Chapter 123: United We Stand
Translator: Double_L Editor: Tehrn
Samantha saw Martyrus as her role model for his effort and willpower to transform a B-Ranked academy into the famous and strong Bernabeu of today. Martyrus greatest advantage was his ability to discover the potentials among students, which even Samantha had to admit being inferior in this field.
"I’m impressed, I didn’t expect you would do this," Martyrus said as he skimmed through the proposal of Samantha’s alliance plan, which he had no reason to turn down.
"Principal Martyrus, I graduated from Capth too, and I know how dangerous they are, which is why we cannot depend on luck at all. My idea is that each of us selects twenty students and have all of them train together, then we select the best ten students to challenge Capth, regardless of Bernabeu or Ayrlarng. No matter if we win or if we lose in the end, I believe both our academies will be able to learn something new from the collaboration!"
Martyrus sighed as he was convinced by Samantha, "If only I had given up my desire for fame and fortune at the very beginning, maybe Bernabeu might have been even stronger. Okay, let’s do it your way; however, the usual training will be ineffective for these geniuses; for instance, previously I sent Apache to receive his training at the Spatial Anti-Smuggling Bureau, but now it’s impossible to send everyone there to be trained. Also, there’s another problem, students might be able to increase their experiences in real battles, but the lack of systematic guidances and advice will hold them back on learning to the utmost extent."
"No worries Principal Martyrus, I’ve already found a solution for that. Right now, all we need is a good venue, if everything goes smoothly, we might be able to use the experimental base of the FFC."
"...You mean FFC’s Paradise Island?"
"Indeed, since the island has comprehensive equipment and a realistic environment, it will be the best training field for the candidates." Samantha nodded.
"Very well, if you can successfully obtain Paradise Island as the training base, I’ll lead a team by myself and provide you our full support. I’ll leave you to gather the team of trainers and instructors and feel free to pick anyone from Bernabeu!" Martyrus said as he pounded the table. For the first time, he saw a ray of hope to win against an S-Ranked academy.
He was tired of getting bullied by S-Ranked academies throughout the years even though they managed to learn a lot from each defeat, but no one liked to be bullied every time, so of course, he would seize every single chance of vanquishing S-ranked academies.
"I’m glad you will be leading the team yourself, Principal Martyrus!" Samantha nodded and continued, "If we could provide well-directed training courses, I’m sure the students will be able to create a miracle!"
"To be honest, it was actually Wang Tong that got me interested in your proposal. If he isn’t included, the possibility of winning against Capth will be less than 10% even if we combined our forces. Wang Ben, Apache, and the others might look like the aces in our team, but their levels are only normal and not even outstanding if compared to the No.1’s of Capth."
"You seemed to be quite interested in Wang Tong, he was only lucky for his victory against Apache."
Martyrus shook his head, "There’s no such thing as coincidence, I’ve always been proud of my judgment, yet I still made a mistake by misjudging Wang Tong before the tournament. Trust me, our dream of defeating Capth will definitely come true if we can unlock all of his potentials!"
"I have to tell you, Principal Martyrus, this kid is a menace, and you’ll see what I mean when you get to meet him in person. Wang Tong always do things his way, and I simply can’t do anything to fix him, sometimes it even gives me a lot of troubles to talk sense into him."
Martyrus smiled, "Yet you managed to shape him well, didn’t you? At least he obeys your orders, and he has given his best performances during the tournament against us. I’m sure Bernabeu would have won if it wasn’t because of Wang Tong’s great effort."
Samantha forced a smile as she heard what Martyrus said, of course, she wouldn’t tell him that she traded her first date with this punk for the victory against Bernabeu. Somehow Samantha’s heart pounded faster when she thought about Wang Tong. She was pleased to see Wang Tong moving on from their complicated relationship, yet she was a bit frustrated, for some reason she felt like her charm was too little as she saw Wang Tong got over that quickly. Nevertheless, it was normal for people to have a little contradictions from time to time.
"Leave it to me, this kid is destined to become someone unique!" Clearly, Martyrus had a deep interest in Wang Tong, he was always proud of his ability to discover talents, now that he had unearthed a piece of a hidden gem, he was all fired up. In fact, Martyrus would agree to collab with Samantha no matter what was the deal, as long as there was a chance for him to train Wang Tong.
The two principals finally came to an agreement, Martyrus would be preparing the plans for certain special training, while Samantha would be in charge of contacting the personnel of Paradise Island. Most importantly, they could not rely completely on Bernabeu; it would be impossible for Bernabeu to send out most of their teachers to take part in this special training. Both students and teachers were important in this collaboration training because they would be facing the challenges from Capth very soon, and since Samantha was also a former student of Capth, she knew how strong their opponents would be. Hence only the best elites amongst students and teachers were fit to be recruited in this training. It would depend on Samantha’s interpersonal relationships in order to hire the best trainers and instructors for their training program because she understood the fact that it would require an excellent blacksmith to forge a piece of good metal into a razor sharp blade!
Samantha already had a list of qualified candidates; however, they were all problematic characters; nevertheless, Samantha loved doing things the unusual way, given by the fact that she was going to vanquish the academy she graduated from! In fact, she was already all excited by just imagining the process!
On the other hand, Wang Tong’s plan of forming a study group was well received from the others. Since they were all training on their own after school, it would be better if they were to do it together.
Wang Ben and Hu Yangxuan would emphasize on METAL Combat training. Meanwhile, even though Ma Xiaoru was the successor of the Tactics of the Enchantress, the chances of her becoming a METAL Fighter would be small judging from her current situation. However, with Wang Tong’s study group, she would be able to enhance her Battlecraft combat skills while practicing her Tactics of the Enchantress; moreover, with the help from her tactics, her training would have great improvements.
Carl, Kyaero, Tita, and the rest were showing great enthusiasm too, actually, some times ago they had been thinking about gathering everyone for a group training, but they were unable to do so due to their weak appeal.
"Let’s appoint a team captain, shall we? It’ll be easier for the captain to gather everyone in the future," Carl said, he was the most excited one and also the weakest one in the group. Everyone in the group had their own expertise, except him.
Everyone looked at each other, wondering who shall be the captain.
"I nominate Wang Tong!" Zhou Sisi broke the silence. Clearly, Ma Xiaoru, Wang Tong, Wang Ben, and Hu Yangxuan were the ones qualified of becoming the captain since the others were weaker compared to the quartet.
"I second Zhou Sisi’s nomination!" Of course, Carl would agree since he was also a student of F-Class.
"Me too!" Tita and the rest seemed to have a good impression on Wang Tong because he was the only one that cared about them when they failed, which was why they thought that he was qualified to be the captain because he wasn’t someone who would only care about himself.
"Agree," Rumi said in a soft voice, she was still timid as always.
"I’m okay with anything," Hu Yangxuan said with a smile, and Wang Ben nodded as well. Ma Xiaoru too agreed with a smile on her face.
Wang Tong was immediately appointed as their group captain since everyone agreed, it was very sudden, but thankfully, he was okay with their decisions, he had no issues of becoming their captain since he already had enough experiences of being the caretaker of the girls’ dormitory.
"I have another good news for all of you. Apparently, the principal is preparing a special training program, and I believe every one of us will be taking part in the training," Ma Xiaoru said.
"Is this about the challenge against Capth?"
"Yes."
"Capth, here we come!" Carl yelled. No doubt he was full of enthusiasm, but no one cheered with him. Many had tried to challenge Capth, yet no one had ever succeeded.
"Let’s focus back on the purpose of this group. This is not a play group, so we have to be serious about the things we do. My suggestion is that each of us will make preparations for a subject. It could be anything like your subject reports, or even techniques in METAL Combats as long as it is something unique. It doesn’t matter if it isn’t a complete preparation because we will be discussing together, instead of hanging around together every day, I think this works better since we all majored in different subjects so spending too much time together will not make a lot of differences," Ma Xiaoru explained, and she was right; there was no way that Rumi would be joining Wang Tong and Wang Ben in combat training since her expertise was Intel Programming Battles, and it would be a waste of time for her to attend their training. However, if they gathered once every week to share what they had prepared, basically, they would be able to cover every subject, and even though they majored in different subjects, they would be able to learn all sorts of knowledge through group discussions, which will be beneficial for them in the future anyway.
"Sounds good, I’m in!"
"Agree!"
…
Suddenly Rumi raised her arm, "Aren’t we supposed to think of a name for our group?"
"Name? Nice idea Rumi!" Carl stroked his chin and continued, "Earth, Wind, Fire, and Geniuses?"
All of the guys showed him their fingers when they heard that name.
"Band of Brothers?"
"No way! What about us?" the girls rejected together.
"I was thinking, since Ayrlarng’s dream is to become an S-Ranked academy, and our target is to vanquish Capth, why don’t we use the letter ‘S’ as the name of our group?" Zhou Sisi was inspired all of a sudden.
S? Not bad, somehow it felt like S-rank which was known as the code for the highest level, everyone loved how it sounded like.
"We can even use it as the initial of our group besides using it as the name!"
"Awesome, awesome!" Everyone agreed, and the study group named "S" was finally established.
Study groups like this were quite popular in most of the academies, normally a group would be established after someone mentioned the idea randomly during conversations; however, groups like this would disband in no time since no one in the group would do or contribute anything.
Nevertheless, there was always an exception.
Everyone seemed to have a sense of belonging when the study group "S" was officially established. Wang Tong was selected as the group captain while Ma Xiaoru was elected as their vice captain since she had the biggest influence amongst the rest and her actual strength was beyond doubt. Zhou Sisi was appointed as the secretary, she was the person who contacted everyone else and also in charge of various matters. And with that, "S" was born! Soon in the distant future, this would become the predecessor of a powerful organization which was capable of influencing mankind during post Blade-edge Era.
Soon as the meeting was dismissed, everyone went on to make sharing preparations for their own subject, this would be the best chance for them to prove their own capabilities, not to mention it was also the best opportunity of exchanging knowledge and ideas.
Wang Tong wanted to prepare his contribution regarding the delicate utilization of the GN Force, even though it wasn’t about how to generate extraordinary battle strength like Cisco. Somehow he felt that it would be necessary for fighters and Battlecraft pilots to practice the delicate control of GN Force. Nevertheless, he would still need to think about it thoroughly since he had to break down the subject into various topics.
Meanwhile, Ma Xiaoru was preparing her contribution about the development of METAL Fighter’s equipment. She believed that there was still room for improvements in the battle strength of METAL Fighters even though the combination of METAL Fighters and Heavy-Armed Troops was widely accepted by most of the world; furthermore, she also thought that the technology of mankind should be further demonstrated in the progress of development!
Wang Ben would be sharing about the functionality of stamina during battles…
Some of them chose to share the subject that they strongly believe was important, while some would be sharing their new thoughts and ideas. They might be naive and unrealistic, yet somehow, every single development of mankind was originated from various unpractical fantasies.