The next day had arrived and that meant it was the start of the week. As usual, the team had a full week to practise and train before their big match.That day while Novis was busy walking to school, he was too focused thinking about what Arthur and George had told him. Novis knew to get to the next step and to be a match against Lucas, he needed to learn sword energy.
Using Berserker mode wasn"t going to be good enough. Novis was no longer lacking in skill but now instead he needed something to activate in his body. Unfortunately for him, George and Arthur both said this was something they couldn"t teach Novis.
When Novis asked them how they had come across sword energy for the first time, they both had given different but similar answers. In their world, they were given several quests and they were also several dangerous beasts that roamed the land. Dragons were just one of them.
They said it came to them when they were in danger, a near-death experience when everything was put on the line. But how was Novis meant to simulate that? This wasn"t a fantasy world where he could go out fighting people stronger than him and he never had the real fear of danger.
Only once had something like that happened and that was when a gun had been pulled on him. While busy thinking about it, Novis had come up with an idea. There was one person he could ask about it. Someone who was able to use sword energy that was from the same world as Novis.
And that was Ashley"s father, Daiki.
While Novis was deep in thought on how to approach and ask Daiki this, he suddenly realised he had already arrived at school and when he did, in just a few seconds he was immensely swarmed by crowds of people.
"Novis, Novis, did you see the Westgate game?"
"Yeah, what do you think about Lucas saying he has no rival."
"Is it true you beat him last time?"
"How did you get so good at the game, aren"t you only a bronze Rank."
At this point, Novis still was enjoying all the attention he was receiving. He had gone to a n.o.body to a celebrity overnight. It was every kid"s dream for this to happen. But when Novis gave out his replies the crowd quickly became disinterested.
"Do you think you"re going to kick Lucas"s a.s.s." A student asked.
"Maybe, I"m not sure," Novis replied.
"You beat him before though, right?"
"That"s was just in a practice game, he was just teaching me."
Most of the questions seemed to be centred around him facing off against Lucas and the students wanted to feel hyped but hearing Novis talk did the exact opposite.
Without even realising it, Novis was losing his fanbase and by the end of the day, people had stopped asking him questions.
Once school had finished for the day, that meant it was time for club activities to resume. The VSW members met up in the club room and when Novis entered everyone was present.
"Whoa, what happened to you?" Novis asked looking at Dan.
Dan"s face was slightly swollen from yesterday. While Tony was demonstrating a few things to him yesterday. Things had gotten heated between the two and Tony had hit Dan by accident.
"Don"t worry about it, was just an accident between friends," Dan said with a smile.
Once everyone was seated, Alex switched on the projector and started his presentation.
"It"s nice to have you back captain," Novis said. "No offence, Frank." Novis laughed nervously.
"Don"t worry, he deserves it," Frank replied.
"So do you have a plan to beat Westgate then?" Ashley asked.
"Yes, of course I do." Alex smiled faking his confidence.
Alex knew he needed to stay positive but he couldn"t help but think back to the three percent number he had come up with the other day. But it was important to keep the team"s morale high.
When Alex went on to the next slide, the group was surprised to see Hershal on the screen instead of Westgate.
"This is how we will beat them," Alex explained. "Honestly Westgate is a better team than us in every way. If we were to go up against them in the standard two top, one mid, and two bottom formation, we would each be beaten in our lanes before we could do anything. Does anyone remember how Hershal fought?"
Frank raised his hand immediately.
"Apart from Frank of course."
"They grouped up, right? always stayed together." Scarlett replied.
"Exactly, if we can"t beat them in the laning phase then from the beginning we will have to force a group battle."
"But won"t their power still be greater than ours, and they even have Lucas," Dan asked. "Even when we went against Hershal we weren"t strong enough to go against them five against five."
"Lucas is the exact reason why this plan has a chance of working." Alex said, "Judging by his last match, Lucas is a solo player. He isn"t a team player. Most likely he will either act on his own or even better he won"t care if his teammates get hurt in the crossfire, just like what had happened in the last game. The current Lucas is c.o.c.ky, he believes he can probably take us out all on his own but we have Novis. Of course, Novis alone won"t be enough and for this plan to work we have to learn how to fight as a team. That"s why I won"t be taking part in this game."
"What!" the group shouted at the same time.
"But you just got permission to play," Ashley said.
"I know but more than ever, I want this team to win and to give us the best chance, I can"t take part in this game. I"m sure you all know there is someone already on the team who has a lot more experience fighting as a group than me. In fact, I would even go as far as to say he is an expert at group fighting."
At that moment the group turned their heads and looked towards Frank.
"Huh wait, you"re talking about me."
"Who else is there," Alex said.