<strong>Ten days later;</strong>
"Azzy, need a little help here..." Gideon called out for help as he was successfully captured by a giant cobra's tail and was about to get bitten on his neck. He was struggling against it.
Azzy, who was finished with his three battles, dashed forward towards Gideon to free him.
The Captain of the opposing team Ace charged forward to intercept Azzy and ordered his Arcana to hurry up and take Gideon out.
In this battle against Ace Academy, Team Twilight decided to go with Gideon and Azzy to care for the opponents with the rest of the team members sitting out from the battle.
Like many other tournament favorites, team Twilight went with a strategy of another 2 vs 5 after winning the second match.
Back to the battle, with everyone else got defeated, the captain wished to take out at least one of them to save from getting humiliated.
With an exquisite Armor on him that can defend against even peak-rank-5 attacks, he was confident in halting Azzy for a while.
However, Azzy wasn't interested in sparring with the opponent team's captain. It was Gideon's role to defeat him, not his.
Moreover, he already took out three opponents while Gideon was dealing with the remaining three. To protect Gideon's image, instead of confronting the opponent, Azzy simply made a sharp cut and passed through him, reaching his friend.
After successfully catching the cobra's neck, Azzy poured all of his soul energy into his right hand and then, crushed it immediately.
As the snake disappeared, Gideon proceeded to battle the opponent.
Eventually, Gideon injured this low-rank-5 heavily and let the proctor intervene and declare team Twilight as the winner.
"Team Twilight wins the match."
*Whoo*
Amid the cheers of the crowd, Azrael and his team members left the Arena.
"This is our third consecutive win. One more win, we are going to the quarterfinals." Claire was in high spirits after her strategy worked so far.
"The last match is against Cosmic Academy. None of them have rank-5 in the team. We don't need to worry about it either." As Mia commented casually, Gideon excitedly said, "Let's skip training for today and go outside to enjoy. We can go to Arcade, have fun there, then, after dinner, we can go to karaoke and return by 11."
"Oh! That sounds like a good plan." As Snivy and Mia were also seemed to be looking forward to it, Azzy looked at them and asked, "What is karaoke?"
"Eh?" Almost instantly, everyone turned their heads and stared at Azzy in silence. Gideon commented whether he's living under a rock or something. After all, it is a popular hangout place in almost every nation.
Claire then explained to the clueless Azzy about it to which he nodded in response, indicating that he understood.
"So, is everyone in?" When Gideon asked for everyone's opinion, the girls agreed right away. Despite wanting to get back to training, he too agreed to it.
"Okay then, let's meet at the entrance gate at 6 o'clock." After setting the time, the girls parted.
Azzy and Gideon also parted their ways as the former no longer residing in the dormitory. He shifted back to the Mansion where he lives with his foster parents.
After leaving the academy, Azzy gets onto the bus stop to go home.
Meanwhile, unknown to him, a teenage girl in tank top and shorts was observing him from the rooftop of a nearby building through the binoculars. She had a sniper rifle leaning to her waist and a pink lollipop in her mouth.
As soon as Azzy got onto the next bus, she raised the walkie-talkie and said, "This is Alpha One. The target got on the public transport, over."
After a while, Azzy left the bus at the next bus stop and entered the streets.
The same girl is now sitting on another building nearby the bus stop, watching Azzy through the binoculars like before. Except that the lollipop in her mouth is now it was of peach flavor. Along with it, instead of a sniper rifle, there was an exquisite bow.
"This is Alpha two. The target stepped down from the public transport and is walking towards his home, over."
After a while, once again, the same girl was watching Azzy from the rooftop of a nearby apartment, this time the lollipop in her mouth was lime flavored and the weapon was some sort of machine gun.
"This is Alpha three. The target reached the home safely."
"Okay, good job, Alpha." After listening to the three reports from the girl, a deep voice was heard from the other side. "Continue to monitor the target and his friends. The Church and the Royal palace might launch an attack at any moment. We have to seize the opportunity at the perfect time."
"Yes." All three of them replied at the same time.
***
"Eh? You had a match, today?" Princess Snieca was taken aback upon hearing Azzy's good news about winning the match. "You should have sent me a message card. At least, I would have come to the academy to watch it."
Since Azzy and his team already had a match, three days ago, she thought that the next match will be at least another couple of days away.
Affea couldn't help but be disheartened to know that Azzy kept such an important thing away from her.
"The battle isn't worth watching. So, I didn't send you a message." Even though Azzy competed in the first match and defeated the opponents all by himself, he still didn't feel an ounce of excitement in his heart.
Maybe, the battle with Vann stirred something in his heart. Whether it is training his comrades or battling with his opponents, none of them made him feel excited.
He wanted to battle stronger opponents. That's why, despite wanting to inform her, upon seeing the opponents were weak, Azzy didn't use the message card to inform the princess.
A message card is a type of item card that carries writing, audio, or a video message to the recipient whose soul energy imprint is recorded on it.
With the inventions of radio transceivers and mobile phones, which don't need soul power, these days, people rarely use this type of message unless it is either a confidential matter or if they refuse to use the modern technology invented by weak mortal humans.
Azzy's explanation made her calm down a little bit and instead of dragging the matter further, she decided to be happy for Azzy's win.
After congratulating him, she said they should be celebrating their victory. However, Azzy said that they can celebrate after his team goes to the quarter-finals.
At first, he wanted to say about his celebration with his friends but now, he was worried that she might be sad to hear that he choose to celebrate with friends rather than them. So, he kept it away from her and just told her that he will be leaving for the academy for the training until late at night.
However, his reply once again caused her disappointment. She wondered whether Azzy was keeping them away a bit or something. After all, they left for almost a year without telling him.
As the fault lies with them, she couldn't do anything except for respecting Azzy's wishes and do the best she can to mend the relationship.
<strong>A few hours later;</strong>
At the appointed time, Azzy left the house and met his teammates at the school entrance.
After everyone arrived, they left for downtown.
"hahaha… Azzy, you are really bad at this, aren't you." Gideon laughed out as he saw Azzy was struggling with the claw crane.
"Again," Azzy entered the cash and grabbed the control. Completely concentrating on it, he pressed the button. His target has been only the one thing, a bipedal cute turquoise cat with a huge head.
The claw descended and caught its head before slowly moved towards the exit and dropped in the box.
"You did it…" Claire clapped in excitement.
"After 31 tries, finally…" Azzy sighed in relief and looked at the ceiling. He felt a strange sense of accomplishment.
However, in the next few seconds, the trouble brewed for him in a different way.
As Azzy took out the blue cat in his hands, he turned towards the girls. Claire seems to be looking at the toy in his hands with fascination.
"Here…" Just as he raised his hand to give it to her, suddenly, a sweet voice was heard from the left. "Excuse me, can I have it?"
He turned towards the source and found Leah was standing there alone.
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