.
.
"Out with it Lang, what sort of trainings have you gone through this past week to be able to execute sick moves like those?" Grant showed an incomprehensible smile with a cold sweat on his face.
"Same old, same old." Irvine also smiled with excitement.
'As I thought... No matter the place and occasions, Battle Arena is still the only thing that can get my blood pumping!'
"What same old?? And what kind of Solver carries their Fielder anyway."
"Haha, I'm not gonna carry him NOW..." Irvine joked, "Go!"
The moment he gave the signal, Irvine started running to the side trying to encircle Grant.
Grant, of course, wouldn't let his mark off so easily as he charged forward with explosive speed.
*DASH*
In a flash, he was already three steps away from Irvine.
'He's got a great explosive dash just like I remembered...' Irvine grimaced at the sight of him.
From his point of view, Grant's short distance dash could even threaten players at the college level, and that was just a normal dash without the addition of any special abilities.
This was what he had lacked as a pro player, a special weapon that defined his value in a team. Although he didn't have any truly obvious weakness as a player, he also didn't have any strengths either.
Which made him a very replaceable commodity in the pro scene.
'Well, it IS a threat if used correctly, but like this...'
*BUMP*
Just as Grant was about to catch up to Irvine, he was suddenly blocked on his path by Dave who at some point, had firmly planted his feet to the ground and was holding him from moving forward with both his elbow and his other arm.
"Follow the plan... Follow the plan..." The timid-looking Dave was muttering the same words over and over as he blocked Grant from advancing.
"Good job Fielder!" Irvine grinned.
Not wasting the stop gap measure created by the freshman Fielder, Irvine continued to follow through with his course at full-speed until he reached the enemy's tower!
*step*
'Alright, first is the upper section...' Irvine cracked his knuckles.
*huff*
He took a quick mouthful of air and swiftly extended both his hands towards the tower.
.
.
"Urgh--"
Although the first timing of his block was impeccable, the difference in both physics and skills quickly showed for Dave as he got properly knocked back by Grant following a low-kick that tripped his leg.
*THUD*
After making sure that the opponent was downed properly, Grant hurriedly turned back towards Irvine at the tower and dashed with the same breakneck speed trying to intercept his attempt.
'His solving speed shouldn't be that fast, we can still turn this around! Todd and Jake is also hurrying back...'
In the distance, the two teammates of Grant who had been downed single-handedly by Irvine had already started to run back to their camp.
In a Battle Arena match, it was rare to see the other party's Fielders and Solvers continuing to advance when their tower was being dismantled early in the match.
The team who had started dismantling first held the advantage in terms of head-start and momentum, so unless they could get that back or completely reverse it with speed on their end, a tower battle usually happened in one place at a time.
.
*step*
In just a couple steps, Grant had already reached Irvine's side back at his tower. But unexpectedly,
*SWISH* *CLACK* *TAP* *CLICK*
"!!"
The immediate scene he saw was of a new amateur Solver dismantling the tower with both his hands in a relatively fast pace.
Irvine's two hands were dancing around the upper section of the tower. Sometimes pushing and sliding while at other times rotating the whole section trying to find the next component.
'The upper section's foundation has already started to get shaky, how the hell...'
"You have got to... STOP!" Without thinking too much as to how Irvine could have the skills and solving speed of a regular Solver, Grant quickly dashed one more time trying to tackle him away from the tower.
Unfortunately for him, Irvine had already marked him the moment he downed his Fielder Dave. His dismantling hands slowed just as Grant was preparing the charge, and when the dash came in full-speed towards him...
*SWISH*
Irvine quickly did a well-timed 360 degrees spin move using the charging momentum as a propeller for his spin while at the same time backing away from the tower.
'What!?'
Grant who had missed his target couldn't make the brake in time and continued to charge past the tower while Irvine had already stepped forward once more to continue his solving.
*CLICK* *CLACK*
"Shi...!"
This exchange went on for a couple more times until Todd and Jake successfully arrived back in their tower zone. They were now facing-off against the previously downed Dave who was already standing back up.
'I may be no match against the Captain who already broke through, but I have to hold them off here!' He thought.
"Out of the way!" Jake the Fielder yelled.
"Try me!"
"No actually, let's do as they say." Irvine suddenly interjected from back at the tower.
'Just a little bit more, and...'
*BREAK*
After he pushed down the last component while avoiding Grant's heavy charges one more time, the entire upper section of their tower puzzle, which was one-third of the portion from the top, suddenly broke down into multiple parts and pieces!
The puzzle pieces that made up the upper section fell down one-by-one with nothing holding them together, showing the protruding thin-looking rod inside that was the skeleton of the tower.
"1st Section's done! Retreat!" Irvine shouted.
Now that the Fielder and Solver of the other team were back, there's little point in fighting 2 against 3. It would be better to take them out outside the tower zone where Grant couldn't reach, like what they'd done the first time around.
Irvine and Dave smoothly backed away outside the tower zone, avoiding the attacks of Todd and Jake all the while.
*pant* *pant*
"Damn..."
.
.
The artificial sky of the Olympus Space Station turned a shade darker as it simulated the end of sunset on the horizon.
"Gaaahh... A 3-0 perfect win! So frustrating!" Grant lay down on the field ground grumbling to himself.
After the first section break, Irvine continued to use the same tactic for the rest of the game.
Although there's a bit of hiccup at the end where he was not too familiar with solving while kneeling down for the lower section, it was all in all a very one-sided match.
"You just had to get good right after we lost the qualifiers huh!?"
"Better late than never right?" Irvine smiled wryly.
*tch*
"For yourself maybe... By the way, how did you get so good at solving?? I've never seen you solve towers during practice!"
"Err... Secret weapon?" He scratched his cheek in reply.
"Like hell!" A vein threatened to pop from Grant's forehead as he retorted,
'It wasn't just his solving speed, his move was also sharper and more decisive. And most importantly...'
Grant tried to recall all the events of that single-tower match.
'I couldn't touch him at all! Not even once!' His eyes widened as the fact dawned on him.
.
The two of them sat on top of the green open field for a long while, each with his own thoughts.
Dave and the rest of the four team members already said their goodbyes shortly after the practice match.
There was supposed to be a training scheduled for today, but with only 6 people showing up, nobody felt like it was the appropriate mood to train.
"..."
"Around 2 months left before graduation... What's your plan Lang?" Grant asked lightly
"Good question..."
Irvine had come to realize a lot of things during the single-tower match. The first was that his tower solving speed was still too slow right now.
'Although I'm not aiming to become a typical speed-solver, at my current level, even becoming a supportive type bench Solver for the league is nigh impossible... I still have a long road ahead.'
And the second realization was that, unlike what he had first estimated, he was rather tight on time with his current situation.
'2 Months before graduation... I need to start appealing for athletic scholarship offers!'
To become a great indispensable player in the pro scene and play at a higher level, his first step was to build a good resume starting from college.
And to do that, the first most reliable choice was to get scouted into a college or university with top Arena team!
The problem was that most of the doors that could help him appeal to college scouters had already been long closed at this time of year.
Their team had lost the chance to participate in the Championships, and there were no more large scale competitions for the rest of the academic year that could attract scouters to watch.
'Though it's not like there's no way at all...'
Irvine took a minute or two to contemplate before answering Grant's question,
"I think I'm going to apply for an Arena Athlete License and get my Gene Modification before college starts."
"!!" Grant suddenly turned his head to the statement.
"This... Are you aiming for an Athletic Scholarship offer?"
*nod*
Irvine nodded.
An Arena Athlete License was one of the many types of licenses available that allowed a person to get a Gene Modification done on their bodies, giving them access to a variety of superhuman-like and metaphysical powers.
This was the license that the majority of college players got and all pros had to be able to play Battle Arena at the highest level possible.
However getting the license was not a simple matter, which was why Grant had such a surprised look on his face when he'd heard the declaration.
The process of getting an Arena Athlete License involved a series of tests to prove that one was indeed a prospective Battle Arena athlete.
Most players took their License during their first year of college while some even had to wait until they were sophomores or juniors even though the minimum age for the application was 18.
Just this fact alone already showed people the standard and difficulty of getting the license. And if one was talking about the number of people who had successfully gotten it before entering college...
It was less than 10 people every year!
Each of them was a talent marked by even pro scouts to keep an eye out for as future prospect to be drafted into the league after college.
Passing the test required one's athletic capabilities and combat skills to be at the standard of college players even before their Gene Modifications.
Even the High School Champion team members might not have what it takes to pass the test before college. One would be remiss if he/she was to underestimate the difference in level between high-school and college players.
.
On the other hand, it was precisely because of the rarity of it that if Irvine were to successfully lay his hand on the license, he would have had no problem in getting many scholarship offers from colleges and universities all over Olympus.
Even colleges that had already filled their scholarship quotas would make an exception for him as long as they were a school with even the slightest bit of reputation in their Battle Arena.
From there, he could slowly pick out his choice of schools with a team composition that best suited his development.
Of course, it still had to be a school with top Arena team.
.
"You think you can pass?" Grant asked.
"I'm gonna try to."
"...And what kind of school are you looking for if you really pass the test and got the license?"
"The one with the best Arena team." Irvine gave a clear and decisive answer.
"..."
"Haa... I'm jealous, you seem to already make up your mind about becoming a player for your future huh? Me, I'm stumped..." Grant let out a long sigh with a mix of complicated feelings.
'Was that why you ended up picking a university with more academic incentives last time?' Irvine wondered in his mind as he tried to remember the future.
For an exceptional high school Arena player such as Grant who just happened to go to a school with average team like Greenwood High, even if he hadn't gotten an athletic scholarship, he'd still be able to enter his choice of college or university in consideration of his athletic skills.
But in Irvine's past future, he ended up going to a prestigious university that's well-known for its Business department.
'I guess he'd wanted to have an exit if his Arena career didn't pan out...'
"Hey,"
Thinking up to here, Irvine decided to share his thought.
"I'm not going to tell you to go all-in with Arena like me, the chances of going pro are slim to none, only the top 5% of college players made it into the league every year. But Grant..."
"You have talent. You should at least think about it."
"..." Grant turned silent at his advice.
"Well, I'm going home. See you next Monday." Irvine turned around and waved his hand to say good bye.
"Hm? Why so early, it's not even dark yet?" Both of them usually went home at the same time on practice day, which was way past dinner time.
"I have a lot to plan if I were to really go for it, plus..." He looked towards the direction of his childhood home in Zeta City. He hadn't been here in a long LONG time,
"I miss my family." Irvine said what's on his mind.
"Hn?"
'I'm not gonna waste this second life. Not on anything....'