Bab 36: Semi-finals
The next morning, the two semi-final matches of third round in turn began.
This time, the Second-ranked Cheryl Maximus would confront Third-ranked Drake Atticus, while the First-ranked Angus Farley encountered the Fourth-ranked Hawley Quincey.
The first pair to come into the arena was Cheryl and Drake. Both were dragonmen from Fire style.
For this pair, almost everyone presenting on the stands knew about them – or rather, knew about their family!
As mentioned before, the Atticus was a special clan. While other clans, families, and the masses were more open-minded about marriage between different races in the same style, Atticus was one of the few families who persisted in maintaining a purebred bloodline. Perhaps it was because Blaze was truly a powerful race, or maybe it was because the shadow of the words "pure blood" was so big that all Atticus had a strong belief in the power of their race, thereby creating a mighty clan. And Drake, besides being an Atticus, he also carried the title of "Third Generation Heir" of the clan, these was enough for Drake to become famous – even though he didn't grow up in capital.
As for the Maximus family, most of members of this clan belonged to the Lava race. The Maximus clan did not prohibit their members to get married with people from other Fire races, however, the marriage partner they targeted were races with medium strength and above, such as Torch, Flame, or Blaze... That was the reason why Cheryl's mother didn't get the their recognition before, and then later Cheryl was looked down on by other members in the clan. But... whatever, this was the internal problem of the Maximus clan. Not many outsiders knew the details. To other people, Cheryl growing up in the capital was the youngest daughter of the Commander-in-Chief Raymond, so she was also widely noticed.
Because of their background, Drake and Cheryl were joked by other first year students that they were the "Descendants of big bosses" pair.
As the match started, Drake looked at Cheryl and said: "I know you are younger sister of Teacher Brian. But this fight is inevitable. So... if I hurt you, I apologize in advance."
As a pureblood Blaze, Drake possessed eye-catching orange hair. The ends of his hair rose towards the sky, looked like a burning flame. His pupils were in yellow orange like two hot, glowing coals. His body owned the common characteristic of Fire style which was strong and muscular, but it did not bring the feeling of hot temper or rudeness. Obviously this was the result after many years of acknowledging the fostering from the clan.
And Cheryl, said to be a mixed blood of Lava and Lantern, but in fact, her appearance inherited more characteristics from the Lantern race of her mother: Hair and eyes in dark red, lessening the burning feeling of Fire style; the bony frame was a bit smaller than the Fire-style female of the same age. If Cheryl owned long hair, she would look as gentle and slender as her Lantern mother. But no, Cheryl chose short hair – A short hair cut across the chin gave her a cool and dynamic image.
To Drake's polite saying, Cheryl just coldly responded: "If you're going to fight, just fight. Don't waste time with words!" As soon as the words had left her mouth, she rushed towards Drake and attacked him.
In front of an opponent with attacking strength in the top of all dragonmen races like Drake, obviously Cheryl was a bit weaker.
Remember, she was not a purelood Lantern but a mixed-blood of Lantern and Lava – the race having power equal to Blaze's power. Therefore, while normal Lanterns could only perform basic skills such as "Fire Bomb", "Fire Bullets", and "Fire Ball", Cheryl was able to perform the basic skill "Multi Fire Balls" and the intermediate skill "Great Fireball ". In addition, the determination of making people recognize her had forced her to continuously practice in a long time, so now her hand-to-hand fighting skills were very good.
However, the opponent that Cheryl had to face was not an ordinary Blaze, either.
In addition to the Blaze pure blood, Drake was also chosen to be the third generation heir of the Atticus family. It should be added that not only Drake was a pureblood Blaze in the Atticus family, but all members of the clan were pureblood Blaze. So, what kind of talent that Drake owned to become the heir of a big clan as Atticus at twenty years old?
Not letting people wait too long, after fifteen minutes of probing the abilities of his opponent with some basic and intermediate skills, Drake quickly gave the answer.
"Great blaze!"
From the position Drake was standing, a fire flared and spilled toward Cheryl. No, to put it more accurately, it was a sea of flames, a sea of flames that spread to the other half of the arena with a terrible speed. Except for constantly jumping back, Cheryl had no other way. She could not go left, could not go right.
Currently, the surprised expression was shown on the faces of every person presenting in the arena, then it quickly turned to respect and admiration. Not a mid-level skill nor a high-level skill, "Great Blaze" was a "Specialized Skill" which could only be performed by the Blaze race!
It could be said that "Great Blaze" was the most vivid visual evidence for the terrible spreading speed and range of the flame that the Blaze race possessed. It was the "signature" skill of the Blaze race in general and the Atticus clan in particular!
The sea of flames spread on the ground, high temperature caused the air are below the arena ground distorted. Cheryl continued jumping back while trying to perform some basic Fire-style skills towards Drake at the same time, but it was not effective. Until it was only a few meters to reach the walls of the arena, Cheryl had no other way but shouted: "I admit defeat!". Then Drake quickly took his flame back.
So, after nearly twenty minutes fight as hard as she could, Cheryl was defeated by Drake. From then, Drake became the first person present at the final.
"Winner: Drake Atticus, from Class F, Base Three."
Applause and cheering noise excitedly sounded on all areas of the stands.
Being able to perform a specialized skill at the age of twenty years, not to mention that it was a devastating attack skill like "Great Blaze", Drake was indeed deserved to be chosen as the heir who would inherit and manage the whole Atticus clan in the future!
Some people suddenly recalled that in the second round of the competition, Cheryl did perform a legendary skill which significantly impressed all the viewers. In terms of rank, obviously legendary skills was ranked above specialized skills. But today, when facing Drake, facing "Great Blaze", Cheryl unexpectedly became the weaker one.
In fact, people with good knowledge clearly understood that "Great Blaze" and "Formations" were two skills that belonged to two completely different fields: one on the attacking side, the other on the defensive and supportive side. But civilians didn't. Therefore, when they witnessed Drake defeated Cheryl, immediately those people made a comparison, then turned their respect and compliments to Drake.
They did not know that, later on when incident occurred, what would save their lives was not the "Great Blaze" skill that they were adoring, but the "Formations" skill and the beautiful short-haired girl who was being put into the comparison. Of course, this was the story of future.
Sitting in the distinguished guest area, Drake's father continuously received congrats and compliments from others. He was over sixty years old, owned the position of Lieutenant Colonel in the Army, and was also considered as a rare talent. But in a clan that was never short of talent like Atticus, his gift was only considered "normal". That's why the one chosen to be the second generation heir was not him but his brother. It was only until Drake was born and raised, then was chosen to be the heir of the third generation that his position in the clan was enhanced.
Ha ha ha, who said only strength was power? Having a genius son was also a kind of power!!!
***
The next match, the one who was temporarily leading the Class Leader ranking – Angus Farley, confronted the Fourth-ranked Hawley Quincey. Both of them were from the same training base, Base Five.
Now talking about this training base Number Five.
After the military course rankings was officially announced, the results of Base Five this year gave the people of Ministry of Education a huge surprise, or it could be said that, they were "terrified" by those rankings! Not mentioned about the leader of the national rankings Angus Farley but just take a look at his class – All twenty of the students of Class K presented in the Top Fifty having highest scores in the nation. If Class I was included, all forty students of Base Five presented in Top One Hundred having highest scores nationwide. The total score of the forty students on Base Five was far ahead of that of the remaining four bases!
As a base classified as "remote area," how amazing was this achievement?
Therefore, after the military course ended, when the teacher group of Base Five just just arrived at the capital, they were immediately surrounded by countless people, receiving countless questions about training methods, teaching methods, etc. But in response, all eight of them – well, actually only seven, because no one dared to come and ask Eugene in person! The seven of them just smiled and said that they would tell everyone after the Leader competition finished.
Currently, looking at the two contestants standing on the arena ground, the principals, vice principals, and teachers of the five academies were getting more and more eager. Out of the four who made it to the semi-finals, there were two from Base Five!
For other civilians, may be Drake was the strongest candidate who was talented, powerful, and formidable. But for those who worked in education, what they needed was the one having both individual strength and collective leadership abilities. Drake was an individual nonetheless. But for the two who was standing on the arena ground, behind them was a collective force! They had been silently observing ten classes closely for a few day, and what they saw was the behavior of students from Base Five was very different from students from other training bases: They were more friendly, more disciplined, following rules of Class Leader better, and of course – better coordination in teamwork. Those were the typical characteristics of collective strength making a powerful country!
Now talking about the Class Leader Angus Farley of Class K. This boy had such a strong influence on Class K – Not just a few members like other classes but all the rest nineteen members of Class K strictly followed every of his orders. Also Class I and Class I's Class Leader from the same base seemed to be influenced by him. This showed how good of leadership ability of this boy. The five academies made a decision, no matter this boy could become Grade Leader or not, they would still try to make a good relationship with him later so that later on they could have more students from Base Five apply on their own academy. Also, they would open a close discussion with the teacher group of Base Five to ask about the teaching method which created the "miracle" of Base Five this year!
Angus did not know that he had just become the target for building relationship of five academies. Now he was standing facing Hawley...
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AnneNguyenLe
AnneNguyenLe Long time no see guys!!!
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