Before the boy could release his arrow...

Nina’s wrist flicked sharply, and the third revolver in her hand spun out into the air, cutting through the space between them like a thrown Kunai.

The gun rotated midair, fast and controlled, the metal catching a flash of light as it turned.

The boy reacted immediately.

He stepped to the side, his body shifting right with quick precision, his eyes still locked forward even without directly tracking the weapon.

At the same time...He released his arrow.

The string snapped, vibrating as the arrow shot forward, but when his gaze followed through...

Nina was no longer there.

For a brief second...

The space where she stood felt empty.

The boy didn’t panic, instead his body tightened and his ears quickly picked up movement.

Left.

He turned sharply and there she was.

Nina caught the spinning revolver cleanly in her hand while, at the same time, she had already thrown another one upward.

Now...She held a revolver in each hand again, her fingers settled on the triggers.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Gunfire erupted in quick succession.

The sound echoed sharply across the arena; each shot layered on the last.

The boy dashed forward.

His feet pushed hard against the ground as he ran through the line of fire, weaving through the bullets with narrow movements.

The bullets struck the ground behind him, kicking up small fragments of stone and dust.

Nina kept firing.

Her arms adjusted, her aim shifting constantly to track his movement.

Then...

Click.

One revolver ran empty, but...

She immediately acted.

In one smooth motion, she tossed it upward and caught the one she had thrown earlier, her hands switching weapons without breaking rhythm and immediately...

She resumed firing.

The crowd reacted with voices rising. Some orphans shouted for their fighter, their voices tense while members from Vera’s group cheered for Nina, their energy sharp and loud.

Others, just watched quietly, but their eyes stayed locked on the fight, even among the crowd, a few leaned closer, whispering.

"That’s... fast..."

"The way she’s switching her guns mid-fire..."

"And he’s still managing to dodge..."

Their voices stayed low, but their focus was intense.

Back on the stage...

The boy continued weaving, his body twisted and shifted with each step, but not all the bullets missed.

Some grazed him.

His sleeve tore slightly with a thin line of blood appearing on his arm, then another on his cheek.

Still...

He didn’t stop moving and dodging with all he had.

Then...

Click.

The second revolver emptied, now only one remained and even that had barely two shots left.

The boy saw this as his opportunity and his eyes sharpened immediately.

He stopped running, then in one motion, he grabbed three arrows between his fingers, dropping to one knee.

Cognis surged into his arms and into the arrows.

His aim wavered slightly then it steadied and he released.

The arrows shot forward... faster and sharper in the air like missiles cutting through the air.

Nina caught the first revolver she had thrown earlier, her fingers closing around it with precision. Now, she held two revolvers in one hand, her grip tightening as the metal pressed into her palm. The strain showed slightly, thin veins surfacing along the back of her hand from how firmly she held them together.

The third revolver in her other hand clicked empty at the same time the three arrows closed in.

At that moment, she didn’t try to weave... Instead, she pulled the hand holding the two guns slightly behind her, shifting her balance, while the other hand swung forward.

Clank!

The barrel of the revolver struck the sharp tip of the first arrow, knocking it off its path with a clean metallic sound.

At that same moment...

She jumped.

Her body twisted midair, smooth and controlled, like someone who had repeated the motion countless times. Her spin wasn’t rushed, but it wasn’t slow either, it was just enough for the remaining two arrows, passed her.

They slid past her body with barely an inch of space, the edges brushing against her clothes without cutting through.

She landed lightly.

But the boy had already moved again.

This time, he held four arrows between his fingers.

His posture lowered slightly, his focus sharper than before.

Nina saw this action and she smiled, a small excited smirk.

"You are definitely good with your arrows," she said, her tone carrying a kind of thrill.

"But let’s move things faster."

She threw all three revolvers upward.

Then...

Her hand moved into her space bag, bringing out three steel nuggets in her palm.

Without clapping...

Cognis flowed directly into her palm.

An alchemy circle formed in her palm instantly.

A sharp intake of breath spread through the orphan side.

"Did she just activate alchemy with one hand?"

A girl’s voice came out, stunned.

"But... how?"

Another followed, confusion clear in her tone.

Whispers spread.

Some of the stronger ones among the orphans leaned forward, their eyes narrowing as they tried to understand what they had just seen.

Analyzing, breaking it down and trying to make sense of how she did it.

On the other side, the children of Ashenlocke didn’t react the same way because they already understood the trick behind the one hand ignition which was actually a simple act but it was only possible for Full Alchemists.

They were watching more closely and more interested in seeing how the fight would progress.

At that moment...

Nina caught one of the falling guns.

Her fingers moved quickly, flipping open the cylinder and inserting bullets in one smooth motion.

The moment it was loaded... she threw it again.

At the same time, the boy released his four arrows, then his hand moved into his space bag, pulling out two steel rods and one steel bar, dropping the materials on the floor.

Clap!

His hands came together, the alchemy circle formed and he slammed it onto the materials.

The materials reshaped, forming more arrows.

The boy grabbed all the arrows restocking in one swoop, so he could continue attacking.

But... Nina was already ahead, before the four arrows he fired earlier, reached her...

She had finished reloading all three revolvers.

In fluid hand motion, she caught the first revolver...

Bang!

The first incoming arrow was deflected.

She tossed the gun aside and caught the second revolver...

Bang!

Another arrow shifted off course, then she threw it again and caught the third revolver...

Bang!

The third arrow spun away.

The motions repeated seamlessly, like a cycle she had practiced over and over.

Nina’s eyes shifted to the last arrow, then at the boy who was already fired another four set of arrows at her.

"Alright..."

She smiled wider now, clearly enjoying herself.

"I call this... All guns... cyclone."

Her voice carried a playful tone, as her hand movement got faster and faster with Cognis surging through her arms and eyes.

Sharpening her precision and doubling her movement

Her hands rotated, switching guns from one hand to the other, firing again and again and again.

From the outside...

It looked like a storm of a spiral of gunfire or a cyclone made of bullets with each shot following the last, curving in rhythm and creating pressure from every angle.

The bullets clashed with the arrow’s midair.

Metal struck metal, creating a sharp sound echoing repeatedly.

Some bullets broke through rushing toward the boy’s position.

He dodged... barely.

His body twisted, stepping, ducking and shifting as quickly as he could.

Still...

He couldn’t avoid everything.

Some bullets grazed him, his sleeve tore further, another cut opened across his other cheek and another along the side of his forehead.

Blood began to stain his clothes more and more and his breathing grew heavier, but his eyes still stayed focused, tracing all the gunshots and observing Nina.

He noticed she wasn’t just firing; she was also creating bullets to reload while continuing the cycle all at once.

His eyes widened in shock.

How much has she trained... to be able to do something like this...?

He barely managed to dodge more gunshots, feeling the pressure of Nina’s All Guns Cyclone.

But...

He clenched his teeth, not backing down in the slightest.

...I’ve trained too.

More Cognis surged through his body as he forced his breathing to steady, then his fingers gripped three arrows at once, even while dodging...

He began firing.

Not at Nina but at the bullets.

His pupils tracked each shot, faster and more precise.

Arrow after arrow...Colliding with bullets midair, clearing a path step by step as he pushed forward.

Getting closer.

Even as more cuts appeared across his body, he still pressed forward.

"AHHHHH!"

He roared, pulling out a dagger, using it to block the remaining shots as he forced his way through the storm.

Then...

Nina stopped, completely, the sudden stillness was unnatural that it caught him off guard but only for a fraction of a second.

He reacted quickly, reaching for two arrows.

"Good reaction."

Nina spoke with a small smile, one that carried a hint of approval rather than mockery, her eyes fixed on him as if she had already expected that level of response.

But...

At that same moment...

The three revolvers she had thrown earlier hovered slightly in front of her, suspended just long enough for what she intended to do.

Clap!

Her hands came together.

Cognis surged through her veins, flowing cleanly into her palms as the alchemy circle formed between them with a faint glow.

She pushed her hands forward.

Onto the guns.

Midair.

The metal reacted instantly.

The revolvers melted where they floated, their shapes collapsing inward, then merging together. The liquid metal twisted and folded over itself, compressing, restructuring, refining...

Until...

It formed into a Baske 1945.

The boy released his arrows at that exact moment.

The strings snapped sharply as the arrows shot forward, a lot faster than before, driven by a large portion of his remaining Cognis. It was clear...

This was his final push, his last attempt to end the fight.

The arrows tore through the air.

But...

Nina had already finished, her fingers wrapped around the Baske.

Her stance shifted slightly, her feet grounding firmly against the platform as she aligned her body with the recoil she knew was coming.

She fired, with no hesitation in her mind.

Bang!

The gunshot exploded across the arena; it was way louder than the revolvers.

The recoil slammed into her shoulders, pushing her entire body backward as her feet lost contact with the ground for a moment before she dropped onto the platform.

At the same time...

The boy reacted, although he couldn’t see the bullet clearly, but his instincts screamed.

He raised his steel bow in front of him, using it as a shield, his arms trembling slightly from the strain his body had already endured.

Impact.

The bullet struck the bow.

Hard.

The force transferred instantly.

His body was thrown backward, his feet leaving the ground as he was sent flying. Even as he tried to guide the force away, angling the bow slightly to deflect the trajectory...

It wasn’t enough.

The bow bent violently under the pressure.

His grip almost broke and body hitting the ground, he rolled once, twice and again like a rag doll thrown without control.

Until finally...He stopped for a brief moment...

Silence.

Both fighters lay on the ground.

Still.

The guard began moving, stepping onto the platform, his boots echoing lightly against the surface, before he could fully reach the center...

Nina’s body flipped upward in a smooth, controlled motion, her legs pushing off the ground as she regained her footing in one clean movement.

She stood up, breathing out slowly.

Her hand moved to her face, wiping away the thin line of blood that had trickled down from her nose and the corner of her eye.

"I pushed my Cognis far..."

She muttered, stretching her arms slightly, rolling her shoulders as if testing the tension in her body.

Then...

Her gaze shifted to the boy.

He was trying to stand, his hands trembling violently as he pressed against the ground, his muscles refusing to respond properly.

He lifted himself slightly, then collapsed again.

His body no longer obeyed him.

The guard watched for a second longer, then raised his hand.

"Winner."

He pointed at Nina.

"Hehehe..."

Nina smiled brightly, her mood lifting instantly as she turned her head toward Vera.

She raised her hand, forming a victory sign with her fingers, her expression full of satisfaction.

Vera looked back at her.

Her lips curved slightly into a small smile, calm and elegant almost as if she had expected nothing less.

Nina left the stage without delay.

Soon after, the nurses entered, moving quickly to carry the boy away from the platform.

The moment they cleared the stage...

The holographic image flickered back into existence.

The numbers shifted, then stopped on the next fighter.

Bale stepped forward.

He raised both hands high, hyping his group as he moved, his energy spreading to those around him.

"Good luck, Bale!"

Voices rose from his group, loud and encouraging.

"Don’t go, losing."

Keith spoke lazily, lifting one side of his eye cover just enough to peek at Bale, his tone dragging like someone who had just woken up.

"Well... if you lose, it would be hilarious."

He chuckled, folding his arms.

Smack.

Fay’s hand came down on his head.

"Ouch!"

Keith sat up straight immediately, grabbing his head with both hands.

"Woman... Why do you like hitting my head?"

He looked at her, clearly annoyed.

"Huh?"

Fay turned to him slowly, her expression scary like she was ready to start something if he said one more word.

Keith froze, then he shrank slightly in his seat, his gaze dropping to the ground as if nothing had happened.

"...Nothing."

His voice came out low almost like a scared puppy.

Fay let out a small sigh, shaking her head before turning her attention back to Bale.

"Win, leader."

She said, her tone firm this time, joining the others as they cheered.

Bale smiled, confident, then stepped forward toward the platform.