*Lei*

Our first night in the forest went by quietly, even though we were surrounded by the sound of explosions at one point. Yen had also apparently been caught by a trap of Hal's while gathering akoli but managed to negotiate her way out.

"Nice to see you've woken up," Sirius said with a smile. He was cooking some fish over an open fire.

I sat down next to the fire place and reached out for a fish but was slapped by Nyima. "You didn't wake up to help us," she said, scowling.

I rubbed my eyes. "You should've woken me up then."

"We tried," Hikaru said as he turned a fish. "You were in deep sleep, like usual."

"Brother, you should learn to wake up on your own by now," Yen said as she came out of the girls' tent.

I rolled my eyes. "Alright, alright, I get it."

"No you don't," Nyima said. "You just rolled your eyes at us!"

I reached in for a fish and bit it. "It's very delicious."

Nyima glared at me. "You just ate my fish too!"

I glanced up at her, she was clearly furious. I backed away. "It was a mistake, I-I was going to get the middle one."

"Stop fighting you two," Sirius said, sighing. "There's plenty more where those came from."

Nyima sighed. "Okay, but I'm only doing it because you remind me of Papa and that guy who saved me."

"Think I know who that guy that you're talking about is. He sorta saved me too," Sirius said with a shy smile.

"Guy who saved you?" I asked, looking over at Nyima.

Nyima nodded. "Yeah, during the Maho... You wouldn't know, would you?"

"Huh?"

"Few remember it," she said, looking down at the fire.

I scratched my head in confusion. Why would no one recall the events of a Mahoulympics?

Before I could ask, Zelde and Wanikiya came running towards the camp. Wanikiya formed an ice wall as high as the shortest trees around the camp, which were as tall as a hundred feet. "Is everyone here?" Zelde asked.

"What's going on?" Nyima asked.

Stella came out of the girl's tent. "Two groups are coming here, isn't it? Assuming my sixth sense isn't off, they're coming from the north and the other from the south."

Sirius doused the fire in water. "Eat as fast as you can and prepare to fight," he said, getting up. He removed his glasses like he did when during the race. "Stella and I will each delay one."

"We're coming too," Yuzuki said. Orion followed his sister while Yuzuki followed Sirius.

"Why are they targeting us?" Hikaru asked, following his sister and Sirius.

"Obviously they must see us as either the weakest or the strongest," Ayawamat said.

The ice wall was cracked to the north by shuriken that vanished as soon as they touched the ground. They were odd looking shuriken, looking as if they contained the stars within them.

Nyima stopped eating and summoned her wand. "This spell...master, its Tora!" she yelled.

A crow lurched out of the dust towards Nyima.

"A familiar," she said as she avoided it.

Stella appeared behind Nyima and sent the creature flying out of the wall.

"Tsk," said a white haired woman as she passed through the shattered ice wall. She was dressed in white, long sleeved robes whose hems were decorated with golden symbols of the zodiac. She picked up the bird and narrowed her golden eyes at Stella.

"Only one person?" Nyima asked. "Where are the other members though?"

The southern wall cracked behind us. More shuriken came at us. I tried to dodge them, but I was too slow, or rather I was slowed down.

"Tora?" I yelled. So they had split into two to surround us. Not a bad strategy, but they'll have to deal with Lei Lan and his crew!

I covered my legs in electricity, but it flowed too slowly. It had to be the same time spell that Hikaru and Orion use.

Stella warped the shuriken away as they were about to hit us. She and the rest of the Hoshi clan members moved around as if unaffected by the spell used to slow us down. Oddly, Yuzuki and Hikaru weren't affected either.

Hikaru ran towards the white haired woman toward our north. "Luci Draco!" A light dragon came out of his hands and attacked her, but she didn't feel the need to move. By raising one hand, the dragon vanished into a portal like the one Stella had made for me when I went to fetch Raul. The dragon reappeared behind my sister.

Yuzuki intercepted the dragon and cut it down with ease. "Hoshi Shuriken!" She created shuriken like those of the woman's and threw them into the air. They vanished and reappeared behind the Torans watching over us from on top of trees.

Sirius tapped the heads of Yen, Kun, and me. "Leave this to us, we'll take care of them." He handed me our jewel and ran to join Stella.

Yen grabbed Kun and I and pulled us into the forest. "Do you think that's all their members?" she asked.

"I hope so. How many were there?" I asked.

"I counted four," Kun said.

"Then they'll probably have between one to eight more," Orion said, following closely behind us.

"Why are you following us?" I asked.

"I'll be protecting you while my sister and brother fight off those four alongside the no Mikoto siblings."

"I see. Oh yeah, that slowing down of our movements back there, that was the doing of a time mage, wasn't it."

"That's correct. Brother managed to break the spell by using his own time magic. If we run into another one of them, I'll unfreeze you, so keep close to me at all times."

"Lei, Kun, Yen, Orion," Nyima yelled. She followed us into the forest along with the Zelde and Wanikiya. "Stella told us to head over to the mountains. They'll meet us back up there."

"Where are the others?" I asked.

"Ayawamat and they decided to stay back and help them. That jerk is actually pretty useful. He's managed to trap several of them in his webbing."

"Aya might be rude, but he sure is dependable," Orion said, grinning. "I do hope that we won't run into another team up in the mountain." He stopped running. "Everyone, please charge some attacks and prepare to guard me. I'm going to perform a divination." He looked up at the sky and closed his eyes. The trees stopped moving and we felt ourselves slow down.

"He slowed down his own teammates?" a short girl with pink hair said from on top of the trees. "Well that makes things easier."

"H-u-r-r-y u-p," I said. Suddenly a lightning bolt flashed out of my hands and knocked the girl into the trees. She coughed up blood as she stood up.

"What was that?" she asked.

A blast of ice froze her legs. I turned over and looked at Wanikiya. He still had ice forming in his hands.

The girl's eyes widened. "D-did this wimpy looking kid just freeze time and sent their attacks towards the future!" She grinned. "So, this is one of the techniques developed by our fellow Hoshi... if only I had my own teammates and some more time. Well, time isn't really an issue for me." She snapped her fingers and the ice on her feet and the wounds from my lightning spell vanished. In fact she returned back to the top of the tree. "You'll have to do better than that."

She summoned a yari with two crescent moon shaped blades running parallel to a single central blade. They were attached together by short cross bars, making it look like a stylized lily.

Water struck the branch she stood on, cracking it, but she simply rewound time again. "Try harder now. If you want to defeat me, strike at me with all you have!" She jumped down and stuck the ground with the central blade of her spear. Heat could be felt emerging out of the ground. "Entei." A great flame erupted from the ground and came at us with a burning intensity. I tried to move but time was still slowed for me.

Golden flames emerged from Zelde and held back the giant flames. The two flames danced around one another creating a burning vortex that reduced the surrounding trees into ash within moments. Water erupted in all directions, extinguishing the young forest fire.

"Woah, strong pawns you have there," the pink-haired girl said, grinning. She lifted her spear from the ground, its tip was bright red from the heat of the fire. She calmly walked over to us and swung her spear at me. The 'hooks' of the spear ripped through my clothes and skin with ease. Time had returned back to normal for me. I spat out blood over the charred ground.

Yen and Kun started to wince from the pain inflicted on me, but their reaction was slowed down greatly.

The girl smiled at me. "I was sure he was going to have you protect yourselves. Seems he only cares for himself."

I glared at her and tried to get up. Lightning covered my legs and arms. I moved behind her and grabbed her neck. At that moment, sound waves and an earthquake roared across the forest and struck the girl. She shook her head and tried to snap her fingers but she couldn't stand the sound and shaking so she instead covered her ears. No matter what, the sound continued to hit her.

Orion opened his eyes and smiled. Nyima ran over to me and touched my back. A bright blue glow covered my upper body and closed my wound. Yen kept attacking the girl with her sound while Kun created an earth wall around her.

"Glacius Draco," Wanikiya chanted. The dragon moved around the girl and lightly touched her hands with its small claws, causing her hands to freeze over her ears.

"Check to see if she has the jewel," Orion said.

Zelde walked over and frisked the girl. "It seems that she doesn't have it."

The pink haired girl chuckled. "You'll never get it."

"Ahh, that's too bad," someone called out.

We looked up and caught sight of new arrivals, a group dressed in black cloaks with the symbol of a dragon with angel wings on them.

"So there was a second team after all," I said.

"About time they finally show themselves," Kun said.

Orion summoned some small barely visible needle like weapons in his fist.

"Azie," the Toran muttered to herself. She rewound time, undoing all the damage that my siblings had done. She charged at me. While I managed to block, the force of her kick sent me flying into Nyima.

She stared at her hands and realized that there was still ice on them. "Seems I'm growing fatigued. Oh well, this is a pleasant surprise." She snapped her hands free from the other and picked up her weapon. She snickered and backed up into the forest. "I better inform my team about the change in plans."

One of the black cloaked Azie mages flew down from the trees and slammed her into the ground. "You won't be going anywhere!" he said.

The girl tried to snap her fingers but she couldn't stop them from shaking. She gritted her teeth and closed her eyes.

*Character Section*

Momo Ohitsujiza- Sex: Female Age: ? Nationality: Tora, member of the Hoshi clan Sign: Aries

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