Chapter 62: Oops
Now that the notion of groups came about, Nathan and I looked at each other. We both narrowed our eyes slightly.
I could tell he was thinking the same thing I was.
We wanted to be on opposite teams, and see who would win in that situation.
Yet, right after our eyes relaxed somewhat. The reason being we were going to fight together in the future, probably with teammates as well. This was a good opportunity to get used to that.
Perhaps after everything calms down a bit, we could have a fight like that. Unfortunately, that was going to be years from now at a minimum.
While we walked over to one another, two others hurriedly rushed over to us.
"Can I be your partner, please?"
"Commoner! I grant you the privilege to be on the same team as me!"
If you couldn't tell, both Raisa and Charlotte had rushed over to us for the sake of partnering up. As for Arianne, she was glancing in our direction shyly, but despair emerged on her face.
Well... I'm sure someone will end up taking her.
I looked at Raisa with a somewhat forced smile.
"Sure, I guess you could join."
Nathan looked at Charlotte like she was the bane of all things good.
"No! I reject this privilege, get away from me."
Charlotte blushed rather hard, but was persistent.
"If you know that it's a privilege, that means you have essentially accepted it already, commoner!"
That logic made no sense at all, but it was enough for Charlotte to reach over to Nathan, while he held her back.
"I said no already! Go find another group to privilege or something."
There was a rather large frown plastered on Nathan's face. Raisa looked at the scene and I saw pity flash in her eyes when she saw Charlotte. She sheepishly spoke to Nathan.
"Um, Natan? Maybe you should just let her join. She probably won't stop begging you until you accept."
Nathan's expression remained strict until she said that last part. His eyelids fell, showing the exhaustion that had come over him.
From what I remember, his mother, Minori, and Charlotte have all been harassing the poor man. At this rate, he was literally going to develop trauma.
With a defeated sigh, Nathan relented.
"Fine, fine."
Charlotte raised both hands in celebration.
"Yay! U-Uh, I mean, that's only natural that you accepted me, commoner!"
With that, our team formed. There was quite a bit of commotion among the others about their teams, as people argued and gave various propositions to one another. One thing I noticed was that the nobles never gave any of the commoners a second glance, while the commoners didn't bother trying to talk to them either.
Huh. A team like ours seemed like a pretty big outlier.
Once most of the teams had formed, there was one that remained with three people. Arianne and two other commoners were on that team. A guy on that team looked at the teacher with concern.
"Um, what do we do if there are only three of us? Does that mean you will join us"
done.me
Rae smiled brightly, yet her words didn't seem to match that expression.
"Part of your skills should be the ability to get yourself into a solid team or recruit one. Since you were unable to get yourself into a team with more members, you will be forced to deal with it. Of course, it may not necessarily be a disadvantage."
Despite her somewhat encouraging words at the end, the three obviously didn't seem very pleased. It appeared none of them really had confidence in each other.
She then gave a big wave to gather everyone's attention.
"This time, the rules will be different. The first time you get hit by a wooden weapon on any part of your body, you are officially out. Falling outside is the same. You are not allowed to continue fighting, and I will personally call out who I saw get hit first. My call will be the last."
Rae then pointed at two teams with both her hands.
"These two will fight against each other."
It was the team Nathan and I was on, along with the one Sam had formed. I guess the teams that fought each other were chosen randomly, so it was a good thing we didn't just split up like that originally.
Our team along with Sam's had gone on top of one of the platforms, which were notably larger. I'd say they were just a tad bit smaller than the one at the ball, which was still substantial because the platform there really was just that big.
Rae continued to call out for other people to be grouped up one after another.
I thought about the rule that our teacher had set. Unlike normal, it wouldn't make sense to trade blow for blow, as getting hit first would mean getting out. That meant speed was more valuable than anything else, as well as making the hit clear enough for the teacher to make it out.
To be honest, I wasn't feeling all that good about this. The reason being was that I still didn't really understand any sword techniques. But maybe we'd be able to get away with that anyway.
I realized that Ela had been glaring at me and was actually on Sam's team as well.
Huh. Well, it's probably fine.
While the eight of us were hesitating on whether or not to start, the teacher raised her hands into the air and yelled out rather loudly.
"Begin!"
From there, Sam was the first to rush in with his sword.
"I'll beat you right here to show you how futile it is!"
Seeing him charge towards Nathan so blatantly, I tried to casually sneak in a swing, but it turns out his reaction time wasn't all that bad, allowing him to stop himself. He pointed towards me accusingly.
"Hey! Why are you interfering?"
I shrugged my shoulders.
"It's a team battle, is it not?"
While saying that, I rushed forth, trying to get another swing in before his three teammates could back him up.
Unfortunately, my sword only landed against his with a clack.
Sam had furrowed his brows.
"You have no technique!"
My eyelid twitched.
"I don't need technique!"
At this point, his other teammates realized they shouldn't just sit idly by. But at the same time, Charlotte and Raisa began to move.
While Raisa had her wooden halberd, Charlotte had two giant wooden greatswords. I'm pretty sure you weren't actually supposed to do that because it was a two-handed weapon, but she would go through the game easily wielding two metal greatswords, so there was nothing to complain about.
Raisa rushed towards Ela, while Charlotte was next to her, going after two people by herself.
With a wild scream, Charlotte brazenly waved greatswords that were the size of her around without abandon.
"YAH YAH YAH YAH YAH-"
Both Nathan and I felt inclined to take a step away because she was one of the main leads that were notorious for dealing friendly fire damage.
The two nobles facing off against her began to panic, not really knowing what they were supposed to do against a person that fought like this. Regardless, they were still fairly well trained and were able to block her attacks, but weren't doing much other than holding her off.
Once Raisa had come close, Ela raised her wooden saber in a high stance, with the blade at the same level as her head.
Wanting to press the advantage of the length of her weapon, Raisa swung first, but Ela easily parried it, pushing it away, causing her halberd to be awkwardly off to the side. Ela didn't waste another second and moved forth, wanting to end it as swiftly as possible.
There was panic on Raisa's face, but she hadn't given up yet. Instead of trying to recover her grasp on the halberd, she shifted the grip and held it in front of her to use it to block.
Ela raised her hand for a vertical swing, prompting Raisa to hold her halberd horizontally, but that was actually a feint. She seamlessly transitioned her vertical strike into a low horizontal.
A wooden clack rang out.
While it was tricky, Raisa didn't have too much trouble blocking it, as that was pretty much expected. This was because Raisa knew that was one of the standard positions that were made to easily switch the swing type on the fly.
But just because Raisa had blocked it didn't mean she was in any better position than she was before. She continued backing up, wanting to make space, but Ela was relentless, closing the space immediately.
Raisa kept trying to lower her halberd so that she could take advantage of the blade but each time Ela would slam her saber against it, pushing it out of the way once more. After being continually forced back, Raisa eventually let out a hysterical scream, gripping the halberd until her knuckles turned white, and attempted to lower the blade despite everything.
Like how Ela always did, she swung to push it out of the way, using more force to account for Raisa's loss of composure.
Yet, all of a sudden Raisa went in the exact opposite direction. The wooden saber slid against the handle of the halberd while the other end shot toward Ela's face.
While her halberd did have a fancy ax on one end, there was a small sharp point on the other too.
A victorious smile crept up onto Raisa's face, and rightfully so as Ela's eyes widened all the way.
Then, a loud bonk resounded.
And Raisa fell to the floor.
...Because Charlotte slammed the flat side of her greatsword on her head unintentionally.
"Raisa is out!"
Rae called out with mercy, while Raisa got up from the ground while holding onto the side of her head in a daze.
"W-What?"
As she gathered her bearings, she realized what had happened.
"Charlotte! We are on the same team!"
Charlotte flushed a little.
"S-Sorry, I didn't see you there!"
Ela was in a daze, rather overwhelmed by the rollercoaster of events, but she didn't remain that way for long.
Ah, there was also the fight between me and Sam.
He looked rather wary of me, probably because he had seen what I did in the ball. Regardless, he didn't falter that easily. We clashed with our swords, and I noticed an immediate difference.
It felt like Sam actually knew what he was doing, while I was more just waving it around in a way that felt right. However, the difference was fairly clear from the beginning, as Sam gradually became more confident.
His strikes had more power behind them not because of his strength, but rather the proper technique, and generally presented more of a threat than the ones I gave.
There were several times when I could've grabbed the wooden sword, but that obviously wouldn't work since I would just lose because of the rules. Regardless, my focus was not hung up on that, but rather on what I could do.
I saw him go for a diagonal swing, which I preemptively blocked.
And at this moment, my eyes caught onto an opportunity. While the rule was only wooden weapons would count to get someone out, that didn't mean you just couldn't hit the other with your fists. And so, I clenched my fist and sent it flying toward his liver.
It should've been unexpected given that most of the focus was put on wooden weapons, but Sam's eyes widened all the way as his hand darted down to cover his liver.
A loud thump resounded.
Sam grimaced, showing he felt some pain, but it wasn't enough to make him fall down. He remained up and stared me down.
It appeared this fight wasn't going to be all as easy as it first looked.
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