Cain regarded our team from his side of the technical area, his expression unreadable as always."What"s your plan, Captain Harrison?" he wondered, his eyes narrowed. "Well, not that it matters anyway."
The guy was confident that his team would win no matter what we did, or who we chose. I really wanted to show him the finger, but I was too polite to do that. Instead, I suppressed my anger and glanced at our team captain.
Harrison was still pretty calm, despite our teaming being down two matches. He was contemplating for a moment, and then he turned to Theodore.
"Theodore, this match will be yours."
"Oho! Seems like Captain Harrison has full trust in the veteran third year students of his team! Even though they are down two matches, he is choosing the experienced members! Perhaps that would allow them to mount a comeback?"
"…Theodore?"
"Who is that?"
Unlike the commentator, however, the audience seemed puzzled. Theodore, despite being a third year student, did not partic.i.p.ate in the national tournament last year. Therefore there wasn"t many people outside our school who knew about him. He was a relatively unfamiliar figure on the big stage, as was many of the other students in the team.
Even so…
"Isn"t Jing Tian Academy"s faith in their third year students misplaced?"
"Yeah, they already lost two matches."
"Wouldn"t now be a good opportunity to inject new blood into the team? Allow the younger students to show what they can do?"
"What is Captain Harrison doing?"
As usual, Harrison ignored the armchair commentary from the people who played too much Fantasy Football and thought they could become managers or something. They believed they knew more than the manager, except that they really didn"t.
"I understand!"
Instead of bowing to pressure and responding to the jeers and mockery from the crowd, Theodore stood strong and nodded resolutely. Rearing to his full height – which was considerable, he stepped onto the stage.
"You can do it!" Yue Chu told him. "Ignore those jerks!"
"I…no, we believe in you," Sheila added.
"Show them how it"s done!" Craig shouted enthusiastically, while showing a finger to the crowd who was baying for blood. "And screw the haters."
"Do your best, and don"t place too much pressure on yourself." Pearl looked concerned, but if she had any doubts she didn"t voice them.
"You only need to do your best, Theodore." Harrison was his usual charismatic self. "The results will follow naturally."
Theodore clenched his fists, visibly moved. I could tell what he was thinking. The whole team has placed their trust in me. I can"t let them down. I don"t want to be a burden for the team!
"You"re not a burden, and will never be," I a.s.sured him. "You will always be an important part of the team, no matter what."
Theodore stared at me, surprised, as if he was wondering how I knew what he was thinking. He took a deep breath and nodded.
"Yeah, thanks."
"Go get them!" Craig yelled, pumping a fist into the air. Theodore responded with a smile, and stepped onto the stage.
"You seem to have a lot of confidence in Theodore." Pearl turned to Harrison with a smile. "Do you know something that we don"t? Or maybe you"ve already antic.i.p.ated who the other team will field?"
"Ha ha, yeah." Harrison beamed confidently. Seriously?
"Hey, you"re not copying Battle Frenzy, are you?" I asked suspiciously. "Deliberately sending Lily and Cody out to lose the first two matches so that they can see the difference between their strengths and those of elite schools, and then mastermind some genius plan to see us overturn the deficit and win eventually? You"re not pretending to be w.a.n.g Zhong, who"s some sort of tactical genius foreseeing every single scenario and planning accordingly, while also being the strongest fighter capable of mastering every single weapon in existence?"
"I"ve no idea what you"re talking about," Harrison replied smoothly. Like h.e.l.l you didn"t, you pretty boy!
"So who is Adorno Team sending?" Pearl asked, dragging us back to the topic at hand. Harrison turned back to her.
"For this match, they will send…"
He never got to finish his sentence, for the commentator cut him off. His voice boomed excitedly across the whole arena.
"Adorno Team"s fighter for the fourth match has stepped onto the stage as well! Seems like they are sending their main tank, Roseville!"
"…tank?" I repeated incredulously. "That"s a human, not a tank."
"Oh, come on. You know what they mean." Yue Chu rolled his eyes. "They mean the cla.s.s of mage who serves as a frontline fighter, drawing all fire and buffing himself with defensive spells to become as durable as possible. They serve as a decoy to absorb the enemies" attacks so that they can protect other teammates."
"Number one, this isn"t a game. Number two, what"s the f.u.c.king point of sending a tank-cla.s.s in an individual match where there"s no other teammates to protect, to serve as a decoy as?!"
"I don"t know. Ask Skeleton Wizard."
I was getting sick of these Battle Frenzy references. They made no sense whatsoever.
Roseville studied Theodore with a smug smirk, and he was clearly looking down on our teammate. Like Theodore, he was also st.u.r.dily built and burly, the both of them being of similarly immense sizes. Despite the lack of difference between their bulks, Roseville clearly thought this would be an easy match.
"Captain told me to destroy their fighter and win decisively to deal a crippling blow to their morale. If possible, humiliate them a little, so that we can send a statement to the rest of the teams competing in this tournament…"
He paused in his thoughts when he noticed something strange about Theodore.
"!!"
Even though Theodore had not cast any spell yet, his fighting spirit was ablaze and his eyes were as hard as steel. So much so that Roseville could actually sense the tremendous killing intent emanating from him. Well, not killing intent exactly, but he could tell from Theodore"s determined posture that his foe would not be lying down and taking his punches.
"So they haven"t given up yet, huh? Seems like they still hold onto the hope that they can somehow turn this around. Naïve fools."
Theodore didn"t rise to the bait. Maybe he didn"t hear Roseville"s insults at all, or he just didn"t care. He just clenched his fists and breathed deeply, allowing his mana to flow through his body. Just flow, of course. No casting of spells was allowed, or he would be disqualified. This was just a relaxation technique to loosen his muscles and calm his mind, not to get ahead of his opponent by jumping ahead to cast spells before the match began.
"All right! Begin!" the commentator roared, and the two of them sprang into life.
Theodore"s surroundings immediately crackled with lightning as he converted his mana into a spell. Finally allowed to being casting, his mana erupted and transformed into intense electricity that scorched the ground.
Roseville frowned and immediately converted his own mana into petals. I had the image of a gigantic tree trunk that materialized behind him, almost resembling the Gigas Cedar in Rulid Village. Watch or read Sword Art Online Alicization if you have no idea what I was talking about.
"Interesting! Come at me!"
This Roseville was clearly confident in his absolute defense, and he beckoned the electrifying Theodore to come at him. The big guy raised an eyebrow, but didn"t refuse the invitation. Swinging his hammer, he kicked off the ground and launched himself forward, clearing the distance between them in a single bound.
"Take this!"
Roseville wasn"t going to pa.s.sively stand there. Calling upon the power of the gigantic cedar tree behind him, he swung his arm around in a vicious punch that sent shockwaves rippling across the stage.
"!!!"
Theodore recognized the threat, but he couldn"t halt his momentum in time. Not that he intended to. Sucking in a deep breath, he transferred all of the lightning crackling around him into his immense hammer and swung it down on his opponent.
Realizing that he couldn"t simply receive the dangerous blow and emerge unscathed, Roseville adjusted the trajectory of his punch. Thick wooden bark congregated around his arm, forming some sort of biological gauntlet. c.o.c.king his arm back, he threw his newly armored fist in the direction of Theodore"s hammer.
The thunder hammer collided against the wooden gauntlet, and golden eletricity exploded against brown bark. There was a deafening thunderclap, as if a lightning bolt had struck a tree, followed by a blinding explosion that buffeted the spectators with incredible shockwaves.
"Ugh!"
"!!"
The students recoiled from the immense collision, and gaped as they watched the two combatants stagger away from each other. The stage was still saturated with roiling waves of mana, electricity continuing to dance around Theodore"s burly form. Behind Roseville, the image of the tree still stood strong and resilient, despite showing signs of being singed from the lethal voltage of his opponent"s strike.
"It"s a draw?!"
Not yet. The match hadn"t ended yet.
"Believe in yourself, Theodore!" Harrison shouted. "You"re strong!"
"Kick that b.a.s.t.a.r.d"s a.s.s!" Craig hollered.
"Show him who the boss is!" Yue Chu yelled.
"You can do it!" I added, partially because I genuinely wanted to encourage my friend, and partly because I didn"t want to get left out.
Theodore grunted as he swiveled his hammer around to deliver another blow. Roseville cursed as he was knocked back despite crossing his arms to block the blow. His hands trembled violently, and he realized that they were growing numb from the intense currents flowing through Theodore"s hammer and attack. He hastily cast another spell and conjured a thick wooden staff that was the diameter of a normal tree, and wielded it as easily as a Shaolin monk would do with a staff several times thinner and lighter.
"Like I"ll let you!"
The two of them traded blows, hammer against staff. Lethal lightning coursed through the stage, scorcing the bark and sending splinters flying, but credit to Roseville, he was resilient. Gritting his teeth, he twirled and spun his staff, deflecting and parrying Theodore"s blows. However, Theodore relentlessly pushed on, his lightning s.h.i.+fting and changing into a gigantic serpent.
"That"s…!"
Roseville"s eyes widened when he saw the gargantuan electric serpent rear up high above him, its jaws spreading wide, as if to swallow him whole.
"What the h.e.l.l is that?!"
A bead of perspiration ran down Cain"s face when he watched what he thought was an impossible display of power.
"Roseville is actually being suppressed?! Who is this guy?! He never showed up in Jing Tian Team last year?!"
"Mjolnir!"
His thunder hammer bathed in devastating electricity, Theodore bellowed out the name of his spell as he swung his ma.s.sive weapon down. Behind him, the gargantuan lightning serpent lunged at the screaming Roseville before devouring both his tree and staff. Right as the wooden weapon disintegrated in the wood mage"s grip, Theodore"s hammer smacked into his face, breaking his nose and the front half of his skull and pulverizing his skull.
That blow would have killed Roseville outright if it wasn"t for the boundary field. As it was, the immense impact sent Roseville hurtling out of the arena and right into the technical area. He crashed heavily into the wall right below the spectators, cracking the reinforced concrete and vanis.h.i.+ng in a pile of rubble.
Panting, Theodore straightened himself up and rested his thunder hammer upon his shoulder. He wiped his perspiration with his other hand.
"…"
Both Eleanor and Gunther could only stare at the incredible scene in disbelief.
"This…" one of the academy directors murmured, still having yet to digest what had just transpired.
"…"
The spectators fell into deathly silence, frozen in their cheers and jeers, their eyes having grown wide and bulging from the unbelievable sight. This couldn"t be possible. It just wasn"t. Not to them, at least.
"We actually won this match!" one of the Jing Tian Academy students finally broke the silence. "We won this match!"
"Great job, Theodore!"
"Hah! That serves them right for underestimating you!"
"Woohoo! We got a point! We"ve narrowed the deficit to 1-2 now!"
"We might just be able to pull it off!"
"Don"t get too carried away yet," Harrison reminded us, even as the team erupted into cheers and celebrated. "We still have a couple more matches to go."
Even though he uttered those serious words, the team captain was beaming just as widely and brilliantly as the rest of us.