*!*

  Around Yuki and Neo, there are hundreds of small scarlet fire orbs.

  "This is the girl's Faith power!!"

  "Senpai, get close to me."

  Neo ducks towards Yuki. Yuki ducks as well, as she raises and covers themselves in a small pyramid made of ice. The moment the ice pyramid completely covers them, the small scarlet fire orbs explode in rapid succession.

  *BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM*

  The explosions happen for an entire 3 seconds.

  "Wow, that ice of hers is really tough."

  "Well, your flames weren't really designed to go against non-living things anyway."

  Runelt flies towards the small ice pyramid with his back transformed, and a pair of golden fiery wings grows. He transforms his right leg into a talon and swings it at the ice pyramid. His talon touches the ice pyramid, and both of them break apart.

  "(They're gone?!)"

  There is a hole in the sand where Yuki's pyramid was.

  From under the sand, Neo digs his way out and appears behind Runelt, surprising him. Neo transforms his right arm and hits Runelt as hard as he can, but Runelt immediately covers his body with his two wings. Neo punches the wing, and it sends Runelt flying for a short distance.

  "Your punch was heavy, but not enough to even scratch my phoenix's wings!"

  "(Well, you aren't our target!)"

  "AAAKKHH!!"

  Out of nowhere, ice spikes rose from under the sand under Rena's feet. Rena's both legs got frozen in the process.

  "RENA!"

  "Don't worry, I just stopped her movement. I never intended to hurt any of you." said Yuki.

  Yuki is suddenly behind Rena. She grabs Rena's neck from behind, holding her hostage. Neo jumps away from Runelt and lands next to Yuki.

  "So, here's the deal. Let us go or she will freeze this girl's entire body!"

  "That is kinda jarring right after she said she didn't want to hurt any of us. Rena, they're dumb! Go for it!"

  "Yes, nii-san!"

  *!!*

  *FWOOOM*

  Rena's entire body is suddenly engulfed in her scarlet flame.

  "KOHAI!" Neo rushes towards Yuki.

  Yuki jumps away from Rena, releasing her in the process. Her hand got burned, but it didn't burn her at all, and even her sleeve is unharmed.

  "I'm fine, senpai. Her flame is weird. It was just lukewarm and doesn't pack as much heat as I thought it would."

  "Oh, thank God!”

  *!!!*

  Runelt was suddenly in front of the two of them. He transforms his right leg into a talon and immediately kicks Neo away.

  "ARGH!"

  Runelt turns to Yuki and swings his talon as well. Yuki slides backwards away from him as fast as the sand under her feet is frozen solid. She dodged Runelt's kick entirely and created about a five-meter distance between them.

  Runelt lands near Rena on the sand. Her legs have already thawed out. He touched her frozen legs with his talon before rushing to them just now.

  "You two have solid teamwork." said Runelt.

  "You can't flatter me." said Yuki.

  "Say, wanna take this seriously?"

  "Are you not afraid of the consequences?"

  "Well, aren't you angry after I hurt your precious senpai?"

  "Oh, so you are angry too after I froze your sister."

  "Too? So, we do think alike!"

  "Agreed."

  Runelt's and Yuki's hands are both covered in their Faith power. Runelt's golden flame shapes into the form of a full-body phoenix itself in his hand while Yuki prepares to create and launches something from her hand.

  Runelt punches the air and launches a golden flaming phoenix from his punch. The phoenix itself is 5 meters long from head to tail and is 15 meters long from one end of one of its wings to another.

  Yuki sends out a giant wolf made of ice. The ice wolf was 5 meters in height and was 10 meters in length from its head to the end of its tail. The ice wolf is running fast towards the phoenix.

  The two clashed and immediately completely broke apart.

  "You call that serious, Second Judge?"

  "I could say the same to you, Fourth!"

  "(Since she's an elemental type, it will be difficult to get close to her. That sliding dodge earlier was quite fast, I need to react faster next time.)"

  "(He shapes and throws his transformation away. I never see a transformation type Believer do that, must be his special ability. He's a lot dangerous in close range, I have to keep my distances.)"

  Meanwhile, the supporters are also fighting against each other.

  This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

  Rena generates scarlet flames from her right arm. She shapes them into two scarlet fireballs, and they are hovering above her.

  "(For now, I'll analyze his Faith power.)"

  Rena sends out the two fireballs to Neo. The fireballs turn in two different directions and strike Neo from two different sides.

  "(She's trying to identify my faith power.)"

  Neo puts up both of his hands to both sides and transforms them. The two fireballs hit his two transformed hands. Rena tries to crush Neo between her two fireballs.

  "(URGH! He's tough!)"

  Neo crushes the two fireballs with his transformed palms with relative ease.

  "(I'll have to get close!)"

  Rena aims her right arm towards the sand and generates flame, and it boosts her up high in the air. She then aims her body diagonally downwards towards Neo and propels herself with a burst of flame from her right hand. She dives straight behind Neo and immediately turns around.

  "(This girl is brave! I'll give her that!)"

  Neo also turns towards Rena, and he transforms both of his hands. Rena sends out a scarlet flamethrower towards Neo at close range. Neo opens his two arms and claps them hard, sending a shockwave of air, repelling the flamethrower effectively.

  "(His transformations are strong enough to create shockwave? Light-nii-san vibes. . .)"

  Rena boosts herself away from Neo, five meters away from him. Rena sends out a wall of scarlet flame forward. Neo transforms his two hands and most of his upper body, starting from his upper torso, covers his face, and runs towards it. Neo went through the scarlet flame wall with ease.

  "(My flame really is ineffective against a transformation type, but I still have the advantage for being an elemental type. I can easily bypass his transformation limit.)"

  Neo keeps running towards Rena.

  "(Her flame . . . Kohai got burnt, but the flame's temperature didn't even burn her clothes or her skin. She can't break my Faith power with that level of heat. I assume it has some special properties that only belong to her flame, seeing its color. Close combat is my best option!)"

  Neo is in front of Rena. He swings a right jab, Rena dodges to the left. Rena immediately ignites her right leg and kicks Neo on his neck from his left side with a roundhouse kick. Neo transforms his neck, and the kick doesn't budge him even a bit.

  "Oh no!"

  Neo transforms his right hand and catches Rena's burning right leg.

  "Your flame is strange. It doesn't even pack the heat that a normal fire elemental type Faith has. Too bad for you!"

  Neo swings his right hand and throws Rena off balance, to his back. Rena flings in the air, and Neo immediately chases after her again. Rena shoots out multiple scarlet birds of flame towards him while she's still in midair. Neo runs forward and lets the scarlet birds hit him. His automatic transformation mechanism protected him entirely, but it hit his 40% limit. Neo jumps towards Rena.

  "(He got me!)"

  Neo punches Rena's stomach with his silver fist.

  "AAAAAAAKKHHH!!"

  Rena crashes to the sand and slides a bit and stops moving.

  "Don't worry. I held back, it only knocks you ou--! AAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!"

  Suddenly, Neo felt an intense, sharp burning pain on his back.

  "(W-WHAT HAPPENED?)"

  Neo falls to his knees and kneels on the sand.

  "G-got y-you too. . .*pant pant*"

  "You. . .didn't pass out?"

  "I almost did, and I will need to lie down. . .shortly."

  "What did. . .you do?"

  "When all of my birds came into contact with your transformation, I. . .broke them apart into tiny little flames. . .and move all of them into one single point, your back. Since you hit your transformation limit. . .your back was wide open. I would have missed. . .if I was too late even just for a moment though."

  "Aarrrrggggghhhhh! This pain . . . is intense. So, this is your. . .faith power? . . .I'm losing my consciousness. . ."

  "It was such a short fight, but I guess we're even. . ."

  Neo falls to the sand face-first.

  "Kohai. . ."

  Neo passes out.

  "Onii-chan. . .I want to see you. . .made these two. . . to agree to come with us. . .when I woke up later. . ."

  Rena passes out, and the 2-kilometer diameter wall of scarlet flame disappears.

  .

  .

  .

  Meanwhile, the Judges just a few moments ago. . .

  Runelt charges towards Yuki with a fiery pair of wings on his back. He transforms his right hand into a talon and swings it.

  Yuki then summons a tall knight holding a giant shield, both are made of ice.

  Runelt's talon came into contact with the giant shield, and they both canceled out and disintegrated; however, the tall knight of ice remains.

  *!*

  "What just happened?" Runelt wonders.

  He thrusts his right fiery wings towards the tall knight, but then the tall knight blocks them with another giant shield. Yuki crafted another giant shield on the very last second for the tall knight. Runelt's right wing and the tall knight's giant shield canceled one another.

  "Shouldn't the knight also crumble? What?"

  While he was wondering, Yuki crafted a giant wolf, and it suddenly charged with its big, wide, open jaw towards Runelt.

  Runelt flaps its left wing and slaps the giant wolf away, but he was also blasting himself away from his spot, making a distance between him and Yuki. The giant wolf and Runelt's left fiery wing canceled each other.

  "I've noticed that for elemental type, all of our Faith power will be canceled as long as they're connected, so I simply made arrangements by making my tall knight and its giant shield separate creations. . . Wait a minute, I can make further arrangements."

  Yuki realizes something mid-explanation.

  *!!!*

  But then the two of them realize that the giant wall of scarlet flame surrounding them has disappeared.

  "(Is Rena down? I wanted to check on her but. . .)"

  "(That girl is down. But senpai would've immediately joined me or sneak-attacked the 2nd Judge. . . Is he down too?)"

  "Looks like our Supports are down!"

  "Seems to be. Now, let's fight to our hearts' content, 2nd Judge." said Yuki with cheerful words but the same flat tone and face.

  Yuki then summons her entire troops, the same troops from before, with the same number of creations. 20 Swordsmen, 10 Great swordsmen, 10 spear users, 10 Ice spellcasters, 20 ice archers, 20 ice wolves, and 10 ice hawks.

  "Huh? Just so you know, large armies or such do not scare me one bit!"

  Runelt transforms his back, and he grows another pair of golden fiery wings. He also transforms both his legs into burning talons. Yuki commands silently all of her troops to advance and marches towards Runelt. He flies and charges towards her entire troops confidently.

  The first troops on the very front were the 20 swordsmen. Runelt enlarges his right flaming talon and kicks the first 5 swordsmen, and they all break and disintegrate in an instant, but so does his talon. Runelt enlarges his other talon and kicks 5 more of the swordsmen, destroying both his talon and the 5 swordsmen. Runelt re-transforms his right leg and proceeds to kick another 5 swordsmen, and then re-transforms his left leg to destroy the last 5 swordsmen.

  "(He's so fast. My swordsmen couldn't even react.)"

  Yuki commands all of her troops to attack Runelt simultaneously. The Great swordsmen and the spear users are all charging while thrusting their weapons. The spellcasters and archers shoot ice projectiles attacks and the ice hawks and wolves are all scattered randomly and charge towards Runelt from different directions and angles.

  "(Ah, this means she acknowledges my speed!)"

  Runelt opens both of his palms, and they burn. From the flame, 5 chain-like shapes come out of each of his hands. It was actually the tail of Runelt's phoenix transformation that had a similar shape to that of a peacock's, only in golden colored flame.

  *!!*

  "(What is that?)" Yuki wonders.

  Runelt commands his phoenix tail to move and slither in the air. He thrusts his phoenix's tails at 10 different targets, which are 5 of the ice hawks and 5 of the wolves, right at each position of where their heart are supposed to be if they're real animals.

  All of his targets break apart at the same time as his phoenix's tail. He proceeds to spawn 10 of his phoenix's tails again and thrusts them again to the left, 5 hawks and 5 wolves. He immediately disposes of the fastest-moving threats of Yuki's troops.

  The 10 great swordsmen approach Runelt, and they are ready to stab him with their greatswords. Runelt jumps above their sword thrusts, summons another 10 of his phoenix tails, and stabs all of the great swordsmen right on their head armor, causing them to crumble into pieces and vanish.

  And then the ice projectiles of the ice archers and spellcasters reached Runelt, and all of them came from different directions and angles.

  Runelt covers himself perfectly with his pair of fiery wings and completely blocks all of the ice projectiles at the same time. As all of the ice projectiles got cancelled, so did Runelt's wings, and then suddenly, in Runelt's peripheral vision, he saw Yuki approaching him.

  Yuki was behind Runelt. She grew a pair of dragon wings made of ice, complete with a pair of dragon heads on both of her shoulders. She also wields a dragon head made of ice in her right hand, with its jaw open right where her right palm is. There is a long katana made of ice spitting out of the dragon's mouth.

  Yuki thrusts her katana towards Runelt. He turned around in reflex to face Yuki as he was also trying to catch her ice katana with both his hands, but he was too late.

  *ZRASH*

  Yuki stabs Runelt in his stomach.