168 Team Battle Part 1

Working the rest of the afternoon and night discussing their strategies, they slowly worked out the little kinks in their teamwork. The Duke watched at the side feeling more and more gratified by their progress. Every now and then, he would give them some tips and hints. In the end, they were his favored nephew, niece, and pupils. He could not help but be a little biased in hoping they would win. Breaking his own rules, he still provided assistance helping their improvement speed increase. By the next day, although they were far from perfect, the group of four felt like they could envision each other's fighting habits. They rehearsed through multiple situations and prepared as well as they could. Now, it was time to put their training to the test. However, they were aware that all the training in the world could not prepare them for every situation. In the event that nothing goes as planned, they would just try their best to fight one-on-one with the opponents they assigned to each other beforehand.

After a good night's rest, Greyson woke up still feeling a little tired from last night's hard work. Stretching out his tight muscles, he looked out the window with enthusiasm. This would definitely be a good chance for him to fight and apply the things that he has learned with the other three and the Duke. Quickly putting on some light armor over his clothes that the Duke provided, he ran over to the field. He thought he was early, but there were already three other people present by the time he arrived. The initial surprise soon faded as he chuckled happily.

"It seems I'm not the only one excited." He greeted walking towards them.

"Aphy just wouldn't let me sleep in no matter what..." Braiden smiled bitterly. 

"Whoa, why did I never realize brother was such an actor? I'm pretty sure someone was already awake and dressed by the time I barged in." Aphina did not let him use her as a shield as she sarcastically raised a brow.

"Oh?" Greyson also joined in by raising a brow questioningly while glancing over.

A suspicious red tinge appeared at the tips of Braiden's ears as he cleared his throat.

"You must have been mistaken." He tried his best to look dignified.

"Hahaha, there's no need to be embarrassed. It seems we all are a little over eager for the fight today." Eris patted Braiden on the shoulder encouragingly.

"Yeah, exactly." Greyson agreed. 

"The opposing team, on the other hand, will probably stroll in right on time as if they have all the time in the world. They want to look as arrogant and nonchalant as possible to make it seem like they don't take this fight seriously." Aphina snorted when she looked towards the empty path leading to the field. 

"Hm... how annoying! It would have been better if he was just arrogant like the rest. Why does he have to go out of his way to train when they have been training together all their lives..." Pouting, Aphina starting feeling a little nervous. 

"You can't expect everyone to be dumb. Some nobles have to have a good head on their shoulders, otherwise, the imperial power would have long taken over." Braiden shook his head at his little sister's antics.

"Can't you just let a person hope?" Aphina glared at him.

"You need a realistic picture of the situation in order to prepare yourself properly for battle. If you were expecting to go into battle and win based on the opponent's mistakes instead of confidence in your own strength, then you are lining yourself up for failure. You can't expect them to stupidly underestimate you and allow you to win in that fashion." A new voice chimed in. All four heads turned to look at the origin and saw Duke Zaire walking over. He caught the tail end of the conversation and decided to give one last lesson before the start of the fight. Disapproving eyes focused on his niece.

"Uncle..." Aphina's shoulders hunched in as a blush appeared on her face.

"Now you know to feel ashamed? You all need to be mentally prepared for a tough struggle. The other four are all magister level stage five magicians, as well. Although there can exist large gaps even within the same stage, I don't think you four can confidently claim to tower over the others. Trevion, Tatyana, and Efren are not stupid. While Keaton is arrogant, he is also a snake that knows when to lie low and wait to strike. Try your best from the beginning and keep your contingency plans in mind. From what I saw last night, you guys have more than enough strength to pull through with a win." The Duke took on a serious stance and gave them one last stern lecture.

"We understand." All four nodded and answered obediently.

Afterwards, they waited in silence for their competition to arrive. With around 10 minutes to spare, the trio led by Trevion walked to the field. They did not say anything, but nodded politely in greeting towards Greyson and Eris. However, in accordance with the etiquette drilled into their bodies, they still had to speak in greeting towards the Duke and the siblings.

"Greetings to Your Grace, Duke of Winterbridge. Greetings to His Highness and Her Highness." The two boys bowed slightly while the girl curtsied.

"No need to be uptight with the formalities. I don't care for them, anyway." Zaire just waved nonchalantly in response. The siblings also nodded seemingly in agreement.

"No matter what, manners must still be upheld." Trevion shook his head in disagreement. The Duke raised his eyebrow a little but just shrugged in the end. All nobles knew that disrespect towards another noble of higher station could be a small issue or a big issue depending on the person and their desires. In order to not get caught in a trap, the most intelligent thing would be to always follow etiquette strictly even against your worst enemy. The most common situation in high society was hiding your daggers behind a smile. Trevion would never allow himself or his comrades to make such an amateur mistake.

Time seemed to flow slowly as the eight individuals looked at each other as everyone once again fell into an awkward silence. Neither side had much to say to the other, nor were they willing to immaturely speak out aggressively. While they were still kids in the eyes of the older generation, Prince Braiden, Trevion, Efren, and Tatyana were all in their late 30s. If they still decided to pick a fight hurling insults, it would be too unbecoming of people of their age and stature. Greyson and Eris were both young, but neither were the type to say anything. Aphina, on the other hand, seemed to be itching to get a couple scathing remarks out. Biting her tongue a bit, she glanced down at her brother's hand that was holding her back. Puffing out her cheeks, she looked fairly disgruntled. However, Braiden knew that while both of his sisters had a fiery tempers, Aphina was actually very obedient unlike Beline. Unless she knew that she had support, she would not speak out of turn.

Just as Aphina predicted earlier, Keaton, Colin, and Cherell all strolled to the field a couple minutes late. They looked completely relaxed as if they were out to go sightseeing. Even if they were currently teammates, Trevion's group had looks of barely disguised annoyance and disgust. If they acted this way in order to mock those who took the battle too seriously, then were they not also mocking Trevion's group for arriving early?

"Your Grace, please excuse my late greetings. We got a little caught up on the road." Barely meeting the standards with his bow and tone, Keaton answered with a trace of complacency. 

"No need for apologies. You are barely late. But I will get started right away in order to save everyone else's time."

"Of course."

Walking forward, Zaire placed down an exquisite looking disk on the ground. Allowing his mana to flow into it, a large battle stage soon appeared on the wide training field.

"For the sake of preventing too serious of injuries, I will have you guys fight on this stage. If any of the team members are thrown out or step out of the stage boundaries then they are out. Otherwise, I do not have any specific rules you need to follow. I will take responsibility if any of you are seriously injured. I have tons of treasures for healing and life-saving purposes. But, if you can avoid it, let's try not to take out our entire team before the real competition even starts. We would be real laughing stocks at that point."

Everyone nodded showing their understanding.

"Alright, well I have nothing more to say. Both teams please step up."

Greyson, Eris, Aphina, and Braiden all glanced at each other before jumping onto the stage. Trevion, Tatyana, Efren, and Keaton soon followed suit. The eight fighters all lined up in their decided formations. Aphina stood at the back, Greyson and Braiden stood to the sides in front of her, while Eris stood at the very forefront forming a diamond. Trevion, Efren, and Tatyana formed a triangle with Trevion as the point behind the other two. Keaton just snorted watching everyone and stayed to the side by himself. He had refused to participate in the practice yesterday, so he decided to just jump in where he saw an opening.

The Duke made eye contact with both sides and saw them nod in confirmation that they were ready. He raised his hand before dropping it down quickly yelling, "Start!"

...

Both teams jumped straight into action hoping to grab the initial momentum.

Eris and Greyson took a straight charge looking as if they were going to meet Tatyana and Efren head on. One swung her spear while the other swung his sword. But, right before the two sides met, Eris and Greyson dodged to the side and kept their momentum going straight towards Trevion. A little surprised to be targeted first instead of the weaker links, Trevion reacted quickly and brought out his shield. The shield did not require chanting as the spell was engraved, so soon a solid metal and rock dome formed around him covering all sides. Greyson's sword disappeared at one point and instead both his hands were gripping onto Eris's spear. Using light element augmentation spells, he boosted her strength while he used the earth element to sharpen the spear point. Lastly, in combination with Eris's lightning, his own fire element appeared at the point. Leaning his center of gravity back, his body was soon horizontal. Eris met his eyes and the bottom of her feet met with his. With great force, his legs pushed her out and projected her directly towards Trevion's dome. He used the reacting force to send him back towards Aphina to help with that situation. 

All these actions only took up less than a minute. Tatyana and Efren did not react with panic and instead resolutely abandoned Trevion. They did not chase after Eris or Greyson and instead headed straight for Aphina. Braiden's expression grew grim as he saw the two approaching him and Keaton who was still standing at the side eyeing the situation. Instead of facing them head on, he grabbed onto his sister and used Shadow Travel to dodge. It was at this moment that Greyson caught back up and Eris's human-spear projectile struck Trevion's shield. With such great momentum behind her, Eris was able to drive the spear through the shield and felt it stab into something solid. Her keen sense of smell was able to pick up on the blood. Knowing that the surprise attack succeeded, she was excited at first but felt uneasy when the shield crumbled away into an armor that surrounded Trevion. She could see now that she only managed to stab through his right shoulder and not any major organ. Going from instinct, she immediately tried to pull out and retrieve her spear. However, Trevion reacted just as fast as his left hand gripped onto the spear. The earth grew around his left hand and both feet keeping him planted at his spot.

"Both of you, now!" He shouted.

Tatyana burst into action as well as Efren. Efren summoned a shield of ice. Instead of using it for defense, he had the sunlight reflect off of it towards the spot Braiden and Aphina were located. Knowing they could not use the shadows at that split second, Tatyana drew needles between each of her fingers and attacked Braiden. However, instead of Braiden, a bunch of arrows shot out to stop her approach suddenly. Tatyana cursed under her breath and glared over at Greyson who managed to stop her in time. Only, everyone, including Braiden and Aphina, forgot about the other major player in the ring. 

Eris watched all this happening wondering if she should abandon the spear and help. But, without her main weapon, her fighting strength would take a major hit. So, she could only desperately attack and struggle trying to break apart the rock.

Keaton appeared near the siblings swinging his whip. Braiden's face blanched as he moved to block the whip. Aphina also cast a quick shield spell that she knew. They slowed the hit down, but Braiden still took damage from the acid water. 

With Greyson stopping Tatyana and Eris stuck with Trevion, there was no one to block Efren. Quickly picking up on the opening, Efren chanted a quick ice spell and sent large ice balls down towards the three fighting. Aphina scowled deeply as she tried to heal her brother while helping to block Keaton. Seeing the impending ice balls, Braiden grit his teeth and sent a sneak attack towards Keaton. He managed to stab through his leg and cast an ice spell before shoving his sister out of harm's way. The ice balls exploded on the ground sending Braiden flying out of the ring. 

Keaton hissed with pain as he saw his leg slowly turning blue. He sent his mana to surround the wound and slow down the spell.

At this moment, Eris broke free from Trevion, but the situation already turned around.

Braiden was taken out! The only upside was that both Keaton and Trevion were injured and could not heal themselves.

Aphina, Greyson and Eris all had grim looks as they quickly backed away from their opponents to regroup. Luckily, the other team also needed to recoup for a second and did not try to chase them down.

"The situation has turned grim..." Eris murmured. Both Greyson and Aphina nodded while looking towards Braiden. The Duke had already picked him up and signaled that he would be fine with some healing, so they all no longer worried about it.

"It's not the worst case scenario yet. We still have some tricks and contingency plans for this." Greyson encouraged. The remaining three all met eyes and nodded before turning to their opponents.