The ma.s.sive screen above the arena displayed victory on one side, while on the other is displayed defeat. While one side of the stadium was up in cheers, the other end was quiet. But as they saw their team members exit out of their pods, they couldn"t help but cheer for them."You did good guys!" Novis shouted, "You never gave up until the very end, I saw it… I saw it!" Tears were now rolling down his face.
Not because of the loss but because he wasn"t there when they needed him. His teammates looked back at him and smiled.
"looks like the idiot was safe after all," Scarlett said.
"Yeah," Ashley said, "but we didn"t get to keep our promise."
As the Montem team walked towards there exit, the cheers from them got even louder. The crowd started clapping and chanting out their name once more. There were even Ashley"s hardcore fans still chanting out her nickname.
"We will never forget you monster!"
"Yeah, you were just unlucky, we"ll still come to support every one of your games."
The crowd remembered how everything that happened to this point was a dream. They never believed they could get this far, and it was only because of the Montem team in the first place they could. And it was all thanks to the people below that they had hope and a team to cheer for.
"It"s a shame we didn"t get to see the showdown we were expecting." Josh said, "But never the less, the two teams delivered an exciting match.
"I couldn"t agree more," Cindy added. "Montem using their sheer brute force manged to steam there way into the semifinals but in the end, their experience just wasn"t enough."
As the two teams started to exit from the arena, the attention of the crowd slowly began to turn towards Novis and Lucas, who were standing right next to each other.
"Hey, isn"t that?"
"Yeah, what are they doing here?"
"I think we better get out of here," Lucas said.
"Agreed." Novis replied, "Bill, I"ll see you at home." He said as he ran off with Lucas into the distance."
****
The next day the Montem team had agreed to meet up in a coffee shop. It was a Sunday, and with no tournament for them to compete in, there was no longer any need for the VSW Team to carry on practising. Like they usually did.
As Novis entered the room, he could see his teammates all sitting down there with their head down depressed. Each of them had either a hot drink or soft drink in front of them.
But this day, even Novis himself wasn"t feeling so good as he went to approach the gang. They greeted him and said hi as he sat down at one of the booths next to Scarlett. But after that, not much was said.
Finally, Alex was the first one to break the silence.
"I"m sorry everyone, it was my fault we lost, I should have made another plan. I was just so sure that Lucas would play in the match that it never even occurred to me that he wouldn"t."
"You can"t blame yourself Alex," Scarlett said, "Without you, we wouldn"t have even had an alternative strategy. They were clearly stronger than us not just in tactics but fighting skills as well. We probably wouldn"t have even been able to take a single tower."
"I shouldn"t have rushed in", Ashley said.
"And I should have gone forward more", Dan added.
"I should have," Frank then paused for a second. "Actually, I think I did quite well in that game if I"m honest."
There was an awkward silence between everyone, as Frank said those words. Although it was true, it just felt like a weird time to say such a thing.
"No, no one should be blaming yourselves. You all did your best" Novis said, "It was me, I should have been there, I don"t even have the chance to say I did my best because, at the end of it, I wasn"t even in the game."
The VSW tournament had nearly come to an end. There was one more week until the finals would take place. After that, there was a solid week where the winners of each county would face each other to become the countries secondary school winners.
Which meant summer was just around the corner and soon they would be in their final years of school.
"Well, we still have next year, we can practice over summer!" Alex said excitedly.
"Yeah, most of us had hardly played the game, and we got so far." Ashley added, "Think about what we can do next year."
"This is how we should be," said Scarlett. "We shouldn"t be thinking about the loss we had, but how far we have come as a team. Next year I know we"re going to be stronger."
While everyone was acting pumped up and excited as they talked about next year. There was one person who didn"t sound energetic at all. In fact, he hadn"t said a word after next year was mentioned.
"Hey, Novis is something wrong?" Scarlett asked.
"About next year…"
***
Yesterday after the VSW tournament had ended, to get away from the crowds Lucas and Novis decided to head into town. Soon the people would exit from the arena, and there was bound to be people that knew the two of them.
The two were currently on the high street sat down on a bench together.
"Hey, Novis what are your plans for the future?" Lucas suddenly asked.
"The future?" This question had been asked more than once, and every time it got brought up, he thought he could give an answer. This time Novis was ready to answer truthfully. Before he had realised it, he had fallen in love with the game.
"I want to become a pro," Novis replied.
Lucas nodded his head and got off from the bench.
"Good answer!" Lucas said, "I realised that so far all I had been doing was following in my father"s footsteps, I realised this when I met you. I love the game, but I wish to carve my own path and not through my father"s connections. I plan to apply for t.i.tan university in two years. There a good university but their selection process is brutal. Still, it allows those to become the very best and turn pro once they leave. I made sure to pick a place that would be good for my development but also away from my father"s influence."
Lucas then held out his hand.
"Lucas, when we both fought against Mortem that day, I felt something between the two of us. As long as me and you are on a team, we can do anything together. I don"t want to fight against you, but with you. Do you want to join me?"
****
That day while with his friends at the coffee shop. Novis had told his friends he was quitting the team and would no longer be taking part next year. It was a fun year, but he wanted to take his practising up to the next level with Arthur and George.
He needed to not only get better at fighting but learn everything about the game if he wanted to have a chance at joining t.i.tan university.
They all smiled and understood. The team themselves felt like Novis perhaps carried to much weight on his shoulders for the team, and they realised that with the game against Westgate.
Summer quickly ended, and it was the start of the new year. Bill no longer possessed by George now attended the same school as Novis. He had promptly joined the team as the fifth member and partic.i.p.ated in the upcoming matches.
The winners of last year"s tournament were Westgate, but they got knocked out of the country semi-finals last year by another team. It came as quite a shock to Novis that there were other schools out there stronger than Westgate.
Of course, this had all happened without Lucas taking part. He had immediately dropped out of the tournament after gaining control back of his body.
This year the Montem team managed to win the county tournament against Westgate in the final and moved on to the country tournament.
However, they too were knocked out in the quarter-finals. Although they were pleased with their result, and now Alex was able to prove to his mother, he had a chance of becoming pro.
Novis achievements during the tournament were quickly forgotten. Even back then he was only well known in his area, but now they had forgotten everything about the ex-star player of theMontem team.
Then once again, summer had arrived. Over the last year, Novis had sent multiple messages to Hastam, but he never got a single reply back. It was the same for Lucas, and neither one of them knew what happened to him that day.
He still turned up to play for his professional team games but seemed to be playing less and less as time went on. As long as Novis knew he was safe, it was enough for him.
The big thing that didn"t disappear from everyone mind though was the Virtual sword G.o.d! It had been over a year since he had last logged in online. Many were hoping he would rise to the rank of G.o.d, and take on the pros.
But it never happened. Articles still to this day were being published about guesses of just who was the virtual sword G.o.d. Rumours had even gone around that he had died. Then one day, everyone who had been following him received a new notification.
[Pendragon is online]
The legendary internet star was back only this time, he was using a new Warrior.
"What weapon is that, a chain blade?"
****
End of the first Arc. Thank you, everyone, who has supported me so far. Tomorrow will be the start of a new Arc. Thank you for the gifts they really help and I will see you tomorrow with a new chapter.