Scarlet

As soon as the last battle of the fifth round comes to a close, I find myself, along with the rest of the team and all of the other teams still in the tournament, getting sent back to the field of black stone that is the stadium floor. And not even a second later, the MC for this stadium immediately begins shouting, “And we’re now moving onto the semifinals for the Tower Siege Class I Team Tournament!!!”

The crowd instantly goes wild at that, but he doesn’t stop there as the lighting within the stadium suddenly dims down before he shouts, “Let’s introduce the extraordinary teams that’ve made it this far!” A clap of thunder echoes through the stadium before I find myself along with the others at the top of some sort of tower being shown off to every last person in the stadium. “To start things off, we have the team that have blazed their way straight through this tournament with ease! A team that includes one of this year’s Class I Solo Primary competitors, and the one who newly holds the title of the Guardian with the highest capabilities in the world; Let me introduce you to Last Stand!!!”

Almost instantly, the volume in the stadium grows so loud that I’m pretty sure my ears would be bleeding if it weren’t for the protection that the magical reality gives stopping it.

Scott suddenly appears on the platform next to us with a microphone and walks up to Michael, although I can’t help but notice that like a third of his attention seems to be focused on me despite that.

“Now, as the leader of Last Stand, how do you feel about your progress, Druid?” Scott asks, and immediately the volume of the crowd plummets as if their interest suddenly dropped, making me raise a brow.

Michael grabs the microphone and declares with absolute confidence, “I am humbled to be here before you all! But hear me now! This will be Last Stand’s final time working together as a group in a tournament, so we will win this! There is no doubt about that!”

I have to catch myself to stop my jaw from dropping at that as the crowd picks up again in volume.

That was a much more enthusiastic and blunt comment than I was expecting him to say. But then again, the crowd seems to love it, so…

Scott looks surprised as well, but he quickly recovers and takes the microphone back with a grin, “Your last time working together, eh? Is there a reason for that? Or is it because your wonderful wolf will be leaving its pack?”

“Well you’ll just have to ask the little wolf herself,” Michael answers, making my head instantly jerk towards him with a glare plastered on my face.

Who are you calling ‘little wolf?’

The man shivers at my gaze but continues grinning nonetheless, and Scott seems to find the interaction amusing as he laughs out loud, his voice echoing across the stadium with who knows how many other laughs from the audience.

“So what say you, Scarlet Wolf?” he asks, making me slowly turn my attention back to him again. “Are you going full lone wolf after this? If so, I can see why. You’ll very clearly be reaching Class II after the Interschool Tournaments.” He pauses as he looks me over for a second and nods. “Actually, I can see you reaching Class II even before the tournaments finish, as long as you start working towards it after your primary tournament finishes.”

I nod my head in answer to that.

That’s certainly one reason why I’m going solo, but not really the main one.

It works as an excuse to not have to explain myself though. Because in all honesty, I really can’t keep working with them when I reach Class II. It would just completely stall my leveling unless I took them to Class II Fractures. Which isn’t happening.

He grins at seeing me nod, the screen high above us showing all of our faces in rather large images as he asks, “Then do you have any last words for your team before the tournament? Or would you like to say them after Tower Siege is over?”

And it looks like he expects an actual answer this time since he moves his mic out towards me. So I give a mental sigh before taking it and answering, “They don’t need me to hold their hands, and it won’t be the last time we see each other by a longshot. So there’s no need for last words.” My eyes narrow as I take in my team and smirk, “Our winning this thing should be enough of a statement for anyone.”

The crowd immediately goes wild as they hear me talk, my voice still drowning them out thanks to the microphone and magical reality. But even after I finish and hand the mic back to the MC, the crowd continues going absolutely crazy.

“And that was Last Stand, a team consisting of the Scarlet Wolf, the Druid, the Mystic Guardian, the Little Reaper, and Inferno! Give it up for the team!” Scott shouts, the volume in the stadium growing louder and louder by the moment somehow. Then we all find ourselves back on the ground with another team having replaced us on the tower and in the screen.

I blink in a slight daze at the sudden teleportation before the daze clears up and I watch the other teams being interviewed. But none of them get anywhere near as big of a reaction as our team did.

Although that isn’t to say they aren’t getting a lot of attention. After all, there are still several teams left in the top five with other participants in the Primaries. Specifically the Class I Solo Primary Tournament that I’ll be competing in tomorrow.

There are even some people who are probably at my level, despite their mana levels being far lower than mine. Except a single student who actually has a higher mana level than me, likely having a magic that focuses solely on mana and their magical stat.

I look through the students, noting down each of their faces, along with the way many of the other teams are looking at us after our declarations.

Since we did basically just declare war on them after all.

So we better live up to that and win.