"Order matters in Team Battle," Itzel began. She had her screen reversed as she sat on one of the tall stools in the lounge. Janus sat in the chair opposite her while Gurk remained standing. Both stared at the portraits of themselves and of Siergi's team on the projection. "We need to figure out who goes first, second and last before we start the match."

"What if we just pick randomly?" Janus asked. "Seems to me that the team with the better fighters would win regardless."

Itzel shook her head. "No, no. What did I just say? Order is very important! The team with the last member standing wins the entire match. You don't want to put your weakest fighter last! If they lose then it's all over."

"We'll be fighting back-to-back?" Janus asked.

"Yep. No long breaks, either. So when the first fighter is eliminated, the person that defeated them stays in. And they don't get a chance to rest and restore all their stamina, either."

"So whoever goes in first in pretty much guaranteed to get hurt, huh?" Janus groaned.

"Hey, I don't make the rules, alright? But the good news is that you get to keep the EV you earned from the previous round. So you do get a small advantage when going up against a fresh opponent."

"But not enough to keep me standing by the time the match is over!" Janus said.

"Who said you were going first?"

"You said so yourself that teams don't want to put the weakest fighter last! By that, I'm inclined to infer that I'll be the one going first."

Itzel took a glance at Gurk then at Janus again. "Yeah, you're right. You're definitely going first."

"Who do you think my opponent will be?" Janus leaned in and eyed the images of Siergi's team. "I think it's safe to assume that we can scratch the leader from the list of possibilities."

"And you'd be right. Siergi is too confident to not put himself last on his own Broadcast. And between Arva and Maluk, I'm leaning towards the big meathead being the one that'll go up first. His Rumble Circuit rank is lower than the other two."

Janus tapped on Maluk's icon. The screen changed to show off a full body picture of Maluk accompanied by a large table listing his techniques. A long frown came across his face as he looked at the long weapon that he balanced on his shoulder. Connected to a long rod was a glowing trail of blue electricity with an intricate metal sphere that dangled from it. "What is that?" Janus asked with nervousness as he pointed at the weapon.

"Ion Flail," Itzel replied bluntly. "Same company that produces the weapon that Enidri uses. Maluk doesn't have a natural Affinity, so he compensates by using that."

"Looks painful," Janus said while squinting. "And it looks like it has insane range on it."

"He can extend the length of the trail when he uses some of his Techniques. He's the most dangerous at close and mid-range."

"Staying far away would be my best if I wanted to stand a chance?"

"See Janus?" Itzel said with a smile. "You're starting to get the hang of it."

"You know that I don't have any projectile attacks, Itzel. At least not something that I can toss it whenever I want like... oh say... Serrated Gale."

"Janus," Itzel said sternly. She crossed her legs and looked into Janus' eyes through the semi-transparent projection. "I'm going to be straight with you. I don't want to come across as... berating... but you're the worst fighter here. By a good margin."

"I know this, Itzel."

"Right. And Maluk is their weakest fighter. That's why you have to go first. I'd bet all of my Tokens that Maluk will be the first one to go into the ring. And that's why you’re going to be the one to go up against him. Despite what I said previously, I'm confident that you'll be able to deal a decent bit damage to him. Remember that Ogre you took out at Refinery 72?"

"Of course!"

"If you can finish off an Ogre, there's no reason you can't handle yourself against a fighter like Maluk. They're both big, bulky and slow. And it's not like we're expecting you to win. We just need you to take his stamina down as low as possible. That way me or Gurk can come in, get a bit of EV for the next fight and KO Maluk before going up against the next in line."

Janus took his eyes off Itzel to stare at the Ion Flail on the profile page. His eyes focused on the metal ball that dangled from the electric chain. "But that weapon looks so... painful. At least Ogre's are made of flesh. That ball looks like it weighs... what? Maybe ten kilograms? And then when you take into consideration how quickly Maluk can swing that thing through the air... Going off a rough estimate, I think that weapon could hit me with total force of… too much for me to live through. And that's not even taking into consideration the electricity that engulfs it!"

Itzel eyes narrowed towards the distraught Janus. "What did I tell you about Ranked Challenges? Multiple times? You won't die. You remember me taking full slashes from Enidri's Ion Blade. This will be no different. If you focus your energy into blocking, or even better, dodging, you should be just fine. Maybe you could even land a few hits in and win by time-out. The audience will hate you for it, but the goal isn’t to please them, right?"

"Whatever tactic means having to deal with that Ion Flail the least I'll be more than happy to utilize."

"What do you think Gurk? Think Janus has a chance against Maluk?" Itzel asked. 

The crocodile looked down at the picture of Maluk and then at Janus. He let out a long "hmm" as he eyed Janus from the bottom up as he sat silently on his stool. "Maybe," he replied. 

"You really think so?" Janus asked with surprise. 

Gurk nodded. "Just run."

"It's not a bad idea, Janus. It's a bit risky, but it might work. If you can get the lead early on and keep it until the timer runs out, that means it's a win for us. But if you don't win and you don't manage to deal that much damage to your opponent then that just means more work for whoever is next in line."

"EV too!" Gurk interjected. 

"Oh yeah," Itzel said as her eyes opened wide. "If you try to play keep away the entire fight, not only will Maluk have more stamina, but he'll have more EV to use his Enhanced Techniques or even a Signature."

"What do you two think I should do then?" Janus asked, his eyes darting from one teammate to the other. "I'll follow your advice to the letter. I'm still new to this, so whatever suggestions you have, I'm all ears."

Itzel tapped her chin with one finger before letting out a soft sigh. "Unfortunately I didn't plan on having to deal with Arva and Maluk so I don't know their fighting styles too well. Gurk said you should run. He's the one that watches these guys on a regular basis. That makes him the expert at the moment." Itzel then turned to the crocodile. "Still think running away is the best option for Janus?"

"Yeah."

"You heard it from the man. Hit. Run away. Repeat. Hopefully you'll be able to scrape out a win if you do it right."

Janus looked at the Ion Flail one last time. "Not getting hit by that thing should give me enough motivation."