Just off the shore of the mysterious island, the boat that had been hidden from both the Strikers and contestants alike took off, destined to deliver its refugees off the island and away from its dangers. As the ship approached the island’s barrier, a small hole in the barrier tore open and swiftly grew large enough to accommodate the ship’s size.
	Out on an alcove jutting out from the side of the mountain, Alex was once again in his psychic sync, one arm extended forward with his palm open as he stared at the ship and the opening in the barrier he created. As he focused on his work, he started to show clear signs of fatigue, making it harder for him to sustain the sync due the heavy amounts of mental power it required. His fur color faded from purple to orange to purple again, and his clothes faded from his normal attire and his sync’s attire before fading back as he struggled to sustain the sync as best as he possibly could. He shortly dropped onto almost all fours as he continued keeping his arm extended for the duration of the ship’s travel past the opening.
	Finally, the boat finished passing through the opening in the barrier, allowing Alex to close his palm to restore the barrier and end his sync. He breathed heavily a moment before he heard a voice call out to him from behind, “So YOU were the one behind that rabbit!”
	Alex immediately got up and turned around to see Damien staring at him with his arms crossed and an angry expression on his face. The fox continued where he left off and said, “You keep running off from where you’re supposed to be, you act out recklessly and even managed to get the city destroyed because of it, and now this? You’re up to something Alex, and I demand to know what it is.”
	Alex turned his head to the side in a disgusted fashion and said, “What did you expect me to do? You and the others changed the rules of the tournament without even bothering to tell me or my brother. How do I know if you’re even loyal to our original cause anymore?”
	Damien growled at the hybrid, almost to the point of snarling. “Don’t you DARE accuse me of doing something I haven’t done! I wasn’t told about the change, either.”
	Alex looked back at Damien and paused for a moment before replying, “Wait… What about Spencer? Was he told?”
	Damien shrugged lightly and said, “I don’t know, but if he was it’s news to me.”
	Alex paused for a moment once again, then walked forward, talking as he walked passed Damien, “If that is the case, then we must confront Sefra about this immediately.”
	However, before he could get far, Damien dashed out in front of him and outstretched his arms to block the way. “What are you doing, Damien?” Alex asked in a somewhat annoyed tone. “If Sefra orchestrated all this without telling anyone, then we must confront him about it immediately. Considering all that’s gone on I think it’s clear that Erebus is somehow involved.” 
	“You’re right, something is definitely up,” Damien said as he put  his arms down, pausing for a moment before reached for one of his two swords and pointed it at Alex, who took a step back upon seeing this. “However, I’m going to be confronting him alone. The only place you’re going to go is into my stomach.”
	Shocked to hear this, Alex stood up straight and said, “You fool. If we fight now we’re doing exactly what Sefra is hoping for us to do. He set us up to turn against one another and you’re just going to go along with it?”
	“Whatever Sefra has done, you have done worse by plotting against the Strikers.” Damien stated as he pulled out his other sword and entered a battle stance.
	Realizing a fight was inevitable, Alex took a step back as he pulled out his chakrams and said, “You can’t beat me, Damien. I know how you fight, and I know of ways to get around it.”
	“A true warrior knows a way around their weaknesses,” Damien replied with his eyes closed, trying to sound philosophical. However, he immediately broke this mood by opening his eyes and smirking as he stated, “Besides, I know a bit about you, too. Plus there’s the fact you’re a part rabbit fighting against a fox, so I’d say you’re at a quite a disadvantage, yourself.”
	Alex chuckled softly in response before he replied, “Actually, I’m part mimiga, but I’ll be nice and say you’re close enough.”
	Changing to a more serious expression, the catiga thought to himself, [Damien is strong, so a direct attack is a bad idea… And he’s pretty fast too, so carefully aimed ranged attacks won’t work too well, either. So the best strategy would be to try something unique to catch him off-guard. And I think I have just the soul to do it…]
	Alex closed his eyes for a moment and focused, his body then glowed for a moment before it faded again. However, his fur was now a rusty orange, his outfit was now a set of ninja-esque pants, shoes, and a neckpiece with gloves, the tips of his ears were black, his stomach and arms were white, his hair was black, and his eyes were blue.
	Recognizing who the sync was with, Damien smirked once more and said, “Ah, your fire sync… That one gives you Dezzy Kitsune’s powers of trickery and illusion, does it not? Probably not the brightest idea to sync with someone who didn’t make it post the first round, though…”
	“Please, Dezzy isn’t that easy to get rid of.”
	“Than why hasn’t he returned, yet?”
	Clearly bothered by this, Alex decided to that there was nothing to be gained by talking anymore. A large puff of smoke appeared behind him as he waved one hand into the air, which shortly cleared away to reveal an entire wall of kunai. Damien stared in awe at the sight before they began to fire at him in waves.
	Acting fast, Damien slashed his swords in an X-shape to use his Northern Cross technique, creating an energy wave to try and blow the kunai away. However, the attack passed through the kunai without affecting them, causing him to be unprepared when the first wave reached him. The countless kunai cut and slash past him quickly, grazing almost all his vital areas, which left him wondering whether all that was intentional or he just got lucky.
	The catiga created another wave of kunai behind him as he called out, “Come on, Damien. Did you really think I wouldn’t expect you to try that? Each kunai is covered in a tiny bit of chakra, so you’re not going to be stopping these blades,” before firing them at the fox.
	Seeing the second wave fired, Damien thought fast before firing another energy wave at his opponent. Alex had just created another wall of kunai to fire before the shot hit him while he was off-guard, causing all the kunai currently out to vanish in a puff of smoke as their summoner fell down onto his knees. Damien grinned as he commented, “I may not be able to stop the kunai with my attack, but the reverse is true, too: nothing would stop my attack from hitting you.”
	Getting back up, Alex brushed himself off and said, “Perhaps, but despite the extreme cold your attack inflicts, a single blow is not enough to defeat me.” The catiga then began to focus by performing short motions with his hands as he continued, “I’m a lot more durable than I look, so don’t expect this to be an easy fight like your conflicts with stray contestants.”
Suddenly, Damien noticed that the world around him was suddenly changing. It darkened into a strange place that was red and orange all around, as if it were all on fire. He no longer had a point of reference aside from Alex, and couldn’t see anything else in any direction. He continued to look around until Alex spoke out, “This is my ‘illusion world’. It restricts how far you can move in X, Y, and Z, making it easier to pit you against my… ‘special’ attacks.”
	Damien readied his swords as he saw his opponent release a few orbs of water, each one taking a specific position and firing concentrated beams at the fox. Damien easily weaved between the beams and laughed a bit as he said, “So much for your ‘special attack’.”
	Alex responded to the comment with a smirk before pointing his finger up, an orb of fire swiftly forming at the tip of it. The flame flickered and then charged at Damien directly while another one immediately formed behind it to fire shortly after the first. The fox sidestepped the fire since they were targeted directly at him, only to almost miss seeing a water laser heading straight at him. Tilting his body back he felt the shot graze his muzzle, only to remember the fire shots are still aimed at him, forcing him to fall over to dodge the fire shot. From there, he rolled and swung his sword upward as he got up, firing another Northern Cross at Alex, striking his opponent and knocking him down.
At the same time Alex was hit, the illusion world faded and returned them to the mountain. However, the catiga wasted no time before he moved on by pulling out several small, steel spheres and throwing them in an arc pattern, each one exploding one after another after a short while into a small flurry of needles. Making note of where the needle clouds clustered, Damien tilted his body to the side and positioned himself where the clouds were thinnest so that they veered past him, inflicting minimal damage. 
Alex fired another wave of the orbs, which the fox responded to in the same way as before. This time, however, he restored his position while taking a big swipe with his sword and unleashed another slash at his opponent. Alex shifted his body to the side to avoid the attack, only to see that Damien had followed up the attack with a swipe from his other sword to fire another, scoring a direct hit.
Although Alex stumbled from the hit, he got back up and performed some more quick motions with his hands, and as he did so Damien saw the illusion world had once again begun forming around him. This time, however, his opponent vanished entirely from view. The fox looked around to try and find him, but could not see anything. Suddenly, a very large orb of blue fire appeared in front of him. Curious, Damien stared at it for a moment before another formed right in front of it, followed by another. Seeing that they were headed right for him, Damien turned around and ran, only to see another chain had formed in front of him, only this one was moving away from him. Moving to the side as he ran, he saw that the chain in front of him had the new orbs form in from of him to accommodate the change in his position. Looking back, he saw that the ones behind him had done the same.
Using this information, Damien realized how the attack worked and thought fast to try and think of a way out. [The flames react to my every move,] he thought to himself, [but they also chase me, so I can’t stand still. And the illusion world restricts how far I can move in any direction. If I don’t hurry I’m going to be trapped between the illusion world’s walls and the flames with no way out.]
Thinking as fast as he could as he ran past the first set of orbs that had formed based on his previous position on his right, Damien made a quick decision to make a huge leap to the left. It was a quick and wide jump, but the next orb that formed in front appeared where he was right then, leaving an open gap large enough for him to run through.
The fox repeated these evasion maneuvers for a while. Seeing that his trick had been foiled, Alex ended the attack and the illusion world faded as he himself reappeared. Damien watched as the catiga raised his arm once more, forming another wall of kunai similar to the one he used in his first attack. The fox readied himself to attack the same was as before, only to find that the kunai are fired in a cone pattern. Sidestepping his way around the blades, he noticed that his opponent had vanished in a puff of smoke, appearing in another puff of smoke nearby, where he formed another wall of kunai that fired in the same way.
Damien maneuvered around the kunai, often being grazed by the shots due to how close they were to one another as he tried to find an opening. However, with Alex’s constantly teleporting around the area he was unable to get a lock. Frustrated, the fox took both swords and brought his arms across his chest before he took a mighty swing with both arms to create a long, wide shot. The energy wave was so large that it managed to catch his opponent upon his reappearance from one of his teleportations, which managed to stun him for a moment.
Taking this opportunity, Damien rushed forward to try and hit Alex before he could attack again. However, he only to swung at air as the catiga jumped back and performed another set of quick hand motions. Growling softly to himself, the fox saw the illusion world form around him yet again.
This time, Alex held up his hands, palms upward, and created two small red fire orbs that began to orbit around him like electrons around an atom, each leaving a trail of red flames behind them as they moved. He then performed it again, this time with small orbs of blue flames. At this point the fox was able to feel the extreme heat coming off his opponent, even at a distance. With all four orbiting him swiftly, Alex pulled out a kunai and held it in reverse so that the blade was opposite his thumb.
Securing his kunai in one hand, the catiga boldly charged at his target. Not wanting to get burned, Damien jumped to the side to dodge. However, the trail of flames the orbiting fire orbs left behind spread out and moved outward from their position as Alex dashed, creating small “waves” of flame that formed an attack behind himself.
Damien bent backward at the last moment, the fire singeing the bottom of his muzzle. Bending back up, the fox thought to himself, [Ugh… I’m going to run out of chin fur if I keep this up.]
Watching his opponent turn around and charge again, the fox dashed to the side and paid closer attention to the flames to avoid getting burned again. Thinking fast, he made note of the attack’s properties. [The fire around him is too hot, so I can’t attack him directly, and the extreme heat could mess with the ki in my Northern Cross.]
As Alex charged once more, Damien grabbed one of his swords and took careful aim as he hurled it towards his opponent’s hand. The orbs of fire burst into full-out flames around the catiga as he cried out in pain, the kunai sent flying from his hand and the illusion world began to fade. When the flames and smoke settled, the fox saw that there was no blood or cuts on Alex’s arm or hand. [Damn,] he thought, [I was hoping I would end the fight with that, but he must have deflected it with his kunai at the last moment, and the shock just ended his attack].
Looking around, Damien saw his sword lying near his opponent’s feet. [Completely ruined,] he thought to himself as he looked at the mangled blade. [I guess that’s not surprising… that was some pretty intense heat, after all.]
Raising both hands into the air, Alex’s body glowed a bit. Just then, the sky suddenly darkened and clouds begin to form. Staring up at the sky, Damien saw something fall and land a short distance away. Walking towards it he saw that it was a kunai blade. His eyes widened as more began falling around him and created a heavy shower of steel. Moving about as fast as he possibly could, he noticed the blades vanished in a puff of smoke shortly after hitting the ground. However, before he could think about what this meant, the fox noticed that his opponent had begun throwing handfuls of needles at him.
Seconds passed like hours to Damien as he kept moving to avoid the downpour of kunai and stocks of needles. He was unsure how much longer he could move before his body would simply give out, due to his complete inability to find an opening in the attack.
Suddenly, the rain stopped and the kunai and needles all vanished as the clouds began to disperse. Not sure what was going on, Damien saw Alex perform even more quick hand motions. Softly groaning to himself, the fox saw the illusion world yet again form around him. Afterward, the catiga suddenly and slowly became more transparent until he vanished from view entirely. Looking around, Damien saw two orbs of blue flames come down from the sky, which circled around him in wide arcs. When they reached the ground, they spun around him faster as they slowly rose upward again, needles seemingly appearing from inside each orb as they move, forming small (yet incomplete) walls around the fox.
Once they finished a complete circle around him, the flames vanished and the walls began to close in on Damien’s position in a circular motion. Thinking they were probably too high to jump over, he charged through one of the openings between the walls before it closed up and formed a complete blockade. He tried to take some deep breaths, only to look back and find that the needles of each wall went through the gaps between the other, forcing him to act quickly in order to avoid being hit from behind as the wall from the other side of the area closed in on him.
After clearing the first set of walls, Damien saw that the blue flames had returned again, forming slightly larger walls. The fox noticed they acted similarly to the first attack and easily dodged the initial wall and the one that appeared behind it. The third time, however, the flames began to flicker and picked up the pace as they circled around the fox and formed full walls of needles on both sides of him. Left with little alternative, Damien prepped his sword and dashed toward the walls as they started to close in, hoping to charge right through where he thought the needles would avoid hitting anything vital.
Damien managed to make it through the wall, but it was clear he did not make it through unscathed. He was in a great deal of pain, and saw that behind the main wall he passed was another set, around what appeared to be the boundaries of the illusion world. Knowing that the walls were coming back, he turned around and crossed his arms in front of himself to block the attack best he could, his eyes shut tightly in preparation.
Suddenly, the needles started to softly glow and slow down, stopping just short of hitting the fox. After not feeling them hit at the moment he expected them to, he opened one eye just in time to see them vanish, and the illusion world “shattered”, almost like glass, revealing Alex behind it, who fell to his knees before collapsing onto the ground.
Walking over to his defeated opponent, Damien thought about what was odd about the last two attacks. “I see…” he said softly to himself, “it was all about your chakra. The shower of blades you used against me was tough, but never scored a direct hit, so you probably figured it was futile to continue wasting energy on. However, even when you used your last attack you tried to avoid using full walls of needles so you could to save on chakra…”
Kneeling down, he lifted up the catiga’s head and said, “Sorry Alex, but I’m afraid I must relieve you of your duties.”
However, just as Damien was about to put Alex’s head into his mouth, he was struck on the head with a powerful blow, knocking him unconscious and causing him to fall to the side. When he finally came to he wasn’t sure how long he was out. Whether it was a few minutes or a few hours, he just knew it was nighttime and Verace was standing over him with an annoyed look on his face. “I thought I told you to leave my big brother alone,” the green fox said to the black one.
Damien held his head as thoughts raced through his mind. He knew what just happened, but he couldn’t figure out why he was so hell-bent on eating Alex. It was just like that time he fought Roy and his crew. Just then, the catiga groaned a bit as he began to come to himself.
As he got up, Alex cried out, “That is IT!” He held one hand on his head and dusted himself off a bit with the other as he tried his best to avoid looking as fatigued as he really was. Upset over the fight he had just lost and time they wasted doing it, the catiga did his best to pretend the battle had never happened and continued, “Come on, Verace. There’s a moon rabbit at the top of the mountain who owes us a lot of explanations.”
As the catiga walked away, Damien turned to Verace and asked, “Can we really fight Sefra?”
Verace turned to the side and responded, “If neither of you will, then I’ll do it, myself.”
As Verace walked away, Damien thought to himself, [What was that supposed to mean? Is Alex hesitant to fight Sefra too, despite all the planning he’s gone through in case it would come to this? Does he really feel as betrayed as I do?”]
However, Damien’s thoughts were cut short when he noticed the brothers were heading for the summit. He yelled out, “H-hey! Wait for me, guys!” as he ran over to catch up with them.