Chapter 184: My Own Victory
Translator: Double_L Editor: Hitesh_
The first match of Battlecraft Combat ended with Best’s loss, and the gap between Capth and Ayrlarng-Bernabeu Alliance had widened again. It seemed like their victory in the first round was just a coincidence.
Members of the Alliance were devastated over Best’s defeat; everyone seemed crestfallen. Wang Tong wondered if he should be the one competing next. However, he wished to have a bit more time to rest. He needed to regain enough energy for the sake of the upcoming matches.
"Lemme do it. I promise I’ll beat the crap outta him!" Carl stood up all of a sudden. He seemed unaffected while the others were depressed.
However, everyone in the team looked at each other. They were more confident about Zhou Sisi or Wang Tong. After all, the risk of losing would be bigger if they sent Carl up.
"I think it’s worth trying." Cao Yi agreed. Everyone then dropped their doubts as Cao Yi said that, because he was the most trustable and rational person in the team. Furthermore, he had been helping Carl with his secret strategy recently. Surprisingly, he was never annoyed by Carl’s attitude.
"Go get’em, bro!" Wang Tong said that as he noticed that Zhou Sisi wasn’t ready for the challenge, not to mention her techniques and strategies were similar to Best’s. Hence, the possibility of winning would be very low. Everyone from the team should be able to trust Carl since he volunteered himself confidently.
"Second match: Kal versus Carl."
This would be a battle between two individuals with similar names. On Capth’s side, Kal seemed to be very excited about defeating Best, because he didn’t expect that he would be able to win against an ace player of Battlecraft Combat with his own strength. Clearly, the victory had significantly boosted his confidence. As Kal looked at his opponent, he wondered if the Alliance had given up, sending some weakling to take him on. In fact, the only thing that got Capth’s team confused after going through the Alliance’s data was this dude named Carl. No one was able to tell why would Ayrlarng and Bernabeu recruit this clown in their team.
"Excuse me judge, are you sure about that this dude is my opponent? If I were to be a bit more disrespectful, I’d really love to crush him with only one hand."
Kal was very arrogant in this match, perhaps it was due to the previous victory. However, it couldn’t be helped because Kal might literally be able to single-handedly defeat a weak player like Carl.
Yet surprisingly, Carl didn’t talk back. Instead, he was busy preparing himself and warming up his fingers.
Kal might have said something arrogant, but he immediately focused himself upon entering battle mode. He kept telling himself not to get nervous and make careless mistakes. As long as he was able to do it like how he used to perform, he would be able to make a perfect victory without breaking a sweat!
This was Carl’s first time taking part in a major competition like this. Yet to his surprise, he wasn’t nervous at all.
He should be nervous, but he was totally calm!
Instead, he was kind of excited and presumptuous, like he was trying to release the energy that had been sitting inside for a very long time at once. He had been preparing for this day, and he was grateful that throughout his journey, his teachers had never given up on him and his teammates had never thought that he was a disgrace.
He had been longing for a day like this, a day for him to finally shine, and the excitement within had turned into calmness.
"Looks like he’s doing good. I can sense a strong fighting spirit in his eyes." Wang Tong commented.
"But, isn’t it a bit too risky? I think it’s better to let Sisi handle this match." Ma Xiaoru seemed worried.
"Haha, Sisi, I noticed that your hands are trembling just now. Clearly, you’re not ready yet, so it’s best for you to stay outta this. I might sound a bit harsh, but I think Carl was the calmest candidate amongst all of us." Wang Tong said in a serious tone.
Zhou Sisi nodded in silence. Without a doubt, she was not confident at all. Even Best had lost, so there was no way that she would be able to win. She seemed sort of depressed and ashamed. Ma Xiaoru went over and held her hands while blaming Wang Tong for being so harsh on the poor girl.
Nevertheless, Ma Xiaoru respected Wang Tong’s greatness and strength. She admired his cool yet fierce attitude.
Meanwhile, Carl’s operating maneuvers seemed kind of weird as no one had ever seen such a strange strategy before. Apparently, the dude was building an air base first instead of making anything else. Was he trying to mimic Art of the Soaring Heaven?
However, the key to every strategy was the precise timing of development, and imitation without understanding this would only worsen the situation. After a series of recons, Kal seemed relieved, as it looked like his opponent was not the hidden ace. Perhaps, the Alliance really had given up.
Kal’s strategy was to finish his operating maneuvers perfectly and knockout his opponent with a single wave of attacks. However, he did develop an anti-aerial system just in case that dude was also able to pull off some insane Cloning Techniques. Kal needed to end this as soon as possible.
But before Kal could send out his units, his opponent had already begun to attack. On the other hand, Carl was "high" as hell, as he was the kind of person who would break the limit in critical moments. This explained why he could become one of Massa’s favorite trainees. There were basically two types of people, some who were very skillful but would freak out due to lack of confidence, and others who were born fearless and would become more excited as the tension rose. Usually, these type of people possessed an unimaginable level of strength.
Carl fell under the second type of people, not to mention that he had prepared something huge for the sake of this occasion.
Carl’s strategy was to interfere his opponent by deploying Heavy Armed Units via airdrop!
Although Kal’s ground troops had the advantage in terms of numbers, he was definitely overpowered by the long-range attacks of Carl’s Heavy Armed Units, and Carl was attacking like a madman, constantly bombarding at random places and continuing his developments in his own base.
At that moment, Flash and Bisu began to look worried. Obviously, this was a new strategy that they had never seen before!
A brand new battle strategy!
While most people were busy copying and rectifying things that were created by someone else, some people preferred to create and invent. They were not afraid of failing and being embarrassed. Instead, they liked to let their imaginations run free.
So did Carl! Apparently, he had successfully created this airdrop strategy that sounded impossible and absurd at the beginning!
Kal was nervous. He wanted to go all out, yet he couldn’t leave his base unprotected. Meanwhile, Carl’s troops were gradually increasing. Soon, he would be able to surpass his opponent’s number of troops and outrace him in terms of operating maneuvers and developments!
No one had expected this!
Vice Principal Halmond was petrified. How was this possible?
The tables were completely turned. Carl, who students of Capth addressed as "Fake Kal" due to the similar pronunciation of their names, had obtained the upper hand. Kal might be more talented than Carl, but Carl was able to outwit him and create a huge advantage.
As mentioned in "The Art of War", instead of power, strategy was actually the key towards victory! However, there was also a one and only exception throughout the millennia, who was known as the legendary Blade Warrior.
Geniuses might be more talented and skilled in mimicking other strategies, but they were nothing compared to those who had the ability to create and invent!
Carl had clearly won in terms of creativity!
After all, the world would never run out of mimickers, but not everyone had what it took to become a creator!
Carl was confident and unbreakable as always; the only thing he had been waiting for was a perfect chance for him to shine!
Carl, who had obtained the advantage, was doing better and better. He was even constantly terrorizing his opponent. Everyone was amazed by his perfect sense of timing. On the other hand, Kal’s base was completely toasted.
Kal was able to accept being defeated by Best. However, he couldn’t accept the fact that he was being owned by some weak nobody that he had never heard of. After all, Kal was an elite trained by Capth’s Battlecraft Combat team. He hung into it and even tried to turn the tables with his own strength. Kal was unwilling to lose, because this was his stage of creating miracles!
Yet, Carl had become unstoppable; nothing else would be able to stand in his path!
Finally, Samantha understood why would so many people recommend Carl. To be honest, she had never expected Carl to win a battle at the beginning. To Samantha, it would be fine for Carl if he could weaken the opponent a little.
However, Carl won!
Kal had removed his hands from the control panel. He had decided to give up.
The fifteen-year-old Kal broke into tears. He was unable to accept his failure. He had never imagined that the first defeat that he suffered would be so cruel.
The other candidates of Capth kept quiet; no one was expecting this result. For some reason, the students of Washington Military Academy had also arrived at the arena, and they were also stunned by Carl’s amazing battle strategy.
Clearly, this wasn’t some half-assed coincidence; it was really a new battle strategy!
Cao Yi, who was always keeping a low profile, too couldn’t hold back his excitement and grabbed his fist. They had really taken a big risk to create a new strategy, and they had been very careful in every step. It was indeed unimaginable for two students to achieve this, not to mention both Carl and Cao Yi were not even top-notch aces.
Today, everyone would remember the name, Carl!
Halmond and Samantha were able to notice that there were still flaws in this new strategy. However, they were sure that sooner or later, Battlecraft Combat players from every academy would study and refine it after watching the video footage of this battle, because this new piece of strategy was clearly very effective.
The player who created this masterpiece would also have the right to name it.
Halmond calmed down and looked at Kal. He understood Kal’s current feeling, after all, one would always fall in a battle between two geniuses.
Being the senior of Kal, Flash went over and patted his back, "You did great, leave the rest to us."
At this point, everyone had finally realized that Ayrlarng-Bernabeu Alliance was not an alliance of random weaklings, but a combined force of aces. This was their best team formation.
Kal wiped his tears; he was still feeling bad for losing.
As the host of this tournament, Halmond kept his cool and said, "Young man, we’re all impressed by your new battle strategy. Right now, you have the right to give it a name, and you’ll be honored forever in the history of Battlecraft Combat!"
Even teachers would never be able to have this kind of honor, let alone students.