The Commentator’s Booth in the Hunter’s Peak Stadium

“And it looks like the Scarlet Wolf is finally going to take things seriously, folks!!!” Ethan Foster – often called by the people as the Aquatic Ace and a very popular commentator despite his day job as a Class IV Guardian – shouts, raising the hype for the girl in question as he watches the bracket he was assigned to commentate. All while the other three commentators, including the MC, focus on their own brackets with their voices inaudible to him unless he wishes to hear them.

On the screen, Ethan and the various spectators focusing on her screen – which Ethan notices are quite a bit larger in number than the other screens – watch as the girl steps ahead of her team, breaking their formation with one of her forearms transforming into her trademark werewolf’s arm after a layer of blood conceals it from sight. Then her equally trademark claws of blood coat both of her hands and she kneels slightly, lowering her center of gravity as a slight mist of blood leaves her pores.

“Aaaandd…” Ethan drags it out, only to shout the moment she jumps straight off the ground, “here she goes! The hunter has set her sights on her prey and is pouncing!”

Ethan feels a strong surge of excitement he gets as he watches the nineteen year old wolf eared girl jump straight through the air before jumping again off the wall, and then again until she lands on one of the balconies right in front of one of the four girls, startling her into falling onto her rear. And the Scarlet Wolf wastes no time in grinning at her and rushing forwards, quickly tearing out the throat of the girl who has absolutely no close combat skills before moving on to the rest of the floor, where she immediately darts straight towards the next girl.

“Even though I’ve been in who knows how many battles of my own, I can’t help but feel a thrill watching the Scarlet Wolf fight,” Ethan comments before asking the audience, “anyone else feel that? Like you’re watching an apex predator hunting her prey?”

Shouts echo all the way across the stadium voicing the agreement of thousands of people all at once, and Ethan chuckles at that.

“Thought so,” he says as Scarlet tears the throat out of another one, seemingly being careful not to do anything that would actually damage their armor or expose anything despite the censor being in place. “And it looks like our little hunter is being quite courteous as well, despite her rampage. Because if you didn’t notice, she’s avoiding attacking any areas that might expose her opponents despite the censor being in place.”

We all know that there are some sickos online that like to edit the footage and try to remove the censoring by replacing it with realistic looking images after all. Even if those are immediately removed by either the government as it’s crossing a line even they won’t allow, or the Guardians themselves. And the offender punished. Severely.

Ethan doesn’t say that part out loud though and simply continues watching Scarlet tear her way from Sunshine team member to Sunshine team member.

In the end, it doesn’t even take her a full minute to clear out team Sunshine’s students, making the round end within a minute and a half of it starting. And a large majority of the crowd that weren’t already watching her bracket quickly begin focusing on it as soon as they hear of it, even if most of them are too late by then.

“And that’s all she wrote for team Sunshine! They have been hunted by the Apex Predator of the Guardian world!” he shouts, getting a little too into it as he explains, “For the Scarlet Wolf is the single Guardian in the world with the highest capabilities that far surpass any other Guardian, including the five Knights!! And she is very much the hunter and not afraid to use that power!”

The crowd goes crazy at Ethan’s remarks, and even the other commentators finally focus on him, sending him startled looks after having unmuted his audio upon the request of viewers.

Soon enough, chants begin resounding throughout the stadium, bringing more and more people’s awareness to her bracket.

“Scarlet Wolf!” “Scarlet Wolf!” “Scarlet Wolf!”

But eventually, the chants begin to shift to the secondary title Ethan had carelessly given Scarlet. Another title on top of her original one. Albeit one that won’t likely be official in the government records.

“Apex Predator!” “Apex Predator!” Apex Predator!”

Ethan grins as he nods, satisfied with his work before turning his attention to the screen right when it’s about to change to show the next round of the bracket, the screen currently focused on Scarlet standing above the corpse of the leader of team Sunshine.

‘What have you done?!’ Archangel sends him a telepathic message through the device in her hand, a furious look on her face. But Ethan just sends her a smug grin and responds with his own device, ‘Made her untouchable by your little Researcher fan club.’

His words send the woman into a rage, but he just mutes her and turns his attention back to the stadium with a smile.

Ethan had gotten word from Cipher and Frost that the Guardian Research Team was preparing to make a move on Scarlet in an attempt to force her through the government’s authority to agree to their examinations. Merely for ‘research that may very well benefit the human race,’ when in reality they just want to find out if there’s anything they can replicate to increase their own capabilities or the capabilities of their children.

Or possibly just find a cause for it and condemn her using it as justification out of pure spite and jealousy. Spite for disproving their unshakeable theory, and jealousy for not being able to have that power themselves.

But with her capabilities known to the public instead of just the few who bothered to look into her personally on the government’s public database, and her popularity with the people, the government would never give her away to the researchers. Not in a million years.

The man can’t help but feel proud of his work, and for having finally pulled one over on that irritating woman.

Then the next round of the tournament starts, and the chanting begins to die down, everyone focusing again on the tournament now that Scarlet is nowhere to be seen.

Ethan pops his neck and goes back to work as a commentator, his true objective complete.