Freenhorn team like the Valkyries, it was clear that fag the Leopards, the regional champions, was a recipe for disaster. It wasn't going to be a petition at all.

  Fortunately, the Leopards had a big club, so there were members from all levels of skill. Thanks to that, Fernando was able te an improvised “sed-string” team for the Valkyries to tackle. He promised to pose a team that matched the Valkyries’ level.

  Unfortunately, this arra was met with resistance. "Why should we py against the sed-string?" Fiona demanded. "Let us start with their first-string. They will be our oppos at the regionals, so we have to uand the current skill gap between us."

  The girl strongly insisted on that point. What's worse, Karen and elia also got gung-ho oopic, fully supp Fiona.

  Obviously, Kei argued against this proposal as much as she could. However, Fiona refused to budge on this point. And, since Kei's beefy sary ractically in the hands of that rich girl, she had to promise.

  And so, in the first round, the Valkyries went up against the main force of the regional champions. Irospect, Kei should have worked harder to prevent that, even at the risk of hurting her sary.

  As expected, the game was a disaster. The Leopards domihe flow of the game from start to end.

  To make things worse, they dragged it out more than necessary in a very bad taste. Apparently, this sadistic strategy was the signature pystyle of their shot-caller.

  They could’ve ed up the game early to teach Fiona and Co. a quid effit lesson. Instead, they chose t things out to the point of bullying.

  Naturally, Fernando scolded the hooligans after the game but it was too te. The damage was already done.

  This one drawn-out game sucked all the fighting spirit out of the Valkyries. No matter how hard Kei and Fiona tried to revitalize the team, it proved impossible to recover the initial vigor.

  For the fames, the Valkyries pyed against the sed-string Fernando prepared. It was clear he was very fiving with his assessment of the Valkyries' skill level. He chose some of the least experienced pupils from the club, all freshmen and juniors.

  heless, these were still pupils who trained under Fernando. They proved themselves formidable oppos.

  On his end, Fernando did a fine job pig pyers who should’ve posed a fair challeo the Valkyries. As, the Valkyries underperformed that day, gravely so. As a result, what should’ve been an even matded up being a one-sided steamroll.

  Out of all the members, only Fiona had the necessary mental fortitude to recover from the crushi of the first game. Karen also coped detly, but she obviously tried too hard to prove herself in the following games, leading to unnecessary overextensions that cost her dearly.

  The other members crashed and burned much harder than that, though. For example, elia became even more irritable than usual and got into unfavorable fights all the time. Needless to say, she died many times that day.

  Meanwhile, Andria’s motivation vanished without a trace, so she just kind of floated out there like a jellyfish without trying to achieve anything. And stly, Lua pyed even more timidly than she usually did, too afraid to it any mistakes.

  A dysfunal team like that had no hope of ever defeating anybody from the Leopards, not even the sed or third string. In the end, the whole thing turned into a bitter memory. Instead of giving the team a productive first experien the petitive stage, the whole thing turned into a nightmare that was likely haunting them to this day.

  That artially my fault. Kei admitted. It's the first time I'm dealing with a team that has zero petitive experience. I didn't properly take that into at.

  Generally, the pupils who made it into the first-string in the Aces already came with prior petitive experience from middle school. As such, it was far less likely for the team to break down like this during their first petitive game. Not to mention, the Aces were always iop 3 of the region, so there was never a case where they had to fa oppo who was far outside their league.

  pared to all that, the Valkyries were a pletely different team. It was formed only retly and its members were rgely newbies or former casuals. They were lightyears away from the top dogs of the region. Kei should have taken all of that into at when she decided to scrim with the Leopards this early.

  And, now Fiona wants to scrim with StormBlitz... Kei had reservations about this idea. In fact, she was teically against it. But, she also had to sider the awkward circumstances of the team.

  The Valkyries became an official team after the school year had already begun. At that point, it was already too te tister it as another official team for the regionals. Under normal circumstahey would have been forced to skip this year.

  Frankly? Kei would’ve had no problem with that arra. Training a middle school team was a ype of challenge for her, so she was fih postponing the real petition by a year until she got used to the job.

  But, Fiona wasn't having any of it. She was dead set on joining the petition ASAP. And, since Kei's new beefy sary was rgely at Fiona's mercy, there was no choice but to fight for the noble’s cause.

  And so, the two of them worked hard together to persuade the authorities. They also recruited Fernando for the cause, who gdly helped because he wao see the petition flourish.

  Though, holy, out of all of them, Fiona was the most persuasive. She came prepared to the meetings with charismatic speeches, even leveraging her reputation as the "La Princess".

  "I believe my participation is in your is as well," Fiona cimed. "To my humble uanding, Cssmancers is not sidered a popur sport in this region at present. However, if I participate at the regionals, then news reporters will surely jump on the opportunity to cover the games, and the esports as a whole."

  This wasn't the type ument a regur middle schooler would be able to make. Heck, even an adult normally wouldn’t think of such a sophisticated angle of attack.

  Truly, Fiona La was a force to be reed with. If she were to participate in petitive debating, she would’ve surely quered that field as well.

  In the end, the authorities bent the knee a Fiona have her way. And so, the Valkyries turned into an official team that had the right to pete at this year's regionals.

  That was a good start, but there was still one problem remaining. Namely, the fact the team was pletely new and had never before arranged an official scrim with another school.

  To qualify for the regionals, a team had to py at least three official scrims at Proter. The responsibility ing such scrims fell upoeams and their respective schools.

  In order to get this tedious topic out of the , most sade these arras at the very start of the year. What's more, they usually arranged scrims against the same schools every year as a veradition.

  As such, by the time the Valkyries joihe petition, all their petitors were already booked. And, since most schools around here didn't regard their Cssmancers clubs too highly, they weren’t too motivated to go out of their way to put in ara effort.

  And so, Kei and Fiona applied to multiple schools for an arra, only to get turned down. As hard as the La Priried, she couldn't find a good angle of attack against these indifferent teachers. She even spoke directly with the principals but that didn’t help either. There was nothing worse than pleading with somebody who didn't care about the topi the slightest.

  It was clear that all these "club advisors" only cared about doing the bare minimum for the protocol, which dictated that a club needed only three scrims to qualify for the regionals. Doing any more than that was too troublesome for them, apparently.

  And so, many schools turhe Valkyries down. Even when Fiona spoke so passionately and vingly as she applied for a scrim against Stratus, the principal of Skyline Junih didn't even want to listen to her. It was clear the scharded Stratus as nothing but a burden.

  Holy, that wasn't too surprising giveerrible reputation Stratus used to have. It was sidered by far the worst team in the region. It hasn’t won a single game in years.

  Of course, this year’s Stratus was a pletely differe, but only those who followed the results of the scrims could tell. As far as the school board was ed, Stratus was still a bck stain on the school's public image for now.

  In the end, the iations were cut short and Fiona had to walk away defeated once again. It felt she had a great i in challenging Stratus in particur but she dehe allegations.

  Anyway, in a simir fashion, most schools turned Kei and Fiona down. It proved obnoxiously difficult te scrims as a newer, especially because the team registered so te.

  But of course, Fernando had no problem arranging them a scrim with the Leopards. That's how the Valkyries' first oppos ended up being her than the regional champions, as silly as it sounded.

  Sometime ter, the muticipated scrim between StormBlitz and the Leopards went down. It was a csh of titans, a potential preview of the finals.

  The matded with StormBlitz's defeat. But, it wasn’t just any regur defeat. For them, it was almost like losing the tour before it even started. Surely, they were salty and frustrated to no end.

  Taking advantage of their beaten-up state, Fiona used this opportunity to apply for a scrim against StormBlitz. Her reasoning was that a beaten-down StormBlitz would gdly wele the opportunity to get a few “easy wins” against a newbie team.

  Fighting against the region’s sed-best so soon wasly ideal, but Kei tentatively approved the idea. After all, the Valkyries survived getting trashed by the Leopards, so things couldn’t get any worse at that point, right?

  And so, Fiona tacted the school. Instead of dodging her request with lousy reasoning as most schools did, the club advisor at Riverstock Junih willingly arranged a meeting with the club’s captain. It was great to see an advisor for once who had the club’s best is in mie not being knowledgeable about Cssmancers.

  StormBlitz’s club was running on a strict budget as most clubs in the region, but at least it had the school’s respect. It robably thanks to the impressive legacy of the team. After all, at one point in time, it was StormBlitz who was sidered the stro in the region.

  Fiona’s master pn was to coax StormBlitz’s captain into the scrim arra, but it proved too easy. The boy agreed almost immediately and even brought up ving arguments for the club advisor and the principal.

  "Unfortunately, we couldn't beat the Leopards i scrim," the captain said. "This means we now have o on our record, so it's in our best is to challenge more teams and improve our seeding."

  The boy presented his argument in a very tactful way, but it was all too easy to tell what he really meant there: “This greenhorn team is no match for us, so it’s going to be a free win.”

  Seriously, were smartass kids like Fiona and Howard on nowadays in middle school? They were far too crafty for their own good.

  In the end, the club advisor approved of Fiona’s appeal and so did the principal. And so, the Valkyries’ scrimmage was scheduled.

  sidering how poorly the first scrim went down, this wasly the most desirable arra. The Valkyries were pretty much throwing themselves at the top dogs oer another.

  I’d like them to build up fidence by pying a weaker team first, but nobody has accepted the challenge so far…

  In the end, Kei had no choice but to go along with this unfavorable arra. All she could do now was to put the team through hellish training until this big match.

  But, to not put a damper oeam’s spirits, Kei and Fiona agreed to not reveal the o the others just yet. It was best to let time heal the team’s wounds. The Valkyries first et the horrors of the first scrim in order to move on with their lives.

  So, until the time is right, the team will keep training without stressing about the immi scrimmage.

  But, time passed by in a blink of awo weeks ter, it was time for the big reveal...

  DarkestCymore