CLINK!
Entering the common classroom, Frederick sighed in relief.
"It seems, everyone who received the message is here."
"Why did you call us separately?"Stephen grunted, staring at the 8 people around him suspiciously.
Besides him, there were Rose, Helena, Parth, Axel, Lucas, Ashley, Charles and Alfred.
Among them, Ashely and Alfred were two new faces he had seen.
"To discuss the real plan," Frederick muttered, sitting down on his spot while looking at Lucas.
Getting the signal, Lucas staring deeply at Stephen went straight to the point.
"Stephen, what offer did Ezekiel give you?"
As soon as Lucas's words fell, the tension in the air felt oddly suffocating.
Rose, who did not know much about Lucas, was greatly alarmed seeing his change of expression. Before, he always carried that easygoing and shy aura around but now he seemed oddly threatening.
There was an aura of superiority around him that one could see around the higher nobles. For a person to change so much, one might have gone through a lot.
"What do you want to say? Why would I interact with Ezekiel?"Stephen refuted with a straight face.
"Hmm! Perhaps, I have a misunderstanding," Lucas muttered and then took out a photo, and placed it on the table.
"It might be someone impersonating you, isn't it?"Lucas smiled.
"Yeah, that can be. Stephen is a big shot. Many wanted to gain fame by impersonating him."Parth clapped his hands adding more fuel to the fire.
Ignoring him, Frederick asked, "What do you have to say now?"
"We just met by coincidence."Stephen's voice quivered.
"And by coincidence, you also decided to leak out the plans and betray us."
Stephen sweated profusely and found hateful stares locking onto him.
Whom Stephen wanted to betray was not the class but rather it's Charles. Stephen's noble family is under Duke Warren's household. Stephen used to admire Charles and tried to look for him but this admiration turned to hate when Charles belittled him and treated him like a dog.
During this time, Stephen would have been harboured hate for Charles so trying to bring him down, he joined Charles's faction in the class battle and passed the information to Ezekiel.
Charles fell into the opponent's trap and was killed by the combined effort of Ezekiel and a few others.
Class A-3 would have lost if not for Frederick sacrificing himself. Since none of the things happening here would affect the real-world physical bodies, Frederick would break through to 4-Star.
Rose, Parth and Axel would support Frederick till the end. These four would give thier all still it was too hard for them to turn around which forced Frederick to use his trump card.
Lightning Blast.
Frederick took Ezekiel and many others down with him, sweeping away everyone at the last battle at the cost of getting his body damaged heavily.
After the death, the two flags in Ezekiel's hands were left behind that were taken by Rose after which the final bell rang and class A-3 secured the victory.
"We did not call you to berate you. From what we know, you are not the type of guy to openly betray us. There might be some circumstances so all I want is to bear your burden. We don't want a great prospect to destroy himself by choosing the wrong path."Lucas suggested solemnly.
"Don't do anything that you're gonna regret in the future," Frederick said.
"Stephen, I know I have treated you poorly before. If you bear hatred for me then you look for me. Don't take it in class. I sincerely apologize for my misconduct."Charles spoke, bowing his head.
Stephen gnashed his teeth and clenched his fist seeing their genuine worry.
Does it feel wrong?
Why are you so kind to me?
Shouldn't you just kick me out?
A range of stifling emotions welled out of his heart.
"I was wrong."Stephen after many dilemmas finally squeezed out his words.
Noticing the situation, Lucas smiled inwardly remembering Julian's words.
'Kindness is a double-edged sword. People who had to bear kindness sometimes hurt more than bearing hatred.'
One might feel the situation is unbelievable.
"If you want to repent then help us to win the battle. Your contribution will prove crucial in the upcoming war."Lucas muttered.
"What do I need to do?"
"You just need to pass on the wrong information and all of you here had to disguise as Frederick."Lucas laid out the plan.
"Will this work?"Everyone asked in disbelief hearing this. There had been stereotypical battle warfare happening around in the mock battles.
So, Lucas's suggestion was out of the norm. They might win but the professor may not like this. What they wanted to see was the way The Commander guided his squad while dealing with external problems as well as internal conflicts and traitors that may lie within.
Contrary to this, Lucas's plan had a series of steps that overlapped one another. In fact, except him, hardly anyone knew the full plan. All of this was created taking the pre-existing information.
In a way, it was cheating but Lucas did not care. What he wants is the result. There is no guarantee that they will win as in the novel. Things have already gone down the road. So, all he needs to do is get in the top 10 so that he can get the blessings.
That was the primary goal, winning was the secondary.
"I am sure this will work. Most of the people chosen as Captain and Strategist would be from noble households who detest him to the core and would want to eliminate him. His presence had irked many. However, unlike what others know, there will be not a single Frederick who pulls the aggro but many."
.......
Ezekiel was taken aback for a moment seeing other classes appearing around them.
BZZZT
[Can you hear me? I am monitoring from up above. I can only relay orders for a short time. You need to create chaos and run.]
"Roger that!"
A series of chimes were heard in their head.
[Rose, cover Frederick's back.]
"Okay!"
[Axel and Stephen's cut out a path from the glade on the left of that broken tree. The encirclement is loosened there.]
"Got it!"
[Ashely, use your spell to create fire.No need to hold back burn down everything. There is a lot of firewood.]
"But!''
[Alfred will shield you. He had a water shield skill that will protect you from harm.]
"Okay!"Ashley nodded her head with a slight hesitation.
[Vagrave, is already on the bank. He will shoot enemy soldiers for a few seconds and then stop until you regroup.]
[Frederick takes this opportunity to attack Ezekiel and others. Killing them is too straining so just throw them off by using Time Dilation. You have 20 seconds before Vargave opens fire.]
As soon as the commands fell, Frederick's bluish eyes glowed.
[Time Dilation]
The world before Frederick's eyes lost its lustre and turned grey. With a burst of pace, Frederick appeared before Ezekiel and hit him hard, sending his body flying in the air with widened eyes.
Frederick frowned, noticing a small bubble covering Ezekiel.
'This guy brought a 3-Star life-saving artefact. Is that why, Lucas asked me not to waste stamina on killer moves.'
Turning around, he dashed towards Jenette and kicking her aside, he directly smashed the spear on Sheldon's head.
Soon the time became normal and three bewildered shrieks were heard.
"Arghhhhhh!"
"Kykkkk!"
"My head!"
Ezekiel flew away and crashed onto the ground while Jennette fell on the ground holding her gut. Meanwhile, Sheldon who held the shield a moment ago rolled on the ground with a bloodied cracked head wondering what hit him.
"You...How!"
From his left, Frederick heard two people stuttering voices filled with disbelief.
"Noisy!"
Swish!
The spear tip sliced the person in half.
The other classes' students who finally came to their senses reacted swiftly when they saw a rain of arrows falling over them.
"Damn!"
"Who is shooting us?"
"This is an ambush!"
"Class A-3 had joined hands with someone."
A chaotic brutal scene unfolded before everyone.
As everyone starts to take cover and shield themselves from the rain arrows.
Axel and Stephen moved swiftly clearing a path.
Rose's hands moved swiftly and she struck each bow with a piercing might that was enough to blow everyone into tatters.
"God of fire, listen to my call. May the place around me set the blaze."Ashley, chanting her spell, hit a wooden staff on the ground.
[Feuerbolzen]
Swish!Swish!Swish!
A huge orb of fire appeared behind her that started to spew fire all around.
Ashely was a 2-Star Mage but the spell she cast was a 3-circled spell. The mana drained from her body making her expression pale.
Her legs trembled a bit and as she lost concentration, the condensed mass of fire burst out and spread like waves of sea.
"Arghhhh!"Ashley screamed in horror as flames engulfed her but much to her surprise she did not feel pain.
Opening her eyes, she saw Alfred carrying her and they were covered in a water bubble.
"Are you alright?"
"Ehh!''
"We have done your duty, let's run away," Alfred muttered.
[Rose fires that light-refracting arrow.]
[Everyone prepares the smoke bomb now. Once she fires the arrow, just run blindly, closing your eyes while throwing a smoke bomb.]
Frederick nodded and started
Rose pulled out an arrow with a bulged tip and fired up into the sky that exploded emitting a blinding flash covering the whole area.
The light blinded their vision momentarily and as soon as their vision was restored, all they saw was black smoke filling the area.
"What the hell is happening here?"A person bellowed in anger.
.......
200 metres away from the place.
"Finally, they have gotten out."Lucas heaved in relief and put down the binoculars.
Lucas observed the dark mass of gas hovering in the narrow part of the valley and waited for it to clear up.
Then, as he looked at the embankment, he frowned.
"What the fuck is he doing there?"Lucas exclaimed in shock.
Updated from fr𝒆ewebnov𝒆l.(c)om