"Welcome to the Quarterfinals of Champions League, 1994."
*Whoo* *oooh*
The hosts were standing on the stage in the stadium filled with hundred thousand spectators who are cheering on top of their lungs.
"Let us welcome our champions with a huge round of applause. First, Solo category…"
"I present you, Melissa, from the Central Academy of Arcana."
Amid the loud cheers of the audience, a tall and slim girl with a boyish look, wearing a military-style uniform entered the arena. Her footsteps were steady and her gaze was cold.
Upon reaching the place where she was supposed to stand, she stopped and saluted to the audience before standing upright with her chin up, chest out, shoulders back, and stomach in.
The first-timers were amazed to see how a 15-year-old girl like her is standing like a perfect soldier. On the other hand, the experienced spectators knew that all students at Central Academy are like that. So, they weren't that surprised.
Exea continued to announce the names one by one.
"Ice Pertinger from Maple Academy" "Olivia Prott from Phoenix Academy" "Reed from Freyles Academy" "Vann Hildegard from Moon Academy" "Mason from Dragon Academy" "Sterling Owlet from Star Academy"
As their names were called, one after another, the solo category quarterfinalists made their appearance.
"Last but not least, I present you Leah Pendragon from the Heavenly Academy of Arcana."
Due to ending all the battles by unleashing only one soul skill, Leah became the most favorite to win the tournament. Adding her extraordinary beauty and background, the cheers for her are far louder than the rest of the contestants.
After the solo contestants were grouped to the left, Exea continued to announce the teams from the duo category and finally, the group category.
"Last but not least from the group category, ladies and gentleman, I present you Team Twilight from the Aclein Academy of Arcana." Being a teacher at the hosting academy, she naturally introduced them better than the others.
Slowly, the team entered the stadium filled with cheers. As a captain, Claire was in the middle and a step forward, leading the team. However, most of the scouts' eyes were on the person in the back with a stoic expression.
Meanwhile, Exea continued to speak, "This is a historic moment for Aclein city as it was the first time a team from Aclein Academy entered the Champions League and in their debut tournament, they even advanced to top 8. Like other teams from the elite academies, Team Twilight never showed its full strength."
While her introduction drew criticism from the supporters of other academies and made her co-host, a little bit embarrassed, still, she couldn't help but be happy and continued to say a couple of more things until they stopped walking.
"Ladies and gentleman, once again, let's give up a huge round of applause for the champions who have the potential to become the pillars of humanity in the future."
Standing in the back, Azzy glanced around to take a close look at every one.
Just like the solo category, the other two categories were also filled with teams from well-known academies.
Of them, the Dragon Academy, Central Academy, Maple Academy, and Phoenix Academy outperformed others. All of their representatives were advanced to the next round.
The other elite academies like Sun Academy, Moon Academy, Freyles Academy, and Heavenly Academies only advanced in two categories.
Luckily Egrein Academy advanced in the duo category and Aclein Academy advanced in the group category. So, it's also like Northern Qudour's share is 8.3%.
It brought excitement to the citizens of the nation. Those who weren't able to get a ticket cheered for Azzy's team and others in their hearts.
***
Soon, the matches were displayed on the screen.
Group:
Merciless Executioners vs Commandos
Rebirth vs Twilight
Solar vs Maple
Millennials vs Crescent
Team Twilight was matched with the representative team from the Phoenix Academy.
Claire and others became serious as they are about to face a strong opponent. The only one that doesn't care is Azzy as he didn't take their abilities seriously. In his eyes, only Dragon Academy was worthy.
However, they didn't know that everyone from phoenix academy became nervous as hell as soon as they saw the fixtures.
They cursed their bad luck as they met one of the two teams they are hoping to avoid.
On the other hand, a few other teams sighed in relief as they didn't face Twilight right away. Rather than the whole team, many contestants were rather nervous about facing Azzy head-on.
Only those with peak-rank-5 and above soul power were very calm.
In the meantime, Iphi clenched her fist. She's the only one that was looking forward to battle Azzy.
This 10-year-old didn't know whether she can defeat Azzy or not, still, she was prepared to give her all and at least inflict a heavy injury on Azzy and embarrass him in public.
The mighty Azrael who could defeat even a mid-rank-6 was badly injured by a ten-year-old girl. What could be more satisfying headlines than this?
Only this way, she felt like she would be able to return all the humiliation she faced by Azzy who disregarded her existence like air.
Unlike the group matches, the knockouts were between elites. So, the battles went longer than everyone thought they would be.
By the time the group category matches started, it was already 10 in the evening.
The first quarterfinal was between Central Academy and Dragon Academy of which none of them were willing to give up until everyone gets knocked out. The group category's battlefield was selected as a water habitat.
Throwing a skill card, Barton replaced the barren field with a fresh 20,000 sq. meters artificial lake that has three islands. One big island was located in the center of the field and two small islands, one on either end.
With a depth of three feet, the water can indeed restrict the movements of both of the teams unless they know how to run on the water, which will further consume the soul power.
As the battle started outside, meanwhile, inside one of the waiting rooms, Vice Principal Sahara was asking the team whether they remembered the strategy they have discussed in the morning.
"Now, Gideon. Quick, tell me. What's your role?" Sahara pointed at Gideon.
Raising his round glasses a bit, he replied, "First, use an area-wide soul skill to disperse the other team and then, drag Dewy away from the rest of the team."
"Next, you…" Sahara pointed at Mia.
The girl answered, "My role is to plant an ambush with my Arcana while shooting down the arrows from the top branch. My target is to help out anyone within my reach."
"Good. Next, Snivy."
"I will stay nearby Mia and defend her."
"Next, Claire."
"After the opponents' formation was disrupted, I will take out Ardella, first of all before taking on Iphi."
"Azrael?"
Azzy plainly replied, "Luciana Hearth."
"Okay." Sahara nodded in satisfaction as no one is objecting to her strategy. Once again, she warned, "Claire, you have the most important mission. Remember at that all costs, you have to knock out the healer. Here, take these binding skill cards."
Handing the five-star skill cards with a binding spell on them to the rank-5s in the team, Sahara further said, "make sure you have sufficient soul power before using it, and also, only when the opponents don't have enough strength to resist the binding chains.
Once you have successfully captured the opponent, stay there unless your teammate calls for help."
It went for more than 2 hours before Dragon Academy emerged as the winner.
It was now midnight, and one-fourth seats were already empty. Still, the organizers didn't intend to halt the matches as there are only three matches left.
However, the spectators were worried that the next set of matches will go for several hours like earlier.
Several people started to leave in hurry fearing that they might stay and continue to watch once the match starts.
It happened so fast that by the time Azzy and the others entered the arena, there were roughly sixty thousand spectators in the arena that doesn't seem tired even after cheering for hours and hours…
Among them were his foster parents.
Azzy didn't know whether they stayed or not but he believed that Princess Snieca would definitely stay to watch his match. Even though he knew it will be another boring fight, still, he decided to give his all and crush his opponents.
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