There was nothing more to say about the matches that followed.
Both sides had fought with everything they had to win the first round, but the miracle Heavenly Dragon Academy hoped for never came. The gap in strength between the two schools was simply too wide. If David had not chosen to let his weaker teammates gain some experience, the outcome of this match would never have been in doubt at all.
Worse for the home team, their ace and captain, Josiah, could only manage a draw against Willow, losing a round he should have won without difficulty.
In the matches that followed, Miles and Luke stepped up one after another, each claiming a clean victory. That left only one more win needed to close out the match.
For the final battle, Emma took the field last. Her Togetic, which looked unassuming and hardly built for combat, made quick work of her opponent's Pokémon, bringing David's team a perfect finish to their very first match of the tournament.
Once they boarded the bus for the ride home, David and his teammates had secured their first point, leaving Heavenly Dragon Academy behind them. Before they departed, though, David spared a long, thoughtful look at the members of Heavenly Dragon Academy's team who had never even taken the field.
The preliminary round followed a points system. After two rounds of matches, the four schools with the highest point totals would advance to the main tournament. That was exactly why so many players on Heavenly Dragon Academy's team had planned from the start to avoid a real fight and conserve their strength instead.
Since this stage wasn't a straight knockout, conceding one point to a team as strong as First High made sense. It was smarter to save their energy and fight for one of the three remaining qualifying spots later on.
Naturally, David's team returned in high spirits after their win, while the Heavenly Dragon Academy players who had suffered such a lopsided defeat wore far grimmer expressions.
Once First High's team had gone, someone in a quiet corner of the Heavenly Dragon Academy group finally spoke up, clearly unhappy.
"Why didn't we stick to the plan? Why didn't you let the rest of us battle? If we had, we might have beaten them, or at least dragged things into a tie-breaker..."
Josiah heard this, glanced over at her, and said nothing at first. He only gave a faint shake of his head.
"What is that supposed to mean? If you hadn't lost your match, we wouldn't be stuck in this position!"
Josiah's expression darkened at once. His teammate had struck a nerve.
"I lost that match, yes. But do you honestly believe our opponents were weak and we were strong? Let me be blunt: you wouldn't have had even a forty percent chance against that Sceptile."
"And even if we had forced a tie-breaker, what then? Lose yet another match? Do you actually think you could beat that monster?"
"You've faced the Sakura exchange team more than once. You know exactly what it takes to hold your own against their entire lineup by yourself."
"Once the original plan had no chance left, it made sense to hold our strength back and start planning for the next match instead."
"If you think my judgment was wrong, then challenge me directly. Beat me, and you can take over as captain. After that, you can run the team however you like."
With that, Josiah turned and walked off without looking back. Most of the team followed him, leaving only a handful of players behind with the teammate who had spoken up.
As he walked, Josiah replayed the conversation in his mind and shook his head, more tired than angry.
The original plan had been simple enough. With Dong Hao winning the first match, he could then challenge David directly, using up the opponent's chance to send out a substitute. For the three matches after that, with their new recruits in the lineup and First High likely not fielding its strongest players, there was a real chance of stealing a win if the opponents grew careless.
Snatching even one point from First High would have gone a long way toward securing a spot in the next round.
Unfortunately, First High's true strength had turned out to be greater than anyone expected. David clearly wasn't the only capable battler on that team — even the very opponent Josiah had once defeated had managed to fight him to a draw this time.
Josiah might still hold a slight edge in battle experience, but that opponent hadn't even ranked among First High's top three. If someone that far down their lineup could match him, the gap between the schools was worse than assumed.
With victory no longer possible, it made little sense to reveal their new recruits to the public. Better to keep them hidden and save the surprise for a more useful moment later. Throwing away every trump card just to save face in a match they were already going to lose would have been foolish.
The trouble was that these new recruits, while strong, didn't seem to think things through very well.
"Sigh."
"I just hope they don't do anything reckless in the matches ahead."
Josiah sighed again at the thought. As team captain, if any of them made a careless mistake later on, it would fall to him to clean up after it.
On the ride back, David sat quietly with his eyes closed, looking to anyone watching as though he had drifted off to sleep.
He hadn't. His mind was on how much he stood to gain from this High School League.
Because of the tournament's format, the reward tied to this event now depended on how well his team performed overall, and it could be claimed at any point along the way. That meant if David's team made it all the way to the finals and won the championship, he would receive the greatest possible reward.
"Not bad at all."
Still, David thought that if the chance came up, he wouldn't mind stepping into a match himself from time to time. Defeating a strong Trainer directly also came with its own rewards, after all.
Even the smallest reward was still a reward, and enough small gains would eventually add up to something substantial. If he only ever stood back as a deterrent, he'd be leaving easy rewards on the table.
David decided that going forward, the weaker schools could be left to Aspen and the others for practice matches, but whenever they faced one of the top-tier schools, he would step onto the field himself.