Chapter 42: Battle Games
"Did you find anything?" Professor Ania's pearly hair swayed with her movements as she folded her hands, her blue eyes looking straight at Daniel.
"No, I found nothing." Daniel shook his head, looking to the side, his deep brown eyes squinted at the butterfly passing by in the empty hallway of the 3rd floor of the stadium.
"This place is eerily quiet." Laila appeared materializing in front of the two and said, wiping her dampened platinum hair.
"It's strange; normally, every time we try to hold an event, villains, despite their futile attempts, will at least try to annoy us. How come they didn't move in such a big event where hundreds and thousands of important people came?" Ania wondered out loud in deep thought, her brows furrowing in confusion.
Daniel shook his head, "That might not be the case."
Ania raised an eyebrow, and Daniel took the time to explain, "The Union personnel are all over the place. They have sent the shadow guard, Blue Hearts, and the secret unit guards."
"So it may be that they found intruders but didn't think they should inform us?"
Ania tsked, "How troublesome; this is our domain. Don't they know they should tell us at least so we can prepare for the worst?"
"You know them better than I do. Didn't you used to work for them?" Daniel sighed in defeat, if anything, as the special guards' unit leader of Erou, he felt the most helpless.
"What can possibly go wrong? Relax," Laila said sarcastically. "It's not like we have any authority here. You're nothing but an S-class professor, and I am just an administrator with a super useful ability."
"Also," she paused and glared at Daniel, "you should have told me that earlier; otherwise, I wouldn't go around transforming from one animal to another to gather information. Look at my hair; it's so damp and ugly. I need to go take a shower," Laila pointed with distress at her tangled hair.
Daniel scratched his nose with embarrassment and spoke. "Ah, sorry, did you manage to get anything?"
Laila shook her head and complained, "Unfortunately, it's so quiet. The embarrassing part is that a few days ago, I got a strange necklace intertwined between the tails of my cat form. And a crazy guy from Yarden started chasing me. Not only that, a girl from Erou held me by the tail."
"PFFFT-- she held you by the tail," Ania laughed out loud, while Daniel scratched his nose to hide a smile.
Laila puffed up her cheeks and pouted at the two, "I'm gonna go change."
She strode away, her face red. "I shouldn't have told them," she grumbled.
Ania said, catching up to her friend and giving her a bear hug, "Well, since the Union is taking care of security, why don't we go and watch the matches? The second event will be starting any time soon. I'll give you my blue dress to wear," she poked her cheeks. "You always wanted it."
"If you say so," Laila paused, "I'm not someone who's easily bribed, but that's the latest design of a famous brand."
"I know, I know," Seeing her friend appeased, Ania smiled and turned back to Daniel, "Are you going to join us?"
Laila raised her head without turning back.
Daniel shook his head, "Although I might not be welcomed, this is still my job. I need to check on the security office, the monitoring screen, and other staff."
Laila's expectant eyes dimmed; she looked down and spoke, "Let's go, Ania."
"But I'm sure that wouldn't take long, or I may as well get kicked out, so leave me a seat," Daniel added with a smile.
Laila transformed into an orange cat, similar to the color of her eyes, climbing Ania's shoulder, she licked her paws and waved her tails excitedly.
Ania grinned, giving him the okay sign.
Daniel sighed dotingly at his fiance's retreating figure. He turned around toward the monitoring room, his smile gone.
---
[Ladies and gentlemen,] The MC's loud shout resounded through the stadium.
[Let's all give special applause to the 120 participating competitors who passed the first hurdle toward the top.]
The MC waited for the round of applause to end before continuing.
[In the first place, we have the Mysterious Mage.]
[A true mystery indeed; no cameras were able to capture him as he appeared, grabbing the flag and standing in front of the stadium.]
The MC smiled, his heart racing. This was the most exciting job he had ever had.
[Second place goes to 'Ice Storm' from Cloo Academy. With courage, the young hero effortlessly stormed his way up the mountain, defeating everyone who tried to get in his way.]
Every contestant's introduction was followed by a round of applause.
[Next on the list is Oclixir, the young fellow who pushed everyone out of his way, using their own abilities against them.]
The MC introduced the top 10 with care and only stated the names of those from the 11th to the 120th.
[We have this young Slumbering King, who took the lead at the start but ended up in 112th place in the ranking.]
The MC continued.
[In the 120th place, we have 'Dark Age,' who leisurely walked as if he wasn't even in a race.]
[Unlike the second year's tournament, where Erou dominated, only 11 out of the 60 contestants managed to move on to the second event. Will these aspiring young heroes manage to survive and raise their own names high?]
The MC said with feigned sadness.
[We'll find out with the start of the Battle Games.]
[We'll be back after a short break,] the MC said, and the holographic screen in the waiting room turned dark.
"Ryan?" Tracy familiarly took his hand in hers, sitting in a locker room with the letter B on its door.
The participants wore unified gray clothing and masks. She ignored the three other people and spoke. "Ryan?"
"Hmm?" Ryan looked at her in confusion.
"You've been in a daze for a long time now," Tracy said, trying to act cute while playing with her light brown hair. "Are you still mad at me for claiming to be your girlfriend?"
Ryan shook his head silently.
"Ah, look, you're doing it again. It's like nothing I say is registering in your brain," Tracy clicked her tongue in annoyance. Her acting cute attempt didn't last long. "You don't have to be concerned about your rank in the tournament; it's not that important."
Ryan shook his head and sighed deeply.
"Are you perhaps concerned about Jacob?" Tracy raised an eyebrow.
Ryan looked at her and nodded, "Yes."
"Hmm? He's indeed acting weird. All of a sudden, he moved fast, taking first place, after claiming for a long time that he couldn't control his elemental magic," Tracy said in exaggerated disbelief, "It's not like I wanted him to be around, but he's making it obvious he doesn't want to talk to us."
Tracy had grown so accustomed to Jacob's presence that she had almost forgotten he was the one hindering her relationship progress with Ryan.
"Well, Jacob not being around is a good thing. And I'm nominally Ryan's girlfriend now, I can finally have time to make him fall for me," Tracy thought triumphantly.
She beamed and said, "We can't help it; we're not on the same team this time, so we have to wait until the Battle Games end."
Ryan had the urge to roll his eyes. He had seen many seductresses try to climb into his boss's bed, but he had never seen one fail so spectacularly by speaking her thoughts out loud. Even though he could sense her emotions and know she didn't like him, he could appreciate her more if she put more effort into keeping up the act.
Ryan smiled faintly, "Let's not lose too badly then."
"We're not going to lose with this great Golem Master around," Josh, who had been reprimanded by his professor so severely that he didn't dare to announce his real name out loud, got angry.
Due to the distance, he couldn't hear what Ryan and Tracy were talking about, but jealousy was eating him up from the inside.
"We're not going to lose," Damion said shortly, his eyes downcast. No one could decipher what he was thinking about.
"We can't say for sure that we won't lose with this combination," said Elsa, already despairing. "Why don't we introduce ourselves alongside our powers so we can cooperate better in the upcoming competition."
Seeing that no one was cooperating with her, she cleared her throat and said, "I'll start first. My hero's name is Transparent Lady, and I have invisibility power."
"Oclixir, Power Imitation," unexpectedly, the next one to speak was Damion.
"Forest Fairy - I'm a magician with the wood element," Tracy introduced.
"Golem Master - I'm a magician too, with the earth element," Josh said, raising his head. "What is yours, Ryan?" Josh asked, curious.
"...???" Ryan thought, 'Was this formation truly random?'
"Haha, I think you're the last one," Elsa said with a forced smile.
'Thinking about Jacob,' Tracy thought, 'Ryan is also mysterious. He has been using fire since he enrolled in Erou, however many people, including me, saw him use invisibility and super speed in the race.'
'Do we have to do this? I wasn't prepared.' Ryan thought, trying to avoid the eyes looking at him, "My hero's name is Slumbering Crown, and my power is..."
[Now let's explain the rules of the Battle Games,] the MC shouted so loudly that everyone in the locker rooms and the stadium covered their ears with their hands.
[The 120 contestants have formed random teams of 5 students,] the MC smiled.
[They will be having a fight in the dungeon-like training ground of Euro Academy. The end goal is to steal the other team's flag, regardless of methods.]
[Not only that, but there will also be a time limit of half an hour, and if any team fails to capture the other's flag, they will be eliminated. If both teams fail to capture the flag before the timer runs out, both will be eliminated.]
Holding the flag and handing it to Elsa, Damion said, "This will be your responsibility."
"Wait, I don't think we should give the flag to Elsa. It's better to give it to Ryan; he's stronger and can also use invisibility," Tracy said, still holding a grudge against Elsa.
'Did I ask for it?' Ryan rolled his eyes inwardly. 'And what happened to my hero's name?'
"Give it to whom? That turtle," Josh said mockingly, with one corner of his mouth raised.
"I believe that turtle kicked your ass at the banquet," Tracy looked at him with pity.
"You..." Josh choked on his words.
"Team A and Team B, move to your designated lounge."
The door of the locker room opened.
"Ryan will take the lead with me, and the two of you magicians will support us from behind," Damion's voice barely held any emotion as he naturally took on the role of a leader, being the one with the highest rank in the group.
"Elsa will hold the flag. Does anyone have a protest or a different opinion?"
No one spoke, it wasn't the time to argue against the arrangement, so they all silently agreed.
"Everyone, get ready. The first Battle Game will begin," Damion said.
"Let's go."