*Changying*

I popped out one of my panels of light, narrowly avoiding being hit by Renshu's kick. Since the magic was weak, the mirror reflecting it back didn't do much damage to him even at double the power. If it was of his stronger spells, it probably would've hurt him despite his fire absorption ability. However, his attacks failed to do much other than scratch the panels and those fixed themselves. It still felt like we were in a live game of whack-a-mole, with me as the mole.

Renshu smiled as he craned his head in my direction. A whip flew out of the sleeve of his dirt-covered red shirt.

I gritted my teeth and flew back inside the panel. My eyes widened as a whip flew at me. Renshu had launched whips at all the mirrors except the one that I'd emerged from. The whip hit my arm, flinging me back into the mirror before I could emerge. Another struck me as soon as I'd partially emerged. This plant spell wasn't normal. It was as if it could sense its prey, like a pitcher or some other kind of carnivorous plant.

Ugh! I had to cast another spell, but I couldn't if I continued being on the run like this! In that case, maybe I had to shift to using a level two. But even that would prove hard. Then that left me with base and level one spells.

"Jiānyìng de pífū!" I chanted. A shimmer of orange-brown energy radiated around my body, my once invisible to the untrained eye prana veil hardened into rock. Chunks of it were chipped off, but like the panels, my outer skin would regenerated itself.

"Rock, huh? You sure that's a good defense?" Shu asked, grinning.

Maybe it wasn't the best, but it was the best defensive spell that I could've used while being swung around like this.

"You're only dragging this match on," Renshu shouted, intensifying his attacks.

I closed my eyes as memories of getting pushed around flash before my eyes. Make it stop! Someone, please save me.

"Hey, Chang!" Shu called out as air rushed against my face. Was I falling? "Chang!"

My eyes twitched open. I found myself in the nurse's office. What happened?

"So, you're finally awake," Shu said, grinning as he looked over his shoulder. He was watching one of the next matches on television.

I rubbed my head. "What happened?"

"You had a panic attack," Ona said as he walked in with a carton of juice.

I hung my head low. Seriously? What a lame way to have gone down. I should've quit when Shu told me.

"Sorry," Shu said. "I didn't consider that my relentless attacks would dig back up bad memories."

"It's okay. I didn't think so either." Seemed that I hadn't gotten over it yet.

Ona patted my head. "You've grown very strong, Chang."

My cheeks reddened as I stared into his pine-green eyes. "H-have I?"

Renshu grinned. "Of course!"

He wasn't just saying that to make me feel better, right?

"Well, I better head to my match," Ona said, staring at the television. Orichalcum was on the ground.

"Seems Ning showed her win last year wasn't a fluke," Shu said.

"Not that she had to," Ona said as he walked out.

"Wasn't his match supposed to be after ours?" I asked.

"He asked to have it pushed back. So Ori and Ning went next," Shu said. "Want to go see his battle?"

"Who is Ona up against?"

"Kachina, I believe," Shu said.

Kachina, huh? It would surely be a difficult match for him. 

"Alright, let's go," I said, standing up.

Shu grabbed my arm and smiled. He took to running. Here I thought he would teleport me! Guess he didn't want to break any rules. Although, Kun got away with doing so. Although, that involved transporting an injured person.

We didn't take very long to reach the end of the tunnel. Ona was barely stepping up to the ring. Kachina, who had put on her brown deer skin dress and draped a colorful mantle over her shoulders, stared him down.

"It's time to begin the match between the begin the match between the androgynous prince of the forest, Xiaona, and the master of aura, Kachina!" Marina yelled.

"Let's go get seated," Shu said, pulling on my arm. 

I nodded and followed after him. He sure was an energetic boy. Well, that's probably what allowed him to keep up with the first year, Carter. The same went for Sir Zhuang.

Kachina took out her wand from a pocket sown to the side of her dress and threw it into the air. "Aura Impetum!" A wave of blue energy sprung out of the wand.

Ona jumped out of the attack's line of sight and clapped his hands. "Lignum Murus!" Several interconnected trunks sprung from the ground, shielding him from the energy wave as it turned a corner.

"Aura is everywhere," Kachina said, holding her right hand out. "Aura Impetum!"

Ona gasped as energy flowed out from the ground behind him, attack him and pressing his body against the wooden wall.

"Woah, so this is pure prana," Carter said as we reach our seats.

"Yeah," Renshu said.

"Hey, you're back!"

Shu chuckled. "Pay close attention, Cart. You might learn what we meant when I said that Kachina might be able to help you with your prana veil issues."

Carter leaned forward and stared without blinking.

Ona. How would he counter Kachina? 

Xianona gritted his teeth as the energy continued to press against him. Kachina raised her hand again, once more chanting her spell. He screamed as two more waves of energy hit him from the left and the right.

"She's relentless, isn't she?" Kanja asked.

"If anything, she's going easy on him," Tahoma said, leaning back on his seat.

"You've known her since she was little, right?" Yuzu said, turning to look at him.

"Yeah. We were neighbors and attended the same schools. But what about it? There's nothing about her powers that I know that you don't. Although, I will say that she was too much of a pacifist for her own good. She was an easy target for bullies."

Right. Kachina didn't want to fight Mayu and her crew either during our first year. Had something changed her attitude toward fighting? Wait, had Mayu turned her sights on her after I ran off with my tail between my legs?

Tahoma glanced at me. "I think what happened to you pushed her to move away from those ideals."

Me? So my departure from the academy changed her? 

"I think it changed all of us in one way or another," Ori said, smiling slightly.

Lady Adela smiled slightly at me before turning away. Her eyes seemed sad. Was she thinking of Sir Iah again? Lei and his classmates had a similar expression too. Were Sir Iah and I really that important to our respective classes? Seemed both of us were foolish, but in different ways. He became corrupted by the thirst for power and successively couldn't bare the shame, so he ran off. Only to then get threatened to join a shady group. While I was traumatized and ashamed by the pain inflicted on me by the masked bullies.

"Losing someone is bound to change people," Nyima mumbled. "Only someone distant or without feelings wouldn't be impacted by a peer leaving the way you did."

Alto nodded.

I smiled slightly. But it was short lived. Ona's grunting drew my attention back to the ring. His body was glowing bright green.

"What's he doing?" Huoyin asked.

"He's trying to have his barrier absorb the pure prana while also intensifying the strength of his prana veil," Li said, biting her thumb.

Ona. The strain had to be heavy on his body.

"Shu."

"Yeah?"

"Does Ona know any level-three spells?"

Shu hummed. "I'm not sure if he does. Not that he can use them in his current situation."

True. He found himself in an even more perilous situation that I had.

Ona pushed back against the pure prana with his veil which was creating gales of wind and branches.

"Isn't he overdoing it?" Yen asked.

I bit my lip. Please, Goddess, let Xiaona break free from Kachina's spell spam.

"Time to finish this!" Kachina said, clapping her hands.

Ona winced just before the pure energy closed around him in the form of a sphere.

"Ona!" I yelled, standing up from my seat.

"Hey, calm down. Getting worked up will be bad for you," Shu said, grabbing my hand.

"But Ona!"

He grinned. "Have some trust in him, will ya?"

How could he say that? Seriously. Back when I left this academy, Renshu had become a big worrywart. Even when returning for breaks, he would run over and ask me how I was doing. Had something or somebody else driven this change? Or had he finally learned to listen to Li?

The sphere of pure white prana began to turn green as the energy bubbled. Ona was still fighting back?

"Told ya not to worry!" Shu said, chuckling.

Li sighed. "It's still too early to say that, Brother."

She had a point. Ona still hadn't completely freed himself from Kachina's sphere.

Kachina spread out her arms and struck the prana orb with several glistening white prana threds emitting from her fingers. Were those reinforcements?

"I see you, Xiao," Kachina said, closing her eyes. "I admire your perseverance, but there's little you can do to win."

Ona let out a scream. Those threads had spikes at the end. Were they digging into his prana veil?

Shu's smile faded.

"See?" Li said, whacking him in the back. "You went ahead and jinxed him!"

Think we should have Marina call the match," Orichalcum said, standing up. She winced and gripped her knee.

"So you are injured. You should get that looked at," Ning said.

She glanced back at Ona. "I will in a bit. If we don't get Marina to call the match, Ona will be in a worse state than me."

Sarah pointed up at Marina. The Zionian woman's brow was furrowed as she stared anxiously at the sphere.

"Yeah. I think Marina might be ready to make the call," Nyima said.

Ona. I wanted him to win, but the girls had a point. If this continued, he would get badly hurt. Assuming he wasn't already.

"Ona! Don't give up!" Renshu yelled, standing up.

"Are you insane?" Li yelled. "Don't encourage him to continue!"

"You can do it!" Lei yelled, standing up as well.

"Hey! Why are you cheering for him? Kachina's the one we should be cheering for," Yen yelled.

Lei grinned at her. "True, but guess I just like cheering for the underdog is all."

"Don't give up, Ona!" Kun yelled.

"Give it your all!" Carter said, standing up as well.

Li sighed. "You boys are all morons."

Kachina gasped as her threads snapped. The sphere turned completely green and exploded outward, sending Kachina flying toward the edge.

Ona smiled at her. Blood dripped from his arms.

"He did it!" Li said.

Shu chuckled. "And you doubted him!"

"You did too, briefly," Adela said.

He lowered his head.

"But Ona's too injured," I said.

Kachina smiled as she stepped forward. She raised her hand but stopped as he knees gave in. That shockwave must've taken a large toll on her.

"Who's the winner?" Carter asked.

Marina sighed as both of them passed out at the same time.

"Wait, did anyone catch who passed out first?" Carter exclaimed

"It was a tie," Alex said, sighing.

"Eh?"

"It appears that both our competitors are eliminated," Marina said, floating down.

"What? Shouldn't there be a tie breaker?" Carter asked.

"That's usually the case, when the number is even," Nyima said.

"But when the number is odd, a tie in the first round means both are eliminated," Adela said.

Lei sighed.

"Poor Ona didn't even get a hit in!" Carter said.

Shu took a deep breath. "Yeah."

"Pura prana is scary," Jude muttered.

Tahoma scoffed. "Kachina would've won if she hadn't given Xiaona the chance to give up."

"You can't blame her. Hurting Ona that extent must've hurt her a lot," Orichalcum said.

Ning nodded. With both Ona and Kachi eliminated, Shu would be facing her in the next round tomorrow.

**Solar Note: Hope that you enjoyed the battle, even if it wasn't the most action packed.**