CHAPTER 151: AN INTERESTING TOURNAMENT
In the private VIP box, Victor, along with his guests, watched the battle of tamers and the beasts against the hunters.
“The students of the Hunter Academy are suffering quite a bit...” Emperor Victor muttered, shaking his head.
Of the five individual Rank-A bouts, they lost all five bouts, it wasn’t a total landslide victory, but the beast tamers held on to the advantage.
As for the five individual bouts of Rank-B, they lost one... Giving 4 extra points to the Cernunnos Academy, leading it to get 9 points while the Hunter Academy got 2 points since the defeated magical beast and its tamer were counted.
Now there was the B-Rank group battle, the A-Rank group battle, and finally the battle against the S-Rank.
That meant 15 points left to be taken, for the fact that each student was worth one point, while S-Rank counted as 5 points.
Of course, that was if Cernunnos Academy won all the fights, on the other hand, if Hunter Academy won, then they could recover and take about 30 points by winning all the fights.
It was at the theoretical level of them winning all the bouts, something that had already proven to be difficult, at least for the Hunter Academy students.
For one team to lose, a member did not take away the final points they would receive by defeating the other team’s members.
The Emperor chuckled to himself, as doubling their points caused them to have a ‘bullseye’ on their back, though they made up for it with their numerical advantage.
“I didn’t think the students were that impressive,” Elder Harris murmured, one of their guests.
“It can’t be helped. They have the numerical advantage,” Cécile, who was present, pointed out, and Director Vincent nodded.
They were watching the fighting from a small private box, observing this combat directly while in parallel the adventurer academy was also facing another academy.
This place was small, so Emperor Victor only invited a few individuals.
“They lose the initiative, that’s the problem,” Victor remarked, shaking his head and yawning with boredom looked at his secretary and asked. “What do you think, Ersin?”
Apart from those three, his secretary was the last person present in this small box.
“They specialize in hunting magical beasts which would make one think they would have an advantage, but their form when facing humans is lacking,” Ersin replied, and watching as the next participants entered, he muttered. “Just give them time so they can adapt and they can apply their tactics to hunting beasts and their masters.”
Once they adapted the techniques, they could switch from hunting beasts to hunting the beasts and tamers.
“It’s the same thing when they face summoners. The first thought is ‘defeat the summoner, and it’s all over.’ What a joke, as if it’s a simple thing to do,” Cécile added calmly.
As a summoner, she had faced opponents who thought that if she was defeated, it would all be over.
The point was that such thinking was the basis where summoners were trained... The same was true for beast tamers.
They protected themselves.
“They rely on equipment, magic, or weapons. They know how to defend themselves, as any mage knows how to protect themselves,” Elder Harris commented.
A mage also had to learn how to defend himself from close combat and it was the same with an archer or marksman... They all tried to cover their shortcomings.
“Let’s see if it changes in group combat,” Emperor Victor muttered, giving a smile and pointing to the participants of both groups.
The beast tamers with their companions by their side were a terrifying team because of the diversity of the beasts they had under their command.
The magical beast limit in each tournament was one per tamer, so even though many had other partners by their side, there were now only ‘ten participants’.
On the other side was the Hunter Academy group, who wore more serious and solemn expressions.
The arena was quite large and high, which allowed them to show their full capabilities, both on the ground and in the sky.
When the battle began, the young lady with the silent eagle sent it into the sky while the others approached, trying to surround the group carefully.
The first flaw, was as it gave the students of the hunter academy time to prepare their traps.
Each of them wore combat suits or combat armor with their own accessories to face their opponents.
And they, as hunters, not only had a good defense, but various useful items for hunting or to restrain the beasts, and now they used it.
The two archers in the group fired arrows into their surroundings that were clearly traps ready to go off when their enemies approached.
The mage began to spread spells dedicated to traps both through the air and on the ground while the two remaining individuals prepared themselves.
The battle would drag on, but it was noticeable that the Hunter Academy was experimenting on a way to win.
That was quite a nice thing to see when one thought that a few hours ago, those five individuals were defeated by their counterparts.
“This will be interesting,” Victor muttered.
Even if they lost, they could still score some points with their feat.
******
Edward sighed as he watched the Druid Academy S-Rank student spread thick roots from the ground, knocking his opponent down with ferocity.
His opponent was an S-Rank fighter from the Demon Hunter Academies in the third group, but as the fighter’s skills were focused on ‘purification’, the damage to the roots was minimal.
The fighter’s strength helped a little, however he was defeated by the terrifying nature mage.
Edward switched the recording to the battle of the Beast Tamers versus the Hunter Academy.
The Beast Tamer was an A-Rank swordsman, while his hired beast was a Himalayan Tiger with S-Rank strength.
Although the swordsman was an A-Rank, it was not that simple, because he used the ability of the magical beast to raise the speed surpassing an A-Rank.
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The student of the Hunter Academy was an S-ranked fire archmage.
The greatest ability of that archmage was the trap spells, which he deployed around and led to powerful fireballs exploding if an enemy approached.
This was not a direct battle, but a reply, and Edward concentrated on the archmage, who employed his fire magic to explode the arena.
Powerful and strong, the fire magic was destructive and, even so, it could not win against the speed of the Himalayan Tiger, though it prevailed against the tamer.
The beast was not a part of the tamer, but were two individuals and, for that reason, counted as different points.
To win, he needed to defeat both the tamer and the beast.
To his regret, this time the fire archmage could win against the tamer, defeating him, but was defeated by the magical beast.
The archmage by taking down the tamer earned 5 points which would be worth an S-rank tamer and, on the other hand, the beast by defeating the mage took five points, winning the battle.
It did not matter that the tamer was officially A-rank, as the strength was counted with his beast and not individually, for that reason, it was worth 5 points.
Edward continued to watch the fighting.
The Military Academy faced the Elementalist Academy, and the latter was ranked as the official winner with 18 points, leaving their opponent with only 12 points.
Quite different from the battle that Merlin Academy had in which they took 22 points, leaving their opponent with 5 points.
Among the three groups, it was already beginning to be revealed who had the lead, along with other academies that were showing their strength.
So far, the Beast Tamers Academy held the first place with a total of 24 points, winning practically all their bouts, even the group bouts losing only one bout.
In second place were Merlin Academy and Adventurer Academy, with a total of 22 points showing their strong capabilities.
At the end, in third place, was the Indian Druid Academy with 21 points, and followed behind was the Priestly Academy of the third group with 20 points.
This last academy was looked at as an ‘extra’, but whether their opponents were weak or they were strong, they won a large sum.
There was only one day left... No, maybe hours before they would start fighting and Edward couldn’t deny his excitement and also his tiredness.
Their opponents would be the Russian Academy whose members were mostly fighters and while he had an advantage, it was exhausting to lead a large team.
He needed to organize them, see to it that there was no conflict and lastly, he needed to analyze his future opponents for when they faced each other.
The nice thing was that every member of the team was doing their best, trying to become a nuisance.
Whether it was individuals like Andrés who was gathering information or people like Alexey who knew some students from the Russian Academy and were trying to get information.
“Busy?”
A voice sounded from the other side of the office and Edward waved her through.
Aurora walked in, looking around the office the authorities had given him in the hotel.
“Sorry to bother you so late,” Edward said, looking out the window, it was dark.
“No worries. This is the least I can do when I’m practically an extra,” Aurora replied, giving a smile and sitting down in the office chair, she asked. “So, how are you going to order them?”
As the leader of the academy group, Edward was in charge of mostly organizing the groups.
Especially among the B-Rankers who were very diverse.
“We have excellent students, but each of them has their flaws and shortcomings. From what I have been informed, most of the Russian Academy students are fighters, but there will be one or the other of different style,” Edward said and shared the report he had received from the Russian Academy as he continued. “My goal is to try to organize it in such a way so that we get as many points as possible.”
He had to choose which of the ten students would go into group combat and who would take the individual combat.
It was true that it depended on the strengths of each student to win, but Edward knew that a preliminary organization would help increase the chances of victory.
“Quite a few fighters. That’s impressive,” Aurora murmured as she read the Russian Academy’s record, and giving a smile, she commented. “It’s best to put the weaker students in the group.”
Edward watched her calmly, waiting for her to explain herself and open for any advice.
“They have some students from different classes who are not fighters. Those will most likely send them to group combat to try to improve their balance, leaving the fighters for the individual bouts,” Aurora explained calmly.
The number of fighters was high at the Russian Academy and there were only three students who had other professions to be found in all the participants of all the ranks.
That meant that from Rank-A and S, they were all fighters, only leaving three students from Rank-B who were not fighters.
They didn’t know how that academy was organized, but it was noticeable that their students were mostly all from one profession.
Maybe they just let the students fight to get the points, in the end, it didn’t matter.
“They must have realized their mistake by now and now with the awards. I don’t think they will give up so easily,” Aurora added, using a simple tone.
If they were organized following a standard of pure force before, now with the prizes, surely someone would take control to try to win.
They all wanted some of those prizes, especially the first and second one, and it was clear that they would try their best to get it, even if they had difficulties.
“That’s right. Surely when the first round is over, they’ll start giving out challenges,” Edward muttered, giving a guess.
If he had a team with pure wrestlers, he would try to take advantage of the strength they could exert and try to give challenges.
“Maybe. The important thing is that now they would put in effort and that effort can crush students who are not specialized in single combat,” Aurora said simply.
Edward didn’t have to ask for further explanation and nodded.
The ferocity of the fighters was one of his greatest fears.
He had to arrange for five students to go to individual sparring and five students to go to group sparring.
Some students were weaker in individual battles and more so when facing a fighter.
It was not only a matter of lack of experience, but also compatibility.
A mage would have trouble when facing a fighter and only an experienced mage would have a chance of winning.
“What are your weak links?” Edward asked curiously.
“Frank, Dalia, and Lucas,” Aurora replied without changing her expression.
Frank was a fairly strong psionic who finished in the top five in the academic tournament, however, his potential was centered in another area.
He had excellent defense and his ability to create a mental safety net to detect enemies was splendid and everyone had seen it at the beginning of the academy.
The problem was that a fighter could defeat him.
It was the same with Dalia who, despite having been training, was not experienced enough to take on a fighter directly.
At least her chances were lower than Alexey or Érica who were also mages.
As for Lucas, she didn’t know him, and what little she had seen made Aurora classify him as a quick shooting archer, lacking the power that Leslie had.
In that sense, it was better to have him in a group battle harassing his opponents.
Edward nodded in agreement.
He knew the students and had been analyzing what the advantages and disadvantages of each were, so he had an idea of Aurora’s reasons with no explanation.
“To give it more strength, I would say it would be excellent to put Jordan as leader and add Nicole. She is too fierce and more so when it comes to a battle against fighters,” Edward commented, and Aurora nodded immediately.
Nicole had proven her ferocity and endurance when facing two fighters during the academic tournament.
While the coliseums had powerful barriers to prevent any ‘deadly’ attacks, they were actually left for the students to show their full power without holding back.
It was all thanks to the special barrier installed in each coliseum.
This barrier would prevent fatal damage, although it would transmit the pain they would normally have felt and lead the students to retreat or fall unconscious.
A clear sign of defeat.
For example, if a swordsman tried to stab a student and the student could not defend himself, the barrier would intervene and turn that attack into a shock wave that would transmit the pain he would have felt.
It was a barrier that combined mental magic with powerful defensive spells and what it was all about was avoiding deaths completely, but at the same time conveying the feeling of real combat.
A fighter could keep fighting until he could not take it anymore or fell unconscious.
As the barrier was activated with serious or fatal injuries, minor injuries such as ribs and broken bones that could be healed immediately were left out, giving it more realism.
Someone like Nicole, who was on fire with these combats, would show her full potential and would be extremely useful in a group combat.
Adding someone like Jordan, who was experienced and was strong, then that group would be quite balanced.
A fighter, a mage, an archer, a swordsman, and a psionic focused on defense.
“Then it will look like this,” Edward replied with a gentle nod.
Balanced and with the ability to defend each other, their lack of coordination on a group level would have to be solved by the personal experience of each of them.
Sending orders and receiving their acceptances, Edward sent that team to the authorities in charge of the tournament.
“We’d better talk about the other academies another day,” Aurora said and when Edward looked at her, she commented. “You have to rest. We can’t afford to lose 5 points.”
Her ‘we can’ made Edward smile slightly, as despite being a supporting member, she was taking her team role seriously.
“I understand. I’ll rest,” Edward replied with a soft nod.
Watching Aurora leave the room, Edward couldn’t help but shake his head with a smile.
It surprised that someone of her ability was at the academy, but it was nice, as she could be someone of much help in these matters.
Finishing the minor tasks, Edward yawned and headed to his room.
It was a few hours before combat was to begin and they all had to be at their best if they wanted to score as many points as possible.