Chương 168: CH37 (167), Combat Tournaments (1)
The day after the hunting competition it was my group's turn to hunt for food. Ms. Yu led us out of the camp and then she took a backseat to let us do the tracking. She said she wanted to see how much of what was shown on Arcday we remembered.
I somehow had the feeling she was leaving her job to me when I was told to take the lead. Unlike what I expected no one complained since I had already taken command in the kitchen and had won the competition, so they apparently saw no problem with me leading.
I was considering calling out Horus/Xatu, but Ms. Yu preempted that by saying we had to track down our food the old school way, by spotting and following tracks, or fishing.
Pokemon were only to be used to take out the target. Moreover, she pulled me aside and told me to leave the fights to the others to let them get some experience since she knew about my battle performance in yesterday's competition.
So, all I did during our group hunt was direct the others to check the areas, make sure everyone shared the things they noticed, moderate the discussion between everyone on which tracks to follow.
Each time we found a target I had to make sure they did not get maimed or hurt, and Ms. Yu even told me I had to oversee their kill to make sure each group member personally did it so that no one weaseled their way out of their first kill.
She even had the gall to tease me saying that she was earning money without having to do anything thanks to me. I knew she was kidding since I had seen her being ready to intervene the whole time, but she still managed to annoy me with it, which was undoubtedly her aim.
The way I saw it Ms. Yu seemed to have concluded that it wouldn't take long for me to reach her level and even surpass it, so she decided to start treating me more like a peer than a student whenever it was not necessary. At least that was what I deduced from her behavior, but I could be wrong.
By the end of the day, we hunted down, 6 Spearow, 8 Rattata, and caught 10 Magikarp. We also gathered a few oran berries we came across, and all I did the whole time was observe and talk.
Anyway, after our return, we had breakfast, before we did a round of physical training, followed by a lunch break. Then came the second wilderness survival lesson that had been announced on the day of our arrival.
This time instead of tracking down others, the lesson was about erasing and covering one's tracks. Obviously, they couldn't convey everything in 3 to 4 hours but they mentioned a few techniques to erase and cover their tracks. Like locating a stream and wading, moving, along the water.
Even a tip or two on how to lay false tracks, which was not too hard using psychic or flying types. Anyway, after dinner, we were given the rest of the day off and told we would return to yesterday's meeting point tomorrow to hold the battle competitions.
So, it was after breakfast on Palkiday we went to the meeting place. It was around 9:15 a.m when we arrived and the teachers talked a bit before announcing how the battle competition would go down. Mr. Koetsuji was the one who addressed us.
"Alright, all of you should know that there will be three battle categories, personal, Pokemon-only, and mixed. However, 275 students participating in all categories would take too much time, so everyone is only allowed to participate in one category.
We'll later set up three desks with each being responsible for one category, so you have to line up at the desk of the category you want to sign up for. Once everyone has signed up the teachers will go over the lists to make sure that no one tried signing up for two.
You wouldn't be allowed to participate in the second event anyway, but the foe assignment would have to be redone, and no one wants that. Depending on how many of you signed up for which category we'll decide which event to hold first.
Now, about the categories. Participants of the personal combat category are allowed to use weapons and shields, or rather they can use wooden replicas. You simply have to inform the teacher, referee, which one you want and he or she will give you a wooden replica.
Naturally, that does not mean that using weapons is mandatory, if you are confident enough you may use gloves or arm guards, to fight barehanded as well. Furthermore, participants are allowed to use inherent abilities, such as aura, during the fight.
The winner of a match is whoever knocks out his opponent or forces him or her to surrender. There is also the possibility of the referee stopping the match if it becomes clear that one has no chance and is about to get seriously injured, but is still too stubborn to give up." Mr. Koetsuji announced he paused here and Ms. Striker continued with the announcement.
"The format of the regular Pokemon battle is a single battle elimination match. So, the winner advances while the loser gets disqualified. We won't set a limit for the strength of your Pokemon, so you can be matched against someone way stronger.
The preliminary battles are 1-vs-1 battles, while the round of 16 and the quarterfinals are 2-vs-2 matches. The semi-finals and the finals on the other hand are 3-vs-3 battles.
So, those with less than 3 Pokemon or weaker Pokemon are inherently disadvantaged if they make it far enough." She paused here a bit to give the crowd, us, some time to digest the news before she began talking about the last category.
"The mixed category is a team battle where two trainers battle together with their Pokemon against each other. Each participant is allowed to use up to 2 Pokemon per battle. For this event, the format is single elimination as well.
The battle is over either once all members on one side are knocked out, once the participant is knocked out, or if the participant surrenders. The referee has the right to stop the fight here as well. Just like in the personal category the participant may choose to use wooden weapons." She finished explaining and an excited murmur went through the crowd.
While Ms. Striker was talking, the teachers had begun setting up the desk for the registration. Still, once she was done, Mr. Koetsuji spoke up again.
"The reward for each category is the same. First place receives 5 Alliance Contribution Points, second place receives 3 Contribution Points, third place receives 2 Contribution Points, and fourth place receives 1 Contribution Points." Everyone became even more excited at that than they had been when they had found out that the prize for the hunting competition had been rare Pokemon.
The reason for that was simple. It wasn't easy to gain Alliance Contribution Points since one had to complete Alliance missions or complete some feats to get them. For these tournaments to reward contribution points was literally giving them away.
"So, for which tournament do you want to sign up? It would be ideal if we signed up to different ones, but even if we sign up for the same one it's no big deal." I asked Ace and Weiss.
"I want to participate in the person combat tournament. I think my winning chances are pretty high," said Weiss in a confident tone, and I couldn't disagree with her.
Besides being an Aura User, Weiss was also an Ice Elementalist, and she was a rather accomplished one. This meant that she could most likely freeze her opponents even before they had the chance to do anything. Moreover, thanks to her family training she was pretty good at close combat as well.
"That's great. I'm not confident in winning that one or the mixed combat one, so I want to sign up for the regular combat tournament." Ace followed up and I had to nod at his choice as well.
It made sense that he would choose that one since his personal combat ability would probably hold him back if compared to the Knight Academy students. So, it made sense that he chose the regular tournament.
"Alright, then I'll sign up for the mixed combat tournament. That way we won't get into each other's way, and I have complete confidence in my Pokemon." I declared and it was true.
As long as I pulled out the big guns none of the other students should be able to win against us, and this time it was not overconfidence. My lineup was simply that impressive.
"Alright, start lining up. The desk on the right is for the personal combat tournament. The desk on the left is for the mixed combat tournament, and the desk in the middle is for the regular combat tournament." Mr. Koetsuji ordered once the setup was done, and everyone began moving towards the desk of their choice.
Roughly 15 minutes later Mr. Koetsuji spoke up again.
"Okay, the numbers are out. 165 of you registered for the personal combat tournament. 149 of them are from the Rota Knight Academy, while 16 are from the Aaron Aura Academy. Since the personal combat tournament has the highest number of participants, it will be held first.
64 of you signed up for the regular combat tournament. 39 of them are from Aaron Academy, while 25 are from the Knight Academy. Since it has the second-highest number of participants, the regular combat tournament will happen second.
Meanwhile, the mixed combat tournament will happen last, since it has the lowest number of participants. 46 of you signed up for it, with 34 of them being from the Knight Academy and 12 from Aaron Academy." Mr. Koetsuji told us.
One of the Knight Academy teachers called out a Sandslash, who created a temporary fighting ring. The ring had a diameter of 25 m, roughly 500 m² in size, so it was large enough for all fights. Then Sandslash raised a few blocks of hardened earth to create some stands for us to sit on and watch the battles.
Once the setup was complete, everyone sat down on the stands, and Ms. Striker declared the start of the personal combat tournament. The first round actually took roughly 3 hours, since a total of 82 battles were held, and each match took 2 minutes on average.
Weiss took out her opponent in less than 20 seconds and even that was because she did not want to finish her opponent too quickly to spare his feelings a bit. She allowed the boy from the Knight Academy to show off some moves with his sword, which she perfectly dodged before she froze his feet to the field and held a rapier at his throat.
Most of the fights were not that great, because the strong ones took out their foes pretty easily, and the battles of the weaker people were not as interesting to watch.
Anyway, since there were 165 participants, one lucky person got a free pass, which together with the 82 winners of the first round meant 83 participants had advanced to the second round. Hence another lucky person got a free pass.
Thankfully, it wasn't the same person, or many people would have probably protested. The second round took about 2 hours. 41 matches were fought in total with the average battle duration being 3 minutes.
Weiss beat her opponent once again. This time it was a girl that used two rapiers. She was not bad actually, and one could see that she had trained a lot with her weapon of choice.
The girl was on the offensive, but at some point, while dodging Weiss made her slip on a patch of ice while she was focused on her offense.
Weiss used the girl's unbalanced state and lightly tapped her rapier on the girl's chest, right at the position of her heart. All in all the battle took less than a minute, but it was one of the better ones.
After the second round the teachers called for a 20-minute lunch break, and actually took out sandwiches for everyone. After the break, the third stage began. Since 42 participants reached the third stage there was no need for a free pass.
21 battles were held, and the third round took less than an hour since the average battle duration remained the same. Weiss and Björn Axelson were the only ones from our academy to reach the fourth round and with that the top 21.
Weiss actually became the lucky person who got a free pass and directly advanced to the fifth round. The 10 battles of the 20 other participants after that took less than 30 minutes.
Thankfully, Björn passed this round as well. I did not want to imagine what Mr. Koetsuji would have done if Weiss was the only one from our academy in the top 11. This way there were at least 2 of us there.
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