Chapter 418 (Patreon)

“Ah,” Yuri said. “They’re at it again.”

The arena erupted as Boris’s team charged forward with the same strategy they had used throughout the tournament.

Or perhaps calling it a strategy was being generous.

No one was entirely sure whether Boris’s team actually had a plan, or if they simply decided who would run first and trusted everyone else to figure things out afterward.

Rin adjusted her spectacles as she watched the battlefield. “I thought the other students would have figured out how to counter them by now.”

It was the day of the semi-final matches, and the contrast between the two teams could not have been more obvious.

The Gorgeous Team had won every match exactly as everyone expected. They had earned a reputation as the academy’s perfect team, a group that moved with precise coordination and rarely gave their opponents an opening. More importantly, they had suffered no casualties throughout the entire competition. Not once had a member’s competition pendant been broken.

Then there was Boris’s team.

The Muscle Team.

Their approach was considerably less refined.

Their strategy, if it could be called one, involved rushing straight into the enemy formation and turning the battlefield into complete chaos. It worked far more often than it had any right to, but the price was usually high. In some of their previous matches, more than half of their members had lost their pendants before the battle ended.

And somehow, through all of it, Toby had always been the first.

Suri sat along the sideline, chewing on a strip of beef jerky while watching the battle unfold. Thorne had apparently grown tired of participating in the competition and had decided to watch from the sidelines with her instead. The little lizard was still wearing her specially made armor, though she looked considerably more interested in the snacks the girls occasionally slipped her than in the actual match.

Suri took another bite of jerky. “I thought they were going to stop doing that. Half of their members were knocked out in the last match.”

“Oh.”

Rin leaned forward slightly. “Looks like they adjusted something.”

On the battlefield, the change was already becoming obvious.

The fastest member of Boris’s team was a [Scout], though he was an unusually large man for someone with that class. He darted across the battlefield with a pair of daggers in his hands, moving directly toward the opposing [Bowman].

The [Bowman] had already proven to be a serious threat in their previous match, taking advantage of the chaotic formations and breaking the pendants of several members before anyone could reach him.

This time, however, the [Scout] refused to give him a clear shot.

Every time the Bowman raised his weapon, their [Scout] was already there, forcing him to move, dodge, or redirect his aim.

Yuri stared. “Is that even allowed?”

Before anyone could answer, Andel lifted another casket.

Boris did the same.

Then both men threw their caskets toward the opposing team.

The heavy objects crashed onto the battlefield, spilling bones across the ground.

Suri swallowed her jerky. “I heard it's allowed. They even placed an enchantment on the caskets, so they're apparently counted as enchanted armor according to the rules.”

Yuri stared at her. “They counted those caskets as armor?”

“Apparently.”

The crowd erupted again. Adam suddenly launched himself toward the front of the enemy formation, his enormous frame crashing into their defensive line like a living battering ram.

At the same time, Boris remained surprisingly calm.

Unlike the reckless charges he had displayed earlier in the tournament, he had adopted a much more textbook approach during the previous matches. He would engage several frontliners himself, keeping them occupied while the rest of his team moved around the battlefield and dealt with everyone else.

It was almost normal. The strange part was that Boris seemed to be the most disciplined member of the team.

Toby, meanwhile, had discovered a new skeleton horse that was summoned by Roy.

For reasons that nobody understood, he decided to ride it. He climbed onto its back and immediately tried to control it the same way he would a living horse.

“Move!”

The skeleton horse did not move.

Toby pulled the reins. The horse suddenly lurched forward. Toby's eyes widened.

“Wait, wait, wait!” The skeleton horse accelerated.

Toby instinctively pulled harder on the reins, causing the creature to rear backward.

He lost his balance. Then he fell straight onto the ground. His competition pendant shattered. The arena went silent for half a second. Then the entire crowd burst into laughter.

Toby remained on the ground, staring upward at the sky as though trying to understand what had just happened.

Suri covered her mouth while Rin and Yuri couldn’t contain their laughter..

Joan shook her head. “Looks like Toby's going to get teased about this for a long time.”

Rin wiped the corner of her eye. “I don't think anyone has ever broken their pendant by falling off a horse. But I’m not sure if those bones can be counted as a horse.”

She adjusted her spectacles and looked back toward Toby. “He might have just made history.”

Thorne tilted her little armored head toward the battlefield. For a moment, she stared at Toby. Then she looked away. Even the lizard seemed embarrassed for him.

….

When night finally came, the Muscle Team did not celebrate their victory.

Instead, all ten of them were crammed into Boris's boarding room, their exhausted bodies scattered across the floor and furniture. Some were sitting against the walls, others were sprawled across the wooden floor, and a few looked as though they had simply collapsed wherever they happened to stop walking.

Boris's roommate had wisely decided not to spend the night there. He had already left the school grounds and found somewhere else to sleep.

Leo Stark, who could easily have been mistaken for an ordinary commoner at that moment, sat cross-legged on the wooden floor with his back against the wall. Without the formal clothing and mannerisms usually associated with his family, there was little about him that suggested he was the son of Duke Stark.

He looked around the room. “Suri is probably expecting us to do the same thing in the finals tomorrow,” he said. “So what are we going to do?”

Boris opened his mouth. Before he could answer, however, Thorne suddenly moved on top of his head.

Boris paused. He reached up and gently placed his fingers against the little lizard's head. “Did you do something?”

Thorne stared at him. Then she slowly shook her head.

Boris squinted his eyes. He had no idea what she was trying to say.

Freddy sighed from across the room. “That archer is going to be a problem. She's good at finding openings, and it might take us too long to locate her during the match.”

“And Joan is a good frontliner,” Andel added. “We always end up drawing whenever we spar.”

Adam crossed his massive arms. “Rin has improved a lot as a tank too. After watching her last match, I'm not sure I can still beat her.”

The room fell quiet.

Boris lowered his gaze. For once, there was no joking. No argument about who would jump into the enemy formation first.

Tomorrow was the final. And they were facing the team that had remained perfect throughout the entire competition.

Boris took a slow breath. “I wasn't really listening when they were discussing it before,” he admitted, “but Suri is hiding a powerful skill.”

Several heads turned toward him.

Boris continued. “She hasn't shown everything she can do yet. If we let her use that skill, our usual approach won't work.”

He looked around the room. “We need something big.”

Leo raised an eyebrow. “Big?”

“A distraction,” Boris said. “Something big enough to rattle them and break their formation before they understand what we're doing.”

The others exchanged glances. Then Roy suddenly stood.

His expression changed as though a thought had just struck him. “If it's something big...”

He slowly raised his hand. “I actually have one.”

Everyone looked at him.

Roy smiled.

The boys immediately gathered around him.

Their voices dropped as they began discussing their plan, occasionally pointing at the floor as Roy explained the details. Boris listened carefully, asking questions whenever something seemed unclear. Andel added a few adjustments, while Adam suggested where they should make their first push.

The meeting quickly became more serious than the strategy session they had never held before.

After several minutes, Leo finally nodded. “That may work.”

Boris smiled. “Then we'll do it.”

The others nodded. All except Toby. He was sitting in the corner with his shoulders hanging so low that he looked as though his entire spirit had abandoned his body.

After what had happened with the skeleton horse earlier, he had not recovered.

Toby slowly raised his head. “Can I be absent tomorrow?”

Everyone ignored him.

…

Meanwhile, in Suri's room...

Suri sat comfortably on her bed.

Several illusions were scattered throughout the school, each one following members of Boris's team and gathering whatever information they could. Normally, she would not have bothered spying on them so aggressively.

But she intended to take every advantage she could get.

What surprised her was that the boys were actually holding a strategy meeting.

They had never done anything like this during the previous matches.

Suri leaned forward with a grin. “So they're finally taking it seriously.”

Through one of her illusions, she watched the group gathered inside Boris's room.

She listened carefully. Every movement of the illusion carried information back to her, allowing her to observe the meeting without being physically present.

Suri's smile widened. “Come on...”

She leaned closer. “Show me what you've got.”

They were planning something.

 Suri's excitement grew as she waited to hear what they intended to change for tomorrow's final.

Then Thorne moved.

The little lizard, still perched on Boris's head, suddenly turned toward one of Suri's illusions.

Its tiny eyes fixed directly on the invisible observer.

Suri froze.

Thorne stared then she slowly tilted her head.

Suri's smile disappeared. “No.”

Thorne lifted one tiny claw. The illusion vanished.

Suri clicked her tongue. “That lizard again.”

She leaned backward and crossed her arms. “I shouldn't have given her those snacks.”

She stared at the empty space where her illusion had been. Then she sighed. “Now I have no idea what they're planning.”

Post note:

Both of them are not confident in winning against each other 😂

Sixth chap of the week.

Hope you enjoy the chap! 🙂

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