Chapter 179 – Beat the Captain to Death!
Ding Ding Ding Ding!
The successive attacks and constant counters by both individuals reverberated through the battlefield like a continuous sound. Everyone had underestimated the extent of Colby's strength. His attacks were blurring together into one constant streak, with traces of remnant shadows forming every time he unleashed his techniques to attack the opponent. Compared to the previous times when he had crossed daggers with Emily, he had gotten stronger.
On the other hand, Elena attacks flowed from one stance to the next, just like a dancer. Her movements left people in awe and delight, drawing people in and mesmerizing them with such ease. Her lithe and graceful motions was a reminiscent of the dance of the old era, inciting admiration amongst those who were watching her.
She was the epitome of the words "Ice Queen", releasing power from her body whenever it pleases her. The current Elena was such a beauty that anyone looking at her would be dazzled by her brilliance. This made it hard for people to look pass her ravishing appearance and realise that under that facade was a killing intent so sharp that it could slice objects into ribbons.
It was only Colby who was facing her in combat that felt the true force of her killing intent.
His opponent was faster, stronger, more accurate and more vicious than he was!
Elena's fluid movements seemed to elicit remnant shadows whenever she attacked, leaving onlookers in awe at the beauty of her 'dance'. However, it was a nightmare for Colby to handle. He had to focus all his attention on expanding his field of vision in an attempt to capture every little movement and detail. Even with that, however, all he could capture was the shadow of his opponent.
The sounds of weapons clashing against each other intensified as the battle progressed. Yet, despite his best efforts, none of his attacks made their marks. Instead, even though he had made preemptive judgements, his opponent was faster, taking the initiate to block his daggers which prevented them from hitting the intended locations.
It was akin to launching an attack, only to have your opponent evade it by moving back while deflecting your attack by changing its course of action with a simple slap to your wrist. Not only would you completely miss your target, you would be restricted in your movements should this continue on for long periods of time. Each time this happened would leave you demoralised, slowing your reactions and changing the flow of the battle such that you would dance to the rhythm that your opponent dictated. This would make it easier for the opponent to not just predict your movements, but also to counterattack at opportune moments.
Colby knew that he would definitely lose if this kept up. The disparity between him and his opponent was too big. Perhaps his opponent was only faster than him by 20%. However, for an assassin, this advantage in speed was already enough to kill an opponent.
He and Lily had felt that they had improved immensely during this period of time, and had believed that they could truly confront elites from strong squads. However, now…
Colby took a deep breath, before suddenly withdrawing his daggers. In the blink of an eye, four remnant shades akin to four clones instantly appeared around his body! He only needed an instance for him to escape Elena's control and to launch his counter attack!
"Four Shadows Prison Killing Array!"
"Fuck! He'd finally used his ultimate move!"
This sparked off the embers of passionate in those in the viewing gallery. Everyone was woken up from the stupor that was induced by watching Elena's elegant 'dance' and they started cheering with passion.
However, before this passionate feeling could grow any larger, the five remnant shades disappeared all at once in an instant.
At this point of time, a purple figure appeared right behind Colby. Extending a dagger out from her back, she aimed at Colby throat. But before it could land, she stopped her attack, leaving it bare inches away from Colby's throat. With a cold smirk tugging at the corner of Elena's mouth, she whispered, "Too slow."
Feeling the dagger on his throat and hearing those words, Colby took a deep breath and lowered his head in defeat. Before this fight, he was confident about the fight. But now…
The Four Shadows Prisons Killing Array was indeed a pretty good technique. However, it hab already been completely seen through. Any technique that had been seen through would cause the death of its user, as one's opponent could make the proper judgement and counter appropriately. Having thoroughly analysed Colby's battle videos, Elena knew how the technique worked and had formulated a counter to it. Elena had only been waiting for him to use this move before striking out.
The disparity was indeed too big.
Two successive losses for Tianjing Academy.
Though many of the students from Tianjing Academy held little favorable opinions of their academy's squadron before the start of a competition, having faced such loss made their hearts incomparably heavy.
The athletic grounds was filled with silence. The disparity in strength was clear. Lily's loss could be attributed to the fact that her occupation was countered by that of her opponent's. It made the loss easier to swallow. However, this match was one between two assassins. Tianjing Academy could no longer make any excuses for the second loss they had suffered.
The suppression of strength. Be it speed, strength or accuracy, Elena was better than Colby in every aspect. From the start till the end of the match, there wasn't a single point when a reversal could be made.
Could Colby be blamed?
No.
This was a mistake in the lineup that was decided based on the judgement of the captain!
When facing against an opponent that was superior in strength, the captain should choose occupations that were not easily countered, and decide on members whose information wasn't well known to the opponent. This was the fundamentals of leadership.
Instead of using the first and second years whose strength were not well understood by the outside world, Wang Zhong had insisted on using the two third year seniors whose abilities were fully understood and laid to bare to everyone.It wasn't a matter of Adolf Academy trying to counter Tianjing's choices! The selection of the lineup was basically wrong! Choosing Grai or Scarlet, or even Emily would be better! At least Adolf didn't know much about them!
Countless gazes now converged upon Wang Zhong's face. The current atmosphere within the grounds was filled with frightening pressure. Resisting the urge not to scold and curse out was the only thing that the students could do for their squad. After all, the fight had not yet ended, with many a match to come.
Lily and Colby were downcasted at their losses…they had requested to fight yesterday. Although they did not make any forceful demand, they had both displayed their interests in being the first to fight in the matches. In all actuality, both of them did not think that Wang Zhong would really arrange it such that they would both go out at the start. After all, Scarlet, Grai and the rest were closer to Wang Zhong, so he would better understand their capabilities. In the end, however, though both of them had gone up, they had resulted with a terrible score of 0 : 2. The next few matches would be critical for the Tianjing Squadron.
Bradley's smile broadcasted his elation of the matches' progression as he turned to look at Greene. The current score of 2 : 0 sent him over the moon. The confidence that Wang Zhong had displayed the day before made him feel a bit of trepidation, which made him more vigilant and wary for today's matches. However, from the looks of it, he had placed too much thought into it. "Old classmate, it appears that I'm going to win this bet."
"There's still three solo matches left. No need to rush the matter," replied Greene expressionlessly. However, nervousness was present within his heart as he watched the progression of the matches. How did everything go into disarray?
"The current situation of 2 : 0 is not an easy thing to come back from," said Bradley with a grin. "Why don't we make another bet then?"
Upon hearing those words, Greene frowned in worry. "What? You're even eyeing the recommendation quotas for next year?" replied Greene.
This level of bullying was too much.
Bradley gave a loud chuckle as he patted on Green's shoulder. "What are you talking about?" Bradley responded immediately with a hurtful tone, "You make me seem as though I'm a money-grabbing old man. Let's not stake those. Instead, I would like to have that old jar of wine in your cellar that Grace gave you last year. You did show off quite smugly to our group of old brothers quite a number of times, stating that it was discovered in the ruins."
"Don't think about it! I've already finished drinking it!" Greene replied while rolling his eyes at Bradley. He could not help but feel hopeless at the whole situation. It was after all a official competition and the results relied on outcome of the fights. However, the taste of losing was still unbearable.
Both Simon and Elena were outstanding individuals and watching them fight rekindled the flames of Greene's love for talent. Possessing their abilities would guarantee at least a 70 to 80% rate of success of passing the examinations posed by Elite Rail Forces. The only problem was getting enough quotas to give to them. If that group of brats was his students, he would go through great lengths to ensure that they would get the quotas.
However…what was that brat, Wang Zhong, up to?
Greene was also unable to understand his train of thought. He had always heard that lass Scarlet talk about him everyday. Even Grace had acknowledged him as captin. If not, he would never have agreed to placing Wang Zhong as captain. He had assumed that Wang Zhong would display his supposed unsurpassed tactical abilities today, but it appeared otherwise. For the first match, there wasn't much to say about sending Lily up, with the only thing that could be said was that he was too respectful, and lacked the courage to take on change. However, with regards to sending Colby up for the second match, even Greene had to say that it was a grave mistake to make.
Who would he send for the third match?
However, though Wang Zhong was subjected to constant criticism from all sides, he started to smile. Was he truly overly confident, or was this due to his naturally positive mindset?
Wang Zhong had his own plans, but there was no use in him telling them.
For the solo battles, there were still three matches left.
Under the gaze coming from the entire grounds, Wang Zhong had already decided on who would go up to the stage. Scarlet, who was selected, had a grave expression on her face as she stood up. She was extremely clear about the importance of this upcoming match.