Side Story 3: The Team Deathmatch
“Welcome, to the [Inter-School Fall Tournament]!” All of my friends around me begian to cheer in celebration, excited for the tournament.
I search the crowd to find Aria, but there were too many people for me to get sight of her. Most likely, she’s probably standing alone near edge of the arena. She’ll probably be fine on her own for now, so I’ll stay here and wait until the events start. The principal continues making his speech about the tournament, but I ignore everything past the welcome because I could care less about anything else he says.
“Hey, Thoth, what’cha thinking about? You’re not being yourself right now, you know?” One of my friends ask me.
A red haired boy about my height, yet, he’s supposedly older than me. He had a strange name, Orima Tatsuki. He says his family is from the east, and they use a different language that uses different characters. Due to this, the names of places and people are influenced as well by the different language. Orima was the mage of our group, but I highly doubt that sometimes when I see him in combat. He’s like some sort of monk when it comes to close ranged combat, beating down anyone who gets close to him with his staff.
“Yeah, yeah, you’re so quiet! C’mon, get excited! You’re the leader here, so we can’t have you get dispirited now!” A girl who’s as tall as Aria says to me in a cheerful voice.
A beautiful girl with long blond hair, and sky blue eyes, the girl’s name is Eve Minawolt, part of the royal family in the kingdom of Kargia. Kargia is the neighboring kingdom to Atalin, and it was also known as the [Kingdom of Immortals]. Most of the [Immortal Tier] humans are from Kargia, and even most of the their citizens are in the upper ranks of the [Mortal Tier].
Their community is extremely aggressive though, conflicts leading to fights being a common sight within cities and towns in the kingdom. Eve’s parent thought that she wouldn’t do very well in a school full of such aggressive warriors, so she was sent here instead. I could understand why, though. This girl was as happy-go-lucky as Aria, doing whatever she wants and is fine with whatever happens as long as she’s alive in the end.
“What, you’re worried about me? Who do you think I am? There’s no way I’ll get dispirited before we even start! Quit making fun of me and let’s get going to one of the underground rooms. We’re going to warm up before starting, I don’t want to hear any bad excuses if any of you screw up during battle.” I say to my team, and they all reply readily to my commands.
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“Is this seriously all you guys got!? At least scratch me before you guys start falling!” I yell at all of the other members, sprawled across the ground.
“Hah… hah… you’re too fast Thoth… I can only see you blurring… it’s not fair at all!” Eve complains while panting on the ground.
“You say that, but Mint was capable of seeing my attacks! Heck, she can still throw accurately when I move at that speed, and you’re saying you can only see a blur!?” I’m purposely yelling at them like this for training purposes.
In order to have them get used to teamwork, I make them all battle me four against one. Although this means I won’t be working with them, it’s fine because I’m the assassin who aims to kill stray opponents while they battle them head on. Even I met these four just last week, they’ve improved greatly already, capable of synchronizing their attacks as if it was natural. Their ability to adapt to any situation was also amazing, able to improvise with anything they had on the spot.
Although they were all more capable than the average warriors, they’re still no match for someone like me. I was the former demon lord, after all, with hundreds of years of combat experience, and most of my old magic and combat skills. There was no way they’d be able to actually hit me.
The team consisted of 5 people total, the minimum amount required to participate in the group events. It wasn’t very balanced, because we didn’t have anyone with a proper defensive class nor did we have a healer, we’re most just a bundle of offensive power. We’ve been working on our teamwork and evasion, in order to make up for missing those two important aspects of a team.
For our vanguard, we have our two fighters, Eve and her personal attendant from Kargia, Pandora. Eve was the heavy strength type, using a claymore much longer than her body and she was actually able to wear some platemail armor. She was the closest tank we had for a defensive warrior, but it’s obviously not going to be enough when she’s up against magic and combat techniques.
Her partner, Pandora, is a mysterious boy. He always wore a black mask and a dark cloak, no matter what. We don’t know anything personal about him, except for the fact that he was assigned to stick closely to Eve, and he doesn’t talk much. He’s a speed-type fighter, using two short swords for combat. He was fairly hard to keep up with, but he should be increasing his attack patterns.
The only place he aims for is the head or the neck, which is a bit silly, but I can understand his thought process a bit. Those two areas are critical parts of the body, so attacking them can deal serious damage. What he doesn’t realize, though, is that once his attack pattern is found out, it’s easy to dodge and block against him. Though recently, I’ve been training him personally on the human anatomy, telling him about other weak areas that can deal lethal wounds, and teaching him new attack patterns.
Orima is our mage, but all he’s good at is destructive magic. No enchantments, no healing ability, no curses for the enemy, nothing. Just pure power made for destruction. I was dumbfounded when he first told me this, but I realize that his offensive power isn’t limited to only his magic. He’s very proficient in close ranged combat while using his staff as a weapon, allowing us to leave him to defend for himself while the rest of the team goes on the offensive.
Last and definitely not the least, is Mint Sylim. She’s a very special girl, and in my opinion, the one with the most amount of talent on this team. Her class is a domestic one, called the [Weaver]. As the name implied, she was able to weave clothing, but she found a different way to use this ability, turning it into a dangerous power. After showing to us how she used it, her secret abilities are now our trump card.
“Well, it seems like we’re out of time. The team event is going to start, so I’m going to stop warm up here. Let’s go win us a tournament, you monsters.” I end our warmup, ending with a little joke of mine.
“Monsters? Thoth, you here are the closest thing to a monster than any of us, and you know it.” Orima replies while rolling his eyes.
“Hahaha, I wonder what you’re talking about?” I fake a confused look, pretending to be oblivious to this fact.
We continue talking randomly as we leave the room, and head back above ground. Walking through an arched entrance into the arena, we arrive just in time to hear the announcer yell;
“…and finally, the main event for today has arrived! Everyone, get yourself ready, because you’ll be seeing groups of friends go against other groups in battles consisting of well-developed teamwork, and amazing tactics! The event that every tournament has to have, the [Team Deathmatch]!”
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“Orima, siege.” Eve tells our mage, as she dashes straight at the enemy vanguard with Pandora.
Currently, we are in the semifinals of the [Team Deathmatch] event, conquering over every other team no matter the numbers or strength. Unlike in most team events, the [Inter-school Tournaments] has only a minimum and maximum amount of members. You can have a 5 man team go up against a 16 man group, which is the situation we are in now.
Eve makes a dangerous call, but the best choice we have at the moment. Because they had more numbers, a siege of magic will surely dwindle their numbers quickly, and will barely affect ours. Eve and Pandora have trained their evasion immensely, and the teamwork between our group is top-notch, so it’s unlikely that Orima will hit either of them as they try to attack the enemy vanguard head on.
Meanwhile, I’m at the edge of the arena, sprinting around to get behind enemy lines. The battlegrounds for this match is a cavern-like location, a dome of darkness surrounding the arena so that darkness covers most of the area. The only source of light were crystals on the floor of the caverns, but I was able to navigate around regardless. The dome was only dark on the inside, spectators could clearly see from the outside. I know this because this location was used before during one of the [10 v 10] battles.
As I sprint around the edge, I encounter another assassin doing the same. Fortunately for me, these adventurers are rookies when it came to their roles, so I was easily able to notice his presence while hiding myself. Concealing myself by using illusion magic with my body flat against the wall, I wait for the rookie to run past me, before jumping out and grabbing him by the face. Before a second passed by, I already have his skull crushed against the ground, killing him instantly.
Without wasting a second, I immediately start running again and arrive behind the enemy after about 15 seconds. There were 4 mages that were being guarded by two heavily armored warriors, while several swordsmen and spearmen try to battle Eve and Pandora, both who are causing havoc as several magic spells fall from the sky. It took all half of their mages to hold back Orima’s siege, while the other half were casting spell back at him. They couldn’t aim for Eve or Pandora, because they were currently right in the middle of their group.
After casting a wave of spells, they all begin an incantation again, and I take this opportunity to strike. I sprint at them as fast as I can, reaching the mages and their guards within 5 seconds, before firing a [Shadow Lance] right at one of the armored men’s chest. It’s a skill that completely ignores armor, so it hits him head on and implodes his upper body. As his body falls, I grab his bastard sword and make an overhead swing at the next guard.
My weapon shatters as they both hit, but I still continue swinging down before absorbing the force of the swing. Using that force, I thrust forward with the jagged tip, breaking through the guard’s armor with raw strength, shoving the broken sword into his abdomen. The mages finally noticed that they were unprotected, and began to try and escape by running or magic.
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I grab the spear of the guard I just killed and threw it at the furthest one running, while dashing around to stop the others escaping with a staff I stole from the closest mage after throwing the spear. Beating people to death with a magic staff is pretty satisfying, I can understand why Orima would want to learn this kind of combat.
As I finish my job over here, I look over to see the rest of the team finishing off the remaining enemies. As soon as they kill the final guy, the bell rings, signifying the end of this battle. The crowd cheers for us as we walk out, putting Eve in a boastful mood when we returned.
“You see that? They were all amazed by the two man army we just did against that team!” She’s already indirectly stating that she and Pandora won it for us.
“You know, you probably would’ve been blown away by their magic if I wasn’t distracting them with my own, right? Along with that, I got five of them myself, which is nearly one-third of their team.” Orima spoils her mood, which got him a glare from her.
“Details, details, at least we got the other 11 kills, right, Pandora?” She tries to reclaim some of her pride, but I deliver a final blow.
“No, I killed four mages, two heavy warriors and an enemy assassin. You two combined only got one-third of the kills. You were pretty much distracting them.” These words makes her fall to her knees, head down. Depressed at hearing that what she did is the equivalent to just bait while the others did the killing.
“Well, this was our final battle, right? Next round, we’re going to let Mint loose, and show her off, right?” I nod in confirmation to Orima’s question.
For every battle so far, we’ve held Mint back, keeping her at the starting area to hide her battle abilities. The reason being is that we just want to show off how capable our ‘support’ is. Just as planned, we were able to keep her hidden until the finals, so now we’ll let her loose and watch her from behind. Honestly, I believe that she’s just below my current level not in terms of status, but combat abilities and instincts.
“Then let’s go end this! I want to see Mint fight, it’s going to be so awesome to watch!” Eve says, already over her depression. As if on cue, the announcer speaks again.
“Finally, the last battle of this event is here! The final fight, Team 6 versus Team 13! A battle between the team with the strongest offensive capabilities against the team with the strongest defensive capabilities! Who is going to win, the unstoppable force, or the immovable wall!?” Over exaggerating the match up, he manages to hype up the crowd with this statement, everyone roaring with excitement.
We re-enter the arena we just left, the battlegrounds already changed into a large, flat meadow of grass with absolutely no obstacles whatsoever. Just a giant, open field that seemed like something meant for war rather than small group combat. On the enemy team, was seven different people all wearing heavy armor, including their mage. Based on what the announcer said, it looks like these guys completely focused on their defense, their main force of offense is from the immense strength needed to wear the armor, and the mage they have.
“The immovable wall? Mint wins already, if all they’re going to do is stand there for her!” Eve speaks her thoughts, and all of us agreed with it.
“Even if they did move, Mint would be able to restrain them in a blink of an eye.” Orima adds on, excitement in his voice as well.
“…p-p-please… don’t talk as if I’m not here…” Her shy voice calls out from behind us.
She was older than me as well, yet, she was actually shorter than I was. Brown hair with a long bangs that cover her eyes, she was as meek as she could possibly be. Kind of like a cute, little pet hamster. She was wearing a frilly, light blue dress, and a hair band with a rabbit on it. Despite her cute appearance though, this was the person that is easily the second strongest freshman in [Atalin’s Royal Academy].
“Sorry about that, Mint. They’re all excited to see you go out there, you know? Remember, we’ll be right behind you in case anything goes wrong, but I believe in you. So go make us proud, got it?” I gave her a pep talk like I did to my daughter in my previous life, a few months before my death.
It was a bit of a nostalgic feeling, talking to a young child like this. Before I realize it, I’m patting her head like I used to do with my daughter, and I pull back immediately. Mint was looking up at me though, with flushed cheeks, before giving me a smile and nodding her head enthusiastically. Although it was nice to see, I feel like I’m betraying Aria somehow, even though I’m sure I’ve done nothing wrong yet.
“Okay then, the final battle shall start now! Three, two, one and go!” The announcer counts down quickly, and the bell rings as soon as he finishes.
A second after, Mint slowly starts walking towards the enemy team on the opposite direction, while the rest of us just stand there and watch her. After taking a few steps, she turns around and waves at us, before facing them again. The enemy group just watched as Mint slowly walked to the center of the arena, not doing a single thing. All outside noise was blocked out from the arena, but I can already imagine the announcer saying something along the lines of;
“What is going on here exactly? Why is Team 6 sending a single person alone? I haven’t even seen that child participate in any of their battles so far! What is the meaning of this!?”
When Mint closes three-fourths of the distance, the mage on the enemy team finally does something and fires an arrow of stone, which landed right in front of her. It seems to be some sort of warning, they were probably having conflicting feelings about this situation. In response to the arrow, Mint stops walking immediately. The arena was completely silent, so everyone was able to hear her next words.
“…hello… my name is Mint… and I’m sorry for having to do this to you.” She makes a courteous bow as she says these words, lifting the hem of her dress slightly.
Then, she reaches at her thighs and grabs at something before spinning in a full circle with her arms out, palms wide opened. As if she didn’t grab anything at all, there was nothing at all. At least, that’s what it appeared to me. She makes another spin, and as she does this, the enemy mage fires several arrows at her while the other men raised their spears and shield before advancing slowly. It was already too late for them, though.
Not a single one of the arrows hit though, they all randomly burst into pieces within a ten meter range around Mint. She thrusts her hands down and digs her fingers into the ground. After a whole second, the enemy advance stops immediately. Pulling her arms back above ground, she clenches her hands into fists and stretched her arms back. Loud screams come from the enemy team, as they’re somehow being forced onto their knees, while there were long cuts within their armor.
“There we go, Mint. Now, light them up.” I encourage her quietly, and as if she heard me, fire bursts from her fingers in thin lines headed towards the enemy team. As the flames enter the cuts of their armor, every single one of them explodes individually. The heat of the fire can be felt all the way here, at the other side of the arena. When they subside, all that was left were deep craters in the area where they all stood.
The [Weaver of Magic], is our team’s nickname for Mint. The [Weaver] class is used for tailoring and enchanting clothing. Mint made use of the enchanting magic for these threads, and developed her own style of combat. With this style, she is able to give special properties to strings, threads and wires, allowing her to combine different properties for a large arsenal of magic attacks.
On her thighs, she has several strands of ultra-thin string, and in combat, she’s able to attach the ends of the string to her fingers by changing the property to ‘sticky.’ That’s what she did when she bowed to the enemy team. After that, with two years of practice, she’s managed to learn how to manipulate the thread in every possible way by using magic directly to turn it midflight or keep it still in the air. When the magic arrows were deflected earlier, those were the threads creating a barrier around her.
Not only can she manipulate them within the air, but she can also do so in the earth, which is why she dug her hands into the ground after creating the barrier. The threads emerged from the earth under them and wrapped around their armor. After attaching them, she gave the properties of the thread ‘sharpness,’ pulling on them to cut through their armor. For the final blow, the properties of the thread were mostly changed into flammable, except for the string that was directly in contact with the enemy. Those had the properties of ‘explosive,’ which is the reason why they spontaneously combusted.
This girl is another existence to fear alongside Aria. With mastery of magic unique only to her, she has an arsenal just as great as Aria herself, capable of destroying kingdoms on her own. Though I have absolutely no doubt that if they were in a direct confrontation on equal grounds, Aria would win without a doubt. That still doesn’t change the fact that Mint is dangerous, though.
Mint slowly walks back to us after completing her show of destruction, and we all cheer at her for the victory. A smile appeared on her face, clearly happy that she managed to satisfy us with the show. Again, I pat her head, but just like last time, I have the feeling of betraying Aria, so I stop immediately.
In the next event, we actually used Mint in our battles, and killed the enemy team right away rather than take the flag. With our teamwork and combat prowess amongst the first years, we easily won the entire rookie tournament without proper competition. Only if Aria was actually participating, we’d have a challenge but also lose badly, as well.