371 Chapter 371: The knock-out stages

When we saw that Harrison's name was among the top ten scores, the Jing Tian Academy team erupted into cheers.

\"Yes! We did it!\"

\"Woohoo!\"

\"Great job, Harrison!\"

\"You did it!\"

The guys traded high fives and whooped, while the girls hugged each other and almost shrieked in delight.

To be sure, it wasn't as if Harrison had gotten the highest score or anything. If anything, his kill to death ratio was pretty abysmal when compared to the others, whether they were his teammates or from the opposing team. His kill to death ratio was 2.23, which to be fair, was better than about half of the participants.

However, his score was extremely high because of his support achievements. He had scored a lot from protecting his teammates, providing suppressive fire, being a \"Savior\" or offering assists and a lot of other things. Evidently the tournament staff judged each individual not just on his or her kill tally but how well each participant contributed to the team, be it combat or support. After all, even the most skilled killer wouldn't be able to get as far as he could without relying on his teammates for healing support, assists and other forms of aid.

Once again, we could see clearly that this was meant to emphasize on teamwork and cooperation, not individual glory and rankings. Looked like they seriously intended to revamp the entire student mage system from the ground up.

A few moments later, while the spectators either celebrated, grieved or remained in stoic silence, the participants themselves finally entered the city hall, having been teleported from the simulated battlefield. Many of them still looked dazed, having been warped away in the middle of a frantic firefight or a desperate retreat, and a few looked as if they couldn't believe what had just occurred.

The captains were then mobbed by their teammates, who surged from their seats to lunge at their leaders. Congratulations flew through the air, followed by cheers and excited embraces. A few \"good job\" to those who scored decently but didn't quite make the cut. Even so, they did enough and scored well to the extent that they could be proud of themselves, even if they were knocked out of the tournament. Then there were the bitter captains who were on the verge of tears, and had to be consoled by their teammates. Those were far and few in between, for the majority of the captains understood their role as leaders of the team and maintained a posture of quiet dignity or apologetic guilt, the latter bowing to their teammates to express their apologies for not being able to help propel them into the knock-out stages.

At last there were no awful scenes of teammates berating and blaming their captains for allowing their schools to crash out of the tournament. Everyone who had made it this far into the qualifying stages knew that the whole thing was a team effort, and that the result couldn't be placed at the feet of any one person. If they failed, then they failed as a team, and not because of a single person. The captains, despite the nerfs they received for the purpose of this match, had poured their heart and soul into this battle, risking almost everything – even pride – and literally throwing themselves into the meatgrinder just to score as many points as possible.

Some had succeeded beyond imagination. Most others had fallen short. Even so, at least half of the participants received 10 bonus points each for being on the winning team. The losing team, despite their defeat, had run very close to overtaking their opponents. Even until the end, they never gave up and closed the gap to under a couple dozen points. A single act of heroism was all that separated them from victory.

It was that close.

Consequently, even in defeat, the other team could hold their heads up high, and each member had racked up quite a good number of points. Not bad. Not bad at all.

\"You did it, Harrison!\"

Our team reached our captain and we literally buried him under embraces and congratulations. The girls – Pearl in particular – hugged him tightly, almost weeping tears of joy. Ladies, save your tears for the finals. We only made it to the knock-out stages.

Still, their emotions were only natural. We never made it as far as the knock-out stages last year, or in any of the past five or so years. This was the largest progress we had made in years.

\"Great job!\"

\"You the man!\"

The guys were also pretty touched as well, grinning and laughing as they slapped Harrison in the back or threw their arms around his shoulder to rock him. It was a highly emotional moment, and I could see the expressions of the third year students, in particular. Never in their wildest dreams did they think we would make it this far.

Theodore, Cody, Lily, Pearl and Harrison. Half of our team were made of third year students, veterans who crashed out of the qualifiers early on last year and watched their own seniors get knocked out even earlier during their first year. Therefore it was understandable that they were the most overjoyed that we managed to reach the knock-out stages.

\"It's not just me.\" Harrison was beaming, but his voice was choked, packed with emotions. It was taking every ounce of his self-control to keep his own feelings from erupting within him. Despite his best efforts, I could see that he was trembling. \"All of you contributed massively as well. Every single one of us. Without even one of you guys, we would never have gotten this far. This isn't my victory alone – it's our victory. We achieved it together!\"

\"Yeah!\" the guys roared, pumping their fists into the air. Even the aloof and usually cold Bu Fan couldn't help but grin in approval.

\"Now we should prepare for the next stage,\" Pearl declared softly, trying to hold back a sob. She had done some calculations and saw that we had achieved the top twelve scores needed to get to the knock-out stages. Our place in the next round had been sealed. \"It's only going to get harder from here on out.\"

\"Bring it on!\" Craig shouted, unable to contain his excitement. \"We'll crush whatever opposition that throws themselves at us!\"

\"Don't underestimate the opponents,\" Sheila reminded him quietly, her eyes slightly red. \"Those who made it to the knock-out stages are the best of the best. The strongest schools of the Federation. We cannot afford to take them lightly.\"

\"That's true,\" Theodoe conceded, but he smiled bearishly. \"Even so, I think it's fair to say that we can proceed to the knock-out stages with a good amount of confidence. We have proven that we don't need to fear anyone. Not with this year's team.\"

\"Yeah!\" Dong Fang Yue Chu hollered enthusiastically. \"Let's all do our best! I'm sure we won't let our school down!\"

While we were celebrating, a few other students approached us. Turning around, I recognized Ding Ke Po and the Divine Divination Academy students.

\"Congratulations,\" Ding Ke Po said to us. Their captain offered a hand, and Harrison accepted it in behalf of us.

\"Thanks. You guys too…?\"

Ding Ke Po shook his head at my question. But he smiled nonetheless.

\"Thanks to you guys, our captain got a good haul of points this match, but it still wasn't enough. Even taking into account the bonus points, we're far from the top twelve. We've been knocked out of the qualifiers.\"

\"Sorry to hear that…\"

\"No, don't worry about it.\" Ding Ke Po patted my shoulder. \"We are proud of what we achieved here. Even though we aren't that proficient in combat, we still put in a good showing. We gained a lot of respect from other schools and restored the pride of Divine Divination Academy. The last two rounds, in particular…people have changed their perceptions of us. Now they understand how useful divination magic can be. We can hold our heads up high, having proven our detractors wrong.\"

\"The new system has benefited you guys,\" Theodore remarked with a nod of his head. \"With the emphasis on teamwork, your school will have more chances to display your abilities in the future.\"

\"That's a good thing, right?\" Cody agreed with a nod of his head. \"The old system, with its over-emphasis on individual rankings and brute strength, was stifling. I think I like this new system a lot more. I wished I had worked with it instead of around it.\"

I could hear the regret in his tone. During the third round, Cody had tried to act individually and play to his strengths as a solo Assassin, working alone to stealthily take out his opponents from the shadows. He got taken out by a wood mage who was working in concert with a bunch of other students, having formed a three-girl team in the park.

\"Thanks again. If I didn't have the chance to work with you, I've no idea how I would have fared.\"

\"I'm sure you'll do well,\" I assured him, but Ding Ke Po shook his head.

\"I doubt it. I would have been eliminated much earlier, and we probably wouldn't have bothered with this match. Hell, our captain was only motivated to do his best because he saw how you cooperated with me in the previous stage.\"

\"Nah…\" I wasn't sure what else to say, but I believed he was giving me a little too much credit. Ding Ke Po would definitely find some way to survive even without me. Hell, he helped me survive – if it weren't for me, I would have been eliminated much earlier by surprise attacks. Twice in a row, in fact.

\"Honestly, the five stages surprised me,\" Ding Ke Po admitted. \"I thought the final stage between the captains would be a…written test.\"

\"Huh?\" Yue Chu stared at him, baffled beyond belief. \"Written test?\"

\"Yeah. The captains would be required to write an essay on a selected academic topic or something.\"

\"Why the fuck would they be required to do that?\" Craig demanded irritably, only for Sheila to nudge him.

\"Watch your language!\"

\"Sorry.\"

\"Well…I don't know. So that it'll give the protagonist a chance to show off how intelligent he is by getting a S+ rank on his genius essay that wows the graders and surprises everyone in the tournament, allowing him to slap the faces of all the so-called high-ranking academies who looked down on him and his school, regarding him as trash. Also to force out a reaction from the goddess Cecilia Stuart, making her embarrassed for dismissing him out of hand and underestimating his abilities after dumping him when she thought he was a nobody and would probably not be fit to stand by her side as her lover.\"

\"…what have you been rambling on about since earlier?\" Lily asked with a scowl. \"And what does Cecilia Stuart have to do with anything?\"

\"Yeah.\" Bu Fan, surprisingly, joined the conversation. \"Don't be ridiculous. They won't do a written test just to show off how smart the protagonist is. I mean, I'm the protagonist, and I can tell you for sure that I don't do that well on written tests. I'm much better at practical exams.\"

\"You're the protagonist?\" Yue Chu spluttered, staring at him incredulously. \"Since when?\"

\"What?\" Bu Fan scoffed arrogantly. \"Did you not read Versatile Mage? Of course I am the protagonist. I control two elements…which will increase to four once I get to university. And I have a beautiful ojou-sama character in love with me to the point where she tried to elope with me, and a cute little sister with healing magic, who's also in love with me.\"

\"Is this guy nuts or something?\" Craig muttered under his breath.

\"You're not the protagonist,\" Ding Ke Po informed Bu Fan flatly, provoking an enraged response from the…uh, versatile mage.

\"What do you mean…?!\"

\"Attention, everyone!\"

The tournament staff's timely announcement cut him off before he could say anything. The whole population of participants turned to face the soldier in a purple beret. He cleared his throat and clapped his hands to ensure that everyone's attention was focused solely on him.

\"I shall announce the twelve top teams who have made it into the knock-out rounds.\" He listed twelve schools, eliciting cheers from each academy who heard their name announced. Being used to this, the tournament staff patiently waited for the applause and celebrations to die down before he announced the next name. Needless to say, when he said, \"Jing Tian Academy,\" we practically yelled our lungs out, exchanging high fives and delighted hugs.

\"We did it…we actually did it…\" Yue Chu had tears in his eyes. \"We're in the knock-out stages!\"

\"I can't believe we made it.\" Theodore slumped down, dazed. \"I mean, I know we did, but actually hearing our name officially announced…\"

\"I know what you mean.\" Harrison clapped his back, unable to hide a grin. \"It's like we are dreaming. After the disaster last year, I didn't think we could come this far.\"

As our celebrations died down, the tournament staff proceeded to announce the rest of the schools who had made it. Interestingly enough, that wasn't all. After he listed all twelve schools that made it into the next round, the soldier smiled and looked down on all of us.

\"As you know, this means that there are sixty teams who are guaranteed a place in the play-offs. But there are four slots remaining. So how do we decide that?\"

Everyone exchanged glances, not knowing the answer.

\"The thirteenth place team in each group will be singled out,\" the tournament staff continued. \"But there are five groups, which means five teams…and only four slots.\"

\"Ah…\" Ding Ke Po seemed to have realized something. \"Play-offs?\"

\"Not exactly. We aren't going to waste time with play-offs. Rather, out of this five, the four with the highest scores will get into the knock-out stage. The team with the lowest score is automatically eliminated.\"

He then beamed as his eyes settled on a group of students wearing black uniforms.

\"And I'm pleased to announce that the thirteenth placed team in this group has qualified for the knock-out stages – your performance in the second round of qualifiers has been outstanding, and you have the highest score out of the five groups. Everyone, give a hand to Dark Horse Academy!\"

Everyone burst into applause, their attention now fixated on the stunned students of Dark Horse Academy. The black-uniformed mages had been crying, having been so close to making it, but believing themselves eliminated by just a point or two. Their efforts, their tears, sweat and blood had finally been rewarded.

\"Hmph…isn't that surprise usually sprung on the protagonist's team?\" Bu Fan was sounding confused, but we decided to ignore his nonsense for now.

\"Once again, congratulations to the thirteen teams who made it to the knock-out stages. Make sure you do your best again! But be warned, the real battle is only just beginning. Do not bow to adversity! If you continue to show the spirit that you have displayed so far in the qualifiers, I personally believe that you'll make remarkable progress in the knock-out stages!\"

\"Yes, sir!\"

The tournament staff swept his stern gaze across the hundreds of participants – many of whom would be returning home tonight, disappointed or accepting their elimination with good grace and pride that they did their utmost best. Then his stony façade broke into a warm smile.

\"Go get some rest, all of you. You've definitely earned it.\"

With that, the qualifiers were officially over.