"Dude you're gonna love it, trust me" Alex said excitedly as he led his alien friend towards their destination. Nort simply nodded enthusiastically in reply to show his human friend that he was just as excited as he was. Although he would be lying if he said that he didn't have his doubts about their latest adventure, as Alex liked to call them. Not because he didn't trust his friend or something like that, but simply because they were right now in the middle of nowhere and it was just kinda hard to believe that anything exciting was happening in these parts. Yet despite that he didn't say anything and simply followed his human friend through the forest, because until now their little adventures had always been fun, though the walking part wasn't. Thankfully he didn't have to walk that much further, because as soon as they left the forest he could see their destination a lonely grandstand sitting at the edge of the forest overlooking a meadow.

  "Is this the right place?" Nort asked somewhat confused, mostly because besides the grandstand there was just nothing here and there was only a good handful of people present, a stark contrast to the other events Alex had brought him along with. "Yeah this is it we are just a bit early, so that we can grab some good seats before they are taken, that's all." Alex answered as he walked towards one of the middle seats in the top row of the grandstand. Nort simply followed his human friend to the seats he had chosen for them, somewhat doubting that really that many people would show up for an event in the middle of nowhere, that all of the seats would be taken that quickly.

  But not even fifteen minutes later nearly half of the seats were taken, because at some point people had just started to show up and judging by just how many kept showing up the grandstand would be full in another ten minutes. Which didn't seem to be a problem for most people seeing as how they had brought along their own chairs. When twenty Minutes later people finally stopped coming the crowd had grown to easily over two hundred, which of course wasn't that much, but for an event in the middle of nowhere with little to no advertisement, as far as Nort could tell, it was an impressive number. Especially since the crowd was made up of people of all ages, though there were slightly more women present than men and a lot of the older women wore working overalls or even what seemed to be full on military uniforms, which confused Nort. So he asked Alex "Why are so many of the women here wearing working overall or military uniforms? Is this some kind of military event?" lowering his voice so that only his friend could hear him.

  "Those with the overalls are probably the mechanics of the two teams and the others wearing the military uniforms well they are either someone's family members that participate in the sport as well, some old ladies that took part in the sport in their youth, the trainers from the two schools or teams that have already lost, who came to watch the match as well as to check out the competition for next year. And the answer to the second question is both yes and no, because while this event isn't funded or organised by the military it is certainly military related " Alex answered simply, but also rather vaguely causing Nort to raise an eyebrow before he asked "What do you mean with military related?"

  Alex simply smiled mischievously and said "You will see." Nort signed at that, knowing that he wouldn't get more than that out of his human friend. So to pass the time he asked "You said that some of the girls in uniform are from other schools that are here to watch the match and gather information about their competition right?" while pointing at a group of girls wearing uniforms consisting of white shirts under dark blue sweaters and bright blue skirts.

  "Yeah" Alex casually answered, causing Nort to continue "So why are they here, there should be way easier ways to watch this right?" Alex just smiled and said "It's mostly just a human thing. Most people just believe that seeing something in person is better than seeing it online, but those are also doing it as a courtesy."

  Somewhat confused, Nort tilted his head and asked "They do it as a courtesy?"

  "Yeah it is just seen as good manners to have at least one of your team attend the tournament matches of the other teams, if you don't have a match yourself of course and likewise if you want to check out your potential opponents than its just proper to do so in person not quote on quote in secret. They have a lot of rules of etiquette and traditions like that, since the sport is rather old and was never really that popular, so everybody that participates is usually a rather big fan of the sport that loves it for what it is, leading the sport to change rather little over time." Alex explained

  This answer kinda surprised Nort, because he had honestly forgotten that humans could be so old fashioned, since Alex and all the other humans he had met until now just were not like that. However it certainly made the entire event a lot more interesting, making him actually excited for what was to come so he asked "Oh by the way when is it gonna start?" Alex just smiled and said "You should hear them by now."

  Confused Nort tilted his head and strained his ears, finding that he could indeed hear the sound of engines coming closer to their position, but only barely over the sound of the crowd that obviously had heard it as well. Yet the noise soon became so loud that he clearly hear it even despite the crowd and it was then that he could see what was making the noise.

  It was tanks really really old tanks. So old in fact that they used tracks instead of hovertech or mechanical legs to move. Nort couldn't help but stare as more of these relics drove past forming two opposing lines. Then the hatches of the tanks opened up and what looked to Nort like highschool girls climbed out.

  This observation caused Nort to take another look at the women in similar uniforms around him to find that a lot of them seemed to also be highschoolers. He just hadn't noticed before, because he had just looked at their uniforms and not their faces. Still this shouldn't have surprised him that much since Alex had mentioned that the uniformed girls belonged to schools that practiced this sport. Yet he still was shocked, because it had just not seemed important to him until the tanks had shown up and he was pretty sure few would blame him for having to do a double take, after all who expects a sport for highschool girls to involve tanks.

  It didn't help that when one, of what seemed to be the judges, called the captains of both teams forward that one of them turned out to be an absolutely tiny girl that was barely tall enough to reach the chest height of her counterpart.

  This caused Nort to ask "So this this is a high school sport?" prompting Alex to turn his head towards him, before he said "Yeah" like it wasn't anything strange. "So I guess this is a rather controversial sport now isn′t it?" causing Alex to tilt his head in confusion, before he said "No why would it be?" at which point Nort just simply stared at his friend for a moment and was about to say something, but was interrupted by the engines of the tanks roaring to live, before both groups then drove of in opposite directions, causing Alex to say "Oh the match started." his word choice making Nort realise something.

  But he just didn't want to believe it so he asked "Alex how does this sport work?" causing Alex to turn towards him again, seeming surprised by the question then he said "Oh right forgot to tell you that didn't I. Anyways this sport has two formats elimination battles and flag battles. In an elimination battle the goal is to render all the enemy tanks inoperable, while in flag battle it is to render a designated flag tank inoperable. There are other rules like only vehicles whose designs were finished before August 15, 1945 are allowed to participate, but that's really all you need to know to really enjoy the sport. Simple right?" that pretty much confirmed Nort suspicions, but to be sure he asked "And how do they usually render a tank inoperable?" which Alex answered by saying "By shooting them with the tanks gun of course. But don't worry they use live rounds in matches but they are used with an emphasis on the participants safety." causing Nort to just stare at him for a moment in the hope that he would elaborate.

  Though somewhat predictably he didn't do that so Nort asked "And how do they do that?" to which Alex only shrugged and said "I don't know." this answer surprised Nort quite a bit, because usually Alex did his research, before taking him anywhere. So Nort asked "What do you mean you don't know?" without really thinking.

  "Dude I am no engineer so I have no clue how one would make a world war II tank round safe for tournament use and when I looked it up I didn't find anything either. Which makes sense after all could you imagine what people would do with that knowledge. I certainly can and trust me it is for the best that it is not common knowledge how they made the shells safe. And yeah they actually managed to make all the shells safe, at least judging by the fact that nobody has died or really been injured in this sport since its inception."

  Nort just stared open mouthed at his human friend for a moment unable to believe what he had heard, before he managed to ask "How is that even possible?" but Alex only shrugged again and then said "I don't know. But it seems to be legit, because even we humans wouldn't allow a sport like this to exist if it really was that dangerous." leaving Nort rather unsatisfied by the answer.

  But before he could ask another question Alex raised his hand to stop him and pulled out a set of binoculars from his backpack, before saying "Listen buddy I know you want answers, but sometimes in life you just don't get them, for multiple reasons. So how about instead of wrecking your brain to come up with a possible answer for all this or ask me a dozen questions most of which you know you won't get an answer to, we enjoy the totally safe match we came here for huh?" holding out one of the set of binoculars to Nort.

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  Nort stared at it for a few seconds and then took it, because his friend was right, life was too short to worry about everything and he trusted Alex so if he said this sport was safe then it was safe to Nort.

  So he put the binoculars to his eyes and looked around to find either of the two teams. But before he could find either team Alex tapped him on the shoulder causing Nort to lower his binoculars to look at his friend, finding him pointing at a hill that seemed to be less than ten kilometres to their left.

  And when he looked through his binoculars in that direction he found what the binoculars identified as the Russian team driving towards the hill. The binoculars also identified every single tank of the Russian team making their designation hover above them. Which was certainly useful but names such as T-34, T-34-85, T-34-100, IS-2 and KV-2 meant little to Nort since he knew little of tanks. But even he knew that these tanks were moving a bit too fast in general for tanks their age. Probably because they had been fitted with better engines not just to make them faster but also safer, if what Alex had once told him about old tank engines sometimes spontaneously catching fire or breaking down was actually true.

  Anyways but even with those better engines it still took them more than ten minutes to reach the hill. And once they arrived they began to advance up the hill towards some clearly in advanced prepared dug-in position for the tanks where an already dug-in tank waited for them. But they all didn't even manage to get into their dug-in positions before the shots of the German team began to fly towards them.

  "Wow they found them rather quickly." Nort said as he turned his head in the direction of the advancing German team. The binoculars once more identifying every single tank making designations like Maus, Jagdtiger, Panther G, Tiger II H, Jagdpanther, Elefant and Panzer III J, that once more meant nothing to Nort, hover above them while he watched the german team advance in a v formation firing as they went.

  "I mean it's hard to hide dug-in hull-down positions with sandbags and everything so the German team probably knew that they were there before the match even started. So the Russian team probably planned for the German team to find them and charge at them like this, trusting in their armor to protect them." Alex retorted, which made sense though Nort couldn't help but think that the russian team probably hadn't expected them to catch up with them this quickly as he watched the last of the russian tanks drive into their assigned dug-in hull-down position as shells flew by them, before they returned fire.

  Both teams just exchanged fire for a moment, before the russian captain gave some hand signals and another moment later the IS-2, KV-2 as well as her T-34-85 turned their turrets to focus fire on the Maus that was the tip of the german spearhead. But while they took aim one of their T-34 was taken down with a hit to its front plate causing a little white flag to emerge from its turret. The Russians however didn’t seem to notice that or just chose to ignore it focusing instead on firing at the Maus to take it down. However both of the shots from the IS-2 and T-34-85 just bounced harmlessly off the Maus’s gun shield as well as its turret face. Then the KV-2 fired at the Maus and managed to take it down in one shot, though this time Nort couldn’t see where it had hit the Maus.

  Confused he lowered his binoculars and asked Alex “How did it take out the Maus in one shot?” who then just pointed at a holoscreen, that Nort had only noticed now, that showed the KV-2’s shell ricochet off of the bottom part of the Maus’s gunshield into its turret ring where it seemingly exploded taking out the Maus. Nort just stared at the screen for a second or two stunned by the shot and then quickly raised his binoculars again to not miss anything.

  Meanwhile the german tanks just continued to push forward, but the russian captain had clearly expected this and thusly quickly gave her team their new orders causing them to focus fire on the Jagdtiger as well as the Elefant, that were now the lead tanks. Yet despite that the tanks pushed forward weathering hit after hit as they returned fire but then a shell hit the hull roof of the Elefant where it exploded in a rather large fireball but despite that the tank kept moving forward as the russians turned their attention to the Tiger II as well as the Jagdpanther behind it clearly knowing that the Elefant was out of the fight. After that a shell hit the Jagdtigers left track and a second explosion rocked the inside of the Elefant causing a white flag to pop out of its turret shortly after signaling that it was down. This forced the german formation to come to a halt with both of their lead tanks unable to move. Yet despite the fact that they were sitting ducks in that position they didn’t move for quite a bit, seemingly waiting for their captain to give them new orders while the Russians kept firing shells at them.

  But then the hatch on the back of the Tiger II turret opened up and the German captain climbed out. At first it seemed that she had done that to get a better view of the situation but then she stood up and jumped onto the Panther directly behind her tank then ran down its roof to jump onto the Panzer III, in the very back of the formation, before she climbed onto its turret where she opened one of its hatches then climbed inside. And after a few seconds the commander of the Panzer III climbed out and took the same route the captain had taken to get to the Tiger II she seemingly now commanded. Then the three Panthers as well as the Panzer III turned around and drove back past the taken out Maus after which the other german tanks layed down a barrage on the russian positions creating three big dust clouds to cover their comrades. Though Nort had no idea how they had done that but clearly Alex had as he said “Must have used HE shells.” seemingly expecting Nort to ask about that.

  Anyways despite the dust clouds the russian quickly noticed that something was off and jumped onto vertically standing cover of the opened turret hatch of her T-34-85 to get a better view of what the germans were doing where she spotted the three Panthers as well as the Panzer III as they turned to drive around the side of the hill to flank them.

  This maneuver caused quite a stir among the crowd, but Nort didn’t listen to what they said instead he watched as the Russian captain stomped her feet for a second before her tank as well as another T-34-85 drove out of their dug-in positions then drove down the side of the hill directly to the left of their positions to intercept the germans as the rest of both teams continued to fire shell after shell at each other. But neither of them managed to take out another tank so Nort turned his full attention to the engagement on the side of the hill to see that the germans were now in the russian teams flank and had noticed the two approaching T-34-85’s that were charging directly at them so they turned towards the hill to meet their charge.

  Nort held his breath as the two T-34-85 charged directly at the two lead Panthers of the german square formation as if they intended to ram into them. But then just as the T-34-85’s fired the lead Panthers hit the brakes causing them drift a bit to the side and thusly dodge the enemy shells by a hair's breadth. However before the Panthers could return fire the two T-34-85’s focused fire on the left Panther taking it out and rushing past the remaining Panther leaving it no time to do more than turn towards its aggressors.

  At which point the Russians probably noticed that the lead Panthers had just been a distraction so that the remaining Panther as well as the Panzer III, that had been behind them just a moment ago, could drive around them while they were distracted and were now heading up the hill towards the Russian flag tank. This caused a T-34 to leave its position to intercept the approaching german tanks, as the russian flag tank tried and failed to get out its dug-in position, because of the sandbags that surrounded it on all sides, while the two T-34-85 of course immediately gave chase. But the remaining lead Panther took a pod shot at the russian captains T-34-85 ,which bounced off it armor, but it had managed to but itself in the way of the other one causing the russian tank to crash into it just a second after it had fired into the german tank at point blank range taking it out.

  The Russian captain however didn’t seem to notice this way too focused on chasing after the last Panther and the Panzer III as they raced towards the still stuck russian flag tank. The T-34 tried to stop the Germans but was quickly taken out with two shots to its front plate for its troubles. But in return the Russian captain’s T-34-85 took out the last Panther with a shot to the rear leaving only the Panzer III still racing towards the russian flag tank with the russian captain hot in pursuit. And when she drove past the taken out Panther the russian captain’s T-34-85 fired again but the shells just bounced back of the Panzer III’s track cover just before it fired at the russian flag T-34-100 blowing up the sandbags at it′s rear and thusly allowing it to get out of its dug-in position to attempt to run away.

  But before the Russian flag T-34-100 could even get that far the Panzer III drove into a crater, probably left by a HE shell, with such speed that when it barreled out of the crater it used the slope as a ramp to jump around two metres in the air. And then when the arc of its jump pointed the Panzer III gun directly at the Russian flag tank it fired a shell into the middle of the T-34-100’s front plate mid jump. Then once it had landed its momentum caused the german tank to ram into its opponent just a few seconds before the russian captain caught up with it and shot it into its rear. The force of impact pushing the Panzer III so hard into its russian counterpart that Nort almost thought it would climb over the T-34-100 and causing both tanks to slide a good meter across the floor. Once they came to a halt with the Panzer III now resting partially on top of the T-34-100 two white flags emerged from their turrets but the one from the T-34-100 emerged ever so slightly sooner making this a win for the German team.

  Applause and cheers rippled through the crowd as the holoscreen announced the germans as the winners of this match but Nort barely noticed that too stunned by what he had seen to do much else but stare open-mouthed at the the Panzer III as well as the T-34-100. But after a moment of just staring he couldn’t help but smile, because despite how ridiculous this match had been or maybe because of how ridiculous it had been it had been an absolute blast to watch. Though he regretted doing that as soon as he turned to Alex to find him smugly smiling at him like he wanted to say ‘Told ya, you would love it.’ causing Nort to shove him and say “Shut up dude.” though he couldn’t help but laugh as he did so because all of this was just too peak humanity not to be funny.