103: Group Battle (Part 1)

Group Battle (Part 1)

A week later, the night before the battle.0

Ayaka walked to her balcony, looking at the beautiful night sky. Her trembling hand slowly gripped the balcony railings. The thought of messing up in tomorrow's battle crept into her heart, making her unable to sleep.

"Grandfather… Please watch over me in tomorrow's battle. No matter what it takes, I won't disappoint anyone." She closed her eyes and swore.

Meanwhile, the others were making their preparations.

Michelle was training her magic in her backyard. Tasha was wiping her bow, making sure she would be able to use it properly tomorrow. Evan Young was typing something on his computer, searching up their opponent's data to make sure he didn't miss any important information. As for Sanae… she was sleeping soundly in her room. For her, having a good sleep before a battle was the greatest preparation. Though, she might have been a little too much as it was only 8 PM.

Lastly, Kai was shaking inside his room, sweating like crazy. He tried to raise his shaky hand and smirked. "This is it. I can use it as my trump card."

Although he rushed a bit, he finally finished his magic idea. After that, he fell asleep while smiling.

The same applied to the enemy. Isabelle knew what to do in tomorrow's battle. Even though Lion Group was created not long ago, they were full of insane people. Two Zodiacs and two S-rank magicians, that alone would be enough to destroy their group if they were not careful.

As for her subordinates, they also knew the weight of this battle. If they messed up even a little bit, their points wouldn't really matter, but their reputation would.

The next day.

All parties assembled in their respective rooms. The news spread like crazy and almost every student gathered inside the auditorium. If they needed a ticket to watch this match, it would sell better than cold drinks in hot summer. Some students didn't even care whether they got a seat to watch or not.

After all, they knew this was a battle between the current 8th group and Michelle Graham. However, if that were all to it, the room wouldn't be this full. What surprised them the most was that the leader of Lion Group was an unknown young man instead of the famous Michelle Graham.

The middle and bottom groups would be able to learn a lot from this battle, while the top group treated this battle as a chance to observe and investigate their soon-to-be rival.

The students looked around, trying to find each group, from the first-ranked group Dawn, the second-ranked group Golden, and so on.

An hour before the battle, a student and a teacher came in and sat in the commentators' seats. The student was a brown-haired boy with a coconut haircut and big round glasses.

"Ladies and gentlemen, today, we'll witness a legendary battle between Eagle Group and the new Lion Group with me as the commentator from Studio Group, Diego. According to the information, the famous S-rank magician, Michelle Graham, created this group not long ago. However, I'm curious as to why she's not the group leader. Instead, she gave the position to an unknown new student named Kai Carter. And it would seem that this student's older sister, Tasha Carter, is an S-rank space magician. Even from those two alone, we can say that this group is undoubtedly overpowered.

"If I'm not mistaken, they were citizens of the United Asia Base not long ago. But for this, I believe that we shouldn't hear it from me, but someone else. That's why, for today's occasion, we'll have a special guest that will help me commentate on the match and let us know more about this Lion Group. Please give a warm round of applause to Michelle Graham's personal teacher, Mano Yuki."

The applause from almost every student in the school echoed inside the huge auditorium.

"Mano Yuki here. Well, I can't really say anything about this group since they're new. As for that question, I think it's fine to say these two things since some of you already know anyway. Kai Carter is the son-in-law of the Graham family… wait, he's still her fiancé, so soon-to-be... and as far as I know, Michelle has never beaten him in a physical fight."

Her words silenced the loud auditorium. They were stupefied, wondering if their ears were playing them.

Even Diego, who was right beside her, couldn't believe his ears. Even though Michelle was an S-rank magician, her close combat prowess alone was one of the tops in this school. Hearing that she had never won a single time against this mysterious person completely bewildered them.

"Teacher, I would like to ask another question. According to the data, Kai Carter is a sound magician. Sound magic is basically useless in a fight, so if his close combat technique is that good, why is he not in the Military Academy? Wouldn't the Military Academy be the best place to nurture his power? You mentioned how he's Michelle Graham's fiancé, could it be that he enrolled in this academy to chase his love?"

Yuki simply laughed. "Haha… You're certainly true there. First of all, sound magicians are normally useless in a fight. His physical power would guarantee him the same amount of prestige as Michelle. Second, while it's true that he came to this academy for that, the request came from my student's part. That's why all the pantsy guys here couldn't interest her! Haha… Ah, if you try to do anything funny to that guy, you might make the entire Graham family move, so be careful."

Many of Michelle's pursuers had their expressions darkened. They finally knew why they weren't able to impress Michelle. She was already in love with another man.

Envy and jealousy started filling the atmosphere. Luckily, this didn't affect Diego as he noticed something off from her statement. "Normally? Do you mean he's not a normal sound magician? No, is he an unorthodox magician?"

"As you all understand, people will always have an element in their bodies. Normally, the elements would be among the eight basic elements; fire, water, ice, earth, wind, thunder, wood, and metal.

"Rarer elements like light, darkness, and space are hard to come by, making them a bit special. And just like the sound element, those elements were also considered useless in the past.

"And in one generation, an unorthodox magician who had either of those three elements appeared. The element slowly became popular as they put their experiences within their notes, and after some tweaking, even a normal magician would be able to wield that special magic. In other words, the light, darkness, and space magicians we have right now are from the efforts of those heroes in the past.

"And just like those guys in the past, there's this person called Kai Carter, who possesses the sound element. With his uniqueness, he understands sound more than us. And maybe in a decade or so, we'll see another rise of sound magicians after going through another magic tweaking process. After all, we need to eliminate the uniqueness in his magic before we can let normal sound magicians use it.

"And maybe, another element such as time might come in the future. However, I don't know if it'll come when we take back the Earth from magical beasts or in the fight. After all, we might not witness the appearance of another unorthodox magician. Well, I can call myself lucky since I'm the teacher of this unorthodox man's fiancée." Yuki laughed again.

"..." The people were tongue-tied. The top groups started clenching their fists, determined not to miss a single detail in this match.

"Well, it seems that there are only thirty minutes before we start. Hence, we will draw the place to be their battlefield so each team can prepare their battle plans. As you know, we have ten places for a group battle. In fact, this group battle itself is a preparation battle against terrorists as each group would have their own plans to counter their enemies." He stood up and raised his hand. "Without further ado, let's draw the place!"

The giant screen inside the auditorium flashed, showing ten places in black and white. It started rouletting before it stopped to a plain. When it revealed the true image, it was a vast wheat field.

The screen displayed the entire map. Diego explained about the map, "It would seem that we'll have a vast wheat field after harvest as our battlefield. On the right side, there are woods, and further on the right are hills, which should be the boundary of this battlefield. Meanwhile, on the other side, we can see an abandoned village.

"There's a lot of exposure in this place, which will most likely give Isabelle Fisher an advantage. What do you think their plan will be, Teacher Yuki? I bet it will be utilizing the hills or woods on the right since the village wouldn't let you avoid Isabelle Fisher." Diego turned his head to look at Mano Yuki beside him.

"Yeah. After hearing about the sniping ability of Isabelle Fisher, I would certainly utilize the hill. However, as you might already be aware of Tasha Carter's space magic, we should watch out for her since we won't know when she will appear.

"This is where Nicholas comes to play. He can't be too far or too close to Isabelle Fisher to prevent Tasha Carter from ambushing her. If I were in Isabelle's place, I would certainly thrust my spear through the weakest link, Kudo Ayaka, before attacking Evan Young. Then he might be able to turn the tide of the battle and destroy this overpowered group." Yuki gave her insight.

And as expected, Isabelle also came up with the same strategy.

On the other hand, Kai smiled upon seeing the place that was going to be their battlefield.

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