abcnovels
Chapter 24: First Match
Chapter 24: First Match
Chapter 24: First Match
After returning to his seat, Shye glanced at the huge holographic screen where the class numbers were already replaced with the captains' surnames.
"Hmm...So our first match is against 8th-rank Peter Valesworth's class huh? There's still some time left before our match..."
Although their class was up against a fairly strong class, Shye wasn't bothered. He knew how strong he is right now so they would probably be able to hold their own against strong opponents.
In addition, he saw his two classmates, Anthony and Shirley, multiple times inside the beginner adventurer zone seemingly training together for this very day.
Shye pondered whether he should go and scout out potential future party members or watch the other matches in his own course first.
In the end, he decided to focus on their own course first. They wouldn't need to collaborate with other courses until their third year anyway so he should focus on their class ranking first.
It didn't take long before the first match started. To his surprise, the first class to go up on stage was Instructor Brodley's class.
Just like Shye's class, there were three top 20 rankers in Cleo's class. The 19th rank, Jason Wood, 14th-rank Cleo Pollard, and their captain, 11th rank, Leonardo Regulus.
They were up against the 12th-rank Morris Hensley's class and they also had three top twenty rankers.
The crowd was fired up because the two classes seemed to be equal in overall strength so everyone was looking forward to which class would win.
Instructor Brodley led his class towards the center of the huge stage where the other class was already waiting.
Although the tournament format seemed simple, it is actually not that simple.
If a class chooses to fight an overwhelmingly strong opponent, their class might lose two in a row if everyone was injured so as a captain, it was better to just give up your first fight if you know that your class cannot win.
If you do, then you may get a chance to continuously win in the lower bracket and secure a higher rank for your class.
If you choose to fight, however, although there will always be a chance for your class to win, you will most likely be spending a lot of manpower to do so.
Because of this, although your class might win the first fight, you might lose consecutively due to spending too much manpower on the first fight.
This concept makes the tournament harder than it looks, especially for the class captains because they will be the ones to decide whether they will take a tactical loss or risk it all for a chance to win.
Of course, if your class is very strong then you can choose to just destroy everyone.
However, it doesn't seem like that concept is applicable in this current matchup since they were both very close in strength and no one will run away from a winnable battle.
The captains of both classes stared at each other fiercely, they were both ready to fight.
"Begin!"
After a few more minutes, the first 50 vs 50 class skirmish of the warrior course began.
Some outsiders applied for a pass earlier in the month so they were allowed to watch the preliminary battles.
In addition to the outsiders, there were also students from other courses who were watching the matches with the intention of looking for future party members.
Lastly, there were fourth-year students who were watching the matches closely to scout for potential prospects.
The crowd was very enthusiastic and lively as they watched the two warrior classes clash.
*PAH* *PAH* *PAH* *PAH* *PAH* *PAH* *PAH* *PAH*
"AAAGHKK!!"
Unfortunately for the weaker students, they were the first ones to get eliminated and due to this, these students had no chance to get picked up by the top-tier societies anymore.
Although the battle between the ordinary students of each class was intense, everyone was watching the battle of the rankers.
19th-rank vs 17th-rank
14th-rank vs 15th rank
11th-rank captain vs 12th-rank captain.
The three matches were intense but unfortunately for Instructor Brodley's class, there was quite a gap between the 19th-rank and 17th-rank.
It was only a matter of time before 19th-rank Jason Wood was defeated by his opponent.
Seeing the disadvantageous developments, 11th-rank captain Leonardo Regulus was annoyed.
"Tch! Why am I so unlucky to have such a weakling in my class...Seems like I have to show them my true strength now or we will be forced to use more manpower than necessary..."
Leonardo Regulus thought to himself. He then looked at his opponent and said.
"I would like to play with you a bit longer but unfortunately, I still need my classmates to perform at their best so I'm gonna end you now."
After hearing what Leonardo said, 12th-ranked captain Morris Hensley was incredibly angry.
"Huh?! What the hell are you saying? Aren't you struggling right now against me? Just accept defeat and maybe you can win your next match!"
Leonardo merely smirked at his response though. As their swords clashed again, Morris' pupils constricted after feeling Leonardo's strength.
"Kuaaahkk!! Y-You were hiding your strength?"
The crowd went wild as Leonardo sent Morris flying.
Leonardo didn't even bother to reply to Morris, he just directly sent Morris' sword flying before chopping him with full strength on the right side of his neck.
"C-Captain!!"
Seeing that their captain was knocked out, the whole class panicked and their morale was low.
They started to lose their individual battles but unfortunately for them, since their captain was knocked out, he couldn't call out the surrender.
As a result, the whole class including the 17th-rank and 15th-ranked were knocked unconscious.
It seems like this class would have no chance to win any more matches.
This specific match highlighted how important it is for the captain to remain in command. If they were too weak, they would get knocked out like this and drag the whole class down.
"Enough! The match is over! Regulus' class wins and moves on!"