Chapter 89

〈 Chapter 90 〉 Team Play (2)

*

To be honest, putting Yusera and Elsie together was quite the gamble.

These two are always at each other’s throats even on normal days, so who’s to say they wouldn’t fight even in a mock battle?

However, just looking at their combat abilities, I thought they might complement each other well.

‘They can cover each other’s weaknesses.’

Elsie had outstanding stamina and mental strength, making her good at sustaining fights.

She’d honed her swordsmanship from the Reedval Family to a commendable level, and her stats weren’t bad either, allowing her to defeat most regular knights.

But not having the Royal Sword in her hands for now was still quite a setback in terms of power.

And who could make up for Elsie’s lacking power? That would be Yusera.

Contrary to Elsie, Yusera was a glass cannon—powerful in one shot but as durable as glass itself.

And that glass cannon role was something Elsie could excel at by safely escorting him to his target.

The final piece of the puzzle was the Support Mage, who would normally need to stick with the Attack Mage in our team, but with Yusera being a mobile artillery piece, there was no need for him to be near the Attack Mage.

He was there to support Elsie and create advantageous situations for Yusera to launch his attacks.

I dubbed this trio the “Tank.”

Of course, I had my doubts about whether they’d actually roll along as a team, but the first test run seemed successful.

However, there was one problem…

‘We only have one real piece of artillery.’

Still, they had done a significant job in obliterating the enemy’s mage front.

So, all that remained was for the rest of the enemies to be dealt with on our side.

‘It’d be great if those three clowns could hold back one or two enemies…’

But I didn’t expect much from that.

It was better to resolve this myself along with my fireball one-trick pony mages.

That’s why I brought this mage over from Team 2-A in the first place.

‘I figured we’d have decent combat synergy.’

At that moment, I spotted the enemies approaching us.

The clowns nearby were also heading directly toward us.

Well, with the archer and mage being defenseless, that was expected.

Technically, we hadn’t been discovered yet.

But remaining still like this, it was only a matter of time before we were found out.

It was impossible to escape with a physically weak mage like that.

‘Not that I even plan to escape.’

That’s why I had taken a vantage point advantageous for a siege from the beginning.

A high ground with some cover available.

I intended to respond to the enemy’s formation from here with the mage.

“Put aside your worries and focus on casting as much as you can.”

I’d handle the basic responses.

I nocked an arrow.

‘Overload.’

A dark aura began to swirl around the arrow.

Although it was weaker compared to Yusera, it was enough for pinpoint lethality.

‘Wind’s Power.’

Wind’s Power would give a projectile like an arrow additional acceleration while increasing its hit rate.

With both powers infused, the arrow soared into the air.

It was a sure shot.

The enemy knight struck by the arrow fell and vanished.

Of course, this would give away our position, but it didn’t matter.

‘If we’re going to be exposed anyway, then taking one down first is a win-win.’

Now, the real battle was about to begin.

“Bell, whenever your casting is completed, fire a fireball at anyone wearing thick gloves or holding a shield.”

What I needed wasn’t a mage capable of mass destruction.

That role was essentially filled by Yusera, who was a higher-tier version.

Instead, I needed a mage to dynamically control those with defenses high enough that my arrows couldn’t penetrate.

Whoosh.

And fireballs were quite suitable for that role.

The enemy tank hit by a fireball started to burn.

I would just keep them in check with my arrows.

“This is better than I expected…”

The fireball one-trick mage, Bell, seemed to fully grasp my strategy.

Just as she was about to say everything’s fine, the moment passed.

Whoosh.

An arrow zipped past her.

“Eek!”

The enemy archer was still out there.

But it wasn’t like we had no plans.

She just hadn’t been explained enough.

“Stay as close to me as you can!”

That arrow had also been deflected by me.

To protect Bell, she needed to be within the range of my Wind’s Power.

But that created a problem…

‘I can’t redirect the Wind’s Power toward sniping.’

My hit rate and penetration power would drop, making it hard to hit enemies standing further away.

Still…

‘Getting close doesn’t matter too much.’

As a few of my arrows missed, the remaining two enemies had closed in surprisingly close.

One was a spearman, and the other was a knight.

Neither was wearing heavy gloves, so they could easily dodge a slow fireball.

Thus, I had to take care of these two.

‘First, the spearman.’

Even if the knight closed in, I could still deal with him.

But the same couldn’t be said for the spearman.

Thus, my priority was the spearman.

‘Overload.’

Finally, one of my arrows, which had missed a few times, landed squarely in his chest.

The spearman was eliminated.

Now, only the knight remained.

“This is it!”

The knight had already approached right in front of me.

I quickly nocked an arrow, a movement I was accustomed to over the months.

Then I drew back the bowstring.

This was my true specialty as an archer.

The enemy approached quickly, trying to throw me off with their speed.

It seemed he was planning to swing his sword with the next step.

But that didn’t matter to me.

‘Every movement is clear to me.’

I hadn’t been particularly gifted in dynamic vision from the start.

But there’s a saying called reverse perception.

Since I’d been able to mimic Libero’s swordsmanship using Wind’s Power, I had started to see the movements of swordsmanship to some extent.

So even if the enemy closed in…

“Gah!”

I could shoot accurately.

An arrow buried deep up close.

Its power was sufficient.

The enemy knight was marked for death and vanished.

At the same time, Bell, who was looking for the archer, shouted.

“I’ve found the location of the archer!”

Bell raised her finger and pointed far away at something.

But it wasn’t my role to capture the remaining archer.

Just as I was about to inform my scattered team members of the archer’s position…

A surrender signal went up from the opposing archer.

*

“Close-range shooting, huh?”

The acting professor of the archery class, Ludmilla, opened her eyes wide as she watched.

The archery class head, Kyle, beside her, asked.

“That was certainly impressive, but are you that surprised?”

Ludmilla had been a high-ranking hero recently until she retired.

It was uncommon for her to be surprised by the archery skills of candidates.

Until now, the only one to even come close was Wilhelm, with his monster-level accuracy.

Yet here she was, flustered.

She nodded and said, “That guy just read the opponent knight’s movements perfectly. It would’ve been tough for any knight to do that.”

Archers typically fight from a distance.

The opponent could not attack, while they could launch their own attacks in a one-sided setup.

There was no reason to abandon this strength.

Of course, that was the standard tactic, the right tactic.

Hence, it made no sense for an archer to escort a mage alone.

It was impossible to maintain a distance while fleeing with a mage.

But that didn’t apply to Sung Yoo-rang.

He was different from typical archers, used to adjusting distance and struggling to hit enemies moving quickly up close.

He remained unfazed at close range, reading his opponent’s movements and sinking arrows into them.

“This is…”

At that moment, Sigritt, the head of Swordsmanship Class 1, who had also been observing the mock battle, remarked.

“It was a meticulously planned tactic from start to finish. Impressive.”

That echoed what Ludmilla had wanted to say.

The unconventional combination of two knights, one archer, and one mage clicked together like clockwork, leading to a thorough victory.

Not orthodox, but a flawless tactic.

“Was this tactic devised by you, Freira?”

Freira shook her head.

“Come on, you know I’m no good at tactics, right?”

“Then there must be a candidate among them who thought up this strategy.”

Sigritt’s gaze fell on the surviving members of Team 4-B.

*

“Seriously, what on earth did you do in the rear?”

The support mage, Rian, questioned Sung Yoo-rang and Bell.

The three clowns, who had been hopeless throughout the mock battle, could only dumbly watch the situation unfold.

In their eyes, it seemed like nonsense was happening both at the front and the back.

“I only managed to take down one wearing gloves. The rest…”

She looked toward Sung Yoo-rang.

Sung Yoo-rang scratched the back of his head sheepishly.

Watching that, Yusera spoke up.

“You finally…”

In that instant, Sung Yoo-rang’s expression changed.

Yusera froze in place.

With that silence broken, Sung Yoo-rang returned to his usual calm demeanor and said nonchalantly.

“Thanks to Bell taking out the enemies my arrows couldn’t pierce, the rest were easy to deal with.”

This mock battle wasn’t the end.

There were several matches left to go.

And through those matches, individual rankings for the candidates would be determined.

“Since we’ve shown we can do this…”

Reversing the rankings decided in the first semester in the second semester wasn’t impossible, but there was no need to choose a difficult path.

Especially for Elsie, who would lack power until obtaining the Royal Sword, and Yusera, whose relic would soon become a strength, it was important to achieve good results.

“Let’s do our best moving forward.”

*