The Scumbag's Guide To Heroism

Chapter 257: 257 | The Delivery Boy is On Deck

The observation deck erupted with noise. Camille clapped her hands once like a judge announcing a verdict. Felicity grabbed my arm and squeezed with excitement she couldn’t contain. Nyx showed Maribelle something on her phone screen and Maribelle’s golden eyes widened with appreciation. Rina held her sheep mug against her chest and her tail had uncurled from its defensive position for the first time since we sat down, swishing gently with genuine engagement.

Radiant let the celebration settle before raising one hand. The room went quiet with the speed that only happened when the person asking for silence could bench press a battleship.

"WHO WAS THE MOST VALUABLE PLAYER OF THAT MATCH?"

The question hung in the air. Students looked at each other.

"Caden," Camille said immediately. "He controlled the tempo of the entire engagement. Invisible for the first four minutes, which forced the Hero team to operate without information about half the opposition. His capture of Eden removed the ranged threat, and his final capture of Theo ended the match. The Villain team won because Caden made the Hero team fight on terms they didn’t choose."

"Marco," Felicity countered. "Without Marco drawing fire and feeding Theo’s Kinetic Bank, Caden wouldn’t have had the time or space to set up either capture. Marco made himself the obvious threat so Caden could be the invisible one. That’s partnership."

Theo’s voice came through the speakers from inside the building. "Caden. Absolutely Caden. I didn’t even know he was there until his hand was on my wrist. That’s the scariest thing that’s happened to me since my sister found my browser history."

Radiant’s smile stretched wider. "GOOD OBSERVATIONS! The answer is ALL of them are correct! Caden’s timing won the match! Marco’s positioning made it possible! But the lesson here is BIGGER than any individual! A Hero team that splits up and attacks without coordination gives the advantage to ANY opponent! Eden charged alone! Theo followed instead of leading! The Hero team lost this match before the first punch landed because they stopped communicating!"

He pointed at the monitor showing the hostage’s two orange sensors.

"AND! Theo’s wall breach nearly cost both teams the exercise! POWER without CONTROL is LIABILITY! Remember THAT!"

The second match loaded fast. H-2 versus V-2. I won’t pretend I caught every detail because the second fight was faster and uglier than the first. Rook and Lyra took the Villain side, which was a nightmare combination that even Percy admitted was statistically unfair. Rook couldn’t be hidden because his Branded physique filled every doorway he stood in, but Lyra could. She liquified into her pink slime state and spread herself across the floor of the hostage room like a living trap. Hiro and Finn had the Hero side, with Finn’s invisible filaments creating a web across the ground-floor corridors and Hiro’s Corona beam providing ranged firepower that made the hallways glow gold.

The fight lasted nine minutes. Finn threaded the entire first floor with near-invisible filaments that would have immobilized anyone who walked through them, but Lyra flowed through the gaps between the threads like water through a net, her slime state making conventional traps useless. Rook simply walked through the filaments, his Branded durability shrugging off the threads as they snapped against his reinforced skin.

Hiro fired a Corona beam down the second-floor hallway that was, admittedly, gorgeous. The golden-orange light illuminated the entire corridor like a sunrise and hit Rook square in the chest. Rook slid back three feet, looked down at the scorch mark on his costume, and kept walking. Hiro’s expression on the monitor was the face of someone realizing their biggest attack had accomplished nothing beyond making their opponent slightly warmer.

Lyra captured Finn by reforming around his ankle while he focused on threading the stairwell. The pink slime solidified into a grip that pulled him off balance and allowed Rook to close the distance and apply capture tape before Finn’s filaments could adjust. Hiro lasted another four minutes through sheer mobility and the fact that his beam could keep Rook at distance, but Lyra flowed through a ceiling vent and reformed directly behind him while he was focused on the hallway ahead.

V-2 won. The hostage sensors stayed green.

"MVP?" Radiant asked the room.

"Lyra," I said.

Every head turned toward me. I hadn’t spoken since the matches started.

"She neutralized two separate opponents through unconventional approach vectors. Finn’s filaments should have been the hard counter to a close-range Villain team, but Lyra’s Dissolution made the counter irrelevant. She adapted her form to the environment instead of trying to fight through it. Rook was the wall that forced the Hero team to commit, but Lyra was the one who closed the door behind them."

The observation deck was quiet for a beat. Then Radiant’s laughter filled the room.

"EXCELLENT ANALYSIS, young Belmont! Lyra Osei turned her environment into an extension of her Aspect rather than fighting against the architecture! THAT is what we mean when we talk about non-traditional combat application!"

Lyra’s voice came through the speakers, flat and characteristically deadpan. "Thank you. I also want to note that Hiro’s beam was very pretty. Not tactically effective against Rook, but aesthetically impressive. I wanted to mention both things."

Hiro’s groan carried through the audio feed.

Radiant checked his tablet. His blue eyes swept across the observation deck and landed on me with the weight of someone who remembered my parents and saw their ghost in the amber of my eyes.

"Match three! H-3 versus V-3! Belmont! Mendoza! You’re up!"

Percy’s pen stopped moving.

I stood from the bench. The charcoal and amber of my costume caught the monitor light and the half-mask covered the lower half of my face, leaving only my eyes visible above the matte black fabric.

Across the observation deck, Camille Ortega rose from her seat with her Rivet constructs already flickering orange at her fingertips. Petra Lang stood beside her, emerald eyes locked on mine with the cold recognition of someone who had just realized the delivery boy was about to walk onto a battlefield.

"Time to go," I said to Percy.