“Roy, charge straight in! Hilde, stop their support! Liz, help out Hilde!” Isabel commands.

“Cover me Rin!” Roy demands as he runs straight towards the opposing knight Spirit.

“Right!”

I match my pace to Roy’s and block the arrows being shot by an elven Spirit. The Elf clicks his tongue in annoyance as he is pressured backward by Hilde’s traps and Liz’s spear.

“The highly anticipated rookie Summoner Isabel makes the first move of the match and is going on the offensive! How will the other rookie, Summoner Eprius, deal with this quick simultaneous attack?” The commentator commentates to the crowd.

With my defense and our party member’s support, Roy is able to focus all his attention on the main Spirit of Summoner Eprius.

Summoner Eprius, who’s dressed kind of like a magician with a to p hat and mask covering around his eyes, presents an expression of frustration through his mask.

“Tom! Don’t go on the defense! Sylphy, use supporting magic on Tom! Keep those support Spirits distracted, Eve!” Summoner Eprius commands.

Despite being on the battlefield, I had to admit, it was a decent plan considering that he only had 3 Spirits.

Use the quick-footed Elf archer to contain two Spirits at once, and have the main tank battle head-on while being boosted with magic. Unfortunately for him, I’ve seen through his plan as soon as he ordered it.

To be honest, it was thanks to my experience with video games that I was able to come up with a counter-strategy of my own.

I observe the battle once more.

Roy is holding well enough on his own, even though his opponent was being boosted with magic, and the Elf Spirit was still occupied with Hilde and Liz’s constant offense.

“Roy, try to push the battle forward a bit,” I whisper as I block Tom’s sword.

Without a word or signal, Roy gradually begins putting more pressure on Tom, causing him to slowly walk backward while being on the defense. I decided to start my plan and joined Roy in the offense.

Although I wasn’t doing much damage, it would still hurt to be hit by a shield. Taking some inspiration from Captain USA, I change my shield to the circular Parma shield and started recreating the same moves I saw in the movies.

I kind of wish I could throw my shield and have it come back though, that would be so cool.

With our intense offense, we manage to back Tom up directly next to his supporting sorceress, Sylphy. This step of my plan was completed, and I began my next move to win this battle.

I jump toward Tom and raised my shield, but instead of attacking him, I rolled under him and came face to face with Sylphy.

“Sorry, ma’am,” I whisper as I knock the sorceress out cold with my shield.

“What’s this? Out of all of the Spirits on stage, the Shielder is the first to land a hit on anyone! Who would have expected a Shielder to go on the offense?”

That’s the main support gone, now it’s time to pick apart at the rest of the party.

“Roy! Strategy D!” I shout as I turn around to face the back of Tom.

Roy gives me a quick nod and we both charge straight for Tom in an instant.

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To my surprise, Tom decides to deal with me first and swings his sword at me. It was a decent attempt, but Roy and I had prepared for this situation.

I block his attack with a surprisingly low amount of difficulty compared to earlier.

Of course, it’s easier now, the support magic is gone.

I grin, “Sorry man, but you already lost when you failed to break past my shield.”

With his sword planted against my shield, it was time to execute Strategy D.

I summon my flames once again and watch as the fire from my shield trails across Tom’s sword, and in an instant, he is surrounded by the bright orange flames emitting from my shield. Tom grunts and understandably jump backward to get away from me.

Unfortunately for him, he jumped back directly in the path of Roy’s sword, allowing him to get a clean slice across the back of Tom.

With a yell, Tom gets down on one knee, and although it felt bad to hit an opponent while they’re down, I knock the knight out with the edge of my shield.

The supporting archer Elf, Eve, gawks at Tom in the surprise of his party member falling. Hilde finally manages to get a bear trap on the distracted Elf and immobilizes him. Liz delivers the finishing move as she drives her spear through Eve.

“Summoner Eprius’s Spirits are all unconscious! After shocking everyone by using the Shielder as an offensive Spirit, Summoner Isabel claims this win by default!” The commentator screams at the top of his lungs.

At first, there was a silence that followed the commentator’s announcement. Then, a roar of approval mixed with waves of applause fills the entire stadium.

It was a feeling I had never experienced before. I could feel the vibrations of the people cheering and jumping around, I could almost feel the people’s cheer like a loud bass speaker.

For some reason, even though I had experienced adrenaline from fighting other Spirits, I felt a stronger surge of adrenaline rush through my body as the people begin chanting Isabel’s name.

Although the experience was completely alien to me, the feeling was so…familiar. My mind began flooding with the memories of participating in track and field tournaments during my high school years. The feeling of accomplishment when my classmates would cheer my name in approval when I won reminded me of the feeling I felt during the chants of the crowd.

Except for this time, the feeling was amplified thousand times over.

“We start off the qualifiers for the Summoner Games with a spectacular performance! This is just the start folks, let’s give another round of applause for Summoner Isabel and her Spirits!” The commentator adds.

“Soak it in, Rin,” Roy says as he slaps my back.

“I kind of don’t want to,” I say, the calmness of my own voice catching me a bit by surprise, “I want to let it sink itself in every time we win.”

Roy looks at me out of the corner of his eye and laughs out loud, “That was cool, I’ll give you that.”

Despite the loud cheering from the crowd, we manage to hear Isabel calling out to both of us to follow her back into the break room. Even if I had wanted to soak in the applause of the audience, there were still more qualifier matches of other Summoners to be played.

* * *

Once we arrived at the break room, the adrenaline from the stadium leaves my body and my legs turn to jelly. I collapse onto a couch and take a deep breath. Hilde and Liz follow suit as they collapse onto the couch as well.

“Ahhh, I was so nervous!” Hilde exclaims as he somehow manages to sink even deeper into the couch.

“That was quite the experience. A pleasant, but somewhat terrifying feeling was all I could feel when we were on the stage.” Liz adds.

Roy, who didn’t seem fazed at all by the crowd, pats Liz on the back, “We all did well today, Rin and I probably couldn’t have executed our strategy if you two hadn’t distracted that Elf archer.”

We relaxed together for a while, I almost wanted to fall asleep right on the couch, but the realization that Isabel wasn’t around us kept me awake. I sit up on the couch and start scanning around the room for her, and after a while, I finally spot Isabel with her eyes glued to a TV that was broadcasting the other qualifying battles.

Despite the fact that we had just won, she seemed a bit down.

No, it’s fine, she probably wants to be alone.

Does she want to be alone?

…

Argh, fine, I’m out as soon as she starts insulting me.

I get up from the couch and make my way to Isabel.

“H-hey…are you trying to see who we’ll be going up against next?”

No reply.

Well, that’s to be expected, I guess.

I sigh and turn around to return to the couch.

“You did well,” Isabel says with her eyes still glued TV.

“W-What?”

“I said, you did well. I’m surprised at how smart your strategy with Roy was.”

What’s this? Isabel is complimenting me?

For some reason, I feel the blood rush to my cheeks. I quickly raise my hands to cover them up.

“I-I didn’t come up with it on the spot, Roy and I thought about it beforehand,” I admit behind my hands.

Isabel doesn’t give much of a reaction and simply nods. After a couple of seconds of awkward silence, I decide to go back to the couch and let her continue with her business.