The 3 competitors rushed towards the center of the arena. Neither being further nor farther from it than the others. As all 3 girls arrived at the center of the arena, the last remaining competitor, Wang, was nowhere in sight.
Once the girls met, there was a sort of united understanding between them all. It was much more advantageous to secure as many balls possible, before fighting for any of the remaining ones, so they each took what was supposed to be only one, and left.
However, they had not expected Taori's cursed technique to be a heavy cheat in this game. Only one ball could be carried at a time. Rather than checking this through cursed energy, it checks this through touch. This meant Taori could carry one on her own, while her other clone produced from astral technique could carry another.
This was an intentional flaw to make the games more interesting.
3/7 balls remain.
Remaining time: 7 minutes 56 seconds
After the first trip, the three students returned back to the center of the arena, but this time they now recognized the threat that Taori had on the game. The latter two made eye contact for a moment.
Logic says that they should team up temporarily, but that would mean either one could betray each other at a moments notice. That kind of partnership was simply too risky, and so Mariah went on the offensive first.
"Domain Expansion: All Seeing Wisdom."
With zero hesitation Taori opened up her simple domain, however it was completely useless as she felt a swarm on knowledge flood her mind.
Mariah's cursed technique came with her domain, as its sure hit flooded the targets mind with both its rules, and a non-violence policy. The cursed technique in question, allowed her to draw the 22 tarot cards of the major Arcana, which can apply various effects depending on what is drawn.
A deck of 22 cards then manifested, with a random 2 flying in front of her.
"For Taori Yumehito I have drawn the reversed Star, and for Isuel Baek I have drawn The Hanged Man."
The domain then closed as light is restored to the world. Once three were released, the two targets seemed heavily disorientated.
Taori collapsed to the floor on both of her knees, as she suddenly began to scream. Her face turned pale, as her body shook while a stream of tears flooded from her eyes. Isuel Baek on the other hand, kept shifting her attention onto the balls in the centre, and Mariah who was getting away.
"The reverse star induces despair, while the hanged man is the card of indecisiveness. Don't worry, you'll be fine after two minutes."
Mariah grabbed another one of the balls before quickly rushing back to her circle, however she quickly came back and grabbed another one. Despite the outfit she was wearing, she was surprisingly swift.
Once two minutes passed, the two quickly noticed the last remaining balloon in the centre.
Taori looked at Baek for a moment. Taori already had 2 balls, and taking this one would put her at 3. This would tie her for first place with Mariah, however if that was the case, she'd likely have to play rock paper scissors much like Akumu did, and her luck was terrible.
'Yeah, not risking it.'
Baek slowly moved forward, but Taori didn't move an inch. Her cursed technique was quite tricky and she did not want to use it just yet, so she needed to be careful. Despite her moving to grab the last remaining ball though, Taori didn't move at all.
It seemed strange, but it didn't take long to figure out what she wanted. In the end, the one who will win, is the one who possess the golden ball. Even if Taori were to get that ball though, she would have to face 3 opponents at once. Her current priority, was destroying it.
Especially because Cheng Wang hadn't made a move yet. He was a definitely waiting for a chance to snatch it, So Taori wanted to put a roadblock in his plans.
Once the timer reached 5 minutes, a bright yellow glow enshrouded the arena, as the final golden ball spawned. Taori instantly unsheathed her sword, and rushed to go destroy it, however it disappeared in all but a moment. Even the great glow it emitted had disappeared too, leaving everyone very perplexed.
Taori looked around, and even quickly opened her simple domain, but there was nothing.
'That cunning bastard. Is this his cursed technique?'
All the neurons in Taori's brain began to fire, as she started to brainstorm ideas on what happened. The main culprit was definitely Cheng Wang, but what exactly did he do? His position in the Arena was unknown, and all this debris didn't make looking for him any easier so that wasn't an option.
First, what did he do? Taori had 2 ideas.
1. Cheng Wang's cursed technique was some kind of invisibility that could transfer between targets. If that was the case, then Cheng Wang should be next to his base, and Taori could find him by tracking for his cursed energy residuals.
2. Cheng Wang's technique was some kind of unconditional teleportation at the cost of high cursed energy consumption. If this was true, the he was likely hiding himself away in a barrier he must've constructed near the start, or even with a cursed tool.
'Finding him is going to take too long, there are only 5 minutes left...'
It seems she would have to abandon the idea of coming first place. For now, she would have to pick between one of the two other opponents.
'That women with the domain is tricky. Even if I use simple domain, will I be able to take her out before its destroyed? Maybe if I try...'
No, that was too risky. Although she didn't know Isuel Baek's technique, she seemed like the easier opponent. And with that, she began to sprint in her direction. Even if she can't get her balls back to her base, as long as she can get them out she could guarantee third place.
Mariah - 3 balls
Taori - 2 balls
Isuel - 2 balls
Wang - 0 balls
China - 10 points
Japan - 5 points
Korea - 5 points
America - 4 points
[Frotsty whipp] AND THAT IS THE END OF THE FOURTH ROUND!!!!
The crowd however shouts,
"WE WANT MORE! WE WANT MORE! WE WANT MORE!"
[Frosty Whipp] Okay chill! What can I give as compensation?
The audience then paused for a long moment. And that's when the murmuring began. They were all conversing on what they should get the judges to do, Then one man screamed,
"TAKE OFF THE MASK!"
For multiple years Frosty Whipp served as the mascot for the curse battle tournament of the death of Stew F Gerald. It was about time that they found out who was under the mask.
Frosty Whipp agreeing to everyone's demands slowly leviated both of his arms and grabbed his head. The audience watched carefully with several cameras now being pointed at him.
As he pushed his arms up the audience went silent from suspense, and then there was confusion.
As his head came off it revealed.... Nothing.
There was nothing in his head, the audience then demanded he took his suit off but he shrudded saying that they had one wish and he had granted it. The disappointingly short round had ended just like that, with china possessing an over whelming advantage over the other teams.