Rebirth: The Shadow Of Greed

... Vero stood in front of the table, looking at Soli as he asked, 

"So... any bright ideas?

"Let's forget about Basil, for the time being, we'll work around his strategy. As he said, I'll bring everyone to the left side building first and then we'll converge in the middle. Do you have a plan to secure the structures?" 

Soli replied while turning back to Vero waiting for his reply.

"Yeah, I think I've already settled the defences, you can leave that to me. The issue is, it would be safer to leave a small offense team behind, to ward off the attackers. I mean, we could defend, but if we're overrun it would make the situation worse off. Not to mention the bulk of the students have already left with Basil for the attack."

Z, who was standing at the side spoke up. 

"We don't need a lot of people to enter the left side castle. The objective there is to enter and take out the general. It's more efficient to travel in a smaller group."

"It's fine for us, but what would the students say? Honestly, eventually, this is still an exam, they wouldn't want to just stay behind and take out stragglers while you hunt a big fish, you know what I mean?" 

Arlene spoke out harshly, but she spoke the truth, although it seemed like a team battle, scores were still given and everyone still needed to pass the exams. 

Z scratched his chin as he took into consideration what Arlene had said, naturally it was a conundrum. 

"Can we share the points with the other students then? Can we make it so on our end, our merit is split either way? That way no matter who goes or stays the results would be equal."

"I'll allow that!"

A voice seemingly boomed across the sky, yet could only be heard by the people within the discussion. It was the voice of the chief examiner, as he so conveniently answered his question. 

The group shuddered, there was someone who had been paying rapt attention to their conversation to the point where he even managed to reply so promptly.

"Okay, but even so, you have to take into consideration that if you split the points with everyone, you might end up with even fewer points than the other team. It'll be difficult to get a good result if you do so." 

Ashli chimed in, concerned about Z.

"I don't think so, they took about three-quarters of the students. That would mean the amount split amongst you would be more than what they receive. Heck, the only way that they would be able to score more is if they took all the generals by themselves."

David gave his 2 cents on the matter. Letting them know what he thought. 

Soli thought about it for a little while before committing to a decision, 

"Okay, let's do it. It might be best if we go in accordance with that method. I'll lead the strike team to enter the castle, Z, Arlene, Ashli will follow me. Z what do you think? Will this strike team be enough to handle the situation there?"

The people involved nodded and turned to Z, they were waiting for approval from him. However, Z stroked his chin as he slowly replied. 

"I think the strike team should have a close to 80% chance to defeat the general, but this is only with a surprise attack. I'm sure you know that I hid my abilities all the way while fighting the King in the previous trials. So I was thinking of doing something similar. Keeping our abilities hidden, it seems like the only people that could perform hand to hand combat now is just me and Ashli. 

So, therefore, we have to do a bulk of the fighting until we reach the general, which will diminish our chances. 

Vero, about your defensive plans, will you have enough people to guard the structures if I borrow Odrunn? I trust his close combat capabilities and with him around the chances of us winning is so much higher than if it's just me and Ashli in close combat alone."

Vero scratched his head as he looked at what he had written down on his commswatch. 

"This… David and I would have to rotate, but with the help of the offense team that's behind it would be possible. But would Odrunn be affected in the exams? I mean he is supposed to be a vanguard after all."

"He is technically defending us…"

Soli trailed off. 

"I'll accept that!" 

The voice boomed through the sky again. 

"That… is still really creepy," Vero said. 

"Okay, then I don't see any problem with that, let's follow that plan and inform the team. Once we're ready we can head into position and start the mission."

The leadership team walked towards the masses as they gave a detailed breakdown of their roles. 

Naturally, when they heard about the strike force they were feeling a bit angered and upset, but when Soli mentioned the point splitting the crowd calmed down for a bit. Since it was a fair thing to do. 

The strike team moved to the starting line and got ready to start the mission whereas the defensive team had positioned themselves and the remainder of the offensive team had moved off to prepare to fight. 

"Your preparation phase will end in 1 minute! Your preparation phase will end in 1 minute"

The voice boomed across the sky once again. 

The vanguards brought up their shields on the ready. Odrunn who was in the front line with the strike team got his gauntlets out as they prepared to enter combat. 

It was an excruciating 1 minute, but finally, the countdown had begun as the students got anxious at the last 5 seconds. 

5… 

4…

3…

2…

1…

A loud bugle played as the strike team on the front line watched as a group of soldiers marched forward, readying themselves for combat.