The matches would have started on November 2nd, this involved a little preparation by the various groups, especially on the teamwork side.
Precisely for this reason Hel, Yo, Marie, and I agreed to meet immediately after the end of the event, which lasted 2 hours, in someone's room to be able to talk about strategies.
Luckily for Hel and me, both of our teammates immediately seemed very cooperative and "good" people.
We decided, or rather, Marie decided that the room for the meeting would be Yo's, so we walked towards his room without wasting much time.
" Why do we have to use my room?" Yo said.
"Well, certainly not mine or Hel's," Marie replied.
"And why ...?"
"Well obviously, we girls have more things to hide in our rooms, right Hel?" Marie said smiling at Hel, who nodded coldly.
'Yo and Marie already seem to get along ... somehow ... while Hel ... doesn't seem used to making friends ... who knows why it didn't even take a day with me...'
"And why not Zeto's room?" Yo suggested.
"By now we are walking in the direction of your room ... it would be a waste of time to change your mind now ..." I said.
"Ahhh ..." Yo sighed, accepting his fate.
From the first impressions I had of them, Yo seemed to be a reserved and intelligent guy, he was about the same height as me, with straight and medium-length black hair parted in the middle, he was very skinny, and his facial features vaguely reminded me of Liza, especially the eyes, I thought maybe they had the same origin. He wore a white sweater with a panda in front, and dark brown pants and shoes.
Marie's character seemed to me, instead, his exact opposite, lively and outgoing. She was a little shorter than me and, as it were, had very pronounced feminine qualities, if you know what I mean; she had reddish-brown hair, and green eyes and her face was very graceful and dotted with freckles. She was dressed in a very simple way, an orange short-sleeved t-shirt tending to red with a vague red design on the front and some almost senseless writing on the back, a black skirt, and red socks that reached up to her thigh, and finally black flat shoes.
"Well, we've arrived..." Yo said, standing in front of his room entrance.
We went into his room, Marie walked quickly as if to see instantly if Yo kept secrets in there, but nothing, it was a simple and tidy bedroom, very bare, a bit like mine was.
"Ugh ..." Marie said disappointed, letting herself sit on Yo's bed.
The way she let herself fall made certain qualities of hers "flinch", which made both me and Yo blush a little.
Hel the instant she noticed it, she nudged me in the stomach, hard enough to take my breath away for a few seconds.
"Well, shall we begin?" Hel asked.
Hel and Yo sat on the only two chairs in the room, so I had to sit on the bed, next to Marie, which made me slightly nervous.
'She also smells good … ahh, I feel like a pervert ...' I thought while the others were already talking about various strategies and tactics.
"What do you think about it Zeto?" Hel asked me, her voice was more acid than usual, I knew instantly that she was pissed off, even if I didn't quite understand why.
"Oh ... sorry, I wasn't listening ..."
"Well, be more careful ..." Hel said sternly, while the other two smiled.
First of all, Yo suggested we exchange information about our strengths and abilities; Hel started, telling the others an abridged version of what I already knew, then it was my turn, then it was Yo's turn, briefly, his strong point was to fight at a distance being his skills related to archery. Marie, on the other hand, according to what she told us, was skilled in close combat, thanks to her ability that enhanced her physical strength.
"So ... we are three close fighters and only one skilled from afar ..." I said, "We are really at a disadvantage, I think ..." I added.
Hel and Yo nodded.
"Why?" Marie asked confused.
"Well ..." Yo replied "in the game of towers defending is much easier if you are able to attack opponents from within the range of your towers, so ... imagine you are against three people who are good at medium to long-range combat, they could attack us by staying out of the range of our towers, and if you tried to attack them by getting close to them, they would just need to enter the range of their tower closer, increasing their advantage thanks to the laser shots of their towers," Yo explained.
Marie seemed to understand.
"However ..." He added, "it is also true that a team as skilled in close-quarters combat as ours has an advantage in off-tower combat, such as those that might occur to obtain the legendary weapon or to slay the earth dragon ..."
"Mmh … Anyway, instead of standing here talking… maybe we should try to increase our teamwork a little… " Hel said.
"How about going 1v1 or 2v2 in a gym?" Hel suggested.
"In fact, by seeing our powers at work, we may better understand how to behave tomorrow and maybe it will help us create a strategy of some kind..." Yo added.
We all accepted Hel's proposal.
In the Arena's gyms, all belonging to the "GladiatorFit" chain, they were equipped with simulated combat devices similar to those in Ri's office.
'This ... is a bit nostalgic' I thought as I put on my helmet and lay down on a bed, it had been a long time since I had simulated fights with Ri.
We decided to choose a clear in the woods as a scenario for our fights, and we, first of all, chose to do 1v1, me vs Marie and Yo vs Hel.
"Keep in mind I'm still in Laurel Tier..." Yo said before starting the fight, "And up close I suck ..." He added.
"Come on, fight, and don't make excuses!" Marie exclaimed, she seemed thrilled by the course of events.
The fight between Yo and Hel began, Yo created a bow of sparkling energy in his hands, then flexing the string created an arrow and shot it at Hel, who easily dodged it thanks to her agility and approached Yo, who threw another arrow as he leaped back to get away from her.
'Hmm ... he seems very clever ... both the bow he created and the arrows ... I don't quite understand what they are made of ... but…' I turned to the tree that had received one of his arrows, which had caught fire, 'It seems to ignite what strikes ... '
' However ... '
"I think this fight will not last long ..." Marie said, looking at the fight with a more serious look than usual.
"Yeah ..." I replied.
'Maybe she's not as stupid as I thought…'
Yo tried to continue his tactic of shooting an arrow and jumping away, yet Hel was much more agile and quicker than him.
Hel minimized the gap between the two of them and with a sideways swipe of her scythe tried to cut his head off. However what looked like Yo turned out to be a holographic copy of him, Yo appeared behind Hel, ready to shoot an arrow; Hel saw him in time and whirled around in the air and stopped the arrow shot by Yo with her left hand.
Hel now struck the real Hel, "killing him" with that single blow.
Yo's body disappeared only to reappear shortly thereafter.
"Ahhh ... for a moment I thought I had you…" Yo said smiling, still throbbing for the match that had just taken place.
"I must say I underestimated you ... you are really strong." Hel said while sincerely smiling.
'Hmm, now she seems more comfortable…' I thought as I looked at her.
It was now up to me and Marie to fight.
'She said she can increase her strength, and it looks like she wants to fight with her bare hands ... so she probably also has a hardening ability or something ...'
"You and Zeto have known each other for a long time now, haven't you?" Yo asked Hel.
"Yes ... from the survival event ... by the way, were you participating in that event too?"
"Ah, yes ... but I only got in the top hundred ... anyway, who do you think will win between the two of them? Marie for example finished in the top 20 in that event..."
"Zeto," Hel said instantly.
"I know I can seem biased ... however, his power is truly incredible and besides ... he has a really excellent intelligence in fighting and understanding situations ... he is superior to me in that ..." Hel added.
Yo smiled at her, "Well, let's enjoy the match." He said.
Marie and I stood at a distance from each other for a while, waiting for the opponent's move.
Thanks to my power "Danger Prediction", I knew that Marie was going to attack me, and because of this, as soon as she sprinted towards me, I was able to dodge her blow easily. Meanwhile, I also hurled a "Wind Cut" towards her right side.
Even though I had upgraded that ability to level 4, I did almost nothing to her, which confirmed my theory that she had a hardening ability.
I saw Marie's face, she had a crazy smile on her face.
'Oh, you're having fun, huh?'
I smiled too, throwing myself against her with a sword's thrust, speeding up my movement thanks to the "Wind Movement" skill.