Gotcha
Ziiing!
Magical power swept through his entire body.
"......!"
Lucen jolted awake with a violent start.
"Le-Leon! ......Huh?"
His mouth, which had reflexively cried out, hung open in blank stupidity.
A pure white floor. Black walls stretching out in every direction.
A familiar place.
"......The training room?"
"...Ugh, nngh."
"Ow, my head..."
Around him, Class I cadets were rising in much the same state, clutching their heads.
"No way..."
"Those of you who are awake, step outside!"
Lucen had been trying to deny it — until the instructor's voice from the doorway forced him to accept reality.
"......It ended this anticlimactically?"
"No, what the hell..."
"What just happened??"
Cadets who grasped the situation began pouring out their bewilderment one by one. Most of them had never even sensed the enemy's presence before they blacked out.
"Last place is locked in, damn it..."
"What!? Class A was there?"
"How did they even know— wait."
Looking each other over, the cadets finally noticed something wrong.
"Why are you half-naked?"
"You're one to talk."
"Wait, what the hell?"
They weren't wearing the training uniforms issued before the start. Just sweat-damp underclothes.
"Hey! My bow! My quiver!"
"Huh!? Where are our weapons?!"
"I-Instructor!"
Even some of the weapons they'd brought in were gone. That was not supposed to happen. Anything you entered the field with was supposed to come back with you on elimination. Gear obtained inside the field was another matter — but clothes and weapons, at minimum, should have stayed on their bodies.
...Or so they had believed.
"Instructor! What is going on here!"
At the cadets' flustered questions, the instructor's expression turned peculiar.
"...Ahem. Come outside first. It'll be clearer once you see for yourselves."
"Huh?"
Lucen, who had been sitting there in a daze, suddenly felt a bolt of realization strike him.
Don't tell me the reason we were knocked out was...?!
"Everyone's late..."
Goren muttered with a dissatisfied face.
"They're clearly off doing something else."
Frezia's tone was cold.
Class F and Class C. They had gathered at the border between Zone 1-D and Zone 1-E. A full hour had already passed since the evaluation began, yet the only classes that had assembled at the central zone as agreed were theirs.
Goren clicked his tongue.
"Tch. Look, Frezia. Since it's come to this, how about just our two classes stick together? Instead of waiting here indefinitely."
Frezia considered the proposal briefly, then nodded.
"Mm. That would be better. At this rate we'll fall behind."
"Then first, the remaining Rank 1 zones—"
"Wait."
Frezia raised a hand, cutting him off.
"Look over there."
She narrowed her eyes and pointed toward a stretch of sky.
"......!"
Goren's brows tilted the same way as he followed her gaze.
Whooosh—
An arrow streaking vertically through the air, blazing with fierce green light.
"A signal...?"
That was unmistakably one of Class I's luminous arrows.
"What happened?"
"Class I must have found Class A, no?"
"...Did they just run into them by chance?"
As Goren kept mumbling stupidly, Frezia snapped at him.
"The reason doesn't matter right now. Whatever it is, we should go check. Sitting here accomplishes nothing."
"...Right. Everyone, prepare to move out!"
Goren accepted it quickly and turned to give orders to Class F.
Through a gap in the watchtower's brickwork, a pair of blood-red eyes watched, a faint blue aura coiling over them.
Leon's eyes, mana-enhanced for sharper vision.
"They're coming."
Gazing down from the high ground, he murmured quietly. From this elevated vantage, the black silhouettes racing up from the central zone were easy to pick out.
"Whoa, they're actually coming?"
"Those bastards..."
"I half-expected it, but still..."
A thin undercurrent of anger ran through the cadets' reactions. This was the moment it became certain that the other classes had formed an alliance behind Class A's back.
Those suspicious luminous arrows found in Class I's quivers. They'd fired one into the sky on a hunch — and enemies came running as if they'd been waiting for it?
That sealed it.
Of course, it had been Class A who fired the luminous arrow. They had already stripped Class I of every weapon and scrap of clothing. The reason they could do that was simple: instead of killing them outright, they'd knocked them unconscious and looted them first.
Normally, taking a certain threshold of damage ejected you from the field immediately. But if you killed someone after first removing their clothes and weapons and setting them aside, those items didn't transfer out with them — a loophole in the Tower of Illusions. And that, too, had been Leon's idea.
Fifty... So both Class C and Class F are coming in full.
Leon finished counting the approaching cadets and closed his mouth. Blue Class C markers and yellow Class F markers sat on their chests. This was not a force Class A could casually take head-on. Class C and Class F were competent in their own right — and judging by the gear faintly visible on them, they had already cleaned out Rank 1 zones. The difference equipment made in a fight was never something you could ignore.
A frontal clash offered no guaranteed victory. Even a win would cost them dearly. Standing alone against an alliance of multiple classes, they needed to keep their strength as intact as possible. They couldn't afford to bleed their own numbers this early.
In that case...
What to do?
The enemy held the advantage; their side was at a disadvantage. Then the answer was simple. Flip the balance. Create better conditions for their own side.
Leon's eyes flashed. He gave the cadets a small nod — the signal to proceed as planned.
Thud-thud-thud-thud!
Fifty swordsmen charged rapidly up the slope. An old fortress wall crowned the rise above them.
"It was definitely around here..."
Goren spread his senses, searching hard for any sign of people.
"If we get up there, we'll have a clear view of this whole area."
Frezia pointed at the watchtower.
Then—
"Hey! Over here!"
Suddenly, a cadet appeared atop the watchtower she had indicated, a mask pulled up to his nose. A bow in his right hand, a quiver at his hip, and on his left chest a green rectangular marker.
A Class I cadet.
Goren's face lit up.
"Oh, were you waiting for us?"
"Seems so. Hey, what happened! Did you find Class A?!"
"Yeah! They started running the moment they saw you coming — hurry up!"
The Class I cadet waved them on impatiently. Class C and Class F poured mana into their legs and scrambled to pick up speed. In moments they reached the top of the wall.
"Which way did they— ah, there they are!"
Opposite the direction they'd come from, across a broad plain, several Class A cadets were heading toward a dark stretch of forest, with Class I archers in pursuit behind them.
"Go after them!"
"Understood!"
There was no hesitation. Goren and Frezia set off after them without a second thought. They couldn't let this perfect chance to deal with Class A slip away. Eliminating enemies earned points — and with Class I joining their forces, they could take them down without losses of their own.
This wasn't a battle. It was a hunt. They had every reason to give chase.
Following the black-haired Class I cadet who had already closed up to the rear of the pursuit, the swordsmen shot forward like arrows, falling in behind.
Class A in the lead, Class I behind them, Class C and Class F bringing up the rear.
Just as the foremost Class A cadets neared the forest—
"Th-they're—!"
"They're splitting up!"
Whether to shake the pursuit or not, the Class A cadets broke into three groups and scattered in different directions. The Class I cadets hard on their heels paused for a beat, then divided their own groups and followed. Moments later they vanished into the dense undergrowth, leaving only a pitch-black forest with its jaws wide open.
"Damn, what do we do?"
Goren's eyes went dull again. Frezia snapped at him, exasperated.
"What do you mean, what do we do! We do the same thing! Groups 1, 2, and 3 take the right; Groups 4 and 5 take the center! Goren, divide your people already!"
"R-right! Groups 1 and 2 support the center! The rest come left with me!"
There was a brief snarl of confusion, but Frezia's quick judgment split the Class C–Class F alliance into three groups. They too fanned out in three directions and plunged into the forest.
Tall trees and thick foliage welcomed them as if glad to see them.
Perhaps it was the excitement. Or perhaps it was a lack of real combat experience. Up to that point, they had noticed nothing strange or suspicious — and they had no idea what it meant to divide their forces without proper communication or a plan.
And so, knowing nothing, they simply ran forward.
"......"
Perched in a tree, mask pulled up to his nose, Leon looked down at them.
A quiet smile creased the fabric over his eyes.
"—Gotcha."