My Soul card is a Reaper

As this is a very important match, especially for Leah, her whole family is there to cheer for her. As for Azzy, only Gideon had attended because the others were busy with duo battle preliminaries of the junior division. Unfortunately for him, Estella didn't return from her home, making him disqualified because of the lack of a partner. It indeed disappointed him very much as he was looking forward to fighting with her and thereby, spending more time alone with her even if it is to discuss battle strategies.

As a result, he was left with only one choice. To return to the school and continue to attend classes until all the preliminaries of junior division are concluded. But then, Claire made a strange request to him.

She asked him to go to Arcana World and live with Azzy in his free time as others cannot go. While her aim is to make sure Leah stays away from Azzy, Gideon thought that perhaps, he might be able to learn something from watching the high-level battles of the veteran Arcana Masters.

So, for the past week, while living with Azzy at the same hotel, he attended the matches in Arena-B to show his support. Not only did he learn a lot of things that could help him become stronger but he also realized the gap between him and his best friend.

It wasn't just the strength that is different. When he was watched from the stands, he felt like the chemistry between Azzy and Leah is perfect like each one is drawing the best out of the other. On the other hand, when Azzy fights alongside them, he felt like his buddy would struggle very much. It might be because none of the teammates bothered to take Azzy's strength into consideration when planning the strategy.

Because he was too strong, he tried to fit himself with whatever the captain or the instructor planned.

Anyway, back to the present, both of the duo teams stepped into the barrier and wait for the signal.

The Proctor blew the whistle and the four of them summoned their Arcana.

On one side, Azzy summoned Vajra and Ruby, and Leah summoned Excalibur and Izarok. Azzy and Leah didn't waste time in joining their palms and connecting their soul orbs.

And on the other side, Blair summoned a flute while Docia summoned a Zither. That's right. Both of these musicians also have musical instruments Arcana instead of a weapon or some soul beast like other experts.

The spectators as well as the opponents knew what would happen after Azzy and Leah joined their palms.

"Honey, take the charge," Blair said to his wife.

Docia caressed the strings of the Zither and played a melodic sound. Contrary to how pleasantly the sound came out, it generated a violent wind.

Everyone expected Azzy and Leah to go ahead with the merging technique. During that couple of seconds, they were actually vulnerable to attacks.

The gust of wind that was traveling at 160 km/hr didn't give Azzy or Leah to even dodge.

Or so they thought.

But, to their surprise, they never merged the Arcana. Instead, both of them raised their arms and shouted at the same time, "Reflect."

The violent wind that was about to hit the two of them suddenly got absorbed by an invisible mirror, which then reflected back to the musicians with double the speed, almost equal to the speed of sound.

This wasn't the first time Leah displayed her passive ability but it was definitely the first time both of them used it like this.

As the reflected wind took Blair and Docie by surprise and they hurriedly used their soul energy as shields to block the incoming attack, the Proctor mumbled with a trace of surprise, "It didn't look like a modified fusion technique. I thought it was all about merging their beasts. But, this is something else. Just what ancient technique these kids mastered that even doubled a passive ability of one user?"

Except for a couple of spectators who had the knowledge of Soul Amalgamation, everyone else was also confused. But then again, it is obvious.

The Proctor was a member of Zero Squad of WAMO and he is a mid-rank-8 expert. If he doesn't have any idea, how could others understand?

Instead of harming the opponents, as their own soul power was consumed by a lot to block the reflected attack, Blair and Docie turned serious, looking at each other before sealing up their sense of hearing.

Meanwhile, Azzy and Leah rooted on the spot, refusing to move forward or go ahead with the merging. If that's the case, why did they even bother summoning their Arcana? Only the two of them had the answer.

Blair then picked up the flute and started playing a gloomy tune. Docie's play was melodious as before.

As he continued to play, depression spread among the surroundings. The ones sitting in the front seats suddenly remembered their past memories that are sad.

Unfortunately for the musician couple, Azzy and Leah were the hosts of Celestial grade Arcana. They weren't of platinum grade as Blair and Docie thought they would be.

The effects were reduced drastically and the remaining effects that were generated because of the gap in their soul powers were squashed away by their strong will. As a result, Azzy and Leah were perfectly fine.

"You know, I feel like we were worried for nothing. We might not be revealing our trump card in this match," spoke Azzy when he was unaffected by the enemy's attack.

In response, Leah shook her head, "No, we cannot underestimate them and become careless. Not yet. Let's see what they are planning."

Blair and Docie continued to play a gloomy tune for a whole minute while Azzy and Leah were waiting for something to happen.

1 minute turned to 2 minutes and by the end of 3rd minute, Azzy started getting impatient while Leah stayed calm and silent. Even the audience felt like the battle is getting ridiculous. Because of the entire gloomy atmosphere, some of them got up from their seats to go to the next Arena that has an exciting battle to go on.

On the other hand, Proctor was frowning for some reason.

"Let's get over with this match," An annoyed Azzy suggested to his partner.

Just as Leah was thinking about changing the battle strategy, switching to offense, a deep voice was heard in both of their heads simultaneously. "Kids, activate your Aura senses and observe your surroundings."

It was the first time Reaper had intervened in the battle, giving a suggestion. Either way, both of them don't have the time to care about it and followed his instructions.

At first, they sensed nothing around but then, as another voice (Excalibur) suggested them to look beneath the ground, Azzy and Leah saw concentrated patches of energy forming one after another, only about 30 meters deep into the ground.

"What happens next?" asked Azzy. He wanted to know what kind of attack is that. As his Aura sensing somehow turned out to be a bit more special than others, he manage to distinguish those energy patches. Some are dark and some are blue, indicating dark attribute and water attribute respectively.

"You can wait another 70 seconds to see the full effects. Or attack them right now to see the immediate effects." The Reaper replied to both of them.

Leah nodded and raised the sword before swinging it. As an arc of energy generated from her sword, the opponents made their move. One of the dark patched turned into a dark energy beam, going straight at them.

Azzy grabbed Leah's waist and dashed to the side, evading the attack.

"Again," Docie hollered as she brushed her fingers past the strings. This time, huge volumes of water erupted from where they landed. Azzy jumped back to evade it again and said, "Freeze it."

As they were attacked by another powerful beam of water and Azzy once again evaded it while continuing to hold Leah, the latter raised her sword and unleashed, "Soul skill: Amalgamation of Ice and Fire."

"Ice"