Nico and her opponent, a lanky, wiry man with a wicked spear stood hundreds of meters apart in the open desert. The heat of the sun was scorching enough that looking in too far a direction would make your vision bend and blur, and there were no landmarks in sight besides distant sand dunes, salt pillars, and rock formations.
Nico summoned a large pool of fire and radiant light, which quickly began taking form before her. A gorgeous chariot made of solid, radiant fire emerged, with no steed to pull it forward. Nico then hopped onto the chariot and infused the vessel with mana. The wheels of the chariot began turning, and it barreled furiously towards the enemy spearman.
Nico’s opponent didn’t wait for her to do as she pleased; already, he was charging towards her spear-first.
“[Bleeding Fang]!” he yelled, and a bloody javelin emerged from the spear’s thrust, thundering over the desert sands on its way to Nico.
“[Cleansing Flame]!” Nico yelled, and a pillar of bright flames emerged from her hands to meet the incoming attack.
The blood javelin was vaporized as the attack continued on towards the opponent, who dodged the flames and continued closing in on Nico.
The two rapidly closed the distance to each other, and the spearman docked his arm back in preparation to strike. Mere meters before the two clashed, Nico’s chariot rose through the air.
Surprised by the scene of a multi-ton, flying, magic chariot over his head, the spearman hesitated for an instant to strike or move from underneath it, and that sealed his fate.
“[Heavenly Judgement]!” she yelled.
A blinding light rushed from the bottom of the chariot to the ground, swallowing the spearman with it. An orange pillar of flame soon followed, spinning rapidly into a fiery tornado as drew in large gusts of air to feed the flames. Soon enough, mana particles exploded from within the fire tornado, indicating the spearman’s defeat.
Nico’s next opponent entered the arena, and she was a flame mage herself. A thin smile graced Nico’s face as she summoned her flaming bow and arrow and took aim at her opponent hundreds of meters below her.
***
“The Tameryian Suns have won the match!” the referee announced.
“Another overwhelming solo victory by the Tameryian Suns! This time, by another member of their team! With two victories, the Tameryian Suns have just secured their seat to the knockout stage of the tournament! Can anyone put a stop to the reign of terror run by this team of domineering juggernauts?!” the commentator yelled excitedly through the projection.
The commentator wasn’t the only person celebrating; Witnessing Nico’s dominating victory over the team representing the nation of excellence, the crowd’s cheers were deafening, slowly morphing into a new chant.
“Saint of Flames! Saint of Flames! Saint of Flames!”
Nico made her way back to us with a faint redness on her cheek, and it was unclear whether it was from fatigue or from the crowd’s praise.
“Well done, Nicotris.” Asten said, to which Nico nodded in gratitude.
Instead of heading to the center to shake Asten’s hand, the Captain of the Bulls was already heading out with her team.
“Let’s head back. We should report to the Major.” Asten said.
***
We made our way back to the observation room, and then we watched the rest of the matches concluded. The only relevant match to us had the Ionian Hoplites beat the Tyrian Torrents, as expected. With the end of round 2, the new point table had some interesting results.
Group 1
Group 2
Group 3
Group 4
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Gallic Shield-Brothers
4
Romellus Legionnaires
4
Tameryian Suns
4
Kengir Unbroken
3
Castillian Matadors
0
Frankish Lances
0
Tyrian Torrents
0
Aragonese Roses
2
Ionian Warforged
4
Brittania Knights
0
Ionian Hoplites
3
Tyrian Patrons
0
Sicilian Stars
0
Tameryian Gale
4
Kengir Bulls
1
Germanic Titans
3
The Gallic Shield-Brothers, the Ionian Warforged, the Romellus Legionnaires, the Tameryian Gale, and the Tameryian Suns have all secured seats for the knockout stage. Technically speaking, each of these teams doesn’t have to fight in third round if they don’t want to.
“What happens if two teams are tied for second place in the third round? The Hoplites, the Bulls, and all of Group 4 except for the Patrons could easily tie for it.” I asked.
“If that happens, a tie-breaker match with special rules will be held.” The Major answered me.
“That doesn’t matter to us; both of our teams qualified through the group stage. More importantly, we’re in a unique position to ensure that the Bulls do not take second place. The real question is whether or not we should do that.” Aptera said lazily, grabbing everyone’s attention.
Silence took over as everyone thought over the matter, while the Major, Asten, and Nico chose to observe the rest of us instead.
Eventually, Durreg spoke up first.
“I think the idea has merit. By forfeiting the next match, we can hide more of our abilities. That way we have more hidden trump cards during the knock-out stage.”
Asty agreed.
“I think the Hoplites are generally a better team than the Bulls, despite their inferior individual abilities. It’s likely that they won’t be pitted against us on the very first match of the tournament, and since they are a much more solid team defensively, they’re likely to force our competitors to reveal more of their abilities for us. Asten already said we can beat them easily, so there’s no drawback to guaranteeing their seat.”
I was of a similar mind to the other two, mostly because the only team I was rooting for besides ours was Nisos’s, but since I had a feeling that it wasn’t a convincing argument to the rest of the team, I kept my mouth shut.
“Those are good arguments with solid reasoning, but I am still going rejecting them. We’re going to crush the Hoplites tomorrow regardless of everything.” Asten said, to the surprise of Durreg, Asty, and myself.
Aptera grinned at Asten’s decision as Asten began his explanation.
“Remember our purpose here; we are here to project the strength of Tamery and the Isles. Resorting to trickery and technicalities would undermine that purpose. Furthermore, we might have needed such tactics if our odds were difficult, but the only teams I can see forming a threat to us are the Legionnaires and the Warforged, both of which we are capable of defeating.”
Hearing Asten’s reasons, Durreg and Asty didn’t feel the need to object any further and let the matter slide. Just to put the nail in the coffin of that idea, Nico spoke to me directly.
“I know you want Nisos to qualify for the knockout tournament, but being given a win like that wouldn’t satisfy him nor give him recognition in his country. When the Bulls beat the Torrents and hold the tiebreaker match with him, he’ll get a chance to prove his team to be the stronger one.”
Feeling a little mollified, I gave a chagrined smile at Nico.
“I didn’t say anything, you know? You just jumped to conclusions on your own!”
Nico unjustifiably raised her eyebrow at me, but wisely chose to let the matter rest.
***
We eventually split apart, with the team either heading back to have the rest of the day off or going to their assigned arena for the individuals’ tournament.
“Let’s see… Arena B-3.” I mumbled as I made my way to my next match.
It seemed like the higher-ranked arenas was a lot closer to the coliseum than the lower-ranked ones were, since I made it in roughly a five-minute-long walk.
“Hmm?”
I quickly noticed a familiar face.
“Kiara…?”
***
“I can’t believe we’re at the same arena.” Nisos chuckled.
We were both waiting for our next matches, having won our previous ones ahead of schedule.
“It’s not too surprising; we’re getting closer to the top ranks of the tournament. What is surprising is the lack of Romellus locals in the tournament. Almost everyone I’ve seen so far has been from the four nations or the outer provinces.” Nisos said.
I blinked twice.
“Now that I think about it, you’re right. That’s strange, if their team’s performance was anything to go by.”
Nisos shook his head.
“The Romellus Legionnaires are like us – a team focused on teamwork rather than individual excellence. Maybe classers here are taught to fight in a particular way as a unit, rather than developing their own individual fighting styles.”
I scrunched up my face at that thought.
“The nation with more people than the other four nations put together having a lack of talented individuals doesn’t seem likely. Then again, most of that comes from their provinces.”
“Well, we’ll figure it out eventually. Or not – it doesn’t change what we have to do. In any case,” Nisos stood up, “my match is coming up soon. Good luck with yours, and let’s have a good match tomorrow!” he said, heading off to his prepared spot.
A look at my card showed that my match was still due in a few minutes, so I stayed where I was and thought over Nisos’s words.