Anthony laughed at that "That describes them perfectly!" he said in agreement. "Let me guess it was probably started by whoever it was that wanted to bully Luna right?" Nick asked with and knowing look. "Nailed it in one , I admit the rest of us should have probably put a stop to it but didn't want to clash with the ones responsible." Anthony said with clear shame. "I would have put a stop to it myself if Luna hadn't so it doesn't matter." Nick said honestly. He meant it too as if Luna hadn't put a stop to her mistreatment by her housemates he would have made everyone involved miserable.-
Anthony went silent at that as he had heard of the way Nick had dealt with those that displeased him and it sound like an all around bad time. He had never truly harmed any of them but each time he acted he left those unlucky few scared and cautious of getting on his bad side again. It was at this point that more students started to arrive and Anthony used this to end the conversation. Nick knew about it of course but simply couldn't bring himself to care and waited for the game to start officially. -
Soon enough water started to rise from the black lake and fill the field while more and more people filled the seats. There were a few reporters and even surprisingly enough talent scouts who did a poor job hiding that fact. Still the bleachers weren't nearly as full as they were during the first game which made sense as foreign wizards with too much time hadn't traveled to the isles to see it this time. 'Still it's good to see the sport has so many interested since it will boost my reputation greatly with the wizards that don't care for magical prowess.' Nick thought with a small smile.-
It certainly helped that Nick was also profiting from the creation of the sport greatly and would likely continue to do so until he was richer than the church. Soon enough it was time for the game to begin and like with the quidditch matches Lee Jordan was the announcer for it. The first team to enter the field was the mermen who wore pale blue body suits with green seaweed looking wraps around their wrists and ankles. 'Oh it seems the designer for this outfit read my research paper on the merfolk in the lake.' Nick thought surprised.-
It was a rather niche topic after all so it was not the sort of thing that one would usually search out. Compared to the other books on the underwater people in the library Nicks research report was the only one that took a neutral stance on the topic and only gave the facts as they were without any conjectures or theories. He didn't include the seal on their bloodlines though since that would draw the wrong sort of ideas from the readers.-
To be honest however Nick hadn't expected anyone to really read his research and even less to use the information within to design a outfit. An interesting thing Nick noticed about the outfits was that the hands and feet were webbed and finned respectively which would give a edge to the teams movement ability in the water. There was no rule against this sort of outfit modification so until something about it was added it was totally legal. The Krakens entered the field after that and they also wore body suits designed after the creature in question.-
The outfits were white with tentacles designs on the arms and legs but interesting was the actual suction cups on the hands of the suits. 'That would help keeping a hold on the ball but would also make it harder to pass it as well , an interesting tradeoff.' Nick thought intrigued by it. To his amusement the person serving as the referee which in this case was Tracy was wearing a replica of his own silver body suite with a black badge on the front and back. 'I guess that will be the standard referee outfit for the sport from now on.' Nick thought with a smirk.-
The game started and Nick got to see the effects of the outfit modifications in action. Like he thought the Mermens outfits granted them superior speed all around compared to the Krakens who struggled to keep up. It wasn't so great that extra effort couldn't fill the gap but still quite noticeable. The suction cups on the Krakens outfits on the otherhand also did what Nick had expected which neutralized the extra momentum behind the Mermens tackles when they had the ball. All in all the game was actually very close in terms of outfit functionality as both sides had an advantage in one way or another.