Chapter 3: Hidden maneuvers
Atlantis 9 AM
"h.e.l.lo ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the second phase of the elimination rounds. I’m your announcer Shenny and today we have two matches that begins at nine. Atlantis Academy’s second representative team and Clear Wind Academy’s first representative team will compete on the first arena, the water stage, for their match. At the same time, on the second arena, the wind stage will have Atlantis Academy"s first representative team competing against Seven Hill Academy. The winning teams will continue the elimination rounds in the afternoon. The last match tomorrow will decide the winner of the first compet.i.tion. Please look forward to it."
As usual, once the match began, an announcer appeared flying high above the stage.
The announcer this time didn’t even have any wings. She wore a gorgeous ancient Chinese costume and draped on her shoulders was the legendary magical item that gives flight, known as Plumage.
This time the stage wasn’t randomly drawn. As soon as we arrived on stage, we felt a strong cool breeze of water blowing on our faces.
"Great, huh", Senior said while standing by my side.
In front of my eyes was a huge water stage. The circular stage was completely filled with deep sea blue water, in addition to waves. Behind the audience were eight huge water columns that reached up to the skies. In midair was a ma.s.sive water sphere over the center of the stage, and with a few little fishes playing inside. The exact center beneath the water sphere, had a place that resembles something like a shrine. Enshrined within was a white statue of a woman with the lower half of a snake.
Between the eight columns of water that touched the sky, hung a white rainbow that I’ve never seen before. Heavy fog continuously descended as it filled the air. The entire scene gave off the feeling of a vast white expanse of a dream.
A few people appeared on the opposite side of the players" lounge, with the instructor Sinla being amongst those I saw.
That"s right, she"s the instructor of their first representative team so why did I see her appearing in the second representative team before?
"Probably a double instructor." Senior glanced at me, using a tone like it"s almost-so-normal-he"s-not-surprised-at-all to say, " This is often seen, if the instructor"s ability is indeed good enough."
"Clear Wind Academy"s first representative team, is led by black robe Mohander and his partner Tenju on stage as a two-man team." Right when Shenny"s voice lowered, two figures suddenly appeared on the other side of the water stage. Just like Senior and Gasai, it"s a black robe and purple robe pair.
Then, I was stunned.
That purple robe…
Was the one who found us when Chifuyu used his tracking technique that day.
I wanted to tell Senior, only to find that he and Gasai had long since left. They reappeared at the other end of the water stage.
"Ziray…" I looked around to find that the only one I can turn to for help, is called the five-colored rooster head.
"What is it?" The five-colored rooster head looked at me, puzzled.
Suddenly I was dismayed to find that I didn’t even know where to begin.
"Is something the matter?" He seriously asked again.
"That purple robe…" How should I say it? Say that he was the pursuer who chased after us?
But I also know that he was only counter tracking. Whether or not he’s a good person, I have no idea. However, if I tell the five-colored rooster head about this, he’ll definitely cause a difficult situation.
"What about that purple robe?" Following my line of sight to the stage, the five-colored rooster head issued a big question, "Do you know him or do you have something against him? Want me to deal with him after the match?"
"No need, thanks." Within a second, I gave up on the thought of asking him to help.
I suppose, if it’s Senior and Gasai then there shouldn’t be any problems.
While I was hesitating, the match onstage had already begun.
On the surface of the deep blue water with waves, the four compet.i.tors all stood high above the water without a single drop of water on them. Beneath both sides appeared different arrays of immense size. At that moment, the entire surface of the water suddenly calmed over, like a huge mirror inverting everyone’s reflections. Not a sound could be heard, even the audience seemed to be holding their breaths as they watched attentively for the next move to be made.
I couldn’t see any of their movements. Just a split second pause, and Gasai had already come to grips with the other purple robe atop the shrine. The entire surface of the water shook from the impact of their fight, causing huge ripples to form.
The whole arena was silent, and the water slowly subsided.
The level of this match far surpa.s.ses those of the fights I"ve seen before. There were practically no one, in the audience, who dared to make a sound. They were probably afraid of breaking the suspense, then get beaten up by the people around them.
Seems like I was worrying too much. Despite wearing a mask, senior Gasai"s actions were still fairly agile. There shouldn’t be any issues.
However, I still feel very concerned about meeting Sinla in the corridor before, as well as the matter of the purple robe’s counter tracking.
Both sides" black robes made no moves. They simply stayed where they were and maintained the arrays underneath their feet.
"What are those arrays?" I turned around to ask the five-colored rooster head, instinctively feeling that the bright large array should have some sort of effect other than simply calming the water.
The five-colored rooster head looked at me, “Just now I did overhear them talking about it. It seems like it’s an array that’s able to prevent the opponent from using any incantations. Since most black robes and purple robes would secretly use advanced spells during a compet.i.tion, it may be something that can restrain them or so.” Then he went back to attentively watching the match.
Because they were moving so quickly on stage, I couldn’t see it that clearly.
Truthfully, there’s a feeling like seeing images freeze all over the place. It’s over there for a moment, then all of a sudden it’s over here, making it completely impossible for me to follow their movements.
I wonder if they will sell the recordings in video tapes or CDs after the match. I should buy one back and watch it in slow motion.
“Fúcóng yǔ wǒ de shǐyì, zài dírén miànqián xiàn chū nǐ de zītài.” The opponent’s black robe suddenly moved, and as his circular array started to rotate, the surrounding waters slowly churned. A golden light drew out behind him and a white dragon-like figure gradually emerged. Then as if it was being colored, the figure was clearly becoming more and more three-dimensional. What floated up was a huge rather Western dark green dragon.
[T/N: The one who obeys my command, show your stance in front of the enemy]
“Never expected that we’d already see someone bringing out a divine beast by the second round.” The five-colored rooster head snorted as if disapproving.
Divine beast?
I stared at the five-colored rooster head expectantly, waiting for him to explain it to me.
I suddenly realized that the disadvantages of not having telepathic communications, was no immediate answers to the things I wanted to know.
Sorry, Senior. I’ve wronged you for always scolding you for eavesdropping.
It took him quite a while before he noticed my gaze. The five-colored rooster head talked while watching the match at the same time, “In this world, apart from the races, there’s also the so called familiars, demon beasts, fairy beasts, and divine beasts and whatnot. People with high-level abilities would subdue them to become their right-hand man. The more powerful a person is, the stronger the familiar they can have. But there is something you should take note of.” He turned around to look at me. “Familiars have feelings and one must sign a contract that binds one together. So the biggest taboo would be to raise more than one of them. And the majority of well-behaving familiars were raised since young in order to have suitable abilities, so it’s extremely troublesome in some respects.”
Then isn’t that like Pokémon?
It’s just that you can only have one of them.
The huge dragon let out a roar.
“Xiao Ting.”
Standing on the top of the shrine, Gasai, who still has yet to suffer the wrath of the heavens, stretched out his hand. A golden-eyed black snake appeared from his palm, then coiled around his shoulders. After that it became an one-eyed black crow, flapping its wings.
I suppose Xiao Ting isn’t a familiar, because she was something that was created from a cursed incantation.
So what kind of familiars do Gasai and Senior have?
I really am a bit curious.
The opposing purple robe jumped back and then that huge dragon came charging at them. His reactions being no worser than him, Gasai flipped himself high up. So high that he nearly knocked into the top of the water sphere. The crow then sprang out from beside him and expanded. An enormous black sky immediately appeared above the huge dragon. The sky thundered and purple-bluish lightning directly smashed on top of the dragon.
I’m really skeptical on how Gasai had changed Xiao Ting’s curse arrangement. It feels as if a murder weapon had a sharp increase in quality.
After that dragon was struck by the lightning, it fell into the water. A large spray of water was stirred up. Right after, I suspect I saw a suspicious white smoke emerging. The black sky shrank and turned back into a crow hovering in the air.
The surrounding audience suddenly exclaimed.
Senior, who was originally standing in the middle of the array, suddenly disappeared. A second later and he had already reappeared on top of the shrine. Following his line of sight over, I saw that Gasai, who was keeping a steady balance just a while ago, had a sudden loss of velocity and fell down for unknown reasons. Right before he crashed onto the top of the shrine, he was caught by Senior, sparing him from the fate of having his head cracked open.
What happened?
Xiao Ting flew down, and circled around the two people.
“There seems to be a problem on Atlantis Academy’s side…” The voice of the announcer sounded out and I knew that I didn’t think wrongly.
Something unusual really did happen.
Just when I was about to ask what happened, another “dong” sound came by my side—the five-colored rooster head, who was previously watching the match attentively, suddenly fell to the ground and wouldn’t wake up. “Ziray?” I quickly bent down to shake him.
The five-colored rooster head was covered in cold sweat, with his eyes shut, and seemed to have lost consciousness.
“What happened to you?” I started to get nervous.
It can’t be that he ate too much before and got food poisoning?
On stage, Senior raised his hand at the announcer. “Atlantis Academy requests a timeout!” Shenny’s voice sounded out amidst the noise of the audience, ” The General a.s.sembly has approved of it, you may have a timeout of three minutes. The players of both teams, please return to your resting area.”
Once she finished speaking, both sides simultaneously vanished from the stage.
By the time I noticed that, Senior had already carried Gasai back to the lounge. “Ziray’s also like this?” His voice showed a trace of surprise, a rarely seen fluctuation.
“I didn’t kill him!” I quickly retreated and Senior placed Gasai down to the side.
“Nonsense!” He coldly gave me this sentence.
After putting the two together, Senior took off his black gloves then placed his hands thirty centimeters away from their faces. A faint silver light shone beneath his palms.
Little orbs of light fell on Gasai"s and the five-colored rooster head"s faces before disappearing as if they were absorbed.
"This is bad, to have fallen for this trick." Senior took away his hands and said in a cold voice.
"Ah?" I looked at the two that pa.s.sed out. They’ve already stopped breaking out into a cold sweat but they’re still unconscious.
Footsteps came from behind me. “What happened?” The quick reacting medical team had already arrived. Looking at the two that lost consciousness, the a.s.sistant immediately bent down. After feeling around for a while, he lifted his head. “What did they eat just now? There are reactions from a restrictive curse within their bodies.”
“Reactions from a restrictive curse?” Senior narrowed his eyes.
Restrictive curses have to be eaten?
Speaking of food, just now the five-colored rooster head ate so much that there’s no way for us to know which one it was. Moreover, I also ate the things he did, so how is it that I’m alright when he isn’t?
Perhaps he just had food poisoning.
“Usually people wouldn’t directly eat that kind of stuff so it must’ve been mixed in with the food to avoid detection. Try to remember what both of them ate today.” The a.s.sistant clapped his hands, and a few more blue robed members of the medical team appeared in our lounge. They formed a circle and drew out an array.
“Gasai ate in the dorms this morning and didn’t eat anything after coming here.”
Senior tilted his head and started thinking.
Something that both of them had eaten…?
“Ah!”
I remember now!
“The beverages!”
Senior immediately looked at me. “Beverages?”
I gulped and subconsciously took two steps back. “Sinla touched the drinks before.” I remember that she was the one who picked them up when the drinks fell. “But I checked afterwards and there was nothing different about the drinks.”
“Just touching them is enough.” Senior and the a.s.sistant exchanged glances. “Seems like there’s some problems with Clear Wind Academy, for them to actually resort to these little tricks again and again.”
"Want to call off the match? The medical team can give a testimony to allow you to delay the match." The a.s.sistant folded his arms and said,"The restrictive curses on their bodies can’t be removed within three minutes, so at least give us some time.”
Narrowing his red eyes, Senior lowered his head to think for a moment. “Transfer them onto me?”
“Can’t do that, you won’t be able to absorb two people’s portions.” Shaking his head to reject his suggestion, the a.s.sistant looked at Senior with pity and said, “What’s your decision? To handle a black robe and a purple robe at the same time, will be too difficult even for you.”
Senior frowned then slowly turned to look at me.
Being stared at by that pair of red eyes made my hair stand on end.
“What, what are you trying to do?” I backed up ten steps until I hit the wall. My back started to break out into cold sweat. “What are you trying to do to a pa.s.serby like odd-job man!”
“I won’t do anything.” Senior coldly laughed, “You were the one who bought those drinks. Now that those two have collapsed after drinking them, you should therefore take joint responsibility for it.”
What the…does that have to do with me!
That was close, I almost thought of some bad words.
“It does have something to do with you since this is a group compet.i.tion. This match has just begun and we’re already missing a person. Even the only backup player is now gone, and you want me to go fight by myself?” He looked at me, and continued to have that horrifyingly cold smile that makes one feel afraid, afraid and still feel afraid.
Basically, I think there’ll be no problem at all even if you’re by yourself. According to that strong as h.e.l.l strength of yours, there definitely won’t be any problems. Personally I have the utmost faith in you, so good luck Senior.
The back of my head was violently smacked with a “pa” sound and I instantly entered that dark abyss of dizziness.
“Three minutes have already pa.s.sed, please have the players of both teams go up on stage!” Shenny’s voice sounded out without being a second off. I saw the opposing side’s players immediately appearing on stage. “Atlantis Academy, please hurry up on stage!”
People are already urging us.
“Chu…” Red eyes stared at me.
“I don’t want to!” I won’t go on stage even if you beat me to death!
So terrifying, so terrifying. The people on stage aren’t humans, a ordinary person like me will definitely be sec-killed, I don’t want that!
[T/N; It means to kill an enemy within seconds.]
I won’t go even if I’m beaten to death!
That’s right, I’ll rather go and die!
“If you want to die, go die after the match is over. You better go out there!” Completely resorting to force, Senior grabbed the back of my collar and dragged me outside. “It’s not as terrifying as you think!”
Liar!
It’s not terrifying for you but I’m extremely terrified of it!
“Atlantis Academy, is something wrong?” Simply flying over to the entrance of our lounge, Shenny widened her beautiful eyes and inquired, “If there’s nothing wrong then please go on stage or else you’ll be disqualified.”
Senior glared at me, “We want to replace a player.”
I’m finished…
It’s game over for me…
From this day forth, this story will have a new protagonist, everything ends here.
My life will come to an end today.
“May I ask which player do you want to replace with?” Shenny scanned our lounge, probably also understood our situation and then whispered to a someone I didn’t know. A few seconds later she raised her head again, “The General a.s.sembly permits you to replace a player, please propose the person for the player’s replacement.”
“It’s him.” Senior pulled me forward while holding on to my collar, completely ignoring my desire to escape. “Chu Ming Yang, originally registered as a reserve member but since this sudden situation requires it, please change his ident.i.ty to that of a backup player. According to the number of people and players of Atlantis Academy’s second representative team, there’s still a spot in the quota so please let him fill in the vacancy.”
My life is over….
In Shenny’s hands appeared something very much like a sphere of light. l’ve seen it at Giya before, it’s very similar but not quite like it. "Putting forth Chu Ming Yang"s registration data, starting process, changing the ident.i.ty of backup." The sphere of light began to rotate, then black spots appeared and disappeared just as quickly. "The registration process has succeeded, and the replacement was smoothly conducted. Atlantis Academy’s representative team’s proposed permit has been arranged, please go on stage to compete.”
I heard the huge commotion coming from the audience seats.
All the words spoken just now were spread to everyone’s ears without leaving a single word out.
This is the first time I wanted to die so badly.
Help me…
Just when I thought I should first bite my tongue to commit suicide, the surrounding air abruptly became very cold and wet.
Suddenly shocked, I was already dragged onstage without being aware of it!?
“Don’t move around!” When I moved back a step, Senior’s voice came from beside me. But it came a bit too late, I stepped on air and my left leg that moved back, went into the water with a “pa” sound. My whole shoe got soaked.
I sucked in a breath, and Senior pulled me back at once.
Good…
Take a deep breath…take a deep breath…
I closed my eyes then reopened them, and found myself standing in midair on top of a huge array. Slightly overlapping as it rotated, the array seems even more beautiful than usual.
Hahaha…so this is my graveyard…
My entire mind was blank. As for getting attacked or so, I no longer cared at all. Now I’m just waiting for someone to give me a mortal blow and let me quickly reincarnate.
“Since there’s no place for you to escape to, you’ll just have to work harder than usual.” Senior suddenly spoke nearby then pulled the rubber band off his hair. Long silvery hair instantly spread out in the air. “Sometimes putting in a little effort isn’t as difficult as you think it is. In this match, you just need to take over for me and stand at that spot. Then concentrate on thinking about not letting the array to disperse, and that’s all.”
Not letting the array to disperse?
I looked down at the array that was floating in midair, completely at a loss.
“I’ve said that in order to control your power, you’ll have to start from the heart. You just need to think that you don’t want it to disperse, and it won’t disperse.” Senior stepped out of the array then lifted his hand up high. “Yǔ wǒ qiāndìng qìyuē de wù, ràng qīnxí zhě jiànshì nǐ de lìliàng.” A silver speck of light stretched into a line then after being clenched in his palm, it became a spear.
[T/N: The one who signed the contract with me, allow the invaders witness your strength.]
A cold wind rose up around us. The lower hems of Senior’s black robe were turned and blown around, like a huge black shadow.
This is the first time I truly felt that…
He’s very strong.
Behind his huge back, I was as small as a fly.
“Chu.” Senior turned around, his silvery hair were like threads of silk behind his head. “There is no such thing as being small or not, only whether you can do it or not. No matter what it is, it will have the right place for it to stay, just like you. Now, as long as you stay in that spot and maintain it, the enemies will be restrained which will give me an easier time.”
Probably a bit like hypnosis, I might have subconsciously nodded.
The array beneath had its rotation speed slightly increased.
“Remember, don’t give up on the things you can do so easily.”