325 Tournament Annoucement
"Isn't this a bit unfair?" a third-year student spoke up.
"What can we do? This is the way they decided to do things," another replied.
Currently, the Blood Faction members were meeting, and the announcement about the End Year Tournament was the topic of discussion.
"But this isn't what we asked for," the third-year student said, frowning.
Everyone present understood his sentiment, but they felt they had no choice but to follow the rules.
"What do you think about this, Leon?" one of them asked Leonard Tarvian.
"No need to overthink. Just focus on winning," Leonard replied.
The answer was simple since they couldn't change the format. However, accepting this truth was challenging for everyone there.
If they lost, the Blood Faction would disband, as it was formed specifically to challenge the current Student Council. Thus, after the victor of the tournament was declared, the Blood Faction would dissolve regardless of the outcome.
The Blood Faction's goal was to change the power dynamics within the Student Council. After this tournament, there would only be two possible outcomes: change or no change.
"The second year is in good hands because of Blake, but our real concern is the first year," Leonard observed.
All of them nodded their head as First Year was the biggest problem right now.
The new format gave the chance to decide the winner of the tournament to Rank 1 of First, Second and Third Year Students.
And the last vote came from the collective vote of all the Students in those three years.
Only the Fourth Year student were exempted from participating due to the fact that after this tournament they will be leaving the World Academy.
They were pretty sure that Blake would win again. Despite the humiliation Blake suffered through these months, he was the strongest in the Second Year and the chances of him losing were very low.
Leaving the Third Year aside for now, the problem was the First Year.
The winner of that tournament was going to be Asher Greville, and they all knew that.
And currently, Asher was not allied with either the Student Council or the Blood Faction.
The format of the End Year Tournament remained the same as it was in a Duel format, but anything other than that was not shared.
"But why are they merging this with the End Year Tournament," Blake said as he broke the silence.
"No one here has that answer," Leonard responded.
"We only need to focus on the third year and first year; they're the unpredictable variables," Leonard pointed out.Given that many of the third-year students were closely matched in skill, predicting a winner for their duels was a challenge.
"Let's conclude our meeting for now. We'll regroup next week to strategize," Leonard said as everyone rose to leave.
The tournament dates had already been announced, and students were expected to intensify their training and enhance their ranks.
At the Faculty Building, the professors were in session.
"Isn't this announcement a bit rushed?" one queried.
"It's the Principal's decision; our hands are tied," Professor Arman responded.
Some wanted to argue that it seemed unfair, but they all understood that the ultimate authority rested with Farnus.
Xander wasn't present; he was in a discussion with Zemil, the Head of Security, regarding the Tournament.
Given that Xander was in charge in Farnus's absence, Zemil collaborated with him to ensure the event's security.
Following the incident at Kalvas Gala, Xander took it upon himself to oversee everything closely.
"Given the delay of the End Year Tournament, we'll also postpone the next student recruitment by a few months," Arman added.
The circumstances surrounding the Kalvas Gala incident made the delay unavoidable.
"We will also forego the Year End Break to minimize disruptions to the schedule," Arman stated.
Certain professors, particularly those with 1 and 2 stars, expressed their reservations about this decision.
Both students and professors valued the break. However, considering the reasons Arman presented and the current delay, it was an outcome they anticipated.
The completion of the new course, as well as the construction of the new monster-fighting arena, was on the horizon. Both were set to be revealed at the End Year Tournament.
"If anyone has any issue they are free to send a letter to Vice Principal Xander's office," Arman said.
The changes of a few Professors changed as the name of Xander was mentioned.
Some of them hated the idea of facing Xander due to his stern personality and the fact that incident of Xander cutting the hands of the Professors that were caught was still fresh in their mind.
Arman noticed some of them flinching at Xander's mention and he also understood why they might feel that way.
It was not only Xander's strength but the status he had that made them react in that way.
Everyone knew that Xander Demarcus had given up the seat of the Family Head and the seat in High Council. But the fact that he could still influence the Demarcus family made them remember how powerful of a figure Xander was.
Due to him staying away from the Upper Society, some people easily forgot about Xander.
And even Xander himself wanted to keep it that way.
Neyman just sighed, at their reaction as he knew their thought process.
"Please inform all the students about this, and the classes will end this week so ensure that everything is completed and if anything is left, you can take a week more but no more than that," Arman said as he concluded the meeting.While the End Year Tournament was coming near, the invitation were being sent to all the influential people.
"So it's about to start," Helena said as she hovered in the air.
Behind her was the infamous Armax Prison, and she was still protecting the prison with Alfred who had gone back for managing the guild and the family for a few days.
Due to the absence of the Watson Family's SSS Rank Hunter, Helena was given the responsibility to oversee the prison.
And she was the only one after the SSS Rank Hunters that was qualified to look over the place that harbored multiple dangerous people.
She looked behind, her and hundreds of extremely complex runes were visible to her and it was something that Dexter had himself done after healing his injuries.
He didn't wanted to the scenario of the Vault Heist to repeat so he changed everything and made a complex rune structure that even Helena doubted that she could pass through easily.
"He outdid himself," Helena muttered.
"He sure did," A voice of a old man came and Helena looked calmly to her side where Alfred was present.
"Are the twins fine?" Helena asked.
"That guy is taking care of it, and honestly the mess he created was hard to wipe," Alfred replied.
Helena raised her eyebrow a bit, as she understood what Alfred meant and he didn't expected such a extreme reaction from Nathan.
But knowing how the Greville were, she knew it wasn't strange what Nathan did.
As they were talking they sense a powerful presence and the turned to see a single man standing before them.
It was the SSS Rank Hunter of the Watson Family.
Helena and Alfred's eyes changed as they looked at the man.
"It seems I have made you two wait for too long," He said as he looked at Alfred and Helena.
"It's fine, " Helena replied.
Helena and Alfred already knew that the Watson Family's SSS Rank Hunter was going to return to oversee Armax Prison so they were expecting him.
The Guards of the Armax Prison came out to greet all three of them, and Helena brought out a bracelet that originally belonged to the Watson Family's SSS Rank Hunter.
The Bracelet floated towards the man in the air.
<Access Confirmed : Identity : Marvin Watson>
A voice came out of the bracelet as the identity of the man was confirmed.
The bracelet was an artifact that was connected to the entire Armax Prison, and it worked as the surveillance device.
Marvin went towards the Center of the Armax Prison, to complete the process while Helena and Alfred glanced at him.
"It seems he hadn't fully recovered yet," Alfred said with a interesting look on his face.
Suddenly the whole space around the Armax Prison was covered in a bluish light a big faint cube was made.
It was the special bloodline ability of the Watson family that made them responsible for taking care of the Armax Prison.
Both Alfred and Helena went out of the cube like space immediately, as the watched over the space that was covered by Marvin's ability.
"Still makes me wonder, how that ability works," Helena said looking at it.