Chapter 127 Group Combat Lessons

"So… You're telling me that you chose the reincarnation option?"

"Yes."

"And you willingly became another race that isn't human?"

"Uh-huh."

"And you've been around for more than ten years?"

"Mmhmm."

"Did I just ask a minor for sex?"

"Technically I'm thirty if you were to count my time in the other World so I'm an adult."

"Oh… So you wanna suck my cock?"

"Is your cock long enough to touch your ass?"

"Eh? What? Err… I mean yes! Yes it is!"

"Good, then you can go fuck yourself."

I flipped him the bird before crossing my arms while daring him to do something about it.

Andrew stared at me blankly for a good long while before clearing his throat, "Well… You do know what my bane does when I ask that question right?"

"Yeah, you need to win a game after propositioning someone for sex or they won't do it with you."

He smirked at me, "That's right. I already tried it before and even if that person in question was completely reluctant, they will do it with me once I win the game."

I gestured to the marbles around us, "And you're confident that you can find the rainbow marble amongst all this?"

"There's no time limit is there? I can just stay here for as long as I need to find it~"

Hmm… There is indeed no timer but…

I reached forward and grabbed him by his throat with a hand before lifting him up.

"There's also nothing saying that I can't hinder your progress either. Must be the reason why I'm here, eh?"

He choked, "Wait… Let's not… You wouldn't kill me right?"

I raised an eyebrow at him, "What makes you so sure I wouldn't?"

He looked at me and I made sure to give him a look that told him I was serious.

"Ah… I… I get it… I suppose I should have known when I was given such a hard task that you're not interested…"

I dropped him, "Good boy. How old even are you?"

"I'm… Eighteen… Same age as the original owner of this body…"

That explains why he's such a horn dog.

He dismissed his summons and the game must have recognised his desire to surrender since the marbles disappeared soon after and the words "Challenge failed" appeared above.

The next thing I knew, the both of us had moved back to our original spots and things continued like nothing happened.

Instructor Henry was still directing the other students into their groups so I took the chance to look at my other group mates.

The other three didn't have anything that stood out so I promptly relegated them as background characters while Andrew started behaving a little bit more awkwardly.

"Alright… Every group elect a leader… And send them here to draw lots…"

Andrew looked at me while the others in our group looked at him. I shrugged and gestured at him, indicating he should just go ahead.

It wouldn't make sense for the junior student to be elected amongst a group of seniors after all, especially when that guy is now conscious of me and is behaving really awkwardly.

Andrew went forward to draw lots with the other elected leaders and Odeta was one of them.

I did not miss the fact that she was glaring daggers at Andrew for some reason, maybe she thought that he stole the position of leader from me?

Since his bane paused time when he asked that question, she shouldn't have known what transpired between the two of us earlier so she shouldn't be angry about that.

Andrew soon returned, "We're facing against Travis's group, apparently."

The other three boys groaned.

"We don't stand a chance…"

"Half of his group come from knight families…"

"Can we just admit defeat?"

Andrew hummed, "Come now! We're fighting them together as a group which is the point of this lesson! As long as we work together better than they can, we can win this! Besides, we have two special class students here don't we?"

Even though he said that, Andrew was pointedly not looking in my direction, probably scared that I'll snap his neck if he does.

One of the boys sighed, "Yeah but… You can't use your magic in this class…"

"And both you and the junior are in the special class for your magic skills aren't you?"

Andrew waved his hand, "It'll be fine! Trust me!"

The three boys didn't look very convinced but they nodded nevertheless.

We were each given a set number of practice equipment to use, including two sets of shortswords paired with round shields, an arming sword, a longsword and a spear with a flat tip.

The three of them took the shortswords and the spear so I was left with choosing the longsword or the arming sword since Andrew was willing to let me choose.

I ended up with the arming sword since it would be better for Andrew to take the weapon with the longer reach.

Nove l B(in).C OM

Andrew's plan was pretty simple, the ones with the shield would charge in and get their attention by holding the line. The spear user would then look for opportunities to attack from behind the shield wall while making sure they don't get flanked.

Andrew and myself would then flank on both sides, preferably collapsing their front lines like that.

In other words, it was a textbook plan of attack.

That's why when we engaged in our fight, things already started going wrong.

One of their shield users immediately leapt forward and body slammed our front line, his superior strength throwing the poor boy back to crash into our spear guy.

Our last shield wielder then started getting tag teamed by their spear and their shield wielders, a quick thrust of a spear in his side 'killing' him and putting him out of the fight.

Andrew fared no better as the one called Travis faced off against him with his own longsword. From here I could already tell that Travis was much more skilled in the sword than Andrew was and the latter was constantly on the defensive with no way to fight back.

I ended up facing another senior who was also armed with an arming sword.

Unlike the others who were especially aggressive with their attacks, my opponent seemed really cautious of me and kept skirting around the edge of my attack range.

Was he trying to buy time for his teammates to come help him because his skills with the sword wasn't that good?

But his sword skills are at tier two though? So by all means he should be able to stand his own ground against me.

I decided to initiate the fight by lunging at him, the boy's eyes widening as he obviously did not expect me to be that aggressive out of the blue.

He had to sidestep from my lunge and he raised his sword overhead in preparation to strike.

Unfortunately for him, I was faster than he was and my sword slashed across his chest, effectively 'killing' him.

I turned back to see how the others were faring, only to find a wooden shield rushing straight towards me.

Thinking fast, I jumped up into the air and avoided the shield charge before raising my sword just in time to deflect the spear thrust aimed at my chest.

Unfortunately, one of the restrictions of this lesson is to only use your weapons to attack so I wasn't able to move in to punch him in the face.

Also because that might have broken his face if I did, since only the weapons themselves are enchanted to deal less damage than normal.

He tried to flip his spear around to whip me across the head with the butt end of his weapon but I managed to duck under it and let it sail over my head.

I saw the opportunity to close the distance so I slipped past his guard, slashing my sword across his side and 'killing' him as well.

The shield user who had charged past me was next to engage me and I got ready for another fight when a shout stopped me in my tracks.

"That's enough!"

I turned to see instructor Henry nodding at me, signalling the end of the exercise.

Eh? Why? Did something happen?

Ah… Andrew was defeated too, so my team was wiped out completely huh.

"Travis's team wins this match… Andrew, going by the textbook is well and good… But such things won't hold up in a real fight… You did not take the difference in your group's strength into consideration…" The instructor lectured.

The reason he stopped me was because this lesson was supposed to teach us about fighting in a team and since the rest of my team was wiped, it was considered our loss.

Although I also suspect that he stopped me because he knew that I could probably wipe out the other team on my own anyway and that would set a bad example on this lesson.

Well… I do admit that my experience on group fights are quite limited if you don't count using my shadow summons as well, especially since I pretty much use them as cannon fodder most of the time.

So it's a good thing that I'm attending this lesson to learn how to better coordinate a group fight.

Instructor Henry was already giving us a lesson on how we should have handled the situation before letting the next two groups start their fight.

Oh, it's Odeta's turn next! Let's see how she does!