'They don't understand,' Ren thought while listening to professor Zhao explain detailed rules about turn order and victory conditions. 'They still don't understand how my beasts actually function.'
The wolverine had double elental control compared to his other two beasts. That had been its nature and advantage from the beginning as the creature with the most elental plasticity, able to choose between elents and in Ren's case all of them… with that extra fluidity the others couldn't match.
The hydra was stronger and more defensive than the wolverine with armor and physical bulk that could tank damage other beasts couldn't survive. The mantis was faster and possessed better attacks plus secondary abilities that made it versatile in ways raw power couldn't replicate.
If you compared them individually to the wolverine body and not its skills, using it as a baseline beast with more balanced characteristics across all categories…
They were way better than it if the elental control wasn't there.
But with the control being there and so many bonuses being shared among all three beasts through their bonds...
The power difference between his beasts when projected to similar ranks had beco almost negligible in practical combat situations.
If they get that… Then they would be able to say they understand Ren.
And since any of his beasts could handle any elental situation with competence that made any traditional elental matchup theory irrelevant, which ant the "strategic change" that organizers had implented to level the playing field by forcing careful elental planning...
Wasn't going to change anything about his dominance when it ca to actual combat.
Ren didn't even plan to use more than the mantis for the vast majority of fights. Because in almost every case, it alone would be sufficient to secure victory without needing to reveal the full extent of his capabilities.
"The pairings have been determined," Zhao announced, and a list was revealed on a board that had been covered until this mont.
He paused deliberately, allowing the information to sink in while students rushed forward to find their assignnts.
"Victory is determined by eliminating all opposing team mbers through defeat of their beasts."
Ren listened attentively despite already understanding the basic premise. It was an interesting format.
"Each team will have a leader chosen by a vote among its mbers," Zhao advanced with a tone that suggested this wasn't optional democracy. "The leader will determine the battle order, which mber fights in which turn. This decision is crucial so even though you are leaders, listen to your teammates' input. You must consider elental advantages, beast strengths, and how to maximize victory probability for the complete team."
Students began grouping according to the assignnts appearing on the boards with varying degrees of enthusiasm or concern depending on who they'd been paired with.
Ren searched for his na among the lists.
Team Five.
He looked at the other nine nas listed alongside his own.
Ron... the boy with the fire salamander. He knew him well from training sessions and weekends of cultivation assistance.
The other eight nas were less familiar, though Ren had helped most of them with their cultivation at so point during the year when they'd sought his advice or been part of group sessions.
He walked toward where his team was gathering. Ron was already there, smiling with obvious relief when he spotted Ren approaching.
"Ren, thank the dragon gods you're with us," he replied with genuine gratitude that ca from knowing what having Ren on your team ant for victory chances.
The other mbers nodded in agreent with Ron's sentint. It was a mixed group, four girls, six boys counting Ren himself.
But there was a problem Ren had noticed imdiately when scanning all the team assignnts on the board.
Taro, Min, and Liu were assigned as enemies on opposing teams. Also Liora, Larissa, and Luna... none of them were in Team Five with him.
Ren was going to have to face them eventually if his team advanced through brackets. And Min's group that included Luna plus Liora's team with Taro were going to be the most interesting opponents by far in terms of actual challenge.
Not in the first round fortunately, maybe not soon, but if his team advanced far enough... Those confrontations were almost inevitable.
"We need to choose a leader," one of the girls pointed out. Her na was Iris, and she had a wind beast. "Should we vote?"
"I vote for Ren," Ron uttered imdiately without hesitation.
" too," another boy added quickly. Trevor, his beast was an earth elent. "Ren has helped all of us at so point. And he probably knows more about our beasts than we do ourselves at this point..."
The votes ca rapidly without debate or politicking. Unanimity achieved in less than one minute because the choice was obvious to everyone present.
Ren was leader of Team Five through acclamation rather than close vote.
He wasn't surprised by the outco. It made sense practically speaking given his track record. He'd trained with most of them over the past months. Knew their strengths intimately, their weaknesses that needed protection, how their beasts operated under pressure.
"Good," he said while accepting the role without false modesty that would waste ti. "Considering the exact rank of each of your beasts and their primary elents..."
They ford a circle while discussing capabilities. Beasts right at the boundary between high Bronze and low Silver in terms of power output and mana capacity.
Most were low Silver or bordering that rank through cultivation that had been unusually accelerated this year.
It was impressive compared to previous years where first-year students rarely surpassed low Bronze by year's end. Normal progression was slower, more gradual, less dramatic in advancent.
But for Ren, whose mantis at Bronze 2 already operated with capabilities that rivaled or surpassed many low Silver beasts through accumulated bonuses...
It wasn't a particularly difficult challenge in terms of raw power differential.
But there was important nuance here that most people missed when making simple rank comparisons.
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