Five minutes before the scrimmage, the team walked onto the stage as instructed by the referee.

  "Ah, people..." Nia walked behind Kai while throwing nervous g the audience. Ihere were some people here now.

  Official scrimmages were publicly announced on a big s and they were free to watch, so they naturally piqued the curiosity of some people. Some of them were scouts fh school teams, searg for promising middle schoolers. Others were spies from middle schools, io research their rivals.

  It's safe to assume everything we show here today will be used against us in the scrimmage. Yuel thought. Some representatives from the Leopards were surely lurking in the audience right now. They'll record everything. Therefore, if possible, it was best to keep some of the team's tech a secret today.

  Unfortunately, Stratus wasly a powerhouse team that had the option to go easy. They'll have to go all-in from the very first battle to establish their footing. They've trained hard up to this point, but there was no telling where they stood pared to the petition. They’ll have to brace themselves for the worst and go hard from the start.

  "Oh, hey!" Lars excimed and ran to the edge of the stage. "It's July! What's , yo!?" He waved at the audience while shouting.

  I-Idiot, shush! Julia's ears burned. She threw a bunch of gnces around. Phew, nobody figured it was about her. She timidly raised a hand and waved back, then immediately retracted her.

  "That's Julia?" Yuel blinked. It had to be a mistake. From this distahe best way tnize Julia was by her long ponytail. However, the girl Lars was waving to didn't have one. She had a medium length straight hair. Judging by that, it couldn’t be Julia.

  "She did a makeover," Lars said. "I think the long ponytail was nice, but this look is more savage. She now looks like someone who totally gonna mop the floor with ya in a duel, haha."

  "I suppose," Yuel couldn't help but stare at Julia's uny new loht then, he felt intense bloodlust.

  Don't look at me, idiot.

  "Ugh," Yuel instinctively gnced aside. Yeah, this was Julia alright, no question about it. She was the only girl he knew who could transmit her murderous i like that across such a long distance.

  Did she e to spy on us? It looks like she's alone here. Yuel sed the audie there weren't any other familiar faces. It didn't look like anybody else from StormBlitz’s first-string was here.

  They probably sider this a low priority scrimmage. Yuel smiled wryly. Even though data gathering was extremely valuable for teams, there was the entire club to watch every single scrimmage. That’s the mentality StormBlitz operated on.

  For example, st year, StormBlitz's first string didn't bother ing to watch that many scrimmages. Instead, Aro freshman like Yuel to scout. The scouts were tasked with summarizing the key points of the matches and presenting them to the first-string, apanied by a repy of the scrimmage.

  Maybe some of StormBlitz's new recruits are here. Yuel examined every siudent, but there was no way to tell siheir school didn't have a uniform. Any of the middle schoolers here could be a spy from any middle school from the region.

  Howard and Ellen didn't even bother to e. I see how it is. Yuel got the message, loud and clear. As of yet, Howard wasn’t thinking much of Stratus. As far as he was ed, they were the weakest team in the region and the fact Yuel and Lars joined mattered little. We'll prove him wrong.

  I'm gd you made it. Julia smiled softly after making sure nobody saw her. You two deserve to py on the first-string. Now, let's see how high you pull that trainwreck of a team.

  "Ms. Julia, ma'am!" Philip boomed loudly outta nowhere with a salute.

  "Agh! Damn you," Julia shot the boy a gre. This idiot almost gave her a heart attack! "What do you want?"

  "It's my first time scouting a match, ma'am!" Philip excimed while shouting. "I'd be eternally grateful if you give me a pointer or two or three. What should I focus on? What kind of pys do I o analyze? What is the best angle for seeing all the details!?"

  "Pipe down," Julia barked. "You're drawing too much attention to us. Sit down."

  "Oh! I'm so terribly sorry, ma'am!" Philip sat down but tinued making a lot of noise.

  This guy... Julia sighed. Why did she have to babysit this kid? She only came here to watch Lars pying on his eam. Yet, that damn Howard had to make Philip tag along and help with the scouting. What a pain. Well, at least I dump most of the menial work on him. I'll just kick bad enjoy the match.

  "You got the scouting forms from Howard, right?" Julia asked.

  "Yes, ma'am! I got it right here!" Philip presehe paper iion. It had many fields to fill up about the teams. Most of it was dry information like listing the roles and csses of each team. However, some fields were more subjective and asked the scout to rate individual pyers by different categories. Namely, Deaking, Meical Skill, and Teamwork.

  "I uand the spots where you fill in csses and such," Philip said. "But, how am I to rate somebody's Deaking? I request aerial support, ma'am!"

  "Just use your head," Julia shrugged. "It doesn't really matter. It's all subjective. I just think of 5/10 as the 'average' level for middle schoolers."

  "Whoa, amazing! You have so much experiehat you tell who is the average and who is above!?"

  "... sure." I just kinda wing it. I'm sure Lars will get high scores. And, Yuel will be 1/10 ihing. I’m the one sg, so my rules. Hmph.

  "But, ma'am," Philip said. "I don't know how good a 5/10 pyer would be."

  "Hmm, take GG as your baseline. I'd say that guy is a ft 5/10 ihing. Don't tell him I said that, though."

  "Whoa, really? General Gregory is just a 5/10!? But, he's such a strong pyer!"

  Yeah, he’s ‘strong’ when he's showing off against freshmen like you. Julia shook her head. "Anyway, it's something like that. If you need a reference for somebody who is 10/10, o look far than at yours truly."

  "Eeeeh?" Philip gave her a dubious look. "You sure about that, ma'am?"

  "Huuuuh? You doubt me, boy?"

  "N-Not at all, ma'am!"

  "So, write it down. I'm a 10/10. GG is 5/10, Now, you got yourself a useful scale."

  "Y-Yes, ma'am! I uand, ma'am! I'll do my best, ma'am!"

  "You like spamming the word 'ma'am', don't you."

  "Definitely, ma'am!"

  This brat... Julia sighed. Well, at least she could dump all the b work on him and trate och. Who khat having undercssmen is so ve? Last year, Julia and the other freshmen had to do all sorts of menial work. However, this year, she was in charge! It felt great!

  Okay, now let's see how far they'll get with this team. Julia returned her attention to the stage. Howard said Taurus isn't a big fish. So, if Lars’s eam is any good, this game should be a . If they lose, it’ll be the fu and saddest thing ever. So, you better win this one, you hear? I want to be the oo crush you.

  Both teams assembled oage. Stratus only had six representatives in total, whereas Taurus came at them with a brigade of 16 people. Only five were going to py from each side, but the sheer differen numbers was overwhelming. It’s like aire army was about to wage war against a puny squad.

  "We're aire ptoon and you're barely a squad." That's the message they veyed by bringing all these people on stage. They asserted dominance via numbers. The more pyers the club housed, the more likely it was to found talented pyers among their ranks. So, just by being a big club, they had an overwhelming advantage over a club that barely had enough pyers to form a team.

  But, in the end, it'll be our best pyers vs. their best. Yuel reasoned. I'm sure Lars and I are better than most of their pyers. And, maybe Kai is too. If so, we definitely win.

  "Captains, please step forward," the referee instructed.

  Alright, here goes. Kai took a deep breath and stepped forth.

  From the other side of the stage, the Hulk was walking toward her. No, seriously. It was the Hulk! In the flesh! The guy was huge. He was like a golem wearing human skin.

  "Let's have a good ohe giant stretched his big palm with a friendly smile. trary to his intimidating structure, he seemed like a nice guy.

  "Yeah, good luck," Kai regained her posure and shook the giant’s hand. Phew, this went smoother than expected. These guys seem friendly.

  But, as soon as she thought that, her ears caught a mog cackle ing from the side of the stage. A boy from Taurus was ughing along with his pals and pointing fingers in Kai's dire.

  "Check this out, haha," the boy ughed. "They got a chick for a captain! What a joke!"

  "Pft, haha," another dumbass burst out in ughter. "I heard this team is ro, but that's a whole new level of me!"

  These bastards. Kai shot them a gre.

  "Ohhh, so scawy~! Help me, mommy!" the target of her gre preteo shake, then tio ugh even harder than before.

  "Hey!” Kai called out. “You fuck-"

  "Cut it out," the golem captain ordered his men. His smile vanished without a trace. It was repced with pursed lips and a sharp gre.

  "Haha, but doncha think it's hirious, cap?" the hooligan tinued spouting bullcrap. "It's the joke of the year, haha! Hey, Jaiden, you agree, right?" He randomly addressed one of the younger-looking boys in the group, probably a junior.

  "Yeah, it’s definitely sad," the junior, Jaiden, replied. However, uhe other cag idiots, there was no humor in his tone. heless, his eyes remained locked on Kai and his gre regnant with obvious malice.

  What's with this one? He gives me the yikers. Kai shuddered for a moment. Uhe other idiots over there, this guy was more way more hostile despite being much quieter. What's up with that?

  "Stratus is a joke team firmed," Jaide on. "There's no need for our seniors to waste time here. Let me and my pals take care of this."

  "Phaha!" the main hooligan smacked Jaiden on the shoulder. "ry, fam! But, no dice. We gonhe ones pying this ory agai year, kid. Haha!"

  "Got it," Jaiden nodded but his gaze still lingered on Kai for a few long moments. His vi didn't waver in the slightest. He was dead set on crossing swords with Kai.

  "What you staring at?" Kai addressed the pack of idiots. "Never seen a girl py video games? , I'll take you all on, fuckers!"

  "Woohoo, scawy!" the hooligan didn't give a shit. “Catch me in Bot, girlie. I’mma whoop yo ass real good.”

  "Bruce, enough," the giant captain ordered.

  "H-Haha, I'm just kidding, just kidding," Bruce retreated a little. The rest of the pack also quieted down and dropped the subject, save for one guy.

  "You gonna ‘take us on’’? Try me," Jaiden stood his groue the captain's threat. "I'll mop the floor with you in five seds."

  "Oh, you sure sound fident," Kai's face twitched. "1v1 me. I'm Challenger in Duel."

  "Duel rank means nothing," Jaiden stated matter-of-factly. "e at me in a real matd I'll end your whole career, girl."

  "Jaiden, I said enough," the golem captain warned again, his toerhan before.

  "Tch, whatever," Jaiden shook his head and jumped off the stage. "Well, if I’m not pying, may as well take a stroll or something. This game gonna be a s firmed."

  "Yeah, because it gonna be EZPZ," Kai retorted. "We gonna mop the floor with Taurus the entire day."

  “Yeah, right,” Jaiden shrugged and tioward the exit. He stopped for a moment to examihe rest of Stratus’s lineup. Apparently, something caught his attention, but the i was short-lived and he soo.

  “Hey, Jai! Wait up!” Two boys chased after Jaiden and vanished from the hall as well.

  “Who the hell hired all these s?” Kai sneered. “Is this the circus or something?”

  "Please, enough," the golem captain turo Kai now. "I apologize for these guys. They're just a bit nervous because it's their first official match."

  "Tch, whatever," Kai shrugged and turned away. The giant captain didn't do anything wrong, so she didn't feel like taking it out on him. She'll just have to teach these all bastards a real lesson.

  That fucker said he’s pying in Bht? Perfect. Kai o herself. Rather than throwing baseless words at these scumbags, she'll prove her worth in battle. She'll end their pitiful lives!

  "Are both sides doh their trash-talking?" the referee asked with an amused smile. "Okay, both teams are warned. If you guys keep this up, I'll disqualify you. You might eve banned from the regionals if you act like this, so watch your words.”

  "I'm sorry," the golem captain apologized again. "I'll keep my team in check. It won't happen again."

  "My bad," Kai gnced aside. "I think the nerves are getting to me."

  "Let's just have a nid scrimmage, shall we?" the referee tinued. "Alright, both teams take their seats now."

  With that, the tension on stage dispersed. Yet, Kai could still hear that bastard, Bruce, ughing behind her back.

  I'll make this fucker regret he was born. Kai promised.

  And so, after the "friendly" greet, the first game was about to begin!

  DarkestCymore