The castle walls and the balconies were filled with people. Almost all of them looked like n.o.bles from their dress. There wasn"t much cheer from the crowd though. It may be because cheering was considered not n.o.ble-like or they were simply disappointed when they found out that the fight was between academy kids and professional knights.

I saw the Duke and Miss Lilith on the same balcony from where the duke saw our test last time. The old butler was standing behind him in his usual position. Surprisingly, Goro, the duke"s son who took the test with us was also with them.

While we were looking around, a man with brown hair wearing a metal armor came to us. He was wearing the same kind of armor as the guards on the castle gate so he must be one of the castle guards.

"Kids, take this red ribbon. The bait must wear it somewhere where it can be easily seen. The match will start when the horn is blown so get into formation before that," the man said giving Ronald the ribbon. The man went back to the castle wall after giving us the ribbon and delivering instructions.

Ronald gave that ribbon to Marina who tied it in her pink tail. After that, we all gather around to discuss our strategy.

"Since they are trained knights, we need to have a formation that focuses on the defense. Firstly Arica and I will distract the knights with long-range support from Princess Eliane and Princess Anna. Nina and Sistina will guard Marina. Nina and Marina can defend against long-range attacks and Sistina can distract any knights that get past us. Nara will see the openings in their formation and move ahead. This is our best option," said Ronald explaining our formation.

It was a good strategy that mostly focused on defense and gave no openings to the opponents. Even though the opponents had a lot of experience they will have a hard time getting past the defense.

"Will it be really good to leave all the offense to Nara," Nina asked looking a bit unsatisfied after hearing the formation.

"That"s the only way we have a chance of winning. They only have six members so their formation will have some openings, but to get past those openings we will need someone like Nara," Princess Eliane replied.

"Yeah, they will be surprised to see a magician like him," said Sistina with a smile in her usual easy-going tone.

After Nina and everyone else agreed on the formation, it was decided. We waited for our opponents to take their formation before us. After they got into their formation, we also got into ours.

The enemy formation was simple but as if they already knew our strategy, they kept the captain as a guard for the bait. Fizz and Alisia were on offense being supported by Mon and Fifi while Vina was the bait.

After both teams took the formation, the duke gave the sign to start the match. Right when duke gave the sign a loud horn was blown signaling the start of the match.

As soon as the horn was blown, Nina created an earth wall in front of Marina. This was a good idea since it restricted frontal attacks from any range. But it also restricted Marina from supporting others.

Mon made the first move by attacking Arica with the water bomb but that was stopped by another Earth wall that Nina erected in front of Arica. Fizz followed Mon"s opening and jumped over the wall using physical enhancement on his legs to attack princess Eliane. But Arica came in between stopping Fizz"s sword with hers.

Fizz was clearly stronger and could easily push back. Arica was struggling so she activated "Flame blade" which coated her sword in flame. But Fizz jumped before the flames could touch him.

Alisia"s side looked like the one that was waiting for an opening before charging forward. They probably wanted to use the battle at the Fizz"s side as a distraction to move forward. But that didn"t work because Ronald was fully focused on the people in front of him.

Fifi who was behind Alisia attacked Ronald using "wind slash". Princess Anna tried to block it with the "Earth wall" but the attack was strong enough to break through it. Ronald got hit by the attack and fell backward.

Using that opening, Alisia charged towards Princess Anna but Sistina intercepted her by punching her from the side with a fist covered in fire. Alisia fell on the ground and rolled once but she was unharmed since her armor protected her. A cheer was heard from the crowd.

"Who would have thought a kid like you could use an advanced level physical enhancement technique," said Alisia while standing up. Even captain Garo was surprised so he looked towards Miss Lilith who responded to that with a smile.

Ronald who had recovered from the attack earlier came charging towards her with wind slash but Alicia jumped backward evading the attack. She was surrounded so that was the right move considering Princess Anna was keeping Fifi in check.

Arica and I used the openings to charge forward while Princess Eliane attacked Mon using "Fire javelin". Mon blocked the Fire javelin using Water s.h.i.+eld but that ended up creating the water vapor. I used my "Wind tornado" which is one of the basic spells to surround Mon with the water vapor that was formed during the attack earlier.

Fizz who came charging towards me was intercepted by Arica"s "Flame blade". "Flame blade" was easy to control and needed less mana compared to other fire spells so Arica could easily maintain it.

I used this opportunity to shoot three "mud bomb", on Mon who was inside my wind tornado and ran towards him. Mud bomb is an attack combining water and Earth magic. He blocked it using his water s.h.i.+eld but I prepared a wind-water bomb in my left hand and charged straight towards him. Since magicians weren"t very good at close-quarter combat he didn"t expect me at this range. He tried to protect himself with his wand but that didn"t work since my wind-water bomb could easily cut even the trees.

It would have seriously hurt him if I released it straight at him so I released it right next to him but the blast sent him flying towards the castle wall. He collided with the wall and fell on the ground. He wasn"t moving so he had probably fainted.

This would be the part where a loud cheer would be heard but I saw surprised reaction on everyone"s face. Even duke"s eyes were open wide, the only people who weren"t surprised were my teammates and Miss Lilith.

After a few seconds, a loud cheer was heard though the confusion was still there in everybody"s face. Duke and Miss Lilith were talking about something but I had no time to keep on guessing what they were talking about.

The right move here would be to gang up on Fizz and defeat him first. But if we did that there was a risk of Captain Garo making a move. Fizz was giving both Princess Anna and Arica a hard time by using his water slash attacks after he backed down a bit. He was dodging attacks from Miss Eliane and attacking Arica who had no means of defending against those water magic attacks. There was a limit to how long her "mana cloak" could hold.

"I will just have to trust Arica and Princess Eliane here."

I ran as fast as I could towards captain Goro, but he stayed in the same place and pointed his blade towards me. He shot an arrow made from wind towards me. But since wind attacks were hard to see, I couldn"t see it until it came too close for me to dodge. I transferred mana towards the "mana cloak" in my hands and tried to block it by crossing my hands. I blocked it but the arrow was powerful enough to push me backward.

"Hou... you can even defend against my "wind arrow", impressive," he said while putting his sword back on its sheath. He then looked towards the duke and said, "I now have a good idea why duke proposed this match."

It was odd for a knight like him to give the name of his attack during the battle. It could be that they were expert monster fighters and they didn"t partic.i.p.ate much in human fighting, or it could be that they are still underestimating us.

Looks like the duke understood what the captain was doing, he was smiling in his seat. I still had no idea what was going on so I still stayed on guard. The same was with everyone else on my team but it looked like the captain"s team understood what the captain was trying to do so they stopped their attacks.

He came forward towards me but it didn"t look like he was planning to attack me. His sword was still in his sheath but I was still on guard.

"Young man, underestimating your team was our mistake. The fight until now has shown us what your team is capable of," he said while coming towards me. When he came in front of me he stopped, I wasn"t sure what to do. At this range, I wasn"t sure if I will be able to beat him.

And the next sentence he spoke left everyone silent. It was:

"We surrender."

Next chapter: Fighting a Knight squad - Part 4