Thanks to the presence of girls in our team, we received several cheers as well. It was unfortunate for the ogling male members of the audience that our girls were already attached. They had no chance with either Lily or Sheila.

Not that the opposing team cared, being comprised mostly of girls. Only Gray Winters stood out as the sole guy in their lineup, and he could have any girl he wanted. He didn't seem interested in our girls, or the girls in his own team.

Our guys, on the other hand…well, were reined in by their girls. Fortunately, neither Lily nor Sheila needed to warn them. Their guys were unconditionally faithful to them. I actually felt envious of the couples.

Who knew how far I would have progressed with Alicia if I didn't stupidly let her die…?

"!!!"

The match had already begun, and I was nearly punished when two girls from the back of s.e.xton Academy unleashed a volley of plasma at me. To be more accurate, one girl did, and she was covered by her buddy, who wielded dual pistols reminiscent of the late Alicia. My team scattered and dispersed to avoid getting hit by their heavy weapon.

"Yue Chu and I will take care of the two girls at the back and eliminate their ranged support. We'll leave the other three to you guys!"

Lily dove forward decisively, with Dong Fang Yue Chu covering her almost naturally. He raised his hands and unleashed a torrent of Pure Yang flames that washed over the superheated plasma that the girl with the heavy weapon unleashed upon them. The other girl fired relentlessly with her dual pistols to keep the couple away, but Lily raised her s.h.i.+eld and withstood the solid shots. I could see her flinching from the tremendous impacts, but fortunately the magical bullets dispersed against her s.h.i.+eld without much effects.

While the two closed in on the two girls at the back, Craig and Sheila – having attained an intimate understanding of each other (and I wasn't just talking about their romantic relations.h.i.+p) – had already wordlessly charged toward the other two girls, who had lunged forward to meet them in combat. One of the girls wielded dual daggers and she clashed with Sheila, who knocked her short weapons away with a twirl of her spear. Deflecting another dagger with her s.h.i.+eld, she thrust her spear forward, but the short, blond girl nimbly twisted her body out of the way and evaded her strike. She then spun around and retaliated with another slash that Sheila parried with her s.h.i.+eld.

Beside the two of them, Craig engaged the final swordswoman in a furious exchange of blades. He twirled his crimson spear about, deflecting her strikes with consummate ease, and then countered with a riposte that nearly took her head off. The girl ducked and parried with her s.h.i.+eld, but Craig's blow was so powerful that it skidded past the metal and grazed her cheek, leaving a trail of blood.

"My bad. I shouldn't have gone for the face."

"You…!" the girl's demeanor turned an angry purple at what she took to be an insult from the cavalier Craig and she slashed at him with her sword. Violet mana glowed before arcing forward explosively at the spearman.

Craig merely deflected the spell with an effortless swing of his spear, and then he thrust it forward in retaliation, forcing her back. Despite her rage, the girl was an excellent swordswoman. She knocked his spear aside before stabbing toward his midriff.

Clang!

The two of them sprang apart, but Craig maintained his posture and lowered his spear. I knew he must be readying his deadly strike that could penetrate any defenses. That meant the swordswoman's s.h.i.+eld would be useless.

Credit to her, she instinctively recognized Craig's spell and she immediately backed away as far as she could. Despite its devastating power, Craig's curse was not absolute or omnipresent. There was a range limitation to it, and as long as his opponent could withdraw far enough, it was nothing more than a little stinger.

"Hmm…" Craig's face twisted into a sneer. "I guess I shouldn't be expecting an easy victory."

While the two of them clashed again, Sheila was still locked in combat with her dagger-wielding opponent beside them. The two girls danced to a deadly rhythm of blades, sparks of silver and red flying to their beat every time they tangled. They exchanged moves in an almost silent but furious manner, the only melody the shrill cry produced whenever their weapons clashed against each other. And when they finally broke apart, it was almost as if they did so reluctantly.

"I understand how you feel, but I don't think either of us has the luxury of worrying about our teammates."

"!!!"

I was forced to retreat several steps when Gray Winters struck at me with his sword, his pristine blade carving up a lovely arc that would have neatly cleaved me in half. Even with the boundary field on to prevent accidental deaths, I still didn't want to risk such a painful injury.

"Not going to draw your swords?" Gray asked pleasantly. There was no sign of mockery or scorn in his tone. He wasn't being condescending, just curious. But it didn't matter to him whether I drew my swords or not. He was confident of beating me either way.

It would just be a matter of time.

Glancing at Hei Yue and Bai Ri (yeah, I had to change their names back because I completely forgot them and accidentally called them Gan Jiang and Mo Ye the entire time – I blame myself for watching too much Fate/Stay Night and idolizing Archer), which were still sheathed, I toyed with the idea, then shook my head. Instead, I summoned Gemini and surged forward to meet Gray in a battle of blades. Parrying his strike, I twisted around and thrust one sword from the side, but he neatly parried it before he countered with a stab of his own.

I knocked his sword away with Castor, but he angled his sword so impressively that it actually shattered the black blade. Staggering backward, I blocked his next strike with Pollux, but a twist from his part neatly cleaved the white blade in two.

"…huff…"

Looked like I had no choice. Sighing, I drew Hei Yue and Bai Ri to block Gray's next graceful lunge before I could get myself eliminated. A burst of flames at the corner of my eye alerted me to Dong Fang Yue Chu's explosive display of pyrotechnics, but I couldn't afford to be distracted. Gray's sword came singing, and I was lucky to escape with nothing more than a cut on my shoulder.

This guy was almost as skilled as Kureha and Charles.

"You must be really confident if you think you can get away with not paying attention to our battle," Gray remarked as he slashed at me. I parried his sword with Bai Ri, and then countered with Hei Yue, but he danced out of my range before I could land a hit. I watched as he used something like Ghost Steps, his figure seemingly multiplying into several illusory forms before he attacked. I sighed as I blocked his next attacks and wondered which of my Constellation spirits would fare the best against such an elite opponent.

I couldn't carelessly summon any Constellation spirit or Gray would just cut him down instantly. While there wouldn't be much of a backlash, each summoning spell was still a ma.s.sive expenditure of mana, and I couldn't afford to throw my guys at the meat grinder. Not to mention, I would never treat my beloved Constellation spirits like expendable ammunition, flinging them callously at the enemy in hopes that I would drown him in their blood.

What, you think I was Commander Kubrik Chenkov of the Valhallan Ice Warriors? h.e.l.l, no. I ain't gonna sacrifice my troops to earn a b.l.o.o.d.y victory. Furthermore, these Constellation spirits were made of my own mana, my own essence, and were a part of me as much as my own limbs and organs were. You weren't going to carelessly discard your own arm, even if you could grow it back, would you (I know some readers claim they would, but they obviously haven't fought in real battles or been in such situations before, and believe me, I have).

"Hmm? Aren't you a summoner? Why aren't you summoning anything?"

Gray frowned as he slashed at me, but I crossed both swords to block his downward strike. My knees buckled from the impact, but I firmly held my ground.

"What would you like me to summon?" I asked sarcastically.

"How would I know? You're the one who knows your own Soul Beasts the best!" Even though Gray threw a retort, his expression remained completely unchanged. He maintained a carefree smile as we traded another couple of blows.

"True." I shrugged as I deflected his sword to the side. Gray raised an eyebrow.

"But why is a summoner like you pretending to me a swordsman?"

"Pretending?" I feigned hurt. "Are my sword skills so awful that I can't pa.s.s off as a swordsman?"

"Ah, I mean no offense. Your swordsmans.h.i.+p is impressive." Gray quickly amended his words and smiled. "I'm actually amazed that you can hold out against me with nothing but swordsmans.h.i.+p for this long."

His illusory figures seemed to surround me as he continued to make use of his Ghost Steps to confound my sight. Unfortunately for him, my gla.s.ses canceled out any attempt to befuddle me with illusion spells, and I was able to see the right one. Hence, when Gray slashed at me, I parried his sword once more.

"Not bad…you can tell which of me is real."

This was why I wear gla.s.ses. Well, one of the many reasons, but there were benefits to wearing gla.s.ses. Too bad the readers who dropped the story for the sole reason of the protagonist wearing gla.s.ses in the far future (seriously?) would never get to see this, but I couldn't care less about them, especially since they left almost three hundred chapters ago.

"Not going to launch a sneak attack on me, using a secret weapon?" Gray asked as he knocked me back.

"Dude…you know I'm a summoner and not an a.s.sa.s.sin, right?" I couldn't help but retort dryly. Moreover I wasn't jealous of his smoldering good looks, nor did I care about the limelight or whatever nonsense like a shallow, one-dimensional character who existed solely to be an antagonist did. "At best I'm an Archer. Like you pointed out, I'm not even qualified to belong to the Saber cla.s.s."

"Fair enough. If you aren't going to employ any tricks, then I'm going to end this. Sword Technique! Celestial Dragon Whirlwind!"

He revolved about, his sword turning into a tornado of blades that slashed at me from all directions. Taking a deep breath, I summoned the chibi version of Black Tortoise. In the face of the terrifying tornado, I stood my ground and froze the entire s.p.a.ce around me.

"Absolute Zero."

"!!!"

Gray retreated almost immediately when he sensed the danger. And a good thing he did too, for his whirlwind froze solid. He slid across the ice, but his fancy footwork allowed him to regain his balance and prevented him from falling over. He crouched down and pointed his sword at me, generating more wind currents.

"Dragon Roar!"

I reversed the grip on Bai Ri and pointed the white blade downward. Infusing it with Black Tortoise's icy mana, I erected a glacial wall in front of me. The hurricane crashed heavily into my icy barrier and turned into frost.

"Heh…impressive." Gray lowered his sword and readied for another spell. "But I don't believe I can't break through…"

He never got to finish his sentence.

Craig's spear burst through his chest, sending a fountain of blood spraying into the air. The red fluids immediately froze when they came into range of my area of effect spell. Spluttering, Gray dropped his sword and clutched at the spearhead that had erupted from his chest, blood dribbling from both his mouth and flowing profusely from his wound.

It was a good thing we were in the boundary field, or he would have died from that. As it was, it was nothing a healing spell couldn't fix, but he would be out for a couple of days at least.

"You…you backstabbed me…took me by surprise from behind…"

"Don't be naïve," Craig told him coldly. "Did you forget that this is supposed to be a team battle? Did you get carried away with your duel against Richard?"

"Well…admittedly, if it was an individual one-against-one fight, it would be extremely difficult for me to defeat you," I confessed. Perhaps I was trying to justify the sneak attack from my teammate. "And I would be happy to have a one-versus-one rematch against you in the future if you're not satisfied with this defeat. However, Craig is correct. This is a team battle. That's why I was keeping an eye on my teammates. It wasn't because I was being distracted, nor was I disrespecting you by not paying any attention. But I need to keep in mind my teammates' situations and coordinate with them accordingly. I hope you won't hold this against us."

Gray closed his eyes briefly for a few seconds, and then he finally shook his head. Slumping on the floor, he smiled.

"No, you are correct. I have forgotten that this is a team battle and had neglected my teammates. It is only natural that we lost. I'll have to learn from this mistake and make sure I won't repeat it in future. You're right…we should be fighting as a team, and not get too carried away with our individual battles."

d.a.m.n…of course he was going to learn from this mistake. I prayed hard that we wouldn't run into Gray's team during the tournament. He was one h.e.l.l of an opponent. Those sword techniques of his were so difficult to counter.

"Well fought," I told him, even as the announcer declared it our victory. Crouching next to him, I tried to help him stem the bleeding by freezing his wounds, but fortunately I could see the healers hurrying toward the stage.

Best to leave Gray to them.