A week later,
The night before the battle,
Ayaka walked to her balcony, looking at the beautiful night sky. Her hand gripped the balcony railings, shaking. The thought of messing up in tomorrow's battle crept in her heart, making her unable to sleep.
"Grandfather… Please watch me in tomorrow's battle. No matter what it takes, I won't disappoint anyone." She closed her eyes and swore.
Meanwhile, the others were also making their preparations.
Michelle was training her magic in her backyard. Tasha was wiping her bow, making sure she could use it tomorrow. Evan Young was typing something on his computer, searching their opponent data to make sure he did not leave a single thing. As for Sanae… she was sleeping soundly in her room. For her, having a good sleep before a battle was the greatest preparation. Albeit, she did it too much as it was only 8 PM.
Lastly, Kai was shaking inside his room, sweating like crazy. He tried to raise his shaky hand and smirked. "This is it. I can use it as my trump card."
Although he was rushing a bit, he finally finished his magic idea. After that, he fell asleep while smiling.
The same applied to the enemy. Isabelle knew what to do in tomorrow's battle. Even though the lion group was created not long ago, they were full of insane people. Two Zodiacs and two S rank magicians, that alone would be enough to destroy their group if they were not careful.
As for her subordinates, they also knew the weight of this battle. If they messed up a little bit, the point would not really matter, but their reputation would.
The next day,
All parties assembled in their respective rooms. The news spread like crazy and almost all students gathered inside the auditorium. If they needed a ticket to watch this match, it would sell better than a cold drink in the hot summer. Some students did not even care whether they got a seat or not.
After all, they knew this was a battle between the current 8th group and Michelle Graham. If that were all to it, the room would not be this full. The most surprising thing was the leader of Lion Group was an unknown young man instead of the famous Michelle Graham.
The middle and bottom groups could learn many things from this battle, while the top group treated this battle to investigate their soon-to-be rival.
The students looked around, finding each group like the 1st rank group - Dawn, or even the 2nd rank group - Golden and many others.
An hour before the battle, a student and a teacher came in, sitting in a commentator seat. The student had a brown-haired coconut haircut and wore big round glasses.
"Ladies and Gentlemen. Today we will witness a legendary battle between Eagle Group and a new group called Lion Group with me as the commentator from Studio Group, Diego. According to the information, the famous S rank magician, Michelle Graham, created this group not long ago. However, I am curious as to why she is not the group leader. Instead, she gives it to an unknown man called Kai Carter. And it would seem his sister, Tasha Carter, is an S rank space magician. This group is undoubtedly overpowered.
"If I am not wrong, they were citizens of United Asia Base not long ago. For this question, I believe I should ask someone for it. That's why, for today's occasion, I have a special guest that will help me comment on the match and know more about this Lion Group. Please give warm applause to Michelle Graham's personal teacher, Mano Yuki."
The applause from almost every student in the school echoed inside the huge auditorium.
"Mano Yuki here. Well, I can't really say anything about this group since they are new. As for that question, I think it will be fine to say these two things since some of you already know anyway. Kai Carter is the son-in-law of Graham Family… wait, he is still her fiance, so not yet… and as far as I know, Michelle never beat him in a physical fight alone."
Her words silenced the loud auditorium. They were stupefied, wondering if their ears were playing them.
Even Diego, who was beside her, dropped his jaw to the ground. Even though Michelle was an S rank magician, her close combat prowess alone was one of the tops in this school. Hearing she could never win a single time against this mysterious person completely bewildered them.
"Teacher. I would like to ask another question. According to the data, Kai Carter is a Sound Magician, right? Sound Magic is basically useless in a fight, so if his close combat technique is that good, why is he not in the Military Academy? I think it will be the best place to nurture his power? But hearing he is her fiance, is he coming to this academy just to chase his love?"
Yuki simply laughed. "Haha… You are certainly true there. Firstly, Sound Magicians are normally useless in a fight. With his physical power, it would guarantee him the same amount of prestige as Michelle. Lastly, he has come to this academy for that, but the request came from my student's part. That's why all the pantsy guys here could not interest her! Haha… Ah, if you try to do anything funny to that guy, you might move the entire Graham Family, so be careful."
Many men who secretly chased Michelle had their expression darkened. They finally knew why they could not impress Michelle as she already fell in love with another man.
Envy and Jealousy started filling the atmosphere. Luckily, this did not affect Diego as he noticed something off from her statement. "Normally? Do you mean he is not a normal Sound Magician… no, I should say, is he an unorthodox magician?"
"As you all understand, people would always have an element in their bodies. The normal elements would be Fire, Water, Ice, Earth, Wind, Thunder, Wood, and Metal, the eight basic elements.
"Rarer elements like Light, Darkness, Space are hard to come by, making them a bit special. And just like Sound Element, those elements were also considered as useless in the past.
"And at one generation, an unorthodox magician, who had either those three elements, appeared. The element slowly became popular as they put their experiences within their notes and after some tweaking, even a normal magician would be able to wield that special magic. In other words, the Light, Darkness, or Space Magician right now is the effort of heroes in the past.
"And just like those guys in the past, there is this person called Kai Carter, who possesses a Sound Element. With his uniqueness, he understands Sound more than us. And maybe in a decade or so, we might see another rise of Sound Magician after going through another magic tweaking process. After all, we need to eliminate his uniqueness inside his magic before we can let normal Sound Magicians use it.
"And maybe, another element such as time might come in the future. However, I don't know if it will come when we overtake the Earth again from Magical Beasts or in the fight. After all, we might not witness the appearance of another unorthodox magician. Well, I can say I am lucky since I am the teacher of this unorthodox man's fiancee." Yuki laughed again.
"..." All the people were tongue-tied like they just heard something amazing. The top groups started clenching their fists, making sure they would not miss a single detail in this match.
"Well, it seems there are only thirty minutes before we start. Hence, we will draw the place to be their battlefield so that each team can prepare their battle plan. As you know, we have ten places for a group battle. In fact, this group battle itself is a preparation battle against terrorists as each group would have their own plans to counter their enemies." He stood up and raised his hand. "Without further ado, let us draw the place!"
The giant screen inside the auditorium flashed, showing ten places in black and white. It started rouletting before it stopped to a plain. When it revealed the true image, it was a vast wheat field.
The screen displayed the entire map and Diego explained the map. "It would seem we have a vast wheat field, albeit after harvest, so there is no wheat. On the right side of the battlefield, there are woods and further on the right are hills, which should be the boundary of this battlefield. And we can see an abandoned village on the other side.
"There is too much exposure in this place, giving Isabelle Fisher an advantage. What do you think their plan would be, Teacher Yuki? I bet it will be utilizing the hill or woods on the right since the village could not let you avoid Isabelle Fisher." Diego turned his head to the side.
"Yeah. After hearing the sniping ability of Isabelle Fisher, I would certainly utilize the hill. However, as you might already be aware of Tasha Carter's space magic, we should watch out for her since we won't know when she would appear.
"This is where Nicholas comes to play. He can't be too far and too close to Isabelle Fisher as to prevent Tasha Carter from ambushing her. If I am in Isabelle's place, I would certainly thrust my spear through the weakest link, Kudo Ayaka, before attacking Evan Young. He then can turn the tide of the battle and destroy this OP group." Yuki gave her insight.
And as expected, Isabelle also came up with the same strategy.
On the other hand, Kai smiled upon seeing the place.