After suppressing herself for so long, now, Zona felt like she got the chance to explode.
Currently, she only has two goals to fulfill. One is to get to Champions League and the second is to be scouted by a top academy from Arcana world where the nobles and the commoners are treated the same except for royalty.
As she can't defeat Leo, she felt like she should go all out against Claire and defeat her while not bothering to save her trump cards.
Zona and her clone continued to push back. Meanwhile, Gideon was fighting the Armored Gorilla; Tenth grader Calder was locked in a tight battle against Lark's tiger-striped Orange Dog and Katherine's Steel Armadillo; Snivy was swinging her hammer around while chasing Dale who was carrying his turtle and dodging the attacks. And Mia, she stayed still as planned.
With no orders coming from Zona who was completely focused on defeating Claire, Team Unicorn felt a little bit of a disadvantage. In such a situation, Bay who was free tried to step up as a leader. "Dale, Katherine, here…"
He called out to Dale and Katherine and gestured them to come to his side so that the three of them stick together to face off any attacks.
This is the advantage of being a summoner.
Despite not possessing any soul skills for themselves, they can still act independently while their Arcana face the opponent.
With their Arcana beasts have enough experience to act on their own, Bay and Katherine didn't have any worries in giving them orders only once in a while.
However, Calder realized their plan as soon as Katherine backed away leaving her Armadillo.
He shouted, "Snivy, don't let them regroup."
Only then, Snivy realized that while Dale seemed like he was just dodging her attacks, his distance to Bay was decreasing with each move.
"No, I won't give you that opportunity." Snivy mumbled to herself as she raised the hammer above her head.
Ignoring Dale, she looked at Bay who seemed like he was paying attention to somewhere else, and strikes down the platform with the hammer using all her strength, unleashing the soul skill.
Just as Katherine about to reach Bay, suddenly, a massive fist made out of iron erupted from the battle platform, right below Bay Passel.
"Careful," Katherine shouted as she halted her steps for a moment but it was already late as he wasn't able to dodge it.
He flew into the sky for more than a hundred meters crossing the barrier. By the time the protector caught him, Bay was already unconscious.
The Armored Gorilla suddenly stopped its fight with Gideon and rushed towards its unconscious master who was placed on the ground.
It touched his face for a couple of seconds before it turned its head and looked at Snivy.
*Roar*
The Armored Gorilla roared while beating its chest in anger. However, before it goes out of control in rage, the rank-6 expert knocked it out, thereby, sending it back to Bay's soul card.
With Bay out, the battle suddenly turned into Team Twilight's favor. Having no other choice, Katherine dashed towards Snivy and asked for the assistance of Dale. She intended to finish her as soon as possible.
Meanwhile, Gideon joined Calder and attacked the Armadillo to decrease the load on him.
Soon, Snivy was eliminated after being thrown out of the barrier with the combined efforts of Katherine and Dale. No one was surprised at the result as these rank-5 Arcana Masters are good at teamwork.
However, in the next minute, Katherine's Armadillo was also killed by Gideon. While Calder distracted Lark by slamming his shield on his face, Gideon aggressively attacked the tiger-striped dog.
At the same time, Claire was getting pushed back by Zona and her clone.
Claire felt like this is her hardest battle. She was hesitating to show her trump cards as she knew that Zona will copy her skill.
After fighting for a while, she managed to theorize some of the restrictions of Zona's copy skill.
First, the soul skills are limited in number and cannot be used frequently even if the slime changed its form. Second, she cannot imitate the skill that she hadn't seen with her own eyes.
Claire felt that these two are probably the reasons why Zona isn't using the soul skills.
As she wasn't sure whether her theory is right or not, she bided her time to confirm it while focusing on defending.
The match went on for half an hour. Mia is still standing alone in patience. Gideon was chasing Dale who was focused on dodging once again. Calder, Lark, and Katherine were eliminated.
As for Zona, she still wasn't able to eliminate Claire who was recovering her injuries at an unimaginable speed.
"Well, I guess it's time to end the match," Claire muttered under breath while panting heavily.
"Mia, now…" She gave an order.
"Yes," Mia exclaimed as her eyes lit up in happiness. She was waiting for her turn for the past 40 minutes, and finally, she was joining the battle.
While the clone continued to slash at Claire, the original Zona took out a card and gripped it tightly. She was ready to use this card that was given by Leo to counter the ambush of Mia's underground roots.
However, to her surprise, instead of the ambush, a number of flowers bloomed on the tree and released pollen into the air.
It didn't take a long time for the pollen to spread all over the space inside the barrier, affecting allies and opponents.
*Cough* *Cough* *Cough*
Everyone except Mia started to cough and felt their body temperature rose sharply.
The most affected was Zona's clone that didn't seem like its soul power is resisting the pollen attack.
"*Cough* this is your grand plan" *Cough* A suicide attack…" Zona spoke while she was barely supporting herself with the sword pierced into the platform.
As she looked at Claire, the latter wasn't fairing any better. She was kneeling on one leg while trying to resist it. Meanwhile, Gideon and Dale became unconscious.
"No…" Claire gritted her teeth and forced herself to stand. "Soul skill: Descent of the Heavenly Guardian." She unleashed her trump card which she was keeping secret until now.
Glowing wings appeared behind her back while an enormous amount of natural energy in the surroundings was absorbed into her body. The pollen no longer affected her.
Looking at it, Zona mumbled, "So, you had this trick up this sleeve, huh! But you underestimated…"
Before her words even finished, suddenly, the sword in her hand was broken into two by the heavy sword.
Zona didn't even get enough time to revive it further as the underground roots still returned at the end to capture her.
After Zona fainted while standing on the platform, Mia threw her out of the barrier. Later, Dale was also thrown away, thereby winning the match.
After several hours, Zona woke up and found herself in the infirmary. Through the glass, she saw the sky was dark.
Tears started to fall from her eyes as she looked down. "So, I lost huh! Why?"
After crying for a while, suddenly, her eyes fell on a message card that was lying on the table beside the bed. "Hmm?"
As soon as she took the card and poured soul energy, instantly, a video message appeared in her head. "Hello, my name is Marcus Serpen. Are you interested to join the Abel Tower?"