——
🎙️ "ALL ELIMINATED COMBATANTS — VACATE SKY ARENAS IMMEDIATELY. STAGING INITIATED FOR NEXT ROUND."
——-
The dome flickered with stormlight. Qi fields parted. Cloud residue cleared as the scanners recalibrated air density and temperature readings.
——
🎙️ "NEXT MATCH: Fan Yumei versus Lin Xue — Sky-Class Aerial Elementalist. Combatants, prepare for launch."
——-
The next name blinked across the skyboard in sharp blue light as wind pathways reformed over the high platform zone.
Across the arena, Lin Xue hovered atop her beast—a sleek silver falcon threaded with wind-forged armor, wings curved like blades of ice.
Fan Yumei stood calm as ever, booted feet balanced on her storm disk, wind braiding through her hair. She stepped forward without a word.
Mystic flicked her fins, swirling the clouds in smug little loops behind her.
Fan Yumei's jaw tightened.
She didn't know Lin Xue. But her name hadn't been redacted. That meant one thing:
A competent flyer… but not a contender.
Fan Yumei's eyes didn't flicker.
Mystic rumbled with anticipation.
« Another one? Shall I twirl first or after? »
Yumei didn't answer.
Fan Yumei stepped forward, her boots pressing onto the hovering storm disk. Across from her, Lin Xue hovered atop her armored falcon, twin wind blades strapped to her sides.
The match began with a roar.
⸻
🌀 ROUND ONE — Master & Beast: Full Engagement
—-
Fan Yumei raised her hand—and Mystic dove.
"Cloud break, sharp roll!" she called, then lunged forward herself.
Mystic spiraled low and wide, scattering vapor with every ripple of her fins. Fan Yumei, midair, traced a glyph under her palm and hurled it forward—a compressed burst of lightning-imbued wind that detonated in Lin Xue's path.
"Drive left!" she shouted.
Mystic swerved, barely skimming her, and they passed Lin Xue on both flanks at once—one from above, one from below.
Lin Xue's falcon countered—spitting a burst of slicing wind, but Mystic blocked it with a side-flick of her Pressure Coil, while Fan Yumei redirected the burst with a Qi Vector Pull, dragging it harmlessly into open sky.
"Rising slash!" Yumei called—then leapt upward, spinning in midair as her qi sword formed in her hand. Mystic rose beneath her like a launchpad.
She kicked off Mystic's back—slashed—
CLANG!
Her blade scraped Lin Xue's wind armor. At the same moment, Mystic dove and struck the falcon's side with a wave of condensed storm qi.
The beast shrieked. Lin Xue stumbled in the air.
Fan Yumei landed behind Mystic, panting slightly, hair streaked with static.
"Final maneuver. Reverse funnel."
Mystic spun as Fan Yumei slid back into position—together, they created a spiraling vortex of compressed air and lightning.
The falcon tried to flee—too late.
Both struck at once.
Lin Xue's barrier broke.
——
🎙️ "ROUND ONE COMPLETE — Fan Yumei: 18/20 pts."
——-
🌀 Round Two: Beast‑Only Combat – Fan Yumei vs. Zhai Yun
——
Fan Yumei stayed floating near the platform edge, breath even, eyes sharp. Mystic had her instructions — a coordinated pattern of cloud feints, upward burst, then pressure coil reversal to destabilize the serpent's altitude.
But Mystic ignored all of it.
Instead, she charged head-on — no defensive veil, no stealth arc, just raw speed. Her laughter rang like thunder in the wind.
The serpent recoiled midair, weaving wide, but Mystic darted left and slammed it with a shoulder bash. Then again. And again — all reckless, off-balance aggression.
"Mystic!" Fan Yumei called across the bond, keeping calm but urgent. "You're going off plan—stop and reset!"
"Master, please," Mystic said smugly. "I'm telling you, this thing can't land a hit."
But that arrogance cost her.
The Windhorn Serpent feigned weakness — then its fins flared wide in a whip-snap lash, and a hidden talon-stinger slammed into Mystic's side, electric venom flaring.
Yumei staggered. The hit hadn't touched her physically — but
She opened the pain bond fully…"
When Mystic ignored her Orders.
She could've closed it off. But she didn't. Mystic needed to understand consequences—not hypothetically. Physically.
And now, she took every ounce of that damage herself.
Blood hit her lip. She didn't scream. Just clenched her teeth, barely kneeling on the cloud platform, spine rigid, left hand gripping her side.
The second strike landed, another sneak attack. Mystic's tail twitched; she roared in frustration, confused — but still not realizing what was wrong.
That's when a sharp, emotional spike echoed across their quad-beast bond link.
Lufei's nudge came first:
"She's hurting Yumei—Mystic, stop! Stop acting like this!"
Maxius' rage cracked through next:
"You arrogant skyfish! She's BLEEDING! Get your head right or I'll come up there and drag your tail back myself!"
Mystic halted midair, thunderlight dimming.
She turned toward her master—
And saw her.
Fan Yumei, kneeling on one knee, half-laid against a stormcloud, hair whipping in the wind, blood dripping down her lip. Silent. Solid. Not once had she forced Mystic to stop.
Fan Yumei's jaw tightened.
You could have been hurt. Worse than that—you didn't listen.
She didn't speak aloud. But inside her heart, something shifted.
If I have to seal you inside the Fallen World to train properly, I will. If you won't be a partner, you'll be a student. Or a prisoner. But I will not be dragged down by arrogance—not yours, not mine.
Not once had she screamed or pulled rank. She had let Mystic act of her own will — even if it meant paying the price with her body.
And Mystic… hadn't even realized.
"Yumei…"
The guilt crashed harder than any hit.
She hovered, trembling. Even the Leviathan across the sky paused mid-lunge, sensing the change.
⸻
🌀 The Final Attack
——
Mystic's eyes dimmed, and then flared.
She turned sharply and aligned with Fan Yumei's original battle plan. No more showing off. No more mockery. Just clean, perfect execution.
Low-cloud feint. Spiral turn. Pressure coil blast. Final Arc Strike from above.
Fan Yumei, still kneeling in the distance, whispered her last command:
"Now."
Mystic struck.
The entire storm split open in a flash of golden light. The Windhorn Serpent screamed as its body curled from the impact and spun out of control, almost crashing into the bottom edge barrier before slowly pulling away from the withdrawal mist.
⸻
The storm grew quiet again.
Mystic floated toward Yumei. Her heart a storm of regret. She didn't speak — just hovered low beside her master, tail curled down, head bowed.
Yumei wiped her lip, the blood already darkening her sleeve.
"Mystic…" she said softly. "…You broke us today."
"You laughed at someone who trained for this day. You ignored me. You hurt me — not just in body. If you ever treat our opponents like jokes again…"
"…I will pull you from the sky. And I will train you in the Fallen World dimension until you understand what it means to be part of a team."
Fan Yumei stood unmoving, lips tight.
Mystic hovered above her, making small circles—no longer playful. Just quiet.
« …Sorry. »
Fan Yumei didn't answer.
Not yet.
Sorry won't cut it this time though. Fan yumei realized she had to stop being lax just because the beast in this world are intelligent human language understanding beings.
"She wouldn't let this kind of mistake happen again—not from Mystic, and not from herself."
Metallic feathers carved a spiral slash across Mystic's tail fin. Not deep—but enough to draw qi.
Enough to shock her.
Enough to embarrass her.
And enough to drop their Command Execution score on the observer board by six full points.
Fan Yumei's face turned to ice.
« I—she caught me by surprise, I didn't— »
"You didn't follow orders," Fan Yumei said aloud.
Mystic slowed, guilt leaking through the bond.
« But I thought she was— »
"Stop. Thinking."
—
Even if for rest of the matches it was cold and efficient. Mystic did fell into line. No taunts. No lazy spins. Just direct attacks.
They won—barely.