S&D
"The Ranking Match between rank 23 LowClouds and rank 22 NightSwordz will soon begin!"
A voice sounded out from multiple intercoms around the stadium, the announcement caused the decibels to rise a few notches.
In the centre of the stadium a massive arena was constructed, it was as large as 3 football (Soccer) fields put together and on opposite sides of the arena, comfortable-looking benches were built for the members of each faction.
"Jett explain more about this League Rankings, like how do these matches work?" Timo asked, he knew what the League rankings were and what they represented but he knew next to nothing about how it was run. The same went for most of the youths in the group.
"The League Rankings is run on a points-based system. There are currently over 100 factions in the sect but only 30 can participate in the actual competition so besides the top 20 factions who are automatically qualified to compete, the other 80+ factions will compete for the final ten spots. Once the 30 factions have been finalised the actual season will start. One season is 3 years long and every team will face each other once, thereby completing 29 matches a season. The top 8 teams at the end of the normal season will then compete in knockout matches. From Quarter Finals, Semi-Finals, 3rd-4th Place and then finally the Finals. The winner of the knockout matches is then considered as the number one faction until the next season starts."
"And how do these teams get points?"
"Every match there are 3 games and for every game won, a team will get 2 points. So the most points a team can get per match is 6 points. Oh, and every game is chosen randomly so the matches don't become stale and monotonous."
"Oh, that makes things interesting."
By the time Jett finished educating his friends about the League Rankings the two factions began to make their way onto the arena. Both Factions walked to the middle of the arena before turning to face each other. They stared at one another for a few seconds before bowing in respect not just towards the opposition but for the competition and the spectators who spent their hard-earned cloud points to spectate their match. After bowing they turned around and went to their respective benches.
The faction on the north side of the arena wore grey robes over their armour. The grey robes had the word LowClouds printed in black on the back. LowCloudz had a total of 26 members in their line-up.
On the opposite side, the members wore black cargo pants and each member wore a silver metal-plated armour over their upper body. Each member had at least one sword placed somewhere on their body and their auras were all sharp and confident. NightSwordz had 21 members in their line-up but based on the crowd reactions it seemed that they were the favourite in tonight's match.
"Ladies and Gentlemen welcome to the 16th match of the latest League Rankings! As you all know we have the factions currently ranked 23rd and 22nd facing off against each other so it's bound to be quite a contest. So without further ado.... let's spin the 'Wheel of Impartiality' to determine what the first game will be."
A man wearing a fully white modern tuxedo stood in the middle of the arena alongside a massive wheel that was large enough for everybody in the stadium to make out what was written on the wheel. There were a ton of different outcomes on the wheel. The man wearing the white tuxedo pulled a lever that was under the wheel causing the wheel to spin in place.
The wheel was rotating so quickly that very few were able to keep up with it and after 30 seconds of spinning, the wheel started to decelerate. The crowd was completely silent as they all awaited what the first game will be.
*Ping*
*Ping*
*Ping*
*PING!!!"
"Search and Destroy on the Voiceless Island!" The man in the white tuxedo announced with fervour. The crowd went nuts once the first game mode for game 1 was decided.
"In Search and Destroy each Faction will have to field 8 members with a maximum of 6 Inner Haven disciples. The first team to win 3 rounds will be the victor of Game 1. Every round the factions will switch between attackers and defenders. One round will last 20 minutes and the goal of the defenders is to prevent the attacking team from finding and planting the bomb on 1 of 2 monoliths placed at random that only the defenders know the location of. Now! Is everybody ready!!"
"YEEEEAAAAAAHHHHH!!"
"Game 1 starts in 3...2...1!!!"
The 8 selected members of each faction stepped onto the arena and suddenly felt their surroundings change. They were still in the arena but their surroundings were completely different and the loud atmosphere of the stadium disappeared.
Asher: "Woah the arena just instantly changed. That is so cool."
Jett: "Yep, that is the power of Formation Masters. The competitors feel like they are actually in that environment. The trees, water, earth and even the wind are completely real even though it's actually not. Even the space around them is altered so although the arena's dimensions haven't changed for us viewers, it is however changed for the competitors"
Jaxon: "So confusing."
Jett: "I know but it's not that hard to understand once you learn about the basics of Formations. The formation used here even allows the competitors to die but not actually die in the arena."
DT: "Damn maybe I should've become a formation Master instead."
While everyone was enjoying the new experience, Vasari was having a horrid time.
'Why is this place so damn noisy. Why did Miss Covington even give me tickets to something I can't see.' Vasari was truly not having a good time but since he could feel Witney's and the other's excitement, he decided to just deal with it. At least his friends were having a good time.
------
*Gong*
A timer counting down from 20 minutes appeared above the arena for all to see, it ticked down from 20:00 to 19:59 indicating that the round had started. NightSwordz were picked at random to be the first team to defend the monoliths.
The leader of the team tried to speak and give orders to his teammates but when he opened his mouth no words came out. The leader tried to speak many times but found himself unable to. His teammates found it weird and tried to speak but they too failed to make any sounds from their mouths. In fact, they couldn't hear anything, their footsteps made no noise, their clothes did not create any sound when they moved and even the forest around them was dead silent.
The spectators soon noticed this oddity and only when they remembered the name of the location for Game 1 did it click in their heads. The Voiceless Island. Basing it off the name alone it made sense why everything was silent.
"Ohoho now this is going to be fun to watch!" A random spectator in the crowd exclaimed to which many agreed.
The competitors weren't amateurs so they also came to the same conclusion as the spectators soon after. The leader changed his communication method to hand signals. He split their group of 8 into 3 sub-teams. 2 members will act on their own and engage in battle with whoever they find. Their primary goal was to distract the opposite team and run down the timer. The other two teams, consisting of 3 members each with 1 Outer Haven disciple in each team, had the duty of protecting the monolith. Their goal was to protect the monoliths but also not be found since that would give away the position of the monolith. It was a risky strategy but they were confident in their abilities as swordmen.
The members split up and got to work.
Voiceless Island was not too big of an island, having a total surface area of 13km but the abundance of vegetation made traversing the terrain quite arduous. It also made stealth a lot easier which was not good news for the team that has to attack.
5 minutes after the start of the round, the first confrontation began. One of the two members assigned to cause chaos found 4 members of the opposite team. There were 2 Inner Haven disciples and 2 Outer Haven disciples in the small group but that didn't stop the NightSwordz member from attacking them.
He unsheathed his katana, the blade was completely black and the hilt of the sword was griped in white leather. This NightSwordz member was their vice-leader who currently ranked 93rd on the Inner Disciple Rankings. He went by the name Meiga, he had short brown hair falling over his craggy handsome face and he sported a goatee which complimented his slightly longer-than-average nose.
'Dark Dash', Meiga uttered the name of his movement technique in his head before his entire body was enveloped inside a fog of darkness and his movements became hard to detect even for the spectators.
He rushed up within 10 metres of the unsuspecting group before slashing his katana in their direction.
'NightSword Art: Night slash'
A black blade made from mana formed from his katana shot out towards the 4 members of LowClouds. The mana blade was 3m in length and it effortlessly sliced through the bodies of the Outer Haven disciples. The Inner Haven disciples however felt a sudden fluctuation of mana and hastily tried to avoid the black mana blade that appeared behind them. One lost half of his arm and the other disciple had a deep cut on his back.
Both LowClouds members noticed that their wounds weren't bleeding and saw a mysterious dark energy enter their bodies. Their expressions became grim when they saw this and the cultivator with half his right arm sliced off, decisively took a dagger out of his spatial ring and slashed down at his arm, slicing it off from the shoulder down.
The cultivator with the cut on his back frowned but did not panic like the previous guy. He knew he was going to be eliminated from the round soon so he would do his best to eliminate Meiga or at least injure him before then. This man was Corey Hart and was currently ranked 108 on the Inner Haven disciple rankings and his teammate with a now missing right arm was Henry Barber ranked 241.
The battle between the 3 Inner Haven disciples was an exciting watch with both sides giving their all. Even though it was 2v1, Meiga had no problems holding his own against them. He was ranked higher than both of them for a reason and even if they weren't injured he believed he could take them on.
'NightSword Art: Lonely Star '
Meiga slashed 5 times in quick succession to create an ethereal 5 point star. The power of each slash was more than Henry Barber could handle and his body was sliced and diced before he exploded into tiny golden particles indicating his elimination.
'Shit' Corey Hart cursed in his head and seeing no way to escape this predicament he decided to go all out.
'Cloud Arts: Nimbostratus Rain of Death.'
Suddenly the surroundings darkened considerably as a large grey cloud formed above the heads of Corey and Meiga.
'Not good.' Meiga sensed danger from this cloud and his instincts told him to run but unfortunately, it was too late.
Drops of water started raining down from the dark cloud but these water droplets had a special quality that made it extremely deadly.
"No way Corey Hart has comprehended a mid-level water Intent!! I believe it to be the Metallic Water intent."
"Jeez, who would've thought he could comprehend such an intent."
Vasari and his group were able to hear the conversations happening around them and were taking in all the information they could. They knew what intents were since Miss Covington already taught them about it but hearing a phrase like 'mid-level intent' was new to them. They were all considered geniuses so it was not difficult for them to figure out that there are likely different types of Intents that had different properties that made them unique and better.
Back in the arena, Meida looked at his left arm that was just pierced by a mere drop of water and his eyes widened in disbelief. He wasted no time in erecting a barrier above him made from pure mana however before he could sigh in relief the raindrops tore through the barrier as if it was made from paper.
'Tsk how troublesome.' Meida was truly at a loss for what to do. He had to constantly supply mana to his shield to prevent him from looking like a block of Swiss cheese.
'Where the hell is that idiot? I swear if he just watching from afar I'm going to kill him.'
Just then a flash of silver light filled his vision before it receded as quickly as it came. Meida released a sigh of relief when he saw this and stopped supplying mana to his dark barrier. He saw the wide-eyed expression of Corey Hart as he stared at his own body which was now separated from his head. He as well exploded into thousands of golden particles confirming his elimination.
DT: "Oh my gaaawd did you see that! Holy shit these guys are next level!"
Jude: "The flash of light was intense, it felt like it was aiming straight at me."
Alex: "That must have been sword intent, it felt similar to when I watched my father fight a powerful beast.
Jiang Xia: "So this is the power of Inner Disciples. We would have died quicker than those Outer Haven disciples at the beginning."
Witney: "Humph they don't seem that amazing to me, their cultivation is just higher that's all. My Vasari could probably pummel them."
Vasari turned to face Witney with an incredulous look on his face. Was he really this amazing in her eyes? Even though he knew that he would have died 20 times over from that last strike that even though he couldn't see, his body still tensed up. And the worst part is what came next.
Talia: "I agree, Vasari would pummel them."
Everyone: "..."