"Ahem, I will now explain the rules of the first challenge. You must elect one member of your team to build a Sand Scuplture. You are allowed 1 hour to make your sculpture. Knocking over others before they have a chance to be judged will be disqualified. Namari will judge the scupltures. Which ever one looks the most impressive wins 1 point for that team. Your oracle bells will keep track of how many points each team as." Goldva explained, exhaling from his pipe. Everyone, except for Hao and Opacho, stood in silent shock. "Y, you're kidding me..." Horo Horo said, eyebrow twitching from such a childish event. "Ready... Begin!" He shouted as everyone staked out a spot to build their Sand Sculptures. Hao began constructing his, as Ren glared at him from afar. "Jeez, what a weird challenge. I don't know anything about making Sand Sculptures..." Horo Horo grumbled. "So who wants to do it?" Chocolove asked. "You will." Ren replied sternly. "Eh?! Me? But I--!" Chocolove was interrupted by the commanding cold glare of Ren. After giving a nervous blank stare, Chocolove got down on his knees and began to make his sculpture. "I guess scary faces go a long way in leadership." Horo Horo said, rubbing the back of his neck. As Anna watched Yoh's team brainstorm, she rolled out a beach towel an laid down on her side. "They're wasting time. It's a simple task." She muttered. "Yeah... But I don't think Yoh-kun has ever made a Sand Sculpture before..." Manta nervously replied. "I'm sorry!" A short cry said, as Tamao come onto the scene, out of breath. "You're late." Anna sighed. "I'm very sorry Anna-sama! I was tied up by Konchi and Ponchi..." Tamao replied, shakeyness in her voice. "Hey don't blame it on us! It took you ages to apologize to every single one of those Shaman ladies." Konchi growled. "Yeah, we just wanted to see some boob in the bath house." Ponchi added. With a flick of her wrist, Anna began to strangle the two of them with her beads. "Is that so?" She replied. Eventually she released them and opened her eyes to watch Yoh. "It's no matter. Yoh will easily beat this challenge." She said, before shifting her focus to Manta. "Manta. I'm hungry. Buy me something to eat." She ordered. 'Geh! That's Anna-san alright...' He thought as he made his way over to Kalim's stand, which served hot foods. "Ah! A customer! What can I get you?" Kalim asked happily, spachula in hand. "I'd like one hamburger please." Manta asked with a smile. "Is that so?" Kalim replied with another smile. "Yup!" Manta nodded, both of them smiling. "6880 yen." Kalim said, holding out his hand. "Too expensive..." Manta said in a sudden slump.

"Hey, hey, Master! Which one of us is going to build the sculpture?" Ryu asked. "I can do it." Faust said with a smile. "Faust?" Yoh replied. "Mhmm. I used to take art when I was training to become a doctor. It's no problem for me." He explained. Yoh thought about for a moment and nodded. "Sure. Do your best, Faust." Yoh said grinning. Faust nodded and wheeled over to the sand where he stared at it, and Ryu and Yoh waited in anticipation to see his skills. When suddenly, it was apparent that Faust couldn't even reach the sand on the ground while in his wheelchair. "Maybe this was a bad idea..." Yoh said to himself as he and Ryu looked on in utter hopelessness. "All finished." Hao said, finishing off his sculpture of The Spirit of Fire. It was well crafted and incredibly detailed. "You've gotta be kidding me." Ryu said, looking on in shock of his sculpture. "He's really good at it..." Yoh added. Ren and Horo Horo looked on in surprise when they heard Chocolove whistle. "Hey! I'm finished too!" He said. Ren and Horo looked at the sculpture to see a well made, detailed bar. "What is this? A bar?" Horo Horo asked. "It's a... "Sand Bar", get it?" He asked with a grin. "I already told you that isn't funny..." Ren growled. "It's missing the finishing tough. Spirit of Fire." Hao said, as The Spirit of Fire appeared before him and errupted Hao's sculpture in flames. Everyone was a little confused at first until the fire went out, and the sculpture had turned to glass. "Hey! That's not fair!" Ryu shouted. "No kidding! That's cheating damn it!" Horo Horo also screamed. "Is it?" Goldva asked, taking another puff out of his pipe. "I never said you couldn't use your Shaman abilities during these challenges." Goldva said with an exhale. 'So that's how it is...' Ren thought. He grinned and turned to Horo Horo. "Horo Horo. Freeze the moisture in Chocolove's sculpture to turn it into an ice scuplture." He said to him. Horo Horo grinned and turned towards the sculpture, Chocolove quickly getting out of the way. "Heh, no problem. Leave it to me." He said, cracking his knuckles. "Over Soul! Kororo in Ikupausi!" He said, forming his oversoul and freezing the moisture in the Sand Sculpture to create a shining ice sculpture. "Heheh, piece of cake." Horo Horo said, rubbing his nose proudly. Kororo made a little noise out of happiness. "Disqualified." Namari said, immediately appearing behind them. "What?! The hell gives?!" Horo Horo shouted at him. "You tampered with your team mate's sculpture during the challenge. Therefore, you're disqualified from this challenge. "What?! This is your fault shark fin boy!" Horo Horo exclaimed, pointing at Ren's hair. "They never explained that to us in the rules!" Ren shouted back. "Ah, so we can use our own Over Souls? That's good. Frankie!" Faust said as he used his dog, Frankie's skeleton as feet so he could stand. He then took out Eliza's skeleton and oversouled her into it. Ryu and Yoh both watched in amazement at the speed that Faust began to build his sculpture.

Anna crumpled up the paper wrapper from the burger and tossed it aside. "Try to buy something less fatening Manta-kun." Anna replied. 'She didn't even thank me...' Manta thought with mini waterfalls falling from his eyes. "I'm thirsty. Buy me a drink." She ordered him once again. "Again?!" Manta exclaimed. He made his way over to Silva's stand, which delighted Silva. "Ah Manta-kun! You want a drink now yes?" Silva asked with a large smile. "Yes..." Manta said with a sigh. "Here you are!" He said, handing Manta a Coke. (This fanfiction is not brought to you by Coca-Cola and does not endorse this product. With that aside, why not cool down this summer with a refreshing bottle of Coca-Cola! The Shaman side of life!) Ren sliced through the shamless advertisement with a furious look on his face. "I despise shamless western advertisments!" He shouted. "Thank you!" Manta said with a smile, grasping the soda but found that Silva was still attached to it. "3500 yen." He said, holding out his other hand. "That's still to expensive..." Manta said, quivering this time. As Lyserg started building a Big Ben sculpture, Matilda grinned with excitement. "Heh, leave this to me. With using an Over Soul, this should be no problem..." She said, taking out her spirit Jack and over souling it. As he stood there, she began to fashion a Sand Sculpture using him as a reference. "Ok! Finished!" She said proudly with a thumbs up, to reveal a very childish looking Sand Scuplture that didn't look a thing like Jack. "Its..." Mari began to say. "... Really lame." Kanna added with a exhale from her cigarette puff. "Screw you guys! You wanna try this then?!" Matilda screamed. "There isn't much point. Hao-sama's gonna win this one anyways." Kanna aloofly replied. "Grrrr..." Matilda growled from being criticized. Meanwhile, team Hope looked concerned as Gavin built a faily ordinary and plane looking mound of sand. "You can't expect to win with this..." Rael sighed. "Can't you build something different?" Karen asked. "No need." Gavin replied with a grin. "I'm letting Sentina handle the finishing touches." He said as he called out Sentina and Hyoui Gattai'd with her. He grabbed a stick that layed on the beach, and made several strategic strikes on the sand. The result was a sculpture detailed to look like the Venus De Milo. Sentina exited his body and turned around with Gavin, admiring their work. "Wow! I, it's just like..." Karen trailed off. "The real..." Rael added. "Gah! This is bad! That team over there just made a replica of the famous sculpture the Venus De Milo!" Manta shouted. "C, can Yoh-sama beat that?" Tamao nervously asked. "Of course he can. Faust is a good artist." Anna replied, unphased by Gavin's sculpture. "Anna-sama..." Tamao said. She had finished sipping her soda and tossed the cup aside. "I prefer Pepsi." She said to Manta. 'That's just not fair!' Manta said, more tears rolling down his face.

"Eh? That's your sculpture?" Ryu asked, raising an eyebrow at Faust's finished work. The scuplture as of Eliza, which he made around her bones. "Well, what do you think? It's exactly like her in everyway..." He said gleefuly. "I, it's very nice Faust-san..." Yoh replied with a large sweatdrop. 'Hmmm... it would appear that everyone is finished. As expected, Hao-sama's made a beautiful creation.' Namari thought as he looked at Hao's sculpture, smiling. He then moved down the line to see Faust, who had his arms wrapped around his sculpture of Eliza. 'That's... interesting...' Namari thought, a little disturbed by Faust's actions and moved on. The sand sculpture of Eliza then fell apart and crashed to the ground. "Ah!!! Eliza!!!" Faust screamed as he dived after her bones and caught them in his arms. "She's ok..." He said with a smile on his face. "Of course she is!" Ryu exclaimed. Namari then came across the Big Ben replica Lyserg had made, and looked at the fine craftmanship of it. "... Very good." He said as he moved on. "Good work, Lyserg!" Marco said with a smile, the sun shinning off his glasses. "Eh, thank you Marco-sama." Lyserg said, rubbing the back of his head. "It is very lovely Lyserg. You should not be so modest." Jeanne said from within the Maiden. "T, thank you Maiden-sama..." Lyserg said, kneeling before her in grattitude with Marco. As Namari approached Matilda's pathetic sculpture, Kanna looked at Gavin's Venus De Milo and scoffed. She then took the cigarette butt out of her mouth and flicked it at the sculpture. It landed a direct hit and caused the sculpture to crumble. "Noooooooooooooooo!!!" Gavin screamed as he looked at his now ruined sculpture. "Sorry, it was an accident." Kanna said, as she shrugged and pulled out a new cigarette. "You did that on purpose you bitch!" Gavin exclaimed as Sentina and Rael restrained him. "Stop it Gavin!" Sentina shouted. "You can't pick a fight with them now!" Rael added. "Poor Gavin..." Karen said as she watched from a distance. When Namari looked at Matilda's sculpture, Matilda looked away in embarassment. Namari stared at it for a moment before ultimately moving on without saying anything. Matilda seemed to sigh in relief. 'It was better than I thought.' She thought with a grin, thinking she had accomplished something. "I'm not even sure what this is." Namari said as he looked at the mound of crumbled sand. Next to it, Gavin sat with mini waterfalls running from his eyes, as he mourned the loss of his sculpture. "Tragedy of a Sand Sculpture." Rael replied, looking off to the side. "Its... Gone..." Gavin muttered. "Gavin..." Sentina said with her own set of waterfalls running from her eyes. "Those poor souls..." Karen said. "Well, I've seen enough. The winner of this event is clearly Hao. His team gets 1 point." Namari said, passing his judgement. "What?!" Marco exclaimed in shock. "Hao-sama wins!" Opacho shouted happily. "It can't be helped. I'm the future Shaman King." Hao said with a confident smile on his face. "The winner has been decided. All is as the Great Spirit wills it. There will be other chances; onto the next event." Goldva replied.

"The next event is a swimrace. Bouys have been placed to mark the finish like, where Bron will be able to see who won. Again you must nominate one of your team mates for this challenge." Goldva said. "Do not fear, Hao-sama, I shall win this challenge easily!" Luchist said, taking a proud pose. "Hmph. That's how it is. Very well. Maiden-sama, Lyserg-kun, leave this to me." Marco said, fixing his glasses. "I've trained virgoriously in swimming in case Maiden-sama drowned... And also, I am the only one who can defeat Luchist!" He said, striking up a cool pose next to Luchist. "Oh, you think I'm going to let you win that easily?" Luchist asked with a grin. "I won't lose." Marco replied, also with a grin. The sparks flew from one another's eyes as Ren stepped next to them. "You're both wrong. I will win this match." Ren said with a grin of his own, causing Marco to growl at his arrogance. "Who the hell said you could go?!" Horo Horo shouted. "Don't be so angry Horo Horo, Ren works out a lot and drinks 3 bottles of milk a day. He's the best suited of us for this event." Chocolove explained to Horo Horo. Horo Horo stared blankly for a moment before sighing. "Yeah, he's got us beat." Horo Horo agreed. "You're about to witness the first victory for The Ren, so watch closely." Ren said, as he began to warm up. "Hmmm... I don't like swimming very much... and Faust wouldn't be very good either. Say, Ryu-san, why don't you give this one a try?" Yoh asked. "Eh? You want me to go?" Ryu asked pointing to himself. Yoh nodded and smiled. "Alright! Watch me Master, I'll win for sure!" Ryu said with excitement, throwing off his shirt and approaching the starting line. "Hm, are you sure your hair isn't going to slow you down, Ryu?" Ren asked. "Hey, hey! Don't underestimate us! Ryu and I survived a flash flood from the Yamata no Orochi you know! We're gonna kick your asses." Tokageroh replied proudly. "Of course. There's no way we'll lose!" Ryu agreed with a confident smile. "Say Yoh, doesn't this competition mean that most people's mediums will have to be left on shore?" Faust asked. "Now that you mention it, it does. That means that Ryu won't have Tokageroh to help him this time. I guess he's at a bit of a disadvantage." Yoh nervously chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck. "What?! How do you know that?!" Ryu exclaimed. "Hmph, a swim contest eh? It looks like this is your chance to shine, Karen." Gavin said, looking back at her. She nodded and removed her cover, and stood as the next one in the starting line up that was forming. "I'll do my best." She said, looking back at Gavin and blushing. "What is Hao-sama thinking letting that moron try to win a swim competition. I guess it's up to me then." Kanna said as she put out her cigarette and took her place as well. "Kick their asses Kanna! We're counting on you!" Matilda shouted at her. "Mari wishes you luck..." Mari added.

"Everyone ready..." Radim began to say, appearing out of almost nowhere, shocking a few people. "Set..." He said dramatically. Everyone was set on the finishing goal, and getting their chance at the prize. "Start!" He shouted, a gun shot being fired in the air. Everyone ran quickly towards the water, already Marco and Luchist tried tripping each other up while Ren made it first into the water. "Ren's first in the water! Amazing..." Manata watched in amazement as Anna frowned, noticing Ryu was lagging behind terribly. However, it remained a mystery why Karen seemed to be taking her time, walking towards the water. She narrowed her eyes. "She's a water Shaman." Anna said, Manta and Tamao looking at her in confusion. "A, water Shaman? How can you-", "She was the only one who didn't fight in the last Shaman fight. She seems too relaxed, as does the rest of her team..." Anna interrupted Tamao, looking at Gavin and Rael who didn't seem to be panicking at all. "What's the matter Marco? You don't seem to be swimming that fast. I'm not even trying and keeping pace with you." Luchist said with each breath he took from swimming. "Don't get any ideas, I'm taking it easy with you until the last stretch!" Marco replied as he swam. "Nothing less from what I expected from my rival!" Luchist shouted as he and Marco began to pick up the pace. Passing up both of them, Ren blazed by with a grin. "Fools, thinking they could beat me in such a physically demanding race..." He said as he reached the halfway mark. Kanna swam as hard as she could before beginning to cough and gag, stopping dead in the water and gasping for air. 'S, shit! This can't be happening... Not now...' She thought as Ryu laughed and swam past her. "You should know smoking's bad for you miss! Try quitting and swimming against me again sometime!" He said, waving back to her as he passed her. "Go to hell you weird haired bastard!" Kanna screamed back at him. Mari and Matilda sat on shore with sweat drops behind their heads. "She got winded." Matilda said. "Mari should have gone..." Mari added. "Oh! What an exciting first race! It appears Ren Tao of team The Ren is a sure thing for the victory!" Radim shouted quite epicly into his microphone. "Go Ren! Kick their asses!" Horo Horo shouted happily. "There's no way we can lose this one!" Chocolove agreed, smiling quite proudly with his arms folded across his chest. Karen got waist deep into the water and looked back at Gavin. He nodded back at her and grinned. "Do it." He said. She nodded and a spirit appeared behind her, a spirit of an Orca. Manta gasped and watched with Tamao and Anna as Karen finally revealed her secret weapon. "... I knew it." Anna muttered, glaring at the girl. "Keio! Over Soul! Keio in pendant!" She shouted, Over Souling her spirit into a pendant of an Orca. It was carved in the style most Native Americans did, and she wore quite obviously around her neck. With the Over Soul complete, and what appared to be whale like armor sprouting from her back, arms and legs, she dived into the water and swam by at lightning fast speeds past Ryu, who only saw a black metallic object that looked like a dorsal fin swim by him. "Eh?! What was that?!" Ryu asked as he began to swim with all his might. "Who cares! You're losing! Swim faster damn it!" Tokageroh said, floating over him. As Marco and Luchist were caught up in their own heated battle, Ren was about to take the finish. "This point is mine!" He shouted.

As if he saw everything happen in slow motion, Ren was shocked to see Karen fly by him, and in an instant take the goal. With Krom firing a gun in the air signifying the race was over, Radim shouted with excitement. "Wow! A close finish with Karen from team Hope winning the race! Who would've thought she was a powerful water Shaman!" Radim continued, as Karen flipped through the air, much like an Orca in victory and swam back to the shore, taking off her oversoul. "Woohoo! I knew you could do it Karen!" Gavin said, jumping up in the air with joy. He then ran up to her and gave her a big hug, which surprised Karen and caused her to blush quite a bit. "Well done Karen." Rael said modestly, giving her a quick smile. Ren floated in the water for a moment in shock that he had lost. "Impossible... Just impossible..." He said to himself. "Ah well, she bested all of us. Let's head back to shore Ren-san." Ryu said, turing back and swimming onto shore. As Marco and Luchist raced each other back to shore, Kanna floated back onto the shore face down and wasn't moving. Matilda and Mari rushed over to her and flipped her around. Kanna looked absolutely exhausted and Matilda let out a deep sigh. "Nee-san, we shouldn't have sent you..." She moaned. "She looks dead..." Mari said. Horo Horo and Chocolove looked shocked as Ren swam back to shore, more than aggrivated. "That... That wasn't fair..." Horo Horo said, clenching his fists in anger. "Hey, Goldva said we could use Over Souls, and they just were able to..." Chocolove said trying to calm both of them down. "Don't let get you down, "The Ren", there are other challenges." Gavin said, Karen around his arm as she held onto his waist. Ren looked back with a cold glare. "What's that look for? We won fair in square." Gavin added, shaking his head. "This loss won't be forgotten..." Ren began to say. "We will defeat you. I can promise that. And next event she probably won't be able to swim using her Over Soul." Ren said sternly, pointing his spear at team Hope. (Should have mentioned, Ren carries his spear everywhere.) "She swam over the goal?" Chocolove added, wearing an Orca costume this time and winking. The sharp point of Ren's spear met Chocolove's nose, and caused Chocolove to cry out in pain. "Stop making stupid jokes!" Ren shouted, and then walked away. "Come on! Isn't that a little harsh?!" Chocolove shouted amidst his agony. Ryu walked back to Yoh and Faust, rubbing the back of his head. "Ehhh... I'm sorry master, I didn't win." He said nervously. "Don't worry, we'll win the next one." Yoh replied. "Yoh." Anna said, catching his attention. She motioned with her hand for them to come closer to her. They approached and Yoh knelt down to meet Anna's eye level. "What is it, Anna?" He asked smiling. "Don't you think your being a bit too... Lenient?" She asked, her eyes closed. "Maybe just a little. But even if Ren get's it he can share... We'll be ok in the next round." Yoh replied nervously, beginning to sweat a little. "You must win that prize Yoh. If you can't, and Ren or Hao gets it..." She began to say, then opening her eyes in a cold glare. "I'll double the training from Hell." With that, Yoh turned as white as a ghost and became a frittering pile of mush. "Understand?" She asked. He nodded and got up, sweating profusely and walked away. "Yoh-dono is brave for marrying her..." Amidimaru said, nervously chuckling. "I have something in store for you too, Amidamaru." Anna said, shooting a glare at him. With a frightened expression Amidamaru was off like a bullet. "Yoh-dono! Wait for me!" He shouted as he followed after Yoh. Faust and Ryu were both quick to follow.

"With team Hope being the winners of this event, I shall go ahead and explain the next to all of you. The next event will be..." Goldva said, holding everyone in anticipation. "Another race." He finished, nearly making everyone face palm. "What the hell's the idea?!" Horo Horo exclaimed. "We just came out of a damn race!" Matilda added. After which she and Horo Horo froze for a moment as the sparks flew between each other's competetive glares. "That may be true, but this will be a race on land. Same rules as last time apply. After this match, the challenges will be coming close to their end." Goldva said, catching everyone's attention. "When the winner is announced, the grand prize will be revealed to everyone. Good luck." Goldva said as everyone began to talk among their teams again, deciding who will run and who won't. Namari and Krom began to set up the finish line, and Manta began to sweat. "Coming, to a close... Yoh-kun will only have a few more chances left." He said nervously. "Anna-sama, do you think that Yoh-sama will be able to win this?" Tamao asked, nervous herself. "Knock it off both of you." Anna replied. "I believe in Yoh. He will be able to defeat the other teams in this challenge, he is going to be Shaman King after all..." She added, bringing a bit of confidence to Manta and Tamao. "And if he doesn't... He will regret it for eternity..." She growled, an evil aura beginning to eminate from her. 'S, scary..." Manta thought as he and Tamao looked at Anna in fear. "Who should do the race this time... I guess Faust could. He's pretty fast." Ryu said as he pondered. "Yes, but it would be hard on Frankie if I did... Not to mention I can't use my wheelchair very well in the sand." Faust replied. "I'll do it." Yoh said with a smile. "Master! Are you sure?" Ryu asked. "Heh, yeah I'm sure. I've ran during training often thanks to Anna so I'm ok with it." Yoh replied, letting out a little chuckle. "Yoh-dono won't lose this event. I've seen him run, he's quite fast with extra weights on him." Amidamaru added in confidence. "Ah... Heh, in that case good luck Master." Ryu said, giving Yoh a thumbs up. "Ah, thank you, Ryu." Yoh responded by giving him a thumbs up as well, and walked to the starting line up. "I guess it can't be helped. Mari, you're our best bet right now." Matilda said, shrugging. "Why?" Mari asked. "You're the only one who hasn't gone yet. Besides... Over Souls are allowed remember? And with Chuck..." Matilda replied with a devilish grin. Mari paused for a moment and nodded, smiling and stroking Kirisaki's head. "We won't lose then..." She said with a soft giggle.

To Be Continued