Chapter Fifty-Eight: Rivalry Between Captains

"Oh no, what have I done?!"

It took Noelle a few minutes to realize the mistake she made blasting Asta into the air, she grabbed her head, screaming in comedic panic.

Kiato walked up to her. "Asta's going to be fine, right?"

"Yeah, he has a really tough body," Kenos replied, standing next to the water mage before turning to her. "You should start being more careful with your magic, you could really hurt him,"

"Yeah, my bad, I shouldn't-…I-I mean, he'll live, and I'm royalty, he should feel honored," Noelle was saying before she caught herself and gave her usual response.

Kenos sweatdropped. "Good my god, her denial is top-notch, she should really hang out with Oxanna, my sister is so good at blurting out what she thinks, a few sessions with her, and Noelle will practically tell Asta everything," he thought.

After finishing her mental fit, Kahono walked over to the group. "So, should we go look for Asta?"

"No way," the solar mage replied adamantly. "This is yours and Kiato's first Star Festival, and you won't spend it looking for Asta, I'll go search for him,"

"Just wait a minute," Zuka spoke up as she approached them. "The Festival area spans a large amount of space, looking for him alone will take some time, I'll come with you," she offered.

"Sure, that's a good idea," he accepted. "Noelle, you can stay and continue the festivities with these two,"

"Alright," she responded.

Kenos turned to his friend. "Let's get looking," he said as the two mages separated from the others.

Kiato watched as the two got further and further from them, a knowing smile on his face.

"Hey Kiato, what are you smiling at?" his sister asked, noticing his action.

"Nothing, I just can't help but be happy in this kind of atmosphere, but also because…something amazing might happen," the dance mage replied.

"Where do you think he could've landed?" Zuka asked as she and Kenos walked side by side.

"Not too sure, but from where he ascended after Noelle blasted him, it's most likely that he's around this area," Kenos replied.

"Maybe, but that still spans about a quarter of the festival grounds, and don't forget that after landing, Asta could start moving around," Zuka informed him.

The solar mage held his chin. "True, I didn't factor that into consideration, but Asta can detect Ki, who knows, he might end up running into us. Should we continue?"

"You bet,"

About five minutes passed as the two walked in relative silence, but then Kenos spoke up. "So, what was your favorite part of the festival so far?"

"The parts with you in it, obviously," she thought, but she knew that wasn't emotionally ready to share that with him, so she gave her second favorite part. "The shooting game, it was fun working together for something simple," the sparkle answered. "Not to mention helping Emma out with the prizes with we won, it's a good thing she found her mom,"

"That's true,"

"What about you? What was your favorite part?" the sparkle mage asked back.

"Well, I've been going to these festivals for some time now, so I've seen a lot of what they have to offer," he replied, but then held his chin. "Although, that part where you, me, and Noelle helped Asta and the siblings with their performance was really cool,"

"I agree, it was quite mesmerizing," Zuka nodded. "Even though the festival isn't over, I can't wait to come to the next one,"

"That's awesome, and I can't wait to see what we do then, maybe we'll-," Kenos was starting to say, but was interrupted as the sound of voices in front of the two grew louder, they looked straight ahead and were kind of shocked to see how many people there were, all blocking view of the other side across from them.

"Damn it, that isn't good, with all those people walking in this direction, it'll be easy to get lost," Zuka commented. "Should we wait for the crowd to die down first before moving? Or should we-,"

The blue and magenta-haired girl never got to finish asking her second question before Kenos suddenly, yet gently, took hold of her hand and started walking towards the crowd, the sparkle mage behind him.

"Don't worry, all we have to do is make sure we don't get separated as we advance, and this is a foolproof way to do that," she heard him say.

Zuka was thankful that the solar mage was in front of her, or else he would have seen her burning red cheeks. "Holy shit, he's holding my hand! Keep it calm, Zuka, the two of you have held hands before, it's nothing to get worked up over. But goddamn, this is the first time we've done so since I figured out I had a crush on him, uh, sometimes I miss the days where I didn't feel so nervous or out of it when we would interact, but a large part of me is also really glad to be feeling this feeling,"

"Damn, crushes are complicating,"

"You say something?" Kenos asked, slightly turning his face in her direction.

Zuka raised an eyebrow. "I said something?"

"Yeah, the surrounding noise made it a little hard to hear, but I heard you say something is complicated," the solar mage clarified.

The sparkle mage's eyes widened minorly, she didn't realize she voiced out the last sentence of her thought, her face showed initial embarrassment, before she quickly composed herself to the best of her ability…which wasn't too good at the time. "O-Oh, sorry, I was just talking to myself, I didn't know I said anything out loud,"

"Oh, ok," Kenos said as the two continued walking hand in hand, but it was only for about 30 more seconds before they had now passed the large crowd. "See? I told you it'd be foolproof," he then let go of his friend's hand.

Zuka frowned a little bit as their hands broke apart from each other, she immediately missed the warmth of their contact. She wanted to walk up to him and take hold of his hand again and keep it like that for the rest of the festival, but knew she wasn't emotionally ready to do such a thing as she would enter a panic quite fast.

"Yeah, you were right, I just hope it won't be much longer until we find Asta," Zuka agreed before stating, but just then, a loud exclamation was heard.

"Hey there, we got some good stuff over here, so come get it while it's hot!" the voice exclaimed, and it was incredibly familiar.

Kenos smirked. "I think we both know who that loud voice belongs to?"

Zuka gave a similar smirk. "You better believe I do, I heard it coming from straight ahead,"

"Then we're not too far away, let's hurry," the black-haired teen said as the two ran in the direction of Asta's voice, but luckily, it didn't take too long from there to find him, just a short 3 minutes. "There he is,"

Although the two were happy to see him, they were a bit surprised to find out what he was doing. Behind a stand is where he stood, holding some kind of strange metal tool and looking down, the smoke of something cooking floating into the air.

"Um, what is doing there? And why is he there?" Zuka wondered aloud.

"Hey look," Kenos pointed, the girl followed his finger and watched it land on Finral, standing beside the magicless mage, doing the same thing. "I didn't think they'd both be there, we should go and find out what's going on,"

The two quickly approached the stand, Asta heard the footsteps and looked up, smiling as he saw who it was. "Oh, Kenos, Zuka, you two found me,"

"We're glad to see you're not injured, or dead," the sparkle mage said, expressing her relief before turning to the spatial mage. "And hello there, Finral,"

"Hey there, Zuka, I haven't seen you in quite some time, how are you doing? And your squad?"

"We're all doing just fine," she replied.

It was Kenos' turn to ask questions. "What are you two doing here? And how'd you get a stand?"

"Oh, that's simple, we're selling grilled squid, I tried one a little earlier, they taste great, you two want one?" Asta explained before asking.

"I'll take one later, why exactly are you selling these?" Kenos asked again.

"We're selling them for-," Finral was about to reply, before a familiar voice cut him off, catching their attention.

"How are the sales going, you two?" they all turned to see Yami walk towards them, holding a wooden mug, most likely filled with some kind of alcohol. But what caught the attention of Kenos and Zuka the most was what the dark mage was wearing, he was hardly clothed, all he had on was a long-sleeved blue jacket with a black outline and strange markings around it, revealing his bare chest, a headband around his head with similar markings, as for his lower half…all he had on was a cloth covering his little friend which was wrapped with white rope.

The solar mage facepalmed. "Holy shit, I'm getting flashbacks of Magna in Raquey, at least I know who he got it from," he muttered. "Captain, why are you wearing that?"

"Well, if it isn't Kenos and our resident Ms. Sparkles, Zuka, if you must know, back where I come from, this is what some of us wore for celebrations," Yami replied.

"I take it that's why there are markings on your jacket and headband," Zuka pointed out. "What are those things anyway, I've never seen them before?"

"They're called kanji, characters used for words from the Land of the Rising Sun, although, I am a bit shaky on the language, it's been so long since I came here, I sort of forgot what some of these say," he replied before walking to Asta and Finral. "But as I was saying, how are the sales going?"

"They're doing great, sales are even doing better than last year," Finral replied.

"Nice, keep it up,"

The solar mage walked to his captain. "So, I take it this stand is yours?"

He nodded. "That's right, I got a stand here to sell grilled squid during every Star Festival. Finral's been helping me with it for some time," he replied before jerking his thumb at Asta. "He landed close to my stand, so he graciously volunteered to help us out,"

"Graciously volunteered? You said if I didn't help you, you'd kill me!" Asta exclaimed with comedic anger.

Yami scratched the back of his head. "Oh yeah, now I remember, but I was quite surprised when he fell from the sky, I initially thought he was dead. Let me guess, Noelle?"

"Yeah,"

Zuka's eyes widened. "Wait a minute, you knew? Is this some kind of common occurrence?"

"More or less, this has been going on between them since they joined the squad, and now, I finally know why," Kenos replied before something else came to mind. "Wait, did Charmy give you a recipe to make those squids?"

"No, I made them myself, from recipe to execution, it all came from yours truly," Yami responded proudly as he lightly bumped his chest with the side of his fist.

"I didn't know you knew how to cook,"

"Yeah, well, I was a fisherman before I arrived in the Clover Kingdom, and what fisherman doesn't know how to clean and cook his catch?" the dark mage told him. "That experience is evident in its flavor,"

"Oh please, they're not horrible, but if you ask me, they're mediocre at best,"

The five turned their heads in the direction of the voice full of mockery, just to see someone unexpected, at least, for everyone but the dark and spatial mages.

"Jack?!"

"So, she ditched us again, didn't she?"

Around another part of the capital, Oliver and Shauna walked about, their robes off, letting their clothes show in full view. The two visited stands, ate food, played games, all in all, they were enjoying themselves, but that enjoyment temporarily ceased as the wood mage made the previous statement.

Shauna looked right at him, it was the second time he asked that question, the first time was earlier during the festival, the three of them had arrived together, but it didn't take long for Zuka to leave the two while they were checking out something.

The illusion mage sighed. "Yes, she ditched us, you think she'll be fine though, she's a commoner, this will be her first Star Festival?"

"While I'm not happy she left us, I'm also not worried, this is Zuka we're talking about, if any scumbag noble gives her trouble, she'll knock them out cold with no remorse. Besides, she's most likely looking for Kenos, it's been quite a while since we've seen him, or any other Black Bulls," Oliver replied.

Shauna held her chin for a little while. "Y'know, I've noticed that Zuka has grown quite fond of Kenos,"

"Duh, why wouldn't she, he's the first friend she made from a different squad, not to mention that Kenos is a cool guy, what's there not to be fond of?" the wood mage questioned his squadmate.

"True, but I feel like it's more than just a normal fondness, look at her necklace, for example, Kenos gave to her and it's really important to her. Do you think it's possible that she may…," Shauna began, beckoning Oliver to come closer, to which he did before she finished. "…Like him?"

The wood mage backed up again. "It's a possibility, but whether she does or she doesn't, I don't think it's our place to talk about it without her, crushes can be embarrassing, but they can also be personal, all relationships can be like that, whether it be with friends…or family," Oliver responded, muttering the last part.

"What was that, I heard you muttering," Shauna spoke up.

The wood mage quickly shook his head. "I was just muttering something irrelevant to myself," he lied.

"Ok, well, I guess you're right, it isn't our place right now, but you know what is our place to do?" she asked with a smile.

"Um, enjoy ourselves to the fullest?" Oliver guessed.

"Right you are, I bet wherever Zuka is, she's having a good time, and she would want us to have a good time, so we're going to keep having a good time,"

The boy smiled. "That sounds good to me," he turned around. "This is my first festival as a Magic Knight, this celebration was made in our honor, that means I'm going to have even more fun than usual, that's for-,"

The wood mage's statement was interrupted as he accidentally bumped into someone, when he turned around, he kept walking, meaning he couldn't see who was in front of him. "Oh, my bad, I shouldn't have walked backward, that could be dangerous, are you okay?"

"It's alright, no harm done," the person he bumped into said back, turning their head to face the two Aqua Deers, but once complete eye contact was made, the eyes of all three of them widened greatly, especially Shauna's, shocked to see the person in front of her.

Joshua Sakuraba.

"I don't believe it," the illusion mage muttered.

Joshua's face turned a little red. "U-Um, hey Shauna, what are the odds, it's really nice to see you again,"

Oliver bumped Shauna's arm with his elbow and moved in to whisper something to her. "You can tell from his greeting that he still hasn't fully gotten over you,"

"Shut up," she whispered back before Oliver backed up. "Hey there, Joshua, it's nice to see you too, how's life treating you?"

"Just as fine as usual," he replied before looking at the wood mage. "Hello, sorry if I don't remember your name, you and that other girl were the ones who crashed the wedding, or…do you not remember me?"

"The name's Oliver Yggdrow, and how could I forget you? Shauna's awesome ex-fiancé," he said with a grin and he went over and slung his arm around Joshua's shoulder. "I hope you don't mind me asking, but after Shauna left, what did your parents do, it's not common for the bride to just walk off, were you engaged to someone else?"

"No, Shauna's example showed my parents how an arranged marriage not being backed up by any genuine love could end up going horribly wrong, so they decided to let me decide who I'd marry," he told them, his eyes shifting to Shauna. "And even though we agreed to be friends, a part of me still hopes that special person could be you,"

The illusion caught his gaze on her and shyly turned her face away. "So, are your parents here?"

"No, they had something to take care of, so they couldn't make it," he replied.

"Oh, that's a shame," she said. "I just hope my parents decide to do the same thing, running into Joshua was unexpected and slightly uncomfortable, but he's good in my book, but if my parents are here and they see me, I'm totally going to lose my shit,"

"So Joshua, are you enjoying the festival so far, do anything cool?" Oliver wondered.

"Nothing out of the ordinary,"

"Well, it's been nice seeing you again, but Oliver and I should get going, tell your parents I said hi," Shauna spoke up as she and the wood mage started walking away.

"Wait!" Joshua called, the two looked back at him.

The water mage shyly twiddled his fingers. "I know this may be a lot to ask, but would you mind if I hung out with you? This is the first time I've come to the festival without my parents, I don't know anyone else here, and I didn't feel right walking around by myself,"

"A lot to ask? What are you talking about? We're cool with each other, all you had to do was find us," Oliver said with a grin and a thumbs before looking at the mage beside him. "Right?"

Shauna looked at Oliver before turning to Joshua, giving him a smile. "Of course you're right, c'mon, the three of us have a festival to enjoy,"

"Jack the Ripper?!" Kenos and Zuka exclaimed in unison.

Asta pointed at him. "Hey, it's the whack job captain of the Green Praying Mantises,"

"Who are you calling a whack job," Jack said.

"Alright, why is he here?" the solar mage asked.

"Jack sells meat at the stand next to mine, we compete every year to see who can make the most money within a certain amount of time," Yami explained. "Obviously, I've won more,"

"Is your memory failing you or something? You know I'm leading against you by a landslide," Jack countered with a smug chuckle.

Yami pressed his face against the severing mage's. "That's bullshit and you know it, and what are you talking about, calling my grilled squid mediocre, the only mediocre thing here is that sorry excuse cooking at your stand called food,"

"You take that back, my meat is the talk of the festival, people have come far and wide to taste its tender mastery," Jack protested.

"Talk of the festival? Tender Mastery? What a load of crap,"

"It is not, and soon, it'll be proven when I earn more money than you, but until then, I need something to vent my frustration on, and I'm looking at the perfect victim," Jack threatened.

"The only victim here will be you after you suffer an even worse ass-kicking than the ones I normally give you," Yami threatened back.

The three Black Bull members and Zuka merely watched as the confrontation between the two captains played out.

The sparkle mage spoke up. "So…are any of us going to do anything?"

"I wouldn't recommend it, when Yami and Jack get like that, doing something will only get you killed, there's nothing that can break those two apart at this stage," Finral told her.

But the spatial mage was about to be proven wrong as a voice spoke up. "Jack, what did we agree on about fights with people?"

Jack turned around to see Glynda, her arms crossed, his face turned a little red as he scratched the back of his head. "Right, no fighting, my bad,"

"That's good, we wouldn't want you hurting anyone," the telekinesis mage then began shifting her gaze to the man he was arguing with. "I'm sorry about him, I hope he didn't cause you any-," she stopped once she saw the dark mage's face. "Yami?"

Yami's eyes showed surprise as well. "Glynda?"

Jack raised a brow. "You two know each other?"

"Yeah, we go way back," Glynda replied. "Say, how is Vanessa doing? I take it she's taking care of herself?"

"Yup, she remembered what you taught her, well…most of what you taught her, but she's doing fine, and she's gotten a lot stronger as of recently,"

"That's great, I'm glad,"

Kenos and Zuka walked over to them, the former speaking up. "I didn't know someone from the Green Praying Mantises knew Captain Yami and Vanessa?"

"Well, I just recently joined the squad a week ago, my name is Glynda Goodwitch, and you are?"

Yami spoke for them, placing his hand on the solar mage's head. "This is Kenos Rossiu," he jerked his thumb backward. "The guy in green is Finral Roulacase, and the one next to him is Asta, they're all members of my squad,"

The sparkle mage quickly raised her own hand. "And I'm Zuka Glitenia, a Magic Knight from the Aqua Deer. So, since you joined a week ago, you must be a junior too?"

"No, the Wizard King personally appointed me to vice-captain," she replied.

Those words made Kenos and Zuka's eyes widen as they thought of another member of their squad with that title.

"Levi,"

"So, Julius had you appointed to vice-captain to be Levi's replacement?" Kenos asked.

Jack's brow became raised for the second time. "How'd you know about Levi?"

"Zuka and I had a run-in with him a while back, we fought him, but we lost, he was on another level, we were completely outmatched," the Rossiu answered.

"I see, so Glynda, how exactly did you become the beanpole's vice-captain anyway?" Yami asked.

The woman held her chin. "It all started when Jack followed me to one of my teaching lessons, he barged in and demanded that I be his vice-captain. I wasn't very fond of him threatening me, so I used a spell, which inadvertently knocked him out for three whole days. The Wizard King then came to me, he apologized for Jack and convinced me to join,"

Surprise was evident in the eyes of Zuka and the Black Bull subordinates, but Yami merely burst into laughter. "You got knocked out for three days from just one attack! That's hilarious, if you ask me, she should be the captain!"

Jack crossed his arms and looked away from the dark mage. "Whatever, there's no way I'd let that happen again,"

Yami stopped laughing and wiped a tear from his eye. "Whatever you say, so where are all your other members?"

"They're around here somewhere, just enjoying the festivities, I decided to help Jack sell his meat, that way I can assist with sales, and keep an eye on him," Glynda replied.

Zuka smiled as she looked at the woman. "Glynda seems like a really nice person, much better than that Levi prick, and she's strong too, the amount of mana she's giving off is quite large, but…that isn't the only thing," her eyes fell down on the telekinesis mage's rack. "Those things are huge, I wonder…if Kenos is into that stuff, girls with big boobs, if so, would mine be appealing?"

For the first time in her life, Zuka looked down at her chest, it was obviously no match for Glynda's, a small frown touched her face, but then she shook her head. "No, I shouldn't compare myself to others, I'm fine just the way I am, besides, Kenos doesn't look to be a guy who's into that stuff," she told herself.

"This has been a nice talk, but I better get back to work, wouldn't want to lose customers," Glynda said as she walked back to her stand.

"Zuka and I should get going too, if Asta is helping you, he'll stay here until he's done," Kenos said.

"Not just yet," Yami spoke up. "The two of you can't leave until you've tried my famous grilled squid, one bite and you'll admit it's one of the best things you've ever had,"

"Nonsense, my meat is way better, just wait, I'll get two samples quick," Jack challenged as he quickly went over and did so, just ten seconds passed before the solar and sparkle mages were looking at the four pieces of food.

"What are you waiting for? Dig in," Yami instructed, giving them each a metal skewer.

"I guess we could start with the squid," Zuka stated, Kenos nodded as they pierced the squid and took a bite, chewing for a few seconds before swallowing. "The squid had a really nice texture, the spices that were added was a good touch, they helped pronounce the fishy flavor seafood normally has, not to mention the char on it from grilling ties everything together," the sparkle mage commented.

"Now it's time for the meat," Kenos stated this time, Zuka following his lead as they dug into the second piece of food. "Jack was right, the meat is perfectly tender, there's no chewiness that you get from tough meat, and the thick gravy covering the meat is bursting with deep flavor with a strong hint of garlic for a slight kick, and then I can taste some lime, which is a good choice as its acidity cuts through the gravy's richness, assuring that the pallet doesn't get overwhelmed," the solar mage commented.

"I'll be honest, I didn't really understand half of what you two just said, but they sounded like good commentary, so which one's better?" Jack asked.

"That's the thing, they both taste great," Zuka replied.

Kenos nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I could go for either one again, perhaps you can put aside your feud and just work together?"

"No way in hell, that's a terrible idea," Yami disagreed.

"For once, we agree, if we can't get an outside opinion of who's food is better, I'm going back to my stand, I'll see you when I-," Jack said as he started to turn around, but once he did, his eyes became that of shock for the first time that day, the others noticed his silence and looked over too, their eyes sharing the same look.

Over at Jack's stand, there was a customer ogling at Glynda's chest while waiting for his food, his mouth drooling with lust, but the telekinesis mage was none the wiser to the man's lecherous gaze as her eyes were down preparing his meat.

Yami was the first to speak up. "I better go handle this, it's been a hot minute since I've threatened a life," he said before starting to advance, but stopped as Jack extended his arm. "Beanpole?"

"No, I'll take care of him," the severing mage intervened, his voice deadly serious.

"Is that enough meat, or would you like some more?" Glynda asked, her head still down.

"A little more please, and be a bit more heavy on the gravy," the man replied, drool continuing to fall as he watched her shift to where the gravy was, her rack jiggling from the movement. "Goddamn," he thought, wiping the drool.

Glynda finally put her head up, the man quickly did the same, handing his money over to her and he took the container full of meat. "Thanks miss, hey, I was wondering-," his words were interrupted as he soon saw the tip of a blade mere centimeters from his neck.

"You can wonder somewhere else, you got your meat and you paid, now get the hell out before I slit that throat," Jack threatened with a dark glare.

"Ah!" the man screamed as he ran away in fear.

Glynda saw this and wasn't very happy, she crossed her arms as she walked to her captain. "Jack, what was that for?" she asked, despite the man's dangerous action, her voice was calm, awaiting his answer.

"That guy over was staring at you in a dirty way while you weren't looking, I sent him packing," he explained.

"Really? That's odd, I never saw myself as sexually appealing," she responded, involuntarily crossing her arms under her chest, pushing her rack up.

Jack blushed as he looked away. "W-Well, that's right, you are appealing in that way, so you should be careful,"

Zuka was a bit shocked by Glynda's self-revelation. "Wait, she didn't know her own sexual appeal? No way, with that rack of hers, I'd assume she'd be getting hit on by guys left and right, either there are better girls to hit on, or she just ignores them," she thought.

"I had better get back to it, and this time, I'll be more watchful, I appreciate you looking out for me," Glynda told Jack before she went back.

"You're welcome," he said back.

"I wonder," the severing mage turned to see Yami, his face comedically indifferent as he sipped his drink before continuing. "First, you listen when Glynda tells you to stop arguing, then you get super angry when you see someone peeping at her. If I didn't know any better, I'd say you're in love with her,"

Jack's face bloomed a bright red. "Me? In love? Not possible, I thought you knew me better than that," he said before storming off.

The sparkle mage raised her brow. "No way you're in love? Yeah right, take it from me, as someone who's feeling the same feelings, I can tell that you've got it bad, but there's nothing to be ashamed of, it feels a lot less bad once you admit it to yourself,"

"Well, the three of us should get back to work, we can't let ourselves fall behind," Yami said.

"Yes sir!" Asta and Finral replied.

The dark mage turned to Kenos and Zuka. "Are you going to stay and watch?"

"Sure, I'd actually like to see who wins this one," the solar mage answered.

"Great, because the result is going to blow your mind,"

An hour passed, Kenos and Zuka watched customers enter and leave both stands, almost constantly busy. It was easy to tell both we're doing good, the part that wasn't so easy was telling who was going to win.

"That's the last customer, time's up!" Yami called. "Time to count our winnings and see who won,"

Jack nodded as the two of them set their money in one spot and started counting, the others waited in anticipation, Glynda spoke up. "This is my first time seeing Jack do this, how many times has he won these?" she asked.

"I've seen them go at it for years now, they both do good, but I'm pretty sure Captain Yami has a slight lead overall," Finral replied.

"Whatever happens, I know it'll be awesome, after all, the captain said it will blow our minds," Kenos stated before a loud unified scream was heard.

"WHAT?!"

The five turned to see Yami and Jack, looks of disbelief on their faces, their unified exclamation continued. "THAT'S NOT POSSIBLE?! I COUNTED UP ALL MY MONEY AND I HAVE 3000 YUL, THE SAME AMOUNT AS HIM, WHICH MEANS…,"

"It's a tie?" Kenos finished before he turned to the sparkle mage. "He was right, that result did blow my mind,"

"I'm pretty sure when he said that, he was meaning that he thought he would win, and by a large margin too," Zuka remarked.

"I know, but to be honest, this outcome was a lot better,"

"So, what are we going to do now, Yami? We've never had a tie before," Jack asked.

"I think I know a perfect tiebreaker, Finral, make a portal to that cave, I believe you know which one I mean," Yami replied, turning to the spatial mage.

"I know the one, only one cave I've been to that you've been to," he answered, taking out his grimoire and forming a portal to which the 7 mages entered and were met by the sight of a large cave.

"Hey, this place looks familiar," Jack noticed, in fact, most of the mages noticed, the only ones who didn't were Zuka and Glynda.

A few more seconds passed before it finally clicked to Jack. "Wait, now I remember, this is where we fought Licht and Third Eye along with Nozel and Charlotte," he realized.

"Bingo, I figured a place like this, with no bystanders nearby, would be a perfect place to settle our tie, because we're going to have a battle," Yami stated.

Jack gave his signature sadistic grin. "Now you're talking, let's do this,"

The dark mage reached into his jacket, pulling out his grimoire, as the book opened and floated in front of him, he pulled out his katana.

"You sure you want to fight in that getup, captain?" Asta asked.

"Don't worry, sure it'll slow me down a bit, but honestly, that'll just make us evenly matched," the dark mage confidently replied.

"We'll see about that, you'll regret that confidence when I cut you to ribbons," Jack boasted.

Kenos turned to Glynda. "You're going to let Jack fight?"

The woman nodded. "He's done very well today at restraining from being selfishly immature or causing any problems, so I'll let him have this one. I want to make him a better person, not change who he is, fighting is in his blood, I can't stop that,"

Jack took out his grimoire as blades grew out of his arms. "I'm all ready! Prepare yourself!" he exclaimed as he rushed at the fellow captain.

"Bring it on," Yami said back as their blades met, creating a large ringing sound that echoed through the cave.

Jack backed up before launching a new attack. "Severing Magic: Death Scythe!" he exclaimed.

"Two can play at that game, Dark Magic: Dark Cloaked Lightless Slash!" Yami sent his own attack, the two slashes canceling each other out.

The dark mage wasted no time getting on the move, even with limited mobility, he zoomed throughout the battlefield before jumping into the air, ready to strike from above.

Jack crossed his blades together as the attack came, the strike carrying much force as even the spectators could feel the impact.

"It's been some time since I've seen the captain fight," Kenos commented. "It's good to see he's been stepping up his game too,"

Yami grinned. "You're doing quite well, beanpole,"

"Of course I am, I'm the better one between us, remember?" Jack responded as he applied force upwards, pushing Yami off, but he didn't wait before releasing another attack. "Severing Magic: Death Sickle Storm!" he declared before spinning violently, firing the barrage of slashes.

Thankfully, Yami's Ki kicked in, letting him anticipate the attack. "Dark Magic: Black Cocoon," he said in response to the severing mage's attack as a mass of darkness surrounded him, the slashes hit the cocoon, but nothing got through.

The barrage ended and Yami came out from his protective spell. "I had better get back on the offensive," he muttered as he started running forward, his grimoire flipping to a different page. "Dark Magic: Dark Cloaked Dance of the Eclipse!"

Jack watched as the dark mage suddenly vanished. "What the?" he mumbled, but soon, his mana detection sensed a mage behind him, and he knew just who it was.

"Time to put an end to this fight, Dark Magic: Dark Cloaked Gloomy Dusk!"

"Not so fast!" Jack quickly turned around. "Severing Magic: Crossguard Blades!" he crossed the blades together, but unlike last time, a green magical field formed, blocking the devastating strike.

"I didn't know you had a defense spell, did Glynda help you make that?" Yami asked with an impressed tone.

"She did, something about suggesting that having only offensive spells won't be as effective having an array of spells to choose from," the severing mage explained.

"You even listened to her idea, you sure you're not in love with her?!"

"What, n-no, enough of that! And keep your voice down, I wouldn't want Glynda hearing your nonsense," Jack denied as he broke his guard and backed up a considerable number of meters. "I need to finish this right now, I can't have Yami blurt something like that again or she might hear it this time,"

The severing mage flipped his grimoire to another page. "I'm going all out, Yami, this will finish the fight once and for all!" he exclaimed as he crossed his arms, his blades reaching behind his back as green magic enveloped him.

"All out, aye? Then I'll do the same," Yami said as he raised his katana up, slowly gripping it with the other hand, finger by finger as darkness coated it.

"Oh crap!" Kenos, Asta, and Finral cursed in unison.

"I don't get it, what's the matter?" Glynda asked.

"Captain Yami is about to use a spell called Dimension Slash, it's extremely powerful, it was even capable of cutting a mage cleanly in half," the solar mage explained.

"Damn, that is powerful, then we can't let him use it, he'll kill Jack," Zuka stated.

"Stop!" the five exclaimed together, but it was no use, the noise from the two spells charging blocked them out.

"It's ready," the two captains thought in unison.

"Dark Magic…,"

"Severing Magic…,"

Just as they were about to release their attacks, they were each encased in a blue sphere.

"I think that's enough fighting for today," a voice said. The five looked up, surprised as much as they were relieved to see the Wizard King floating in the air.

"Julius!" Kenos exclaimed.

The time mage looked down. "Ah, Kenos, Asta, Glynda, Zuka, and Finral," he said to himself before floating down to them.

"Wizard King, what are you doing here?" the swordsman asked.

"I was walking around the festival saying hi to some people, I eventually got a little hungry, so I wanted to stop by Yami and Jack's stand to get some of their food, when I got there, I saw you all entering Finral's portal, so I flashed into the portal and hid so I could see what's going on," he explained. "And it's a good thing I did, Finral, would you mind making another portal back?"

"No problem, your majesty," the spatial mage complied as he formed a portal and they all went in.

Once on the other side, Julius clenched his fist, releasing Yami and Jack from his binding spell.

"Huh? What happened?" they asked in bewilderment before spotting the time mage. "Julius?"

"Next time you two choose to fight, please don't try to kill each other," he told them. "Now, if you could, may I have some food?"

The two went back to their stands and appeared in a flash. "Here, it's on the house,"

"Why thank you, I'll see you two later at the awards ceremony," Julius said as he walked away from them.

Jack sucked his teeth. "Great, now how are we going to settle this?"

Yami brung a barrel over. "Why don't we have an arm wrestle?"

"Now there's an idea," Jack agreed.

Asta walked over to them, a comedically happy look on his face. "I have an idea, why don't we just forget about settling this and just let this year be a tie?"

He didn't get to say another word as both Yami and Jack grabbed his collar, angry looks on both of their faces. "That's a terrible idea!" they exclaimed, throwing him up into the air.

"Why does this keep happening to me?!" the magicless mage screamed as he was soon out of sight.

"The hell was that kid thinking," Yami said, but suddenly, both he and Jack found themselves unable to move.

"What the hell did you two just do?" a voice asked, it was soft, but that only made it sound more menacing, Zuka and Finral turned to see it was coming from Glynda, a dark purple aura surrounding her.

She slowly walked over to the two men, soon face to face. "Didn't you hear me? I asked…what the hell did you two just do?"

"We're sorry!" Yami and Jack didn't even answer her question before pleading for forgiveness.

Kenos was completely shocked. "What in the actual fuck did I just see? Captain Yami is scared of her, they must have one hell of a past," he thought.

The captains were released from the telekinesis mage's binding as she merely sighed. "I'm not the one who should be apologizing to. I just hope that Asta boy is okay,"

As she said this, Asta was still in the air, about to hit the ground in a few seconds. "Wait, I have an idea," he said as he pulled out the Demon-Slayer, using the tip to break his fall.

"There we go, I wonder why I didn't do that last time," he mused as he put the sword away, but once he did so, he heard a lot of murmuring, his eyes following the sound to a large space roofed by a tarp.

He walked over and saw a lot of men looking forward, he decided to look forward as well and saw at the center of the area was a beautiful young lady, she had long blond hair and was dressed in blue.

While the other men fawned over her beauty, a single thought entered Asta's mind.

"Wait a minute…I think I know that lady,"