The first match of the National Tournament opened with a whimper, not a bang.
At least, that was the general consensus among the upper years.
Dark Moon had drawn one of the lowest-ranked colleges in the bracket—Starridge Institute. A southern school known more for its agriculture-based elective courses than its combat performance. They hadn't made it to the National stage in nearly two decades.
And so, predictably, the match ended quickly.
Kairos won the solo 1v1 in under two minutes, his cursed constructs slicing clean through his opponent's defence like he was checking off boxes on a practice drill. If anything, the practice drills they needed to conduct at the college offered more resistance than the opponent.
Dwayne, Soren, and Hailey handled the 3v3 next, ending it before the ten-minute mark. They didn't even need to summon the maximum of 3 contracts per person—instead managing to take down the 9 opposing contracts with only 3.
No full team battle.
No major arena clash.
