The crowds cheered loudly for the hopeful blood and carnage they were looking forward to.
Van had never seen the stadium this full before. It made him feel small having all those eyes on him, as well as the weight of their expectations and bloodlust. Standing beside him were his fellow students from his dorm, as well as the students from dorm yellow fang. It was an awkward alliance considering how they first met up, but they made it work with the help of Aldina. It seemed most of her roommates didn’t mind so much, especially after he had been helping pay for their school supplies after that bet he made with their leader.
“IN THIS CORNER! WE HAVE CLAN BLACK SUN! HEADED BY DORM BLACK SUN! WITH DORM YELLOW FANG AS SUBORDINATES!” The announcer yelled to the roar of the crowd.
An image then appeared of them above the stadium so that everyone in the stands could get a closer look at who was playing.
“AND IN THE OTHER CORNER WE HAVE CLAN BLACK FOG! HEADED BY DORM BLACK SWORD! WITH THEIR SUBORDINATES, PURPLE FOG, GOLDEN EYE, BLOOD DICE, AND RED ROSE!”
This time the roar of the crowd was even louder than before, clearly showing favoritism to Van’s opponents.
“As you all know.” The announcer yelled. “Clan Black Fog has already proven themselves twice! They have shown that out of their grade, they are the top wolves! Now they are competing with Clan Black Sun. This will be Clan Black Sun’s first time in the arena. Can they pull off a miracle and surmount the odds against opponents more than twice their number and experience? We will find out soon!”
Again the crowd roared and a few began placing bets on who would win as others began yelling for food and drinks to any nearby vendors and ushers.
“As you know, everyone gets a stipend from the school. That is what we will be fighting over today. Clan Black Fog wants a whooping twenty five percent from Clan Black Sun. Will they get it!” The announcer smiled as she saw some of the viewers lean forward on the edges of their seats.
“Before we start. A quick recap on the rules. One, only ten summons or troops per student. If your troop loses their shielding, they will be whisked out into the benches. Two, no choking, it would take too long to knock your opponent out, and the shielding doesn’t always protect from long term damages from such a stunt. Three, no illegal items! If you are found with shield breakers or berserk pills or any other blacklisted items, you will be disqualified, with the potential of your entire clan facing the consequences of your actions. Four, when the referee blows her whistle, you will stop what you're doing, no matter what it is. And five, for all other rules and regulations, make sure you have read the manual. If for some reason you have not read it yet, tell your nearby referee and we will provide you some time to get familiar with it before the start of the game.”
The crowd was beginning to boo her now for taking so long.
“Now without further adieu, let’s get this party started! I’m your host, Mary Skelter, with my co host, Jonathan Jakes, and in ten minutes we will have another wonderful clan battle! So hold on to your drinks, make your bets, because I feel like this particular fight is going to be interesting!”
The crowd cheered once more and some students did just that, scramble to make bets and get their food before the match started.
“This… Is so barbaric…” Avalyn said not far from where he was.
“Do not worry my lady, we will protect you.” The guard captain brought over from Fandor said.
Nephi looked worriedly at Van. “Umm… Van? I don’t have any troops or summons…”
“Neither do I…” Seraphina added.
“Don’t worry.” Van said confidently. “I have more than enough Troops and summons to spare.”
“Yeah, besides, you have us!” Karmine said, pulling up next to the girls. She brought out her twin axes and gleefully looked towards the far side of the arena where their opponents were. “I’m at least worth a few hundred of those losers!”
“Indeed. I do not think they will provide much of a challenge.” Ashina said alongside her friend, Adela following close behind her sister.
“Do not worry, we got this.” Kella added, trying to reassure her master’s friends and lovers.
Van turned back towards the bench area. “Let's make sure everyone has ten troops apiece. If there is any left over, we can ask them to help out dorm yellow fang, I don’t think they have enough troops of their own.”
He then looked over to their opponents. “There are about one hundred and ninety six students we’re facing. That means if there are ten troops per student, they should have somewhere about two thousand soldiers. I believe the max is two thousand per clan, otherwise the arena wouldn’t be able to handle such a large amount. It is also to prevent the larger clans from simply steamrolling the smaller ones. Even if we have better quality soldiers, we can at most only field eight hundred to nine hundred troops. facing so many opponents will not be easy.” Van commented.
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“Don’t be so sure.” Karmine looked over to Van with a confident smile. “Not everyone has the ability to maintain such a large force.” She then gazed over to their opponents. “I only count about a thousand troops. This match will be a lot more even than you think.” Her smile then turned vicious. “Well… In terms of numbers at least…”
Van used his aura to magnify his sight and noticed that Karmine was right. They at most had about a little over a thousand, not much more. Including the students, they were a force of about one thousand and two hundred. While they themselves were about a force of around eight hundred, if they of course transferred all their extra troops to those who did not have any, both in their own dorm and in yellow fang.”
Either way, Van, Cerina, and a few others began giving orders to prepare for battle. Soon their army was forming up and everyone waited nervously for the fight to begin.
“Alright ladies! The ten minutes are up!” Mary yelled into her microphone to the roar of the crowd. “Let’s see what kind of battlefield we will be taking this too!”
Several images began to spin above the arena ground. One landed on a forest, the second on a ruined town, and the last on a scene of many hills. Immediately the crowd gave a cheer as the landscape of the arena began to change and morph. Similar to that of when Van first took the martial course test. Soon, right before everyone's eyes, there was a large ruined village, surrounded by a forest, on hilly terrain.
“And the match, BEGINS!”
Van and the others looked around confused until he remembered something and turned to his fellow students. “Guys, we have to take territory and bases. Our priorities should be to get as many points as possible. So long as we have that, we can just summon more troops whenever we get low.”
Cerina nodded. “The more territory we have, the more options we can get. The village up ahead is probably worth a lot, and will also probably be the priority of our opponents. If they get all those points, they can requisition better armor and weapons for themselves and their troops. As well as arena only equipment and siege weapons. And with enough points, they can even summon school sanctioned mercenaries up to their student cap, and replace any troops they lose.”
“In other words, the longer we take to beat them, and the more room we give them to acquire points, the worse off it will be for us. Got it.” Karmine said with a nod. “So what’s the plan then?”
Van talked it over with Cerina, Seral, Aldina and a few of the other girls before coming up with a plan.
“I’ll take my girls and head straight for the village. They are the strongest out of the troops we have. It’s imperative I do my best to slow their advance down and prevent them from getting any summoning circles while denying as many resource points as I can. Cerina, you take to the left, and as much of the forest as possible. Avalyn, your troops are with me, it’s time to see what your vampire slayers can do. Seral, you go to the right, prevent them from taking the high ground, we don’t want them to take all the hills for themselves. And Tabitha…”
He looked towards Tabitha who had her resting bitch face on and arms crossed. “You sneak behind their lines and take them from the rear.”
Tabitha raised an eyebrow. “And why should I do that?”
“Because you're a pain in our ass and hopefully you will be one in theirs.” Van responded. “Or you can just stay here and do nothing… But we’ll keep all the glory to ourselves when we win.”
Tabitha snorted. “If you win… Whatever… I’ll do it. But only because I like the idea of screwing with their heads and having freedom from your idiocy.” She said.
Cerina muttered something under her breath, but thankfully kept it to herself. They didn’t need to start another fight. And technically Tabitha had a whole room under her control. So they had to play nice.
“Aldina you're with me, we're going to need your martial skill and armor.” Van said, glad to have her on their side. Aldina in her armor was a beast of a tank, their opponents would be hard pressed getting through her. Making her very useful in holding down territory or clogging up chokepoints.
“Alright girls! Let's go and win! And earn ourselves some nice contribution points! If we succeed, I'm paying for all of us at a restaurant of your choosing!” Van yelled out loud.
That got a cheer from the girls, and helped give a small morale boost to everyone. After that, they moved out and began to take up their positions.
---
Zariel watched from afar as her would-be-enemies split up to take as much land as possible. She noticed that the bulk of their army seemed to be headed to the village, probably to try and prevent her from gaining it. She looked up, then stretched out her arm as a flying imp swooped down and landed on the offered landing pad.
“About two hundred to the hills. Two hundred to the forest. Four hundred to the village. And about less than a hundred breaking off to go who knows where… No flyers…” The imp said cheerfully. She then moved up her master's arm and sat on her shoulder, then proceeded to fix up her hair.
“And the hills? How many resource points and bases?”
“I think I counted about seven resource points and one base.” The imp replied.
Zariel smiled as her second in command walked up to her. “So what do we do commander? We outnumber them, so should we just go all out and take them all at once?”
Zariel shook her head. “No doubt they sent their best to the village. If we split up now we would be playing right into their hands. They probably sent each group to acquire as many points as possible in the hopes of evening out the number disparity. I also have no doubt for the most part it's just a delaying tactic, in the hopes of preventing us from getting out of control with the capture of too many checkpoints and bases… The ones in the hills and forest were probably told to flee at the first sign of trouble…”
“Then what do you want to do?”
“Split our forces. We’ll take the hills and the forest. Ignore the village.” Zariel commanded.
“But wouldn’t that mean they can fortify the village when they have enough points?” The second in command asked worriedly. “What’s to stop them from summoning more troops?”
Zariel simply smiled. “It doesn’t matter if they fortify the village. And remember, the cap on troops is based on the number of students… If we take out half of them before they have a chance to flee, that’s half of their cap gone… Where as ourselves… If we drag the fight on long enough, we can reach our max cap of two thousand.”
She gave her second in command a devilish smile. “Get ready to march. Troops out front, girls in the back. Remember, they are to flee at the first sign of trouble, can’t have our unit cap going down for any reason. I’ll take my forces to the hills. You take them to the forest. Once we take everything we can and build up our forces, we’ll pincer them between the two of us and finish them for good.”
Zariel almost looked giddy. “Maybe I’ll impress their males enough to make them want to join us? That would be fun…”