The Asterisk Symbol

Yuri was taking a lot of time to shoot again. The shotgun Felicia held had a quick reload speed and her aim was spot on.

He, meanwhile, had been barely keeping up with the depletion of his energy. His Ark was still uncultured– underdeveloped even. It still took a lot of strength and power to shoot.

Team Europe already had 9 points while Team Asia had 5, Team Oceania was following with 3 while the others still got nothing.

After all, only Felicia was the ranger fighter. The others were a close-combat type. They also weren't allowed to jump and hack their swords to the balls. They must shoot it from the ground.

"Ark!" Yuri yelled. "Flash Shoot!"

The red ball was hit but it was also the final ounce of his energy. He fell to his knees, panting.

'I need to keep going.' He said and was about to stand up when the buzzer sounded.

It was the end of the first match.

The healers had gone up to Yuri and helped him. There was one healer, Veronica Cortez, who had the Sanctity to recover the condition of the body to what it was 10 minutes ago.

From the Union's point of view, her Sanctity was a treasure. From the start of her childhood, she was trained to revert the time of anyone. But her maximum was only 10 minutes even after all the experiments put on her.

"Are you okay now?" Veronica asked Yuri. When Yuri nodded, she ruffled the slender boy's hair. "Don't drain too much of your energy. You'll grow older faster if you do."

Yuri smiled and nodded, "Okay."

–

"The second match was composed of a 1-mile race," Daniel started. "One lap around the coliseum is half a mile. Therefore, the participants must complete 4 laps around the coliseum."

Finally. It was Yuri's time to shine. In his team, he wasn't the fastest but his speed wasn't that bad. And he was also sure that a ranger-type like Felicia wouldn't be as fast as a power-type like him.

'The match will start in…'

'3…'

'2…'

'1…'

'Start!'

"Bring Out!"

It was a proven fact that when the Reverence is activated, the physical attributes of the Exorcist would increase. Even when they were already quite stronger than normal humans, a regular Exorcist couldn't possibly exterminate a Stained Soul without activating their weapon.

Yuri was taking the lead. The smile on his face was wide. He looked behind him and was almost stunned that Felicia and the participant from Oceania were already behind him. The others were catching up too.

'I must win.'

He moved faster, drawing more power from his Reverence, Makarov, to boost himself more.

Running and running, Yuri reached the final lap. His strength was almost depleted and his body was getting sore from the overuse of his power.

He was only a few meters away when Felicia took over. She smirked, winked, and passed through Yuri without even using her Reverence.

The second match was over.

Yuri still lost.

He fell to his knees and stared at the ground in helplessness. He did the best he could but it still wasn't enough. He still lost.

A gentle white light appeared behind him. A woman sighed and smacked his head. "How many times do I have to tell you, don't waste your energy?'

Yuri cracked a chuckle and sat on the floor. He looked at the balcony where his teammates were and they were all grinning, raising their thumbs up in encouragement.

One particular person made his heart flutter. He wasn't sure when it started. He wasn't even sure if he really does.

"Oh, you like someone from your team, huh?" Veronica asked that snapped Yuri awake.

"W-What?" Yuri asked. "No."

"You can deny with your words but your eyes told me everything," Veronica said. "What are they like?"

Yuri gave the woman a weird look before shaking his head. His Grimms appeared and walked towards them.

"Master Yuri, is this woman bothering you?" one of them asked. "We could sense distress from your aura, sir"

"I'm okay," Yuri said. "You may go."

The Grimms nodded and disappeared, hiding in the shadows while guarding their master.

"They…" Yuri trailed off, not knowing where to start. (I used 'they' as a gender-neutral term instead of the usual he/she.)

"They're kind and gentle, makes me laugh and makes my heart flutter," Yuri smirked. "It's like when I'm with them, the whole world disappears. No people, no Exorcists, no Stained Souls. It's just the two of us."

"That explains the look," Veronica shook her head. "That's how my lover looks at me."

Yuri was speechless before he smiled. "Yeah."

"The third match had started, the match for power," Michelle announced. "Each participant is going to put their Reverence on a measuring device and would exert their aura in it. The device will measure their power level. The highest wins!"

"Team North America – since they were the last on the previous match, will come first," Daniel instructed.

The girl from North America placed her weapon on the cylindrical device. Her Reverence was already activated when she burst her power out.

North America – 2

"Oh," Michelle cried. "A power level of 2. We started out low."

"Remember folks, the power level is measured from 0 - 10. 0 means no Exorcist energy and 10 equals the S-ranked Exorcists."

"S-ranked?" Devin thought out loud. "One means C, two means double C, three is triple C, four means B, five is double B, six is a triple B, seven is A, eight is double A, nine means triple A, and ten is S."

"Oh," Devin said and nodded. "I get it."

The match continued. Each one had gone up the device to be measured.

Africa – 3

South America – 1

Oceania – 7

"Wow!" Michelle and Daniel gasped.

"A 7!" Daniel cheered. "Team Oceania raised the bar too high! Will Team Asia and Team Europe exceed? Let's find out!"

Yuri gulped and gripped his already activated weapon. He came up to the device and placed his Reverence in. Breathing in, Yuri exploded all his powers to the device, desperate to win.

'I will not lose again!'

Team Asia – 8

"An 8!" the hosts cheered that made the crowd went wild. Seeing a 7 was already rare, an 8 means they are on the top 100.

"As expected from the Ivanovs!" Michelle said.

"True," Daniel agreed and looked at Felicia who was walking to the platform. "But our next participant is also something to be looked up to. She had already won 2 of the previous matches. Let's have a look at how she performed."

Felicia placed her shotgun on the device inhaled and let her powers gushed.

Team Europe – *

The crowd went silent after seeing what was displayed on the screens.

Devin felt Kagura tense beside him.

"I-I thought…" she trailed off.

"What happened?" Devin asked nervously.

Rodney patted his shoulder, "Hey bud. It's just…"

"An asterisk symbol means they are higher than S-rank," Morris finished which made Devin's eyes widen.

The crowd went wild after the moment of silence. Devin looked at Felicia who was smirking. The hair on his body stood as he shuddered.

Felicia was looking right through him.

There was something that a normal Exorcist couldn't sense about Felicia's turn. Franco was about to object but Liu stopped him.

"But Master Liu–"

"Don't," Liu cut him off. "Let us not intervene."

Franco went back to his seat and sighed.

'Why the hell did I just felt an Echelon 5?'