CHAPTER 97: START OF THE TOURNAMENT

"Attention everyone, are you READY?" A presenter shouts using sound magic, while an excited audience cheers loudly.

’They’re really pumped up’ Today is the tournament, but it’s quite different from what I thought. I thought it would be something more serious, but it’s more like a video game competition.

"Pandora, are you n-not nervous?" Amiya asks beside me.

"No" It seemed pretty simple when explained, so I’m perfectly fine with it.

"Alright, let’s talk about how this year’s competition will go," The announcer seems like an energetic guy, he knows how to hype up the crowd.

"FIRST, we’ll start with a team competition in a good old-fashioned castle conquest game."

"Each team must protect their crystal in their castle while trying to destroy the other team’s crystal. Simple, right? But where’s the fun if it’s too easy? That’s why we’ll have..."The announcer builds the suspense.

"A MONSTER-FILLED ARENA, FOLKS!" He speaks loudly, and the entire audience gets excited. Basically, while we’re protecting the castle, monsters will also be attacking each castle.

So in addition to human enemies, we’ll have monster enemies. The director will oversee everything, so the risk is reduced, and the monsters will be based on the strength of the teams.

And the monsters aren’t even real monsters, they were created by the director’s magic. They’re more like mana-based dolls that resemble specific monsters.

"And for our second game, the dear students of the academy will fight each other in a 1v1 duel, but it won’t be a normal 1v1 duel, because..."

This is already annoying me. This guy speaks loudly, and he doesn’t explain things properly. While it’s good to hype up the audience, it’s still irritating.

"They’ll be limited to a unique rule and scenario that can both favor and disadvantage them. Imagine, folks, being in a frozen arena and not being able to use any magic to strengthen your body."

This second competition is the most concerning for me, because from what I’ve researched, the director always makes things difficult for the stronger and more experienced students by implementing absurd rules and scenarios.

"And last but not least, the 5 students who make it through the second phase will advance to our dear PHASE 3."

"It will be a 5v5 team battle between the first-year freshmen and the second-year veterans, in an arena made of... SLIME!"

In this case, the third competition is more of a joke. Even if we lose, we’ll still earn the same amount of credits as before, because the first-year team can hardly defeat the second-year team.

Moreover, it’s not just regular slime, it’s a special laboratory-made slime. Even using magic to strengthen yourself or trying to use spells to walk, you can still fall down unexpectedly.

So it’s more of a way to relax the crowd after the serious second phase.

The third phase came about as a tradition because in the past, when the director founded the academy, she made this competition, but a smart-aleck managed to win the first place using only slime magic.

And surprisingly, the public loved it very much, which led to this third phase becoming more of a way to relax the public from the seriousness, as well as a way to show that the kingdom is doing so well that they can afford to have an event that is just a big joke.

This gives me a very funny idea of what to do in the third phase, and I’m definitely going to orchestrate it if I have the chance.

My team is Amiya, Tsubasa, and Hana. In general, I’d say our team is very good. Tsubasa and Hana can be called the current heroes, mainly because of their mentality.

And Amiya, although she doesn’t have a strong mentality, has a lot of mana, so in an emergency, I can use her as a battery or human shield.

And ironically, I feel like the universe is telling me that Tsubasa and Hana also think of using Amiya as a shield if the need arises.

After all, she seems like a great bait, a great shield, and a great battery.

"W-Why are you looking at me so greedily?" Amiya asks, looking at me.

"Nothing, just thinking a little."

The four of us are in a waiting room. Our team will be one of the last ones, as it was decided through draw slips who would fight whom in this first phase. We got slip number 4, so we’ll face the team with slip number 8.

"G-Guys, shouldn’t we be thinking about strategies or something?" Amiya asks us three, who are silent.

But unlike the naive Amiya, the three of us have our own plans, we just don’t want to share them with each other.

"Amiya, we don’t know what the scenario will be like, we don’t know the strength of the enemy, we don’t know the strength of our allies, we don’t know the terrain we’ll be in, we don’t know the terrain the enemy will be in, and the monsters will certainly be strong. In other words, there’s no point in coming up with a strategy now. We need to start the competition first," I tell her.

Since we don’t know anything, making a strategy now would only hinder us. And I said this because I want her to stop asking us to make strategies together.

’I wish Celeste was on my team...’ Celeste’s movement ability would be absurd in this competition. I don’t know how far she can go, but since the focus is on breaking the crystal, it wouldn’t be too difficult to break it if she finds the enemy’s crystal.

’I wonder who our opponents will be...’ The teams that lose are eliminated without a second chance. In other words, it’s an impartial and fair competition. If you lose, you lose and that’s it.

And so time passes as various teams compete. There was a match that lasted only 5 minutes and ended.

We can’t see which teams are playing, so we don’t know which teams have been and who won. We just hear a signal, but 5 minutes was the fastest of them all.

A pace at which I judge that it was probably Celeste’s team. She’s the fastest person among the freshmen.

Soon, we’re informed that it’s our turn to start.

"P-Pandora, can I stay close to you?"

"..."

"Hana and Tsubasa, protect the crystal. Amiya, go after the enemy crystal. I’ll kill the monsters."

Hana and Tsubasa quickly agree.

"Huh? M-Me alone? Why?"

"...And I trust you. You’re the ideal bait... I mean, fighter."

Amiya looks like she’s going to cry. She knows well that she’ll be mercilessly beaten by the enemy team, as there are no rules regarding that. As long as they don’t try to kill, anything goes.

"P-Pandora, could you reconsider this plan?" Amiya asks.

"No, unless you want to be thrown to the monsters. But if I’m not mistaken, they’re based on the team’s strength. I wonder how strong the monsters attacking our castle will be."

Amiya trembles slightly, as if imagining the scene. It’s obvious that the monsters will be strong, as they’re based on the entire team. In other words, since I’m part of the team, I’m a significant addition of strength for the enemies.

’They didn’t give us weapons... but they don’t prohibit their use.’ Soon, we’re teleported to a castle. The first thing I do is look at the view. What I see is a large swamp, and beyond the swamp is a plain where the enemy castle is.

’Amiya already has her transformation magic staff.’ She’s not in her priestess form now; her outfit is the standard one from the beginning, and her mana also seems reduced. That form must have more mana.

"Tsubasa, Hana, do you want any weapons?"

"A sword," Tsubasa says.

"A spear," Hana also says. The two don’t say anything about the question, they’re efficient.

I create the weapons and throw them to them a sword and a spear as requested.

Not too impressive, but better than having nothing.

"Hey, what about me? Aren’t you going to give me anything?" Amiya says when she sees me giving weapons to the others.

"Why? You have a staff."

"Ah... that’s right... okay, I had forgotten about that."

’...’ She’s slow, too slow. She’ll only serve as bait.

I quickly look at our crystal, a large 3D rhombus-shaped orange crystal. It can’t be moved, which is a shame, although the pedestal it’s on is beautiful.

"I’m going to start. Amiya, go." I say, as Tsubasa and Hana already head for the crystal.

"D-Do I really have to go alone? And how do I get down from here? It’s kind of high," Amiya says, looking at the open entrance, which must be about 7 meters high from the ground.

The ground below is a greenish swampy water, typical of the swamp scenario we’re in.

"Uh-oh, I better not...kyaaaaaa" Before she can finish, I kick her down there. She falls face-first into the water, and I hold back my laughter as she gets up, soaked.

"Run, Amiya, or the monsters will get you," I say from up here, as she picks up her staff and starts running, following my "advice".

"AMIYA, TO THE RIGHT!" I yell, as she was going in the wrong direction.

The castle isn’t really a castle. Externally, it has the structure of a small castle, but inside, there’s only the main lobby, and there’s no door to close.

’At least it’s high up.’ They won’t be able to climb up instantly, which gives us an advantage of 3 to 8 seconds.

’They’ve seen my wings before, so I’ll use them.’ I create wings with the shadows and start flying over the swamp. I need to eliminate as many monsters as I can before they decide to attack the castle.

’I see... They seem tough for normal students.’ The director doesn’t know how strong I really am, so she judged based on what she’s seen me do or what she knows.

Most of the monsters in the swamp are probably C-class or something like that.

’I think I’ll try to find enemies while killing the monsters.’ I don’t know who the enemies are, and they don’t know who we are, so whoever discovers the other first technically has an advantage.

Okay, being in the air makes me quite visible, but I don’t care. Seeing me will make the other team more cautious, which could make them avoid problematic actions, like just focusing on breaking the crystal.

I decided not to go after the enemy crystal because I know my current team can’t defend the crystal, at least not against experienced opponents. The enemy crystal is far away, and teleportation techniques are prohibited.

So straying too far from the crystal will be bad, which is why I’ll use Amiya as bait. Depending on the enemy, I can go after their crystal.

Plus, I left an "eye" on Amiya, so I’ll know who the enemy is when they’re found by Amiya.