Scarlet

I can’t help but stare at the beautiful prize money. A grand total of a hundred thousand credits and a single point for everyone on the first place team for this tournament. And it takes all I have in me not to let my awe and desire at it show. To keep my face perfectly neutral.

Tar just sighs and doesn’t say a word about my current thoughts.

Good on him.

My attention is brought back to reality though when the brackets stop alternating above us, showing the team matchups. And after some brief searching, I find our team – which Michael named Last Stand on account of this being the only time I’ll be working with them in an Interschool Tournament – matched up against a team called Sunshine.

Honestly, I’m not feeling all that excited about this battle. Specifically because I know how it’ll go. After all, the tournament organizers are all about keeping the most entertaining battles closer to the end of each tournament. So they aren’t going to pair us up with a hard team to beat at the very start.

“And now that the brackets are in, let’s commence with the tournament!!!” the MC whose name I still can’t remember despite promising to myself that I would look it up shouts, his voice echoing throughout the stadium before mist begins to rise from the pitch black stone, enveloping everyone. Then I find myself with the others standing in a white room with a large glass wall in between us and another team of five who I can only assume is Sunshine.

My eyes are drawn to the top of the wall where it has a countdown along with four large screens showing the current four livestreams of the other battles. And the countdown itself seems to be going down from fifteen minutes, which I guess means we’re going fourth in our bracket.

I turn my attention back to our opponents again to find them trying to talk to us for a second before realizing that the glass is completely soundproof. So they give up and begin studying us, a couple of them giving me wary glances that make me think they recognize me.

“This round should be pretty easy,” I hear Michael say, and I can’t help but nod. Because judging by their mana level, which I can sense from here, they are only around level sixty or seventy. Meaning I should be able to tear them apart with ease.

Which just goes to show how much easier the majority of the secondary tournaments are compared to the Primaries where everyone is at the max level for their Classes. Otherwise their universities wouldn’t bother sending them as the predator skill is a little confusing sometimes on whether or not it’ll actually give you the full bonus listed depending on the level difference between you and your target.

I turn to Michael and ask, “Should I go in and kill them right away, or do you want to work on our teamwork and make some strategies for the later rounds?”

Michael frowns for a few seconds as he thinks before eventually answering, “Let’s work on our teamwork for the first two minutes, and if we haven’t already won by then, you can go all out.”

“Cool,” I answer with a nod, turning to face the enemy team.

This’ll be fun.

The enemy team consists of five girls, each wearing a matching set of dress styled magi-tech armor, making me understand their team name just a little bit better. Because what team named Sunshine would have any guys on it?

It also kind of puts Michael in the awkward position of being the only guy in this entire battle, but we ignore that fact.

“Brutal,” Tar mutters, but I ignore him too.

Overall, their team seems to be around the same level as the others on my own team, Belle excluded. But since they’re still a few dozen levels beneath me, it won’t be a problem to deal with them. Not a problem at all.

And if we’re the defending team, I could probably finish the game within the first minute or so, simply jumping off the tower and hunting each one of them down. Much less if we’re the offensive team, where I could climb the side of the tower straight to the top.

I am a little bit wary of their magic though, but considering their team name, they likely have at least one magic involving nature somehow.

The wait doesn’t feel too long considering that we just end up watching the other battles during it while strategizing, and soon enough we find ourselves suddenly appearing at the base of a tower – one that appears to be about three or so large stories tall.

Not too tall, nor too short.

“Alright, you know the plan,” Michael says, and we all nod before sprinting forward into the tower.

Our plan is rather simple, since Michael spent the first few minutes of our wait studying our opponents through online sources, finding out that they all have some sort of earth or nature based magic. And none of them tend to like fighting in close range.

Not a very good setup for a team, but from what he could find, they’re just a group of friends working together that didn’t really have team setup in mind when making their team.

So the plan basically involves having Emily, Belle, and Michael stall them while Denise and I rush forward to attack.

We sprint our way through the empty tower towards the stairs before climbing them to the second floor and almost immediately finding four of the five girls on the balconies of the third floor overlooking the second floor with attacks readied next to them. Attacks that they release towards us in the forms of spears made out of earth, some sort of green bolt of lightning, some pollen, and some powdered poison.

But we’re ready for it as Denise immediately jumps forward and slams her fist into the ground, making half a dozen geysers of flames shoot out of the walls, incinerating the poison and pollen – pollen that according to Michael is supposed to put you to sleep. Then after that, I raise my hand, summoning two spears of blood that I send flying straight at the spear and bolt of lightning heading towards us, destroying the spear in the process and making the bolt of green lightning absorb into the blood, evaporating it in the process.

I don’t stop there though, following it up with blood boil and life drain on the girls that I can see, making them all stagger forward while clutching their chests as red bubbles begin to pop on their skin, splattering blood on them and their clothes.

“Guess this was inevitable with you on the team,” Michael sighs, realizing we’re not really gonna get much actual training here working as a team when my skills kind of overpower them. He then waves his hand at me and says, “Go ahead and do what you do best.”

I can’t help the grin that stretches across my face at those words.

“Then let the hunt begin,” I mutter, raising my head to look at the students again who are struggling to climb back to their feet amidst the burning of their blood and draining of their life force.