428 Chapter 428: Pendragon Academy

\"I'm very proud of all of you,\" Harrison declared as he faced all of us at the head of the table. \"All of you. We did very well to reach the semifinals. This means that we are, at the very least, ranked fourth in the Global Federation.\"

\"Yeah!\" Craig raised his mug, as if to say cheers. We were all in a celebratory mood, and after I was discharged from the infirmary, my friends dragged me here, to this bar. I learned that they originally wanted to celebrate yesterday night, but because I was out cold and recovering in the hospital, they postponed the celebration to today.

After all – according to them, anyway – I was the VIP. Or MVP. Or whatever acronym they liked to use. Whether it was Very Important/Indispensable Person or Most Valuable Player, it didn't matter. All of them unanimously agreed that I was the main reason we won yesterday's match and progressed to the semifinals.

Therefore it wouldn't make sense to celebrate without me, the guest of honor or whatever. Personally, I couldn't care less and I was worried that they would wake up with a hangover the next morning and end up unable to compete in the crucial semifinals.

Then I remembered that we were all high school students (including my current self), and we were still considered minors. Of course they wouldn't allow us to drink until we were 20. Or was it 18? I couldn't remember. And honestly, I didn't need to because I never smoked or drank any alcoholic drinks, even in my past life. Even when I got to thirty years of age, I never touched a can of beer. Well, I did have a sip once (my dad asked me to try), and I hated it, so I never drank it again. As for smoking, well…you know what a health hazard it was.

\"Even if we lose tomorrow, we already made our school proud!\" Pearl also raised her mug. Craig elbowed her.

\"We're not going to lose!\"

\"I don't think anyone wants to lose,\" Cody confessed. \"But our opponent tomorrow is Pendragon Academy, you know? They are no pushovers. It will be a hard match tomorrow.\"

\"Don't worry, we have Richard here.\" Dong Fang Yue Chu threw an arm over my shoulders and gripped me tightly. \"He might be able to pull another miracle tomorrow!\"

\"Are you planning another all-kill?\" Bu Fan asked snidely, drinking from his corner of the table. I shook my head.

\"I was just lucky. They…Saint Teresa Academy underestimated me and they paid the price for it. If they took me seriously from the start…for example, if Kureha had decided to fight me from the start, I wouldn't have been able to eliminate the other core members.\"

\"Luck doesn't happen five times in a row,\" Theodore told me firmly. \"Have more confidence.\"

\"Oh, it's not the matter of confidence. Anyway, it's pointless to discuss what could have been. We won, and we progressed to the next round, so whether Saint Teresa Academy would have won if they switched the order of their members around is a pretty moot point to begin with. There's no point dwelling on what-ifs and whatever.\"

\"Well said,\" Harrison agreed. \"And that brings us to the main point of this meeting. Tomorrow's strategy against Pendragon Academy.\"

Even though we did come to this restaurant to celebrate, we also partly gathered to discuss strategy. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that planning for tomorrow's match was in fact the main goal of tonight's dinner.

\"Even if you say that…how exactly are we supposed to plan?\" I asked. Then I glared at Yue Chu before he could say anything. \"No, I'm not going to fight all five Pendragon Academy representatives in the individual matches tomorrow. I'll probably die.\"

\"Yeah, you still haven't fully recovered from yesterday.\" Pearl was glaring at me sternly. \"I won't allow you to pull that stunt again, even if the captain says so.\"

\"I agree.\" Harrison raised a hand. \"It's unfair to put all the burden on you anyway.\"

\"Don't worry.\" Craig was grinning as he wrapped an arm around a giggling Sheila. \"It's our turn to shine! We won't allow you to hog all the glory to yourself!\"

\"Sounds good to me.\" I was still feeling exhausted, aftereffects from yesterday's grueling session. I was sure I would recover fully by tomorrow, but I would physically destroy myself if I forced my body to go through the same torturous trials as yesterday. Not to mention, the swordsmen and swordswomen of Pendragon Academy fought in a completely different style from Saint Teresa Academy's.

Each one of them had reached the pinnacle of swordsmanship. After almost getting overwhelmed by Kureha yesterday, I was not eager to repeat the agonizing experience. It had been close…too close. A single slip and I would have been the one lying on the floor instead of her.

As if reading my mind, Craig grinned at me.

\"How about it, Richard? Can't you use the same technique you used to defeat the Sword Saint to wipe out the Pendragon Academy team?\"

\"No way. That was supposed to be my trump card, and now that everyone knows about it, they will develop a countermeasure against it. Besides…\" I looked at everyone sheepishly. \"I stole that technique from someone else.\"

\"Oh?\" Harrison sounded curious. \"That wasn't a Miyamoto sword technique?\"

\"No, it wasn't,\" I admitted. \"I copied it from one of the most epic visual novels ever created. It was the technique of an Archer Servant who dresses in red and wields twin swords.\"

\"I know that visual novel!\" Yue Chu exclaimed excitedly. Then he frowned. \"But wasn't it used by the protagonist of the visual novel…then again, the red Archer was his future self, so I guess it counts, huh?\"

\"Nerds,\" Bu Fan sneered, his voice filled with scorn. As usual, everyone ignored him.

\"In any case, I don't think it'll work. And honestly, that was a last-ditch move that I used out of desperation, because I had no mana left. I seriously do not want to be forced into such a situation again.\"

\"Agreed.\" Harrison nodded. \"That was dangerous. And you are correct – our opponents would have developed a countermeasure by now.\"

\"Why didn't Kureha just spam her Noble Phantasm and shoot multiple blasts out of her sword?\" Lily wondered out loud. \"Given Richard's condition, she would have won if she did that.\"

\"Pride and honor, I guess?\" Theodore shrugged. \"She wanted to defeat Richard fair and square, and recognized that he was a great disadvantage.\"

\"Yeah, it would be lame if she won by spamming her ultimate technique against someone who was already so exhausted and injured, an opponent who was on the brink of collapsing,\" Craig added with a little too much glee.

\"I got the sense that she was also trying to preserve as much mana as possible for the team match,\" Harrison said thoughtfully. \"Given how that's her ultimate technique, it's very likely that she could only use it twice or thrice a day…maybe four times maximum. She already used it once, and Richard neutralized it with his ice shield. If she used up all her mana on trying to blast him to oblivion, she wouldn't have enough left to use her ultimate technique during the team match. Since Saint Teresa Academy was already down 4-0 then, it makes sense that she felt the need to save her mana so that she can take out as many of us during the team match as possible.\"

\"Didn't work out well for her, did it?\" Sheila remarked, almost with the same amount of glee as her boyfriend.

\"No, indeed it didn't.\" Cody nodded silently. \"And we were lucky in that aspect.\"

\"Richard had nothing to lose, but Kureha Franklin had everything to lose.\" Theodore grinned. \"That said, Richard was the one who forced Saint Teresa Academy into that position to begin with, so he deserves credit for that.\"

\"Aside from the credit, Pendragon Academy is very different from Saint Teresa Academy. Even if I was at the peak of my strength, I don't think the same strategy is going to work on them. Moreover, they would have come up with countermeasures and strategies to cope with me, based on what they saw during the quarterfinals. So it's best if I don't actively participate this time.\"

Harrison mulled over my words for a few seconds, and then shook his head.

\"I mean, yeah, you won't be the central component of our strategy this time, but obviously you're too big an asset to not use. I still plan to field you in the individual matches, or team match. Or both, depending on how the fights turn out.\"

\"Okay. I will do my best.\" I wasn't going to say no to taking part in the semifinals. Who wouldn't want to represent their school and fight in a match? I would love to participate as much as I could, which was why I insisted on staying on stage during the individual matches against Saint Teresa Academy. It wasn't just about personal glory or whatever. It was the passion of testing my skills against worthy opponents. Furthermore, this wasn't just any ordinary match. It was the semifinals. \"I can't promise anything, but I will fight whatever opponent you send me out against.\"

\"That's good enough.\" Harrison nodded. He knew better than to place too much pressure on me. Again, before readers jumped in and started accusing me of not having confidence, that wasn't the case. Just because I won a few matches didn't mean I was invincible and was guaranteed to win against every student in our generation. It was precisely that kind of complacency that led to Kureha's downfall in the first place.

I was not being self deprecating or underconfident or a pussy or whatever bullshit accusations the readers were hurling at me. I was being cautious and humble, avoiding complacency and arrogance. Take note that I didn't say I would lose, merely that I couldn't guarantee anything. There was a huge difference between swaggering around and declaring that I could win for sure and saying there was no guarantees. There was also a huge difference between moaning and complaining that I would definitely lose and calmly and rationally stating that there was no guarantees.

I wish readers would get that damned difference already. They were too obsessed with power levels and rankings. Just because I beat Sword Saint or Rank X whoever, didn't mean I automatically won against everybody in my generation, or automatically won against everybody ranked under her. Ranks and \"power levels\" were always in flux. Furthermore, they are not something you could merely capture in numbers or something you measure and stay constant throughout. There were other factors that decided the outcome of a battle, such as strategy, terrain, perhaps psychological condition and morale, and more. It was never as simple as rank 1 beats rank 2, and rank 2 beats rank 3 and below, and all that. Otherwise ranks might as well be fixed without allowing anyone to switch ranks. What, you mean only the protagonist can climb ranks? No other characters can? That's utter rubbish.

\"All right. Watch the videos again and review and analyze their moves. I've told you who their core members are, so watch out for them.\" Harrison swiped the screen of his phone to project multiple holographic windows into the air. He had sent us the files earlier so that we could view them at our convenience, but just to be sure he was reviewing with everyone again.

My eyes naturally fell upon Charles Lacroix. Not only was he the captain of Pendragon Academy team, he was also the strongest, most gifted and most skilled. There were few who could match him in swordsmanship, with only Kureha Franklin rivaling him in the sword. And even Kureha fell to him last year, which led to Pendragon Academy claiming the championship eventually. He would definitely be the one to look out for.

The lynchpin of the Pendragon Academy team, if we could take him out, we would seriously weaken them in the team match. But I wasn't so naïve to think it was easy. I wasn't discounting the possibility – after all, I succeeded against all odds to eliminate Kureha Franklin before the team match – but I wasn't stupid and complacent enough to bank our entire strategy on that. And I knew Harrison, who was smarter than me in terms of tactical maneuvers and handling our team's strengths, was already aware of that.

It wasn't just Charles Lacroix. The other members of Pendragon Academy were equally formidable. Hell, they were much stronger in depth than Saint Teresa Academy, by which I meant that they had no reserve members. Every single representative of Pendragon Academy was a powerhouse in his or her own right, a core member of the team. Unlike Saint Teresa Academy or even us, there were no reserve members. I recognized Claudia and Gawain, having met them in the Spirit Road like 150 chapters ago.

Claudia Enfield was the second-in-command, a female knight who was known for possessing among the most beautiful swordsmanship alongside Cecilia Stuart. Though Claudia was not as skilled as Kureha Franklin, she was close to her, and the two were mostly evenly matched, though for now Kureha had more wins than losses in their official head-to-head clashes.

Gawain Pennyworth was earmarked as the next rising star, his skills almost on the same level as Charles. Rumors were that he was set to succeed Charles as the next captain once the third year students graduated. Given his superb swordsmanship, charisma and strong personality, I was sure that the rumors were most likely the truth.

\"Man, this is going to be hard.\"

\"Yeah, but we also said that about Saint Teresa Academy.\" Craig chuckled as he glanced around the table. \"And look where we are now. Who's to say we can't pull off an upset?\"

\"Exactly.\" Harrion smiled in agreement. \"Let's go into tomorrow's match without any fear, and just do our best. Whatever the results, we will emerge without any regrets, and as representatives who did our school proud.\"

Harrison sure as hell knew how to put on a speech. Leaning back in my chair, I smiled as I sipped from my mug of mango juice, my mind already anticipating the clash with Pendragon Academy tomorrow.