77 Chapter 77: Ultimate Outcast Society’s first battle (1/2)

”…seriously? This isn't our first battle.”

I frowned as I stared at the chapter title. Who the hell came up with it? Okay, I knew it was meant to correspond to Battle Frenzy's ”The Prodigy Society's first battle” but the title was misleading in so many ways. For one thing, Ultimate Outcast Society already had its first battle…okay, it involved me team-killing Iron Fist Society, but that should count as the first society battle.

On the other hand, this was probably our first team battle. So there was that.

”What are you talking about?”

I blinked and snapped out of my reminiscing, turning toward Harvey and the rest. He and Wang Fei had stayed back as support, rather than actual fighters, but they were bringing drinks and towels and the usual stuff.

”Oh, nothing. Just thinking that this is our first team battle.”

Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.

”That's right.” Harvey nodded, his expression that of wonder. ”We've never participated in a team battle before, have we?”

”Yeah, that's right.” I stared at him. ”You sure you don't want to participate? This is your great chance, you know?”

”Nah. I don't want to drag the Ultimate Outcast down.” Harvey shook his head. ”Besides, you guys have been working pretty hard over the past week. Stick to that strategy.” He lowered his voice. ”The Holy Saints are a formidable foe.”

”You got that right.” Elliot came up, along with Dong Fang Yue Chu, Stan and Nicholas. He glanced at me. ”Are you sure you're all right with us?”

Both Elliot and Nicholas were surprised when I approached them for help. As Troy pointed out, they were among the lower-ranked members of Black Roses, so they thought I would use the opportunity to enlist the help of the elite, higher-ranked members. I declined to do so, and explained that we had worked together before and thus it would be easier for us to team up than for us to group with people we were totally unfamiliar with.

”Yup.” I nodded. ”I'll be counting on you guys!”

”We'll do our best to not let you down,” Nicholas promised, but he was crossing his fingers and swallowing hard.

”You'll be fine. We'll win as a team, and lose as a team. No hard feelings, no blaming no matter what happened.” I straightened my spine and squared my shoulders. ”But…let's do our best to win this!”

”Yeah!” everyone shouted and punched the air.

”All right, let's go!”

Then my hastily cobbled together team turned and left the waiting room, stepping into the stage where a huge number of spectators awaited.

…as well as our opponents from Holy Saints.

I looked around nervously. Honestly, this wasn't the first time I had been in an arena, or was being watched by a bunch of spectators, so that wasn't what bothered me. In fact, the time when I had a match against the team of representatives from Crowley's Grand Arcane Academy, there were a lot more spectators than right now. At that time, the whole school had come to watch. Right now the audience only numbered a fraction of the people present back then.

Despite that, the arena was still full. This wasn't the arena in the main hall, but one of the specialized arenas set aside for the use of the various societies. As such, the spectator boxes were packed full of people even before the participants arrived.

Apparently there was a lot of people interested in the societal group battle between Holy Saints and Ultimate Outcast. Most were wondering if I could pull off a team-kill again. Obviously the chances of that were pretty low, but you know it was with fans and spectators. They enjoyed speculating, betting, talking about crazy stuff. As much as this was for deciding our ranks, the matches also provided a good amount of entertainment for non-participants.

”Who wants to bet?”

”Oh?! What are the odds?”

”4 to 3 for Ultimate Outcast. 3 to 4 for Holy Saints.”

”Oh! That's surprisingly low odds for Ultimate Outcast.”

”Payout of 10 for another team-kill by Richard Huang!”

What the f…?! Seriously?

I was flattered that my team-kill legend had become betting odds, but I didn't want to give false hope. In any event, it was clear that a betting system had cropped up, and many students engaged in it. I had participated at first, but I always lost my bets. After being burned badly, I came to a conclusion that I jinxed whoever I was rooting for and stopped wasting my money on bets. It was fun, especially when you were rooting on your favorite player to win, but it needlessly sucked away too much cash.

And I wasn't made of money.

”Will Captain Harrison Reed be participating in the match?” a love-struck girl demanded from near the front of the crowd. ”I would love to see him in action!”

”Hah! There's no way Harrison Reed would lower himself to fight Ultimate Outcast! Holy Saints are a great society. They don't want to be seen bullying newer, less established societies. They'll only send out their second string instead of their core fighters.”

”Oh, so they'll have an excuse for when they get team-killed and lose, just like Crowley's Academy?” one guy, also at the front, sneered acidly.

”Yeah, even Crowley's Academy's representatives lost to Richard. If they don't send out their best team, wouldn't they get crushed?”