After that, we spent the remaining few hours talking to each other before the time for lights out. With that, we enforced a healthy rivalry for the remaining few matches. Although, only I and Wan Li was claiming to win the tournament as Wan Er was convinced that she can’t win against her sister.
Guren, on the other hand, already lost and was only going to spectate the remaining matches. Although he would be staying at a different place from tomorrow, we promised to remain friends with each other.
That night, having gained my first few friends in this world, I slept peacefully.
The next morning, as I was in the first match, I quickly prepared to go to the stadium. I didn’t see the others on the way out so they should be coming a bit later.
When I reached the stadium, a lot of spectators were already gathering around the entrance. It seems that this competition is drawing more spectators than the maximum capacity. Even reaching the participant’s entrance was hard due to the large crowd.
Inside the waiting room, I quickly focused on my disordered breathing. Of course, this isn’t only due to running towards the waiting room but also due to nervousness.
“Ember, our opponent this time is a dragon. Are you ready?”
Ember jiggled in response, saying “of course” through her gestures. Seeing how confident she seemed, I nodded my head in satisfaction. With this, our win would depend on whether our formulated battle plan would work or not.
Of course, I made a backup plan and a backup for the backup plan. But if nothing works, then we could only lose. While thinking this, I realized that I was unconsciously gripping my fist too tight. My palms turned as white as paper since blood wasn’t able to flow through them properly.
A few minutes later, the same employee from yesterday came to lead the way. I followed him toward the gate once more. Since I was so focused, it seems that I missed the announcer’s introduction, I laughed bitterly at the realization of how nervous I really am.
“Next, we have Will from the West Gate! Will and his big slime Ember showed us unbelievable skillfulness in yesterday’s battle. Will we see another upset from this seemingly weak tamed beast?!”
As the announcer excitedly announced, I quickly walked towards the stage. This time, the cheers were more positive compared to yesterday’s. I guess yesterday’s match proved that I didn’t win through pure luck. Still, there are the boos from here and there. I guess gamblers hate me. ｂｎ𝚘ｖ𝚕．𝚘𝚛𝚐
Across from me, on the other side of the stage, a small girl stood with a hand on her waist. Her posture exuded plain confidence along with her expression. Though, no matter how I look at it, she looks too young to be a tamer. If I didn’t hear her introduction yesterday, I wouldn’t think that she was two years older than me.
After both Ember and the Emerald Dragon went up the stage, I can’t help but worry. It’s like watching a battle between an elephant and a mouse with how much their sizes differ. What’s more, the opponent is a dragon whose base stats are greatly higher than a slime. And to add, it even was one stage higher compared to Ember.
“… This will be a hard fight…”
As I was starting to lose confidence, the announcer quickly announced the start of the battle.
“Now that the two sides are in position, Helen versus Will! A battle between a dragon and a slime! Let the battle start!”
“Ember, quickly use [Cloning]!”
“Greeny, use [Rupture]!”
As I was giving orders to Ember through the telepathic link, Helen raised her voice and shouted her order. Hearing that, my heart almost stopped.
Using that skill would surely incapacitate us in one hit. There’s no way to evade it unless Ember could fly. It seems that Helen wants to finish the battle in one fell swoop, not giving us time to create enough variables.
However, this was still within expectations, although it was around the edge of the “worst case” scenarios.
“Ember, helicopter!”
Hearing my new order, Ember quickly canceled her clone and used [Polymorph]. She changed her form into something like a stick with three propellers sticking out perpendicularly, with two wide fins near the bottom. Then, she quickly rotated her body, saving energy like a coiled spring.
After enough turns were reached, she quickly released her grip on the ground causing her to quickly rise into the air. Of course, she lacks the volume to create an actual helicopter, so we could only create a quasi-propeller that has enough thrust to support her own weight. She couldn’t control her flight and could only go straight upward, still, she rose as fast as a speeding bullet.
“What’s this?! Tamer Helen decided to use her trump card as her opening move! on the other hand, tamer Will’s slime is flying! It just shot up into the air! What a great way to evade [Rupture]!”
The announcer was excitedly commenting on the battle. The audience was both surprised and excited about how the match started. The cheers were so loud that the whole stadium was almost shaking.
‘It may look like we successfully evaded her skill, but this is actually a bad situation for us. Ember can’t evade while in the air!’
If Helen noticed this, she would definitely attack using long-range skills. If that happens, we’ll be at a disadvantage. Fortunately, it seems like Greeny, the Emerald Dragon, couldn’t stop its skill until execution. Annoyance was clearly visible in the dragon’s expression as it watched Ember evade the skill it used.
After the ground closed up, Ember was already on the way down. Greeny, on the other hand, was still stiffened right after releasing such a big move.
“Ember, now!”
Hearing my command, Ember quickly did as practiced. Right now, she was so high up in the air that she looked no more than a dot in the clouds. Taking advantage of the high altitude, Ember quickly used [Cloning] to split into two bodies.
Right after that, the clone quickly used [Polymorph] and [Expand] to turn into an extra large javelin pointing downwards. The main body on the other hand just used [Expand] to increase its size right before using [Tackle] to push the javelin into the direction where the Emerald Dragon was.
Since there was nothing like a foothold in the air, the tackle’s power was extremely lowered. Despite that, it was enough to correct the trajectory of the free-falling javelin.
This chain of skills only occurred in less than a second. Before Greeny was able to recover from the stiffened state, the javelin-shaped clone landed on its back. The impact caused the whole stadium to shake, and what remained of the stage after the use of [Rupture] was further blown to bits.