“Zero!!!”
They all glanced at Zero nervously. However, at the moment, Zero was not even paying attention to any of this and was deeply in thought.
The students took this as Zero thinking of some plan and admired him for keeping a straight face even in such a disadvantageous situation. If they had been in Zero’s shoes, they know that they would have probably caused a scene.
The opponents were all from the academy which was the enemy of Ace Academy. Furthermore, both Omar Noel and Luciano Elderik, who are Aces of their respective academies, are also in the group, as well as the only Rank-B student. Other students were also quite strong with the weakest being at Rank-D +.
That means Zero had to face all those Top-ranked students by himself. They would have surrendered from the start if it was them.
But this was Zero that they were talking about. Those 9 students were all defeated by Zero in the first round. So would the second round be any different? They didn’t think so.
The student of Ace Academy was not worried that Zero would be defeated. Instead, they knew that it was all those students who had bad luck for having to face Zero. Same were the thoughts of many participants.
However, Zero remained seated without moving at all. If it was another student, the students who were staring at him might have assumed that he/she was too scared to fight. However, knowing it was Zero, they knew it was not the case. They thought that Zero was thinking about some plan.
Quite some time had passed and all other participants from group 1 had stepped onto the stage. They were all waiting for Zero to come there. The more they waited, the more nervous they became.
The audiences eagerly awaited for Zero to show up.
The Ace Academy student became a little impatient seeing that Zero was not moving at all. However, they didn’t dare to disturb Zero. No one wanted to be on the negative side of Zero including the professors who were impatiently waiting.
-PAK!
Someone finally hit Zero on his back and woke him up.
“Zero!”
“Huh? What?”
Zero came back to reality. He was deeply thinking about the problem with Professor Mia’s behavior and wasn’t aware of what was happening in the stadium at all. All he saw was people staring at him for no reason at least that was how it seemed from his perspective.
He was confused about his situation.
“It is your turn!”
Sylvia said.
Everyone was scared of disturbing Zero. Well, almost everybody! Sylvia has no problems hitting Zero since she used to make fun of him on a daily basis. She has no problem slamming her hand hard on Zero’s back to make him open his eyes.
He understood why Sylvia called him. He then looked at the names displayed on the big screen and understood the reason why they were all staring at each other. It was because it was his turn!
He then stood up and headed towards the arena. But he was still worried about Professor Mia. Moreso when she didn’t return even after 30 minutes had passed.
Professor Mia was Rank-S and if she wanted to solve something, she would have easily solved those problems. For her to take so much time might mean that something serious has happened.
However, Zero didn’t have any idea about her situation. He could only focus on his match and hope that Professor Mia was alright.
He then glanced at the participants on the stage. As he looked at his opponent, he was aware that the allocation of students was already set by someone in advance.
How else can you get a full lineup of powerful students who are all his enemies?
( Bad luck for them! )
Even with such preparation, they are still most likely going to lose. It would have been better if they had avoided putting their best students in the same group as me. Though by doing that they will still lose in the next round which is one-on-one.
They might be trying to defeat me with their numbers. And then they would let Omar Noel or that Rank-B girl advance to the next round.
Without me, there is not a single person who can defeat them. Hiro would also have a high chance of losing to Omar Noel if he fought with him at his full power.
-THUD! -THUD!
“Let’s use that as planned!”
“You all quickly set up the formation as soon as the match starts!”
Like Zero said, the students there were all arranged in advance and the students present there knew that. They had already worked out a plan to deal with Zero.
They knew that they would be facing Zero and had prepared something for him. For the past three days, they had been practicing something to win against Zero.
They were fully prepared to face Zero. With Rank-B girl and Omar Noel by their side, they knew that they could take care of Zero.
However, that didn’t mean that they were less frightened of Zero. When Zero was coming up to the stage. They can’t help but be slightly scared.
-GULP!
They nervously waited for the match to start. The students were already grouped into two; One was the lone Zero while on the other side, all the other participants were gathered, showing everyone that they were working together.
Though for the audience who witnessed the first round either in the stadium or on the TV at home, it was no surprise. But the people watching this for the first time were puzzled. They were puzzled by how Omar Noel, the supposed strongest student, was teaming up with other students and being wary of Zero.
“All the participants have arrived. Now, let the first match of the second round begin!”
The referee’s voice vibrated throughout the stadium.
Even with the excitement in the air, the audience managed to keep silent. Everyone was quietly watching the fight which seemed to have turned into 1 vs 9. They could not wait to find out how this match would turn out to be.
The first match turned into the most anticipated match of the tournament. They knew that the winner of this match would probably decide which school would win the tournament.
“GO!”
Ruelle commanded the other students.
They quickly circled around Zero and surrounded him. They took some kind of object and with some hand gestures, they quickly deployed some kind of barrier with only Ruelle and Zero inside.
Zero didn’t know what they were doing. He thought that the best they could do was to take advantage of their numbers and attack him together. Never did he expect that they would force him to fight One-on-One.
( Well, easier for me! )