Three days passed by in an instant. The Radiant Shadow Squad now had a basic understanding of one another. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough time for them to get to know each other better as they were forced to leave for the tournament.
The tournament was being held in Xiuda's largest plaza. The plaza was larger than 10 football* fields combined. They had built 51 stages in the plaza long ago. Besides the stage in the center meant for the semi-finals and the finals, the rest of the stages were being used to conduct matches. After drawing lots, we were put into the 198th group while Wind Dragon Battle Squad was put into the 808rd group. We still haven't encountered any members of their squad.
The five of us arrived at the stage. Everyone around the stage as part of a battle squad while spectators were located on elevated stands outside of the stage. There were also many newly built pavilions and seats for spectators.
After looking around, I noticed that the majority of the participants were dressed like warriors while only a few people had different professions. I wore the matching uniforms of my squad, white warriors clothing. We planned on hiding my magic as much as possible during the preliminaries.
The tournament rules were explained by the organizers just prior to starting the tournament. According to the lots we drew, we wouldn't fight until the third match. Judging from their appearances, the first battle had only ordinary warriors on both sides. The most they could manage was to simply chop at each other as there wasn't even a single Earth Knight participating. In the end, the winning squad won 3-2.
The second match was virtually the same. We nearly fell asleep watching these matches before the 198th group's judge finally announced, "The third match, the Radiant Shadow Squad versus the Steel God Soldiers Squad."
Xiu Shen said to me, "To save time we'll directly face off against the other team."
I nodded in agreement.
We arrived on the stage and stunned the audience with our matching Black-golden uniforms and uniformly towering height that was greater than 180 centimeters. From the other side of the elevated stage came the sounds of heavy footsteps. Bang, bang! Damn! They're exaggerating too much.
The Steel God Soldiers Squad appeared. They really are overbearing! All five were fully equipped with heavy infantry armor and an average height of more than 2 meters. Combined with their two-handed greatswords, it seems they aren't lightweights after all!
Xiu Shen whispered into my ear, "Ah, they're really calculating. The space on the stage is very limited, so they plan to charge us in an attempt to knock us over and win!"
I answered, "It's a pity that they encountered us." We laughed with our hearts brimming with confidence.
Naturally, I had to go forward to negotiate with them as the team captain. They happily agreed to a team fight as it was advantageous to them.
The judge announced the start of the battle with a whistle. Immediately, all five Steel God Soldiers brandished their greatswords and rushed us together. While their vigor really was incredible, their speed simply was too slow. Chen An, Xiu Shen and I didn't move at all. We just stood at the edge of the stage with Ao di. Xiu Shen had told me before the battle, that if it's possible we should win with the least amount of people.
When the five opponents reached us, Ao di welcomed them with a roar as a faint yellow battle spirit enveloped his greatsword. The two swords crossed and the originally bold and vigorous opponent was blown away by Ao Di's slash. Xing Ao had also greatly nicked his opponent's greatsword in their exchange.
The rest of them were all beaten by Ao Di. After clashing with him a few times, all of the opponents were unsteadily swaying from side to side. Bao jin grumbled, "You didn't leave any for me and took care of them all by yourself." All of the other competitors in the audience stared at us foolishly. Many of them were annoyed that we had only used one person.
I walked to the front and stopped Ao di from continuing his assault. I said to the opponents, "I advise you all to surrender. Surely you realize how great the gap is between the strengths of our squads."
The opponent's boss propped himself up with his sword and heavily said, "Brother, just now was your teammate using Earth Battle Spirit?"
I nodded my head. "That's right." I didn't know whether to laugh or cry at what followed.
The match was easily concluded, As the opponents ran towards Ao Di and knelt before him, asking, "please senior, make us your disciples!!!"
Xie Shen walked towards them and said Ao di's contact info to the opponents kneeling down to Ao di.
They gave up the match, as they understood, they stood no chance against the earth battle spirits.
It wasn't easy for us to leave the Steel God Soldiers Squad. On the road back to the academy after finishing our first battle, Bao Jin kept prodding Ao Di by saying, "Ah, not bad. Brother already received five disciples on the first day of the tournament. Haha. If all the battles in the future are like this, we'll be able to form our own legion!"
Ao de ignored him and asked Xiu Shen, "Boss, do you think I'll be able to accept them?"
Xiu Shen smiled. "From what I've seen, they're simple and frank men. There shouldn't be any problems with accepting them as your disciples. As for whether you should accept them or not, that's up to you."
Carrying on, each day we participated in one group battle. All of the battles proceeded smoothly for us defeating all of them. Xiu Shen and I just watched them with the detached view of bystanders. In 10 battles, we had 10 victories, allowing us to proceed from the 198th group into the semi-finals.
After concluding the preliminary battles, we were given two rest days before we were to draw lots again. The first round of the knockout competition would take place over four days with us participating on the third day. In other words, we had four days to rest. We were quite pleased with this arrangement. we unceasingly practiced building up our skills as a team.
...
The following battles were very easy for us as we didn't meet any teams stronger than this one. We played our triumphant hymn the whole time and in one breath, we had reached the top.