379 Chapter 379: The First Round (1/2)
\”Finally, after all that side-tracking, we're finally going to start the tournament!\”
\”Side-tracking?\” Yue Chu gave me a perplexed glance when I started throwing my hands up and yelling in joy.
\”Yeah. Not filler. Readers just complain about everything that they don't want to read as filler, but those side-tracking were imperative to move the story onward as it would impact what happens during the tournament. Like Anastasia, for example. I won't spoil the readers, but it's not a coincidence that she had something happen to her during the qualifiers. And Bu Fan's sister too…\”
\”Sorry.\” Yue Chu raised a hand. \”You've lost me totally.\”
\”Well, essentially, there are no fillers, and these events are all related to what happens in the main plot, so people whining about them being fillers are just wrong.\”
\”I still don't understand.\”
\”Never mind. Anyway, let's proceed to the first match. We're up against…uh, Adolf Academy, was it?\”
\”Is that what Harrison told you?\” Yue Chu burst out laughing. \”Well, he wasn't wrong, but to prevent copyright troubles, they changed their name. Now they are known as Adorno Academy.\”
That was one hell of a reason to change the name of their school, and I honestly doubted that Skeleton Wizard would bother with an obscure story like mine to file some copyright claim, so it was probably unnecessary. Even so, I understood why they did it.
There had been several other matches, but because I didn't want to drag the story out unnecessarily (and it was a pain to write fight scenes about characters who would probably show up once or twice and never appear again), I was going to skip over them and head straight for our match. Of course, in reality, Harrison would have the team watch those matches again and again to ensure we knew what sort of tactics or fighting style our future opponents would employ, but I wasn't going to bore the readers wiith longwinded analysis.
If you really enjoyed that sort of thing, you could go read Battle Frenzy instead.
Anyway, our team showed up early in the massive stadium that the Stuart family had reserved for the national Federation high school tournament. I couldn't help but look around, admiring the gleaming chrome shell that made up the walls. There were tens of thousands of seats, surrounding the metallic arena in the middle. Even though it looked nothing more than a football field sized slab of concrete for now, I was aware that using magic, they could transform the arena into any type of environment they wanted. A forest, a lake, an urban environment, anything.
As long as you had the right spells and the right personnel (those who specialized in such magic), you could do almost anything. Obviously, such personnel were in high demand, because not everyone was capable of learning landscaping magic (or healing magic, for that matter).
Everyone applaused when Adorno Academy showed up at the other end of the stadium. The ten members were striding into the open area, which included a huge space for technical teams, substitutes, and the captains and vice-captains to sit around, strategize and plan, or watch the match. They even had holograms and other equipment up for the benefit of both teams. The technical area, if I remembered, was an old throwback to old football/soccer games where the manager and the coaching team would prowl around, watching his players.
They adopted a dignified stance, looking almost like celebrities stylishly making their entrance in some ball or whatever those movie stars ceremonies were called. Sorry, I don't watch those. Anyway, everyone was screaming and cheering for them.
As for us…not so much. We were still a relatively obscure team, and there was some polite applause. Not many people enthusiastically roaring our names and such, probably because we didn't have time to build up a fanbase, and our performance over the last few years was far from impressive. Even though we had gotten a few decent results this year, there weren't that many who knew too much about us.
That said, there were quite a few people cheering us on as underdogs. I could see Adrian and his friends amongst the crowd, including Melina and his middle school classmates. Then I could see Harvey Deng and a fairly large contingent of supporters from Jing Tian Academy also cheering within the crowd, their grayish uniforms standing out against the other schools. I smiled and waved to both Adrian and Harvey and their friends, wondering if the two would ever meet one day. They could become good friends, given how similar they were.
Well...Harvey had to be careful, though. Adrian seemed to be the scheming type, particularly after what happened in the Stuart Corporation Building…
The captain of the team, Cecil…ahem, I mean Cain, was narrowing his eyes as he watched us. His gaze was intense.
I could probably guess what he was thinking. If this was a typical Chinese webnovel, he would probably be thinking along the lines of, \”what a trash team\” or \”no matter what kind of strategy you have, it's useless in the face of overwhelming power\” or something.
Utter bullshit. The most brilliant strategies could bring down even the most overwhelming of power. It had been done so in the past, and it would be done again here. Just like how the Vietnamese gureilla forces defeated a superior French army when they tried to recolonize Indochina. David versus Goliath. The battle of Zulu. Stuff like that that became legends.
\”Who will you choose as your first figher?\” Cain asked, his eyes cold and hard. He was holding back, testing to see who we would field.
Harrison turned and nodded at his Holy Saints teammate, Lily. She took a deep breath and acknowledged his silent instructions with a jerk of her head, and then stepped forward, climbing atop the arena.
\”Oho! The first fighter for Jing Tian Team has entered the stage!\” the commentator announced with a flourish. \”It's Lily Liam! She's the backbone of the third year students in Jing Tian Academy, and has been a reliable starter for the team for the past couple of years! Will she be able to replicate her impressive display from last year?\”
The crowd murmured and watched, with some nodding in approval and others shrugging nonchalantly.
\”So Captain Harrison sent out an all-round warrior, and a veteran too. A safe start.\”
\”Good choice. I would have picked Lily too if I were him.\”
Harrison merely smiled confidently as he watched, but there was no way to read his intention behind those glacial blue eyes of his. Cain was watching Harrison intently, his eyes still narrowed, but he remained silent. He then jerked his head toward the burly guy next to him, who was some reason also wearing glasses and handling a massive gun.
\”And now we have the first fighter from Adorno Team also entering the stage!\” the commentator was on a roll now. \”It's their Vice-captain Gunther Schalke! As opposed to the all-round warrior Lily, he is a heavy gunner!\”