The arena fell into that particular kind of silence that meant something interesting was about to happen. Natalia and Skylar stood on one side of the platform, looking like they’d walked straight out of a noir film. On the other side, two Sentinels in their pristine silver and blue.

Aaron Sanders. Built like a tank, with the kind of jaw that suggested he ate nails for breakfast. His Aspect was some kind of kinetic barrier. Hard to hit, harder to hurt.

And Marie Reyes. Ice manipulation, though nowhere near Cel’s level. She looked nervous, which was smart. Natalia’s Cryo-Lich Ring was already starting to pulse with cold light.

"Your girlfriend’s scary," Emi said beside me, her voice coming out small and slightly awed.

"Which one?"

She blinked, clearly not expecting that response. "I meant Natalia."

"You’re all scary in your own ways," I said, keeping my eyes on the platform. "That’s precisely why I like you all."

Emi’s face flushed that particular shade of pink that meant she wanted to argue but couldn’t quite figure out how. She settled for a soft huff and leaned slightly closer to me instead.

The buzzer sounded, sharp and clear across the arena.

Natalia moved first, as I knew she would. Her telekinesis flared that brilliant, dangerous purple as she ripped massive chunks of the reinforced platform itself out of the ground and sent them hurtling at the Sentinels like meteors. Each piece was the size of a small car. Aaron’s barrier caught them in bursts of crackling blue energy, stone shattering into dust against his defense with thunderous impacts that made the crowd gasp.

But Natalia wasn’t trying to hurt him with those initial strikes.

She was creating a screen. Blocking his line of sight while simultaneously forcing him to focus entirely on defense.

Classic misdirection.

Skylar dissolved into smoke the instant the debris cloud went up, her Phantasm Smoke ability turning her entire body into literal shadow and mist. By the time Aaron’s barrier had cleared enough of the dust to see through, Skylar had already circled behind Monica completely undetected, her trench knife pressed with casual precision against the ice user’s exposed throat.

"Yield," Skylar whispered, just loud enough for the arena’s hovering cameras to catch. The word carried an almost lazy finality.

Monica’s hands shot up immediately, trembling slightly. "I yield! I yield!"

One down in less than ten seconds.

Aaron roared in frustration and genuine alarm, his kinetic barrier expanding outward in a massive shockwave of force that should’ve sent both girls flying clear off the platform. Under normal circumstances, it would’ve been a brilliant counter—a point-blank area denial that reset the engagement.

Should’ve worked.

Natalia’s telekinesis caught the entire kinetic wave mid-flight, her purple aura flaring bright enough to make people in the front rows squint. Then she simply redirected the massive burst of force straight back at its source like a tennis serve from hell.

The surprised look on Aaron’s face as his own attack slammed into him was absolute comedy gold. Worth the price of admission all by itself.

He staggered backward, his feet actually leaving the ground for a moment, his supposedly impenetrable barrier flickering and crackling like a faulty light bulb.

Skylar was already moving before he’d even finished stumbling, her smoke form wrapping around him like a living entity. Everywhere the ethereal mist touched, his barrier began to destabilize in patches. Not broken outright—Skylar wasn’t strong enough for that yet. But confused. The energy field couldn’t seem to decide what it was supposed to be blocking when the "threat" had no solid form to push against.

Natalia walked forward slowly, ice beginning to spread from her footsteps. The Cryo-Lich Ring was glowing bright enough now to cast shadows, and frost crawled up Aaron’s legs as Natalia approached. 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

"You can yield," Natalia said, her voice carrying across the entire arena. "Or I can make you yield. Your choice."

Aaron looked at Monica, who was sitting cross-legged on the platform looking thoroughly defeated. He looked at the frost climbing toward his waist. He looked at Skylar’s knife still pressed against his teammate’s throat even though she’d already surrendered.

"I yield," he ground out.

The crowd went absolutely insane.

Natalia and Skylar didn’t celebrate. They just turned and walked off the platform like they’d done nothing more interesting than grocery shopping.

My chest swelled with something that was probably pride but felt an awful lot like other things I wasn’t ready to name yet.

"They’re terrifying," Celeste said from my other side, her periwinkle eyes wide.

"They’re perfect," I corrected.

Cel looked at me sideways. "You have very interesting taste in women."

"Only the best for the worst."

The girls returned to the prep area, and I was on them immediately. Natalia’s eyes were still glowing faintly, her hair crackling with residual power. Skylar looked completely unbothered, like she hadn’t just psychologically destroyed two people in under three minutes.

"That," I said, "was beautiful."

"We know," they said together.

Akari appeared between them, grinning like the cat who ate the canary. "My turn next. Team three is up against the Phantoms."

"Raphael and Marco?"

"Yep. They’re about to get absolutely destroyed."

She wasn’t wrong.

The Phantoms sent out their heavy hitters. Leo and Diego, both built like linebackers, both with Aspects that made things explode in different ways. Leo used fire. Diego used raw kinetic force.

Raphael and Marco looked at each other, nodded once, and charged.

What followed was less a strategic duel and more a natural disaster given human form.

Raphael’s fists glowed gold as he absorbed every hit, converting the energy into devastating counterattacks. Marco moved like a freight train, his Force Palm ability sending people flying with casual backhand slaps. Diego’s kinetic explosions fed directly into Raphael’s Aspect, making him stronger. Leo’s fire just pissed Marco off.

It was beautiful carnage.

It was also completely unsustainable.

By the three-minute mark, all four fighters were on their knees, bleeding and gasping. The ref called it a draw, which meant both teams were eliminated.

Braxton looked like he’d aged ten years. "I’m going to have words with those two about the concept of ’pacing.’"

Carmen just laughed, taking another drink. "Boys will be boys."

The scoreboard updated again. The semifinals were set.

Team one: Me and Isabelle versus Julian and Aaron from the Sentinels.

Team two: Natalia and Skylar versus Reyna and Kira from the Phantoms.

My stomach dropped.

Not because I was scared of Julian. That entitled prick could bring his quantum bullshit. I’d break him in half and enjoy every second.

No.

What made my blood run cold was the thought of Natalia facing Reyna.