Chapter 101: the 4th round of the team tournament

“Hahaha, you fought so savagely Clark. I love it, keep it up”.

Clark rolled his eyes at Mark’s words, as he went to rest in the nutrition cabin provided in the mech piloting room. The strain to his brain was still enormous, despite it only being a virtual mech.

As he rested, the others heaped praise on his performance relentlessly. He was the one who emerged victorious overall, after calculating the scores of all their battles. As everyone blabbered on, somebody stood up as he came to his cabin.

The area immediately quietened down, as everyone watched Arthur approached Clark.

“Your performance…, very strong.” Arthur gave an evaluation, as he paused a bit, “but I will beat you one day”. Him saying this in such a harmonious atmosphere, completely ruined everyone’s happy mood.

“Hmmm…, I know”. Clark finally replied after being left speechless for a minute. He didn’t know if he should laugh or cry. This was completely hilarious, if not ridiculous.

“Arthur will you stop ruining the mood every time,” Mark finally interjected, after barely controlling his twitching lips.

“Every day, I will beat you, I will do that. Use your fist for once, not only your mouth”. This earned a laugh from everyone, Arthur tried to keep a poker face but he failed as he also couldn’t help but laugh.

These days, he served as Clark’s main training partner as he challenges him every day for a virtual battle. Till now, he could not get over his first-ever defeat to this guy who called himself his vice-captain. Though he always emerged as the loser, he still had the confidence that one day he’ll cleanse this shame.

“Ok,” he finally replied to Mark after all the laughing. He was completely unaffected by their loud laughs, despite him joining them in doing it.

But this answer, ok. What does he mean by Ok? Does he mean he will now use his mouth or his fist? Everyone turned to look at him for clarification, as they could not comprehend him at all.

Well, the person being focused on was completely unconcerned as he entered his nutrition cabin to train. Mark was frustrated as he felt like pulling all his hair off.

The others were not as curious as Mark, as they erupted into another fit of laughter on seeing his expression before they returned to resume training.

…

During Clark’s last gladiator battle, he won the battle but lost almost all his hair. The lost hair didn’t bother him much, but it sure as hell looked awkward.

After training straight for 2 hours, they stopped to rest. This is when they saw the result of the 2nd individual battle. The killer of dragons emerged as the winner of this battle, he fought a long and bloody battle before he finally won.

He dominated his opponent, by suppressing him throughout the battle. But the Versatile fighter was not ready to go down without a fight. He persevered, dragging the battle for over 2 hours being suppressed before he finally succumbed.

The fight fixtures for the 2nd round of the individual battle tournament were already decided upon. But the date for the 2nd round has not been decided upon, it was still under consideration. For the 2nd round:

1st day: Unknown.

World dominator vs The Godzilla.

2nd day: Unknown.

The stranded dragon vs The killer of dragons.

For the 2nd round, only 4 gladiators can battle. So, according to the rules the lucky gladiator who is left out automatically advances to the semi-final battle. The Rakshasha became the lucky gladiator to automatically advance.

On seeing this, Mark kept cursing for over 30 minutes about the tournament’s injustice. “I can even participate and cross over to the next round by luck if this is how it’s done. I feel bad now, this is so unorganized”.

“How can a gladiator just advance to the next round without fighting?” He complained. The others just laughed off his complaints as they forced him to enter the virtual network, so they could continue their training.

“Hahaha,” He erupted in a loud fit of laughter as the results of their training were revealed to them.

“We improved,” Clark muttered in a stunned tone. After a week of training without any significant improvement, this already seemed like their limit but they now actually improved.

They all looked at Sabertooth’s evaluation with a satisfied and joyful expression on their faces. It seems steaming off for a while had its advantages too. This improvement could only be attributed to them going out to watch and pilot mechs.

Team Battle Evaluation:

Total no. of kills: 5 Total no. of deaths: 0 Endurance: 88% Attack power: 97% Attack speed: 91% Teamwork: 90%

They only had a 1% increase in their attack power, but their teamwork improved by 5%. This was a completely unexpected boon to them.

Well, this sudden huge improvement in their teamwork is not too surprising if you analyze their team in greater detail. The months they’ve spent together were not in vain, they are now completely familiar with themselves.

For example, months ago Mark hardly talks, but now he is a complete star talker. The inner beast of talking rapidly in him was gradually unleashed, the more he grew familiar with his teammates.

Arthur and Aurora can now interact with the others normally like friends, which was unimaginable months ago. The team celebrated their improvement a little before going back into their nutrition cabins to continue training.

…

The 4th round of the team tournament started today; their team was scheduled to battle tomorrow so they just watched today's battles as spectators. Of the 9 powerhouse teams, 2 already fought against each other reducing the number to 8 powerhouse teams.

For this round, 13 teams qualified but only 12 teams can participate in the battles. Surprisingly, the United States team became the lucky team to qualify without battling.

Of the remaining 12 teams, 6 are to battle today. Clark sat together with his teammates, as they switched on the television to watch the battles as a group.

3 powerhouse teams were scheduled to fight today, this fixture succeeded in hyping the spectators as the powerhouse teams already had fans here. The battles quickly ended, as they finally relaxed their tense nerves.

After the battles, the Microsoft empire team became the focus of attention. They became the only team to win without having a single casualty. This battle only made Clark and his teammates more solemn, as this team’s strength was simply undeniable, especially their captain “World dominator”.

Despite this team’s perfect win, they managed to gain some information as the Captain was forced to use his self-created technique for the first time to save his teammate.

The results of the other fought battles today were more or less expected. Apart from the powerhouse team eliminated by the Microsoft empire team, the other powerhouse teams qualified. The last qualified team is a team with mediocre strength when compared to the powerhouse teams.

The next day, Clark and his teammates prepared to go the arena as they were scheduled to fight one of the powerhouse teams today, the blue ocean team.

Fighting a powerhouse team was inevitable, as 5 powerhouse teams were to fight today. The spectators already started cheering wildly, as the commentator introduced them.

“Ladies and gentlemen, I know you are excited about this clash of titans. Today, these 2 powerhouse teams are going to clash, The roman empire team and the blue ocean team”.

They quickly entered the arena, as they activated their nutrition cabins without any hesitation. A network quickly formed as the tournament A. I materialized them in a battle arena.

They quickly formed their formation, as they observed their opponents. Arthur headed their formation as usual, but this time he didn’t leave them as they all advanced at the same pace.

Both team formations quickly drew near, as he finally stormed out to meet their opponents. Emily and Aurora supported him, as they advanced from the left and right flanks respectively.

Boom!! His sword landed in their opponent’s formation with speed, the Captain of the blue ocean team came out as he calmly blocked with his shield. Whoosh!! He counterattacked as his sword stabbed forward swiftly, Arthur quickly dodged by jumping backward.

Bam!! Bam!! Bam!! Emily and Aurora arrived, as they both attacked the opposing Captain. The blue ocean team members responded appropriately, as they swarmed at the 3 opposing gladiators who came forward by trying to overwhelm them. Clark and Mark finally charged forward, as they quickly joined the battle.

The battle became bloody as both team gladiators started sustaining injuries. The 1st casualty of the battle appeared, as Aurora swiftly killed one of the opponent gladiators through her short burst of power. On doing this, she landed deep inside the opposing team’s formation.

The blue ocean team surrounded her to kill her quickly, while their captain defended against the attacks raining at them. This man proved why he was appointed as the captain, as he maintained a tight defense against the collective offensive of his opponents.

As he defended against their offensive, Arthur suddenly leaped to the side leaving the center open.

Boom!! Clark’s spear tyrannically appeared, stabbing towards the opposing team captain’s shield as he executed his self-created technique. His spear moved too fast for the opposing team captain to pinpoint its speed, so he hastily steadied himself while firmly holding his shield to block the stab.

Bam!! The air shook fiercely, as the opponent’s shield shattered into fragments from the force from Clark’s stab. The captain was startled by the force of the blow, but he was an experienced fighter as he leaped to the side with speed narrowly dodging the spear tip.

Whoosh!! Clark’s spear suddenly changed direction slashing sideways, he succeeded in beheading the enemy Captain as he failed to react in time. After training for months, he could now control and use his self-created technique perfectly.

He stopped the technique, immediately turning it into a sideways slash at the last moment when he deduced that his opponent would dodge. The spectators completely forgot themselves in excitement from the moves just made. Wild cheers and shouts filled the stadium, as they started chanting his name.

His teammates took complete advantage of the momentum he created, as they quickly ended the team battle, destroying their remaining opponents. Despite the advantage he created, they didn’t have a perfect battle as Aurora was killed in the end.

The spectators completely ignored this as they came out of the nutrition cabins. The loud noise, made from their shouts and cheers was enough to destroy a regular human’s ear.

Clark walked out of the stadium with his teammates, amidst the cheers. To him, the cheers was music, it feels really good being badass.

[Thank you for reading this chapter, I really appreciate it. Please, if you love this book, leave your power stones behind his surbodinate