"Are both sides ready?" Grayfia's voice echoed through the fake Kuoh academy, which Riser still chose for some reason despite his opponent not being Rias. "Begin."
"Xuelan, take Ni; Li, Marion and Bülent and go to the gymnasium. Karlamine, Isabela and Siris; go through the front gate and make a straight line for the Old School Building." Riser started to give out orders, dividing his peerage into several teams in order to surround the enemy and take tactically advantageous spots before they could. Not that he expected much from this Tenma and the four people he brought with him, but because he intended to crush the little insect as thoroughly as possible for daring to interfere with the matters of his betters. "Ravel, you take Shuriya and Mira and go to the tennis court. Yubelluna, take Ile; Nel and Mihae and take to the skies. Be ready to bombard anyone who leaves themselves open."
"Yes, sir." His queen nodded and all of his peerage began to move out. He on the other hand clapped his hands and summoned a magic circle that acted as a map with all of his pieces being represented by dots. He might not be the best magician when it comes to more technical sides of arcane arts, preferring the pure power of his fire affinity to deal with problems, but he could still do at least this much.
He watched from the circle as all of his pieces moved exactly as he instructed them to do so and... no enemies arrived.
Was the bastard simply bunkering with all of his pieces acting as bodyguards? It was a viable strategy since there was such a big difference in numbers, five versus sixteen. Perhaps the idea was to make a defensive formation and just deal with whoever they met till they reached Riser? Except that would simply allow his pieces to surround them more easily. Yubelluna's squad was up in the air and would see them immediately, and the two ways they could reach Riser were either through the gymnasium or the front gate. Meaning they would be stopped by one team and then get caught in a pincer attack when Yubelluna's squad reached them.
Oh well, it wasn't like he was expecting much from the nobody. Sure, it would have been amusing to defeat him one on one and make his defeat as humiliating as possible but not everything in life worked as...
His thoughts were cut short as his magic circle map suddenly shattered with the sound of glass echoing through the room and then the voice of Grayfia echoed through the air.
"One Rook and four Pawns of Riser Phenex has been retired."
"What?!"
---------
<5 minutes before the announcement>
"Spread around and be on lookout." Xuelan ordered the rest of her squad. As the only member who was not a pawn among them, and therefore the strongest, she had the command.
While a part of her wished that she was given at least one member who was not a pawn, she could still see several strategies to use the members with her. Marion and Bülent were both more magic focused compared to Li and Ni, the twin Nekomatas were more about close quarter combat like Xuelan herself. Though inferior due to relying far too heavily on their birth advantages as Nekomatas and not training enough.
Not that she would ever say it out loud considering that their king himself had a similar mindset. Though even she could admit that his own advantages from the bloodline ability of Phenex, great affinity for both fire and wind magic combined with regeneration akin to the mythical bird the family was named after, was great enough to justify his mindset.
But being weaker didn't mean that they were weak. They were still veterans in Rating Games just like her by her King's side. And their enemy had brought only four people with him, this would be...
"You're wide open."
...easy?
Before she could even turn around and try to backhand the owner of the voice whispering in her ear, a magic circle appeared beneath her feet and she found herself unable to make a move. She could see from the corner of her vision that Bülent and Ni were also in the same situation, meaning that Marion and Li were likely the same.
"Making a royal like me deal with such small fries, Tenma really does like playing with his food." The owner of the voice said as she walked into Xuelan's view.
She was a girl with reddish brown hair in a braid, perhaps a year or two younger than Rias Gremory. Her face, looking European, was set in a expression that was a weird mix of irritation and amusement; which turned almost sadistic as she turned to face Xuelan.
"But I guess I am not that different." She said as she snapped her fingers and from her back five orbs of light came out and hovered for a moment before they turned into… giant nails made of light? That was the only way Xuelan could describe them.
But before she could think any further, each nail turned to point at a member of her team and started to glow brightly before Xuelan's world became bright light and pain followed by darkness.
———
"How did they get five of us already?!" Karlamine exclaimed as she heard the announcement of retirements.
"They must have been ambushed. Or distracted by something stupid." Isabela said with a scoff as she crossed her arms over her chest. "It will be amusing to watch how they will try to excuse their failure to lord Riser."
"Enough, both of you." Siris said as she pulled her bastard sword, as thick as her waist, and grasped it with both hands. "We are not alone."
Almost as if summoned by her words, a woman with white hair wearing clawed gauntlets and leg armor appeared in front of them. She was rather petite, and short. Karlamine would be surprised if the girl before them was much taller than lady Ravel, though she was very toned. Her bare midriff showed abs that, as Bülent would say, she could grate cheese on it. And she could also see thin scars over her arms, legs, stomach and even around her neck.
The person before them was a warrior through and through, she could feel it.
Karlamine felt her cheeks twitch upwards as a smile formed on her face and drew her sword, leveling at her opponent.
"My name is Karlamine, a knight of Riser Phenex. I request a duel in order to..."
The rest of her words were forever unheard as a giant morningstar on chain impacted her chest and Karlamine felt her ribs puncture her lungs as she lost consciousness.
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