"Now the next battle is between Team breakers and Team Hercules," Exea announced in the mic.
"Whoo…." *Clap* *Clap* "Goddess Exea, I love you…" "Exea…"
Cheers erupted from here and there, and that too for Exea. The rest of the audience barely clapped as if they lost interest.
As the ten students stepped onto the platform, Exea sighed, "Even my mermaid tone is no longer working."
The battle between the two teams started. However, there are no cheers from the audience. Even though some people are cheering for the kids, it appeared as if the entire Arena has been deserted.
Meanwhile, looked at Uphiar and said, "There's no point for me to stay here. I'm going back."
"No, don't." Uphiar suddenly stopped her in panic. "Team Unicorn's match is next. I'm sure they will be revitalized once again."
Exea shook her head, "we can't depend on these 2-3 teams. It won't change the opinion of the scouts and guests. I guess Principal Barton became overly ambitious and made a huge mistake of even implementing group battles into the tournament."
"Sigh! Yeah, I guess you are right…" Uphiar can't help but agree with her as he took a look at the current battle. Two people from the same team released soul skills at the same time.
Instead of attacking the enemy, due to the attribute relationship, they only canceled each other.
"Everything was going well until yesterday. Just what happened today…"
The teachers thought the students would do a better job in teamwork as they have been working together in a group during the trips to Arcana world.
However, they miscalculated about something.
Instead of pairing up with the students, they are comfortable and compatible with, most of the students paired with the students that can improve their chances of winning as they weren't given enough time to practice.
In an academy like Aclein with only a few talents, as geniuses paired up with geniuses and formed teams, the weaker guys had no choice but to team up between themselves.
It only widened the gap between the teams further.
Naturally, the teams filled with dropouts and other less talented students will cause huge trouble.
Meanwhile, a few of them teamed up with weaklings to get attention from scouts. Some of their plans are backfired because of pig-like teammates while others managed to grab the attention of the scouts, although they are from second-rate academies.
Uphiar and the other teachers who are watching from the audience section can't help but shook their heads and let out a sigh… They finally realized the difference between Aclein Academy and other first-rated academies.
The locals who came to watch the tournament also felt disappointed and a few of them stood up and decided to leave as they had enough of it.
They went to the other Arenas where the lower grade students are good at teamwork as they teamed up with friends, unlike these ambitious seniors.
The addition of group battles itself is the highlight of the tournament. All of their expectations turned worse after watching this messier teamwork.
So, to make sure the audience stay in the arena, Exea had to step in. With her sweet voice augmented by her mermaid tone ability, she was able to attract most of the audience.
However, everything has a limit. Eventually, her magical voice also lost its effect. If not for a couple of teams that showed splendid techniques and teamwork, probably, even scouts would have gotten disappointed.
And one shouldn't even mention the guests. They have long looked down on the academy.
Due to a few spectacular performances, just as they about to slowly changed their opinion, the group battles caused a huge disappointment.
Most of them got bored and wanted to return to the dormitories. They felt that their initial impression about Aclein Academy being nothing special is right.
However, at the same time, they aren't also underestimating Aclein Academy and still saw them as worthy opponents because of a few teams with excellent teamwork.
With everyone performing poorly, these three teams shined brightly like a full moon in the night. The differences were evident and can be seen even from the response of the locals.
Whenever Team Twilight, Unicorn, and Swordmasters appear, the crowd goes wild and the remaining time, they look as if they don't exist. Between these bipolar situations, the tournament continued.
Round 1, Round 2, Round 3, Top 8, and finally, it's the time of Semifinals.
"The first semi-finals, Team Unicorn and Team Swordmasters…" Even Exea appeared cheerful as she announced these teams.
"Whoo…."
As if there's a hungry man who saw a feast before him, the audience roared like crazy. Their claps were also becoming a lot louder, completely opposite to that of the previous match.
Even the guests from top academies became attentive.
<strong>"Prince Light" "Prince Light" "Unicorn" "Prince Light" "Prince Light" "Unicorn" "Unicorn"</strong>
As the civilians cheering for their fifth prince, Leo, and his team members stepped onto the platform.
Team Unicorn which was led by Leonard Light was a team full of rank-5s and is being formed a long time ago. All of them are friends for seven-eight years and they usually co-operate with each other even on Arcana world trips too.
Leonard Light, Bay Passel, Zona, Dale Stripes, and Katherine. Too bad that Zona wasn't able to bring in Lark to the team due to his insufficient soul power or what would people call being a weakling.
So, Lark formed his own team with weaklings to get attention from the scouts of top academies. While he was able to enter the top 8 and later got eliminated by Swordmasters, the scouts didn't give a thought about his recruit.
Unless one shows tremendous potential, scouts rarely look at people outside of tenth graders.
After all, only the special academies from Arcana world allow a kid to be admitted even if they are under 15 years old.
So, scouting a kid below that age is a waste of time for these scouts from other nations.
<strong>*Whistle*</strong>
As the whistle being blown, Team Unicorn stood in formation with Bay Passel and Katherine on the front. Leonard and Dale on the back while Zona stood in the middle.
Bay summoned his beast, the Armored Gorilla, which is known for its defense. Katherine summoned a giant steel Armadillo, which is not only known for its sturdy shell but also sharp claws.
Zona summoned the slime which then changed to that of an Oak Tree. As for Leo and Dale, they climbed the tree and stood on a branch.
Below the platform, Mia's face turned dark as she looked at the tree that Zona copied her Arcana spirit.
Since she knew that Zona's slime can even copy the beasts of other soul skills, Mia wondered about the conditions to achieve that. She also wanted to see the slime's limitations. After all, they will have to battle each other in the finals.
Meanwhile, Swordmasters which is a team made of sword users also stood in two groups as they summoned the swords with different attributes.
Two of them have a fire attribute, one is of water attribute, one is wind and the last one is lightning.
The most notable of this team is Rowan. Despite being a rank-4, his mastery over the sword techniques was praised by many.
The one with the wind attribute stood with the fire users. Meanwhile, Rowan stood with the lightning attribute.
As wind will assist fire, and water will assist lightning, they decided to go with combo attacks for maximum damage.
Team Swordmasters is the first one to launch an attack. And it isn't a small one either.
They directly decided to go with a bigger attack of using soul skills.
Three soul skills are launched at the same time. With the gale winds supporting the fire salamander and fire slash, their peak-rank-4 attacks increased by a next step and reach a low-rank-5 attack.
With their opponents' ability restricted, Rowan and the others thought the combo attack will secure them a win, if not, would at least cause massive damage.
However, little did they know they have vastly underestimated Unicorn's teamwork.
"Bay, Katherine. Use shield. Zona, use copy skill card." Leo ordered them while standing on the branch.
The Armored Gorilla and Steel Armadillo used their soul skills together to conjure a double-layered energy shield before them.
Right after that, Zona used her unique skill card, the copy, which can copy any skill that she sees. Of course, there are limitations to the grade and attribute too…
In no time, a triple layered wide energy shield formed before the members of Team Unicorn.
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