Not well. He even gives them a handicap, but…

Girori, or Kamen Rider Glare, was a veritable beast. Whatever suit he had on was far and away stronger than anything Lenny, Erica, Angie, Rena, or even Mara had access to with their Raise Buckles from the first round. And if that wasn’t enough, Glare had five floating armor pieces that were capable of a variety of energy-based abilities in addition to his overwhelming stats.

“This is about what I expected. Alright then, I’ll make it easier for you.” he declared, waving his hands as more pink loot boxes appeared in the room. Inside were more Raise Buckles on the same level as Mara’s green shuriken buckle. A white one gave a powerful gun, a purple one gave a chainsaw sword and a mean-looking claw, and another one with piano keys attached granted a guitar axe.

There was also a blue bear one that gave big gauntlets, but either way they didn’t have much they could do even with the influx of Raise Buckles. Partway through Mara told them how ID Cores would be compatible with different buckles and offer better results, and the five had mostly figured out what seemed to work best for them.

Erica was doing well with the piano keys (Beat Buckle), Angie somehow got a bow weapon using the green shuriken (Ninja Buckle), Rena oddly enough meshed the gun one (Magnum Buckle), while Mara was most at home using her fists with the blue gauntlet bear one (Monster Buckle).

Leonard though, couldn’t really figure out how to use any of them. He’d been expecting to find some innate skill with the remaining purple one (Zombie Buckle), but it didn’t serve him well at all. “You sure you don’t want to have this one? Even if you’re not compatible or whatever, a chainsaw sword’s better than nothing.” Erica asked as she held up the Zombie Buckle that Lenny gave to her. She and him were resting in one of the rare breaks between training bouts.

The short man responded “Well, you can already use that axe of yours one-handed. Might as well try dual-wielding, right? Go on, don’t mind me.” before watching her get up and move to start training with another bout against Glare. He just sat leaning back against the wall, watching everyone. He didn’t feel especially tired, just beaten down. Girori was a harsh taskmaster, which Leonard appreciated from a certain perspective. Still made it tough to find what his best option here was, though.

Erica ran in, transforming with the Beat Buckle’s armor on her top half with the Zombie armor on her legs, not exactly summoning both weapons like Lenny had hoped would happen. It was still a marked improvement, as she had a lot more power to her hits thanks to her new supplementary Raise Buckle.

She’d even managed to work in the odd maneuver Mara had showed them, the “Revolve On” where a Rider could swap their top and bottom halves by spinning their belt around. It helped a fair bit, but still she only lasted a few more minutes.

As Erica was knocked back once more, her armor disappearing once she hit the floor, Girori sighed “Alright, next will be Leonard-sama. You’ve had enough of a break, come on. Henshin.” while the other four Riders in Lenny’s group groaned on the floor.

“… I’m not sure what’ll have changed, I still don’t really have a Buckle that I can use well.” Lenny replied, standing up and approaching nonetheless as Erica, Angie, Rena, and Mara limped behind him to rest against the wall too.

“You still haven’t tried one Raise Buckle in your arsenal. I have an idea what’s going on, so humor me while I confirm it.” he responded, cracking his joints while he waited for Leonard to transform into “Kamen Rider Kline”.

Sighing, the short man pulled out the Fever Slot Buckle he’d gotten from his earlier Point Transferring. He proceeded to equip said Buckle into the slot for his upper half, and as the floating words corresponding to his item appeared at his side, Leonard said “Henshin.” With a pull of the lever for the slot machine now on his belt, the transformation began.

“… it’s gonna be random anyways, but I hope it’s something that’ll actually help me win.” Lenny thought, and to his surprise all he got in terms of armor was some kind of visor clipped to his helmet’s eyes. He got some kind of sword too, ostensibly the “Raising Sword” based on the voice that emanated from it when it enter his grip, but the lack of protection was still throwing him. “Dangit, I thought I’d at least get some chest armor…” he grumbled.

“Holy shit, he pulled a Command form!?” Mara shouted incredulously from behind him. “What the hell kind of Gacha bullshit is this!?”

“Wait, is this strong or something? Why do I just have a sword, then…?” Lenny muttered, before he turned to see Glare charging with a fist cocked back. Yelping, he held up the sword to guard the blow, getting pushed back some feet for his trouble. Still though, he wasn’t downed yet. “Ugh, whatever! I’ll roll with it!” he shouted, readying a series of slashes at the transformed Girori.

The strikes landed, though none of them seemed to faze Girori. Nonetheless, some kind of energy was building up in the sword with each hit, and eventually Leonard could pull a device off of the sword’s guard which looked like another Raise Buckle.

“… like I thought, you have an unprecedented compatibility. No one’s solely been compatible with Special-Grade Raise Buckles before.” Girori commented as Lenny equipped the sword’s buckle into his Desire Driver’s open slot, getting a massive metal-winged armor form for his trouble, accented by orange on top and cyan on the bottom.

The voice announcement from his belt called this new form “Jet and Cannon”, and despite his inexperience with this sort of thing he could recognize a super mode when he was handed one. “Well, I’m definitely liking my chances now. You ready to go?” Lenny asked, brandishing his sword with the confidence one tends to gain when they have a big mech armor where before they didn’t.

“No need. You understand your strengths, so now your time is better spent strategizing.” Girori replied, his armor fading into red and purple particles as he shed his Kamen Rider suit seemingly with a thought. “At the very least, I believe you five can win, if you keep going like this.”