32: Unga Bunga Big Dragon

32: Unga Bunga Big Dragon

The group duels, though less in number, each took longer. Each time, more than four people would go up at a time. Sometimes it was five, sometimes seven, and sometimes it was seventeen. Sure, each group was still dismantled due to the coordination between Slade and his four guildmates, but it just... took a while.

Nyssa just felt it was a little unfair to gang up on the heroes. She couldn’t say much though, considering she was in a group of seven about to gang up on them in just a couple rounds.

A bit of an important fight for her in all honesty. In a way, it was her debut to the rest of the school. As much as she wanted to push it back a little, her awkward ass wasn’t going to just opt out of a group activity like this duel with Class One...

She didn’t want to seem uncool! She just became friends with these people! It’d... It’d be weird to hide away now.

“Slow down...” Nyssa murmured to herself while trying to banish the unending stream of thoughts marching through her mind. Leaning back in her seat, she sighed while staring up into the sky. The afternoon’s breeze brushed against her neck and wove its way through her hair while the crowd’s cheering filled her ears.

She wasn’t sleepy. What a miracle in its own right. Lunch had done its job for once and, instead of putting her into a food-coma, it had woken her up.

“Are you thinking about something?” Celeste leaned over and whispered as her eyes stayed glued to the showmatch down below. “Overwhelmed?”

“A little,” Nyssa confessed while taking advantage of the situation to brush up against Celeste. “Just nervous I guess? Not even because I’m afraid of the worst. Like, sure, it’d suck, but... but I think I’m more afraid of the uncertainty.”

“That’s understandable,” Celeste smiled while sliding a hair closer. Her hand, while sliding forward, brushed up against Nyssa’s. Pausing for a half-second, her smile faltered for a moment as she looked down. “Don’t worry, we... we all get those types of nerves. I can say now that I’m past it that it’ll be fine. But I understand, it sucks. There’s... not quite any advice I can offer except to push through it though.”

Well, they’d figure it out.

For now, they just needed to figure out what they were up against.

Nyssa, at this point, reengaged with the show matches at hand, not because they were any more or less interesting, but because the stakes were now affecting her on a more personal level—it was Class One’s turn.

The stomping of feet against the bleachers, the bated breath, and the subsequent roar of cheers. With an entrance befitting a professional sports team, the top seven students from Class One’s fourth year strode their way out to the training field. Nicknamed the ‘seven heavenly stars’ for this event, they were even greeted by a flurry of applause from the hero team—though, their applause was probably more out of politeness rather than anything special considering they clapped for everyone.

Squinting while shading her eyes, Nyssa spotted a certain familiar face down below standing at the edge of the supposed ‘seven stars’: Troy! He had lost in close fashion to Titus just a bit ago, so she was a little surprised to see him there...

From her understanding, weren’t the seven stars all stronger than everyone but Ryker and Electra? Maybe he was the last minute addition though? The seventh ‘star’ to match the member counts between the two teams?

In the end, Nyssa didn’t care. She was more interested in seeing him fight as part of a team. Though his confidence was perhaps... a notch or two lower than it was in his duel against Titus, he still looked as comfortable as a fish in water. Still there were the crowds, the opponents, and the pressure! So, accounting for those factors, he was pretty much unaffected!

They didn’t have all day though. With another match lined up after this one, the hero team and the challenger team both moved into position to get the fight on its way.

Once in position, a hush fell over the training field—or, more fittingly, the arena. Judges checked their pens and their clipboards one last time, combatants did their last stretches, and Kaiser, serving as the unofficial referee, raised a starter pistol towards the sky.