Chapter 195: Chaotic Battle

Aurora looked at the screen with her mouth open and then looked at Rupert, noticing that he was stiffly holding a fruit near his mouth.

Elder Kernen was just giving an oddly amused smile.

If asked what kind of battle she expected, Aurora would answer a bloody battle of rivals.

One of those where former allies faced each other for different objectives and gave everything to try to win.

A battle very different from the one that was happening right now.

Watching how the bats were flying everywhere, attacking any student or Alice, creating chaos together with her companions, resisting most of the A-Rank students of Cernunnos Academy, Aurora didn’t know what to say.

She understood the reason why the vampire bats chased the young fighter.

Those creatures were very territorial and when a spear of Érica’s was shot into the cave, it caused them to become enraged and that’s why all the bats chased the young fighter.

She could also understand Gregorio, Niels, and Frank.

Gregorio was Rank A, but so was Alvis with his rhino and as for Niels and Frank, the former was fast and focused on stealth while Frank was good at defense.

The muscular bear tamer and the giant spider, together with Alvis, did not perform a ‘stampede’, but a very well-planned chase.

Trying to keep those three students from splitting up and that was possible because they were six against three... The beasts could chase them, but the beast tamers could act as pincers to keep it on the right track.

In the end, the one who failed to understand was Alice.

Who strangely decided to use a strange form that, if Aurora was honest, was quite frightening when chasing another.

Alice’s control with her darkness was high enough to create the legs of a fantasy spider with such realism that it scared onlookers.

Giving the impression that inside the body of this beautiful young woman was a grotesque spider.

When in reality there was only a gluttonous one.

“...”

There was another silence as from the forest Nicole appeared chasing after the young healer who was holding a Giant Chelonia.

That butterfly flying with her companion seemed slightly upset to see that Nicole was chasing her tamer, but it was when she saw that there were hundreds and hundreds of bats in a chaotic battle that she couldn’t stand it.

“What the hell!” shouted Jaffar, maneuvering with his night scorpion as he tried to dodge Alice’s attacks and, at the same time, the vampire bats.

In the sky, Edward and Daniel, along with their partner Jane, were still fighting.

That meant that in the sky an S-rank battle was going on, on the ground he had to protect himself from the vampire bats that were attacking with large numbers and as if that wasn’t enough there was Alice.

It was true that Gregorio, Frank, Niels, and Alice were a smaller group than the one present from Cernunnos Academy, but because the ‘glutton’ was an S-Rank, it generated a lot of pressure.

“Don’t do it... Don’t...”

*Bang*

Before the tamer could control her Giant Chelonia from releasing a toxic cloud, a gunshot echoed from afar without knowing where it came from.

The next thing they could see was the young tamer lady being hit in such a way that her personal barrier was broken and the tournament barrier had to take her out.

A single shot knocked the young B-Rank lady down and the worst part was that the fall of that tamer caused the Quelonia to go crazy.

One could tell that their relationship ran deep, and that sometimes was good, while other times it was dangerous.

Leslie exploited that relationship by eliminating the healer.

Being a poison-focused A-Rank, that butterfly released a huge toxic cloud that caused the bats to drop and spread to where the battle was.

“Oh, shit...”

That was Jaffar’s mutter as he saw the cloud approaching and before he could flee, his scorpion’s leg was engulfed in a black mass.

Alice had spread the shadow to the ground and around dozens of meters from her, creating a black swamp from which hands reached out to trap all her enemies.

As if that wasn’t enough, Gregorio, Niels, and Frank stayed.

“Come on, stay and play!” shouted Niels with an amused laugh, attacking the muscular bear swiftly.

Gregorio stopped the rhino and Alvis, leaving Frank to face the giant spider and the tamer.

“Damn lunatics!” shouted Jaffar in a tragic tone, but that young man had already pulled out his machine gun and was firing with a grin.

As if it wasn’t chaotic enough, Nicole pushed the Giant Chelonia even more, trying to get it closer to the center of everything, and then, holding her breath, charged towards Alvis, starting a battle.

When the Komodo Dragon tried to pull his companion out of the toxic cloud, a huge sphere of ice stopped him.

Érica, who had hidden in the mountains, met Clémentine and while one created ice spheres, the other was used as a catapult to launch it.

However, they stayed outside, trying to get their enemies swallowed by the butterfly’s poison.

It was friendly fire, but it wasn’t as if they could do much in the face of the poison that didn’t differentiate friend from foe.

They also didn’t have a healer, and that was because the healer of the Cernunnos Academy group was far away and Ruby, who was a healer, had met Rachael.

Of course, the Hero Academy didn’t have healers either because Vanessa was far away along with Alexey and Marc, who were fighting some magical beasts without companions.

No matter how much Daniel and Jane would try to help their team, Edward, with an evil grin, was stopping them, even risking injuries.

Stopping acting so serious and having fun for the first time.

“Ugh... Shit.”

*Bang*

Jaffar, who was cursing, got distracted long enough and Leslie took him down with a big shot to the chest.

Aurora, who was watching as a spectator, noticed Leslie crouched on a mountain, reloading her weapon and eyeing her targets with a sniper’s coolness.

That shot quite possibly would have killed Jaffar in a real battle, but now it took him out of the tournament.

“My body, it’s getting heavy... Does anyone feel their body heavy?” Niels asked as his body fell silent.

The Giant Chelonia’s poison was very lethal and toxic, damaging the lungs and throat, so those symptoms were very different.

And that was because the Komodo Dragon had paralyzed him with the poison.

He had allowed himself to be scratched by the beast’s claws and was now suffering the consequences.

Before Alice, who had hidden in her cocoon, could catch him and pull him away with her arm, the Komodo Dragon pounced and with its mouth crushed him.

Niels’ safety barrier was activated and disappeared, leaving the Komodo Dragon wagging its tail in rage as it had no prey, no food.

The students of both academies, despite wearing their respective armor and combat suits, turned purple trying to hold on, to breathe, all while fighting.

Slowly, they began to weaken, as did the creatures.

Only Alice hiding in her cocoon and the Komodo Dragon, who seemed to have some kind of resistance to poisons, moved around hunting the students or trying to get out.

But because of Clémentine, Érica, and the others, who were stopping the reinforcements and their attempts to escape, they were slowly weakening.

The first creature to fall was the muscular bear that could not take it anymore and because of its sudden movements and disappeared when the barrier was activated to protect it.

The tamer was a psionic, who created barriers and tried to help him, but in vain.

Then the others followed him, slowly falling.

Several students had been lost, but the balance was tipping in favor of the Hero Academy’s victory... All because of a chaotic battle.

******

When victory was declared for the Hero Academy, all the students from both academies were teleported to the same room.

There was silence, and they all looked at each other.

“Sorry. It’s not that she scares easily, but she gets angry when someone tries to hurt me,” mumbled the young lady whose companion was the Giant Chelonia.

Annie truly was sorry that she was present at the tournament let it be known that she was good as a tamer, and because of her deep bond, some said she was very excellent.

However, she now caused most of the A-Ranks to be defeated, which caused them to eventually lose.

The students of the Hero Academy were silent.

Although some students, like Érica managed to cause a mess at first, they actually had trouble elsewhere.

The tamed magical beasts might not be completely intelligent, but they surpassed the intelligence of those that were wild.

They attacked not guided by their instinct, but rather showed the training they had received.

The first person to speak was Daniel, who let out a chuckle and then laughed in amusement.

“This was the most chaotic and amazing battle I’ve ever had,” Daniel stated helplessly.

He was usually serious and seemed cold, so everyone was surprised when he laughed out loud.

“I still don’t understand how it all ended this way,” Edward muttered with a smile.

Their fight started serious and solemn, both of them were wanting to use all their cards, but when all that chaos broke out, it was hard to keep the atmosphere serious and more so when Jaffar and Niels were screaming like crazy.

The fight went from something serious to something that was done for fun and more because students from both academies were left in that toxic cloud.

“It was all Érica’s fault!” shouted the fighter who had carried the swarm of bats and when Érica gave an innocent look, the fighter revealed. “Putting up an ice barrier was a low move! And the tin knight was knocked down.”

His voice sounded angry, but his smile said otherwise.

“Who are you calling a tin knight?! You bastard, you abandoned me!” the knight shouted, and in a tragic tone, he muttered. “You would never understand what it feels like to be looked at by hundreds of eyes... Even my armor couldn’t resist their fangs.”

With that, he pointed to his stomach where it was pierced by teeth.

“I really didn’t mean to abandon you. But it was terrifying and if I didn’t break the barrier, I would have surely ended up like you,” replied the fighter as innocently as he could and with a smile, he pointed at Érica and added. “That’s why she’s to blame.”

“Come to think of it, I would have tried to freeze your feet... I regret not doing it.” Érica said with an evil grin.

The others laughed at that comment, and the mood changed completely.

“Bats are nothing. From them, at least you can escape,” Jaffar said, looking at Alice seriously.

“You guys suffered it too, huh... Well, hearing that makes me feel good that I couldn’t run away from the stampede,” Niels muttered, smiling in amusement.

Conversations erupted from both sides and some laughter broke out all around.

Talking about Edward’s seriousness in taking the fights without giving mercy to anyone or the lethality of Jane, who had hunted down three Hero Academy students.

Lucas was one of those who ended up ‘disqualified’ by just a white spot... Being disqualified and only seeing a white spot was terrifying in itself.

The tigress was that scary.

They appreciated how dangerous the Komodo Dragon was, how terrifying Alice was, and, of course, Leslie, who took down several students as a sniper.

The Silent Eagle and sneak attacks, Rachael and her fire magic.

Large-scale battles like these had flashy and dazzling sides, while elsewhere on a smaller scale one found battles that were also excellent.

The A-ranks were the ones who usually created the most chaos in battle, but that didn’t mean that the B-ranks didn’t do their thing.

Although this semi-final ended faster than expected because of the chaotic and uncontrolled battle, it was fun for everyone.

That was the conclusion of both academies.

It was true that some Cernunnos Academy students were disappointed, but that didn’t mean they were too upset or irritated.

The first and second prizes were too attractive, but everyone gave their best in this match.

There were mistakes and not just on Annie’s part, whose Quelonia unleashed a cloud of venom, but one could speak of mistakes elsewhere.

An obvious example was the group that was ambushed by Érica, they tried to assassinate the bear and steal the weapon without maintaining adequate security of their surroundings.

It was for such a reason that, instead of thinking about defeat, most of them let loose joking with their companions and their rivals.

The Cernunnos Academy had to define the third place by facing the Elementalist Academy.

On the other hand, the other academies also had few challenges and duels.

The three places were the main ones because there were prizes, but the random duels were kept by the authorities to give some fun before and after the main clashes.

The third-place prize was one hundred million... Basically, five million for each of the students who took part in the tournament, from the students who fought or those who participated in the extra tournaments.

Feeling bitter about losing would solve nothing and so instead of being disappointed or complaining, the students of Cernunnos Academy relaxed and planned for their future.

That was the ability of an academy that had gone far enough and had very strict ideals when it came to their friendship with their companions, turning them into professionals.

Moreover, those who won were not other academies they did not know, but were their former allies whose strength they knew.

“I think the winners should pay for a big group dinner. You know how consolation prize,” Jaffar said and when he was looked at by everyone, he gave a smile and announced. “Sure, if they have time for the finals tomorrow.”

“Oh, that’s a good idea. We can also give a tip or two, can’t we, leader?” Alvis asked, looking at Daniel, who was stroking Jane’s fur.

“Yes, supporting our former allies is better than supporting strangers,” Daniel replied in a serious tone and looked at Edward, waiting for the answer.

The next day, the finals would unfold and they didn’t know what the Hero Academy students would have to do.

Thanks to the barrier, they weren’t hurt, but they were tired.

That meant that maybe Edward would give the order for his students to rest or order them to watch the Merlin Academy fights to prepare for the long-awaited final.

Merlin Academy was not an easy opponent and, just like Cernunnos Academy, was one of the biggest heavyweights.

Against such opponents, it was very hard to say that they had a guaranteed victory even when they used a card like Alice.

After all, their S-Rank leader had proven to be a summoner with two beasts and, as if that wasn’t enough, their A-Rank group was completely fearsome.

Edward looked at the students, and after thinking about it, nodded.

“We’ll take all the help you can give... And of course, we’ll pay for dinner,” Edward said, and noticing that Alice was looking at him with sparkling eyes, he announced. “An excellent dinner.”

It wasn’t bad to rest and relax once in a while.