CHAPTER 88: The "Odd Trio" and the "Loser Trio"(1)
Sarina, Rowan, and Damon stood in the designated pre-match staging zone. True to academy protocol, they were granted a ten-minute window to synchronize their coordination and establish a tactical formation.
"Before we start, how about we get to know about each other's elements." Damon stated calmly.
Sarina, maintaining her characteristic poise, met his gaze without missing a beat. "I use water and wind."
Damon turned his attention to Rowan.
Rowan flinched slightly under the Class S student's steady gaze before clearing his throat.
"Ugh... Fire chop, water chop, wind chop, frost chop."
"Chop?" Damon asked calmly.
"I mean yeah."
"I have never heard any element called chop."
"Well it's that—"
"Leave it, that's just the way he names his spells." Sarina smoothly intervened, her sharp eyes flicking back to Damon.
"What about you?"
Damon held her gaze for a second
"I'm an Omni-elementer. I utilize all five elements."
"An Omni-elementer?" Sarina raised a brow.
"Yeah." Damon confirmed evenly.
"Hmm... I have heard being an omni-elementer is rare, Must have been difficult to learn about all five elements."
"Well... It's just about understanding the foundational basics."
Rowan whipped his head back and forth between the two of them, looking like he was watching a high-speed tennis match.
Damon took a measured breath, breaking the brief silence.
"Alright, then. Let's decide our tactical roles."
High above the floor on the observation platform, Instructors Vanika and Valeria watched the trio through the panoramic glass.
"Well, look at that," Vanika remarked, leaning against the railing. "This is genuinely the first randomized freshman team I've seen that is actually communicating calmly instead of yelling at each other."
Valeria narrowed her eyes, staring silently down at the group.
'That girl... and that squinty kid.'
She felt a sudden spike of urge to look forward to their matche, perhaps because this group had two students of her own class that she was interested in.
"I heard that, that axe wielding student is in your class. I had seen him in areana battle of entrance exam."
Vanika said with a curious smile.
"What's he like in the classroom??"
"Oh, you mean the squinty one," Valeria sighed, resting her chin in her hand.
"Squinty?"
"Yes, because he spends half his lectures squinting like he's trying to decode ancient text from across the room," Valeria muttered. "To put it bluntly, he's a rather terrible student. He rarely pays attention, and it's painfully obvious that whatever I teach evaporates the second it hits his skull. On top of that, he straight-up vanished for ten whole days."
Valeria paused, her gaze drifting down to focus directly on Rowan's posture.
"And yet... he's deeply unusual. Remember the Rune Island incident? Word is he landed the final blow on the dark mage. But right after, on the train ride back, he hyperventilated and went completely off the grid for a week and a half."
She rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "There's something fundamentally out with him compared to the rest of the freshman crop."
"Is it because he fights with an axe rather then a wand?" Vanika asked.
"The axe is unconventional, sure, but it's more about his behaviour than his combat style."
"Attention, next match on deck..." The automated announcement system boomed across the cavernous hall.
"Freshman Group 42 versus Repeater Group 3."
"Here we go..."
"Oh, look! It's the turn of the loser trio!"
"Go get 'em, losers! Bring home another win!"
A section of the senior repeaters cheered enthusiastically for Group 3 as the names echoed across the venue.
Down in the staging area, Sarina, Rowan, and Damon stepped through the shimmering threshold as they were summoned directly into the simulation combat arena.
Waiting for them on the opposite side was Repeater Group 3—the self-same triad, the upperclassmen had affectionately been calling the "loser trio."
"The 'loser trio'?" Rowan whispered, blinking in confusion. "Why would their own peers call them that?"
"Focus on the match, not on their nicknames," Sarina replied flatly.
"Fall into the formation we agreed upon."
Damon instructed, his eyes scanning the opposing side.
In a matter of seconds, the three freshmen dropped into position: Rowan anchored the front line as the primary vanguard, Sarina took up the mid-range support slot just behind him, and Damon positioned himself slightly off-flank, maintaining a wide field of vision to track both of his teammates.
Across the arena, however, their opponents looked anything but formal.
One of the repeaters was casually stretching his hamstrings as if he were warming up for a light jog.
The second repeater was sitting cross-legged on the ground, tapping away at his Aether Chrono-Link watch—likely checking messages or playing a quick mini-game.
The third repeater was leaning against an imaginary wall, letting out a long, theatrical yawn.
'Are those really... our opponents?' Rowan thought, the fierce determination draining from his face as his jaw went slack. None of them even remotely look like they're here for a graded evaluation.
"Alright, competitors..." the automated voice echoed, building the tension.
Hearing the prompt, Rowan violently snapped back to reality, gripping the handle of his prismatic axe. 'Focus. Just like we decided.'
"Begin!"
The moment the command dropped, Rowan whipped his arms around, bringing the axe down in a sweeping arc.
"Wind Chop!"
A razor-sharp crescent of compressed wind whistled off the edge of the blade, tearing across the arena floor straight toward the resting repeaters.
But before the projectile could even close half the distance, it violently shattered mid-air, intercepted and detonated by a sudden counter-burst. Instantly following the disruption, two high-velocity spells—one crackling with wild fire, the other sparking with violent electricity—hurtled toward the freshman squad.
Sarina raised her wand with clinical precision, extinguishing the fire spell with a concentrated jet of water, while Damon flicked his wrist aiming his own wand and neutralizing the lightning bolt with a casual deflection.
The entire exchange happened so fast that Rowan could only stand there, blinking in disbelief.
'What on earth just happened?!' he thought, his mind racing.
Even though he had completely missed the intricate timing of the counter-attack, the resulting shockwave left one undeniable fact burned into his brain:
These repeaters weren't slacking off because they were weak. They were slacking off because they were dangerous enough to not even take them seriously—and Rowan knew right then that he couldn't afford to underestimate them for another second.
---
CHAPTER ENDS