Everyone in the gizmo's class glanced at Alice. Confused why she came there. It was unheard of for one of the combat courses to team up with them.
"Are you sure? I don't have any firepower or a strong defense that you might need. Jasper, very confused, asked.
"Who cares about that?" She reassured him. "You are allowed to use the gadgets that you made, right?" Alice grinned from ear to ear.
"Yes, that's true..." He started considering her offer now that he knew she was serious about it. "But who will be the third person?"
"Tania, come here!" Alice called for her friend. When the dryad got to them, she started introducing them to each other: "This is Tania. She is my best friend and a dryad. Her firepower is amazing, but she can't really fight up close. She stretched out her hands and pointed them towards her. "And this right here," she pointed at the short boy who she was hugging, "is Jasper. He is great at making gadgets and is okay with being in a team with us. Although I don't know much else about him. Alice picked him up with ease, squinting her eyes and looking right at him. "You have some super OP amazing gadget that will help us, right?"
Confused Jasper was struggling to not fall, thrashing his hands and legs around. "I don't even know what OP means..." Tears started swelling in his eyes. "But I do have battle suits that were laying around collecting dust... I will borrow them from you if you put me down. He looked like a small child in Alice's hand.
Alice reluctantly put him down, a pout forming on her face. "Fine, but I hope they are as good as our uniforms in terms of quality." Alice scratched herself on her thighs. "Because those pants keep irritating my skin. It sucks so much!" She grunted, her legs turning red because of the continuous movement of her hands.
Jasper ran towards the warehouse; it took him some time as he was lost in the sea of other gizmo's course students looking for their gadgets.
While they were waiting for Jasper, a tall knight bumped into Alice. "Oh, my bad. I was not looking at all." He apologized, bowing down to them and noticing that they were dryads, "stupid plant people." His face switched from a warm, welcoming one to a look of pure disgust, like someone who just smelled rotten flesh.
"Are you looking for a fight?" A vein could be seen popping on Alice's forehead. "You are the one who bumped into me!"
"Oh, how cute, you're bringing your little team together. Don't worry, I'll go easy on you, even though it's really not necessary. He wanted to add more; he could feel his stomach turn; he quickly went away and barfed into the bushes. His two teammates supporting checking up if he is okay: "I can't wait to crush you." He went away.
"Just who does this jerk think he is, huh?" Alice clenched her fist, fuming with anger. Her sleep deprivation made her mental state a ticking time bomb. Any small thing that wouldn't have mattered previously now made her raging with anger.
Tania and Alice were both not happy about that but decided to ignore it for now as they saw Jasper popping out of the crowd after a while with a large suitcase. He toddled towards them, but it was obvious that he had problems with the case. He could barely lift it off the ground. Alice cast air magic to help him pick it up. "Thank you," Jasper panted. "It's just... so heavy." He sat down on the ground for a moment's rest. "You can open the case. Your suits are in there."
Tania and Alice opened the case; they were both amazed as there were two sets of armor. Alice took out the first suit and could see that it was made out of leather. It contained a pair of boots, long skin-tight pants, a utility compression top equipped with tactical storage compartments for small items, and a hood with a mask. Alice stared at it in awe; she really wanted to just take it for herself because of how good it looked. She then turned her head around to see the other set of armor. Tania took out that one; it was a chainmail with steel-reinforced leg armor.
"Jasper, where is the rest of this heavy armor?" Tania inquired of him, bending down to look at him face to face.
The young engineer averted her gaze and became red in the face. "Because the breastplate I made would be too small for you." Him lying there on the ground with a blush on his face made him look like a tomato. Alice imagined that and could barely stop herself from bursting into uncontrollable laughter.
"That will be plenty enough." Alice patted him on the back. "You can even sit it out if you want. I really didn't want to wear those ugly clothes." She, together with Tania, went to change into their new armors.
Alice's suit was tight in places, but she liked how it felt on her body. Tania wasn't a fan of not having a full armor, but she didn't want to complain. Jasper was already there waiting for them as the tournament brackets were about to be set up.
"I already put names down; we just need to wait a moment for Prince Charles to make it more exciting for himself." He pointed to the prince brainstorming.
He jumped up, a wide grin on his face. "EVERYONE!" Charle's shout grabbed everyone's attention. "The brackets are finalized." He pinned them on a board.
A crowd quickly gathered in front of it. Everyone trying to push each other away to see where they are, but quickly the interest turned into confusion as they could see which team will win and which will lose.
"What is the meaning of this!" One of the contestants shouted. It was a tall man with a greatsword on his back. "Why can we see the scores of the fights?"
"Oh, it's a bit of a challenge for myself. I just wrote down who I think will win. I'm very good at it, you know?" He smirked, then pointed with his hand towards the tall swordsman. "For example, you. Grimr Stoneheart, with a complete lack of talent in magic but makes it up with physical strength and greatsword skills.
"How do you know that? You have never met me before. Grimr was very shocked about that, taken aback by the prince's knowledge.
"I know all of your summaries." He stretched his hands in opposite directions to include everyone there. "Let me correct myself... all of your summaries." He pointed at the building of the academy and then at his head. "Eirik Stormrune, the only noticeable part being lightning rend mastery; Isolde Ravenshade, who is great at making crossbows; Thalion Silverleaf, who is amazing at water magic..." He went on and on and on until no one dared to even question his claims. "But to make it more exciting! If someone proves me wrong in the first round, they will win a ticket to spar with me. Charles smirked and crossed his arms.
Alice came to the board to see that her group will fight against three swordsmen from the B-class. She looked up to see that Charles didn't believe in her team as they were supposed to be knocked out.
"Tania. We need to win this round as soon as possible. I want this dumbass to be proven wrong. She kicked a rock lying on the ground out of frustration. "I almost beat him in a tournament, and he thinks I'm just a run-of-the-mill mage?" She remembered that time they fought against each other. Completely forgetting that she was masked back then, her hands were trembling, and she was sometimes stuttering through her words. The sleepless night with continuous training worn her down considerably. But she couldn't show that. Not now.
"The first round will begin soon! Both teams on their marks," Charles shouted.
Students who weren't taking part in this round formed a circle on the training ground, making an arena for the contestants. The loud chatter and speculation about the fight sounded the same as in football stands during a world cup. The wind blew nicely, and the sun was up.
Tania was preparing her rend, and Alice stood in a close combat stance, ready to act as vanguard so the dryad could strike them. But before the other team could come out, Prince Charles shouted.
"Pause! You are supposed to be a team of three!" Pointing to the brackets.
"Shh," Alice shushed the prince. "He is taking a nap." She pointed to Jasper lying behind them, sleeping soundly.
The crowd had their mouths wide open at Alice's attitude and Jasper's lack of care.
"Fine then... resume." Charles was clearly taken aback by this.
The other team approached. Alice's face contorted into a predatory grin as she saw the guy who insulted her earlier. The crowd got even more restless. Chanting the name of the leader of this trio.
"RICHARD! RICHARD! RICHARD!!!" They were all cheering; some were whistling and giving an applaud as the six-foot-two beast of a man stood there with his longsword out.
"Let's make it quick, you overgrown weed." He spat on the ground as he looked at Alice. He massaged his stomach. One of his teammates had a pitiful look on his face as he stared at Richard.
"Oh, you are just asking for it, you shithead." Alice's blood was already boiling; she was unable to see anything besides the tall knight because of the bags around her eyes and her vision, which was slowly turning blurry due to the time she spent awake. "Tania! Change of plans! Just keep Jasper safe. I will take care of them. Her bloodlust was overflowing. No one would disrespect her best friend in front of her.
"On the count of three! Do it with me, people!" Charles pumped up the crowd.
"ONE!"
"TWO!"
"THREE!!!"
The onlookers shouted loudly together with Charles. A beam of light shooting from his staff into the air to signal the start of the first round.
Alice prepared herself, feeling the mana flowing through her and stopping on her back. She bent her knees and leaned down forward. She then cast the mana blast, but she knew that a mana blast by itself won't take her far enough, so she used the magic circle she made earlier that day to chain the mana blast together with the flash step. She was already collecting mana to prepare a giant fireball during her second dash to blow Richard away in one attack.
BOOM!