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Thus began the second round: Capture the Flag.
"Alright, we've got about ten minutes to get ready," said one of the boys in the class.
"We need to choose a leader… or a leaderess. It'll make everything smoother," added another. Everyone nodded without making a fuss.
In the end, the elected leader was Zeryan.
"Well then, tell us what to do," someone said.
"Give me all your sheets. I'll hand them to Astrid—she'll make the strategy. She's better than all of us combined, that's why," he explained.
Once the process was done, Astrid spoke up and began presenting the plan.
Class H had three flags.
The pink flag was surrounded by a massive forest. That territory increased the enemy's speed by 10% and reduced the defenders' speed by 10%.
The red flag, on the other hand, was located inside a volcano: it granted fire-temperature immunity to attackers, while defenders received 10% extra damage from fire-type attacks.
Finally, there was the main one: the black flag, hidden in a swampy area. It increased the allies' magic resistance by 50% and slowed enemies, reducing their agility by 20%.
Once Astrid assigned attackers and defenders, the match began. Cleia joined Zeryan on offense, while the remaining eighteen students took defensive positions—six for each flag.
The opponents entered the field with twelve attackers—four per flag—and left only eight people on defense: two for each secondary flag and four for the main one.
The first enemy flag was the yellow flag: a small town with golden buildings surrounded it, and from afar the flag shone brightly.
"This flag increases the noise defenders make by 20% and lowers ours by 10%," Zeryan explained.
"How do you know that?" Cleia asked.
"What do you mean, 'how do you know'? Every flag has a different effect."
"I know that!"
"On the back of the sheet Professor Thyra gave us, there were all the descriptions. That's why she told us to study it."
"Oh… so that's why you already knew the effects."
"Exactly. The skill is called Stealth. And if we use the intermediate magic with the same name, we reduce sounds by an additional 40% for five minutes at the cost of 500 mana. That brings us to a total of 50%."
Ninjas… we're going to become ninjas! Cleia thought, almost excited.
"So eliminating those two will be easy, right?" she said.
"Yeah. Let's go."
They approached, but after only a few steps, a deafening alarm went off: the opponents had used the advanced magic Revelation, which detected anyone who crossed a 200-meter territory. Even an insect.
"Damn it! We need to hide!" Cleia exclaimed.
"Inside that house!" Zeryan ordered.
They rushed in and flattened themselves behind furniture. When the commotion finally settled, they slipped back out and crept toward the plaza, where the two defenders were watching every corner with suspicion.
"Let's go from the roof," Cleia proposed.
They crossed the rooftops and arrived at the central square.
"We can't avoid the fight," Zeryan said before casting his spell.
"Fire Cannon!"
A violent explosion shook the entire plaza. The flag, however, remained intact.
"I'll take the blond one," Cleia said.
But the defenders had anticipated their attack—they already had defensive magic activated. They didn't even get scratched. And more importantly… they had only seen Zeryan.
Cleia, ignored, raised her hand.
A mass of ice as large as a building crashed down on the two enemies:
the advanced spell Iceberg, cost 500 mana.
Instant elimination.
Cleia grabbed the flag and rejoined Zeryan, heading toward the next one: the blue flag, atop a snowy hill. This flag increased the attackers' mana by 10% and decreased the defenders' by 10%.
As soon as they entered the territory, the two used their strongest combined spell:
Veil II — 6000 total mana, 2000 from Cleia and 4000 from Zeryan.
Cleia had only 2000 mana left, while Zeryan had only 1000. And their final destination was the white flag.
---
Meanwhile, on the defense side…
The pink flag was stolen by Yuri and three others. With her singularity, she had summoned a sword capable of slicing an entire forest in half—and she did exactly that. Four of the six defenders, completely taken by surprise, were instantly decapitated.
The remaining fight, four versus two, ended quickly. Yuri won and moved toward the red flag, where she found only two of the remaining four teammates. This time it was six versus six.
Yuri sliced even the volcano in half. The defenders panicked and fled toward the black flag, leaving the red one to the enemy.
With a group of six, Yuri headed toward the final flag: the black one, inside the swamp.
Her agility dropped by 20%, and her group was outnumbered: the four attackers sent earlier had already been eliminated.
It was six versus twelve.
Astrid, acting as vice-captain, stepped forward and drew her sword. Yuri hadn't even known she owned one… though she didn't care.
Their intense duel began.
Astrid had technique and agility; Yuri had brute strength and endurance. After numerous exchanges, Astrid began losing breath—she knew continuing like this was suicidal. She switched to her trump card: the art of the Light Blade.
Her strikes became faster, sharper. Elegant.
Eventually, she broke through Yuri's defense and landed a wound, but Yuri refused to fall.
Sword Arts had different "paths."
Astrid followed the Path of Light, which could evolve into Sky—reached by many talented swordsmen—then into Angels, reached by only four people in the world, then into Archangels, and finally into the mythical Praesidis Archangelum, never achieved by a human.
Yuri, however, had chosen the Path of the Cosmos, more suited to brute strength: Stellar, Systematic—reachable even by mediocre swordsmen—Galactic, reached by many talented ones, Cosmic, unlocked by only seven people worldwide with grueling training, and finally Universal, achieved by no human yet.
Yuri unleashed her trump card: the Cosmic Art of the Stellar stage.
The power of their blows sent shockwaves that hurled allies and enemies alike. It was a clash between two true prodigies, both exhausted yet unyielding.
But Yuri forgot one thing: magic.
Astrid had been waiting for just one opening.
Even a second of distraction…
Then she saw it: Yuri was focused solely on her sword.
"Now."
Astrid cast the advanced spell Seed, which consumed 500 mana every thirty seconds and partially restricted movement.
One instant was enough.
Yuri froze and was eliminated.
"Carpe Diem, huh?" Astrid whispered.
---
Meanwhile, Cleia and Zeryan…
They reached the territory of the white flag: at the bottom of a lake two hundred meters deep.
The two defenders were visible.
"Only two? Weren't there supposed to be four?" Cleia asked.
"That's what Astrid thought. She has super-intelligence, not super-vision," Zeryan replied.
"Well, she analyzed Yuri's thought process well. If she really were the leader, there should be four defenders. In any case, we only see two… but there might be others hiding," Cleia said.
"Right."
They approached and hid inside the bushes. Suddenly, a blade shot out from the leaves: Zeryan was struck and eliminated.
"Damn it! I told him to be careful!" Cleia backed up: she found herself alone against four enemies.
"What a shitty situation…" she thought. She only had 2000 mana left. She couldn't do much.
A dagger grazed her face—she dodged by ducking. A kick to the stomach sent her flying several meters.
Good thing Mikey gave us pain immunity…
Another stab.
Dodged.
Another kick—this time she jumped back and avoided it, but a punch came from behind. Cleia turned just in time.
An arrow targeted her: she used an intermediate defensive spell, costing 300 mana.
"Only 1700…" she thought.
The four repeated the same sequence of attacks, but by now Cleia had adapted and dodged almost automatically.
At the first opening, she stepped back as far as she could and cast the intermediate spell Mud—500 mana—which heavily slowed the enemies' movements.
Cleia dove into the lake. She used the advanced spell Gills, which cost 1000 mana and allowed her to breathe and swim at double speed for five minutes.
In those five minutes, she reached the bottom, grabbed the flag, and swam back up as the enemies finally broke free from the mud.
Spells began flying toward her. She had 200 mana left. She used 100 for one last barrier. A blast hit her shoulder, burning it, but she kept running.
She never understood why the enemies suddenly stopped… but it didn't matter.
She reached the base.
Delivered the flags.
Class H won the second round.
And for the first time, Cleia saw Astrid wearing an expression she had never seen before: she was blushing.
"C-Cleia! Your clothes!" Astrid said.
"My… clothes?"
Cleia looked down and realized they were completely soaked… and slightly see-through.
Her underwear was faintly visible.
Cleia turned bright red on the spot, while Astrid, face blazing, covered her with her coat and all the boys present started to bleed from their noses.
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