After winning our qualifier match yesterday, all the Summoners who had qualified were given a notice of the assigned groups for the group stage matches attached to the door of their rooms along with a trolley of breakfast. As my party began digging into plates of pancakes with slices of bacon and eggs, Isabel began skimming through the paper to find out which group we were in.

“Aha! There we are in group C!” Isabel excitedly exclaims as she pounds the paper onto our table, causing our plates to rattle.

M-my egg yolks… All broken without me satisfyingly bringing down my fork upon them…

Clearly unfazed by his shaken-up breakfast, Roy smiles and looks up at Isabel, “Well then, who are we up against?”

“I hope we get an easy group.” Liz sighs, “I wouldn’t want to work too hard.”

Hilde leans from his chair to get a look at the paper, “Oh look! Aquaria is in the same group as us!”

Contrary to the excited expression of Hilde, Isabel clicks her tongue with a look of annoyance on her face. After a couple of seconds of silence, she realizes that we all heard her and were now staring at her.

“I-it’s nothing against Aquaria of course! She’s my best friend,” Isabel flushes up at the sudden attention, “It’s just… we wanted to meet each other after the group stages to see who was the stronger Summoner.”

“Couldn’t you do it in the group stages?” I ask.

“You could see who has the stronger party in the qualifiers and group stages, but not who was the stronger Summoner,” Isabel replies, shaking her head, “Us Summoners are not allowed to use our spells before the quarter-finals.”

I guess that made sense. My party members unanimously decided to move on from the fact that Aquaria and Isabel were in the same group, and instead focused on who else was in our group. I took a peek at the paper myself and skimmed until I saw group C. Once I finally found our group, I began reading the names out loud.

“Group C: Aquaria, Benjamin, Eli, Isabel.”

Naturally, I did not recognize any of those other names. I looked at my party members and to my relief, I could tell from their faces that I wasn’t the only one who couldn’t recognize the other Summoners.

“So uhm, Isabel? Any idea on who these Summoners are?” I ask.

“Huh? No, why would I need to look at other Summoners?” Isabel replies with a blank expression, “We’re going to blast through this group stage.”

Well, to be fair to myself, what did I expect from a girl so full of herself.

I sigh and look over at Roy. He looked back at me and nodded back at me. It would appear that we were both on the same page. I face Isabel, who was starting her breakfast.

“The break rooms with the TVs, do they happen to show replays?” I ask.

Isabel responds by nodding with a mouth full of pancakes. She almost looked like a squirrel with her cheeks puffed out. However, now wasn’t the time to think about Isabel’s puffed-out cheeks.

“Alright Roy, let’s go,” I say as I get up.

“Where are you guys going to go?” Hilde asks.

Roy stands up and joins my side, “Training?”

“Visual training.” I nod.

With that, Roy and I left our two confused-looking party members.

* * *

“Iiiiiiiiiit’s tiiiiiime!” The commentator excitedly exclaims to the roaring waves of fans, “The first battle of Group C between Summoners Benjamin and Isabel will begin shortly!”

Another roar fills the stadium, sending shivers down my spine. I quickly shake off the shivers and hop lightly on the spot. My heart was beating fast, but I was excited and confident with the plan Roy and I had come up with.

I looked across the stadium, directly staring into the eyes of Benjamin and his party, which as expected, consisted of 5 Spirits. 2 archer Elves, 2 Human mages, and 1 Drakon with a longsword.

“Who will win this battle? A party that prides itself on supporting spells, or a party with surprises such as an attacking Shielder? Let the battle… Begin!”

As soon as the battle starts, the two Elves jump backward and position themselves behind Benjamin. I grin subconsciously as the Elves do exactly what I had expected them to do.

The two Human mages begin supporting the Drakon by shooting balls of flame at whoever tried to get close to him. I grinned even harder, but I couldn’t help it, the scenario was almost too perfect.

Arrows and flames flew down from the sky as Liz and Hilde struggled to support Roy as they couldn’t get close to the Drakon.

However, I didn’t need Liz or Hilde to win. No, I needed the Drakon to win. I would be gambling my chances of winning, but it was a gamble with the percentages on my side.

The Drakon roars and charges directly for Roy…and my plan was complete.

Roy and I smiled at the situation. We knew we won.

I ran in-between the Drakon and blocked his sword. I could tell his level was much higher than mine as I experienced quite a bit of knockback, but I managed to stand my ground. Roy dashes from around me and swings his sword towards the Drakon. As expected, the Drakon can read the move and step back to clash swords with Roy.

The first step is complete.

Instead of supporting Roy, I start sprinting toward the Mages.

“Look! The Shielder is leaving the knight behind and charging straight for the supporting Mages! What on Spirinall could he be thinking?”

Of course, anyone would have read that I was aiming for the support, so that’s why I decided I wouldn’t do that. Instead, I raised my shield and pretended to aim for the mages, and as expected, they aim their staffs toward me.

The second step is complete, it’s all up to you Roy.

I sprint even faster and run past the mages, catching them completely by surprise. Confusion builds up among Benjamin’s party as I run straight through the first line of support. I continue running while waiting for Benjamin’s next move.

“The Shielder ran past the Mages? Then… who is he aiming for!?”

Deep down, Roy and I knew that there was one plan Benjamin could carry out that would decrease my chances of winning. We were gambling, but I was confident that the percentages were at my odds once again.

“Continue Supporting Ard!” Benjamin calls out, “He’s just a shield wielder!”

The mages and archers return their attention to raining down attacks around the Drakon.

Fool… third step, complete.

I finally make my way in front of Benjamin and raise my shield in an attempt to hit him directly. As I bring my shield down, I’m met by two Elves who block my shield with two small knives.

I wasn’t expecting them to really face me head-on, but I guess the fourth step is complete?

“Hilde, Liz! Get the mages!” I yell. I couldn’t see behind me, but I had faith that Hilde and Liz trusted in my calls.

I slam my shield against the Elves one more time, and as would be expected of anyone, my normal attack doesn’t do much to them. Unfortunately for them, that’s what I wanted to happen. I’m simply doing a move similar to what I did against Roy during our first spar.

Visualize flames!

My shield quickly lights up as orange flames bursts out my shield and spreads onto the two Elves on the other side. They begin screaming in horror as they jump out of the way, making another big mistake.

I smirk.

Fifth step complete.

With my shield still flaming, I close the distance between Benjamin and me.

Benjamin stumbles over himself as he falls to the ground on his bottom, fear crawling slowly over his face. I smile in triumph as I bring down my flaming shield.

“I-I surrender!” Benjamin wails, bringing my shield to a stop only a couple of inches from his face.

Silence fills the stadium, the atmosphere almost becoming cold despite the fact I had a source of fire on my arm.

Then, it came, and an even louder roar from the crowd. I could barely hear the announcer over the crowd, there was nothing else he would be announcing other than Isabel’s victory.

I had initially intended to render Benjamin unconscious, but I was unaware that surrendering was an option.

Seriously though, I thought this was a big occasion… go all out or something, dude.

* * *

“That went surprisingly smoothly, I wasn’t expecting the elves to intercept you though.” Roy sighs as he slumps down onto a sofa in the break room.

“I wasn’t expecting a surrender that early on,” I admit.

“A win’s still a win!” Hilde exclaims excitedly as he gulps down a cup of water.

Usually, anyone would be all joyful and merry after a win in a tournament, but I felt a sense of dread. Then it hit me…

Everyone is staring directly at me…

Isabel stands directly in front of me and crosses her arms, “So? What trick did you use this time?”

“Huh? What do you mean?” I ask.

“Don’t act stupid now, how did you come up with that plan?”

Right, I guess I should explain…

Also, who are you calling stupid?!

* * *

“Roy, look, don’t you think it’s unusual that Benjamin is wide open here?” I whisper a question as we watch the TV to analyze Benjamin’s placement of his Spirits around him.

“It’s almost too obvious though, he’s either overconfident or hiding a secret tactic,” Roy whispers back.

That’s right, Roy and I were watching the replay of Benjamin’s qualifier match.

It wasn’t cheating, of course, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with studying the opponent. After breakfast in our room, we figured that we should learn Benjamin’s tactics rather than come up with one on the spot.

We analyze the replay once again as Benjamin overwhelms his opponent by using his advantageous number of supporting Spirits to create a wall that both defends and causes damage around his main damage dealer which was a Drakon.

The unfortunate opponent of Benjamin, a Summoner with two supporting Spirits and one main damage dealer, was given two choices: deal with the overly supported Drakon first, or dismantle the supports. She went for the wiser option and sent her two supporting Spirits to battle Benjamin’s mages. I watched with the interest in how Benjamin would counter the quick guerilla attack.

Even though I had seen the replay once already, I still watched in disbelief as Benjamin ordered his Spirits to continue supporting attacks around the Drakon.

Reckless, but overwhelmingly powerful.

The overly supported Drakon now had only one target to face, and that one target had no support…

It was almost too painful to watch how helpless the other Summoner had become.

In my opinion, she went for the wiser option, but I couldn’t help thinking about the outcome if she had gone for the Drakon instead. Would it have been different? No, there was a literal wall of arrows and fireballs all around the Drakon.

As the replay ends, I lean back on the couch and close my eyes.

Think, there has to be a counter to this play… we need a wide opening… opening?

“Roy…rewind the replay.” I get up and walk over to the screen.

“To where?”

“When Benjamin’s opponent sends out her supports.”

Roy fiddles with a button on the TV and rewinds the replay, he hits play and we watch the start of the downfall of the opposing Summoner.

Then I found it, the opening that we would need to defeat such a reckless plan. I just needed confirmation.

“Roy, we automatically win if the other Summoner is unconscious right?” I ask.

“Yeah, that’s part of the rules,” Roy confirms.

“Are we also allowed to directly attack other Summoners?”

“Yeah, it’s not very common, but it is allowed.”

I grin and almost let out a chuckle. “I’ve got a plan.”

* * *

“I see, that’s why you seemed more confident on the battlefield than usual.” Isabel mumbles.

“W-well, I wasn’t expecting the elves to intercept me, or for him to just surrender. So, I guess it didn’t all go to plan right?” I force a laugh to reduce the tension in the air.

Isabel slowly raises her hand and points a finger at me, “I’m the Summoner in this party, I don’t appreciate the fact that I’m not making the calls here. I’m going to be the one who makes the calls from now on.”

She folds her arms and looks away, “Still, th-thank you for helping without me asking.”

I smirk, “Oh? What was that? I couldn’t hear you… maybe you should say it louder while directly looking at me.”

Isabel glares daggers at me as her cheeks flush up.

Ah, I’m going to regret this, aren’t I?

“By my command, I order my Spirit, Rin…”

Ah fuck.

“… to remain silent for the rest of the day!”

My freedom of speech!