51 Substitutions
The Captain of Ravenville, Renee Morgan's Gene Mod Ability was named [Ghost].
This particular Ability did not only come from one of the most expensive Gene Mod out there, but also was one of the most sought after Ability by many aspiring Solvers everywhere.
Not only did it grant the user ability to phase through solid matter, it also gave them minor level of telekinetic ability!
2 different Abilities!
Based on such description alone, one would more than likely conclude that [Ghost] might well be the strongest Ability there was.
And yet, for all the players out there who had both the financial and technical capabilities to acquire it, less than 10% of them were able to even utilize it with enough proficiency to actually make it useful in a game.
Quite the contrary, many if not most of them ended up joepardizing their future career in Arena after trying and failing to master its use.
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As good as the properties given by the [Ghost] Gene Mod were, the abilities also carried with it many forms of major drawbacks.
For one thing, the phasing ability of [Ghost] was not at all cost-friendly for what its effect could strive to achieve.
This could be clearly seen from the beads of perspiration on Renee's face after less than a second of phasing to jump into the room that Sylphie was currently in.
*Huff*
After the initial touch down, Renee had needed to take a moment catch her breath first before she was able to resume her fighting pose.
Of course, she had only been able to do that with Dan and Dennis beside her watching her back for that split second of rest.
Phasing, as its name suggested, was one of the abilities of [Ghost] that allowed the users and certain objects that're in contact with them to be able to pass through other matters.
It could be seen as a crazy ability that made one practically invulnerable.
However, the mere concentration and mental strain that were required to isolate oneself and one's clothing to 'phase' for but a fraction of a second would probably be equal to a dozen of Irvine's max-powered [Blast].
This almost unusable level of cost-to-effect created a situation where most decent Arena players with [Ghost] Ability to only be able to use it a handful of times,
Each for but a split second during matches where not dodging would mean sustaining massive damage.
Even in the first future where Irvine was from, the world record of continuous use of phasing had only been set at 5 seconds before the user inevitably went unconscious!
And that was only achievable because the user was an all-star pro players competing at the highest level of Battle Arena.
Researchers had theorized that the reason for such inefficiency with this particular metaphysical ability had come from the incompatibility between a human gene and the original ingredient for the [Ghost]'s Gene Mod serum.
On the bright side, this rather balanced trade-off was the only reason [Ghost] was still one of the Abilities allowed for Battle Arena in the first place.
Which brought it to the explanation of its second available ability.
The Minor Telekinesis.
Though the mental strain that was caused by this ability was marginally better than its previous counterpart, opposite to that, the level of power it brought onto the table was also not quite as impressive.
A decent [Ghost] user with proper training would be able to throw a sugar cube tens of feet away with his/her mind.
Which meant that the telekinesis power would not allow one to even cause harm to another creature.
Still, because the usage of this telekinesis could be maintained by the user for a longer, more appropriate amount of time than phasing, this ability became the more dependable aspect of [Ghost] for a player.
A Solver would be able to use it to move components of a tower puzzle as if he/she had a third or fourth hand since such feats didn't require too much power.
A saying went that if a [Ghost] user Arena player wanted to have a chance at advancing their careers, he/she would do well to focus more on mastering the minor telekinesis than the phasing aspect of it.
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Be that as it may, even today, [Ghost] was still a viable Gene Mod for many players who strive to be a top-rate Solver.
Not only did it provide proper means of both evasion and hand-solving skills, it did so in a more direct way than [Overload].
If [Overload] enhanced the user's evasion rate by slowing down his/her perception of time, [Ghost] did so by literally making one invulnerable to outside influence.
And while [Overload] would be able to increase solving speed by heightening the speed of which one's finger muscles were utilized at higher proficiency, [Ghost] directly gave minor telekinesis for its user to move more things.
The one significant difference between the two was the sustainability.
[Overload] users would be able to maintain their abilities for far, far longer than a normal [Ghost] user.
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Back on the field, inside the building where both Sylphie and Renee was in.
Before this Magnolia Thorns' Captain could collect her thoughts for her next course of action, a rather alarming matter seemed to have occurred.
The advance group of Ravenville that had just arrived on scene looked like they have already discerned the location of her Solver!
This fact was immediately proven by how Dan was suddenly rushing towards the lower floor by himself through the stairs on the other partitioned room of this floor.
"No!" Sylphie's eyes quickly turned serious.
Her Solver, Jade's location, being discovered by the enemy was not at all good news for her!
Had this not been the case, Sylphie would've been able to silently direct her to go towards the back building where the Ravenville's tower was before the enemy noticed anything.
She would've then acted as if she was caught by the three (and the Guard) while baiting their attentions towards her.
With that, her Solver would be able to safely solve the enemy tower's first section at least for a time, since the tower's Guard was already trapped in this building with her too.
But since the enemy had already made it very clear on who they wanted to target first in this situation, she couldn't stand still and allow her Solver to start sustaining damage this early in the game!
As she made up her mind, Sylphie turned her back around and chased after the running Dan.
When they saw what had happened, it also didn't take long for Renee and Dennis who're left to monitor Sylphie to follow her from behind.
The three's objective right now was to get the enemy's main offensive power, Sylphie, and her Solver, to retreat as far away from their tower as possible while outputting some damages unto them.
If they could manage that properly, they'd be able to start pushing through towards Magnolia's first tower's coordinate that had been discovered by Clint.
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On Ravenville's team corner slightly above the field.
The rest of the Illusions was also watching the same exact scene carefully.
"Oh, that is VERY clever!" Irvine inadvertently spoke out with amazement when he saw what had occurred.
"Hm? What's clever?" Derrick who was beside him all this while inquire as to the nature of his surprise.
"You see one of the Young brothers running downstairs right? After they've all arrived?"
Irvine didn't actually remember which of the two're wearing which numbers, so he just refer to the guy as one of the Young brothers.
"To chase after the Solver right? They have to get her for us to hold a certain amount of leverage to push them back."
Derrick saw the action as a matter of course, but at the center of the bench, both Baron and the Head Coach Lark twitched their ears and turned slightly towards the two's conversation.
Without noticing this, Irvine continued,
"Yes, but he went DOWN. How did he know where the Solver was when Silver is out on the frontline even now?"
"...Hm?" Only now did Derrick noticed this weird point too. At that time, Dan Young didn't even hesitate one bit before going down the stairs.
"--So why?" He asked curiously.
"Because he didn't really know." Irvine pointed out.
"Huh?"
"After he had ascertained that the Solver was not on their floor, he simply chose either of the two options between up or down and went with it."
"Haa? But if he chose wrong--"
"Then Sylphie Hunter wouldn't react like that and the Captain would be able to contact him via her comms that the Solver was on one of the floors below." Irvine concluded,
"After that, all he needed to do was retrace the steps a bit and actually go in the right direction this time."
"!!"
Derrick looked dumbfounded at the revelation!
"Wait-- Was all that improvised on the spot??"
That whole plan revolved around watching Sylphie's reaction to the situation!
In return Irvine just shrugged, "Maybe, but it's surely wasn't briefed before the match. Otherwise, we'd have known right?"
"..."
Irvine felt that Derrick's reaction was understandable, even he was still impressed at Dan's decisive action just now,
'These people are just too used to tricks.'
The main point of such action was that the enemy couldn't know for sure that their confidence in the Solver's location was simply deduced through her own reaction.
Furthermore, it might even create a false assumption that the Ravenville's Ranger was nearby and he was the one who had located Jade.
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"...Clever kid, huh?"
On the other side of the bench, Lark turned to Baron on his side and commented, "He must've thought that his seniors are all cunning and sly people by now~"
"..." Baron didn't reply to the Head Coach's comment and simply turned his head back on to the field.
Truth be told, these 3rd and 4th years of Ravenville had to get drilled hard by Lark on these things back when they had just become regulars.
Little tricks like the one performed just now was often used in their games after all. This one specifically was used to determine a hidden Solver's general location in a match.
'But this kid... It seemed that the insights he gets from a match was not at the level of normal college players anymore.' In the end, Lark simply took a simple note in his mind.
College Arena was the entry to playing standard level Battle Arena for anyone!
And as such, usually new college players still just watched games and matches from a fan standpoint.
Sure they'd be able to point out bad plays and good plays to a degree, but the little details of a match usually went by their heads unnoticed.
Reasons for failed plays, an on-the-field player's mentality based on the progression of a match...
These things required further analytical prowess that could only be harnessed the longer one stood on the competitive scene.
Lark felt that Irvine's insight regarding these things had at the very least far exceeded his peers even at such a young age.
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After that decisive trap by Ravenville, the following progression of the match went just as many watchers had predicted.
As the trio advance group caught up with Magnolia's Solver, they managed to push Sylphie back little-by-little until their reinforcement at the form of their Second Fielder and Ranger interfered.
And even then, at that time, the momentum was already on Ravenville's side with Clint also finally joining the second halfway line battle to interrupt the other side's Ranger.
With the full attention on the Solver now, it hadn't taken long for Renee to breakthrough to their side of the field with Dennis at her side.
Dan and Clint formed an improvised combo and stepped back a little to contain both Sylphie and her Solver while letting their Captain through.
Although this created a hole for Magnolia's Second Fielder to give chase, but with the distance that Renee and Dennis had already covered by then, Ravenville had some leeway to eventually breached Magnolia's tower zone first.
During this time, Dennis truly showed the result of his training for the past month, managing to contain the Front Guard of Magnolia alone with just his strings, enough for his Captain to work the first section.
If it had been the previous him from last year, he wouldn't be confident enough to carry their Ace Solver alone without Dan.
'...Though, defending Captain's probably the lowest bar for me... Any decent Fielder would be able to support her-- In fact, does she even need a Fielder when there's only one Guard?"
Dennis felt that Renee could even manage to both dodge and solve without the need of his presence if not for the movement range restriction.
Renee's solve could be described with one word. Fast.
Her current solving speed, even with the distraction of Dan and the Front Guard's battle, was probably double of Irvine's current pure solving speed without outside interference.
As an audience, Irvine could even see that there weren't just one or two times where Renee needed to dodge oncoming attacks from the Guard at some points when the guy had the chance to disrupt her.
'And even then...' He mumbled.
It's almost as if the occasional harassment from the Guard hadn't affected her speed the slightest bit.
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Before long, the first section was successfully dismantled and the first point of the sparring match quickly went to Ravenville.
However, with the upper section of their first tower solved, it didn't take long for the chasing Second Fielder and even the Mid Guard from their second tower to arrive in a frantic manner.
This was even a crucial decision because the Mid Guard needed to activate his disabler to go there and only deactivated it when he'd reached the first tower zone.
The restriction for Guard's range of movement was only the 15 meters radius of area around a tower. Which meant that any towers would suffice so long as they crossed the field with their disabler.
With two reinforcement arriving, and presumably Sylphie Hunter who'd be on the way by then, there was no other choice for the two, Dennis and Renee to also retreat once again.
With only a Solver and a Fielder present, it would be better to avoid an outnumbered battle even if hypothetically they might be able to survive.
At least, with how they'd secured a lead, this first wave of offense was not without its results.
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As the match continued on.
With Sylphie Hunter's fast charge, just after Ravenville had secured their first point, Magnolia took it back just as quickly, especially with how they'd now identified the location of Ravenville's first tower.
Once again, Jade activated her disabler and hide on Ravenville's side while Sylphie quickly charged past any sorts of obstacles in her way to meet up with her.
And with how fast they reached the actual tower, it also didn't take long for their combination play to make short work of Ravenville's Front Guard now compared to their first attempt.
The battle continued to go back and forth for a while.
Only after Renee once again returned the favor by getting their second point from the tower's middle section did the first notification bell was rung.
*DING* *DING*
[Substitution. Ravenville.]
Finally, the first ever substitution was called by Ravenville with the scores 2-1 still in their favour.
A number of familiar figures on their corner started to stand up and stretched, more than ready to jump in on the match.
