บท 26: The First Round: Physical Strength (2)

Eugene took Alvin out of the guest area, came into the stands for students.

Seeing their homeroom teacher from afar, all Class K students split out a path for Eugene, then they discovered that there was another person behind Eugene.

Dallton quickly recognized the "impolite" orange-haired guy who ignored his words some days ago. He immediately pointed at Alvin: "Ah! It's you! Dating with our Leader some days ago! Why are you here?"

Alvin-dating-with-Angus: "..."

Hey man, did you misunderstand something about the definition of "dating"?

Dallton's voice was not low. Immediately, the remaining students of Class K turned to look at Alvin with a very weird look. Alvin couldn't help shivering. Ooh, it felt like being hit by tens of headlights!!

Without waiting for Alvin to answer, Dallton turned to Eugene: "Teacher Eugene, who is he? Why he goes with you?"

Eugene raised an eyebrow. "Oh, didn't Angus tell you guys? This is..."

"I'm coming from the same village with Angus!" Alvin quickly interrupted Eugene's words.

Eugene looked at Alvin in surprise, then saw the boy secretly wink at him. He decided not to expose Alvin, continued to say: "He will be with our class during this competition."

Alvin nodded: "Yeah! I'll support your class. I cheer on Angus!"

"So why didn't you say it early? That day you even pretended to be mystical!" Dallton pouted.

Alvin scratched his head, laughing ha ha: "Sorry, sorry! That day I intentionally hid my name. I wanted to make Angus surprised! Now, introduce again, I'm Alvin. Nice to meet all of you."

It was not the time for the competition yet, so the students took time to gossip. With the background of "same hometown with Leader Angus", Alvin just joined the class became the target for Class K to get more information about Leader Angus. Later on, all off Class K's questions were neatly solved by Alvin. For example –

Why were you going with Teacher Eugene? ➡ Since I didn't have a ticket, Angus asked the teacher for help!

How long had you been friend with Leader Angus? ➡ Almost two years! I moved to the Hills Village around two years ago!

Did Leader Angus have any hobbies or special activities at home? ➡ Yes, he liked sun exposure. He used to expose himself to the sun a few hours a day, reading books while exposing under sunshine.

With the bright appearance, goodwill attitude, as well as revealing many interesting things about Leader Angus, Alvin quickly created a good impression among Class K students.

Collecting all the expressions of Class K into his eyes, Alvin now felt very satisfied.

He knew that when he joined Angus's class, this situation would definitely happened. That's why yesterday he spent the whole night to think about the answers for some questions that Class K might ask!

About five minutes later, the signalling bell rang, announcing that the competition was about to start.

The first category of First round was long-distance running. After the siren signaled, the ten Class Leaders entered the running track.

Unlike the track for short-distance running which was divided into lanes, the track for the long-distance running was simply a round track with a width of twenty five meters, allowing a maximum of twenty contestants to participate in the race.

The starting position of ten Class Leaders was determined by drawing lots.

Angus drew the number Seven, so he came in seventh place, counting from the inside border.

The whistle sounded, and ten Class Leaders all rushed forward.

The rounded-square running track had a total length of two kilometers, so all the Class Leaders had to run thirty-five rounds to complete the goal of seventy kilometers.

Like the usual running habit at the training base, Angus maintained a moderate pace at the beginning of the race, about twenty kilometers per hour.

The other Class Leaders also underwent the nearly six-month training, they were no longer naive freshmen who boomed all their strength right at the beginning. All controlled a moderate running speed, but also pay attention to the leading position so that they would not be left behind too far.

Therefore, the situation on the running track was Class Leader Drake of Class F was in the top position and Class Leader Angus of Class K was in the final position.

"Hey," Alvin tapped the one sitting beside him on the right, who was Dallton, "What's his tactic? Save energy first and then speed up at the sprint phase?"

Although he had never been in a training with Angus, Alvin obviously had no worry about Angus' current position on the track.

Ahaha, don't ask how he knew! All the people caring about this competition knew who was the No.1 Rank on the National Ranking! And that No.1 Rank was not just for show!

Dallton nodded: "Uhm! If there's nothing change, Leader will speed up in a few minutes."

"In eight minutes." The person sitting on Alvin's left suddenly added.

Alvin turned his head, seeing a person with pale purple hair and eyes. This was Iris. One of Angus' three roommates, also Angus "assistant".

Alvin was surprised: "You even know exactly the time?"

Dallton laughed: "If Iris didn't know, then no one would know! He is the best assistant of Leader!"

Although Class K students all believed in their Leader's ability to win, they still observed the situation in the track very attentively.

Next to the stands area of Class K was Class I's area. Being in the same training base with Class K and Angus for nearly half a year, Class I definitely knew more about Angus than the other classes from other bases.

Currently, Hawley ranked the Fourth on the Class Leader Ranking. This could be considered as a "positive" rank, but smart people understood that the possibility for Class Leaders from the Top Four and below could win the position of Grade Leader were not very high. Only Top Three were the real seeds for the position of Grade Leader.

Therefore... Class I hoped that Angus could win.

In their heart, at least Angus wasn't like the other Class Leaders who had the upper hand at other bases – either secretly or openly, let their force to suppress their opponent.

Also, on the last day at the base, Angus even invited them to a barbecue! (➡ This must be the most important point to you guys!!!)

So it was true that Class I hoped their Class Leader Hawley would have a good performance in this competition. But when it came to the Grade Leader position, Class I hope Angus would be the winner.

Both Class I and Class K watched the race quietly, so the stands area of Base Five was quite quiet.

But the other classes from other bases were not like that.

Whispering, chatting, shouting, cheering, drumming, blowing trumpet... all kinds of sounds were there. Apart for the stands area of the Base Five, the rest of the stands for students was noisy like a fair!

Contrary to the lively atmosphere of the students' side, the stands area of big guests and teachers looked quieter.

However, only the insiders knew that this group of people was as talkative as the students, just – Ahem, as big guests, they were not talkative in a visual way as the students but talkative in an elegant way.

"Hey Eugene, your disciple is in last in place!"

"Oh." Responding to a lieutenant colonel's teasing was just a nonchalant "oh" from Eugene.

That lieutenant colonel continued: "Eugene, why did you accept that kid to be your disciple? Does he have anything special?" The lieutenant colonel touched his chin, trying to guess, "Is he one hundred percent pure blood? Hmm... But even if he's pure blood, is this hair color too light? Huh?"

Eugene had no intention of responding about this matter.

Anyway, that lieutenant colonel used to be a classmate of them, so Fred sitting next to Eugene answered for Eugene: "You have a lot of questions! Just watch and you'll know."

That disciple of Eugene was not as gentle as he looked! Fred silently added.

On the running track, exactly as Iris said, about seven or eight minutes later, Angus began to accelerate his speed.

The Class Leader of Class E who was Samuel, was running at the ninth position, suddenly found himself overtaken by the person behind him without any signal. Immediately, the feeling of safety from the beginning of the match disappeared. Samuel accelerated his pace and chased after Angus.

Both of them accelerated, making the Class Leader running at the eighth position startled, then also accelerated as well. Just like that, the seventh, sixth, fifth... till the first position who was Drake of Class F, all sped up.

The balance since the beginning of the match disappeared, only because of a move by Angus.

The position of the ten Class Leaders on the running track began to change continuously.

But to a closer look, except for Angus, the speed of the remaining Class Leaders was not stable.

Frankly to say, they ran in an emotional way.

Because the race had just started more than fifteen minutes, it was only about a tenth of the way through, they all wanted to maintain a moderate speed to preserve strength. But at the same time, they didn't want to be left behind – especially the last five.

So when they were surpassed by Angus, they would try to speed up to take their place back, and then slow down to save energy. Then they were surpassed again, sped up again to catch up, and then slowed down again...

The evidence was that on the huge LCD screen showing the speed collected from the wristwatches of ten Class Leaders, Angus speed was always stable around forty kilometers per hour, while the rest's speed had continuous fluctuations from thirty-five to forty-five kilometers per hour.

That kind of running even cost more energy!

Very soon some Class Leaders discovered that they could not keep running like that, so they decided to... ignore Angus. Firstly they should stabilize their speed. Then when it came to the last ten kilometers, they would speed up!

Just like that, Angus headed up to fourth place and stabilized in that position.

Until they all passed the thirtieth lap... Only the last ten kilometers were left.

Drake at the first place sped up firstly, then the second, the third... all ten Class Leaders accelerated.

The stands briefly became quiet. Everyone knew that now the race officially started.

Everyone showed a serious face, attentively watching the situation on the running track carefully while glancing at the LCD screen to see speed of ten Class Leaders.

Drake's speed increased by a dizzying rate. From fifty kilometers per hour, up to fifty-five, then sixty, sixty-three, and sixty-five, and still tended to increase slightly. For a freshman of Fire style, this was probably the best speed in the First-year battles history.

Behind Drake, Cheryl of Class A in second place and Angus of Class F in third place also chased closely.

Only one last kilometer left.

***

Only one last kilometer left.

Angus continued to accelerate past Cheryl, to second position...

Class K held their breath waiting...

Fweet! Fweet!... Fweet!... Fweet!...

The siren signaling the finishers in turn rang out.

The result was

Class F's Drake Atticus finished first.

Class K's Angus Farley finished second.

Class A's Cheryl Maximus finished third.

...

Notably, the Second was later than the First by only one second.

Needless to say how was the reaction of Class F students after seeing the results on the big screen. Some of them – may be Drake's assistants, or loyal "subordinates" – immediately jumped down the running track, raising their hands to offer Drake drinking water and cooling towels that had been prepared in advance.

As giving the offerings.

"Drake! Drake! You are amazing!"

"As I said! How can that guy compare to Drake!"

"Drake will definitely be the Grade Leader!"

"Leader Drake! Leader Drake! Leader Drake!..."

The similar situation also happened to the other classes.

Some students who seemed to be close to their Class Leaders rushed down to the track, trying to show their support and encouragement to Class Leaders. But just some. The rest of the class – more or less – scattered away.

Only Class K had the students gathered fully on the running track. To a closer look, there were also some students of Class I silently looked at Class K, watching Angus' move.

This somewhat showed the influence level of a Class Leader to his/ her classmates and to his/ her surrounding students.

When Alvin walked down the track, he was about to ask Angus: Why didn't you try more? Obviously, if Angus ran a little faster right at the beginning, he could have win the race.

But after all, Alvin didn't ask. Because he noticed that no one of Class K had any questions or doubts to Angus. It was like they had an absolute faith in everything Angus did.

And Angus himself didn't give an explanation as well. It was like he was totally sure of victory.

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