The Ancient Genes

Orca Academy, Capital.

Today was the day of the results.

"You guys better pray that we win," Axel muttered nervously. He really had a bad feeling about this. They had lost the dummies after all.

"Why in hell do our luck suck so much?" Lear lamented with a sigh.

"There is no use crying over the spilled milk," Wilson was the calmest of them all. "Just think those dummies are all worth the points which Max would have contributed to us. And, now that Max is no longer participating, we don't have those points to depend on."

"Now, what do you think? Will we win without his contribution or not?" He further asked with a smile..

Axel couldn't help, but think that it was indeed one nice way to put it. Max definitely could have brought that much points all alone, no he would have definitely brought more. But, that was considering they had planned Max's inclusion.

Even without Max, Axel was sure that a good plan with all the remaining members would still easily place them in top 3. All they needed was a bit of luck, spirit, and accurate execution of plant to get the top.

"Did you guys see the event set up by Trinity?" Eren had recovered in the past two days, and returned back to good health.

"Yeah, they are having a hard time it seems," Lear muttered with a laugh.

"Don't laugh. Even in that situation, they had perfectly used the opportunity to prepare the event. And, they had done it perfectly in their favor and put them in an advantageous position." Axel berated him.

The first competition was over, and it had set the bar too high for other events. People really doubted any other event was going to be able to topple the Orca event. And, this was being questioned even more when Trinity had announced their event which was actually a long ranged combat event with 3v3 theme, and only one among the three was actually allowed to be a melee.

The event was going to be an elimination tournament in which the Academies would be grouped into two groups based on the results of the first event. The upper five teams were going to form one group while lower five were going to form one.

The rest of the process was easy, they would fight against each other until one was left in either of the groups, who would go on to be crowned the winner of the competition.

There were many speculations behind such a form of competition to be selected. And, some seemed pretty reasonable.

Trinity was definitely ranking in the bottom four in terms of power levels. Aside from that, the Orca event seemed to have caused some serious injuries to a few of their players which definitely wasn't a good thing.

In these situations, the form of the competition that they had chosen was definitely a good idea on their side. They were reducing the number to lessen the overall pressure by increasing their average levels. And, then Trinity had a God level archer, Oslen Roxley. At least that's what the people called him.

He was interestingly the son of Omen Roxley, and was extremely talented in bow.

And, to put a nail on the coffin. These b*stards had gone ahead to choose a stormy day as the weather condition.

It was definitely a blessing for lightning users, and Trinity didn't lack them. The only good thing was that Arcane had one too.

Hence, Wilson had become a part of the rooster already. The same was for Axel, I mean it was a long ranged battle. Unless you planned to lose, you wouldn't put him out. The last person was Lear volunteering himself. Even though he didn't say it, everybody knew he wanted to show off his skills in Trinity.

There were his parents there, as well as Lora's parents. He definitely wanted to look good in front of them. Hence, the team was formed.

"It's here!" Rias shouted, and the entire group pasted themselves on the screen as the rankings were revealed one by one by the host of the Competition.

"Well, then let's begin with the last place!" The person said with a smile, as the screen behind him flashed revealing the name along with the badge of the Academy.

The last place was Trinity. Those guys deserved it. People were probably celebrating it.

The next was Ocien, and Axel couldn't help but laugh at it. He sure was happy here.

Eight place was West Gale Academy, it was incredible to think they managed to place eight after what Arcane had done to them. It seemed that Bayu had single handedly pulled the team to that position.

Seventh was Ishtar, their position seemed to have taken a fall from the last competition. It surely wasn't good news for them.

Sixth was Blue Water.

"Hell! I knew it! We are in the top 5!" Axel clenched his fist in excitement.

Fifth was Vienna, they certainly had been fighting at full strength all around. If they had a bit more of reservation, and scheming ability, they would have surely climbed up a few more ranks.

Fourth was Zealand. Well, you had to give it to Faryl, he was Bahamut's elder brother after all.

With the top three left, everybody was on their toes. Axel and Lear had crossed their fingers. This was going to be close.

"Third place is....Ethera!!"

Axel breathed in relief. It seemed they really had scored enough even without the dummies.

"Well, let's go towards the first place now." The host smiled as he looked at the camera, "Let me tell you something interesting, there is only a difference of 120 points between first and second place."

Axel and Lear looked at each other and gulped inwardly.

This…

They would curse the organizers for an eternity if they lost today.

Only a few people, who were aware about the fact that Max had a spirit world, knew that they had collected the dummies and lost them as well. The rest didn't know, and it was better that way. They wouldn't be in a situation like Axel and Lear now.

Mark and Wilson were still calm though. After all, there was nothing they could have done about it.

"And, the winner is....."

"Just say it already!" Lear snapped in anger, seeing the guy drag it out like that.

"Orca Academy!!!!"