369 Chapter 369: Operation Metro

The city hall where the students had gathered to watch their captains' match was full. The spectator seats were packed to maximum capacity as hundreds of students squeezed together and craned their heads to stare at the massive holographic screen that depicted the current stage. The captains had just been teleported to the metro station, and were turned invisible so that they could \"spawn\" wherever they wanted.

Fortunately, Harrison had already agreed beforehand where to meet up with his allies, and they chose to do so above ground, right outside the station and beside a nearby café that was just within range of the boundary of the map. Even though there was such an immense holographic screen projected at the center of the stadium-like hall, most students chose instead to consult their personal smartphones and beamed much smaller screens in front of them.

Noticeably, students from the same academy tended to cluster in front of a single hologram, where the vice-captain of their team would sweep his or her finger across to adjust the location they were viewing. Presumably, they were aware of the \"spawn location\" for their team captains, having discussed where he or she should best start off in.

\"Interesting…\"

Beside us was Divine Divination Academy. Ding Ke Po was watching the screen that was being projected by his vice-captain – a girl with long, purple hair and a hairband with yellow star patterns against its dark blue material – but he glanced toward us when he spoke. Evidently he was including our Jing Tian Academy in the discussion, especially since we agreed to ally for the qualifiers. A coalition formed since yesterday night, we extended it to several other academies, including Aurora Academy and other less known but definitely honorable ones.

\"From what we gathered, it seemed that everyone split into two teams for this last qualifying stage. Given the close confines and restrictive environment, everyone seemed to have agreed that they are better off allying with others instead of trying to tackle this stage alone. So it's a pretty even split, with twenty-five members in each team.\"

\"Did the tournament staff foresaw this?\" Craig chuckled, shaking his head in disbelief. \"To think we really ended up doing a team deathmatch for the final qualifying stage. Or perhaps this was always their intention?\"

\"But it makes no sense.\" Sheila looked puzzled. \"The match will go on until there are ten participants left. Why would they divide into groups of twenty-five?\"

\"Didn't you read the details in the latest email that they sent us this morning?\" Lily scowled at her. \"The format for this match is different from all the other stages. Unlike the other stages, participants will respawn after they are killed. The match will end after about thirty minutes, and the total points tally will be added to each academy's score. You get points for 'killing' another participant, so the more you 'kill,' the points you get. Whenever you get 'killed,' you automatically respawn. While this gives you a chance to get back in the game, this also means that the opponent can increase the gap between you and him or her if he or she repeatedly targets and kills you.\"

In other words, there was the potential for less skilled players to end up being used as farming materials for the more skilled ones. I remembered how awful it felt to be on the receiving end of one-sided matches where…the other team was essentially filled with smurfs who liked forming teams to crush newbies. Games tended to be fun…until it became extremely one-sided where the other party was literally toying with you. I never understood where the appeal lay. Wouldn't it be boring to watch or play a match where the outcome was already decided from the beginning? The same thing could be said for most xianxia stories as well – when the protagonist was curbstomping all of his opponents while being at the pinnacle of godhood (just look at Li Fu Chen from Eternal Reverence, for example), then where was the fun in reading it? We already know he was going to simply steamroll his opponents with his thousands of techniques. There were no stakes, no tension, nothing. And with Li Fu Chen already reaching the peak near the beginning of the story and essentially becoming a god, where could he go from there? Even the infamous map change and power creep didn't make sense.

Back to the topic at hand, I fervently prayed that it wouldn't end up in such a situation. Harrison and his team getting utterly crushed when the match hadn't even neared the middle would be a very dispiriting and discouraging sight. Not to mention absolutely frustrating. No one liked to be on the receiving end of a humiliating defeat.

\"The winning team gets ten points per player,\" Yue Chu added helpfully.

\"It can't be helped,\" I murmured in Sheila's defense. \"We were hardly given any time to read the email. They literally sent us the details of the new format an hour before the stage officially started. Even Harrison was caught off guard.\"

\"This really is team deathmatch, huh?\"

Yue Chu turned to me, still mired in disbelief. He shook his head as he stared at me in awe and suspicion.

\"How did you guess that? Even the Divine Divination Academy didn't predict that the format for the final stage will turn out to be a team deathmach.\"

\"That's only because they weren't allowed to use their magic to find out what the format for the final stage would be,\" I pointed out. Much like how I wasn't allowed to use summoning magic before a match, other participants were obviously disallowed from casting spells before the match that would directly influence the outcome. Otherwise everyone would begin casting their ultimate spells right before the match started, stroll right in, wait for the bell, and then immediately unleash Armageddon right from the first second. That was completely unfair and against the spirit of competition. And I agreed with that logic, to be fair. \"If they were allowed to use their magic to divine the format, they would probably have predicted this as well.\"

\"Actually, I heard that the change to team deathmatch was decided at the very last minute,\" one of the Divine Divination Academy students said. \"The tournament staff caught wind of the participants going around and organizing alliances and forming what appeared to be two very large teams, and they decided to just turn this stage into a deathmatch between two teams.\"

\"That explains why we received the second email so much later,\" Theodore mused. We only received news of the new rules this morning, almost an entire night after we received the email notifying us that the final map would be the Metro. And also after Harrison ran around trying to forge an alliance together with several other schools. If I recalled, he managed to band nine other students together, rallying them to his cause and convincing them that the Divine Divination Academy captain would be useful.

Now it was time to see if he was right. The Divine Divination Academy's intelligence was pretty spot on – the tournament staff, evidently being aware of the alliances forged last night had placed all of Harrison's hastily conceived coalition together in the same team, along with fifteen others. From what I learned later, another ten out of the fifteen had also decided to ally together last night, with three of the remaining five in a group, and the last two members being strays who couldn't be bothered with alliances and whatever.

\"They turned friendly fire off,\" Cody observed as he consulted the details in his email. \"So the two teams don't have to worry about hitting their own teammates with their spells.\"

Take note, this was only possible because they had set up the same boundary field that prevented deaths in official duels. That was also how they were able to \"revive\" and respawn the participants who were \"killed\" during the match. The students would never truly die, after all. Not unless they cast a spell powerful enough to destroy the boundary field that was enveloping the simulated battlefield.

\"Wouldn't the team with the healers have the advantage?\" Pearl asked with a frown. That was right. Prior to the fifth match, and throughout the entire second qualifying round, there were complains from a few teams regarding how it was compulsory that the captain participate in the fifth match. After all, the captain was not necessarily the strongest or most powerful mage in the team, but rather the most skilled or charismatic person who could pull the entire team together and coax them to cooperate flawlessly.

Consequently, the captains from several academies were healers. They possessed great tactical ingenuity or had overwhelming personalities that were capable of weaving various individuals into a closely knitted cohesive unit, but they didn't necessarily have great combat ability. Therefore there were complaints that this fifth round would be unfair to these healer-type captains. Of course, the tournament staff merely listened stoically, but said nothing regarding the matter.

Perhaps they had taken that into account, after all, and decided that it would be best to see how these captains could work together as a team despite being thrown in with complete strangers. That certainly would be an impotant skill in real life. After all, you couldn't always choose your teammates, and were often forced to work with who you had rather than who you would prefer to have.

Then again, if that was the case, why did they keep all the alliances that were formed yesterday together, instead of breaking them apart and randomizing them?

Whatever. I didn't know the answer, and didn't think it was that important to try and analyze the decisions of the tournament staff. What mattered was that Harrison was thrown into this team deathmatch along with his allies, and his performance at present would determine whether our academy would move on to the next round or not.

The match had already begun. My friends and I watched our shared holographic screen, zeroing in on Harrison when he appeared from what seemed like nowhere. A couple of dozen other students materialized beside and around him, all of them drawing their weapons and checking their Divine Devices or casting a few spells.

Then they ran without a word. Even without needing to communicate, the students already knew what to do. They had already discussed this prior to the match. In any case, those stragglers who were thrown into the team at the last minute naturally followed the rest, intuitively aware of their roles. There was little point in staying behind at the spawn point.

The goal of the match was to \"kill\" as many opponents as possible. It was that simple. Playing passive and lingering behind while the other forge ahead would be a great way to get left behind in terms of points. In addition to kill points, participants also earned points by Support – in other words, healing and reviving a teammate, assist kills, repairing weapons and equipment, protecting and defending a teammate, providing intelligence, etc. Even if you didn't have much in the way of combat ability, as long as your support skills were excellent, you could still score high in this round.

I frowned at that. They should have done this format for all of the stages, not just the final one. Maybe they would implement this system from next year onward.

Harrison vaulted over one of the ticket barriers, following his teammates into the train platform. They rounded a corner and were about to descend the stairs when a fireball scorched toward them.

\"!!!\"

Already anticipating that, Harrison's team immediately pulled back, avoiding a huge explosion as the fireball struck the wall and burned away paint. Taking cover behind the wall, Harrison's team launched a counterattack of their own, flinging icicles and earth spikes down the stairs. An explosion ensued, followed by a painful yell.

\"Get them!\"

\"No, wait! Don't just rush up the stairs!\"

It was too late. The first two mages from the opposing team literally flew up, wind billowing about them as they cast furious spells to blow their opponents away or cut them apart with aerial blades. However, they were met with a wall of overwhelming firepower, almost a dozen spells slamming into them and incinerating them instantly. Their bodies crashed down the stairs in a burned heap, and lay there for a few moments before disintegrating.

They didn't really die, of course. A few seconds later, they respawned back at the back of the tunnel, dazed and outraged.

\"What the fuck happened?!\"

\"Why is the entire enemy team gathered up there?!\"

\"Where's our backup?\"

Even as they began to sprint back toward the stairs, a furious firefight had erupted between the two teams. Harrison had to conjure a golden holy barrier to deflect a few spells that came dangerously close to ending the lives of his teammates. As they withdrew, huffing and heaving, a healer captain rushed over to tend to their wounds.

\"Fall back a few steps for now,\" Harrison directed, providing suppression fire with several holy spells to cover their retreat. Sensing a weakness, the opposing team surged up the stairs, only for a fire captain to detonate the advanced flaming spell he had been casting this entire time. Four of the enemy mages howled as they toppled over, their bodies set ablaze. Either falling across the stairs or crashing right back to the bottom, their lives expired almost instantly. The healers couldn't get up in time to revive them, not when a blistering hail of firepower came crashing down on their positions, forcing them to keep their distance.

\"Damn it!\"

\"Find an alternative route!\"

While Harrison's team kept the opposing team pinned at the stairs, a small group detached themselves and made for another path – the relatively wide array of escalators – in hopes of circling around so that they could attack the enemy from behind.

Unfortunately, the captain of Divine Divination Academy had already predicted that.

\"!!\"

The covert operative mages, who thought they were being stealthy, were met with a barrage of spells that were akin to machine gun fire, and forced to flee. Before they realized it, at least two of them were shredded by razor leaves and icicles.

\"If we can't break through these barricades and reach upstairs,\" one of the opponents murmured, turning anxious. \"Then we'll seriously lose the match!\"