Hence, although Eldinor had the strongest Mage army in the continent, there was no saying how strong it could be if people like these could also be deployed. However, no ruler ever had managed to do so, as these elves were so individualists and proud that they would rather die than be commanded to do something they didn't want to.

When the two teams made their way to the ground, the constant screams of "LAN-THNOR" finally ended. Although the cheering stayed, there were no crowd favorites, so it was more in antic.i.p.ation of a good show.

Daneel had had some idea about how this match would go ,and he smiled with satisfaction when he saw it unfold in that exact way.

There was one major problem with having powerful individuals: the difficulty in making them act as a team.

There was almost no strategy except trying to obtain the ball from whoever held it by shooting powerful spells at them. They would either give it up, or injured fatally.

Although all the team members were wearing protective barriers, again, they wouldn't be able to save them from internal injuries.

Although some team members did pa.s.s, they only did so as a last resort, and anyone from Earth would know that this is not how team games were played.

Some a.n.a.lysts, on the other hand, were slightly puzzled.

This had been expected from Eldinor, as it was known to everyone that there was no teamwork between the powerful mages of the elite mage army of the Elves.

However, Axelor's mage army was supposed to focus more on teamwork, because of their lower overall power level.

There had already been a huge red flag when powerful mages had appeared out of nowhere to strengthen Axelor, but some had still held the belief that it could be some hidden trump card.

Yet, seeing their performance now, those who did so realized that this possibly couldn't be the case.

Each mage from Axelor was powerful in their own right, but except a few, the rest tried to win each point single-handedly.

Some onlookers even got the feeling that they were looking down on the other team, as this was evident from the looks they gave to those who managed to use spells to rid them of the ball.

These glances were hidden, but in a situation where hundreds of thousands of people were observing everything with zoomed-in vision, it didn't pa.s.s completely unnoticed.

Although some didn't understand the significance of this, those who had suspicions about the origin of these mages shook their heads.

They knew that Axelor was in cahoots with one of the Big 4, but they hadn't expected that it would be so despicable as to take its help in order to win a compet.i.tion which was supposed to be fought by those who belonged to the Kingdom.

They felt tempted to leak the secret and create a scandal, but the knowledge of the terrifying retribution that might befall them killed these thoughts in their infancy.

With the reinforcements, the overall power level of the Axelorian team was almost equal to that of the Elves.

However, it turned out that the elves had the advantage by 1 or 2 points, mainly because of the fact that they seemed to have had more practice with at least trying to pa.s.s effectively.

At the 50 minute mark, the score was 22-20, with Eldinor leading.

In the booth that belonged to the Kingdom of Axelor, the King was watching with a neutral expression.

"Sir-"

As the minister behind him started to speak, the King raised an arm suddenly and made him stop before making a necklace appear around his neck by touching a specific spot on his body.

After the minister closed his mouth, the King gestured him to come closer before squeezing the small yellow round pendant of the necklace and making it disappear again.

"Champion-level anti-eavesdropping trinket. The only one they lent to me. They want so much for me, but they give me useless trash mages whose only interest is to **** women. Speak."

After a pause, the minister spoke in a grave voice, "Sir, the…arrangement you asked for is complete."

This made a smile come to the King's face.

Yet, the smile turned into an eerie expression when he remembered what that 'arrangement' entailed.

It was as if there were rivers of blood reflected in his eyes, but this only made him laugh without abandon.

After a few seconds during which the minister tried not to get an expression that might cause his head to separate from his body, the King continued to watch the match.

Both of them stood there in silence and spoke nothing when they saw Eldinor take point after point while the Mages on their team seemed to be getting more and more frustrated.

"Too ent.i.tled. It's foolish to think that anyone who has been presented with the best opportunities since birth will work hard to follow some orders. I have no option but to take matters into my own hands. Deploy it in the next one where we risk losing."

After he said the last word, the bell rung, with the final score being 25-21.

As the first round came to an end with Eldinor's victory, Daneel smiled, as if everything was going according to his plan.

Yet, he felt a slight tingle in his spine, but it went away before he could even recognize it for what it was.