Chapter 116: Snatch & Match
In an instant, so quick that Eirin’s mind couldn’t even register the movement she lost her headband. One moment it was there, a tight band on her head, the next, it was gone. She was unknowing of how it came loose, how it had been taken, but then she saw it. It was already in Shade’s hand, a stark white contrast against his dark leather gloves.
"You!" Eirin screamed, a sound of shock, frustration, and betrayal. Her voice ripped through the air, raw with disbelief.
Eirin’s team, enraged and bewildered, immediately chased after Shade’s group, a desperate attempt to take back what was rightfully theirs, to reclaim their hard-earned survival. But Shade and Trixtan ran away as if their lives depended on it, their speed amplified by their Flairs, leaving the white team in their dust.
Eirin, from her place, continued using wind gusts, sending powerful bursts at the other teams, trying to get rid of them, to clear their path, to remove any hindrances, but it was futile. The red team, with Shade’s stolen trophy, was too fast, too agile. They couldn’t get their headband back.
And then, a moment later, the bell started ringing, the signal for the game to stop, its clear, decisive peal cutting through the lingering chaos.
"No! No, we can still get it back!" Eirin screamed, her voice hoarse, a desperate, final plea, but all powers were stopped, cut off by Mr. Blade’s authority, the magic in the air dissipating like smoke.
Mr. Blade clapped his hands together, a loud, resounding smack. "That was chaotic indeed! A truly thrilling Cavalry Battle!" he exclaimed, his face alight with excitement. "Now, let’s look at the ranking, shall we?" He pointed at the massive hologram of rankings that materialized beside him, shimmering with projected light.
Eirin, her body suddenly devoid of adrenaline that had drove her, felt her legs buckle. She fell onto her knees on the paint-splattered ground, devastated by what had just happened.
The finality of the bell, the sight of the hologram, shattered her composure. ’I couldn’t possibly look at Link’s face ever again,’ she thought, the weight of her perceived failure crushing. She had been the rider, the protector of the headband, and she had lost it.
"What are you doing down there, Luxfield?" Eirin looked up, and saw Shade standing over her, his infuriatingly smug look back on his face, a triumphant glint in his eyes. He held her headband aloft, a white trophy.
Eirin’s eyes welled with tears of frustration, blurring her vision. "You! Liar! How could you snatch our headband like that? You said you wouldn’t get us eliminated!" She slapped Shade’s arm, a stinging blow, but the young man merely raised a brow, unaffected, a silent challenge in his gaze.
Shade pointed a finger at the hologram, a silent command. Eirin’s eyes, still brimming with unshed tears, slowly, reluctantly looked in that direction, tracing the line of text. Her eyes widened, slowly taking in the words. Just then, Link rushed to her, his face alight with a triumphant smile, and pulled her into a right, exuberant hug.