The next round of the Mage Handball Tournament would have the much-awaited match between Lanthanor and Axelor, and the betting odds suggested that Lanthanor was slated for victory.
In the waiting room of the Axelor Kingdom, two men were pacing on two opposite corners of the room while the rest of the team stood idly, waiting for the bell to ring.
After a minute, one of the men, who had a topknot in his hair and a rugged and tanned face, stopped and said aloud, "We can't let this continue. I have a plan to defeat the Lanthanorians. Will you all listen to me?"
The team consisted of those from Axelor too, so he first said this to everyone before using a communication trinket to send a different message to all those from his sect.
"I know the sect only denoted me the leader so that I can make sure that no one breaks the rules that were set for us. I don't have the authority to make you all listen, but I IMPLORE you to. I've just had enough of losing. I just humbly ask you to consider what I'm proposing."
While he was sending this message, the Axelorians in the room had already nodded and were listening.
They had just been told that these were mages the King trained personally, but they knew the truth. Of course, they weren't so dumb as to antagonize the strongest forces on the continent, so they kept their mouths shut. As for their feelings inside, some felt that this was a despicable move, but some agreed with the King that all stops had to be pulled out for victory.
During the silence that followed, each of those who weren't from Axelor turned around to the man still pacing on the other end of the room.
He had an irritated expression on his face, and he looked like he would burst into a fit of anger soon.
However, feeling the gazes on him, he looked towards the other end to look into the eyes of the one who had sent the request.
He was tempted to refuse just to cause frustration, but he hated losing just as much.
Hence, finally, he just nodded, after which the man with top-knot breathed a sigh of relief and started explaining his plan.
…..
After the match started amid the frenzied energy of the crowd which seemed to be rising with each second, Lanthanor gained control of the ball and implemented the same strategy: with Cassandra at the center, a tank was formed which barrelled towards the other end.
Inside it, Cassandra was biting her lip while remembering the orders she had received from the King just before the start of the match.
"Use the same strategy. Do not expose anything new. Even if you are losing."
She didn't like it one bit, but she knew that the King must have some reason for risking the loss of the support of the crowd which had been obtained after much effort.
Regardless, she had had her victory, and it was now time to follow orders.
She still had the faint hope that she could obtain victory while following the orders, but this came under attack just a second late.
In front of her, the ground had melted into sticky clay which would definitely impede them and make them ripe targets for attack if they ventured into it. Teleportation was out of the question, so the only option was to move to the side.
There was also the option to just disperse the tank right now, but she didn't choose it as there was still a long distance to go, and it would be impossible to score using that strategy from here.
Just as she gave the order to go left, a wall of fire sprung up in that spot.
The advantage of the tank formation of Lanthanor was that mages could modify the properties of the material on the outside with regards to what situation they were facing. For instance, here, because there was an inferno to face, a layer of ice was conjured which protected them from the high temperature.
However, their speed was slowed down as a result of the conjuring, as a little bit of time was needed to make the layer appear.
Tanks usually had more soldiers, and because there were only 15 here, Cassandra had chosen mostly metal elementary particle specialized mages so that the tank could come into existence instantly.
Hence, the weakness was that the other elements had fewer mages, which was the cause behind the need for time.
DING
When they slowed down, a projectile which seemed to be made of metal hit a specific spot on the tank, but Cassandra didn't pay any mind to it as she just thought it was an errant attack.
Yet, after passing through the inferno was a blizzard, and they had to slow down again.
DING
Feeling the entire integrity of the tank go down by a bit, she checked and realized with horror that the attack had been at the exact same spot.
Just as she was about to order that part to be strengthened, another attack struck, making them even weaker.
Meanwhile, Daneel, who was watching from Lanthanor's booth, raised an eyebrow as he saw the way the attacks were aimed and timed perfectly.
If the tank could move faster, it was clear that they wouldn't hit.
From this, the enemy strategy was clear: slow down the tank using obstacles, and penetrate using an attack on a single spot.
Looking at the Axelorian team, he got a suspicion that a man with a top-knot, who was shooting the metal elementary attacks, was the one who was directing everyone.
If this was true, then he was someone to watch out for, as he had managed to figure out the best way to attack a land-borne tank, which was also what had been used back on Earth during the World War.
Terrain, and penetrative attacks. Against these two, tanks were powerless.
Soon enough, Lanthanor's tank was penetrated and control of the ball was taken away by disabling the one who held the ball.
After the first point went to Axelor, the crowd was surprised, but they welcomed it as it really was invigorating to see the ways that obstacles could be put up using the elements.
However, when they witnessed Lanthanor losing point after point, those who had bet heavily on it started to scream with hopelessness.
Yet, except for a few points obtained by fluke when the tank could be formed nearer to the goal, Lanthanor kept giving away point after point.
It couldn't be helped as the average power level of Axelor was higher than theirs, and they had also been ordered not to use any other formations.
Hence, when the match ended 42-10 with Axelor gaining a resounding victory, the people in the stadium who lost their money started to curse.
Meanwhile, in Axelor's booth, the King had a slight smile on his face, but he knew very well that there were definitely more cards up Lanthanor's sleeves.
Hence, he said, "The plan stands. Get ready to deploy whenever we have a risk of losing.", before going back to training.
Next was the match between Arafell and the Black Raven Kingdom, with the latter eating another loss that only demotivated the Kingdom's people more.
Some even started to wonder whether they had called everyone to their land for them to witness their humiliation.
At least in the mage matches, they knew that it couldn't be helped as Arafell did have more powerful mages even before the Black Raven Kingdom got weakened.
They were using a similar strategy as Arafell to score, but it didn't work as well when facing up against those who outclassed them.
The match ended 30-25, bringing the day to a close.
As the people started to go back to Olympia, the general mood of the crowd was that they regretted seeing this event come to an end.
Tomorrow would be the final two stages of the Mage and Fighter Handball tournaments, and the final winner would be crowned who would be lauded by all the most powerful Kingdom in the continent.
More upset, more susprises, more excietement.
This was the expectation, and everyone had a feeling that they wouldn't be disappointed.
The night was mostly uneventful, as the guards had made good on their promise of throwing anyone out who dared to cause a disturbance.
As the sun dawned on the final day, dark clouds started to gather in the skies.
It would be a tumultuous day, and it seemed that even the heavens agreed with this.