When the VSW club members had arrived into the Gym, the Montem fan clubs immediately cheered upon seeing their members but the cheers stopped quickly and turned into whispers and gossip as they saw the state of the team.

"OMG what happened to Dan?"

"Is this why they were late?"

"Even Scarlett and Ashley look a bit strange."

Dan was still bruised up all over and he even had markings on his face that were impossible to hide. While Ashley and Scarlett had looked like they had just run a Marathon. The only one that looked half decent was Novis but most of the students didn't pay any attention to him in the first place.

"Coming at the last second and in a state like that, how unprofessional," Burney said as he looked at the Montem team.

Alex too was wondering what on earth happened to the four of them. He wanted to ask them but now was not the time. The four members had just made it and the game was due to start any second now.

With no time left, the two teams immediately put on their headset and it was started the game.

Frank who was the leader of the VSW club for Hershal gave one good look at Dan just before he put on his headset. He couldn't imagine what the team had gone through to get like that, yet still want to play the game.

Unlike the coach who thought Montem wasn't taking this match very seriously, Frank thought that this team truly cared about this game for some reason and it went beyond just wanting to win.

Both teams logged into the game and selected their warriors. Montem chose the same warriors as they did last time while Hershal all chose the same warrior called Iron grid. It was a fairly well-built warrior who used a shield that was as big as the warrior. In their dominant hand, they would hold a single-handed sword.

Players were allowed to select the same warriors in the game but teams rarely did this. There were counters to every type of warrior and if you knew a team would select a single warrior, you would be able to select a counter. But this was how Hershal had always played and their unique formations made it difficult even if playing with a counter.

Each warriors armour was tinted a different colour for the players to differentiate between each warrior.

Burney had done all he could. The rules stated that he was not allowed to give advice once the match had started. Coaches had a special role. In the later rounds of the tournament, matches became a best out of three. This was where a coach would shine.

After watching a game and seeing how the enemy team played, they would then be able to step in and advice their players best but at the start of the tournament games were a simple one-round match.

"Alright everyone, remember the plan, right? on my signal that's when we start," Alex said looking at Scarlett.

Each of them then went into the respected lane as normal. Although Alex knew that Hershal would team up as a group of five, he didn't know which lane they would choose. This was the only thing that Hershel changed on the regular and there was no way for him to predict.

This time instead of having Dan roaming around in the forest he was instructed to go top with Novis, while Ashley and Scarlett went bot leaving Alex with mid.

"Hey, do you think they can win?" A student from Montem asked watching the game.

"I don't know, I thought Alex might have had a plan but it looks like they're playing the game like normal."

The students were worried, every game they had watched Hershal play ended up with the enemy team losing and they had done the same thing that Montem was doing now.

Each of the NPC knights in the lanes were busy fighting each other. Alex had instructed the team to stay as closer as they could to their second tower. This way there were less likely to die if they were ambushed by the enemy team.

Hershal was doing the exact same thing on their side with their players until. In top lane suddenly their players went missing.

"Alex top is missing," Novis reported.

"Same here at bottom," Scarlett said.

"That means there coming Mid, guys come here as quick as you can!" Alex shouted.

Usually, if the enemy warrior left their lane, the players would use this as an advantage and take down the tower in front of them. The problem with this was, while they were busy taking down the tower Hershel would have five people storming through mid.

By the time they would head back, most of their team had died and they no longer had any towers down mid.

Alex was hugging as close to the tower as he could while waiting for his teammates to come, then he saw the four players of Hershal come together. Just like in the videos he had watched they had formed an arrow formation dealing with the NPC knights in an instant.

"Come on where are you guys." Alex thought.

In their practice games, they realised it was important for the team to protect the second tower for as long as possible. If they did this it would give enough time for Scarlett to reach the enemy base. If they lost the second tower quickly, they would usually lose their games.

Dan, Novis, and Ashley were currently running through the forest as fast as they could. They had done this multiple times before and knew the best route to get to the second tower in time but as they were running a message appeared.

<Red Team tower destroyed>

Alex was only able to hold off the 5 members of the Hershal team for a brief second, before he had to get out of there and run back.

Unlike their practise matches, Hershal was far more coordinated allowing them to take out the tower in an instant. Alex knew if he had stayed, he would have been dead.

Scarlett too had seen the message and gripped her bow tightly.

"We have to win!"