Chapter 141: Linda

"Knock knock."

Just as the team kept there for ten minutes discussing and recalling the glorious moments of that game, the door suddenly knocked and disturbed all their talks.

"Go and see who it is," Jim said to Lan, "it might be out turn in the game."

"I doubt that," Mera said, "our turn will come after a couple of hours at least."

Everyone glanced in doubt towards her before she added, "I'm also a master in the academy so don't doubt my judgement."

And her words made everyone smile nonetheless.

"Excuse me," a soft voice came from the door while Lan was standing there like an idiot, "may I have a word with the coach?"

From the tone everyone guessed it was a girl not a boy. And from the attitude they also imagined her to be a petite girl with a young age, might be even with them in first grade in the academy.

"Well…" Lan was startled by this girl, "she just moved out minutes ago."

"Oh," the girl looked dejected before hurriedly asking, "I've heard a rumor about your team opening recruitment for the cheer squad… I might co…"

The girl didn't continue her words before Mera instantly appeared in front of her with strange speed. Lan was even pushed to the side while the big body of this master blocked the entire door.

"You are welcome to join," she suddenly said before adding, "I'm Mera, the coach of the cheer squad."

"I'm Linda," the girl said and the moment she spoke these words, Jim felt deep shock inside him. "I'm here to join the squad."

Mera pushed the door wide open before pointing to the inside as she warmly said:

"C'mon, join in."

"Without a test?" Jim hurriedly asked while feeling much doubt from this weird situation.

"Are you blind?" Mera instantly reprimanded him, "she is one of the three princesses of the inner disciple campus. Who is that crazy to test her out?" she waved her hand while hurriedly pushing Linda in.

"But…" Jim was standing there without being able to add a single word while Linda walked with her sexy body and headed to sit with the four girls, acting docile and embarrassed.

"Sit down captain," Mera said with a chuckle, "we got ourselves a great weapon to our asset."

Jim glanced at the totally excited Mera before turning around to see the looks of surprise and affection of most of his team, except for Lim who was present when he first met her.

As for the four girls, they just gave her a checking glance before starting to talk to her with strange warmth.

And Mera joined the ladies squad and their whispers formed a symphony that instigated many dreams inside the male side of the team.

"What's going on?" Jim moved his seat to sit beside Lim who glanced at Linda and whispered:

"Before that master of yours asked her to help or something."

Jim watched the docile acting Linda and felt great disparity with the one he previously met twice. "I doubt that," he muttered, "after all the creation of our team was fast. I don't think there is a way to directly connect with the Sherwid town to deliver the news."

"I can't tell," Lim sighed, "the only answer lies with Linda herself."

"I doubt she will say a word to me," Jim was focused entirely over her and the two side talks managed to attract the ladies attention.

And the four mistook that as a signal of Jim being interested in Linda, which made them speak warmer and try to act friendly with her.

A spark of girl's fight was just born at this moment without Jim even realizing it.

"I'm back," after half an hour Rana came back and when she saw Linda she glanced at Mera in question and the latter nodded.

"She is now part of the cheer squad," Mera said with only her lips while motioning towards Linda on the side.

"Welcome on board Linda," Rana was already aware of her name and significance, "I hope you can perform well today as we will have a very tough game."

She sat on her seat while her last comment made everyone's attention fall over her.

"Did you get any info about that team?" Rick hurriedly asked.

"Are they stronger than those we just defeated? Or mediocre like them?" Kro tried to lighten the tense in the air by this question while everyone laughed as they realized they were still the winners.

"This game… it seems to be specially devised to make you fail," Rana couldn't even smile at Kro's words, "we are going to face an ex-pro team."

"Ex-pro?" Jim was startled, "why would an ex-pro team try to enter the game again?"

"Who are they?" Mera asked, "someone I knew?"

"It's the silver Tankoss," Rana said and the eyes of Mera widened all of sudden.

"Are you sure?" she asked.

"Pretty sure," Rana sighed, "I even went ahead and sneaked over their team meeting and met their coach."

"Don't tell me it's Pol," Mera couldn't help but laugh.

"No, it's not him… it's Richard the silver dragon," Rana threw another piece of information that made the face of Mera darker.

"This… I believe we can't win this," Mera couldn't help but express her feelings.

"Sorry but who are those silver Tankoss?" Jim couldn't help but ask, "and who is that silver dragon?"

"They had a bang once in the ace league," Mera said with a long sigh, "but suddenly they quit and no one really knew the reason back then."

"I know the reason," Rana said with a strange glow in her eyes.

"I… can't say I agree with what you believe," Mera said, "after all we weren't that close to these core disciples before."

"Core disciples?" Roo muttered.

"Were they part of the academy when they joined the ace league as well?" Deno asked.

"They applied after they finished the academy," Rana said, "and their main aim was to get into the academy and look for some relics here."

"This can't be proven," Mera hurriedly said, "it's all rumors."

"But I dug deep after them y'know."

"And got nothing solid."

"I did get some of their words about their true aim here," Rana said before adding, "and that great incident ten years ago happened in the same year they quit."

"We… can't link them to that hideous accident," Mera said before hurriedly adding, "no one could prove that or else they would have been hunted down."

"Not if they were backed by some high level masters here," Rana seemed to be believing too much in her theory.

"Well can we get back to the point?" Jim had to intercept this seemingly go-nowhere debate, "what are they doing here? And how strong they were and they are now?"

"They are too strong," Mera said again, "one year they faced the queens and managed to get a draw point from them."

"Draw with the queens?" many exclaimed in shock before Mera nodded.

"They were strong ten years ago," Rana agreed, "but I doubt they have the same synchronicity they were famous for."

"A dragon will always be a dragon even after a millennium," Mera said, "it's not wise to give them false hope. Let's see the facts here and accept our defeat."

Everyone glanced silently at her while Rana couldn't even argue with her words.

"If we can't beat them," suddenly Jim said in a light tone like he wasn't too traumatized with this news, "then we shouldn't lose from them."

"You mean… aim for a draw?" Rana asked before going to silence for a long minute, "this can be tricky but if they didn't change their tactic then it might be possible."

"Just having them score one goal means the end of the game for us," Mera said, "have you forgotten their style of play?"

"I didn't," Rana shook her head, "that's why I'm telling them that we can aim for a draw if we played it right."

"What tactic do they use?" Rick asked with curiosity.

"A pure defensive one," Mera said, "they only have tankers, one ace, and one decoy."

"And that worked?" Kro was more surprised to hear that.

"They did great before," Rana honestly said, "as Mera said, they only aim to score one goal and then defend relentlessly after."

"That's why their score in the three years they stayed in the league was full of draws and few wins."

"And that helped in creating a name for themselves?" Roo asked with doubt.

"Of course, after all if you didn't lose points and kept gaining one point per match then you'll end up having a good score to secure you in the warm zone of the league," Mera said before adding, "and if you managed to pull some wins as well then your score will be improved."

"And don't forget their first year stunning draw with the queens and many of the big names out there… they deserved to create a name for them to be honest," Rana added.

"And that might be a better reason to crush them," Jim didn't accept this tone of defeat spreading among everyone, "at least defeating or even ending up with a draw with them will highlight us more."

And his words managed to give more hope to his team.

"Sigh," and Mera only shook her head when she noticed that.