Chapter 32: The Kroaks


    If Jim entered the academy with inner disciple ranking, then their ce would be higher than servants. They would be able to attend sses at the outer academy, like being outer disciples themselves.


    That wasn''t a bad thing for most, only Rick seemed quite annoyed with such an end. He should be in the team entering the inner academy, yet he ended up saving his life and being so close to be an outer academy disciple.


    "It isn''t that bad," he said to himself trying to find benefits in his past decision. "I just hope I won''t regret it."


    "Lan, go and scout for us," Jim said while he nced at his ball of fire. Its intensity decreased by one third, meaning he might enter the next battle with it.


    For him, he didn''t mind that. Anything boosting his strength and raising his odds was weed. Besides, this wasn''t all the strength he could muster.


    Lan went to the ce of masters before hurriedly returning in less than two minutes.


    "Tsk, I want to kill that capped master!" Jenny didn''t need Lan to reach them and speak as she already figured out what was going to happen.


    "Me too," Deno was the most nervous of all, if not beside Lan himself. The two''s kin were branded not to enter the academy as official disciples. One was doomed to be a servant and the other one had his race prohibited since ancient times from being a disciple!


    "Big news!"


    Even before he could reach them, Lan shouted with extreme anxiety. "The teaming to face us next is another prestigious n team."


    "What?!!" Ashley said.


    "Another A ss team?!!" Deno muttered while feeling the pressure already.


    "A werewolf team?" Rick had his hopes high for his n to spend anything to rescue him.


    "No, it''s the kroaks!"


    His words fell and everyone aside from the three humans had their faces gloomy for a reason or another.


    "What are Kroaks?" Ashley asked.


    "It''s a miniature version from krakens," Deno replied with a long sigh, "they have big bodies, long tails, strong shell acting like armor covering most of their bodies, and most importantly" he paused as he turned to nce at Jim, "they excel at water based abilities, especially that annoying water breath."


    "Water breath?" Jim said while ncing over his ball of fire. "Do they n to counter my fire?" he asked before suddenlyughing.


    Everyone nced strangely at him, while he didn''t bother himself to exin. "Great, that''s simply great," he said before adding, "how many of them areing? Five? Or do they n to match our numbers?"


    "Eight areing," Lan said, "they are now on their way to here and sent a word up ahead to make the fight dy for a couple of minutes."


    "We need strong tactics and offense," Deno remarked as he was trying to think how to win this fight.


    "We need strong defense as well," Gorden said, as he knew how strong those Kroaks were.


    "Just tell me more about their abilities and the way to fight," Jim demanded, ignoring what the two others just said.


    "They use mainly the water shockwave ability," Rick was angry, very angry with his n that he decided to push further here and prove them wrong!


    Last year they had an incident in the n, one of the youths was captured as a ve for another rival n. The entire n threatened to go to war and even sent the elite team of theirs to harass the other n until they released that youth.


    "He is quite precious, that was what they said," he muttered to himself. "Am I that useless to them?" he felt insulted, and knew his n had already abandoned him while he didn''t dy to support and answer their call.


    "Exin more," Jim urged him.


    "They have four arms with each ending with scissor-like extensions. They used all of the four together and created a small water ball that will fly fast and explode on any target, creating a strong shockwave that can cause considerable damage," he said what he knew about them before adding, "and this ability is ranked basic, meaning everyone of them will have it."


    "Hmm" Jim thought for a moment , before asking, "what else?"


    "The water prison nasty trick, have you forgotten about it?" Deno said as he nced over Rick for a moment.


    "It''s used by at least two of them, and not everyone has it!" Rick defended.


    "Sure, but once used, whoever inside will be considered done for if not one of the two using the trick was killed," Deno said before adding, "also the water swamp ability is another nasty one."


    "But it''s extremely rare," Pat said.


    "Like Rick''s ability here," Lan pointed to the werewolf before adding, "I think someone is trying his best to make you fail."


    Lan gave Rick a long nce before adding, "I heard a rumor about a giant roaming the big ns and trying to convince them to send their elite teams to participate."


    "Pol?" Jenny asked before cursing, "That damn giant! I want to kill him!!"


    "I also heard the same thing beforeing from the n camp," Rick confessed while adding, "he seems to hate you a lot."


    "Wondering why?" Jim asked while an evil smile appeared on his face, "don''t worry boys, we will kill them all and might gain ourselves one or couple of them as ves."


    His words were met by weird nces, but he ignored them. For him, his enemies just fell into a trap, taking wrong decisions about his abilities and greatly underestimating him.


    "Listen, this will be the n," he then started to exin things, and just as he finished and before he could hear their thoughts out; loud bangs appeared from one direction of the arena.


    "Sigh, they are famous for their loud entrance!" Deno muttered while he and everyone watched eight giant silhouettesing from the corridor and entering the arena.


    They had giant bodies like Deno, with four big arms ending up in scissors and long curved up tails. Their faces were covered with faint blue and silver small scales, while their bodies were covered with thick golden shells.


    They entered the arena while jumping on one leg and the other was moving in the air, their tails hit each other while their hands sped causing that regr bang sound.


    "They are dancing?!" Ashley was speechless while the opponent team entered the arena in that fashion, ending up their entrance with a big jump beforending on the ground and causing a final loud bang with their hands.


    "Damn! They are good dancers!" Jenny said beforeughing, "I changed my mind, I want them all to be added to our team to make it more lively and fun!"


    Everyoneughed while the Kroaks team was weed with arge wave of apuse from the audience.


    "They had the support of the masses," Lan said while shaking his head, "our impact created minutes ago is washed clean by what they just did!"


    "Who said we want any support?" Jim smiled as he added, "Let''s show everyone we aren''t the pushovers they think we are."


    "The two teams move forward to the arena for the fight to start," the capped master said before adding with a grin on his face, "the Kroaks'' team is quite confident in his win, so they have a proposition to make.


    If Jim''s team agreed to face them half numbered and managed to sustain in the arena for five minutes, then it would be considered Jim''s team''s win. In addition to the win, half of the living members of the Kroaks will be Jim''s ves. What Jim team says about this offer?"