"Looks like we're going viral again," I sighed, scrolling through social media, most of the posts about Aria and I.

"Yeah, the public hasn't seen us fight since the HCC, and we're drastically more powerful than we were back then, so I figured this would happen," She replied with a wry smile, as she leaned against my shoulder and peered at my screen.

"You two certainly are close, aren't you?" Remarked Jin, watching the screen that had been set up on the back wall of the waiting room, playing a live stream of the event.

The participants of the next match, Aarav and Beatriz, had just stepped onto the arena.

"Yeah, you fought really well together, you'd have to be pretty close to do that," Added Jaden, as he sipped on a bottle of apple juice.

"Well, we have been close friends since our days at the Academy," I replied with a shrug.

"Hm? Friends? What are you-...oh, sorry, are you trying to hide it? My bad. Though, uh, you're not doing a very good job of it," Responded Jin with a wry smile.

Were we that obvious? Well, shit.

"I mean, we're not really going out of our way to hide it, we just aren't going to bother with announcing it or whatever," Spoke up Aria, before glancing at the stream as the countdown began.

"I think that's a smart choice, a lot of fans can be pretty inquisitive about our personal lives, and you don't want everyone in the world knowing every detail of your private life," Sighed Jin...sounds like he's speaking from experience.

"Shh, the fight's about to start," Remarked Jaden, his eyes glued to the live stream.

Guess he likes watching fights as much as he likes participating in them.

Nah, scratch that, he definitely likes participating way more, he looks interested watching this but not nearly as hyped up as he was during our fight.

I'm pretty intrigued to see this fight too, I've seen Beatriz in action, but not Aarav. Beatriz had the same gear and weapon she used during the fight against the Archdemon Zeifas.

As for Aarav, he had on a long-sleeved red leather-armored t-shirt under a white metal breastplate, with gauntlets that had matching white metal plates over his forearms. He wore dark red trousers, and boots with white metal plates that went over his shins and knees.

His Aura was a swirl of red and white, and he was holding a staff that was clearly custom-made.

The handle was designed to look like a bone, and it had red streaks across it, which resembled blood splatter. And the Mana Orb at the end of it was glowing with a swirling hue of red and white.

I wonder which of them is stronger? Well, I'm about to find out soon, in three...two...one!

Beatriz opened her mouth and fired out a sonic screech the instant the countdown ended, before Aarav fired out jets of blood from the bottom of his feet, shooting himself up into the air and evading her attack, before blood flowed out of his left palm, gathering in front of the Mana Orb at the end of his staff.

He whipped the staff across as he compressed the blood, unleashing a rapid, slashing wave of blood towards Beatriz, who raced out of the way, narrowly evading it before Aarav pointed his right index finger at her, a barrage of bone bullets shooting out of his fingertips.

Beatriz unleashed a powerful sonic boom as the bullets closed in on her, blowing them away before she stomped on the ground with a devastating sonic blast, the stadium rumbling slightly and the windows of the waiting room cracking as she launched herself through the air towards Aarav.

His eyes widened in alarm, before he quickly switched off the jets of blood shooting out of his feet, letting himself plummet as she closed in and swung her guitar-shaped blade across, a sharp burst of sound erupting out as the blade vibrated intensely.

As Aarav's feet thudded against the floor of the arena, he quickly turned his gaze up as a loud burst of sound echoed out above him, as Beatriz blasted herself straight down towards him with her blade raised high.

He quickly crossed his arms up above himself as she closed in and swung her blade down, the edge of the blade slamming against his gauntlets before a dazed look appeared on his face, trails of blood trickling out of his ears before he gritted his teeth to maintain his focus, several bone spikes bursting out of his shoulders and the middle of his torso.

Beatriz fired out a blast of sound from her feet with a rapid chant, launching herself back while simultaneously blasting Aarav in the gut, narrowly evading the bone spikes.

As Aarav keeled over and clutched his stomach, stumbling back, he suddenly lifted his gaze, the bones spikes getting propelled out of his body and shooting towards Beatriz with immense speed.

Her eyes widened slightly before she deflected several of the incoming projectiles with her blade while twisting her body across, a couple of the spikes grazing her and drawing out trickles of blood.

As her feet hit the ground and skidded back, Aarav raised his right hand towards her, a sharp, narrow bone spike rapidly extending out of his palm with blinding speed, straight towards the middle of Beatriz's torso.

She shuffled across to her right as fast as she could, grimacing in pain as the spike sliced across her left side, before branching out into dozens of bony shards.

If he'd managed to pierce her body with that, she wouldn't have been able to pull it out, that's a brutal attack.

Beatriz's use of her Magic is pretty similar to Jaden's...the force of her sound blasts aren't as powerful as his, so she can't use it to propel herself around with as much speed as he can, but the disorienting bursts and waves of noise that erupt with her attacks have got to be tough to deal with.

Aarav's Magic is nothing to sneeze at either, it seems he can freely control his blood and bones, and presumably, replenish them too...otherwise he'd die after a few attacks.

This is turning out to be a pretty competitive battle, and it's only just getting started...

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