The finals started, Akko was the first to go into a battle, going against Sarah, where she already changed her way of doing the manoeuvres, pushing herself to the limit, so much so that in the following heats there was no chance for Bernhardt to try to beat Kagari, even though she got a better score than during the qualifiers. The skill of the Japanese woman was what counted the most in this respect.

Score Akko: 96.5/ 90.8/ 92.9 = 189.4
Score Sarah: 88.7/ 89.1/ 86.9 = 177.8

Confirming Akko's victory that would advance to the next part of the finals, little by little already guaranteeing more place in this competition that is getting more and more fierce, the second skateboard battle was already being announced this time on the B side, being Heather against Rita who were facing each other.

" With Akko's victory she advances to the quarter-finals, Sarah is the first to be eliminated from this phase, but it's not a total defeat yet, if her score is very good she can still secure herself a place in the Luna Nova top 10 " Croix said.

Akko when she arrived in the room saw that the others were quite impressed with how well she did in those three heats, also in how she took risks and secured a considerably high score, coming very close to what Hellene and Diana achieved.

" It seems you had also hidden the game at that time, now I really think you can only be hacking, just like that to explain all that skill " Amanda said.

" I just trained hard, it's not like I'm not doing my best " answers Kagari.

" A few more points and you'd pull up our score, I really want to see how you'll do when you go up against me " Cavendish said.

" First she has to get past me, I want to see if you will really be all that Akko " O'Neill said with a smile on her face.

A few rounds later...

The championship was advancing, the matches of the round of 16 were deciding how the duels between the skaters would be until the grand final, Akko, Hellene, Diana and Amanda were the most surprising with very high scores, they easily surpassed the barrier of 180 points.

Side A:

Akko 189.4 x Sarah 177.8 (Akko win)
Daisy 175.3 x Amanda 180.9 (Amanda win)
Irene 170.9 x Diana 194.1 (Diana win)
Wangari 177.9 x Molly 176.7 (Wangari win)

Side B:

Heather 171.3 x Rita 176.6 (Rita wins)
Aira 178.1 x Catharina 170.2 (Aira wins)
Hellene 197.1 x Rina 172.4 (Hellene wins)
Sóla 179.0 x Hilda 174.9 (Sóla wins)

With this it is already defined who are the winners that will advance to the quarter-finals, where the dispute is already kind of tapering off, especially among the top four that are ensuring themselves with very high scores.

Side A:
Akko x Amanda
Diana x Wangari

Side B

Rita x Aira
Hellene xSola

The quarter-finals already show that the duels will be much tighter and soon the girls end up being called for the finals, precisely the two who knew each other from the first day, the two who already nurtured a certain rivalry, mainly because O'Neill had in the beginning underestimated Kagari's skills.

" And that we started the quarterfinals, with our first big duel, between them, Akko who came to surprise, simply our newcomer, against Amanda, she who is already a veteran of this championship, who was third place in 2016 and 2015, a duel that promises! " Said Meridies announcing as the two walked down the runway waving to the audience.

The coin is tossed on the screen, the two choose their sides, the one that ends up falling is precisely tails, chosen by the American who already celebrates, the Japanese goes to where the participants wait for their battery, O'Neill positions herself on a ramp.

" In three, two, one... Let's go! " Said the Italian announcing the start of the first heat.

Amanda dribbles down the ramp, catching momentum, where she jumps another ramp where there's a gap, doing a rocket air 360, which already leaves everyone surprised clapping, as she fits that very risky gap, so much so that she even had a mattress in the middle to cushion any fall that might happen.
Continuing in the line she gets to a curved railing, where she does a 180 varial kickflip, hitting a BS Smith with style, only she soon makes sure to jump, giving a shove it in the middle of the grind, where she changes to a FS nosegrind, until the end coming out with a nollie heelflip, continuing with a manual nose, with the balance she holds up to a crate, where she does a half flip purposely falling from primo where she kicks, to another step up fitting with the tail and with that finishing that combo.

" Woah! Woah! Woah! Woah! What was that? Amanda O'Neill is a machine. What a spectacular sequence of maneuvers this girl has pulled off. I've never seen so much style in one combo! This is sure to rack up a lot of points," said Croix.

Still 50 seconds left, Amanda goes paddling, towards a ramp coming back from switch, which she takes the opportunity to catch a grind, hitting a BS darkslide as she comes in kicking a nice flip, then gets out of there cleanly for being a quick maneuver that already shocks to see how she did it.
Amanda kept paddling, this time still on switch, where she does another maneuver jumping another gap, this time a switch kickflip underflip, leaving the audience even more crazy and euphoric, the livestream views gave a slight increase even, since the duels were getting intense.
In the last seconds Amanda went for a Freestyle just to collect some more points, doing some balance maneuvers while standing still, until time ran out and she finished that heat for good, surprising with a score where they never expected she would end up, not even Akko.

" Good luck beating that Akko " Amanda said patting Kagari on the shoulder.

Atsuko saw intimidated by O'Neill's score, but didn't give in to the pressure, that was her moment to show something too, she positioned herself on the mega ramp she had on the track, right on top of it, to get as much momentum as she could.

" In three, two, one... Let's go! " Croix announces the start of the Japanese's battery.

The ruby-eyed girl rides that ramp, with fear, getting momentum until she gets to the lowest part, where she flexes her knees, which makes her feel a chill in the belly, right at that moment she got the necessary impulse, getting the skateboard spinning her body, she does an impressive Japan 900, where she almost doesn't end up falling, With a huge impulse she gets close to a box, where she does a Double impossible 180, fitting a beautiful nosebluntslide, making Amanda watching everything was also dumbfounded, even with the Japanese eating longer than her her maneuvers were surprising. Coming out of the grind she does a triple kickflip, which almost goes wrong, which helps to reduce the momentum that went to a miniramp, where she fit de Blunt, thinking much in what she saw Hellene and Diana doing she tries to balance, only to return it ends up not working very well falling to her knees dragging by the ramp.

" Woah! That's perseverance, Akko just does a wonderful line! Fell now in style trying to imitate that impossible blunt that Diana and Hellene commonly do! That's the spirit! " commented the Italian.

Akko didn't give up, with 30 seconds left she picked up momentum, this time to try something else, she jumped into a crate, doing a 360 flip, fitting a manual one foot nose, in which she goes on to do a few small flips, until she gets near the end of the crate, where she stands with both feet looking like she was praying, which she then fits at the end coming out with a light shove it and ending her first heat for good.
The score leaned on Amanda if it wasn't for the tumble she took the score would probably go through.

" And that's Akko, almost pulled up against Amanda! These two are going to fight inch by inch for that lead! That's incredible! " said the Italian.

Atsuko on her way back patted Amanda a few times and smiled who responded in the same way, O'Neill arriving at another post on the track, this time arriving at the point where the centre of the track is, where they usually start.

" In three, two, one... Let's go! " Said Croix announcing Amanda's second heat.

Amanda goes paddling to the ramp, where she stays on switch, already arriving again to do the BS darkslide only this time on a bigger handrail, delighting the audience, leaving the dispute even closer, which she then goes out doing a beautiful kickflip underflip, still held in a manual, Then she does a Double heelflip, catching the handrail on the noseslide, all this by switch, until the end where she does a normal 180.
Rowing towards the ladder, getting a lot of momentum, O'Neill decides to go with everything, jumps and pulls a triple impossible that almost didn't go bad when it fit, so much that she bent her knees a lot.

" And Amanda has come to return that score from before, she wants to stay on that front by all means! Such skill from Amanda! This championship is being the most hotly contested in ages! " Meridies said in surprise.

Amanda kept on paddling, this time she went down in a bowl, where she stayed the rest of the heat doing some airs to surprise even more, an Indy 540, Melon 540, Benihana 540, Rocket air 540, which was already giving a good tiredness in her legs, but seeing everything was wonderful, where she practically finished the heat there, coming back from the bowl and noticing the score that was still lower than the first, but it was enough.

" And we are already in the middle of this dispute! Akko and Amanda are two titans of skateboarding, they are not far behind Diana and Hellene, how much skill these two monsters have! This is incredible! " said the Italian.

As usual O'Neill gives Akko a few pats on the shoulder, Kagari found herself reassured but had an idea, she saw Amanda's line as an opportunity to take a bit of a risk.

In three, two, one... Let's go! " Said Croix announcing the Japanese woman's second heat.

Atsuko starts paddling, this time without going towards the ramp, she goes to the railing, where she releases a beautiful impossible to reach, but at the time of the grind, she simply does a one foot nosegrind with a huge balance, on that bar she leaves giving a great kick which ends up giving in a surprising 540 flip, making everyone stunned, the comments on the livestream were on fire, everyone impressed with the ability of the girls.
Akko isn't done yet, when she gets to the stairs she decides to get on the railing doing a hardflip and hits a crooked one, getting the biggest momentum going down there, where she goes all the way down, doing a noolie heelflip to get out.

" And look, Akko simply wanted to return the favour! What spectacular manoeuvres we are seeing here! This is amazing! It's like magic! " Meridies said.

Akko instead of going to the bowl decided to arrive in a long crate on the side, where she arrives with style doing the same kickflip underflip of Amanda, then entering a manual one foot nose, which she goes halfway, where she kicks a flip, The Japanese woman alternates her feet, going up the platform step by step until arriving at the top always with a one foot noseslide or tailslide, until arriving at the top, having a few seconds left, she takes advantage that she is on top and drops a ramp.
Arriving in a gap, hitting a beautiful 360 double hardflip, which she almost didn't fall, simply Atsuko's skateboard gave a beautiful slip, being practically the last maneuver she sent in that battery.

" And Akko in this second heat overtakes Amanda! What a fight we're having here! This is wonderful! Two great skaters dueling each other! " said the Italian in amazement.

Akko pats Amanda on the shoulder twice again as seeing that O'Neill had already felt more pressured, she simply ran to the middle of the track.

" In three, two, one... Let's go! " Said Croix announcing the third and final heat of the American Series.

Amanda took a deep breath, she started paddling towards the ramp, this time she decided to just take the switch momentum to the staircase, where she simply gave a beautiful 360 method as she jumped the staircase and narrowly missed going bad, next she goes to the bowl where she decided to be her main focus to pick up some points.

" And it looks like Amanda is going vertical! She's trying her best to beat Akko! That ladder drop alone already shows that she's going to send high aerials.

Amanda started sending airs that she always sends, as Indy 540, Melon 540 and rocket air 540, but she decided in one of them with 40 seconds left to risk more, simply pulling a 720 Benihana, but it didn't work, she ended up falling backwards on the ground, luckily being protected by her helmet, she was furious, since there was no time left, she tried to get impulse, she went back and forth to try in the last 10 seconds to hit the 720 Benihana after that fall, what ended up not making her get a good score in the third heat.

" Amanda tried and tried, it was spectacular to see a 720 benihana, but this pretty much cemented Akko's victory, who doesn't need much to secure herself in the semi-finals! " The Italian said.

" Damn it! Now I might lose on that one " Amanda said frustrated.

O'Neill walked over to Akko passing her hand on the shoulders of the Japanese woman who was getting ready for the last heat, where she could even stop, but it wasn't what Kagari wanted, she walked back to the megaramp.

" In three, two, one... Let's go! " Said Croix announcing the last battery of the Japanese.

Atsuko drops the ramp, she decides to show her creativity, even sending a 900 where she simply gets both feet off the skateboard, switches to the other hand and puts it back on, this also doing spinning movements, which makes everyone jump in excitement with the manoeuvre done in the very first seconds by Kagari, where she simply fits flexing her knees well, using the momentum in a miniramp, fitting nothing less than a Mctwist.

" Woah, woah, woah! What was that 900? What was that Mctwist? That girl is a machine! Akko is really showing that she has guts! She wants to secure that semi-final spot more than anything! " said Meridies in amazement.

The ruby-eyed girl continues, even with less momentum, arrives at the ramp, where she simply fits a blunt, only trying what Hellene and Diana do, this time managing to hold on for a few seconds in an invert, then she jumps and barely slips backwards giving a beautiful slide, which she takes the opportunity to alternate in a 360 flip that results in a beautiful darkslide.

" Woah! And now the imitation has worked! Simply Akko has managed to do that invert blunt of the Cavendish sisters! This is amazing and also serves as a warning for an upcoming duel! " said the Italian.

Then Kagari decided to finish her heat with 20 seconds to go, signalling that it was good enough, and it really was, she made it to the semi-finals with a score not only high enough, but almost perfect.

Akko Score: 92.9/ 90.9/ 98.4 = 191.3
Amanda Score: 93.7/ 89.5/ 74.1 = 183.2

Akko appeared on the screen as the winner, Kagari was jumping up and down in excitement and happiness, somewhat disbelieving that she had made it that far that way, hearing the audience clapping her, with such a high score even she didn't expect to have done so well that way.

" And Akko is our first semi-finalist! She came through in style, showed quite a bit of skill, as well as quickly learning the manoeuvre of the competitors, let Diana and Hellene beware for a worthy opponent is about to face them " Croix said.

Akko was walking back to the waiting room, she soon received a hug from Amanda who was simply not that frustrated, the others in the room already sketched an air of admiration for the Japanese woman, especially the Cavendish sisters.

" Ué Amanda are you happy to lose? " Kagari asks.

" I'm happy to see you pushing yourself to the limit, that last heat was crazy, you were practically at the same level as those two, I really want to see you kicking the ass of those girls, show them who's boss haha " O'Neill answers.

" I loved seeing you using our skills, you cheated in the attempt, that's few that have the courage to do, I respect you much more now Akko, I always had an admiration for you, reminds me when I was a child and was exactly like that, keep trying, I'm even shivering that I have an opponent like that " Hellene said

" We'll see next time Akko, you really did very well, you have a great balance in performing the manoeuvres, but I won't make it easy for you when we face each other, I'll push you and even throw you against the wall if necessary, I won't accept any battery with less than 90 points " Diana said in a more serious tone.

" That's what we'll see Diana, I won't let myself lose to you, I also want to give my all and win, now you know that I wasn't talking nonsense, that I would come back and I will come back to defeat you " Said the Japanese pointing to the Scottish girl who gets a smile on her face.

The quarter-finals have begun, after the duels that took place in the octaves, with very fierce disputes between the girls of Luna Nova, the first battle of the quarter-finals also proved to be just as fierce with Akko and Amanda putting on the limit of their skills to determine who will be the great champion, with Kagari simply showing that that training with Ursula and Croix was no small thing.

See you, pro skater witches...