Chapter 179: Passing the tests (1/2)
Chapter 179: Passing the tests
“What’s Silver Trout doing?”
“They’re actually fielding an all-substitute lineup just like Golden Stag Academy. They might have won five three, but it looks like their victory was full of danger.”
“Top teams are top teams after all. Even their substitutes are formidable. But they’re still clearly a bit worse than Golden Stag substitutes. Among all the teams this year, Golden Stag Academy should have the strongest bench.”
In the Arena of Fire and Blood, excited cheers and shouts and comments came nonstop from the stands.
After the match between Holy Dawn Academy and Rapier Academy, the members who’d fought for Silver Trout Academy had all been substitutes. As a result, the match had been rather thrilling as each side scored in turn, and it went all the way to five three before they finally defeated Salt Armor Academy.
“It seems their state of mind has adjusted pretty well. Next round will be more difficult for us,” Chris quietly said, looking at team Silver Trout as they stood not far away.
“Are these guys showing off to Golden Stag Academy?” Stingham said with a hearty laugh and a toss of his hair.
“…”
“What kind of reasoning is that? Is this guy’s brain filled with mush?”
Apart from him, the group of people from team Holy Dawn almost all crashed down head first on the ground.
Because a genius freshman like Shinro had appeared in team Silver Trout, their strength had suddenly risen to a new level in every team’s opinion. They’d become a powerful challenger for the cup this year.
From a genius freshman who could greatly increase the power of his team to a henchman of the Evil Dragon followers all of a sudden, it’d made the whole team ashamed. This was certainly a huge blow for those in team Silver Trout.
Right now, though team Silver Trout already won the match, there weren’t many smiles to be seen on their faces.
Previously, in Chris’ opinion, a wild, unrestrained, spectacular victory would have been the best way to restore their reputation. So she thought Silver Trout Academy would use breathtaking methods to achieve a decisive victory.
This way, whether “Triforce” Nolan, “Poison Dragon” Shugillas, or perhaps “Sharp Suzerain” Salina, she could have been able to see the tactics and arcane skills of one of the three most powerful figures in Silver Trout Academy.
Instead, Silver Trout Academy had sent an all-substitute lineup and obtained victory in this match with a rather unflattering score.
This meant team Silver Trout had already stopped paying attention to momentary reputation. They’d already sobered up and came to realize that going further in the national tournament, even fighting their way to the cup’s finals, would be the only way for them to restore their reputation and earn respect.
For that reason, everyone else in team Holy Dawn clearly realized their next round would be more of a struggle when they heard Chris’ words. Only, the genius Stingham’s brain was really made of different stuff from ordinary people; he linked it to Golden Stag Academy instead.
…
…
“Are you ready?”
In a testing site inside the Office’s infirmary, the “perverted doctor” Songat with his disheveled hair looked at a steaming Ayrin. “You barely passed the strength and endurance tests just now. If you can’t pass this one, then you’ll have no choice but to wait for a couple more days before condensing arcane particles.”
Ayrin looked at the wide venue in front of him, his face brimming with fighting spirit and self-confidence. “Teacher Songat, I’ll definitely make it!”
“Is that so? Then go and give it a try.” With a strange smile, Songat pointed at the site in front.
“Ok!”
Full of confidence, Ayrin charged inside the wide and empty site, but his body felt heavier as soon as he stepped on the glossy cyan floor. He almost lost his balance.
“Pitter-patter.”
Just then, strange creatures ran his way from the edges of the site. They looked like big-headed fishes, yet also possessing sturdy lower limbs, a short and pointy tail, as well as a disproportionately huge mouth and fangs, to the point fangs even stuck out from their bodies.
“Is it a gravitational gym that makes the body heavier? Also, what are these things now?” Ayrin couldn’t help but shout.
“These things are called evil toutous. These vicious carnivores can be traced back to the era of the War of the Dragons when the Evil Black Dragon bred them in great quantity. After that, there were gnomes especially in charge of training evil toutous in the armies of the Evil Dragon King. They even formed an evil toutou army. Nowadays, the Evil Dragon followers breed a great number of these evil toutous. In some border areas inside our kingdom, the Evil Dragon followers often launch surprise raids with a great number of these things on arcane masters’ encampments.” Songat looked at Ayrin, full of schadenfreude. “Don’t look down on these small things. If they bite you, not only they’ll tear a sizable hole, their saliva even has a dizzying effect.”
Looking at the extremely brutal-looking evil toutous madly charging his way from all sides, their jaws clicking open and shut, Ayrin didn’t seem afraid of Songat’s words in the slightest. Instead, he swallowed his saliva and asked, “Can you eat these things?”
Songat suddenly blinked, a little blank. “They aren’t toxic in theory and are edible. Evil toutous eat fresh meat and don’t carry any awful parasites on them. But they look so vicious and are so eager to eat people, I think no one ever had the urge to eat them?”
“But these huge beasts are also very vicious, and they’ll also eat people if they come across them. Like sharptooth tigers, grand wolves, their meat is delicious. Don’t restaurants in Eichemalar sell them all the same?” Ayrin added, looking at the evil toutous rushing his way, full of excitement.
“That makes sense.” Songat suddenly took on an excited look. “When you’re done with the test, we’ll roast a couple toutous and try them out.”
“So much roasted meat!”
With a cheer, Ayrin actually charged toward those evil, ominous and ferocious toutous instead. In his eyes, those toutous had totally become moving barbecues.