Rafsan reached the edge of the Rating Game arena and scanned the pocket dimension.
“Tsk.
So flashy.
A whole pocket world for a match.” Magic filled the air; cheers rose from the spectators below.
Angela stood at his side.
“Angela,” Rafsan asked, “did they change any rules for this match?” “No.
Same rules.
Defeat the opposing King and take the win,” Angela replied.
She asked, “Master…
should I join?” Rafsan gave her a look.
“If you enter, this stops being a Rating Game and becomes bullying.” “Leave this one to me.” “As you wish, my master.” Inside Rias Gremory’s red-hued castle, the peerage waited, spell circles spinning beneath the floor, wards threaded along the walls, traps humming like hidden strings.
Rias traced the arena map, then lifted her head to the others.
No one spoke.
They all knew who was coming.
“Ara ara…
I am excited to see how he will fight,” Akeno said with an amused drawl, purple sparks already dancing at her fingertips.
She kept the tone light, as if the fight were an intriguing toy.
Asia gripped her staff as she glanced anxiously from teammate to teammate.
“Please—be careful,” she murmured to herself while arranging wards at each injured point she expected.
Gasper’s voice trembled from the corner.
“R-Rias-senpai!” He stumbled forward, face pale, clutching his clothes.
Yuuto Kiba rested his sword on his shoulder, expression polite and locked.
Koneko sat against the wall with contained tension, eyes narrow.
Issei cracked his knuckles, grin stretched wide.
“We are going to beat him.” Rias’s voice cut through the small chaos.
“Don’t lose your heads.
Fight as a team.
Force him to react to us.” The castle shuddered.
“Looks like he’s finally here,” Akeno added, amusement still threading her words.
Far below the floating fortress, Rafsan walked toward the rubble, coat fluttering in the wind.
The crowd’s noise dropped away.
He stared at the fortress.
“You fortified the whole castle with wards and traps.
Not bad.
What happens if the castle itself disappears?” He extended his hand.
Power burst from his palm.
The ground beneath the fortress split with a groan.
Anti-gravity seized the structure and tore it free.
Inside, furniture splintered and stone cracked.
Reinforcement magic flared along the walls, but the stronghold groaned.
Rafsan swung his arm; the fortress ripped free and launched.
The castle slammed into a distant mountain.
Stone exploded outward, barriers snapped, and dust swallowed the battlefield.
The impact rattled their bones and left a burnt tang in the air.
The peerage staggered.
Kiba slammed into a pillar and righted himself, breathing hard but composed.
Akeno wiped blood from her brow, that amused expression slipping.
Issei shoved away broken stone.
“That bastard.” Asia rushed from injured teammate to injured teammate, healing light pouring from her hands.
Rias rose, blood trailing down her arm.
Koneko simply stared at the wreckage, expression unreadable.
“…He actually threw the castle.” Outside, Rafsan approached the ruins with steady steps.
Spell circles bloomed beneath him.
Rias struck first—scarlet blasts detonating around him—while Akeno loosed lightning from above.
Thunder echoed across the arena.
Kiba lunged through the dust with demonic speed, blades flashing in courteous, lethal arcs.
Rafsan met the assault with precise movements.
One hand turned Kiba’s blade aside; the other hammered into his ribs.
CRACK!
Kiba slammed into broken masonry and hit the ground, then rolled to his feet as if apologizing to the battlefield.
Akeno dove like a thunderbolt, voice laced with play.
“Ufufu—let’s see how you handle this.
Thunder Crash!” Rafsan blurred into three images.
She shattered one, another dissolved into disruption runes, and when her focus slipped for a heartbeat, Rafsan materialized beside her and drove a reinforced strike into her shoulder.
She crashed through cracked stone but laughed through the pain, the amusement gone from her eyes.
Koneko moved before the smoke cleared, slicing through the dust with brutal speed.
Her fist shot for Rafsan’s chest; he shifted.
A sensory pulse from her tail pinned the real target among the illusions.
Her kick landed.
BOOM!
Rafsan slid back, a red smear at the corner of his mouth.
Koneko landed light as a feather.
“…Got you.” He wiped the blood away.
“Nice catch,” he said, nodding.
Trap circles erupted.
Chains burst up, and Koneko smashed through several with raw force—until hidden disruption runes hit beneath her feet and her balance faltered.
Rafsan closed the gap and drove a reinforced punch.
She blocked, but the shockwave flung her into rubble.
At the rear, Asia darted between teammates, hands glowing as she sealed cuts and steadied breathing.
Gasper stuttered, stepping forward.
“R-Rias-senpai—please!” His blood magic and time distortion flared; chains shot out and blurred motion for a heartbeat.
Issei pumped a fist.
“BOOST!
Come on, Ddraig!
Push it!” Power flared around him as Rias issued curt orders.
Issei held the front.
Gasper waited for an opening.
The formation adjusted.
Akeno pressed from above; Kiba pushed the front; Koneko cut through the center; Asia kept sweeping in to mend wounds.
Issei funneled the Boosted Gear’s strength through the team.
Rafsan slowed and studied their setup.
Each clash tore the battlefield apart.
Broken towers leaned over cracked stone.
Half-melted rock glowed where lightning had struck.
Storm clouds pressed low.
Akeno hovered above the ruins, purple lightning coiling around her, spell circles spinning like halos.
She called with theatrical delight, “Thunder Crash!” Spears of lightning riddled the sky and slammed down.
Entire sections of ground disintegrated into glowing dust, but Rafsan kept moving.
He didn’t flinch.
Rias watched him coolly and noted the change in his footwork.
A crimson sphere bloomed at her fingertip, two more snapping into being beside it.
She fired.
The first blast ripped across the field; Rafsan slid aside at the last moment.
The second came faster—he blocked but was driven back.
The third struck from the side, swallowing him in debris.
Kiba tore from the smoke in a blue streak, swords flashing with a polite, deadly grace.
“So that was your aim,” he said through gritted teeth as he pressed the assault.
Rafsan slipped past each blow by inches—deflections, pivots, narrow misses—letting attacks graze him.
Kiba pressed, then thrust like a cannon.
Rafsan tilted; the blade found flesh.
His coat darkened with scarlet.
“Too slow,” he muttered, barely audible.
Scarlet speckled the stone.
Kiba exhaled sharply.
“…He planned that,” Kiba observed, steady despite the pain.
BOOOM.
An explosion hurled them apart.
Above, Akeno’s lightning condensed into a roaring storm dragon that whitened the sky.
Rias didn’t pause.
“Everyone!
Rain them with everything!” she ordered.
Crimson spheres rained down, each layering onto the last until the arena became a collapsing field of light.
Issei’s shout cut through the chaos.
“BOOST!
Ddraig, now!
Push it—push it—!” Crimson energy flared.
Kiba’s aura flared.
Akeno’s lightning deepened.
Koneko planted her feet.
Rias’s destruction magic thickened.
From the dust, Rafsan reappeared.
His coat hung torn.
Burn marks seared his arms.
Blood trickled from his shoulder.
The easy confidence had gone; his gaze had sharpened.
Koneko punched his guard and cracked the stone beneath them.
Rafsan redirected part of the blow, but the force drove him back.
She followed with another strike, then another, forcing him to inch backward.
He answered with short counters; she adjusted and made him earn every step.
He clicked his tongue.
Rafsan shifted on broken stone, pried a slab of rubble free with one hand, and hurled it.
Koneko twisted enough to keep her line.
Issei dropped from above.
“Dragon Shot!” Rafsan lifted his arms.
The attack warped under vector control, but Issei had fired too close—the blast detonated beside him with brutal force, carving a crater and throwing hot wind across the field.
Rafsan stumbled and steadied.
That opening was all Rias needed.
“Power of Destruction,” she said sharply.
She fired into the crater.
The explosion engulfed the arena.
Hidden runes beneath the ruins ignited.
Rias’s eyes snapped wide.
“Everyone, move!” she commanded.
They reacted a moment too late.
The formations activated in a chain.
Explosions ripped across the ground, scattering the Gremory team.
Kiba tore through broken walls.
Akeno’s lightning formation collapsed mid-cast.
Koneko skidded through pillars.
Issei braced.
Asia worked to seal the worst wounds, light pouring from her palms as she dragged teammates from danger.
But Rafsan had already moved.
He appeared in front of Asia between heartbeats.
A crimson barrier snapped up before his strike.
Gasper shouted, “R-Rias-senpai!” and lunged—blood magic and time distortion flaring as chains laced the air and slowed space.
Rafsan’s movement faltered.
Rias seized the chance.
“Kiba, left!
Akeno, now!” Akeno grinned fiercely.
“With pleasure.” She and Rias struck together.
Lightning and destruction fused into a combined strike that swallowed Rafsan in white fire.
The shockwave rolled across the arena; ozone stung.
Dust swallowed the field.
When it thinned, Rafsan stood.
Only barely.
A streak of blood ran down his face; one shoulder of his coat soaked dark.
Each breath cost him.
Still, his eyes held that unreadable, cool edge.
He smiled—small, almost amused.
“Not bad.” Dark wards unfurled behind him, dozens at first, then more.
The pressure built until the ground vibrated.
“Rias?” Issei said, feeling it, his voice sharp with worry.
“Everyone!
Defensive formation!
Koneko, protect Asia!
Kiba, hold left!
Akeno, cover above!” Rias snapped, her orders precise and personal.
Barriers rose.
Lightning gathered.
Swords formed.
Koneko stepped forward.
Issei slid into place beside Rias.
Gasper backed toward Asia, fingers trembling.
Rafsan extended his hand.
His expression hardened.
The spell circles tightened inward, compressing the air until it felt thick.
Rias’s eyes narrowed.
“That’s not the same spell.” Rafsan’s grin returned, smaller this time, edged with amusement.
No one moved.
Even Akeno’s smile had disappeared.
Issei tightened his grip on the Boosted Gear.
Rias kept her eyes on Rafsan without blinking.
It really helps the story reach more readers.