The final match was upon us: our team, the underdogs, against the reigning champions from the Zenith Academy.

  The arena shifted as the battlefield materialized. It was a crumbling city suspended in midair. Buildings floated at odd angles, some tilted precariously, and others connected by fragile bridges. Gravity was inconsistent, shifting erratically in different sections of the arena, pulling platforms upward, downward, and sideways. One wrong move could send someone tumbling into the endless void.

  Alaric, the Zenith academy leader, stood at the center of his team. Beside him, his teammate, Cassian, the illusionist; Aris, the fire magician ; and Celeste, the barrier specialist, stood here casually. They were seasoned, calculated, and entirely unphased.

  The crowd's excited roar filled the air as the signal rang, marking the beginning of the final match. I gathered the team, making sure we were all on the same page.

  "Zenith’s a tough team, and Alaric is their leader for a reason. They’ll try to control the arena and separate you. Don’t let them. Stay together, adapt to the situation, and force them to react to you instead of the other way around.” I said, my voice firm.

  Mina looked nervous. “They’ve got the advantage. This arena is perfect for them.”

  “That just means we need to be smarter,” Elaine said, her voice steady despite the tension. “Let’s stick to the plan.”

  Jace looked serious. “They’re going to push us to the edge—literally. We need to hit back harder.”

  Aaron grinned faintly. “We’ve made it this far. No point holding back now.”

  The match signal blared, and the Zenith academy team struck immediately.

  The battlefield erupted in chaos as Alaric twisted the gravity across the arena. Platforms wrenched apart, and several crumbled into the void. Mira reacted quickly, stabilizing the ground beneath her team.

  “Keep together!” she called, as the shifting gravity made her footing unsteady.

  Cassian conjured a swarm of illusions of himself sending several fire balls, toward the team, their forms indistinguishable from reality. “They’re everywhere!” Jace shouted, firing a bolt of lightning that passed harmlessly through one of the specters.

  Elaine sent several wind blades scattering the illusions, but the real Cassian was already moving, slipping through the chaos to disrupt their formation. “He’s behind us!” Aaron shouted, spinning to launch a barrage of fireballs.

  Celeste’s barriers blocked Aaron’s flames. “You’ll have to do better than that,” she said with a smirk.

  Mira gritted her teeth, raising a stone wall to shield her teammates, but Alaric warped the gravity around it, tearing the wall into fragments. A chunk of debris flew toward Jace, hitting him straight in the chest, making his damage bar shot to 25%.

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  “Jace, watch it!” Mira yelled.

  “I’m trying!” he shot back, landing on an unsteady platform just as Aris leaped toward him, sending a wave of fireballs his way.

  Jace barely managed to block the attack with several lightening-bolts, but the force of the blow sent him skidding to the edge of the platform. “Little help here!” he shouted, his damage bar rising to 40%.

  Elaine shot a barrage of twin aerial slashes to push Aris back, but Celeste quickly reinforced his position with a strong barrier. The Zenith team coordination was flawless.

  “They’re damn strong!” Aaron growled, launching ten head sized fireball toward Alaric.

  Alaric redirected the flames, the fire spiraling into the void. “Is that all you’ve got?” he asked coolly, his damage bar still at 0%.

  Mira’s focus faltered under the pressure. “I can’t keep the platforms stable with him twisting gravity like that!”

  “We need to disrupt their formation,” Elaine said, deflecting a barrage of flying boulders with a small tornado. “We’re too scattered.”

  “They’re making sure we can’t regroup,” Jace snapped, narrowly dodging another barrage of fireball from Aris.

  Aaron grimaced. “So what do we do? We can’t win if we’re playing defense the whole time!”

  “They’re using the arena better than we are,” Mira said through gritted teeth. “We need to take control of it—or at least stop Alaric from controlling everything!”

  Easier said than done. Alaric raised another platform into the air, creating a higher vantage point for his team. From above, Cassian rained down bolts of lightening, forcing the team to scatter again.

  “Stick together!” Elaine shouted, her voice strained. “If we split up any more, we’re done!”

  “Tell that to them!” Aaron retorted, gesturing to the Zenith Order’s flawless positioning.

  Mira clenched her fists, her focus laser-sharp. “I’m going to bring that platform down. Cover me!”

  “Right away,” Jace said, gritting his teeth as he unleashed a flurry of lightning bolt toward Celeste, hoping to distract her from reinforcing Alaric’s position.

  Aaron hurled a barrage of fireballs at Cassian, forcing him to retreat. “They’re moving too fast!” he muttered, frustration raising.

  Elaine’s wind magic surged, slowing Celeste’s counterattack. “Mira, now’s your chance!”

  Mira made the platform above them crack in half. Alaric’s calm demeanor finally wavered as the structure collapsed, sending him and his teammates into the air.

  “They’re off balance!” Jace yelled, surging forward.

  But Alaric recovered quickly, twisting the falling debris into a storm of projectiles. The team ducked and dodged, barely avoiding the barrage.

  “We’re not done yet!” Mira called, reshaping the crumbled platform into a jagged rampart to protect her teammates.

  “Then let’s use combined attacks,” Elaine said, her winds gathering in a powerful storm.

  With one last coordinated push, Jace and Aaron unleashed a combined attack—lightning and fire converging in a brilliant explosion that shattered Alaric’s defenses, sending their damage bar straight to 80%.

  The Zenith team cohesion crumbled as Mira’s stone pillars pinned their remaining fighters in place. Elaine and Aaron unleashed their trump card — the fire-storm which made the damage bar rise to 100%.

  As soon as their picture grayed, the referee announced the end of the match.

  The team stood in silence, chests heaving, sweat dripping from their brows. Victory had never felt so difficult.

  “That was…” Aaron began, trailing off as he collapsed onto the nearest platform. “Insane.”

  “No kidding,” Jace muttered. “They almost had us.”

  Elaine managed a small, tired smile. “Almost.”

  Mira let out a long breath. “They were really strong.”

  For a moment, they were quiet, the weight of their victory settling in. Then, slowly, smiles began to spread across their faces.

  “We actually did it,” Aaron said, shaking his head in disbelief. “We beat them.”

  “Barely,” Elaine said, though there was pride in her voice.

  “Barely’s enough,” Jace replied, his grin finally returning.

  As the crowd roared in the background, I stood at the edge of the arena, watching them proudly.