Chapter 97: a frightening opponent

As soon as Clark returned with his teammates, they did a small team celebration, before deciding to watch the other battles of the day.

The Captain congratulated them while telling them to keep up the good work. Their opponents today were clearly not their match, so there was not much exciting stuff to discuss.

They just teased Arthur for being such a stingy teammate, as they went to spectate other matches. In a sense, he was indeed stingy, as he monopolized 2 of the opponents for himself alone.

Half of the battles to be fought this week were fought today. All the battles were fierce, as all the teams chosen had a certain degree of strength. Theirs is that they are just too strong.

Well, this was what they thought. Not only their team was too strong, as 3 other teams proved it. They completely destroyed their opponents the way they did, and one of the teams finished the battle even faster than they did.

The United States team was the team now holding the record for the fastest battle won. The team of gladiators they organized, was a team of monsters.

After watching, the whole team became completely silent, as they replayed the United states team battle. The other 2 teams were strong, but they already saw this team as their main rival.

There are prizes for 2nd and 3rd place teams, but they are nowhere as lucrative as the prize for the 1st place team. They were not ready to compromise the prospect of taking the 1st place prize.

They finally realized something very important from this, they are not the best yet. No matter how good they are, there was always someone better, nobody is perfect.

As soon as they came to this realization. They tacitly stood up, they returned to their training room as they got prepared to try improving further. For the rest of the day, all they did was continue training.

The day quickly ended, as they slept peacefully after having their bath. Exercise is really good, Clark’s whole body and brain felt free and active, as he slept. It was a very wonderful feeling, a feeling of unrestrained freedom.

The next day, after waking up. Emily decided to cook for them, she took over from the A. I today as their cook. They enjoyed themselves foodwise that morning, as the juicy tastes of her food were simply unforgettable.

“I didn’t know that you were this good at cooking, please be taking care of our food needs from today,” Mark begged her.

She agreed after some persuasion, as Clark joined in the persuasion. He already knew just the right words to poke at her soft spot. He already developed some social skills during his years with them, and he was more fluent in his speech and persuasion now.

Today, they continued training again for the whole day. The Captain was very satisfied with their hard work, as he constantly gave updates of their status to the General.

That evening, when they gathered to watch the day’s most intense battles, they were given another huge shock once again, as another team stood out glaringly. 5 teams destroyed their opponents like them today, but this particular team’s win was just too ridiculous.

The Microsoft Empire team practically finished the battle in an instant. They finished the battle in less than a minute.

But what was shocking, is that their team Captain confronted 3 soldiers from the opposing team alone, and he also finished them in less than a minute. The other 4 gladiators of the team swarmed the remaining 2 opponents.

The team was already one of the best teams in the tournament, the addition of their Captain is just adding fuel to the already burning fire. The Captain’s strength is simply out of this world. Clark sighed in particular, as he recognized that compared to this guy, he still fell short in some areas.

They originally thought that 1st position was already theirs. But yesterday, they discovered a rival. Today, they discovered a tyrant, not a rival. They didn’t even need to go round the world, to find a soldier better than them. It was depressing.

Even the backer behind this team was trouble. The Microsoft empire organization is one of the few organizations, above countries with high-grade military strength. They are a direct rival to the Roman empire organization. Their rivalry could be traced back to decades ago.

Unlike most organizations, the Microsoft empire organization specializes in programming, as its main source of development. They are a very advanced organization, that program A. Is for themselves, and other organizations, including some countries.

They not only focus on A.Is, as their programming knowledge and field are very broad. Most of the program-related gadgets and A. Is used by most countries and organizations are produced by this organization.

This organization is the legacy left behind by the late programming legend of old, Bill Gates. His enormous Microsoft empire strived during the great war, as due to a lot of coincidences, they emerged as one of the big shots of this era.

The Captain came to meet them with a solemn expression on his face, he asked them to follow him that the General wants to speak to them. They quickly stood up, as they followed him to the parlor where the figure of the General was being projected in the middle of the room.

“Good evening General,” they greeted respectfully. The General turned to face them while acknowledging their greeting with a nod. He exhaled, before finally opening his mouth to speak.

“Gladiators, in a normal situation I would have ordered you to win against them by all costs, but this case is special”. They already knew the them he was talking about, so they just kept silent.

“The Microsoft empire is my organization’s arch-enemy. We cannot exist in the same place; this is how it has been for years”. He paused a little, after saying this.

“The team Captain leading their team this time is not a normal soldier. If I am not wrong, he came to meet them on his own to get the tournament price through them. A genius like him, cannot be unknown. There’s a high chance that he has a huge background”.

“We don’t have a direct grasp of his identity, but his ability has been researched extensively by my R&D team. All I have to tell you is that this is not his full strength, try your best to advance in the tournament as much as possible”.

“My only regret is that Microsoft will probably take both awards for the individual and team tournament’s 1st place. All I came for is to warn you about his strength, the rest is up to you, Good luck”.

The General’s projection finally disappeared, as they all stood there in a daze. “Is that how strong this guy is? That even the General will just tell us Goodluck,” Clark thought, surprised.

“Well, he may be stronger than I am, but that does not translate to him killing me in a battle”. He recognized this guy’s strength, but he was not afraid.

“Nothing is impossible,” he thought. “If Buster Douglas can knock Mike Tyson out, who was the king of knockouts, then I will surely win over this guy”. As soon as this thought crossed his head, he recovered from his daze. He turned around, as he walked directly to the training room to continue training.

The others were stunned on seeing him resolutely go back to train. Even if they didn’t hear his thoughts, they have their unique thought process. They could notice the glaring change in his demeanor.

“Yeah, who said our defeat is inevitable? Nobody. If so, then there is a chance that we can win, the best we can do is to train”. His teammates used this logic to motivate themselves, as they also went to continue training.

…

The tournament continued, as the 2nd round of battles began. They didn’t draw against any of the powerhouse teams, so their battle was smooth. They won swiftly without any hiccups.

None of the powerhouses drew against themselves either, so the action was mostly felt in the intense battles between the other teams.

In this round, the Microsoft empire team broke the fastest record by an astonishing 30 seconds. This time, this feat sent everyone thinking and speculating.

“This guy, I wonder what his individual battle evaluation looks like,” Clark thought in awe. At this age, the strong were always respected, and he was in no way different.

“Will he have an attack power of 100? Will he have an attack speed of 100?” No, he laughed. Despite his strength, Emily is still faster than him by a small margin.

The 2nd round ended, the wolves in this competition were now being separated from the sheep. Next week, the 3rd round of battles began, as the wolves bared their fangs against each other.

This round battle was far more intense than the other rounds, as the winning teams always win by a very close margin.

In this round, 2 of the powerhouse teams drew against each other. Their battle was very intense, as the spectators ohhed and ahhed throughout till the battle ended.

This battle broke the record for the fastest-paced battle, as even the commentator’s thoughts could not keep up with the speed at which the battle progressed.

In this round, Clark’s team continued their win streak, as they did not encounter any of the powerhouse teams. During the same week of the third round, the first battle of the individual tournament finally commenced.

The individual battles were always still the most enjoyable, as the hype for the first round flew through the roof. Clark was astonished, as he found himself and all the 9 other individual gladiators appear on television. The television could be in any form, like the projections commonly used now.

Normal television was no problem, but his appearing on television on a news channel of the Seafarers alliance is a privilege that millions of people will even die for.

His first individual battle was scheduled to come, 2 days after he fought the team battle with his team. His teammates supported him, as they helped him train better. They continually encouraged him despite the impossible mission, it was tagged by some spectators.

A lot of people believe that the winner of the individual tournament was already decided. That it is an impossible mission for someone else to win.

Why? It’s just because one of the individual gladiators is the team captain of the Microsoft empire team, Wayne Parker. His ring name is “World dominator”.

Despite this seemingly impossible goal, Clark trained diligently. Nothing was set in stone; he didn’t feel pressure, it only served as a more reason for him to train and improve.

[Thank you for reading this chapter, I really appreciate it. If you love this book, please support it by leaving your power stones behind.]