"Look look, it’s that team that’s ranked as weeds-level but still boasts about becoming champion."

"Haha, this is really a bunch of comedians."

The other teams took note of team Holy Dawn as soon as they entered the Arena of Fire and Blood.

"There are really a lot of people outside. It’s a good thing contestant teams have a tunnel reserved for them. At least we don’t have to line up to come in and watch the tournament, and we don’t need to buy tickets either," Stingham said with a proud face, combing his hair at the same time.

"Eh?"

He suddenly noticed Ayrin holding many fruits and eating them, so he couldn’t stop himself from asking, "Ayrin, where did your fruits come from? I clearly remember you didn’t have any outside, how come you’re gorging yourself now?"

"I got them at the entrance over there. I asked them, they supply fruits free of charge in the stands reserved for teams participating in the tournament," Ayrin explained. Then he handed over some fruits in front of Stingham. "Stingham, do you want to eat them? The peaches and longan fruits are both particularly sweet. Also, the oranges here seemed to be juicier than the ones back in school."

"As if I want any. Ayrin, you’re a pig. We just ate breakfast, you’re already gorging yourself on fruits." Stingham rolled his eyes and said he didn’t want anything, but after a bit, he looked at Ayrin seemingly enjoying himself very much as he ate, so he couldn’t stop himself and kicked Ayrin. "Let me taste one."

"Eh, it’s really not bad. Give me another couple." Maybe, when you eat something with someone who had a particularly big appetite, your own appetite would become bigger as well. You would feel that food was particularly tasty. After just a few bites of the peach Ayrin had given him, he immediately felt that it tasted very good. He was immediately in high spirits.

"It’s free anyway. I’ll go and grab a lot." Ayrin immediately went and hugged a great bunch. "Moss, Chris, Rinloran, you guys dig in too."

"Is it really tasty?"

"It seems like it’s really pretty good."

"Haha, I’ll go and grab some more."

Everyone in team Holy Dawn started gorging themselves on fruits. Ayrin had already emptied several big pots of free fruits at the entrance.

"Look at that group of guys!"

"Look look!"

"Haha! Did they come to participate in the tournament or are they on a trip for fruits? These people are really too funny."

"Did this guy never eat a fruit or what. It’s like he’s scrambling to snatch them. I already saw him eat more than a dozen peaches already, can he still keep eating?"

Team Mountain Kings saw this scene just moments after they sat in the stands. They suddenly couldn’t repress their loud laughter.

…

Half an hour before the start of the tournament, the Arena of Fire and Blood was almost packed full already.

In the funnel-shaped stands surrounding the protruding field, the atmosphere was ardent enough it seemed about to ignite.

Apart from the contestants standing on the field, anyone seemed especially insignificant in such an atmosphere.

"The referee is here!"

"The guys from Dragon Breath Academy and Sea God Academy are here! Looks like the tournament is about to begin!"

All of a sudden, what made all the spectators even more excited was, following after two referees, the two teams separately climbed the stairs and reached the field.

One of them was the team Ayrin saw the previous day, team Sea God, wearing deep blue.

The other team wore bronze-colored uniforms, with pretty patterns shaped like slanted red clouds on both their backs and their chests.

"That’s Dragon Breath Academy?" Ayrin didn’t have the slightest sense of shame. He felt that he should eat since he liked to eat. He’d already eaten two big pots of free fruits in succession. His attention presently gathered on this team.

At the same time, the simple introduction he read about this team in Breith Magazine surfaced in his mind.

Monster-level team. Fought its way into the nationals for twelve years in succession, reaching the top four eight times out of the twelve. Three times champions. They were truly an indisputable team of kings.

There had been so many teams crowded together the previous day, so many people, so these strong teams hadn’t seemed especially stunning. But now, when such a powerful team appeared by itself, even Ayrin could feel a mighty aura hard to put into words radiating from this team.

"Dragon Breath Academy is the first academy on Doraster in the literal sense. It was founded by the concerted efforts of the arcane masters who’d participated in the War of the Dragons back in the days. That’s why, Dragon Breath Academy not only has the greatest amount of powerful arcane skills out of all the academies, they even have an amount of taboo skills that’s hard to imagine. Every year, there are powerhouses who can use taboo-level skills appearing in their team.

Sophia watched this team clothed in bronze. She was also shaking. She whispered, "Also, they say the overall strength of this particular team can be ranked third among all the Dragon Breath Academy’s teams in the past fifty past years. Outsiders are guessing that, among the five main members of their team, there are four members with dragon blood."

"Four dragon bloodlines?" Ayrin couldn’t help but turn around and glance at Stingham.

"Do you see that boy with long curly hair, the tallest one? He’s the captain of team Dragon Breath, Morgan. The power of his fire skills is especially powerful, so outsiders speculate that he must have some fire dragon blood."

"That sturdy boy with short silver-gray hair is Gaskin, nicknamed the ‘Heavy-Fisted King.’ Outsiders suspect him of having yellow dragon blood and barbarian blood."

"That little girl with white hair, who looks very dainty. She’s ‘Storm Ice’ Audrey. Outsiders suspect her of having ice dragon blood. She was called the strongest girl in the national tournament last year."

"The strongest girl in the tournament?" Ayrin’s eyes roamed from the dark-red haired Morgan, to the silver-gray haired Gaskin, and fell on this Audrey Sophia spoke of.

From far away, Audrey seemed especially petite with her height at a mere meter fifty something. But imperceptibly, she radiated the aura of one filled with pride even among a crowd of heroes.

Ayrin couldn’t help but turn his head around and look at Chris.

Chris’ shoulders moved faintly at this time. A faint tightening sound rose from the bandages around her left arm.

"The two sides poised for battle are Dragon Breath Academy and Sea God Academy!"

"The first contestant for Sea God Academy is…"

Before Sophia had time to introduce them one by one to Ayrin, they could hear the very straightforward voice of a referee declaring that the match was about to take place.

"This referee is Kleis?"

Sophia’s face was filled with shock the moment this referee spoke. "This is one of the team captains in the Office of Special Affairs. He’s also an arcane master who was once champion of the national tournament!"

"The main referee’s especially powerful this time?"

Ayrin was faintly startled. Before he could think about anything else, this referee’s voice was already resonating in the entire arena: "The first contestant for Sea God Academy is Ligiel. The first contestant for Dragon Breath Academy is Audrey. The two team members please step forward."

"The first contestant for Dragon Breath Academy is that Audrey we spoke of?"

Ayrin’s eyes once again fell on team Dragon Breath, and the girl standing among them who seemed petite and delicate, yet who watched the entire arena with arrogance.

…

Compared to the stands boiling with utter enthusiasm, the preparation area where team Dragon Breath stood seemed particularly quiet in contrast.

When the referee Kleis declared it was time for contestants on both sides to take to the field, team Dragon Breath’s captain, the handsome Morgan with his meter ninety and his dark-red flame-like hair said in a soft voice, "Audrey, trading blows with them won’t bring you any improvement, other than their captain Joyce. So we’ll have you settle this whole match by yourself."

"Mhm."

Audrey, her skin so white it seemed translucent, merely nodded in all serenity. Then she broke away from the team and slowly made her way to the center of the field.

"To put Audrey first… You’re not even giving your substitutes any opportunity. Dragon Breath Academy, what on earth is your plan this year?" Watching Audrey come forward, the black-robed, grave-looking referee Kleis faintly narrowed his eyes.

"We’ll give it our all!" Joyce, Sea God Academy’s captain, breathed in deeply. He only said a few words to all his teammates. Compared to Dragon Breath Academy’s serenity and confidence, only a bitter, desperate atmosphere lingered on Sea God Academy’s side.

"Ligiel’s nicknamed the ‘Pirate Captain.’ His style of fighting is particularly ferocious. He’s proficient in a few materialization skills, and also his most distinct arcane skill is called ‘Pirate Sail.’ He can erect several big slanted sails around his opponent while consuming very few arcane particles. He’ll jump between these huge sails, and his opponent will have trouble distinguishing his figure. Plus, when he sprints down the slanted surface of the sails, he’s much faster than usual. In the meantime, although his opponent can also run up the huge sails, they’ll have a lot of trouble getting used to fighting on the huge sails. If you use arcane skills to tear the sails, you’ll consume a lot more arcane particles than he’d spend to make another sail. Too bad, he’s facing an indisputable main member of team Dragon Breath like Audrey this time," the experienced and knowledgeable Sophia explained to team Holy Dawn and team Agate Lake on her own volition.

As she spoke, Audrey and Ligiel already occupied their spots and indicated to referee Kleis that they were ready.

Kleis firmly waved down the black flag he held in his hand, shouting loudly at the same time, "The match begins!"

"Pirate Sail!"

His hair a total mess, his dry and skinny face a dark purple, looking somewhat like a pirate, Ligiel was already in motion the moment Kleis announced the start of the match.

He swiftly skimmed backward, and immediately invoked the arcane skill he was more proficient in.

The arcane particles gushing from his hands transformed into a greenish-yellow fog in the air. A huge yellow sail more than thirty meters tall stood in front of him, at an angle close to seventy degrees.

"Pirate Sail!"

"Pirate Sail!"

"Pirate Sail!" …

Along with his rapid chants, more than a dozen huge, slanted sails erected themselves all over the entire field, causing the whole arena to look like a huge ship about to set sails on a distant journey.

Ligiel’s figure hid behind one of the sails. Audrey’s attack didn’t come immediately. He calmed down a little.

After taking in a fresh breath of air, his figure shifted and dashed on a sail, about to rush to the top of this sail.

But just at this moment, his expression changed abruptly.

He saw Audrey precisely on top of the sail he was on, looking down at him from above.

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