North Entrance To The Kendo Dungeon.
Itekan Lie was in a daze. He'd been in one since yesterday when instructor Keel Kun had listed him as one of the participants for four stars. He was happy, shocked and nervous all at the same time.
So he didn't even notice he was being spoken to until Itoyea shook him.
"Sorry! What were you saying?"
"You okay?" Itoyea asked as he gave Itekan a cursory look.
"Yeah. Just nervous"
"Same here. Come on!" Itoyea said and they started on, walking towards where the other trainees were gathered.
"Hey! Do you remember that blond senior from about 5 months ago—"
"Yeah! Bukanami!"
"He's on our team"
"Great! I hope he was able to finish his mission"
"Talking about me?" Bukanami Ao said as he walked to them.
"Hey, been a while" Itekan said as he saw Bukanami.
"Sup" Itoyea said nodding at the senior.
"Yeah it has. Nice seeing you two here, though if you guys weren't on the list I'd have thought it rigged." Bukanami joked.
Itekan laughed aloud while Itoyea smiled content.
The three of them chatted for a while, Itekan telling him how he and Itoyea had trained under Headmaster Kime for a couple of months and Bukanami told them about how he'd restored his class' honor by defeating the golden leaf snake. He mentioned that senior Korimer had stolen the final kill but it was he, Konacho and Tobi who had hunted it down.
After a bit the other trainees from arrived through the platform they'd arrived from. An instructor from Four Stars Academy: Dwembele Stavhavash arrived.
He was a four year trainee who had decided to remain in the academy instead of leaving to work in a guild or in a nation. He was experienced with nearly every sort of battle scenarios. He was one of the few trainees in the entire academy who could go toe to toe with Korimer and even win. If given prep time.
"Alright everyone gather around." He said, all fifteen trainees in the clearing gathered around him.
"The first part of this tournament is a team battle. Of the three academies here one team will be eliminated while the other two teams move on to the next segment of the tournament." Dwembele Stavhavash said crossing his arms.
"The rules are simple: No attacks with the intent to kill. That results in the entire team being disqualified. Secondly; If a mental of the ten is judged unfit to continue the entire team is disqualified. Thirdly; The competition is a conquest type. There are ten flags scattered at random throughout the Northern Kendo Dungeon. The team with the highest flag count wins. You may steal an opposing team's flag. Each flag counts as a territory remember you are not alone in these dungeons, watch out for demonic beasts.
"One of you will be the ancor. He will serve as the king and must remain in your territory. If he steps out. You lose whatever zone you've captured. And your team is disqualified.
" There'll be two shields, they will remain with the king and fight the other teams who attempt to capture/steal your zone. So long as they are in close proximity to the zone, the king is able to heal them in real time. The healing effect of the zone reduces with the distance from the zone. So sheilds, be careful not to go so far from your king.
"Lastly, there will be two swords. They are the ones who attack and capture other zones. If they are able to strike first an AP boost is given for ten minutes. With that said, familiarize yourselves with your team, pick a leader, and we will begin in five minutes"
***
Meanwhile...
Centre Entrance To The Kendo Dungeon.
The early morning sun bit down through the trees hitting the trainees with a wave of nausea. These set of trainees had just finished their organization and were about to begin.
"Let's go ahead then Binturu–kun" Candice Laīde said. The two shot forward, running through the dungeon without care for anything. Behind them they left Tendo Kech and Tobi Fustavo as sheilds and Great Mann as the king.
Binturu and Candice hadn't ran long before they encountered their first opponents: two trainees from the Frussia Ranngers; a dark lad with silver hair called, Thomas and a busty lady; Kim who wore skimpy dresses.
The two teams recognized themselves instantly. Thomas brought out a long bow and disappeared into the trees. Binturu immediately gave case only to be stopped as Kim's hand grew disproportionately large. Using it as a club struck Binturu back.
Candice Laīde wasn't watching on the sidelines either. The moment Kim had moved so did she. Her technique relied on people forgetting she was in their presence. A technique fit for a trainee from Rangers.
***
"Binturu has been caught in Kim's skin web. How's he going to get out of this certain doom!" Keel Kun commented as the crowd watched from the holographic screen.
"Wait what's that on screen two? The ace of Marcellonia: Ronga and Quinnin from Marcellonia's hero academy have gotten past the first shield from Rangers Academy. The second shield, steps back in terror. What are we witnessing! Is this really the power of a seventeen year old? The ace of Marcedonia settles things. This is almost too easy! And just like that Rangers Academy team 2 have been taken out by singlehandedly by Ronga!"
***
Binturu just then release his golden orb with burst out with an explosion of SE. Sending Kim crashing into the tree. As she got up, Binturu vanshiswd from her line of sight.
Boom!
She fell back down as Binturu hit her with a power punch right into her face, knocking her out.
Around the same time, Candice was chasing the archer Thomas who kept leaping from tree to tree yet was shooting with a near 80 percent accuracy.
"Stay in one place damnit!" She groaned as she dodged the arrow he'd just shot. Her main ability was: Telepathy but because she wasn't the most physically endowed she had found a way to adapt. She'd honed her spartial awareness to such a degree that she was able to slip from the views of everyone.
This allowed her to be able to cast one critical attack: Pathfinder!
Candice released the arrows she'd stockpiled, using her telepathy she shot them right through Thomas' arms and legs at speed just below the speed of sound. He hadn't even noticed she'd been gathering his arrows nor headhe even noticed he'd been hit till about a second later when the pain hit his brain.
***
"What a magnificent way to begin the first round of the Tatum-Deru. The crowd's reactions are wel beyond what was anticipated. They're loving every bit of it."
"Let's look at Screen 1. They're about to begin! Let's see how Four Stars Academy's ace would do against the ace of Bloom Knights Academy"
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Spiritual Energy (SE)
Spiritual Sea (SS)
Spiritual Signature (SST)