"…seriously? This isn"t our first battle."I frowned as I stared at the chapter t.i.tle. Who the h.e.l.l came up with it? Okay, I knew it was meant to correspond to Battle Frenzy"s "The Prodigy Society"s first battle" but the t.i.tle 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 w.a.n.g 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."
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"That"s right." Harvey nodded, his expression that of wonder. "We"ve never partic.i.p.ated in a team battle before, have we?"
"Yeah, that"s right." I stared at him. "You sure you don"t want to partic.i.p.ate? 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 partic.i.p.ants 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-partic.i.p.ants.
"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 partic.i.p.ated 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 partic.i.p.ating 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?"
"I heard Lin Zhan Long volunteered to personally take charge of this team match. He wanted to teach Richard and the Ultimate Outcast a lesson."
"Are you sure he won"t be the one who gets his a.s.s kicked?"
Lin Zhan Long had built up some notoriety despite his status of vice-president of Holy Saints. While his combat capabilities were indeed not weak, he was an arrogant bully who thought too highly of himself, and looked down on those he deemed as weak. As a result, not many people were pleased about being treated condescendingly and abused by someone – especially an individual who bragged loudly, only to get his a.s.s handed to him during last year"s national tournament. His pathetic performance ended up embarra.s.sing Jing Tian Magic Academy.
Despite his devastating defeat, Lin Zhan Long continued to act arrogant. According to him, he was still better than those who failed to represent Jing Tian Academy at all, and if they wanted to prove him wrong, they were always welcome to challenge him. Unfortunately, reality was pretty harsh, and Lin Zhan Long largely had the ability to back up his boasts. Mostly. The majority of his challengers ended up being pulverized.
Currently, the vice-president of Holy Saints was slowly making his way to the stage with his group, being the last to appear. They kind of took it for granted that they were the VIPs or something. Right now, the five of them were strolling somewhat arrogantly toward the stage.
A pretty girl who served as a reporter approached them, a microphone in hand.
"And here comes Holy Saints! As one of the four great societies of Jing Tian Magic Academy, they have a prestigious history, having won several inter-society tournaments. The last tournament they won was about three years ago, when led by former Captain Harold Samson, they swept aside Black Roses in the finals to clinch the ultimate society trophy!"
There was some applause.
I studied their group, and noted that Harrison Reed wasn"t present. Just as I thought. Right now, the leader of the squad was none other than Vice-President Lin Zhan Long, and his faction within the society. Evidently they didn"t view Ultimate Outcast as a threat, even when we received help from Black Roses. They didn"t think much of Elliot and Nicholas either, recognizing them as fourth-string members of Black Roses.
Apparently if they took us seriously and fought us with all their might, they would still be embarra.s.sed even if they lost face. Though I secretly agreed with the spectators – they just wanted an excuse just in case they lost.
Puffing his chest out, Lin Zhan Long stared scornfully at everyone in the arena. The spectators began to boo him, but he didn"t care. His mind was currently occupied with the prospect of crus.h.i.+ng us Ultimate Outcasts. He had persuaded Harrison Reed to leave this match to him, and was going to seize this opportunity to boost his ego and ranking.
"Heh." Dong Fang Yue Chu didn"t seem to be aware of that, or even if he did he couldn"t care less and just wanted to exploit the chance to make fun of our rivals. "Where"s Harrison? Is he too afraid to come?"
Lin Zhan Long burst out laughing, and glared at him with contempt.
"Why would President Harrison bother coming to face pathetic losers like you? h.e.l.l, even I was tempted to give this a miss, but I just thought I should be generous and teach you all a lesson!"
"We"re so grateful," I replied sarcastically. Then ignoring Lin Zhan Long, I turned to Dong Fang Yue Chu. "Hey, what happened to your Char Aznable cosplay?"
"Huh? What cosplay?" Dong Fang Yue Chu stared at me blankly.
"You know…a red suit and a cape. Plus a mask. You might want to dye your hair blond too…"
"What the f.u.c.k are you babbling about?!" Lin Zhan Long roared impatiently. I merely shrugged.
"Why should you care? Just Ultimate Outcast business. Nothing to do with you." then I smiled. "But I can tell you if you"re willing to join Ultimate Outcast. We might even give you a special position." I pretended to consider seriously. "We really need a janitor."
"Shut the f.u.c.k up!"
"Hey, you"re the one who asked."
To the side, Alicia burst out laughing. She had taken a front row seat as well, and was watching the match with avid interest. Since Elliot and Nicholas were partic.i.p.ating, she had an investment in this as well. She was accompanied by a contingent of Black Roses that included Jin Hao, Mizuno Aoi, Miranda Miriam and others. Troy was noticeably absent, because he had to run off and chase after his longlost brother.
"Now, now." The pretty reporter was bouncing in front of an enraged Lin Zhan Long. Seeing the chance for publicity, he calmed down and allowed her to shove her microphone in front of his face. "Vice-President Lin Zhan Long, what are your plans for this team battle?"
"Plans? Hah!" Lin Zhan Long scoffed. "You"re overthinking this. We don"t need a plan against rabble like Ultimate Outcast. We"ll just crush them to the ground."
"Really?" The reporter was astonished. "Your opponent includes Richard Huang, who"s famous for team-killing Iron Fist Society and the representatives from Crowley"s Academy, you know?"
"So?" Lin Zhan Long sneered. "All we need to do is take him out as soon as possible, stop him from summoning, and we"ll have the win in the bag."
"So you do have a plan," I remarked. Everyone laughed. Lin Zhan Long"s face flushed red and he turned to holler at me.
"Shut the f.u.c.k up! n.o.body asked you!"
"Now, now, calm down, Vice-President Lin Zhan Long." The reporter raised both hands. "I was going to have to interview both societies anyway."
"Any interview will have to be conducted later. Let"s not waste time. We"ll begin the match right away."
Teacher Fielding stepped in. instead of his usual hologram copy, it was the real Teacher Fielding. As this team battle was unofficially sanctioned by Instructor Feng Hai, it was only natural that an actual teacher took charge of refereeing this match, rather than leaving it to a digital clone. As such, everyone recognized how high the stakes were.
The losers would be shamed and lose most of their chances of becoming a representative, and the winners would be heralded and honored as the brightest hope the academy had. Okay, that was an exaggeration, but you know how spectators love to romanticize this sort of things.
Stepping forward, Teacher Fielding glanced from one side to the other, studying us. Then he nodded and raised a hand.
"If both teams are ready, let"s begin!"