<strong>Hotel Viceroy, Silver City;</strong>
A few teenagers were playing arcade basketball at the play zone, trying to compete with each other in a knockout tournament style.
"Everyone, information from Elder Alf," A 17-year-old girl entered the space and walked towards them at a fast pace.
She's the same Zona who graduated from Aclein Academy last year and later, joined the Abel Tower. And this is the team sent by Abel Tower for the junior division.
As everyone placed attention on her, she said in a serious tone, "The winning team of the Champions League is here. And an initial test result is placing them as a contender for top 8 or maybe, even top 4, considering that they have two platinum grade users in the team."
Upon hearing her, except for a couple of them, the remaining lost their interest.
Returning to the game, the captain of the team was harsh in his reply, "Arcana grades don't matter, duplicator. Ability is what decides one's potential. You should be aware of that, already. If not for your ability to duplicate yourself, forget about this team, you wouldn't even be in the Tower of Abel."
Zona's facial expression darkened when she was scolded as such when she didn't even offend him. Thankfully, a teammate came in her support, "C'mon, Cap. Sister Zo is only warning us. Moreover, Azrael isn't a simple one either. Everyone watched the footage of the finals. In one on one scenario, I cannot even imagine my win at all. Except for you, no one is confident in taking him on."
The others also agreed with his statement.
Meanwhile, the youngest of the team said to the 17-year-old while letting out a mischievous smile, "But then again, Sister Zo should have been looking forward to meeting your friends. By the way, what about your ex-boyfriend? Was he in the team?"
Zona shook her head, "No, he isn't and I don't expect him to be. Anyway, let me finish the message. Elder Alf told me to inform you to not take them lightly because of the new teammate of them. Her name is Estella Moon, and she possesses not one but two platinum grade summoning beasts. It was said that one of those beasts is even bigger than this building."
It was then that the members of team Abel finally took her words seriously. They understood that combining with Azzy, the opponent team indeed can give them tough competition.
However, there was just one person who didn't even take it seriously. Obviously, it's the captain who was a high-rank-6 expert.
As soon as her words ended, dark-colored soul energy erupted from his palms and covered the basketball, transforming it into a black stone before it turned into powder.
"Even if there were a dozen Estellas, all of them will have to perish in front of my death energy and my death knight,"
The others became silent. They knew that this youngest prince of Freyles is indeed very arrogant to the core. However, they could never refute his words as they feared his ability to kill effortlessly.
Meanwhile, at the Central Academy, Team Twilight is chatting with Team Eternal. After the team completed their registrations and went through verification, the panel members told them that their team is allotted to Arena-B.
After that, Claire contacted Snivy and found that they were in Arena-A. So, she took her team to meet the other team as they won't be fighting each other anyway.
Azzy might not be close to Snivy but he is at least acquainted with her as he regularly meets her at the WAMO Training Center every third week of the month. So, he wasn't uncomfortable with this meeting.
Gideon and Snivy were even partners and do training partners. So, they were a lot closer.
As Snivy was catching up with her old friends, Louis was comfortably talking with his old acquaintances. Meanwhile, Arley Blood, who returned to the main branch and took up his old post, was trying to converse with Izora. Both of them were from the same clan and knew each other for a century. So, she doesn't have any issue with talking with the Blood clan's Elite member.
Only Estella stayed silent. She was feeling out of the place, all of a sudden, with everyone ignoring her. She missed the presence of Leah.
As the preliminaries of solo duels in the junior division start after the team matches and duo matches, Leah returned to the hotel. Not to mention, the senior league registrations will last a day. So, she will wait for Azzy and go to Arcana world, the next morning.
In the end, giving an excuse to keep an eye on the competitors, Estella left them and went to Arena-B. Seeing that, Gideon also excused himself and went after her. Snivy couldn't help but shake her head and comment that this four-eyed playboy needed some heavy beating.
Slowly, the time passed. More and more teams & individuals registered their names for the tournament. Nearly a hundred of them were disqualified and kicked out of the location by the guards due to their age. The limit was, after all, only 18.
When the sun is at its peak position, the registrations were closed. An astonishing number of 3257 individuals signed up for this tournament in the solo category but only 86 teams and 743 duo groups were registered.
It's really a surprise for the first-timers to realize that there are so many geniuses around when it was known that only 3-4 million Arcana Masters currently existed in the world. It makes one think that all the geniuses in the world had gathered in one spot.
But then again, if one thinks carefully, it wouldn't be a shock that so many are participating in solo. Almost half of the people who are in teams and duo groups also registered for the solo category. Even from Team Twilight, four of them registered themselves.
Unlike the Champions League, which is a battle between the academies, the world league is different.
Here, everyone would vie for different things like fame, proving themselves to the world, rewards, or attention from a large organization or top academies. And this will only get by achieving it alone as they get to show their capabilities to the full extent.
Once the registrations closed, the screens on each of the four Arenas displayed the groups. Arena-B has a total of 20 teams and was divided into four groups of 5 teams each.
Team Twilight is in group-3 with other four teams namely, Team Redwings; Team Westside; Team Dragon Riders; and lastly, Team Andromeda.
Other prominent teams from other groups include a reserve team from Central Academy, Dragon Academy, Sun Academy, the main team of Light Academy where Izora used to be an instructor for a year, and finally, a mysterious team in which all of them are 18-year-olds and are in rank-6. Even their team name is called "Unknown."
Soon, a man in a suit and shades arrived on the field.
"Welcome to the preliminaries of World League, contestants." He greeted everyone in the stands and introduced himself. "I'm Harold, Captain of Squad 7, Special Forces. I'll be your proctor during the preliminaries. Without wasting further time, let's start the matches right away.
But, before that, let me remind all of you about the rules.
As you have seen on the screens, each of your teams is randomly allotted in separate groups. You will battle another team from the same group, two times.
Each match will last 10 minutes. A win would give you 2 points. Lose will give you 0 and if drawn, each team will receive 1 point.
The top 2 from each group will be advanced to the knockouts. The bottom three would be eliminated.
As for the rules, even one deliberate kill will disqualify you and your team from the tournament, right away. Provocations are allowed but no cussing. In the case of using those inappropriate words, a warning will be given at the end of the game.
If repeated again in another match, then, a penalty will be given. 2 points will be deducted from the team that has violated the rules.
The third and final rule is that you cannot use activated skill cards no matter who the maker of them is. Once spotted by the proctor, you will automatically lose the match.
The captain can announce the defeat. In case of unavailability, the vice-captain can make the decision. If both of them are out, then, the third member, and so on will get that right.
Okay, that's enough for the rules for the participants. Let's get started.
The teams of the first four matches… please gather in the waiting room. That will be all."
Claire got up on her feet, "guys, let's go…" The others followed her.
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