"Don't worry," he grabbed her hand while walking, a move that made her body tremble faintly, "I'm pretty sure we are going to crush them all."
"Hmm…" she nodded while everyone else kept walking behind their leader with strong confidence of their win.
Once they reached the place of the arena they found it more crowded than before. "Wow, it seems last time only part were interested in attending the matches," Madly sarcastically said.
"I heard they sell tickets to see the matches to various clans and academies," Omar said and everyone nodded in agreement as they also heard such rumors.
Arthur simply ignored all this. His mind was only revising various scenarios of the final encounter, feeling there was some hidden factor he didn't count for.
And when he reached the front of the audience he was suddenly hit by this realization.
"Damn it," he muttered, "those five powerhouses had their youths to take part as well?"
In front of him there were many giants standing in small teams around the arena like other teams. Everyone felt doubt when they saw such a scene and before they realized it, the dean appeared once more with his entourage from far.
The moment he appeared on the top of the arena, everyone started to grow silent. He glanced over everyone before speaking in loud and domineering tone:
"Today will be the start of the tournament. As you noticed, this year we have added another rule to make things interesting. Our five powerhouses here had agreed to make their weak youths take part in the matches. But to make sure things won't be one-sided for many, we decided to reserve them for the later matches."
He paused before pointing towards a giant stele that suddenly descended from the clouds. "This is a rare treasure given to us by the esteemed cauldron clan. We will use it to record the achievements of each team and assess every single individual performance."
The stele stopped nearly a mile above the arena but for everyone down below, they could easily see the writings over its black surface in golden color.
"The competition will continue until only five top teams are left. In the middle, and if any team crossed the half threshold of the stele, the teams from the supreme powers can announce a challenge to the teams. Refusing the challenge meant expulsion. Two defeats under the hands of the supreme power teams means expulsion as well."
"Damn," Omar whispered, "they are trying so hard to make us fail."
Arthur only squeezed his eyes and didn't say anything. 'The worst is yet to come,' he muttered to himself and his hunch was on the mark.
"At the final stage of the competition, each powerhouse can select two teams of theirs to participate as well. To make things fair, the number of each team can't exceed five members, and they have to be as young as our boys, not exceeding twenty-five years old."
The dean stayed silent for a while before some arguments and complaints started to rise from many teams and their representatives.
"Stay calm," he simply sneered while adding, "it's not our fault your teams are weak. Our boys are up to the challenge. And yes, if one of the supreme powerhouses had a team to win the competition then the team will be announced the champion and all of us here will be considered losers."
He then laughed before adding, "but up to my knowledge my own boys managed to defeat most of the teams coming from above. Don't be sad when my boys win this, hahaha."
"This…" Amelia muttered and paused from anger.
"He is so biased towards his teams!" Madly was already on her wits and before anyone could shout or do anything stupid, Arthur raised his hand high up in the air and simply stood there in this stance, attracting the attention of many.
He let only his index finger stretch in the air. The dean noticed this and simply sneered.
"Let the competition start with the shuffle," the dean said before turning towards the towers as he respectfully said, "may the venerable masters choose the teams and let the best win."
Arthur just kept his hand up in the air and didn't descend it. the dean gave him a cold glance but he didn't descend it.
"Have we got our number changed?" he simply asked and his team was just feeling more confidence from this simple move he did.
A simple hand, a simple finger expressed their defiance to everything this biased academy and its dean was trying to do. For Arthur he was just challenging the enemies of his directly, as he wasn't afraid of them so why should he be cowering away from them?
"We still have the same number," Amelia said, "I suppose as no one came to give us any number like most of the teams around."
"Good," Arthur smiled before he watched the fog coming out from the towers. "Oh, they seem to like us," he laughed when he saw their number was the first one to appear, "I want you all to do your best and don't worry about anything."
"Are you going to smash them again?" Deem laughed before adding, "last time was epic."
"And this time as well," Arthur smiled before adding, "but I won't participate until I found something suspicious was going on."
The team already figured out about what happened after speaking with Doaf and his giants after the last fight. They knew the aura coming from the higher realm could turn dirt into gold, and make the entire difference in any assessment.
So, they now realized why their leader participated in that way before, and they were sure he wouldn't delay in stepping in again to amaze and crush anyone if they tried to cheat.
"The first match is Our own team, team seven, against the Dorgazire academy lonely team, team twelve," the dean's distasteful voice came while trying to belittle Arthur's team as he added, "let the two teams ascend the arena and start the fight."
Read 𝓁at𝙚st chapters at (f)re𝒆we(b)novel.com Only