<strong>November 14th, 1994;</strong>
<strong>Arena-0, Heavenly Academy of Arcana;</strong>
As the quarterfinals and semifinals are being conducted on the same day, hundreds of thousands of people rushed to Central City during the past couple of days, forcing WAMO to hire almost all the guilds and organizations to deploy Arcana Masters for security.
While this wasn't the first time the central city has seen the influx of tourists, it has still been three decades since Heavenly Academy hosted the senior world league.
Because of the academy's million-seat capacity Arena, people were now hopeful about getting tickets and watching the battle with their own eyes rather than reading the results in newspapers and magazines.
As a result, it became a little bit tough for the hired security personnel to make sure everything go smoothly.
It was about 1:45 in the afternoon. The Quarterfinals finished over an hour ago, luckily without any death, and people started returning to their seats after the lunch break.
The proctor came onto the field when almost two-thirds of the stadium is roughly filled. It was the same rank-8 expert, Leaf, who acted as the Proctor for the junior world league finals.
Applying a voice enhancement skill card onto himself, Leaf announced to the audience, "Welcome to the semifinals of the Senior World league, 1994."
"Without further ado, let's go right into the group matches. Give it up for Team Raiders of the North and Team Zenith Warriors."
One after another, both of the semifinals were concluded within 25 minutes. After a 10-minute break, the duo battles commenced. In midst of all this, new spectators continued to fill the seats.
By the time Azzy and Leah entered the field, they were greeted by cheers from almost 720 thousand spectators. In that crowd, neither Azzy nor Leah could spot their respective families but their expressions tell that they weren't caring about their surroundings.
Once they got into the barrier, all the sounds from outside were blocked. Azzy felt that the atmosphere was quite peaceful without any noise.
Meanwhile, Team Camelot's opponent team entered from the northern pavilion.
Team Starlight consists of a pair of middle-aged-looking fellows who were actually celebrities in a sense. One of them, Jacob Laurence, was the bronze medalist of the 1989 edition of the senior world league. However, he participated in the solo category, back then.
As for the other guy, Nilmar Keydove, he is the silver medalist of the 1964 edition, and gold medalist of the 1979 and 1984 editions. Soon after the tournament, he founded a guild named Elysium instead of accepting the offer from WAMO or any other organization. He was busy for the past ten years developing his guild and return to the scene at the age of 97 because he was reaching the age limit.
The pair of peak-rank-7s was one of the favorites of the tournament but no one underestimate Team Camelot. After all, Azzy and Leah did upset so many opponents on the field and bookies outside the field.
Even the Quarterfinals were finished by the same combination as the top-16 battle. It goes like Azzy rushing forward and activating the Gravity suppression skill card, followed by kicking one of the opponents while Leah's soul skill: Amalgamation of ice and fire was targeting the other opponent.
While the possibility of team Camelot winning this match is no considered longer a miracle, the odds are still in favor of Team Starlight. Well, at least, several experts believed that way, mostly due to the medal record of Jacob and Nilmar.
*Whistle*
Soon, Proctor Leaf blew the whistle, signaling to start the battle.
Not intending to give any opportunities to their opponents, Nilmar and Jacob went on unleashing their hidden soul skills. Every three out of four summoners unlock the same hidden skill, "Merge" after they make a breakthrough to rank 7. These two veteran medalists weren't any different.
Nilmar merged with his Arcana, the Blazing Beetle, gaining the armor and wings. Jacob, on the other hand, gained the suit of armor made by brownish dragon scales, owing to his Terra Wyvern Arcana.
Meanwhile, Azzy only had his black lightning wolf out, and Leah, as usual, summoned both of her Arcana. However, they were standing apart, instead of connecting their palms. Naturally, it gave a clear indication that they weren't going with their signature move, Soul Amalgamation.
"Change of plans. Mr. Keydove, you go after the princess while I'll take care of the kid," said Jacob as he clenched his fist.
Their strategy makes sense if one thinks about it. First of all, both of them are solo fighters that focus on overpowering their respective opponents instead of relying on teamwork.
Secondly, Leah is a sword user and is known for freezing the ground along with those who stayed in contact with it. Nilmar could fly and attack her from there.
As for Azzy, he is known to possess a far greater physical strength compared to his realm. And Jacob had dragon scales protecting him from powerful attacks.
Unfortunately, even with those preparations, they underestimated Azzy and Leah just like the previous contestants. As soon as both of them unleashed the hidden skills that last for atleast ten minutes, Leah took out a skill card and activated it right away.
A clone of her, although with a 5-star realm, appeared beside her. Handing over the Excalibur to the clone, she pushed her arms forth and closed her eyes. Mysterious symbols started to appear one after another. The Aqua girl and Leah's clone acted as a guard for Leah until she was done with her seal.
Meanwhile, Azzy charged forward toward the opponents, taking the center of the battle platform in a flash before Jacob and Nilmar even crossed halfway to the center.
Both of these veteran medalists have no idea what Leah was going to do but their source of worry was Azzy, not her. With an obvious realm advantage, both of them felt that they can deal with Leah but not her partner.
Now that Azzy is standing alone, far away from his partner, Jacob and Nilmar changed their plans once again and went after him, together.
And without any surprises, Azzy activated his skill card, the Gravity Suppression, increasing the gravitational force around him by 100 times.
As Jacob and Nilmar were already aware of the skill and were prepared to face it from the start, as soon as they entered the invisible field and felt the enormous pressure, in an instant, both of them fired a ball of energy onto the ground, toward each other.
*boom* Boom*
A couple of explosions were seen at the spot before they were thrown away by each other's attacks.
They managed to land outside the range. However, Azzy and Vajra didn't budge from the spot.
"Ugh… that gravitational field is no joke…" commented Jacob as he rose to his feet. In response, Nilmar raised his head to take a glance at the Proctor and complained in a low tone, "WAMO gives powerful unique skills to teenagers as a reward for a tournament that is held every year but for us, they only give money and treasures."
Shifting his attention back to Azzy, Nilmar then said, "Let's attack him from far away, then. I'll take the skies and you attack from the ground."
As Jacob nodded, Nilmar flapped his beetle wings and flew upwards. Azzy glanced at him calmly and raised his hand. Four Protos Spears were conjured around him, one after another.
"Those must be the infamous long energy needles that temporarily seal the target's soul orb as soon as they were struck. I need to be careful." Nilmar acted cautiously and flew higher than 100 meters instead of the 50 meters that he originally decided earlier. It was so that he could have enough distance to act in time.
A similar thought was also running in Jacob's mind. However, Azzy was unconcerned about what his opponents are thinking or planning their next move.
After summoning the Protos Spears, he went on taking out a couple of 6-star skill cards and activated them.
*He hehe hehehe hehe he*
A peal of infamous laughter echoed within the barriers as two purple-colored skulls appeared in either of his hands.
Azzy had used this technique several times but this was the first time he used it in this tournament. Naturally, the opponents were alarmed.
Jacob and Nilmar didn't waste time any longer and launched their attacks of 7-star caliber. While Nilmar threw a fireball, Jacob activated a skill card and bombarded Azzy with a dozen energy arrows.
Looking at the incoming attacks, Azzy passed an order to the wolf that is patiently standing beside him, "Vajra, unleash the soul skill: Chains of Lightning"
*Woof*
Updated from fr𝒆ewebnov𝒆l.(c)om