58 Road Home

.

.

When the people from Ravenville had finished up all the luggage and boarded their bus, the first thing that the seniors had noticed was the satisfied grin on Greg's face as he fiddled with his phone.

At first, everyone had simply thought that it was just the results of some useless banters between the new freshman and sophomore regulars.

But along the way, even after all the others had started minding their own business, Greg would still occasionally took out his mobile device and showed a very shady smile every once in a while.

Currently, their ride was already en route towards their school campus in Zeta City.

Clint who eventually couldn't contain his curiosity, finally decided to take a peek from the row of seats behind Greg when he saw the guy took out his phone for the umpteenth time in the past 10 minutes.

But when he saw the screen, what he then discovered had shocked even him, causing his usually slit-shaped eyes to widen a little in response.

"...Clayton, you're texting Magnolia's Captain? Have the two of you been chatting this whole time?"

"!!?"

Clint hadn't really seen the details of it, but as a Ranger, he could easily make out the name 'Sylphie Hunter' that was boldly written on top of the display screen on Greg's phone.

Hearing the sudden words coming from right behind him had almost caused the focusing Greg to jump up in fright, but the real fear for him actually came a bit later.

"WHAT!?"

""--Huh?""

Because the interior of the bus had been rather quiet at the time that Clint had spoken, his words were quickly carried through to the rest of the ride's occupants clearly and concisely.

When the rest of the people in the bus heard him, the first one to shout back from the front row was Dan.

His reaction was quickly followed by multiple other head turns and questioning looks from both the coaches and the rest of the regulars.

"Agh! Sshhh--" Greg quickly attempted to defuse the situation by turning around and gesturing Clint to lower his voice, but he quickly knew that it's already far too late for that when all the attentions of everybody on the bus was directed right at him in this moment.

"""..."""

"Ahh... Haha."

.

.

[Greg: We're about to go back right now~]

[Sylphie: Lucky! We still had some more boring briefings here before we can even continue training T_T]

[Greg: Haha, don't worry. I'm pretty sure we're in for pretty much the same treatment once we've reached our homeground^^]

[...]

[...]

"...What the hell's this, you little sh*t."

Currently the expression on Dan who's holding Greg's phone forward while a couple other heads were looking in from behind was probably the scariest thing that Greg had ever seen from this senior of his.

After his activity had been caught and loudly reported by Clint, a rowdy situation had quickly ensued within the Ravenville's bus.

It was mostly a ruckus led by Dan and a couple other 3rd years who had vented their way towards Greg from the front row.

To his own dismay, Dan had forcefully pried the phone away from his hand with the others' help the moment he'd reached Greg's seat.

A couple taps on it and the 3rd year Fielder discovered this series of light-hearted chats that had been initiated by Greg towards the Magnolia's Captain.

Because of Sylphie's personality, Greg's casual attempt at a conversation was always replied in kind by the other party, creating a good flow of conversation at a glance.

"...Hoho, you cheeky bastard. Silently exchanging texts with the enemies without telling me... Dammit, and she looks so approachable too!"

"Guh-- Give it back!"

.

As Dan continued his interrogation on Greg with both anger and envy through his gritted teeth, Clint who noticed the lack of reactions from both Irvine and Derrick beside him decided to approach the two instead,

"You guys were with him when they exchanged contacts?" He directly went ahead and asked, to which Derrick simply replied with a nod,

"Yea... Actually it was her and that Solver from the first half, Jade, who approached us first. All of us ended up exchanging contact infos with each others."

"I see. Why did she look for you though?"

"Dunno, but it looks like their Captain's a fan of Lang for some reason." Derrick shrugged.

"Your fan?" Clint then turned to Irvine for further explanation.

"I don't know as well. Maybe she saw me during the License Exam or something."

"...Or maybe she's trying to get something out of our team? Did she say or ask anything?"

"Not really, she seems like the straightforward type. Though she did manage to point out both Wallace's and Clayton's main strengths just from the little interactions they had on the second half of that match..."

"Their main strengths?"

"Wallace's speed and Clayton's defense range." Irvine clarified Clint's doubt.

"..."

"Oh yeah, didn't she also say something about you being untalented but experienced or whatever?" Derrick added on from the side.

"Yeah... That too."

"...Interesting. Well either way, we should tell the coach about this just in case we'll be facing them next semester in the Silver Crown."

Clint's suggestion was quickly replied with agreeing nods from both Irvine and Derrick.

At this time, the commotion that was caused by Dan and the others from confronting Greg was also reaching its climax.

"--This is considered a breach of trust between us fellow teammates, as such..." Dan looked at Greg with a pair of firm judging eyes.

"Delete contact."

*tap* *tap*

"NOOOO~!!!"

At the end of their banter, Dan performed a couple of taps on Greg's phone that generated a high-pitched scream from the latter.

""...""

Clint, Derrick, and Irvine just looked on from their seats close to the scene with an almost pitying look towards Greg.

It's not like the guy was doing anything wrong per se.

Not long after the shout,

*CLAP* *CLAP*

"Alright guys, keep it down over there!"

One of the coaches under Lark stood up from his seat to calm the players down.

Before this, all of the coaches had actually watched the scene with interests too, but since it was now getting more and more out of control inside the bus, they had no choice but to calm the others down.

Presently, except for Renee and Baron, all the players' attentions were focused on Greg's tragedy caused by the jealous Dan.

""...Yes, sir."" The players who were standing up replied readily at the command, except for Greg,

'The... The contact....'

.

After all of them had eventually calmed down a bit, the standing coach began to speak regarding the coming tournament since he'd felt that now would be a good time for it.

All of the regulars were gathered here inside the bus without doing anything.

"Right, everyone. As you all know, we only have one more week of training before the regionals officially begin on September 10th."

"The tournament's schedules and placements will most likely arrive on Monday. But because we're seeded, it'll be impossible for us to meet the other stronger schools like Verdante on the 1st week, so it could be said that we still have time to get some more training in until then."

The old regulars who had experienced last year's Warrior Crown could already pretty much anticipate what'd come next, so the coach's explanations right now were more directed towards the players who're new to the 1st string.

"Warrior Crown is a round robin, so everybody will be fighting everybody else. Because of this, the matches will have a tighter schedule as well. If the previous years are any indications, we'll have around 1 match per week."

He continued,

"We as coaches will help, but we expect you all to be able to regulate and condition your own bodily state independently within this shorter time frame between matches." The coach lightly warned them before finishing up with his explanations,

"Don't worry, with our current strength, the Head Coach and us are confident that most Tier-1 schools in Zeta shouldn't be a problem for you so long as you don't underestimate them. Get it?"

"""Yes, sir!"""

"Good spirit! Head Coach Lark said we'll be having one more round of standard practice match on campus before closing the day. And that'll be it for this week."

"""..."""

The players had initially been brought to high spirit with that vote of confidence, but the coach's next sentence had caused most of them to slump down again.

Training after a match!

Irvine could only shook his head with a wry smile after knowing his expectations were on point, 'A top Tier-1 college's schedules are no joke.'

Knowing that there would be more practice after they arrived back at school, the players began to try and conserve whatever energy they had left to prepare for it.

Most chose to try and sleep while the rest put on their earphones and relaxed their minds with their eyes opened towards their phone screens.

The electric school bus continued to drive smoothly and silently through the highway. Going towards their home from the neighboring Delta City.

.

.

In Ravenville's Battle Arena Stadium.

Coach Thompson was casually introducing the awards displayed on the lounge's wall and the various rooms within the facility towards the two students, Wilson and Ella, as he ushered them in.

"Well, You two can just loiter around here for a while, I have to get back to the team's practice for now."

"Yes, thank you for showing us in, sir!" Wilson bowed lightly to the assistant Head Coach.

After offering the two freshmen to wait for the regulars to come back, Thompson had took the time to guide them towards the stadium since it would usually be locked from public and needed the staff's help to access.

He simply led them inside and opened the way with his key before leaving again for practice.

"Right. Bye, then. Try and see the new season's landscape if you want, it's magnificent!"

"We will." Ella curteously replied.

Thompson smiled gently before waving his hand at the two and walking back outside towards the fields.

After his figure went out of sight, the two people were left alone inside the large stadium's hallway.

"What a good guy... Should we go look around some more?" Wilson asked the girl next to him, but Ella shook her head in response,

"No,"

"Let's just go to the audience seats above first. I'm afraid we'll miss out on the regular's practice if we hang around here for too long."

"Good point."

.

It didn't take long for the two to find their way around the walkway that led towards the audience seats.

And when they saw the unfolding scenery of the Ruined City Block landscape being spread right before their eyes, both Wilson and Ella couldn't help but to feel awed at the scale of it.

"..."

"So detailed... It would be such an awesome experience to watch a match live with this kind of environment!"

Even though Wilson had watched a live game before, at the time, the season's terrain had been an open forest and plain field with rivers crossing through the halfway line.

Even back then, he'd already felt that no effort had been spared in building these Battle Arena terrain. But the current urban setting with buildings that were standing tall before his very eyes was on a whole other level even compared to that.

Beside him, Ella too was feeling rather overwhelmed with emotions, albeit ones that were a bit different from her friend.

'...Will I be able to play in here within this year? --No, I need to! As long as I get in, I'll be able to experience this field as well!'

She was firming her own resolutions in her mind.

Although the 3rd string members of Ravenville were not eligible for any formal competitions by the school, they would still be able to experience the standard seasonal field of Arena.

Every once in a while, the players there would be taken inside for practice too. And they could even apply independently to use the stadium so long as neither the 1st nor the 2nd strings were using it.

In the end, it was the dream of many high school Arena players to be able to play in a standard designed terrain like this. Since high school Arena were only ever played on flats.

.

.

*BEEP*

Before Wilson and Ella could appreciate any further this rather grand scenery of the stadium field, a beeping sound had suddenly resounded through all the speakers within.

Following that, the automatic sliding steel gates on the two sides of the field also opened together with the sound. Showing the large dark walkway that connected the changing rooms to the main field.

**VOOM**

The two, of course, immediately understood that currently, the field of Ravenville Stadium was about to be in-use right this moment.

Which could only mean one thing,

"The regulars are coming?" Wilson turned his attention towards the gates with anticipation while Ella also looked on nervously.

*gulp*

Before long, a group of fully covered players walk out onto the field in a rather scattered manner.

All of them were wearing the official home and away exosuits of Ravenville with either the black and grey color scheme, or its brighter counterpart with silver instead of black.

As they arrived, some of them were stretching their bodies to prepare while others were carrying the large and thick tower poles towards the two sides of the field.

Wilson and Ella understood that they were now preparing for a quick practice match.

'2 Towers game... They're really playing again right after coming back from the sparring match? What crazy schedules...!'

.

The two watched on with baited breath, neither could wait to see the levels of these regular players who stood at the top of college Arena.

*PING*

Finally, after the two sides had finished setting up their towers, the large main monitor also turned on following the activation of the field.

Being connected to all the registered exosuits, after it turned on, the monitor immediately began to display the names of the players on the field along with their HPs.

Both Wilson and Ella lifted their heads reflexively at the same time. But within just a couple of seconds, the two's eyes were quickly widened to the brim with shocks!

"Haa--!?"