As the two squads finally finished taking their positions there was a pause. It appeared that they were all appraising each other fully now. Though they were ultimately all on the same side that didn't mean that they were going to go light on each other. The only restriction that Jien had really placed on them all was not to send each other to the healers. Compared to the fight against Julie now each of them had more of a role to play.

Based on how Julie had decided to arrange their formation Jien could roughly determine what her strategy was. If his guess was right, Alys was meant to keep on top of Barret to keep him from his task while she, Rosalind and Olivia appeared to be the main force. Robyn was too far back to have a large impact given that she seemed to like wielding a polearm like the glaive she had the day before. This strategy seemed simple in concept but with Julie as noth the leader and vanguard it seemed to provide a fair amount of flexibility.

They weren't able to ignore her, knowing that if they did she would likely aim for the weaker members of their formation, in this case Andrew and Lesley. Not that either of the two was particularly weak, though Andrew was timid and lacked training. The issue was that neither was suited for facing close to mid range specialist like Julie. If she was able to close the distance on them she would be able to remove their healer and rearguard with little effort. After which she would be able to pincer from the back of the formation while Rosalind and Olivia would attack from the front.

The main trouble for Julie would be getting past Bernard who was facing her as vanguard and Jien acting as Knight and Controller. She had proven that she very well could overpower Bernard when they had all faced her together. However he was still unsure of the cost or to what extent she could use that level of strength without putting herself in the same situation as yesterday.

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Jien took a deep breath, he had anticipated something like this but now it was time to see if he could match up against that ridiculous battle prowess of hers. He took a simple coin from his pocket and showed it to Julie as if to confirm that they would start the match when it touched the ground. The response he received was a simple nod that was almost imperceptible from behind her shield. He took the coin and casually flicked it high into the air.

As soon as the coin left his thumb his arm fell back as if it had been held by a cut string. His body seemed to relax to a degree that only those that he had been with for years had only seen a few times, his rapier held in his hand so lightly one would think that it would be simply nudged free. He was looking almost absentmindedly in front, not seeming to pay attention to the descending coin anymore.

Those that had just joined them didn't know what to think. Andrew started to worry, thinking that perhaps Jien had given up before the match even started, sweat starting to accumulate on his back. Alys thought that he wasn't taking their side seriously for whatever reason. She seemed to growl slightly, bearing her teeth and deciding that she would make sure he wouldn't belittle them after this match. Even if she knew deep down that he didn't belittle them in the least her temper at his supposed nonchalance was growing at the moment. Robyn for her part seemed to be relaxed, at least until she saw how Rosalind and Olivia tensed up.

Finally Julie was the last to show a reaction. One would mistake the wild ferocity in her eyes to be anger like that of Alys. However, only she could feel it deep in her gut, her stomach was starting to knot up. She didn't know what was happening but she knew that Jien had decided that he was going to take this match more seriously than the one they had before.

In her match against everyone else Jien had played his role as Controller perfectly, not settling into any other role. He had someone for each role and had no need to multitask, so he made sure to direct the fight, wearing Julie down with tactics and the occasional spell to help control the flow of the battle. Only now was he truly choosing to fight and as he did her instincts were screaming at her to give her everything to take him down first. She had planned to do just as Jien thought by getting to the rear of their formation, but now she thought otherwise.

Just as the coin was about to touch the ground with a glint of gold in the sand Julie shouted to her squad. "I'll take care of it! Keep to the plan!"