"Wait, you mean the thing about things rampaging everywhere in the city?" she looks at Kara as she clenches the doll she is carrying. Kara glances at the doll.
"Is that a new doll I see?" Kara sits, looks down in her hands, and gives a slight smile.
"Ah, yeah, this one—Seka gave it to me some days ago. Do you want one too?" She smiles with a smirk. Hachi realizes.
"Ah, wait—I thought we had better things to do right now." Hachi hangs her doll on a chain attached to her hips.
"Let's go, then," Kara leads.
Both Hachi and Kara jump out of the window.
"Hey, Hachi, look for the signals across the city. Any disruption in clean mana?" Hachi and Kara stop at one of the buildings. She closes her eyes.
Darkness—she sees.
A sting forms in the depth. We see that it slowly comes toward us. It connects to us. More of them come towards us.
"Connect—Magic manipulation string waves," she chants. All the strings start flowing with white glow, slowly going out in the distance.
A doll in the middle of the city.
Ping!
It sends waves across the area. Similarly, multiple dolls send pings throughout the city.
Ping! One of the dolls sends the wave.
Woosh! The waves travel a great distance.
Pong!
One of the signals gets returned.
"There—I found one. Just happened, northeast of the city. The northeast museum with the artifacts. They are running towards it. Brother, they are fast," Hachi speaks as slowly their vision becomes clear.
We see a group of black-robed people running. The last one out of all looks directly at her.
Gasp!
"Hachi!?" Kara puts his hands on her face.
"Hachi, you there!? What happened?" She gives no response.
Kara closes his eyes and sends his mana into Hachi, then cuts the thread's mana flow.
Gasp—she wakes up.
"Aha... aha..." she coughs as she gasps for air. She gets on the ground with her hands supporting her.
"They know of us... he got me." Breathes heavily.
At the tournament
"In about 20 minutes, the first round will start. All the participants of the tournament, please gather at the lobby," a speaker in the hallway notifies everyone.
"We have 10 participants. Now let's generate the rounds."
The big magic screen in the arena lights up. It starts randomly placing people in empty places on the screen.
Seka lands in a different row with Chio.
"Aww, I really did not want to fight you in the finals, but I will defeat your best friend," says Chio. She gives a small bump to Seka.
"Oh, is that so? Then I won't hold back either." She looks at her with a smile.
"Hey, wait, put this on." Seka looks at Chio in her eyes.
"Don't move." She takes a small portion of her hair and then ties it with a pretty-looking band.
"There—I got this band for you. Just forgot to give it every time." Seka gives a smile. She makes a mirror out of ice.
"Here, take a look." Chio looks at it.
"Wow, it looks quite pretty."
BOOM!
Kara lands right before the people in black robes.
Swish!
One of the guys dashes, grabs Hachi.
"There, no need to be in a hurry, miss!" Kara shouts.
"Hachi!" One of the black-robed guys points a knife at her neck.
"So what will you do?" The man gives a smirk with his hood on.
"Do you think we will be scared of a small thing like that?" Hachi takes a glance at the person holding her.
She tries to grab her doll on her waist.
"Of course not—that's why I have a surprise for you. And please, don't play with your doll at a time like this," says the man grabbing Hachi.
Flap!
He grabs her hand tightly.
"Now please, this hand."
Hachi tries to move but couldn't.
"Now, now, you should have realized this much by now. We are always ready."
"Damn, I should have known. I can't even move my hands now." Hachi starts thinking.
"These are one irritating bunch."
"We are the light, who serve in dark, with dark in mind. Now we bring Master back," the black guy starts speaking.
"Brother!" shouts Hachi. Kara looks back. There are more of them.
The guys behind him try to hit Kara.
Klang!
Their sword gets stuck in the ground. The floor on impact cracks. Kara disappears. The back guy grips Hachi more tightly.
"Talk." Hachi squints in pain.
Kara appears behind the guy, forms a knife with ice, attacks with the small knife.
He frees Hachi's hands. The man blocks with one hand. The knife shatters.
"You seem quite powerful. Don't know who you are, but this curse and this power is unstoppable. Ahh, I just love it," the guy with the knife starts giving an expression filled with pleasure.
The guy launches into the air, grabbing Hachi in his hands, then—
Swish!
He throws Hachi in the air.
"Don't mess with me. I am serious right now," Kara speaks as he slowly disappears, turning into fog.
"String puppet."
The doll Hachi carried gets out and pulls Hachi with strings. Hachi catches herself from the fall.
In a flash, all the enemies get slain. After their death, they turn into ashes.
One of them drops a scroll.
Hachi notices it. She runs toward it and picks it up, opens it.
"Brother, this might be more serious than we thought!" Hachi shouts.
More people join, and within a flash they catch Hachi by the shoulder. She grabs her doll.
Swish swish!
Strings start to come out of the doll. It tries to join with the guys in the robes. It connects to 3 of them.
Two of them catch the string mid-way as it crumbles on their touch.
"These petty tricks won't work on me," the guy looks at her.
"No! My string!" she shouts.
"Connect string—Puppet Dance," Hachi chants her spell.
"I can't move!" The people connected to the string start to panic. Slowly, they turn their hands on themselves and start casting magic spells on themselves—killing themselves. They turn into ashes.
One guy grabs Hachi by the neck, slams her face into the ground. Blood starts spouting. Kara starts running, tries to reach her, but they are too powerful. They outnumber Kara with more people and hold him back. One of them throws Hachi into the air, as she barely has any consciousness in her. She starts to fall.
"Tch!" Kara grits his teeth. He stands up still.
Crack
"2nd Phase"
Open
Boom!
In an instant, he dashes—launches at them. He fights one, kicking so hard, slicing the body in pieces.
Dang.
Dung.
Dhisshhh.
One by one, Kara dashes beside them, killing them all in one kick and punch.
Jump!
He grabs Hachi in his arms in midair. He lays her on the ground.
He stands up, looks at the guy standing.
"You—the one standing there," says Kara. He looks at the person who threw Hachi.
"You are giving a very bad aura, and I don't think I can last any longer." Kara stares at him with deadly eyes.
The robed guy smiles and closes one eye.
"Right. Sorry, but I can't let this fail. After 1,000 years of preparation? Surely not."
We see some black mana leak from the man—from his mouth, nose, and eyes.
"Look, I don't think you're gonna be too friendly, so I might have to use some power that you see here."
The guy with the robes starts to speak as he grabs some of the leaking mana and plays with it in his hands.
"Try me."
Kara looks at the guy with a stare. He clenches his fists. Small amounts of fog start appearing on his arms.
We see his vision, as everything starts to get darker. He slightly starts to leak blue mana himself.
The guy in the robe's actual mana now becomes visible—it leaks a hint of purple with black.
"Hey, you can use it too? I thought you didn't. Should have used it earlier."
BOOM!
Without any words, Kara dashes.
Phew! His speed increases.
The guy gets shocked.
"Gasp!"
"Just kidding," Kara gives a bright smile.
They clash. He sends Kara flying in the air. As Kara is falling, he turns into fog. They clash in the air. The guy grabs Kara by his throat—
Slams Kara into the ground.
BANG!!
He pulls his punches, then starts gattling Kara.
Dung dung dung dun...
He beats Kara into a pulp with blood on his face.
"I thought second was enough, I need to finish fast," He starts to think.
The robe guy jumps in the air to slam into him,
Swish!
Brang.
Road fills with dust. As the dust clears, Kara bleeds, as we see his body get a giant hole and his bones cracked.