The arena did not sound like a school.
It sounded like a living thing.
Freya felt it the moment she stepped through the archway. Noise rolled over her in a dense, physical wave. Not random shouting. Structured sound. Layered rhythm. Thousands of voices braided into three distinct currents that collided and rebounded beneath the vaulted ceiling.
Verdant had claimed the eastern rise.
Green banners spilled down the stone in clean vertical lines. At the front of their section stood the Green Chorus, wrists wrapped in cloth, eyes sharp and forward. Their chant pulsed in steady cadence, low voices laying a foundation while higher tones sliced through the air.
"One house. One sound. One home."
The words struck like drumbeats. The Verdant section echoed them, softer but unified, a tide moving in time.
Across the arena, Pyros burned.
The Ember Howl occupied the western stands like a wildfire given shape. Their bodies covered in a sea of red paint. They stomped in jagged rhythm, boots hammering stone. Their roar rose in explosive bursts that rattled the ribs.
"BURN THROUGH!!!!"
"SHOW NO MERCY!!!!!"
Each cry detonated against the walls. The Pyros section answered with feral enthusiasm, voices breaking from intensity.
Between them, Aurelith stood in silver.
The Silver Accord did not shout so much as project. Their claps landed in perfect unison, sharp and crystalline. When they chanted, their voices aligned into eerie harmony that cut clean through the surrounding chaos.
"Align. Advance. Ascend."
The words floated, precise and cold. The Aurelith section mirrored them with disciplined clarity.
Freya stood at the edge of Verdant's rise, breath caught somewhere between her lungs and her throat. The sound pressed against her skin. Every chant felt like a hand on her back, urging her forward toward the arena floor she would not touch.
Sera leaned close, raising her voice just enough to carry.
"Well we can tell it's your first time seeing opening day" she said, grinning.
Sera's grin widened. "It only gets louder."
As if summoned, the Green Chorus shifted tempo. Their cadence quickened, voices stacking tighter.
"Verdant bends. Verdant wins."
The words rippled outward. Verdant students straightened instinctively, shoulders squaring. The chant threaded through Freya's chest, steady and grounding.
The arena lights dimmed by a fraction.
A hush rippled outward from the center, spreading unevenly as the first squads entered the staging ring. The mascots did not fall silent. They leaned in.
The Ember Howl unleashed a rolling snarl of sound that made Freya's teeth ache. The Green Chorus answered with sharper rhythm. The Silver Accord's harmonized claps slicing between them like blades.
The first match began without ceremony.
Two squads collided in a blur of motion. The opening exchange was viciously efficient. Steel flashed. Contracts flared. One fighter stumbled, caught mid-transition by a strike that landed with a sickening finality.
The Pyros section erupted.
The Ember Howl laughed as one, a harsh, triumphant sound. They pounced on the mistake instantly.
"YOU'RE TOO SLOW!"
Their voices drilled into the arena. The fallen fighter scrambled upright, face flushed beneath the weight of it.
Verdant's response came in matching waves.
"Patience! Patience! Patience!"
The Green Chorus did not mock. They commanded. Their chant rolled steady and insistent, a counterpoint to Pyros' glee.
The Aurelith section applauded.
Not thunderous. Not sarcastic. Calm, synchronized clapping that echoed like a verdict. The Silver Accord's voices rose in cool harmony.
"Reform. Refine."
Freya's gaze snapped back to the fighters. The pressure from the stands was palpable. Every movement on the arena floor was mirrored and magnified by the crowd. When a clean maneuver landed, the victorious house detonated into sound while the other fell into a vacuum of silence so sharp it rang.
Then the mascots filled it.
They never stopped.
When the rest of the arena inhaled, they exhaled. Their voices bridged every gap, stretching tension until it hummed.
A decisive strike ended the match in under two minutes.
The winning house exploded. The losing side went funerally still. For a heartbeat, the silence was absolute.
Then, the mascots cut through it like lightning.
The Ember Howl roared victory. The Green Chorus answered with a disciplined counter-chant. The Silver Accord's harmonies threaded between them, cool and unbroken.
The arena breathed again.
Freya realized her hands were clenched in the fabric of her sleeves. Her pulse raced in time with the chants. She wasn't fighting, but her body didn't seem to understand the distinction. Every exchange on the floor sent phantom echoes through her muscles.
"This is insane," she murmured.
Sera laughed, eyes bright. "This is normal."
Another pair of squads entered. The crowd reset instantly, tension coiling fresh and tight. Around Freya, Verdant students leaned forward as one, voices already rising to meet the Green Chorus.
She let the sound wash through her.
The fanaticism unsettled her. The way victory and failure rippled through the stands like shared nerve endings. Identity worn openly and fiercely. It was intoxicating and terrifying in equal measure.
And beneath the unease, a sharper feeling burned.
Hunger.
Her gaze locked on the arena floor. On the fighters carving space with every step. On the way the crowd responded to each decisive moment, lifting their champions on pillars of sound.
I want to be there.
The thought arrived clean and undeniable.
The Green Chorus' chant pulsed through her chest again, steady as a heartbeat.
"Step. Shift. Break. Move."
Freya mouthed the words silently, eyes never leaving the fight.
The arena roared. The mascots roared louder. And as the League surged into motion around her, she felt the distance between the stands and the battlefield settle into something sharp and measurable.
Not a wall.
A path.
The arena barely had time to settle before the next announcement rang out.
"Aurelith Squad Three versus Pyros Squad Two."
The reaction was immediate.
Silver rose to its feet.
The Silver Accord's synchronized clap cut through the lingering noise like a blade. Their voices followed, smooth and unified.
"Align. Advance. Ascend."
Across the arena, Pyros answered with a violent swell of sound. The Ember Howl stomped in jagged rhythm, their roar rolling low and hungry.
"BURN THROUGH THEIR SOULS!!!"
Freya leaned forward as the squads entered.
She recognized Aurelith Squad Three instantly. Even without knowing their names, their formation announced them. Four figures moving in quiet lockstep. No wasted motion. No glances needed. Their spacing was exact, like points plotted on invisible lines.
"The 'Pending Divine Approval' Squad," Sera breathed beside her. "Watch this."
The Pyros team spread wide the moment the signal dropped, aggression written into every step. They surged forward in a red-streaked wave, contracts flaring bright and hot.
The 'Pending Divine Approval' Squad did not retreat.
They unfolded.
The Anchor planted at the center, guardian field blooming outward in a smooth, translucent arc that absorbed the first impact with a muted thud. The collision died against it like a wave breaking on stone.
Before the Pyros fighters could recoil, the Vector moved.
Her ribbon-like contract snapped through the air, catching her teammates and redirecting them in one seamless sweep. The squad rotated as a unit. Angles shifted. The battlefield tilted ninety degrees in a blink.
A murmur rippled through the crowd.
The Breaker struck.
It was a single, precise detonation. Not loud. Not flashy. Just perfectly timed. A Pyros fighter staggered, balance stolen in the space between heartbeats.
The Conductor's voice threaded through it all, too soft to reach the stands but visible in the way her team breathed. Every adjustment landed before the mistake could form. Every gap sealed the instant it appeared.
They moved like a single organism.
Pyros tried to answer with brute force. Flames surged. A heavy strike hammered against the Anchor's field. For a moment, the pressure mounted.
The Pending Divine Approval Squad compressed.
Then expanded.
The Vector redirected the force sideways. The Breaker stepped through the opening it created. Another clean hit. Another Pyros fighter stumbled out of formation.
The Ember Howl roared louder, trying to drown the precision in sheer volume.
"CRUSH THEM!"
But the rhythm on the floor never faltered. The Pending Divine Approval Squad flowed around the noise, untouched by it. Their movements were so clean it bordered on unsettling. No hesitation. No overlap. Just perfect division of purpose.
Freya felt her breath catch.
"That's…" she murmured.
"Disgusting?" Sera supplied, grinning. "Yeah."
The match ended with quiet efficiency. The final Pyros fighter found himself isolated, angles sealed off by invisible geometry. A controlled strike took his footing. He hit the ground hard.
Silence fell on the western stands.
Aurelith rose as one.
The Silver Accord applauded in perfect unison, their harmonized chant floating cool and victorious over the arena.
"One will. One strike."
The squad exited the field without celebration. Their formation never broke. Even in victory, they moved like a closed circuit.
Freya watched them go, something tight and electric coiling in her chest.
Harmony made visible.
The next matches rolled in quickly, the arena resetting with practiced speed. The tension never dipped. If anything, it sharpened. Victories stacked. Defeats landed heavy and fast.
Midway through the rotation, a new referee took center stage.
He was tall and impeccably uniformed, voice carrying easily as he announced the next pairing. At first, his cadence was flawless. Crisp. Neutral. Professional.
Then the chanting started early.
The Ember Howl launched into a preemptive barrage of ridicule aimed squarely at Verdant's incoming squad. The Green Chorus answered in steady counterpoint. Somewhere in the crossfire, the referee's next words tangled.
"Verdant Squad Fo—" he began, then faltered. "—Squad… uh… Verdant Virgins versus Pyros—"
A beat of stunned silence.
Then the arena exploded.
Verdant's section howled outrage. The Green Chorus pounced on the accidental nickname instantly.
"Verdant! Vigor! Verdant! Vigor!"
The referee's ears flushed a violent shade of red.
"My apologies," he said quickly. "Verdant Squad Four versus Pyros Squad Three."
But the damage was done.
The name stuck.
Every slight stumble in his later announcements only fed the frenzy. Aurelith became the "Aurelith Assholes" once, to thunderous disapproval from their section. Pyros were briefly christened the "Overcooked" before the referee caught himself mid-syllable, the aborted word hanging in the air like a spark.
The mascots devoured every slip.
Chants mutated in real time. New rhythms bloomed from accidental syllables. The arena's energy climbed another notch, laughter threading through the tension without dulling it.
Freya found herself laughing too, the sound surprising and sharp in her chest. Even as the matches grew fiercer, the absurdity of the moment cut through the pressure.
The League was brutal.
It was precise.
And somehow, in the cracks between victory and defeat, it was ridiculous too.
She leaned forward as the next squads took their places, the echo of synchronized applause and ragged roars still vibrating in her bones.
The arena breathed.
And the battles rolled on.