The next day, two girls were rudely kicked out of bed by their home tutors to begin training. One was Victoria, the other was Yiernoshi.


"Mmph...I wanna go back to sleep..."


Sam kicked Yiernoshi on the head, and with Alene's help, began dragging her bodily to the cliffs
-----
"Meiling...is it really neccessary to train at 5 am?"


"Yes! We need to train as much as we can today!"


"But...I'm too sleepy to do anything-yargh!"


There was a loud splash.


"Meiling! There's no need to dump me into the river!"


"Well, you're fully awake now, aren't ya?"


"...Whatever..."
-----
"OW!"

"Lord Yiernoshi! Are you all right?"


Yiernoshi slowly got up from the small crater she had created on the ground.


"Ah...that was dangerous..."


Sam kicked Yiernoshi.


"Your clumsiness is going to get you killed, stupid Yiernoshi."


"Mmph! That hurt!"


"Just concentrate on your training, and it won't hurt that much. We need to perfect this technique as soon as possible."


"What? Are you serious?!"


"I'm deadly serious."
-----
That night, Yiernoshi dragged her bruised and battered self to school. She reached the gate at the same time as a very grumpy Victoria.


"What happened to you?"


"Meiling dumped me into an ice-cold river at 5 am to wake me up, before making me train the whole day."


Yiernoshi winced. Cold shocks at 5 am sounded much worse than being kicked out of bed by Sam.


Before long, all had gathered on the school rooftop, where the match was to take place. Yiernoshi glanced at the Cheddocheezaria. Seet had joined the ranks of the injured onlookers, one arm in a sling, the Ring of Thunder around her neck.


Next to her, the tall girl who had tried to kill Victoria before was fingering her pocket.


The judges leapt onto the roof.


"This is the battlefield for tonight's scramble battle: the Cloud Ground."


Yiernoshi and co. turned their gaze to the arena in the center of the school roof.


"What on Tuti did you do to the roof?"


The judges glanced up serenely at Se Ern's outburst.


'The mission of the Cloud Guardian is to be the aloof, drifting cloud who protects the family from an independent standpoint, and whom nothing can ever bind. Therefore, we have prepared the most extreme field for her. The field is surrounded on all sides by barbed wire, as well as 8 automatic batteries that will shoot at any mobile object it detects within a 15 meter radius. Furthermore, there are pressure-sensitive mines buried underground. Once activated, an alarm will sound, followed immediately by an explosion."


"Eep! Isn't that like a battlefield?"


"Exactly."


The judges clapped their hands.


"We shall begin."


Victoria stepped forward, along with the tall girl, onto a elevator-like thing that transported them safely to opposite ends of the field, just out of range of the automatic batteries, and on a patch of landmine-less ground.


"The battle between the Guardians of Cloud: Victoria versus Hini. Let the battle begin!"


Victoria picked up her golf club and whirled around, letting fly an arc of flaming balls.


"That's Victoria's new technique, the one we spent the whole of today perfecting-Arc Sweep. With one sweep of the club, she can launch an entire arc of balls. It is nearly impossible to avoid."


Yiernoshi looked up. It was Meiling.


"I sure hope so..."


In the ring, Hini raised an eyebrow.


She flipped open her waistpouch, and drew out a tiny hammer.


"Shape-shifting Hammer: Grow!"


The hammer grew in size, becoming almost thrice Hini's height. She swung it around effortlessly.


It made contact with each of the 8 balls.


One by one, the automatic batteries blew up as the balls blasted them to bits.


"Extend!"


The hammer grew longer, sending Victoria flying into the fence. Luckily, none of the landmines detonated.


The hammer head retracted. Hini placed it firmly on the ground, and clutched the handle.


"Extend!"


The handle grew, providing Hini with a safe way to get to Victoria.


"Ring, please."


"Never."


"Really? I could just kick you, and you'd activate the landmine and blow yourself up, you know."


"Don't care."


"Oh really?"


Hini picked Victoria up by her blouse, and held her over an untouched portion of the battlefield.


"I bet there's at least 2 landmines here. I can drop you, and you'll go boom, while my hammer gets me out of range of the blast."


She dangled Victoria over the ground.

Victoria's shoe accidentally brushed the ground. An alarm rang, and that patch of ground blew up. Victoria, however, was not hurt. She was dangling 50 feet above the ground, on Hini's hammer handle, face as white as chalk.

"See? You could have died. Now, give me the ring, and I won't drop you onto the battlefield."

Victoria bit her lip.

"Fine."

Hini reached down, and plucked the Ring off Victoria's finger.

"I win."

Her hammer's handle shortened, until the both of them were just mere inches above ground level.

Hini displayed the complete Ring on her finger.

"I win."

The judges nodded. After Hini and a shaking Victoria had been extracted safely from the ring, they clapped their hands for attention.

"We shall now announce tomorrow's battle."

Yiernoshi looked up, from where she and the others had been comforting Victoria.

"Tomorrow shall be the scramble battle between the Guardians of Mist."

Sam smiled.

"It's finally that one's turn."

"Wait!"

Yiernoshi started freaking out.

"We don't even know who our Guardian of Mist is!"