Chapter 364: Performance Review.
We are now back to Kat's perspective. She shall lead the charge. And by that I mean sit around waiting for the others to awaken.
---
Kat looked awkwardly at Uncle as she was the only person that wasn't covered in hair. Well, Rock was somewhat free but extra care was taken to ensure she couldn't speak so it hardly counted.
"So… how did we do?" asked Kat, hoping to make some conversation to pass the time. *I can't believe I just asked that. Uncle said we'd find out once everyone was out. I didn't mean to be impatient I'm just… still a little hyped from the fight I guess.*
Uncle gave a knowing smile. "I won't say much just yet. I don't want to be repeating myself. Though why don't you ask yourself. How do you think YOU did?"
Kat chewed her lip as she started to consider Uncle's world. *Well… overall we did win, and I guess that really counts for something. However, we are supposed to be Rank 2, and I wonder if we should have won by a much larger margin? I really don't know what the difference is supposed to be?
Still… I know I at least don't regret my choice. Especially if Kamiko was injured as she said, and her arms weren't doing well. I thought that was the case when she stopped using her weapon after that small scream when rolling, so good to know that was right.
Plus, I doubt I could have finished those guys off without her. Seralina really put in work to keep everyone as alive as possible, and honestly, the brothers were no slouches either. They kept me off their backs for such a long time until Kamiko was able to use her weapon again and we were able to attack Sekron at all angles.
If Percy had been a little faster we probably couldn't have gotten away with it, or if Krekron had some other type of elemental ability instead of ice we might have been in some real trouble. Seralina getting scared off by that same ice might have helped more than I know…
Huh, is that really how we won? By getting lucky? I mean sure there was some skill involved but… most of it was luck. A good chance at Sekron when the brothers weren't at quite the right angle to intercept us. A blizzard attack to scare away Seralina, and a hammer strike I managed to tank AFTER Sekron was taken out.
Hmm, well, another matter is that they sort of just let Meron do his thing. Then again… they were in just as much danger as we were from that attack. I should have left it right alone but I thought it was some sort of defensive technique so… points down for me there.*
Kat went over a few other points in the fight where she was wondering if it was possible to do better as everyone else slowly broke out of their healing cocoons. Kamiko was first of course, but she didn't want to distract Kat while she was deep in thought, so she also started going over the battle in her head.
Eventually, once everyone… except Rock, was free, Uncle spoke up again. "So, I won't ask you all this time, simply talk about some of the mistakes made because sadly I don't have a lot of time is that ok with everyone? I'll be focusing on the battle from the Rank 1's perspective mostly though, as this is a punishment for our two succubi, so I can't really give you two much advice."
*Yeah that makes sense. Honestly it was a little weird we were getting so much good advice before this anyway, so I can see how things ended up like this. That's fine though, I'm sure I can find some good points in Uncle's speech anyway.*
"Firstly, you all tried to turn this into an endurance match. This was a horrible idea. You should all KNOW that Rank 2's have better demonic energy regeneration and more of it than you do. Why did you try to draw it out and whittle Kat down? Especially when you also consider that she has regeneration, that was the biggest mistake you made hands down.
"This is especially bad because, once again, you should all know this. Additionally, this was a spar, so you should have had no issues taking a more active approach and going for Kat and Kamiko with everything you had. Hell, in the real world, if your team is outclassed, only crazy shit is ever going to allow you to win so you need to embrace that to some extent.
"That might seem harsh, and perhaps it does sound that way to ask you to make riskier plays in the face of life and death but… if you don't make them here, you'll never make them when they need to be made… and when they need to be made, you won't have a choice. It will be either death and some damage to your opponent or just death, and I want to train you better than that. Understood?" said Uncle.
"Yes Sir!" shouted the other demons.
Uncle continued, "Right. Now, onto the other issues. Krekron, you should have known that Seralina was weak to ice. It's a common Lamia weakness and something you should have ASKED about. Seralina, don't think you get off either. You should have TOLD THEM anyway when they didn't ask.
"It wasn't a mistake to use it on Kat and Kamiko, it was simply bad luck they were immune, but you really should have known about the effect it would have had on your teammate. Hell, it isn't even that good for your brothers whom you do know. You are all in METAL ARMOUR and the cold would leach into your skin.
"And considering that even you don't have the same level of cold resistance of Kamiko and Kat, I'd say it was a poor choice overall, if you knew what you were doing. However, I will at least give credit where credit is due for the crazy idea. You had refrained, presumably because of the issues with your armour, and tried it anyone when you had no other choice. Sure I'd have liked you to do it earlier, but it was a good moment to try. Understand?"
"Yes Sir" said Krekron
"Meron?" asked Uncle.
"Yes Sir?" said Meron unsure.
"Do you think you made the right calls?" asked Uncle.
"Well… um, yes. I do think so. Perhaps I could have better secured myself to Seralina, but considering the events that unfolded after that I don't think anything I did was a mistake. I couldn't use my normal defensive options because I already knew it wouldn't work, and I don't have much proper in the way of attacks." Said Meron underneath Uncle's glare.
Uncle's expression then softened. "Yes good. I'm glad you stood by that decision. Honestly, I'm not sure I'd even say you were best off putting additional beard length to use securing you to Seralina. Sure it was a good defensive position, but if you'd looped around once more you'd have had hardly any hair for attacking.
"Still, the main area of congratulations is certainly using your berserk attack. I'd have called that a win for your team if you managed to subdue them. You were alone, with only enemies around you, that outclassed you in every way, and because this was an arena fight you had no escape route, not even considering both the succubi are faster than you.
"It's a shame the others couldn't capitalise on your attack but that sadly is just the nature of that particular ability. I'm a little surprised Kat managed to hold it off if I'm honest, but then again, she is at the upper end of Rank 2's power scale."
Uncle turned to face Seralina and let out a long breath. "Now, Seralina, I must say I'm a little disappointed in you this time. Oh don't get me wrong, you had a really strong showing, and perhaps contributed the most to your team depending on how you count it… but you just didn't attack.
"I think it was those few strikes by Kamiko to your eye right at the start of the fight that put you out of your game. Since those, you were almost completely on the defensive. None of the power and readiness that was present in your match against Kat. You need to work on that I think. Just because your scales can protect most of you doesn't mean you'll never get hurt you know. You also surrendered when Kat broke a few scales, and sure, I'll admit, at that point she'd have just needed to repeat it, but you have A LOT of scales. You could have afforded to trade a few for some hits on Kat.
"I wasn't harsh on you for it then, but it was much worse in this match." Finished Uncle with a sad smile and a shake of his head.
The sourc𝗲 of this content is free(w)ebnov(𝒆)l