As I took the first steps onto the stage for our battle against Eli, I finally find the answer to why I felt a sense of worry and dread. During our first group stage match against Benjamin, Roy and I had spent a couple of hours trying to come up with a plan to take on Benjamin’s style of battle and Spirit control.

However, with Isabel insisting on making the calls, I wasn’t able to study Eli and properly prepare. Although the anxiousness had already faded away thanks to the events of last night, I started to feel some doubt as I watch Eli and her Spirits, all wearing hooded robes, walk onto the stage on the opposite side of us.

On the bright side, we weren’t outnumbered. In fact, both sides including the Summoners had an equal number of members. I lightly hopped on the spot and stretched my legs to relieve some stress.

“Alright!” Isabel pumps her fist, “Liz, Hilde, Roy, we’re going on the offense with Play B, but if something happens, get on the defense with Play A.”

While my three teammates nod in unison, I was naturally left confused. Isabel notices me tilting my head in confusion and points at me.

“Just…come up with something.” Isabel simply says.

I don’t know if that’s her trusting me, or just not wanting to use me.

Aside from the fact that I knew nothing about Eli’s Spirits, I had another issue on my plate. Isabel wanted to use me as a decoy, but I had to come up with a game plan to make myself useful if Eli were to ignore me.

I had gotten pretty used to bringing Roy into my plans since, unlike me, he could deal some serious damage. Without my ability to dish out damage, being put into a role that requires me to damage the other party in some way or form makes things incredibly difficult.

“In the blue half, you’ve got Summoner Isabel, who provided us with a Summoner class of counter-strategy in group C’s first battle!” The commentator announces to the audience, some of which were chanting Isabel’s name, “Finally arriving in the red half, is Summoner Eli! She provided us with an intense battle with Aquaria, and although she may have lost, the battle was incredibly close!”

So, Aquaria won huh? I guess that means Luna’s doing pretty fine on her end.

I shake my head clear of the thoughts of Luna and focus on the Spirits ahead of me as my party members walk into a formation with Roy behind the pair of Liz and Hilde.

Still unsure of how I could play out my decoy role, I decided to position myself behind Roy.

My current plan was simple: I wanted to take the opportunity to cover Roy’s back and analyze how Eli would use her Spirits.

Although I would have preferred to make the second move, Isabel’s “Play” seemed to involve making the first offensive move.

“Let the Summoner game…begin!”

Roy, Hilde, and Liz instantly begin charging toward the other group of Spirits, and although I was a bit caught off at the start, I managed to stick close to the back of the group.

“It’s a quick start from Summoner Isabel’s party, but what’s this? Summoner Eli’s party is staying completely still!”

As we approach Eli and her Spirits, Hilde stops and throws his bear traps toward the two Spirits. Both of them instantly jump high into the air to avoid getting clamped, and Liz leaps in an attempt to follow the two spirits.

The two Spirits plant their feet against each other in midair and kick off each other, catching Liz by surprise. The two Spirits, in perfect sync, simultaneously summon out identical wooden bows and nock an arrow.

Just like that, Liz was sandwiched by two archer Spirits.

The archers let their arrows fly, but Liz is quick to regain her composure and calmly deflects both arrows with the ends of her spear in one clean swing.

“Hilde! Trap those archers while they’re in the air!” Isabel commands from the edge of the stage.

Hilde instantly hurls his traps toward the two Spirits left in the air, but with some quick thinking, the Spirits manage to adjust their bodies mid-air and shoot Hilde’s traps away.

The battle slowly shifts into place with Hilde and Liz working together to deal with the archers, while Roy was holding off on his own against the last remaining two knife-wielding Spirits.

Although it seemed like I wasn’t doing much but defending Roy’s back whenever a Spirit tried to catch him off guard, my mind was actually racing with ideas on how to cause as much trouble as possible for Eli.

Even though we had attacked first, the momentum of the fight quickly changed and now we were on the defense from Eli’s quick Spirits.

Maybe I should switch places with Liz? I can’t… I don’t want to interfere with Isabel’s “Play”

“Have you come up with something?” Roy grunts as he parries an attack.

“Not yet… how are you holding up?” I respond as I blast flames to keep some distance from the knife-wielding Spirit who decided to fight me one on one.

Wait… that’s it!

“Wait, Roy, do you think you could handle both of these Spirits? There’s a chance it might end up that way.” I whisper.

Roy backs up into me, “They’re quick, but as long as I swing wide, I should be fine.”

I waste no time in executing my plan as I instantly begin sprinting towards Eli, who was left wide open.

As expected, the Spirit that had been attacking me for the last couple of minutes decides to chase after me. They were much quicker than me, but I wasn’t running to get to Eli first…

I was running to get this Spirit away from Roy.

I turn my heels and change my shield into a Coffin shield, swinging it around. The Spirit stops his momentum and jumps backward, barely avoiding my shield.

Suddenly, a high-pitched scream is heard, and everyone’s eyes attract themselves towards the unfortunate Spirit who had to face Roy in a one-versus-one lying down in pain on the floor.

Taking advantage of the sudden shock, I ignite my shield and begin charging toward the remaining knife-wielding Spirit. The Spirit instantly notices the flaming shield charging toward them and dashes backward.

Unfortunately for them, they dashed right into the path of Roy, who picked up on what I was trying to do. Although the Spirit didn’t scream, they crumbled on the spot from the wrath of Roy’s slice.

At that moment, the momentum had shifted in our favor.

“Finish it, everyone!” Isabel commands.

With our number advantage, we completely dominated the final two Spirits, who did their best in keeping away while firing multiple arrows at us.

Occasionally, I’d distract an archer by faking a charge toward Eli, but they were incredibly quick on their feet to come up with a clever shot in my direction.

Ultimately, we came out on top as Eli had run out of conscious Spirits.