?


    After Parth was thrown aside, peace reigned once again.


    Lucas tapped his finger falling into deep thought.


    What Parth said was partially correct. Moles, there are tons of traitors hiding here who have already sold themselves. Lucas knew some of them while others weren''t mentioned.


    By this time, the ss should have been divided into two factions headed by Charles and Frederick. Simrly to Frederick, Charles was also a master at pulling aggro.


    Being the Heir of the Duke, Charles''s position was second to the Imperial Princes and with his arrogance he could spit on anyone''s face as much as he wanted. By this time, originally Charles would be an absolute menace.


    The conflict kept on intensifying and the situation became quite worse. By the end, all the sses banded onto A-3 sses.


    Frederick, Rose and Parth at the end, carried the whole ss to the win. It was during this time Frederick showed his true prowess ughtering many all alone.


    It was a crafty event. The students who are hiding woulde into the limelight and would be forced to use their hidden cards. This would be quite detrimental as the fight would be live telecasted.


    Unbeknownst to them, the traitors who might be having sweet dreams today are soon going to have a nightmare.


    "So, anyone who is interested in being a strategist, "Vagrave asked.


    After a murmur, only three people raised their hands.


    "Those who are in their favour, please vote for them."


    And the result was, none of them got voted. Originally, this was going to be a dogfight between Charles and Frederick for the position of captain and losing one would be a strategist and forcefully Charles became captain but end up with his ass kicked by others.


    At this point, there is no unity among the students of the ss and on top of that Lucas was sure thatCharles and Frederick couldn''t even identify their own ssmates if they met randomly.''


    Vagrave, suppressing his headache, squeezed out a smile" In this case, does anyone have a suggestion."


    Loud chatters were heard again as students discussed themselves.


    Lucas, who was contemting something, felt sharp stares aimed at him.


    Raising his head, he saw Frederick and Charles looking at him.


    "I think Lucas would be suitable for this," Frederick said.


    "What?"Lucas screamed in shock inwardly.


    As soon as Frederick raised his voice, a few others also spoke in his favour.


    "I agree."


    "Me too."


    Rose, Helena, Charles and a few whom Lucas even did not know stood in his favour.


    "You all are making a grave mistake."Lucas refuted.


    "No, give this position to someone else. It''s better if you give it to Axel."Lucas spoke loudly.


    "Axel strategizes, Axel, can smash any strategy onto the opponent''s face.," Axel spoke robotically.


    "Is this a joke?"Frederick asked.


    Everyone''s expression faltered upon hearing Axel''s words.


    ''As expected of a muscle head.''Everyone thought inwardly.


    "No, this isn''t"Lucas''s expression was grave.


    "Make Axel the head strategist to mislead everyone and appoint another auxiliary one."


    "However, do you think many will believe that?"Vagrave made a weird expression.


    "Not many know that he is a mus.."Lucas paused, seeing Axel''s happy expression.


    Everyone understands Lucas''s words. Axel is not a naive guy. It''s just that his brain is filled with muscle cells.


    "He is a bit intelligent," Vagrave muttered with a cough.


    "I think Ethan would be good. He belongs to Hepar''s house and deals with monsters in the cold west so he might know about tactics in rough terrain as they have to train early."Lucas suggested.


    "Yeah, he also had a point."


    "Ethan might do a good job and as Lucas said not everyone knows about Axel musc... I mean intelligence."


    "That''s good."


    "Yeah, a great choice."


    Students spoke and chatted.


    It was weird that many people epted the fact naturally much to Frederick and Charles''s surprise but as they saw Lucas grinning in the corner, they were sure.


    Someone is going to be fucked upter.


    "Thanks, I didn''t know you all looked at me this favourably," Ethan spoke with a satisfied expression.


    After Ethan was appointed as a strategist, the discussion went on smoothly. Charles, being ranked 1, was forced into the role of captain.


    In the end, when everyone was going to leave Charles and Frederick came looking for Lucas.


    Lucas gave them a weird gaze, and asked"Since when did you two be friends."


    "Friends, my foot. How did you lump me with this filthy guy."Charles made an expression of disgust.


    "It''s you who is disgusting. Friends don''t stab you in the back and do you even know the meaning of being a friend."Frederick shouted and the two started to banter.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "What is going on between you two?"


    "Kheum…Cough.."


    Charles and Frederick made embarrassing expressions.


    "Lucas, we want to speak about something."


    "Yeah, I am all ears."


    Charles gave Frederick a nudge and spoke with an embarrassed expression"Lucas, I came to know about your special move from Frederick so I request you not to use your special move tomorrow."


    "Special move, what''s that?"Lucas made a confused expression.


    "Don''t use that single-maker kick. Please don''t use that, I request you."Frederick murmured.


    Lucas''s jaw almost dropped and he gave Charles and Frederick a ferocious gaze as if he would tear him apart.


    "What''s that? And who told you that name."


    "It''s Parth."Frederick and Charles replied simultaneously.


    "...."


    ........


    [Align]


    Professor Derrick who yed the role of referee shouted.


    The students of each ss lined up and looked at the podium.


    Lucas observing the participants frowned. As expected their ss has the least number of participants. After forcing some, they managed to raise their number to 51 and the second lowest after them was ss A-1 with 57.


    Derrick nced around and ryed the rules.


    "Each ss would be transported to a random location. There are two ways to win. Eliminate the other ss by killing their students or snatching their gs. The battle would take ce in a virtual space and getting killed there would not affect you in real life. All of your weapons will be virtually copied into that ce."


    "The top yers would be ranked by points gathered through killing, contributions in the win, and additional points for protecting the g as well as snatching. Kills refer to the number of people of other sses you killed and what role you yed in the warfare. Remember, each one of your roles will be monitored."


    "Once you snatch the g of another ss, you need to keep it safe for an hour. After an hour ispleted, the student that snatched it will get 50 points while the ss will get 1000 points. The person who keeps the gs and defends it will get 25 points each hour. If the g you snatched is lost, the ss would lose 900 points. This doesn''t apply to your own ss g."


    "That''s it now move."


    Each ss was taken to a respective locker room from where they will enter a portal that creates a virtual body.


    Two staff checked the student to prevent foul y.


    "Sorry, you can''t take this. Artifacts above the rank of E are not allowed."


    "But, it''s just a defensive artifact."The student refuted.


    The staff adhered strictly to the rule. Students tried to sneak in the artifacts but all of them were caught. Before entering, a magic orb would scan them and record all the things they possess.


    "What''s this?"The staff gave Lucas a weird gaze.


    "Don''t tell me guns are not allowed. And these balls are rming balls that would alert attention."Lucas cleared their doubts. Unless one checked the orbs, one couldn''t possibly know what they were.


    "Okay, pass!"


    After passing through the safety check they gathered before the portal.


    "Let''s go!"


    "For ss A-3."


    "For ss A-3."


    Shooting loudly, they entered the portal.


    A blinding sh reflected in Lucas''s vision causing him to close his eyes. After a moment, when the light subsided, Lucas found himself standing on rugged terrain.


    Looking around, Lucas saw his ssmates staring ahead. Before them was a huge valley surrounded by cliffs and forest from all around.


    "What a ce to start the Battle Royal!"


    CLINK!


    [10:00 minutes left for the battle royal to begin.]


    A notification shed in his smartwatch.


    "Everyone, let''s start making a base."


    "Frederick, start doing your job."


    "As decided, we will first look for the terrain."


    Ethan, supported by Vagrave, started his act as a strategist.


    Frederick nodded and pulled a blue g from his ring.


    "I am going ahead!"Frederick gave Lucas a subtle nce and jumped down the cliff followed by Parth and Rose.


    Lucas then nced at Ethan and then signalled Charles with a smile.


    ''Let''s start the operation of annihtion.''