novelraw Chapter 121: Enemies on a Narrow Path
Chapter 121: Enemies on a Narrow Path
Even though he had bumped into the two prodigies from Sovereign High in such a bizarre way and learned about the existence of The Glacier Seven, Fly's mindset remained completely unaffected.
After all, Fly firmly believed that until the match actually started, talking about winning or losing was entirely premature.
Whether it was Beixuan, Jade Flute, or that Immortal Venerable Frostface who supposedly led The Glacier Seven... he just needed to fight them, end of story.
Just like that, Mr. Carter led Fly and the rest of the team to the competitors' waiting room.
Although this stadium was on the smaller side, it was fully equipped with sofas, massage chairs, refrigerators, drinks, and all sorts of snacks.
In fact, it was even more comprehensive and thoughtfully furnished than the waiting area back at the Star City Stadium.
"This is nothing," Mr. Carter couldn't help but say. "If you ever get the chance to compete in Sovereign City, you'll see what true luxury looks like. So, give it your all, Fly!"
At the end of the day, The Jade State League was an annual event. Barring any unforeseen circumstances, David Carter would continue to be Fly's homeroom teacher. Whenever they traveled for a competition, as their homeroom teacher, he was practically guaranteed a spot as one of the guiding instructors.
Here’s hoping that next year, the year after that, and the year after that, Sovereign City will be chosen as the host city for The JSL.
Fly sat down on the sofa and simply closed his eyes to rest, mentally preparing himself for the upcoming matches.
Twenty minutes later, a staff member walked into the waiting room. "Hello, could your team captain please come over to draw lots?"
'Emperor' Valerius and the others immediately turned to look at Fly in unison. "Captain, after you."
"Gotta draw lots for this too?" Fly asked, standing up from the sofa.
"Even though it's a round-robin tournament, drawing lots is still needed to determine the match order," Mr. Carter explained.
"Fair enough," Fly nodded. He then followed the staff member out to the arena.
Since it was merely the group stages with relatively low viewership, the entire process was kept simple and straightforward.
However, the moment Fly stepped onto the arena floor, he felt a sudden wave of hostility.
"You again." The person glaring daggers at him was none other than Spencer Sinclair from Grand River High.
After receiving treatment from the doctors in the infirmary, he had regained consciousness.
But, his cheeks were still red and swollen, and he looked to be in pretty poor spirits.
"You and those two girls... you're all just Star City trash after all!" Spencer spat angrily. The very first thing he wanted to do upon waking up was to go cause trouble for those two girls, but his guiding instructor had stopped him.
Seeing Fly again now, he couldn't help but redirect all of his pent-up fury onto him.
If they hadn't been in public, surrounded by a good number of security guards, he would have loved nothing more than to rush over and punch Fly right in the face.
"Have you ever heard of a certain saying?" Fly wasn't the least bit annoyed. He just spoke in a calm, even tone.
"What saying?"
"A saint sees a saint in everyone, while a demon sees only demons." Fly met Spencer's gaze directly. His tone remained perfectly placid, yet his aura was infinitely more grounded and imposing than Spencer's.
"You...!!!" But this time, the moment Spencer opened his mouth, he winced as a sharp pain shot through his swollen cheek.
"Regardless of whatever private grudges you two might have, this is the competition venue. Please mind your image," a staff member noticed the commotion, leaned in to whisper a reminder, and pointed toward the other side.
Several cameras were pointed directly at them.
While the pre-match drawing of lots wasn't officially part of the broadcast, the TV station was still recording the entire process to ensure fairness.
"Just you wait!" Spencer glared viciously at Fly before turning around to draw his lot.
"Anytime," Fly smiled.
Because it was a single round-robin tournament, the drawing used the rotation method. Position one was fixed, then teams one and two were placed on the left side, while the remaining teams were arranged from bottom to top on the right side to form the matchups.
In other words, number one would face number four, and number two would face number three. After that, they would rotate in a counter-clockwise order: number one against number three, and finally number one against number two, completing the cycle.
Spencer was the first to step up. He reached into the box and pulled out a small ball.
Next was Fly, followed by the captains from the other two Martial Academies.
Fly took this opportunity to observe the other two.
One was a girl dressed in a tight, black athletic outfit. She had a very curvy figure, and while her looks weren't exactly drop-dead gorgeous, she still radiated a youthful, capable energy.
The other was a chubby guy with completely average looks.
"Contestants, please open the small balls in your hands and check your number slips," the staff member requested. Fly and the others popped open their plastic balls.
"May I ask who drew number one?"
"Me." Fly held up his slip of paper, which had the Arabic numeral '1' printed squarely on it.
"Perfect." The moment Spencer heard that Fly had drawn number one, he quickly rushed over to him and waved his own number slip in Fly's face.
The slip clearly displayed the number 4!
This meant that Star City High's very first match would be against Grand River High!
"Talk about enemies on a narrow path."
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"Listen closely. I am Spencer Sinclair, the absolute strongest freshman Beast Warrior in Grand River City. You, and those two bitches... you better wash your necks and prepare to be slaughtered!"
Spencer arrogantly spat his vicious threat at Fly.
"I'll see you in the arena." Fly remained entirely unbothered, completely brushing off Spencer's existence.
"You!"
If looks could kill, Spencer would have already sliced Fly into a thousand pieces by now.
"Fine! Good! We'll see each other in the arena!"
With that, Spencer spun on his heel and stormed off in a rage.
Fly also turned around and made his way back to Star City High's waiting room.
"How'd the drawing go?" Mr. Carter asked.
"It's just a matter of match order. Beating up one team first is the same as beating up another," 'Emperor' Valerius calmly picked up the coffee on the table and took a sip.
He didn't care much about the drawing results.
Regardless, with their strength, they would definitely sweep their opponents 3-0 and easily advance.
There was absolutely no need to even consider any tiebreaker matches.
"I got number one," Fly stated softly.
"Why number one?" Mr. Carter was slightly surprised.
"What's wrong with number one?" Jett asked from the side, confused.
"The group round-robin uses a rotation method. Since we're number one, our match order means we'll face number four first, followed by the match between number two and number three," Mr. Carter explained. "But right after that, we'll have to fight the number three team and the number two team back-to-back. The schedule is going to be pretty tight."
"And since our strategy is to have Fly act as the vanguard, fighting continuous battles like that will definitely be a test of his stamina."
As he spoke, Mr. Carter shifted his gaze toward Fly.
He naturally didn't doubt Fly's strength, but he wasn't entirely sure about Fly's stamina reserves. After all, no matter how powerful a Beast Warrior was, it was hard to perform well when exhausted.
"Which school is team number four?" 'Emperor' Valerius took another sip of coffee and asked curiously.
"Grand River High," Fly answered immediately.
"Grand River High?" 'Emperor' Valerius furrowed his brows slightly. "Isn't that the school of the guy who was harassing the Jade Flute Fairy?"
"Exactly," Fly nodded, then added with a casual nonchalance, "Looks like they're going to be the first ones to suffer."
"It doesn't matter. They're going to be eliminated anyway." Valerius wore an equally relaxed expression.
What a joke.
Their goal this time was the championship!
A mere group stage.
Was absolutely nothing to them!
Soon after, guided by the staff, Fly and his team arrived at the arena floor.
"There's barely anyone here." Jett looked around. Only the front-row seats were somewhat full. From the middle rows onward, the crowd thinned out significantly, and the back rows were basically completely empty.
Visually, the stadium's seats were probably only half full.
"Even though I knew the group stages wouldn't get much attention, seeing it like this is still a bit disappointing," Jett couldn't help but say.
Star City's Freshman Invitational had been packed to the brim, with tickets practically impossible to get.
Jett also noticed that even the TV crews were doing their best to focus their cameras on the denser clusters of spectators when filming crowd reactions, trying to make the broadcast look as lively and visually appealing as possible.
"By the way, tomorrow's matches shouldn't be held here anymore, right?" Jett thought for a moment and asked.
As long as they advanced today, they would become one of the top eight teams in The Jade State League.
When the powerhouse schools gathered, the audience would definitely be massive.
Fly, Genevieve, and 'Emperor' Valerius didn't really care about the number of spectators. They were here to win matches, not put on a show.
Soon, the four contestants from Grand River High also arrived at the arena floor.
Following the referee's instructions, both sides lined up neatly in a row, waiting for the commentators to introduce them to the audience.
Regardless of its scale, the group stage was still a part of The Jade State League, and it would be broadcasted on TV.
Even if there weren't many people in the live audience, there was still a sizable number of viewers tuning in online to watch the match.
Handling the commentary for this event were the hosts from Sycamore City's Martial Arts Channel.
It was the standard male-female duo.
They looked to be in their early thirties and were dressed quite formally.
"Hello everyone, I'm your commentator for The Jade State League, Winston Hayes."
"And hi everyone, I'm Vera."
When the cameras panned to them, they smoothly introduced themselves.
"What an exciting moment. The annual Jade State League is finally kicking off today," Winston Hayes smiled at his co-host, Vera. "Vera, which school are you rooting for?"
"As you know, I hail from Sun-Peak City myself, so emotionally, I naturally hope Sun-Peak High can advance from these group stages," Vera stated openly.
As the city with the most lacking educational resources in the entire Jade State, Sun-Peak City hadn't advanced to the top eight in ten years.
For several consecutive years, they had been swiftly eliminated 3-0 by other schools.
For them, The Jade State League was merely an opportunity to see the outside world.
"But in Martial Arts competitions, strength is everything. Personal feelings are, quite frankly, irrelevant."
Vera's words carried a hint of bitterness.
"Star City and Obsidian City have slightly higher investments in education."
"But over the last two or three years, aside from that Beast Warrior named Preston York who managed to lead his team out of the group stages, the performance of Star City's other batches hasn't been great."
"Obsidian City is in a similar boat."
"So relatively speaking, looking at historical records, I'm leaning a bit more toward Grand River High."
Winston Hayes nodded politely but didn't state his own stance right away.
Before hosting today's group stages, he had made sure to do his homework, specifically reviewing the match footage from the Freshman Invitationals of all four cities.
There wasn't much to say about Sun-Peak City.
The severe lack of educational resources meant that even if a genius Beast Warrior appeared there, it would be difficult to properly nurture them.
Obsidian City didn't have any students that particularly caught his eye, either.
"Instead, I'd say Star City High's Fly has quite an impressive aptitude for Martial Arts."
"Not only does he possess a rare Mythical Species Beast Totem, but his ability to adapt on the fly is also exceptional."
"During the finals of the Star City Freshman Invitational, he even managed to evade an explosion that completely obliterated the arena."
"You could say his future is incredibly promising."
Before the group stage officially started, there was still some equipment that needed final tuning.
To keep the broadcast from going dead, Winston Hayes and Vera naturally transitioned into analyzing the strength of the contestants from each school.
"Does that mean Star City High actually has a shot at breaking out of the pack this year?" Vera said, pleasantly surprised.
Although she had only been working at the TV station for a few years, she had personally witnessed Lysander Thorne's outstanding brilliance back in the day.
Back then, absolutely no one favored Star City High, writing them off as a total underdog.
Furthermore, their luck had been genuinely terrible, running into the heavy championship favorites Sovereign High right in the semifinals.
In the pre-match predictions, every single expert had unanimously agreed that Sovereign High would easily sweep Star City High 4-0.
But to everyone's absolute shock, after losing three consecutive rounds, Lysander Thorne actually managed a spectacular 1v4 sweep, achieving an unprecedented comeback and leading Star City High into the finals for the first time in school history!
This event had once dominated the front pages of the Jade State news.
It became the biggest trending topic of that year.
And Lysander Thorne shot to fame because of it.
Hearing Winston Hayes appraise Fly like this now, Vera instantly thought back to that young man from years ago.
But who would have thought, Winston Hayes actually shook his head.
"Fly's talent is undeniably outstanding, but I'm afraid he hasn't quite reached the same dominating level that Lysander Thorne had back then."
"Then who is?" Vera asked curiously.
"Spencer Sinclair from Grand River High," Winston Hayes replied. "Not only is his Beast Totem a Mythical Species, but in terms of sheer strength, he is leaps and bounds ahead of everyone else in Grand River City."
"During the Grand River City Freshman Invitational, he didn't lose a single match."
"What's even more terrifying is that every single time he struck, it was an instant kill!"
Winston Hayes said, his tone brimming with excitement.
"Fly might be strong, but during Star City's Freshman Invitational, when he fought Skaar and Gideon King, his victories were far from easy."
"So, between Fly and Spencer Sinclair, it's really hard to say who is stronger."
"True," Vera nodded in agreement. "Speaking of which, the very first match of the group stages today is Star City High versus Grand River High."
"Looks like Fly and Spencer Sinclair are about to face off head-to-head."
Vera paused for a moment before continuing, "We hope the contestants on both sides can show their unique styles, perform at their best level, and deliver an incredible match for our audience!"
Right at that moment, a staff member on the sidelines suddenly gave a hand signal, indicating that the equipment tuning was complete. The group stage officially commenced.
The TV broadcast also switched from Winston and Vera over to the arena.
Winston Hayes immediately began his commentary. "First, walking toward us, we have the contestants from Star City High."
"Their team name is..."
"The Avengers. Haha, now that is quite an interesting name."
"First up is their captain, Fly..."