Tak!
Tak!
The clicking sound from the hell of their boots echoed inside the corridor, despite the loud screams of the people outside.
Jane bit her lips. After gaining some courage, she raised her head and said, "I apologize, sir Rafael. If I—"
Jane couldn’t complete her words because Rafael replied with a cold tone, "Shut up for a moment, Jane."
Jane was tongue-tied, her body shivering because of that cold voice. Aran bit his lips, remembering what happened earlier.
…
A moment ago.
"We have to defeat her, Aran. Right now, while we still have time!" Jane shouted while moving forward, using the tree to block Kanaria’s bullets.
"Huh?" Aran was confused at that time, but because Jane’s authority was second highest, he ended up following her instructions. There was no order from Rafael as well, so he simply had no choice.
Kanaria fought back by unleashing all the bullets she had. But the moment she stopped to reload her magazine, Jane and Aran moved forward, closing the gap between them.
Kanaria only took less than a second to reload her magazine and start shooting Jane, the closest one to her. However, Aran came from the side and shot her multiple times, resulting in her defeat.
"!!!" Aran suddenly noticed something was amiss, especially with how Kanaria didn’t even bother to react to his shots. If this was a normal fight, she would have noticed him with those sharp senses, but she didn’t.
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Because of it, he realized why Jane became desperate to take her down.
And three seconds after they took down Kanaria, the match’s result was announced.
It was as if Kanaria had known that it would be time for her to stop fighting back and give them the point.
This was a strategic point they gave to the Eight Swords to lower the crowd’s anger.
That was why Aran clenched his fists, thinking, ’It’s not your fault that we lose, Jane. It’s very clear that without you, we might not even get anything.’
Unfortunately, he couldn’t say anything. It would be bad if they angered Rafael even further.
When they reached the waiting room, the atmosphere was suffocating. Rafael was glaring at the empty air as if he were thinking about something.
The rest of the people couldn’t help but lower their heads, not knowing what to say in this situation.
Melvin and Farhan felt like this loss was their responsibility. If they didn’t let Jay and Clovis defeat them, they wouldn’t win like this even if they got the flag.
Farhan was indeed overwhelmed by Clovis, but he should be able to stop him for a bit longer, except for the fact that he was ordered to be defeated. He didn’t know it was a mistake because Clovis coordinated his attack with Jay.
Still, they only had ten minutes. Now that the situation had become like this, the question remained. Who would go in the individual matches?
Melvin couldn’t help but stand up and raise his voice. "Rafael! Please let me do it. I’ll definitely win against them if it costs my life!"
It was clear that he wanted to pay for his mistakes, but Rafael didn’t respond for a while.
Jane looked down, contemplating. Since she couldn’t say anything meaningless, it was better to give any useful inputs.
It wasn’t that hard to figure out Clovis’ aim in this match.
"Don’t tell me… the Libation Fiesta is aiming for the final while conserving their strength?" Jane gasped.
"!!!" The rest of the members frowned while Aran asked, "What do you mean, Jane?"
"To have the chance of defeating Bloody Rose, the Libation Fiesta will need Clovis to be at his peak. That’s why he didn’t fight a lot and allowed Grace to take him down in order to finish this match quickly.
"Assuming that Jay would go first and win, this would mean they were able to finish this match just by sacrificing Jay," Jane explained.
"What? Are they serious? Are we being underestimated?" Aran gasped.
"That might be true after looking at how we lost the group match." Farhan trembled.
They all looked at Rafael, who seemed to have figured this out sooner.
If Rafael didn’t come out in the first match and let Libation Fiesta win, this would simply look like a surrender.
But if Rafael came out first and won, how about the second and third matches? They would definitely send Ragna and Clovis.
Farhan and Melvin had the chance to fight against Ragna, but even Jane wouldn’t have any chance to defeat Clovis. The only one capable of defeating Clovis was Rafael.
But Rafael had no choice but to make his move right away, or they would be humiliated by the citizens due to such a disgraceful defeat.
That was why Rafael’s expression had been grim this whole time. Rafael had to choose whether to send Jane to fight Jay, hoping that she would somehow win, or would he do it personally?
The tension remained for the entire break time.
After ten minutes, the arena had become lively again, especially because of the condition.
Shion had no choice but to tone down her excitement so that there wouldn’t be any chaos in the stadium.
"Now that the break is over, let’s call the participants for the first individual match. From Libation Fiesta, we have Jay Havenson!"
Jay walked into the arena as the entire crowd was booing him.
"Get lost, Jay!"
"You’re going to be defeated!"
"Eight Swords is the strongest!’
"They won’t lose to you!"
Jay remained calm. This was the first time he felt such pressure coming from the people. It was no wonder some people had a mental breakdown when the people on the Skynet insulted them or even sent death threats. Even if they tried not to listen to them, they would still be affected. Only the ones with strong hearts survived.
Jay took a deep breath and stood in the arena. This was the reason he was here. No matter what, he would win.
Now that Jay was ready, Shion called the second participant. "The one who will represent the Eight Swords this time is… Captain Rafael!"