397 Evelyn's Strategy

*Clang*

The clashing sound continued filling the arena. Cara was on her last leg under the constant assault from Kokonoe Shigure and Yasmin.

At the same time, on the other side of the arena, Maya and Zoe were still trying to get past Hanibal but to no avail. Hanibal had many injuries on his body, but his eyes were still focused on Maya and Zoe as his mission was to hold them down until they defeated Cara. On the other hand, Maya and Zoe were not that much better.

Dealing with Hanibal's great strength was very troublesome. They were a bit exhausted in dealing with him.

It was different from Kokonoe Shigure and Yasmin. Cara was not as hard as Hanibal, so they slowly beat her up while reserving their strength. So, when they needed to clash with Maya and Zoe, they had enough strength to beat them too.

After another minute,

"Silver Raven!" Yasmin thrust her spear.

"Explosive Arrow!" She released the arrow she used to strike at Shigure earlier.

"Boom!"

At the same time, Kokonoe Shigure appeared behind her. He struck her with his sword, "Shadow Cut."

"!!!" If she were not exhausted like this, she would be able to avoid this attack. Sadly, taking the full brunt from these two took a toll on her body, and at this point, she did not have enough time to react.

Finally, after so long, Kokonoe Shigure made a decisive blow on her back. It made a quite deep sword wound on her back.

"Pah!" She immediately spat blood, but it did not stop there.

Yasmin came out of the smoke from the explosion earlier and sent a kick on her abdomen.

"Gah!"

It knocked her back to the arena's wall. Kokonoe Shigure wanted to make a follow-up, but he noticed that they managed to knock her out. Well, most of her injuries were physical wounds, and she could recover from it after a few days, so they could say they held back a little.

After defeating her, they immediately helped Hanibal. With the battle becoming a 3v2 fight, after some time, they managed to defeat both Maya and Zoe.

"Heavenly Sword Sect Win!"

"Uoh!" The crowd was cheering for them. At first, the situation seemed under the control of Rainbow Flower Sect. Sadly, it turned out that Heavenly Sword Sect waited for the right time to launch a counter-attack. If they could choose the MVP in this battle, it would be Hannibal.

He had fought bravely against Maya and Zoe while trying to tire them as much as possible. And by the time Kokonoe Shigure and Yasmin came to his aid, it practically became a one-sided battle.

Alex watched this battle with great interest. He thought this was a good plan. Both teams were trying to take out the support first, which were Cara and Yasmin.

In Cara's case, Shigure did a good job of making them focus on him. That way, Maya and Zoe were forced to defeat Yasmin earlier.

But it was at that moment, they were already trapped in the spider web. The moment they delved into the Heavenly Sword Sect side, Hanibal immediately split the arena into two.

If Hanibal could not handle Maya and Zoe, or at least letting one of them pass him, their entire plan would crumble. And they would have a much harder battle just to win.

Alex did not really care about that since they had already won. He looked at Evelyn, who watched the fight with a great concentration. He could see her mouth moving. It said, "All according to the plan."

"That girl…" He shook his head helplessly.

In the arena, Maya and Zoe immediately helped Cara out and had the other teammates to tend for her wounds. Meanwhile, Yasmin, Kokonoe Shigure, and Hanibal were basking in the light.

They were happy they could win this match. At this particular time, Hanibal's Frenzied Berserker finally wore off. He felt his strength seeping away from his body.

He fell to his knees and made the crowd gasp. They thought he might suffer a serious injury. But before letting him fall to the ground, Kokonoe Shigure and Yasmin helped him up. They placed his hands on their shoulder and helped him leave the stage.

"The MVP should not leave the arena like this," Shigure said.

"If you did not hold them back, I might not even be able to stand after we won," Yasmin smirked.

"Haha… We won as a team." Hanibal laughed.

"That's right." Yasmin and Shigure nodded while smiling.

Hanibal then looked at Evelyn, who was on the side. "Still, that little gi- I mean, Captain is surely a scary one. To think everything was going according to her plan."

"Yes. That's why she is the captain." Shigure shook his head helplessly.

Yasmin only walked silently while remembering a certain scene.

…

Half an hour ago,

Evelyn was explaining their strategy.

"We are going to defeat the bow user first. Since we have fought together in the previous round, I am sure all of you have known she will be a bit troublesome."

"Indeed. In any case, it is normal to remove their support first." Florinda nodded.

"Then, Yasmin and I will become the vanguard while Kokonoe Shigure tries to defeat her," Hanibal suggested.

"No!" Evelyn shook her head. Her rejection invited confusion from the others. Kokonoe Shigure frowned as he thought Evelyn did not trust his ability.

"Captain, I can finish her off." Kokonoe Shigure said.

Evelyn shook her head. She turned her head to Hanibal instead of answering him. "The technique you used back then when you fought big bro… Alexander Sirius, the one that could enhance your strength. If you use it, can you hold back their vanguards?"

"!!!" All of them were shocked by her statement. On the other hand, Hanibal pondered it deeply. "I can stop them. But as soon as the effect wears off, I will go down instantly."

"A few minutes are enough. Within that tie, Kokonoe Shigure and Yasmin will defeat the bow user. After that, they will help you in dealing with them, thus securing our victory." Evelyn said.

"But how do we bait them?" Florinda asked.

"Firstly, they have also seen our ability in the previous round. And with that information, they would surely expect Kokonoe Shigure to make a surprise attack on their bow user.

"We will use that to our advantage. We will make them think we are going by the book. Kokonoe Shigure will attack her while Hanibal tries to keep the other two out.

"With them becoming confident that we are trapped in their plan, Yasmin will try to bait them to the corner. You don't need to do anything in particular. You just need to stand there while playing with your hair or something. Just make them think you are underestimating them.

"With the confidence they have, they would surely try to attack Yasmin first. In other words, Their bow user will hold Kokonoe Shigeru down, while her teammates will try to defeat Yasmin.

"At that time, Hanibal will use that power up technique while creating a wall that separates the arena into two. I am sure you are capable of doing this since you had used a similar technique when you fought Alexander Sirius. You just need to scale it up a little bit." Evelyn explained her plan.

Hanibal nodded. "Yes, I should be able to do that. Then after we separate them, Yasmin will go to the other side of the arena and help Kokonoe Shigure. At the same time, I will hold the other two until they defeat her."

"Yes. This might be a little hard for you since you need to fight two at once."

"Haha… I never thought I would be the sacrifice for these two." Hanibal laughed while looking at Yasmin and Kokonoe Shigure. "Although we are usually competing with each other, it is different this time.

"After all, we are representing the sect in this tournament. Reluctant I may, we will surely win this as a team. And as soon as we go back, we will be competing as usual."

Evelyn nodded and shouted, "Then go!"

…

Recalling that scene, Yasmin could only raise her hand in front of her.

They came back and saw Evelyn approaching them. She said, "Good work, everyone."

"Haha… We won the first one." Hanibal laughed before turning his head to Amazu Agu and Anwar Daher. "You guys need to win alright so our captain can close the battle."

They nodded and said at the same time. "Of course."

They then heard the voice of the announcer once again.

"What a surprise for the first battle. Just when we thought the battle was going in Rainbow Flower Sect's favor, Heavenly Sword Sect managed to turn it around without suffering heavy casualties.

"Is this planned or not? We need to see this again in the next battle. Without further ado, let us call Amazu Agu and Anwar Daher from Heavenly Sword Sect as well as Gabriella, Janessa Bass from Rainbow Flower Sect."

"Uoh!"

When they heard that, Evelyn said, "Go! May fortune be with you."

Anwar and Amazu nodded their head as they walked to the arena.

Meanwhile, the atmosphere around Rainbow Flower Sect was heavy. They absolutely needed to win the first and the second battle, since they had given up on Evelyn and the last match.

With this defeat, they were in a pinch, and everyone's morale plummeted. Everyone, except Nakagawa Hiina, who suddenly stood up. "What's wrong with everyone? We haven't lost to them yet. As long as we did not give up, the chance of us winning is never zero."

"Still… How could we win after this? You need to fight that Evelyn and Kuria need to fight Florinda. They will have three wins, even if they lose the second battle. Their line up is made by careful consideration as even though they are planning to win with the first three matches, they still keep their trump card, Florinda, in the back." One of them sighed.

"I am not giving up. All of you might forget about it, but Evelyn only used a rank 3 weapon previously. We had gone through many unfavorable situations, and if she had rank 4 weapon, she should use it in that situation, but she never used it. The reason was simple, she did not have one." Nakagawa Hiina said.

"!!!" Those words immediately jogged their memory.

She continued, "But Master had given me a rank 4 sword before we came to this place. Even though my winning possibility is slim, the difference in rank for our sword is increasing my winning possibility by a large margin."

When they heard that, light started coming to their eyes as they saw hope. They were convinced by her. It was true Evelyn should use it if she had, but she clearly did not use it.

Nakagawa Hiina might only be an 8-Star Martial Grandmaster, but her prowess was superior to most of them. If they included the rank 4 sword her master had given her, she should have a fairly large chance in winning.

"For that, we need to win the second battle, no matter what!" Nakagawa Hiina said.

Hearing that, Gabriella and Janessa stood up with great resolve. "We are going to win this and make our sect proud!"

"Oh!"

"Now, go!" Nakagawa Hiina shouted.

They started walking toward the arena. But before that, Janessa stopped Gabriella. "Gabriella, we need to win this fight no matter what."

"Yes. That's why we are going to fight them with all we've got." Gabriella nodded.

"It is not enough." She shook her head. "You must remember what happened previously, right? Even with a careful plan, we still lost."

"..." Gabriella did not say anything as Janessa continued. When she heard what she said next, she was dumbfounded.

…

A few seconds later, four people entered the arena.

Alex looked at the face of Amazu and Anwar. By the look of it, he was sure Evelyn already told them the plan. But the moment he saw their opponent's face, Alex frowned as he realized something.