According to Ryuya's current plan, the prerequisite was to first deal with the eight Pawns.
Once that was done, Rias could safely move in to hold back the enemy's Queen, while Akeno Himejima—the powerful Queen—would join forces with Koneko to take care of the enemy's Bishop, Rook, and Knight.
As for Raiser, the opposing King—of course, he would be left to Ryuya, this so-called "lowly steed," to handle!
However, Ryuya the lowly steed might not necessarily lose to Raiser's prized warhorse!
After weighing the situation, Rias agreed to Ryuya's tactics. As long as they could eliminate the enemy's eight Pawns first, she would go deal with Raiser's Queen, leaving Raiser himself to Ryuya.
As for Ryuya, now that he had two bodies, the things he could do had increased considerably.
For convenience—so Rias and the others could distinguish between them—Ryuya treated the original body as the main body, and the one that split off later as the clone.
There was also a plan he absolutely had to carry out right now—Promotion.
This was free power handed to him on a silver platter. Letting it go to waste would be far too much of a loss.
In any case, his strength was fully shared between the main body and the clone. Since both bodies could undergo Promotion, all he needed to do was have one body lie low and wait for the right moment.
Before triggering Promotion, the other body could also take time to assist Akeno and Koneko, easing their pressure a little.
Rias swiftly finalized the battle plan, dispatching Ryuya, Akeno, and Koneko to their respective positions.
Ryuya had his clone go into hiding, while the main body headed toward the school's central area together with Koneko.
That area was a stadium. With no obstructions on either side, both teams' main bases could clearly observe it.
This central zone was practically a must-fight-for location for both sides.
That was precisely why Ryuya and Koneko came here. No matter what, they couldn't let Raiser seize this advantageous terrain so easily and gain the initiative.
Akeno flew up into the sky and, on Rias's orders, laid down powerful illusions around the entire main base. That way, there was no need to worry about enemy Pawns sneaking close—any such approach would be easily detected.
Meanwhile, Ryuya and Koneko arrived together at the stadium.
"There's a scent… enemies," Koneko murmured softly, detecting the presence inside the stadium before they even got close.
Ryuya nodded lightly and stepped inside first, his pace calm and unhurried.
"Hehe, you're here, you're here—Gremory's servants."
Inside the stadium stood four beautiful girls. One was an elegant, older-sister type wearing a qipao; there was also a pair of identical twins; and finally, a petite loli—Mira, whom Ryuya had defeated with a single move before.
The moment Mira saw Ryuya, displeasure flashed across her face. She glared at him angrily, clearly still holding a grudge over her previous defeat.
The enemy lineup consisted of one Rook and three Pawns. The beautiful devil in the qipao was the Rook, the same position as Koneko.
"I'll take the Rook. You handle all the Pawns," Koneko said, decisively assigning targets.
After all, every role has its specialty. In a Rating Game, chess pieces usually prefer fighting opponents of the same class. It made it easier to directly assess each piece's potential—and to prove one's own strength.
Of course, there were also teams that followed unified commands from the King, emphasizing tactical coordination. The strategies in a Rating Game could be said to be endlessly varied.
The Rook immediately assumed a fighting stance, while Koneko, gloves already on her hands, took the initiative and charged forward.
On Ryuya's side, he was immediately surrounded by three Pawns.
The pair of twins suddenly pulled out a pair of chainsaws from who-knew-where!
Zzzzt—brrrRRRRRR—
The chainsaws began spinning wildly, making Ryuya raise an eyebrow slightly.
They looked pretty cute, yet they actually liked playing with chainsaws.
"Dissect you!"
The two sisters spoke at the same time, their tone sounding almost excited.
Without another word, Ryuya summoned the Sacred Gear Sword of Kings, swinging it up fiercely from below to directly block the chainsaw that struck first. Metal clashed against metal, sparks flying everywhere.
"Ah!"
The girl clashing head-on with Ryuya cried out as pain shot through her palms, both hands going numb.
She hadn't expected that even a casual slash from Ryuya would carry such overwhelming force—her chainsaw nearly flew out of her grip.
Ryuya followed up with a spinning roundhouse kick on the spot, moving faster than the girl could react, sending her flying away in an instant.
"Big sister!"
The other one—apparently the younger sister—puffed up angrily when she saw her sister kicked away.
"I'll cut you into pieces!"
Ryuya sneered, exchanging several rapid clashes with her—clang, clang, clang—before seizing the opening and kicking her hard in the butt.
You want to cut me into pieces? Then I'll kick your butt into eight pieces instead—perfectly reasonable, and exceptionally merciful.
The twin sisters suffered a crushing loss in an instant, both heavily injured by Ryuya!
It even made Ryuya inwardly puzzled—did they seriously never learn their lesson?
They had underestimated his strength, thinking he was nothing more than an ordinary Knight.
But in reality, those two attacks alone had already robbed these two Pawns, both possessing mid-level devil strength, of their ability to fight!
Whoosh—
A gust of wind struck—it was that girl named Mira. Her face was full of stubborn defiance.
"Despicable. You're not a low-class devil at all!"
Ryuya found it amusing.
"So what exactly is your role on the team? A decorative vase? Are you still judging opponents by devil rank alone at this point?"
He was only labeled a low-class devil because he hadn't bothered taking that ridiculous promotion exam yet. In terms of actual strength, he was already solidly at mid-level devil territory.
As soon as the words fell, Ryuya calmly sidestepped Mira's series of downward staff strikes. Seizing the moment, his demonic power surged—and without mercy, he drove a punch straight into her abdomen.
"Gah—!"
Mira screamed as she spat out a mouthful of blood, her body flying off like a cannonball. Before she even hit the ground, she transformed into a streak of white light and vanished.
Her injuries were too severe, threatening her life—she had been forcibly teleported out.
Ryuya then slashed out with a burst of sword light, striking the twin sisters squarely. Two more screams rang out as they too turned into white light and disappeared.
On the other side, Koneko was still locked in a fierce battle with the girl in the qipao. Seeing this, Ryuya joined without hesitation. Fighting two against one, it didn't take long before Ryuya sent the girl flying into the air.
Koneko rushed forward and threw a punch straight into her chest. Waves rippled violently as the qipao burst apart—unfortunately, Ryuya only caught a fleeting glimpse before her body turned into white light as well…
…Koneko, you did that on purpose, didn't you?
Sure, she really was big—but punching her so hard through all that and inflicting a critical injury… that had to hurt like hell.
At that moment, Grayfia's voice echoed through the broadcast:
"Three Pawns and one Rook of Lord Raiser Phenex are unable to continue fighting. Eliminated."
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