Chương 156: B3 Chapter 12 - Early Bracket Chaos

"Did they draw our first opponent yet?" I asked.

"Hold on, let me connect this damn thing…" Veyra tapped at her phone on the hotel couch, trying to connect it to the not so smart TV. Yesterday's matches in the group stage turned out to be a breeze. Warmaxx was our toughest opponent, and they got one-shotted by Veyra. We then played a match against both Einvigi and Nova Imperium, knocking them out without issues. That qualified us to the round of sixteen playoffs.

While Worlds was an event of constant matches, action at every second, USA Masters moved much slower for us. We had one free day while the remaining seven groups battled it out. Now, with the matches of group H completed, the brackets were finally being drawn.

"There we go," Veyra said as the TV finally displayed the livestream, titled, "USA Masters International: Bracket Draw!" I sat next to her to watch. Royal Rebecca stood on the stage beside a glass draw pot. Within were sixteen small letters, identical and sealed. Rebecca was mixing the letters.

"Perfect timing," I said." Your first match in the group of sixteen!

"She picked a letter, then opened it with graceful movements, revealing the name inside." Eon Covenant!" She held the note for the cameras for a moment, then repeated the same process for the next." Going up against… Suburi!"

"Shit, VeilShot versus Dragrath in the very first match?" I asked. Veyra grinned at that.

"That's one problem taken care of. One of them will knock the other out."

"Who do you think will win?"

"Hm." She tilted her head.

"I want VeilShot to get knocked out, but I also kind of want to knock him out myself… I can't say." Dragrath had, of course, joined the tournament with just three players, two of which were lower level players. SwordShiba and Hibana hadn't been much help in the group stage, meaning he'd essentially soloed all of his opponents. That hadn't been a problem. He dominated his opponents just as fast as Veyra deleted Warmaxx and Oblivara's guild." Your second match…

"Rebecca continued, reaching into the pot." Solo Mage!"

"Oh, what the hell?" Veyra said.

"Already?" Rebecca placed our name down and shuffled the letters for our opponent. All I could say was, "Please no Zenith Protocol."" Going up against…

"She opened the letter." Black Lilium!"

"Who's that? Any danger?"

"Oh, we're good," Veyra said.

"That's a new guild. They have SpellDao after he left Mythforged and some of his friends. We shouldn't lose to them." She bit her lip.

"But this means, after we beat them, we're up against the winner of the first match."

"Already against a god, huh?" I leaned back.

"We almost won against Dragrath. I can deal with him."

"Mhm," Veyra said, and we watched as Rebecca picked the remaining opponents. With us already drawn, the remaining teams and matches didn't matter as much. All we hoped for was that Zenith Protocol would show up as late as possible, so they wouldn't knock us out early. Our wish was granted when Rebecca drew Zenith Protocol into match eight, meaning that we'd only have to face them all the way in the finals.

"We should start preparing for Eon Covenant, I think," Veyra said.

"Dragrath might win, but fighting him should be easier. We'll need more prep against VeilShot and Eon Covenant."

"Because if we lose, it'll be more humiliating?" I asked.

"No. He has four members with him. That alone will make it difficult. And, well… I guess yeah, I'll be upset if we lose to him."

"Alright," I said.

"I'll carry. We'll win as long as you give me a few kisses before the match." She held her hand over her face, shaking her head.

"How about this? If we lose to VeilShot, we're replacing movie nights with practice for a month." A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. My head flinched up. Oh no.

"No, a month is too much," Veyra said.

"Maybe one week?"

"Nah, keep it at a month," I said, suddenly feeling pumped up. If Veyra would be happy to see me fight and win, I couldn't get much more motivated than that.

"I'll carry this one. They won't even know what hit them." She laughed at that, shaking her head.

"How about—" She pinched my cheek.

"—my stupid assassin joins me for some prep time?" I blinked.

"Okay? What's the plan?"

"Well, first, let's go watch their match."

The doors to the arena opened early at two pm the next day with the first match—Eon Covenant versus Suburi. Studying the match was critical. We'd see how Eon Covenant dealt with assassin players, and Dragrath would be forced to push himself to his absolute limits in a best of five match.

"Sucks we can't watch from the hotel," Veyra said in the warm-up room. Our match against Black Lilium would start thirty minutes after the first one ended, meaning that we'd need to rush straight to the arena if we stayed in the hotel for too long. We absolutely weren't going to join the audience to watch. The noise would distract from what was actually happening on screen. Ideally, we needed to find a silent and private area with a monitor or television to closely study both teams' strategy.

I had a brilliant plan for that. I took Veyra to the warm-up room, taking two of the many pods for ourselves. There, I logged into Movie Night Simulator. I picked a less romantic location, more fit for a studying session, and connected the TV to the livestream.

"My genius is almost frightening." I grinned when Veyra logged in after me.

"I honestly prefer this to real life," Veyra said.

"I can actually take notes here if I need to. Is it starting?" Just as she asked that, the camera panned to Eon Covenant walking in, VeilShot at the front with his self-satisfied grin taking up most of the space on our television, accompanied by the epic walk-in music. The next three arrivals received many more cheers. Dragrath's walk-ins were known as infamously mundane within the community. Today was no exception.

The rank one player showed up to the tournament in worn-out unbuttoned green overshirt and loose pants. SwordShiba and Hibana were much younger, and their outfits were infinitely more stylish. Their pants weren't loose and floppy; they were baggy and stylish. Dragrath nodded to his opponents and the interviewers and calmly stood on his side of the arena." You know,"Rebecca said quietly, starting the interview." I am almost frightened to be here." VeilShot snorted a laugh."

Two gods, two skilled apprentices, and four expert players from one of the strongest guilds in the world,"Rebecca said." What an incredible match to start the round of sixteen! I genuinely cannot begin to guess who will end up victorious between you two. Who better to ask than the experts themselves! VeilShot, what are your thoughts leading up to this match?" Veyra watched with a frown as VeilShot opened his mouth." Dragrath is a player I respect a lot.

He's one of the few Wonderwind players who has truly mastered his weapon beyond what anyone in the real world has accomplished. Cinder and I prepared a lot for this match, and we intend to win."

"I hate how he acts so nice in front of the camera now," Veyra said. The cheers he received certainly weren't helping her frown." What incredible praise to receive from the best archer in the world," Rebecca said." Dragrath, do you have anything to say to your opponent's claim?" He sat calmly, expression barely changing. Dragrath eyed his opposing guild. With broken English, he said, " Good practice." Those two words drew much louder cheers from the audience. Rebecca asked a few more questions.

Mostly, the pre-match interview consisted of VeilShot praising Dragrath as the one player he actually respected, while Dragrath gave short answers, clearly just wanting to fight. Soon enough, both teams walked into their pods.

The first map was a randomly generated forest and plains area with obstacles here and there. The woodland area offered mobility for VeilShot, but Dragrath could possibly hide behind the trees again. The gear reveal passed fast this time, since everyone had already revealed their items in the group stage earlier. Both teams clicked ready, and the arena opened." Once again, Dragrath does not unsheath his sword, letting SwordShiba and Hibana approach first!" Tasteful said. Veyra and I watched silently.

We'd, of course, watched Dragrath's and Eon Covenant's earlier matches as well. They'd been too one-sided to truly learn something, but the interesting thing to note was that all earlier opponents had required at least over a minute to kill Dragrath's apprentices. SwordShiba and Hibana were good. They'd even killed a member from guild Rampage earlier. Immediately, it became clear that the same wasn't happening today.

CinderLight cast an [Infernal Blast] at Hibana, and as he dodged, VeilShot's [Silent Arrow] landed precisely where he would dodge. Miraculously, Hibana spotted it and cast [Shadow Dash], but by then, a [Homing Arrow] was already being drawn, and it finished Hibana off the moment his dash ended. In the meantime, Eon Covenant's remaining players went to formation. Lrekk and DukeOfChaos protected their support mage, MoonTurtle: a timid girl with short blue hair.

VeilShot relocated to the woods, playing from the flank like he always liked to, as he shot another arrow to SwordShiba. The poor swordsman dodged well, but he didn't have [Shadow Dash] or enough tools to avoid the bombardment from two top players vastly above his weight class. He died long before he could cross the distance. Both apprentices died faster than Warmaxx to Veyra. Dragrath examined the flames with a dissatisfied expression. He frowned at his opponents.

Eon Covenant's four members stayed put in a staredown. VeilShot was missing. The camera panned to the woods, to a hidden branch, where VeilShot drew a [Silent Arrow]. Its trajectory was aimed straight between Dragrath's eyes. The rank one assassin [Shadow Dashed] through, slashing his katana at VeilShot's head.