Over the following days, Shrek Academy began intensive training to select its tournament participants.
Tang San and the others were certainly strong enough, but appearing too often would make it easy for opponents to study them and devise counters.
To give their lineup more variety, they selected four outstanding students from the academy.
Tai Long, Huang Yuan, Jing Ling, and Jiang Zhu.
They had originally been the candidates Blue Tyrant Academy prepared for this tournament. Now they had become Shrek's substitutes, but none of the four had any complaints.
The seven were genuinely powerful, and the four acknowledged their superiority wholeheartedly.
Besides, whatever happened, they were all fighting for the academy.
After a period of training to build their teamwork, the tournament drew near.
Before then, Flender held a pep rally.
On the training field, Flender and the other teachers called out, "One! Two!"
As soon as the students below thought about what they had to do next, their expressions turned awkward. Still, cowed by the dean's tyrannical authority, they raised both hands and shouted in unison, "Go for it! Give it your all!"
"Go for it! Give it your all!"
"Go for it! Give it your all!"
"Go for it! Give it your all!"
As they chanted, their hands swung up and down in perfect unison.
Once they finished shouting, everyone felt a slight change: what lay ahead was no longer their everyday life of training at the academy.
"Good! That's the spirit! From this moment on, you're no longer Shrek students. You're warriors!"
"With the mindset and bearing of monsters, seize the championship of this tournament!"
Flender delivered his speech.
"Yes!" Tang San and the others clenched their fists and raised their hands in a pledge.
Their faces shone, their hearts brimming with the desire for victory.
"Seriously?