a heavy blow.

“Right… I’m more familiar with Hrimgard’s style than yours… However…!”

Mei slammed her mace to the ground and forced Yuu to evade, creating a dust cloud.

“That goes for you too!”

“It might be.” Yuu replied, now going for the offence. “However, we still have the advantage in information. While you expected Alba-san instead of me to fight, we knew that you don’t have many options. And considering your ranks…”

“…ah, now that he mentioned it.” Alba realized.

“Tch, I see Hrimgard could be a little sly!” Mei commented.

Their clash continued, and even though Yuu did attack more due to being more agile, Mei doesn’t have problem with fighting close range either, thus still allowing her to retaliate. However, the same couldn’t be said for Reika.

“Hmph!”

“Kh…!”

Sigulf’s superior speed and relentless fury forced Reika to defend completely. While he didn’t see any opening yet, it would be a matter of time.

“Ugh…! Get out of my way! I have to settle our score with Kanzaki-dono!”

“Don’t wanna.” Sigulf retorted without slowing down his assault. “Besides…”

Sigulf unleashed a powerful swing which, while blocked, still knocked Reika away.

“If I take you down here, then I can easily flank Mei, right?”

“What…!?”

“Yeah, it would make things easier. And I love it when my job is easy.”

“You…!” Reika growled. “That’s it! I won’t let you talk down to me like that! Prepare yourself, Hrimgard-dono!”

“Reika! Calm down and focus!” Mei shouted while still engaged in battle with Yuu.

Sigulf said nothing, but he was actually hiding his surprise.

‘…that actually worked? Oh well.’

With another strike, Sigulf pushed Reika back and jumped away to regroup with Yuu, who also just broke away from Mei.

“So, what did you gather, Sig-kun?”

“They are slower.”

“You…!” Reika fumed.

“But you are weaker!” Mei retorted.

‘Well, at least that’s for Kanzaki. Hrimgard’s quite a pain in the ass…’

After a moment of short breather, both teams resume their fight.

“Let’s go…!”

Facing the Imperial Fangs head on, Sigulf and Yuu repeated the cross maneuver.

‘Again…!?’

With a loud clang, Sigulf engaged in a deadlock with Mei.

“Took you long enough!” Mei grinned. “You just gathered your confidence?”

“Thanks for worrying.” Sigulf responded. “I’m already confident from the beginning, though…!”

“Hah, and what’s all that about taking Reika down!?”

“You should know better.”

On the other side, Reika is busy trading blows with Yuu. Indeed, while the skill gap is much closer now, something about her movement felt off.

“Rrgh…!”

“Hehe…”

Even though Reika should be stronger, her tachi couldn’t really push Yuu back for some reason.

‘Kh…! This can’t go on…!’

Growing impatient, Reika mustered her strength and delivered a downward slash.

“There!!”

But Yuu already read it. He sheathed his sword and quickly stepped aside.

“!?”

“You’re wide open, Kannomine-san.”

In a flash, Yuu drew his blade and landed a clean hit.

“Gah…!”

He attempted a follow-up, but Reika recovered fast enough and managed to block it.

“Ah, too bad…”

“Battle points, down by 15%.”

The Atlantic students instantly exploded into a loud cheering.

“We… We got the first hit!” Walter was overjoyed, along with the others.

“…huh, not bad.” Ilma commented.

“Reika!” Mei shouted out of concern.

“Oi, I’m still here.”

“Wha—“

Her split second opening prompted Sigulf to strike. Unfortunately for him, Mei swayed earlier, and the resulting blow was rather shallow.

“Tch…”

“Battle points, down by 5%.”

Taking a huge backflip, Mei rejoined with Reika.

“What did I told you about calming down!?”

“I was careless…!”

“…don’t let his words get to you.”

“Easier said than done, but… I will try de gozaru…!”

Without letting their guard down, meanwhile, Sigulf and Yuu observed their opponents for a moment.

“What should we do next, Sig-kun? Seems like she calmed down a bit.”

“We can only be more careful from now on, then.”

Returning to their fighting stance, Sigulf and Yuu rushed towards the Pacific girls.

“Here they come!”

In response, Mei and Reika dashed forward and mimicked Artic Thunder’s cross maneuver, seemingly surprised them a bit…

“!?”

Only to be surprised themselves as Sigulf and Yuu didn’t even attempt to feint in the first place.

“Tch…!”

“Yo, wrong target.”

Once again, they went back to earlier mismatch.

‘Damn, he’s serious on aiming Reika first…! And Kanzaki is unexpectedly persistent…!’

Under Yuu’s pressure, Mei is forced to an action.

‘Enough! If he’s not coming, then I’ll go…!’

All of a sudden, Mei gathered her strength and made a well-timed parry.

“Eh!?”

“Back off!!”

Seeing her chance, Mei continued with a mighty spinning attack.

“Uwaaah!”

A successful block it might be, Yuu still got thrown away by the sheer force. Mei used this to quickly turn around and went to assist her teammate.

“Reika! Stand back!”

“Mei!?”

‘So she broke off from Yuu. Well then…!’ Sigulf thought.

With Reika disengaged and out of the way, the path was cleared as Mei took off and raised her mace.

“I’m your opponent!”

“Come!”

Their Arms collided, creating a loud steel noise and scattering dust.

“Fight someone your size!” Mei growled.

“Doesn’t matter to me whoever it is…!” Sigulf retorted.

“Mei!”

“I can handle this! Go fight Kanzaki!”

Reika silently nodded and turned around to face Yuu, who has just recovered.

“Kanzaki-dono…”

“Ouch, so strong… Oh, it’s you.”

Instead of charging with fury, Reika took a deep breath and goes back to her fighting stance.

“I won’t let you take us from behind. Prepare yourself!”

“Seems things won’t be as easy now…! Oh well, shall we go?”

In contrast to Sigulf and Mei’s flashy, speedy duel, the confrontation between the sword users was much more tense and restrained.

“…”

Both of them walked slowly in a circular motion for a while, until…

“”Haaah!!””

Yuu and Reika’s sword met in another deadlock.

‘Well of course she would fight better when calm…!’ Yuu thought while struggling.

As he saw no way to overcome her strength, Yuu rapidly pulled back his sword and relaunched follow-up attacks.

‘I’ll have to press her with my speed…!’

Meanwhile on Sigulf’s side, his fight with Mei is growing in intensity.

“Raaah!!”

“Deeyah!!”

Fenrir and Xuan Nu collided repeatedly without any hint of reservations, as if to see who will break down first.

‘As expected from such a heavy weapon! But I won’t back down here!’

‘I can see why the Atlantics put their faith on him… And that’s more the reason to take you down!’

Most of the spectators were left speechless at their display of power and speed.

“If Kanzaki and Kannomine are samurai, then those two…” Walter commented.

“It’s as if we’re watching two wild beasts fighting.” Eurypha added. “It’s unsightly. …and a bit unnerving.”

As their heated battle equilibrium hasn’t tipped to one side or another yet, the loud sound of steel clashing continues to ring.