Hikaru quickly cut his thumb and summoned his most recent creation, the yellow Oni. Unlike its red brother, this one had yellow skin as its name suggested, but instead of two horns, it had three. This one was slightly smaller, and more lean but well built. It's large loin cloth went down to its knees, and it was armed with a pair of gauntlets rather than a menacing weapon.
He first prioritised the gunslinger, as he was obviously a long ranged fighter who would be very annoying. From its hand, the Oni shot Yellow lightning which jolted towards him at terrifying speeds.
The gunslinger couldn't react in time, and ended up taking a direct hit, followed by a loud explosion echoing through the arena.
The Chinese girl, Luo Xiang, emitted a glowing white light from her hand which revealed her own cursed tool, the golden Di jun bow. From it, she shot a single arrow which multiplied and set on fire in the direction of the Gon-ill. The Korean sorcerer clasped both of his own hands together, before slamming it on the floor.
'Barrier Technique: Shell.'
From there, he instantly conjured an incredible green sphere made from cursed energy, which easily blocked every single shot.
"Tch."
This was going to be tough for her to crack.
"There are several rules for hunting, but of course, the most important one is camouflage. Never let yourself be observed by the prey. And then when their attention on you is absolute 0, take your shot."
Hikaru was about to summon another Shikigami to increase his numbers, but then a missile that came out of seemingly nowhere was fired at him all of a sudden. He quickly commanded the yellow oni to block it, but the impact from it's explosion destroyed it in one hit.
'The hell!? That gunslinger!'
Immediately after that however, two bundles of dynamite were thrown above his head that emerged past the dust cloud in front of him. He didn't notice them, because they were real, and not made from cursed energy.
By the time he did notice them, it was too late. Both bundles fell right behind him, and they exploded making him take the hit directly.
Hikaru is the first competitor to be knocked out of the match putting the Japanese team place in dead last on the first round.
"..."
Yumeno hid her face as she crouched to hide her embarrassment, while everyone else simply turned pale.
Gon-ill stayed on the defensive as more waves of flaming arrows rained down on him. His cursed technique allowed him to create a variety of barriers with different effects, that were stronger than the normal ones used by support-type sorcerers. Currently, he was using one tailored for incredible defence in exchange for his ability to fight back.
'I'll outlast everyone!"'
One of the stray arrows that were being fired ended up hitting the already injured Andrew knocking him out, landing America in third place.
Seeing no sign of the enemy's barrier breaking, Xiang decided to change her weapon. The golden bow she wielded, began to glow with that same illuminating light, as it then transformed into a golden polearm.
'Heavenly burden.'
"Get out of there and fight me like a real man!"
The moment she grabbed onto the spear, it was wrapped in a furious flame that burned intensely as she then threw it with her full power.
Gon-ill had absolute confidence, as he had the strongest barriers in all of Korea! But what he didn't know, was that the flames produced by Xiang's golden armoury, eroded cursed energy. Little by little, she whittled away the outer shell, until it was weak enough to be broken in one strike.
By the time the polearm made contact, his barrier instantly shattered as he was then pierced right in his abdomen.
Sergeant Frost then screamed into his microphone,
"THE WINNER OF THE FIRST ROUND IS, CHINA'S' LUO XIANG!"
The crowd screams in excitement as the following results flash on the screen.
China - 3 points
Korea- 2 points
America - 1 points
Japan - 0 points
**
The entire Japanese team as well as Omo was surrounding Hikaru, all reasonably frustrated at him.
"Why the hell didn't you summon all of your Shikigami at the start!?? I thought we agreed that if you had the numbers advantage, you'd stand the greatest chance?? You only summoned one??"
Hikaru shamley responded,
"I was half asleep okay!?? You try fighting 3 people at once while on the brink of exhaustion!"
Everyone was busy giving Hikaru an earful, so Akumu and Kenji took that chance to quietly exit the room.
Two wandered around the quiet, empty halls of the underground colosseum, checking out the strange place that they had been sent to. The space in this place made no sense, as rooms which shouldn't have been next to each other, were somehow fitting in the same place. The entire colosseum, appeared to be in some kind of barrier.
They eventually came across a group of people. It was the Chinese team making use of their free time, with Luo Xiang not being among them.
One of them, a man just as tall as Kenji with well defined muscles, came forward. He had long teal spiky hair, and wore nothing but light pants, and a tiger patterned cloth secured by a grey sash. Both of his arms, had a black tattoo with a strange pattern on them.
"Your the team in last place, right? With a spirit user like that, you might as well just quit."
Kenji then quickly spoke up,
"Are you looking for a fight?"
The two then started to release their cursed energy, gradually measuring how far the other could go. However, the one who appeared to be their leader, one of 2 people Akumu knew was stronger than him, then demanded,
"Calm down Qiang. If you fight them here, we will get in a lot of trouble too."
"But Lord Haoran.."
"That was an order Qiang. Don't make me repeat myself."
Qiang retracted his cursed energy before grunting to himself. Haoran then looked at Akumu and spoke,
"You are the leader of your team am I correct? you seem like the strongest among them."
Unsure on what kind of an answer to give he just silently nodded. He was technically the joint captain along with Yumeno.
"If you guys manage to pull back from this I have no doubts that you will make back to second place, but the number 1 spot belongs to us. Anyway Good luck to you."
He then turned back around with his team, before disappearing into the darkness. However Qiang quickly raised his middle finger at the two, in a manner that Haoran didn't see.
"That guy pissess me off." , Kenji uttered
"If your that annoyed, then feel free to fight in the next round. They make me angry too, but our opportunity to fight isn't now. "