"Shirou, your opponent for the first battle of the selection matches is: Tatsuya Nishinomiya of Class 3-3."
Looking at the information displayed on his student handbook, Shirou slightly shook his head. "Tatsuya Nishinomiya, although the name sounds like a big shot,
he's not a particularly strong opponent. He doesn't have any impressive achievements to speak of!" Shirou glanced at the notice from the Selection Battle Executive Committee, then tossed his student handbook aside and resumed practicing his magical control.
As one of the several evaluations of a Blazer's overall ability, magical control was an extremely practical skill.
Blazers with excellent magical control could achieve an alternative way of increasing their total magical power.
For the same operation, if a person with average magical control needed to expend ten points of magical power, a person with excellent magical control would only need to expend two or three points to complete it.
Therefore, strengthening magical control techniques was necessary for Shirou. This was not just a matter of magical power consumption; as a profession that could wield magical power for combat, the improvement of magical control ability was undoubtedly beneficial to a Blazer's overall strength.
Although he had already gained much experience from Shizuku, an excellent magical controller, through her Evening Rain, even more experience required Shirou to personally learn it. After all, he couldn't always fight while holding Evening Rain. For the experience attached to weapons, Shirou, holding the original weapon, could naturally easily reach the original owner's realm.
But without holding those weapons, Shirou could no longer do so. It was like when Shirou wielded Heracles' nameless axe-sword, he could use Nine Lives Blade Works. But when he no longer held the nameless axe-sword, although he had those experiences in his mind, he couldn't release them smoothly because he himself had not reached that realm. So Shirou needed to constantly learn, learn all kinds of knowledge.
"The time is tomorrow. In that case, wouldn't my match time completely overlap with yours, Ikki? I won't be able to cheer you on then!"
"It's fine, you can cheer next time! After all, our goal is the Seven Stars Sword-Art Festival, isn't it?"
Hearing Shirou's complaint, Ikki, who was doing push-ups indoors, said calmly.
"It seems you're quite confident now. Are you so sure you can defeat Hunter Shizuya Kirihara?"
"Of course! After two days of training with you, Shirou, if I still can't defeat Shizuya Kirihara, wouldn't that be a waste of your expectations?!" Recalling the past two days' experience, Ikki couldn't help but feel aches all over his body. Even Ikki, who had endured countless pains, was horrified by the experience of the past two days.
After blocking Shirou's arrow that day, his subsequent days were almost a torment. Various tricky angle shots, various hidden arrows from the dark, and even supersonic shots. In short, during the subsequent training, Ikki felt like he had become a target, being used by Shirou for archery practice.
"As long as you understand!" Smiling at Ikki's location, Shirou then focused his attention on the documents in his hand. This was information Shirou had previously asked Kagami Kusakabe to gather. It contained information about the Noble Phantasms and abilities of other students in the school. Due to training classes, hardly anyone's ability was unknown. Therefore, as long as one put in the effort, the collection of this information could be completed. But even so, it was still a considerable
amount of work.
"It seems I'll have to find a way to help Kusakabe-san get some big scoops in the future!" Looking at the first-round match list corresponding to the names in his hand, Shirou's eyes were filled with amusement.
"Shirou, do you want to come watch the matches with me later?" Hearing Ikki's question, Shirou immediately refused.
"Don't be silly, I still have so many tasks to do!" Raising the documents in his hand, Shirou curtly declined Ikki's invitation.
This Seven Stars Sword-Art Festival was a good opportunity to copy the abilities of other students in the school. However, he wasn't in a hurry, after all, this was just the first round. According to his estimate, there should be more than ten rounds later. He just really didn't want to follow Ikki around and watch him and Shizuku's PDA.
Although Ikki hadn't completely accepted his new relationship with Shizuku yet, he had gradually gotten used to Shizuku's various little gestures.
According to Shirou's estimation, he and Shizuku should quickly become like Tatsuya Shiba and Miyuki Shiba.
After all, he had secretly given Shizuku good ideas.
Although Ikki now had a way to deal with Shizuya Kirihara, his nervousness still remained. To this end, he and Arisu had prepared a heartfelt speech for her. All that was missing was for Ikki to fall into a disadvantage, and Shizuku could then begin to recite, summoning victory.
"Then I'm off!" After lunch, Shirou casually packed up and headed to the simulated training arena with his pre-prepared notebook. This Seven Stars Sword-Art Festival representative selection battle was being held in the various training arenas of the school. More than a dozen training arenas, with many matches held every day. All the contestants almost had a match every three days. And during the matches, Hagun Academy only had half-day classes. Every afternoon was when the selection battles took place.
"According to the pre-planned schedule, today's first target is Jun Hironaka of Class 3-1 in the Seventh Training Arena! His Noble Phantasm is called Sharp Edge Spear, and his ability is metal manipulation, a natural interference type."
"Metal manipulation is an ability with great developmental potential. After all, modern society is a metal society; all buildings and daily necessities cannot exist without metal. Once this ability develops, destroying a city in an instant would be a piece of cake.
According to the information collected by Kusakabe-san, he should be in the second match!" Walking into the Seventh Training Arena, which was already bustling with people, Shirou couldn't help but be surprised. "Is there some major match here today? Why are there so many people here to watch?"
"Emiya-kun, you really don't care about important school matters!"
Hearing this familiar voice, Shirou turned around. Sure enough, it was Kagami Kusakabe who appeared before him.
"Is there something big happening here today?" Shirou
scratched his head, confused, indicating that he indeed didn't know what the other person was talking about.
"The Crimson Princess! Today is the Crimson Princess's first battle!" Upon Kagami Kusakabe's reminder, Shirou immediately realized. Indeed, when he returned from the terrorist attack at the mall two days ago, he seemed to have heard Stella mention it. He just hadn't paid much attention to it then.
"The Crimson Princess, Stella Vermillion, is an A-rank Blazer! You know, previous winners of the Seven Stars Sword King were only B-rank or C-rank. Not only that, but she's also an A-rank Blazer and possesses the world's strongest magical power. Everyone naturally has high hopes for her to win the Seven Stars Sword King."
"Although she had a match with you recently, because you won that match, her reputation suffered a bit, and people called her a 'watered-down A-rank'!"
"So, now everyone is very concerned about her battle, to see if she's a 'watered-down A-rank'!"
"I see!" Hearing Kagami Kusakabe's answer, Shirou finally understood why there were so many people. So, it was because of doubts about her strength! If that were the case, then these people were in for a rude awakening.
After all, just because Shirou could beat her didn't mean everyone could!
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--------More Bonus Chapters!!!!
Every 300 power stones = 1 Bonus Chapter