One second. The crowd was quiet, the air became heavy. The tension between the two teams could be cut.

Then, a piercing scream. Lynda hurdles herself forward, leaving Caria behind with her purple skirt caught in the draft. A flick of her wand, and it begins charging with a blue aura. The Kirlia rose up into the air, twirling her body and wand about as if she were performing a mid-air ballet.

Valerie snickered. "Headstrong to a fault." She charged forward with a battle cry of her own, although not nearly as fast as Lynda. Dante followed suit, not wanting to fall behind, though he could already tell the taller Mawile would be targeted more in this fight. The two Deceiver 'mon closed the distance closer to Val's side of the field, exchanging blows to each other's arms. The resulting shockwave could be seen rippling out with the two at the epicenter, blowing away the embers that had surrounded the shorter 'wile and causing sparks to fly from the impact.

"I'll handle this runt, go take care of the other one!" The taller Mawile pressed forward, forcing the smaller one to take a step back.

Dante rushed forward, only turning his head to see the two clash - the few tales he's heard of Val and Lynda's encounters, they usually ended in a tie with Val having the advantage. If it were just those two on the field, Val would likely win, so it was up to him to ensure that outcome.

"Runt!?" Lynda pushes back, the two now at a stalemate. "You aren't getting enough blood up to your brain." Her maw opened slightly, letting out a flare that jettisoned its owner forward, regaining the lost ground with the force. The flames ended after a brief moment, and hoping to capitalize, Lynda began throwing punches, being met with quick blocks and punches of Valerie's own.

Though Dante had to run across the entire field, his blazing speed gave him an advantage; whatever this magician had in store, he could stop simply by beating her to the punch. Considering she looked as if she was just enjoying herself, spinning around in the air without even looking at him, a fast hit might just put her out of commission.

Just what Caria was expecting, of course. With Dante charging right at her, he didn't notice until it was too late, right after he committed to jumping at her, that the Kirlia's body was entirely ice; by the time Dante's kick shattered the sculpture, Caria had Teleported to the other side of the arena.

---

Lynda! I'm behind her!

Overwhelm.
Attention focused on me. Do not hit from behind, stay away from maw. Danger.
Defense at 95%.
Move to her right. Strike from range. Will strike left. 75%.
...
Striking high. Move in. Alternate hits. 50%.
Sustaining damage to arms. Do not relent. 25%.
Distracted. Clean hit.
Strike together.
...
Kick up. Guard broken.

---

The entire sequence took only five seconds. After the duo's simultaneous flipkick, Lynda moved in for further attacks, as Caria used the momentum to stay airborne and prepare an attack above her head, a crystal forming. Valerie backed up, propelling her maw in front of her body as it glowed with a grey, steely aura. Lynda threw a punch at it, stopping only millimeters from it. A psychic hand had formed around the Mawile's outstretched arm, helping pull it back.

"You'll have to be faster than that." Valerie had already anticipated a blow coming, but hadn't thought that she'd be fast on the reaction time. As if to tease her, Lynda scraped her finger across the steel-laden maw, bursts of light and scraps of shrapnel sparking from the touch. The friction was enough to light a flame on the finger, something that she found amusing.

The crystal above Caria's head was reaching around her body's height in size, and it looked as if she was just about to throw it, stretching...before a blur knocked her away. She yelped, tumbling away on the ground before pulling off another Teleport, leaving an ice sculpture in her body's place once more, shattering on the next impact.

The blur then made its way towards the unsuspecting Lynda before she could turn her head, launching her maw upwards before a kick sends her flying, head over heels in a rather vicious roll. Dante stood where Lynda last was, with Valerie taking a quick look at him before focusing on the Mawile being sent off. She quickly took her maw over her shoulder, channeling the steel energy already gathered in it into a pulsating red-and-white ball, and shot it after a brief moment towards Lynda. "Faster than WHAT," Dante yelled.

With terrifying precision, the tumbling Mawile kicked the ground, slid over her maw, landed on her palm, and spun in place to right herself upwards and land on her feet in a quasi-breakdance maneuver. The Flash Cannon Valerie fired was only feet from her at this point, but the fiery Deceiver wasted no time...punching the ball of energy away into the sky. Readying her own maw, Lynda shot three orange balls up to the Flash Cannon. The Focus Blasts twisted and turned in their own unique directions before landing on the ball at the same time, making it explode in a spectacular flash of colors, orbs and smoke.

From the middle of this explosion, beyond the smoke, a form floated - Caria, who blew the dust away and struck a pose. Waving a hand, she took control of the energetic debris of the attack, forming it all into a black swirling ball of smoke as she lowered herself to the ground beside Lynda once more, the duos staring each other down.

The crowd broke into cheers at seeing Caria appear from the explosion, proving there were more than just battle maniacs spectating the bout. Still she wore her unwavering smile. Lynda clutched at her fist, blackened and singed with sparking energy by being in contact with the Flash Cannon. Valerie and Dante stood firm, though the Blaziken had yet to put his foot down, keeping his knee up.

Val chuckled. "You know, Dante, they keep this up and I might need to pull IT out."

"Nah. We won't need to go that far. Just one of your signature Hyper Beams will be enough to put them to bed."

Caria suddenly appeared between the two with a white flash of light, leaning on Dante's knee in a taunting gesture. "Quite frankly, I expected more of a challenge either way."

Dante quickly took a swiping kick at the Kirlia, who then Teleported back to Lynda's side at the reaction, again leaving an icy image behind. The ice sculpture had its top half knocked clean off by the kick, momentarily stunning Dante who thought he had actually torn her in two. The Kirlia herself gave a chortle.

"Y-you...! Val, let's-"

"No, Dante. Playing our cards too early won't win this fight. We'll need to think of a way to break their combination. They work so well together despite not saying a word to each other..."

A muffled voice. "But cards are MY specialty!" Caria was covering her mouth on the other side of the field. Val could feel the voice coming from somewhere - where? A second or two later, her maw moved on its own, coughing up something that clanked against the ground. A gust of wind blew the object up and towards Caria, leaving a trail of ice where it bumped the ground, and small icicles sprouting up as if they were plants.

Coordinating the gust to bring the wand back to her, Caria caught it without missing a beat. "Among other things, of course, but cards are a favorite." As if on cue, she generated a card from behind her wand, transferring it to her other hand with a twirl of the wand, and finally another tricky hand motion to vanish it from existence.

"..Mrrgh. She can still hear us talk, so far away."

"So? Let's just take them down so fast that they can't form another strategy like that again."

"Your optimism pains me, Dante. But like I said before, I got the runt."

"Tch. Not if I get her first."

Lynda's hand sparked, still brimming with energy. After a moment, her hand got brighter, and she stood with her legs apart, crouching a bit. She stared down Valerie, the black pattern of her hand eventually all becoming bright and amorphous. She growled with a deep voice. "Enough with the warm-up. I'll enjoy putting you both down."

Caria brought her wand around in a circular motion. The black ball floated eerily around the two, following it. Still smiling. Not a hint of worry or seriousness etched in her expression.

Val's maw began glowing, gathering a charge within it, again mounting it on her shoulder. Dante's cuffs lit aflame before charging forward, faster than before.

The black ball floated up with a flick of Caria's wand. "The show's only just started, after all."
