CHAPTER 161: TARGETS
Aurora yawned, bored after getting up and when she came out into the living room, she found Alice looking at the updated rankings.
“With our win against Aetherium Academy, we have scored 22 points, leaving us in first place with 67 points,” Aurora said, remembering what she had seen.
Unlike what everyone expected, the match was a pretty big win for them, raising their points and only leaving 3 points to the Aetherium Academy.
They were doing quite well, but the other academies in the fourth and fifth groups also raised their points.
“Zerzura Academy had quite a bit of trouble with Paladin Academy,” Alice muttered, slightly amused.
That battle was from the fifth group and it was two ‘important’ academies, with Paladin Academy being the ones who ended up victorious, getting 20 points, leaving Zerzura Academy with 10 points.
Now Zerzura Academy had 33 points in total, while Paladin Academy had 45 points.
“I think they fought fiercely, managing to defeat some opponents before falling defeated,” Aurora noted with boredom.
She had taken some time to watch a bit of the fight, and what she noticed was that Zerzura Academy defeated some opponents in the group battle before losing.
Even if they lost the match, they could still gain some points, at least in the group battles.
“We’ll have some interesting fights today. Will you watch them?” Alice asked curiously.
In the first group, they would have Merlin Academy against Elementalist Academy, while in the second group Adventurer Academy was about to take on Cernunnos Academy.
Leaving in the third group, the Priestly Academy against the Druid Academy.
There were also other academies, such as the Scandinavian Hunter Academy, or the Military Academy.
However, the first three clashes were taking everyone’s attention.
Aurora thought carefully.
“I guess I’ll go watch the fights to try to find some information,” Aurora replied.
She couldn’t really do much in this place and when she wasn’t training, she would watch the fights and then discuss them with Edward in her free time.
Today would be the end of the second-round showdown, and that meant the challenges would begin.
The names, point values, and rules for all the challenges would also be handed out, along with the modality well explained by the authorities.
One had to have an idea of the capabilities of each student to then select them for the challenges that would be best.
“And also Rupert invited you again, didn’t he?” Alice asked with a curious look.
Aurora gave a smile.
“Well... I was training with his students, so he probably wants me to see him,” Aurora replied, scratching her cheek.
The truth was that when she was invited; she gave the odd bit of advice and showed the students how she would deal with their beasts, so the students could learn a little.
If they protected themselves against those tactics, then they would improve.
“You ask why you want to do something?” Aurora asked back, curious.
It was likely that Alice would also be invited by Rupert.
Though it was for sure that Alice would rather focus on other tasks instead of commenting on the fighting.
“Yes. I want today to be a Mexican food day,” Alice replied with a solemn nod.
The tone and expression were so serious, as if her words were an important matter, were amusing to Aurora.
Though in the end, she nodded without hesitation.
How could Aurora refuse Alice when she looked at her with such an expression?
******
In the training arena, Nicole and Érica stopped to watch the combat on projected.
“Merlin Academy is too scary...” Nicole muttered, looking at the projection.
The arena was large enough for several fights to go on at the same time, and what stood out were the projectors that allowed them to watch the fights.
The students were stopped by the Merlin Academy’s bout against the Elementalist Academy.
“I thought the Elementalists might give them a battle, but it looks tough,” Leslie said with a serious look on her face as she watched the fighting.
Merlin Academy was highly known worldwide and there were terrifying students and highly known teachers in the magic world.
The multiplicity of magic led to Merlin Academy spreading into several branches, making it so that at this time several students of very different branches from each other were present.
Summoning magic, mind magic, darkness magic, space magic, and other students who knew other magics were all found in one academy.
The multiplicity of magic and the way they were distributed in the individual fights made the Elementalist Academy start with a disadvantage.
Adding in the rare magics known to some students made it difficult for the Elementalists to win.
“Magic is a fundamental part of Terra nova and most of the teachers brought that knowledge and taught it at the academy,” Érica explained, and looking at the combat, she commented. “It is normal that the elementals had some problems even though their control over their element is high.”
They were now watching the Rank-A group combat and they could all see how the Merlin Academy mages were pushing the elementalists.
The elementalists were not ‘mages’ in the direct sense of the word.
That is, they were not individuals who controlled ‘magic’ directly, but were individuals who made contracts with elemental beings.
Like beast tamers, they made a contract with their elemental and allowed it to use the ‘element’ that the elemental used.
In the projection, they could see how the elementalist students had some elemental beings hovering around them as they took the form of some animal.
They were just like the elemental Gliss, which Érica had met in the Andes Mountains... No, these elementals were weaker and their form was more incorporeal.
Elementalists had control of the element because of their contract with the elemental, and it allowed them to show superior skill to mages of their own rank.
In a sense, elementalists controlled the element at will, being like S-Rank Archmages.
But in this case, there was a fatal flaw.
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“Another curse spell... Does the barrier protect against these spells?” Nicole hesitated as she watched the battle.
A student of curse magic from Merlin Academy cast a spell and a dark aura covered a fire elemental flying like a bird through the sky.
The curse forcibly suppressed the fire element and the elemental creature lost some of its strength, causing the one controlling it to fall by an attack of space magic.
A slash of that distorted space hit the student, causing him to lose immediately.
Nicole’s doubt was sincere, because curse magic was rare, but the barrier covered all attacks.
“Oh, it’s going to blow up!” Érica exclaimed excitedly as she watched an elementalist student’s ice elemental surge forward while her classmates protected it.
They were being suppressed by the mages’ prowess, but the elementalists would not go down so easily.
And just as Érica had pointed out, the ice elemental that was slipping into the enemy ranks gathered a large amount of magical energy.
*BOOM*
When it was in the center of the enemy ranks, it exploded, generating a fierce storm that hit the mages and their barriers injuring some of them badly without disqualifying them.
The ice elemental who performed such a feat did not die, but rather his strength diminished and he returned to his companion’s side to regain his strength.
“Will they lose?” Clémentine asked curiously.
Merlin Academy was handling the battle very well with their teamwork, but now seeing that fierce storm that was beginning to spread from where the elemental erupted brought doubts.
“No, look at the dark wizard.” Érica pointed out with a smile.
The darkness mage was creating a powerful spell of darkness magic and despite the other elementalists trying to knock it down, a light mage erected a powerful barrier to protect it.
With enough time, the darkness mage launched his attack at the center of that storm and...
“That’s a black hole,” Leslie muttered in awe.
A black hole appeared in the center of the storm and swallowed everything while generating a force of attraction that caused the elementalists to lose their balance.
At that moment, a fire mage suddenly drew his sword and with a small burst of fire on his feet leapt towards the elementalists covering his sword with fire.
The spell ‘Black Hole’ got rid of the storm and allowed the magic swordsman to get ahead.
Next in the combat was only the elementalists’ defeat caused by that swordsman in close combat.
“Merlin Academy is too good. They have better teamwork than us and their magics are too rare,” Leslie said in a heavy tone.
Teamwork allowed them to win group fights and while the curse mage was weak in single combat, with a support group by their side, they were simply unstoppable.
After all, it was hard to defend against that kind of magic, let alone ‘heal’ it.
“It makes sense that their teamwork would be excellent. Unlike the Hero Academy, the mages do joint practice to learn how to cast spells,” Érica replied, unsurprised.
The mages at the Hero Academy also practiced together among their peers.
When there were mages from different branches of magic, it was a problem to cast spells that countered each other, so it was important to learn to cast spells that increased in strength with each other.
A water magic spell before a lightning magic spell would be devastating, as would use an ice magic spell.
That Merlin Academy had high group prowess was no surprise.
They were about to switch to other battles when Leslie and the others received a message.
“Aurora and Alice have invited us to a Mexican food restaurant. They’ve also invited all the members of the academy. Do you guys want to go?” Leslie asked for the entire group.
“Sure. Relaxing with each other is going to be nice,” Clémentine replied.
It never hurt to take a breather, and even more so when all the academy members were now going to be there.
******
Andrés followed a man who was a guard for the information network for which his superior was working.
Up the elevator, they came to one of the top floors.
The information network was located in a building in the center of Elelin City.
An entire floor was theirs, and Andrés couldn’t help but think that the size of the network was enormous.
Each room on this floor was offices where several people were working from their computers.
When they entered one room, Andrés could see his superior, Giselle, watching the battles.
This time, she was not dressed in a ‘librarian’ look, she was wearing more casual clothes, which made Andrés wonder if the first time they met, she was wearing a costume.
“When the fight is over, we’ll talk,” Giselle said, watching the combat closely.
As the person who accompanied him left, Andrés just sat and focused on the combat.
The Priestly Academy was facing the Druid Academy.
Those students of the Priestly Academy trained to serve the gods of the earth, but that did not mean that all of them could employ the powers of the gods of the earth.
The Earth Gods were born out of mankind’s belief and represented all the gods that existed since the beginning of mankind.
However, they were not as powerful as other gods who could lend their power indiscriminately, so they had to meticulously choose their paladins.
For that reason, the Priestly Academy did not have as many paladins or priests as the Paladin Academy.
That did not mean that their students were not strong.
Each one still believed in the gods of the earth and entered that academy to improve their skills and serve them with greater devotion.
The Earth Gods lost strength after years of losing faith and also became even weaker when the churches disappeared or were repudiated by the gods themselves.
It was normal to be repudiated when those people who called themselves the ‘voice’ or representative of a God on Earth were only phonies who used the ‘faith’ for their benefit.
The present church was smaller than the Church of Time and Space and the Church of Order, and even smaller than the Church of Knowledge of Terra nova.
Nevertheless, they still protected the earth and maintained worshippers and believers who faithfully served them.
Now those individuals were clashing with the Druid Academy with a unique ferocity.
“They’re pushing them hard. Will the druids reveal their hidden cards?” Giselle asked curiously.
The Priestly Academy was methodically pressuring the druids, who were mostly nature mages.
They were in Rank-A group combat and the druids didn’t have the variety that the Priestly academy had, which made a joint work of their opponents pushing it to the limit.
The druids began to spread thick roots from the ground to protect themselves, but in the face of their opponents’ relentless attacks, their expressions changed.
“Oh!” Giselle exclaimed in surprise.
It was just as they were about to break through the barrier of nature that the druids moved.
One druid cast a spell and the wall of thick roots grew thorns whose tips released a strange liquid.
The paladin in front covered his group, but he received a cut from those thorns and in just a few seconds, his body trembled.
There was no ‘weak’ magic, there were only individuals with low knowledge.
That much the druids made clear when they used a more deadly spell, creating those thorns with poison.
A priest prayed softly, and a light covered the paladin, purifying the poison, but the druids were just beginning their offensive.
“GRAaH!” A tiger leapt out of the thick roots, charging his opponent.
In the face of that surprise charge, the students of the Priestly Academy could not react, and one was viciously beaten.
The barrier was activated to protect him from that deadly attack.
“It was a shapeshifter,” Andrés muttered in surprise at the change.
Unlike the students of the Priest Academy, he had seen a student change into the form of a tiger.
However, that wasn’t all.
“Now that’s impressive,” Giselle muttered as she watched a nature mage begin to surround himself with roots forming a thick armor around him.
The armor grew until the student became a small three-meter giant made up of thick roots that covered his body completely.
A giant in nature lashed out at the Priestly Academy students, ramming him with considerable force.
It may not have been able to raise its strength from A-Rank to S-Rank, but it was certainly close.
At that point, the battle changed completely and the Priestly Academy students were overwhelmingly defeated.
“There are many capable students everywhere,” Giselle commented, and when Andrés nodded, she added. “Congratulations on your victory.”
“Thank you. I did my best,” Andrés replied calmly.
Giselle didn’t think too much of it and, heading to a corner where the computers were located, she gestured for him to sit down.
“Your job is simple. You have some suspicious targets you need to keep an eye on,” Giselle reported, revealing on the screen several people and with a serious tone, she detailed. “We’ve managed to hack into their emails, social media accounts, and their holographic watches. Basically, everything they use that is electronic and can store information.”
Andrés nodded calmly.
“Doing this work without just cause is completely illegal, but that’s why we’ve been hired,” Giselle reported in a serious tone, and looking at the targets, she pointed. “The drug cartels have been hiding very well and we’ve had to go so far as to look for suspects who look clean.”
The number of tourists arriving each day was a fairly large number and once inside the city, it was difficult to find their targets.
The empire’s intelligence department monitored all the underworld by inspecting them with a magnifying glass.
If a cartel member, criminal, or anyone else got in contact with a gang, information network, or anyone related to local underworld business, they would be discovered.
However.
“No matter how hard our partners try, everything has been very quiet, and that’s why we now have to find our target by other means,” Giselle said seriously.
According to the intelligence department, members of the cartel were already in the city, but they remained hidden.
Whatever they were doing, they were moving perfectly hidden and, therefore; the authorities ended up expanding the targets.
Andrés read the basic briefing he was given on the mission and looked at the suspects he was targeting.
His job was to keep an eye on them, to see if they did anything suspicious or had contact with suspicious individuals.
Still, looking at his targets, his expression couldn’t help but change.
“That old man seems nice enough,” Andrés muttered helplessly.
Among the three suspects who were his targets, one was a white-bearded old man with a kind smile that gave the impression that he was a doting grandfather.
“Don’t go by looks,” Giselle said and in revealing his background, stated. “In his past, he had contacts with cartels, but you couldn’t find out too much.”
Andrés looked at the history and realized it was just as Giselle had mentioned.
It was a fairly simple background, but the intelligence department had assumptions about the past and instead of dropping him, they put him on the watch list.
“I understand. I’ll get to work now,” Andrés said seriously.
In the evening, he was going to attend the group dinner and, for that reason; it was necessary to put everything in order.