Trumpets played a resonating fanfare that echoed out to the energetic crowd. The final day came and the final battle to decide who would reign supreme is about to begin. To the people, it was another victory for Dragons Lair, but many people still came to watch this match anyways. The last day of the tournament was considered an optional holiday for those who wanted a day off from work, and most workers would often excuse themselves to attend this event, or at least proclaim so while they lay around at home like a dead fish.
The final two teams lined up and faced each other as they were notified beforehand about the arrangement. Looking at the two sides, many shook their heads thinking about how great of a difference was there.
One team combat levels averaged to level 79 while the other was at 63 without the help of external equipment. It was plainly obvious to see that gear was a huge factor for Nexus University.
“Hello, folks at home who are joining us tonight at the Dragon’s Lair Capital City Annual Alliance Tournament. We have a splendid show tonight with the final matchup between Dragon’s Lair and the dark horse Nexus University,” said the male announcer.
“A dark horse indeed, to be honest, I was expecting Lemegeton to be in the finals since they actually have a level 80 combatant. It was quite an expected outcome with how Luon was able to take out Deminier to claim victory for his team,” said a female announcer.
“But even with that miracle nothing could bring down the champions of the tournament, isn’t that right?” said the male announcer.
“Well, at least we can expect amazing performance. Now let’s have our two representatives come up and say a word or two before the match begins,” said the female announcer,
The members of both schools departed to their designated waiting rooms while Arisa and Valerie arrived on top of the stage. The male announcer approached the two and said, “Everyone! Give a round of applause for these two contestants, now I guess I’ll start with you first. Valerie, what are your expectations for today's match?”
“I hope that we could show the audience a memorable battle that could last for ages,” she said.
“Ohoho, but for that to happen, you would need to do something amazing to attract the audience like that. How would you exactly do that?” asked the male announcer.
“That’s a secret, you’ll have to wait to find out more,” said Valerie.
“Well then, Arisa do you have something to say about the match?” asked the male announcer.
“Nothing in particular, if anything I also hope that this match would be quite memorable to the audience. As for what it could be, maybe overthrowing the reigning champions? Wouldn’t that be quite memorable? How about it Valerie? You could just give us the win,” said Arisa.
“If you want to become the champions, then you’ll be going to have to win it yourself because I don’t have any intentions of losing,” Valerie said as she smiled at her response.
“Hahaha, as expected from these two representatives, quite the competitive spirit. Is there anything the two of you would like to say to the fans before the match begins?” asked the male announcer.
“Let’s fight fair and square, I hope that everyone would be able to enjoy this match,” said Valerie as she turned to Arisa.
Arisa met her gaze and said to the audience, “We’ll do our best, not to let you down. You can expect a good match.”
‘More like a completely one-sided one,’ thought Arisa and Valerie. With the level difference between both teams, it was quite difficult to make up for it even if Arisa’s team had two times more members than Valerie’s.
The two retreated back to their respective teams, and the matches soon began.
First up was Arisa’s team versus the second strongest team from Dragon’s Lair. The match gave Arisa hope since their opponents didn’t have any dragons. Instead, they had a team composition made up of soldiers and commanders from their allied schools.
Before the final match, they decided to keep the previous order since it didn’t matter who they were against since all of their opponents were difficult to face against. In fact, even without the dragons, their levels were much higher than Arisa’s team.
Arisa knew how challenging this match was going to be, the only handicap, the only advantage they had over the other team, was that 5 minutes restriction. What could they do within that 5 minutes? They needed to gather up an army force the battle into one between armies.
No matter how powerful they were, as long as they were supported by an army, they could still manage. Tactics are without a doubt a crucial point in this battle.
The only type of people that could face against an army were beings with the combat level of 90 and higher. A combatant at that ranking would be considered as leader or higher level individuals in their forces. The Nexus solar system currently have 4 of them while the other solar systems have an average of 6.
The match started, and Arisa worked together with Shizuka to develop their forces at the fastest speed possible. Within the first few minutes, their factory had already produced an army of 300 droids.
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Their production rate was incomparable to what they had before. However, Arisa and Shizuka didn’t stop there, they continued to build as if there was no tomorrow. As soon as the restriction was removed, Arisa mounted her forces on the mountaintop terrain that she often selected.
Her base was like a fortress and since she was no longer attacking she was able to focus on monitoring her surroundings. Although their opponent didn’t need to launch a surprise attack and the members of Dragon’s Lair were known to have a straight-forward personality she couldn’t help but still pay attention to for any surprise attacks.
To no surprise, after they were allowed to cross all of their opponents had crossed the border with confident expressions.
All the members on Arisa’s team, except for Shizuka looked at them with an odd expression. ‘What are they planning?’ Arisa thought as her opponents began to lay out several parts from their gear slots. One of their opponents who was a human began to construct something on the spot.
‘Should I attack them? Or are they waiting for me to attack? Either way, they shouldn’t be able to summon any units with all 5 of them here. It’s more beneficial to wait it out,’ thought Arisa.
From the pile of scraps that they dropped down a wall was soon erected and their activities were soon hidden. Inside of a tent-like structure, their opponents had walled themselves in. Arisa tried to send a few scouts to find out what they were doing but was ultimately shot down by an elven archer who was on top of the structure.
Fortunately, three of their members could easily be seen, so she didn’t expect that they had any tricks. Arisa didn’t know what they were up to so she continued to reinforce her defenses.
All of the sudden the earth shook and near their Crypt of Heroes a giant worm appeared creating a giant hole. From within the hole, an army of goblins emerged with their opponents leading them.
‘How!?’ thought Arisa as she saw that besides the archer and the engineer the other three members had arrived at their base.
All of the sudden she realized that when the enemies began their construction outside of their base, she didn’t know whether or not the other members beside the archer and the engineer were real. The reality of things shocked her, she should have thought their engineer who wasn’t wearing the traditional magician's robe was actually a mage that uses illusion magic!
Tricked by their opponent Arisa quickly arranged her forces to protect their Crypt of Heroes. However, their enemies were well prepared.
A barrier was soon erected protecting their Crypt of Heroes from the one who was trying to defend it. Their opponents with their poor pickaxes, swords, and heavy siege weaponry hacked and chipped the base.
Helpless their team could only watch it fall before the match was declared over.
The score became 1 to 0 with Dragon’s lair in the lead, and it was without a doubt a memorable one. To lose to a pile of goblins with sticks was one of the lousiest ways to lose from.
The waiting room was silent, nobody knew how to respond to such a loss. Zythtos gave a light snort before getting himself and his team ready for the next battle.
Their match started without zero anticipation, they haven’t experience how strong their opponents were, and they had already lost one match. Zythos took the initiative this time and attacked their opponents from the start.
He didn’t care about the 5-minute restriction. Even if their opponents were higher levels compared to them, class definitions were still difficult to overcome. A knight can quickly deal with archers and archers can easily handle mages. Also… if they were going to lose they might as well get it over with.
Zythos planned to use this logic when they began their engagement. The two teams clashed against each other head-on, and some way or another the battle was even. In fact, a little to even, Zythos noticed that their opponents weren’t trying at all.
Zythos attack smoothly landed on their opponents. However, the damage he had done was very minimal. But despite doing such little damage, their opponents overexaggerated it by pretending that the force behind each blow was astounding.
Zythos’s teammates also noticed this and began to play along. They didn’t know what their opponents had in store, but if they were offering they would gladly take it. The only person who was having a serious battle with their opponent was Janet, it appeared that she wasn’t able to see the signs and read the mood. Her opponent who noticed this tried numerous times to signal Janet this without alarming the crowd, but failed to do so. Helpless, he could only follow suit, and the two started an intense battle.
Sure enough, the opponent’s commander fell to Zythos who somehow managed to kill him. His death was kind of pathetic after Zythos sent him flying and his sword flew out of his hand. Upon landing on the ground, the sword impaled the man, thus ending the match. Zythos’s couldn’t help but face-palm from the results. The crowd who had witnessed this couldn’t fathom how this was all possible.
Valerie, the mastermind behind this, laughed like crazy as she had requested the second team to lose if their first team won. At first, they were confused at her request but didn’t dare question her thoughts. Instead, they began to brainstorm on ways to lose in the most fashionable way ever. If they had dared disobeyed her, despite winning the match, they would lose more than what they had bargained for.
The waiting room was once again quiet, rather than celebrate they appeared dumb-struck. Their opponents allowed them to win, after claiming the first victory. They could have easily won this match, and yet they gave them this win.
Luon pondered why would they do so, but he didn’t need to think that hard about it.
“It appears that our next opponent noticed the illusion magic,” said a voice in Luon’s mind.
‘What do you mean? Didn’t you say it was difficult to see through?’ thought Luon.
The black Luon who he named “Thanatos,” said, “It is, however, dragons with a higher level of ability should be able to see through it easily.”
One of the significant changes after their match with Lemegeton was that he was now able to talk to Thanatos more often, the two of them spent their nights watching his past. To Luon it was like watching a movie with the main character sitting beside him. There were epic scenes and saddening scenes which caused him to cry multiple times as if he was the main character. Which technically he is.
‘Why did they let us win,’ thought Luon as he asks Thanatos.
“They’re probably expecting to battle against you. If I were their team leader and only one of my opponent was interesting enough to fight, I would like to battle against him instead of taking the easy win,” Thanatos said.
‘Well, then we shouldn’t keep them waiting,’ thought Luon as he got from his seat. Stepping by his teammates, although they were speechless from the previous matches they still gave him a high-five filled with hope. This was always an opportunity for their school, their solar system if he could win then wouldn’t that be amazing?
Luon stood by with his teammates and with solemn expression evaluated their attitude. Tyron was expressionless as always, Bendan was clutching his fist, Gizmo gave a light yawn while Thomas was the only one who appeared the most nervous of the bunch.
Luon gave a slight nod and said, “Let’s go.” The team vanished with a bright light, onto the final battle.