He dissolved into darkness, reforming behind Helena like a ghost. She spun, faster than someone her size should move and caught him with a backhanded hammer strike.

Raven flew and rashed into the arena wall, the barrier flickered from impact.

"Raven Blackmist incapacitated," the referee called.

Helena rolled her shoulders. "Who's next?"

Meanwhile, in the darkness outside Ravenna's light sphere, I tracked Kael.

She was good, better than good even, and as if training together had made her understand something about the way I do things, every time I thought I had her position, she'd moved.

Every trap I set, she avoided or countered.

We were thinking on the same level and predicting each other's predictions.

"You know what the problem with tactical fighters is?" Kaeel's voice came from everywhere and nowhere. "We overthink."

Shadow clones appeared, dozens of them all moving, all seemingly real. I created my own to matched her numbers. Now the darkness was full of duplicates. Mine and hers mixed together and almost indistinguishable.

"This could go on forever," I said to the void. "And fuck you for doing that to me. Why bail at the last moment?"

"Everything is but an Illusion, why so serious?" Kaeel said. "And we can indeed go on like this, unless someone changes the game."

"Exactly what I was thinking."

I didn't try to find hee. Didn't try to track her. Instead, I go found Helena.

"Helena."

"Yeah?"

"Remember that thing you do where you don't care about collateral damage?"

She grinned. "My favorite thing."

"Do it now, go full power and break everything."

"Finally."

Although her power had been lowered to when she was our age and time, she was still a monster because even as a kid, she was a full time monster!

What happened next wasn't tactical and it wasn't clever, it wasn't the kind of shadow warfare the crowd expected.

Helena simply stopped holding back.

Her aura exploded outward, her restrained power fully unleashed. The kind of overwhelming force that made tactics irrelevant. She charged forward like a bull, just forward, her hammer swinging in wide arcs. Every shadow clone in her path, mine, Kaeel's, everyone's, shattered from the shockwaves alone.

The carefully maintained darkness field broke as too much energy disrupting it clashed.

Light flooded back into the arena.

And there, exposed in the sudden illumination, were Kaeel and Ash, twenty meters apart, both startled by the abrupt change in absolute shock and surprise.

Lucille didn't hesitate to miss the opportunity, her blade found Ash's throat before he could adjust.

"Yield," she said quietly.

Ash dropped his weapon.

"Ash Nightblade eliminated," the referee announced.

That left Kaeel and Luna against all five of us.

Kaeel looked around. Assessed the situation in a heartbeat. Smiled ruefully.

"Well played, use overwhelming force to break tactical stalemate." She raised his hands. "Luna, stand down."

"But captain.. "

"We lost the moment she broke our shadow field. No point taking more damage." She looked at me. "You adapted when tactics failed, you used brute force. I respect that. Maybe I should have fight for you then."

"Helena deserves the credit. I just pointed her at the problem." I said, ignoring the last bit.

"That is tactics." Kaeel's shadows dissipated. "Knowing when to abandon complexity for simplicity and when to think less and act more."

The referee's voice carried across the arena. "Victory! Astral Haven Academy, Hadeon Ravana's team. They advance to the finals."

The crowd erupted. Cheers mixed with confused muttering. Half of them had barely seen the fight through all the darkness.

But we'd won.

☆☆▪︎▪︎☆☆

The medical tent smelled of healing potions and burned mana crystals.

Lucille wrapped her wrist, the one she'd reinjured during the fight with Ash. Ravenna sat slumped against a wall, mana exhaustion evident in every line of her body. Marcus cleaned his enchanting tools, several crystals cracked from overuse.

Helena alone looked energized and combat high. She'd barely been touched.

"That was fun," she said cheerfully. "We should fight shadow teams more often. We should do this more!"

"Please no," Marcus groaned. "My detection enchantments were useless."

"That's because you rely on enchantments." Helena tapped her temple. "Sometimes you need to rely on instinct."

"My instinct says don't fight people who can turn invisible."

I let them banter.

"Hadeon," Kaeel entered the tent aone, her team was being treated elsewhere as well.

I stood. Lucille's hand went to her blade instinctively.

"Relax," Kaeel said, hands visible and empty. "Just wanted to talk."

"About?"

"Tomorrow. Your finals match." She glanced around, making sure we were relatively private. "Adrian Celestius. You know he's breaking, right?"

"I noticed."

"The rescue mission exposed his weakness. He's always relied on overwhelming power and backing. Now he realizes neither makes him invincible." Kaeel leaned against the tent pole. "His team is falling apart and Baron Celestius is pressuring him to withdraw. His supporters are also questioning him."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Because tomorrow isn't just a tournament match. It's a moment of truth. For him and for you." Kaeel met my eyes. "He needs to lose. Not for your sake but for his. He needs to fail completely and publicly so he can rebuild himself into something real."

"You want me to crush him?" I asked in amusement.

"I want you to free him. Sometimes the kindest thing you can do is destroy someone's false beliefs." She pushed off the pole. "Just thought you should know. The Adrian you face tomorrow won't be the hero everyone expects. He'll be desperate, confused, possibly dangerous."

"Thanks for the warning."

"Thank me by making it a good fight." Kaeel moved to leave, paused. "Oh, and Hadeon? Congratulations on the win. You earned it."

After she left, Lucille spoke. "Do you trust her?"

"No. But I think she's telling the truth." I looked at my team. "Tomorrow we face Adrian. Not the petty one or the hero from the stories. The real Adrian, stripped of illusions."

"Is that more dangerous or less dangerous?" Marcus asked.

"I don't know," I admitted. "But we're about to find out."

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