Free Web NovelChapter 50: The right squad
Ivan regrouped with his squad members after dealing with the issue regarding Ferz and the second-year students.
The day was still young and they planned to continue with their usual training routine. freewebnøvel.coɱ
As for the mana cores that Ivan had collected, he handed one each to Lena and the rest. They had won them together, he wasn’t going to keep everything to himself.
During their training, Ivan was observing Lena. He wanted to ask about her relationship with senior Nolan, the other party had claimed to be her older brother.
In the end, Ivan decided not to ask. Lena must have had her reasons for not telling them about senior Nolan, he wasn’t going to force her to speak about her family.
After spending a few hours in the training room, the group came out. They were hungry and wanted to grab something at the cafeteria.
Outside, they found some second-year students waiting for them. They were Karina and the others who had challenged them just earlier today!
Seeing them, Lena immediately stepped to the front with a cold expression on her face.
"What do you want this time, still not going to admit defeat?" She asked. Lucas, Aaron, and Juliet were also glaring at them from behind while Ivan observed quietly from the side.
They noticed that the face of the senior who had fought Ivan had returned to normal, he must have gotten treatment before coming here.
Seeing how hostile Lena was, Jane and her group all had apologetic looks on their faces.
"Calm down, we didn’t come to make trouble." The leader of the group said in a low tone.
"Then what do you want?" Lena questioned strongly.
"We...we came to apologise for what happened earlier." The boy said while bowling his head slightly. The others behind him followed his actions and also bowed their heads.
Everyone except Ivan was stunned by this, Lena was speechless and didn’t react immediately.
"And also to thank you for helping us," The boy continued before Lena could find her words, his eyes fixed on Ivan.
Ivan waved his left hand lazily, indicating that it was nothing.
"What’s going on here? Why are they thanking you, what did you do?" Lena turned to Ivan and asked. Everything was confusing her.
She wasn’t the only one, Juliet and the others were also confused. Did Ivan do something when he left for a few minutes earlier?
"They didn’t mean to make trouble for us, they were following someone else’s instructions," Ivan explained to his group.
There was a moment of silence before a look of realisation appeared on the faces of Lucas and the rest, they figured it out.
These senior students were from ordinary families and must have been sent by others with higher backgrounds to make trouble for them, they didn’t have the chance to refuse.
They had seen many first-year students in similar situations, it wasn’t surprising that senior students were facing the same thing.
"Who was it?" Lena turned and looked at the second-year students.
Hearing her question, all of them lowered their gazes and were unwilling to speak.
"I’m sorry but we can’t tell you that, please understand." The leader of the group said with a sigh. It was one thing that Ivan had helped them escape Senior Nolan’s punishment this time.
They didn’t dare to imagine what would happen to them if they told on senior Nolan and he found out.
Ivan glanced at Lena, he was wondering how she would react if she knew that her elder brother was behind all of this.
Not that he planned to say anything to her about it though.
"If you don’t want to say, forget it. We’re done here, we’ll be leaving now." Lena sighed and said before proceeding to leave the training building, Aaron and the rest followed behind her.
"Please wait!" Before they could walk away, the senior called out from behind them.
The five of them paused and looked back.
"We didn’t get to introduce ourselves before. I’m Kent, this is Gary, Aulus, Jane, and Karina." The senior introduced himself along with the members of his group.
"Okay, nice knowing you. Bye!" Lena spat. Although she understood that these seniors weren’t entirely at fault, they had pissed her off and she couldn’t just forget it because they had apologised.
Juliet, Lucas, and Aaron felt the same way, they didn’t really want to talk with these people.
"Wait, don’t go yet," Kent called out again.
But this time, Lena and the others didn’t listen. They kept walking and left the place, only Ivan stood behind.
There was a brief moment of silence as Ivan stared at Kent and his group.
"What else?" He asked softly.
"How...how did you guys beat us so easily?" Kent asked in a low tone. The entire thing still confused him.
Ivan’s squad was a mix of different abilities and as such, they were not supposed to be able to cooperate well. Not only did the fight end almost instantly, but they had lost to just three people from Ivan’s squad.
Ivan, who they now realised wasn’t weak, didn’t even join in the fight. They wanted to know how it was possible.
Hearing this, a glint flashed in Ivan’s eyes. This was a chance to promote the right way of using different abilities. fɾeewebnoveℓ.co๓
"It’s quite simple, actually. The normal team tactics are just too flawed and patterned. You all are weapon users, your enemies can easily predict what you’re going to do in a fight and how to counter.
But it will be a different case if there were more variations.
Let me ask you. If your squad is facing a mage and a summoner at the same time, what will you do?" Ivan asked.
Kent thought for a moment before replying. He said that they were staying together to defend themselves and try to escape.
"That’s the problem. Now, imagine if it’s an open field with nowhere to escape to. Neither of you would be able to engage either of the enemies because they can keep their distance while attacking you.
Even though you have means of long-range attacks, it can’t compare to that of mages who can deal elemental attacks and can cover large areas. And with the summons still on your neck, swordmen will be forced into being a tank which they obviously aren’t meant for." Ivan explained.
"Then, we should get a paladin? Then we won’t need to worry about blocking attacks, Paladins are best at defending." Gary asked, trying not to sound offensive to Ivan since that was the other party’s ability.
Ivan felt like facepalming. But Kent spoke up before he could say anything.
"No, not a Paladin. We’ll need a mage of our own! Depending on the element the mage has, they can either hold back the summons while we take care of the enemy mage or the other way round."
’Good, at least their leader isn’t dumb.’ Ivan sighed inwardly.
"That means, a squad of mixed abilities is better than the traditional squad formation?" Kent asked while looking at Ivan with a bit of doubt in his eyes.
"Yes, it is," Ivan replied confidently before walking off, leaving the second-year students to their thoughts.
Exiting the training building, Ivan realised that the others were waiting for him.
They had noticed that he had stayed behind and waited for him to come back before going to the cafeteria together.
"What did they want?" Aaron asked after Ivan rejoined them.
"Squad forming," Ivan replied shortly.
"It must have shocked after they lost to us, our squad isn’t like the rest after all," Lucas commented from the side.
"That’s on them, they knew that but still challenged us." Aaron shrugged.
"True. In the past, I would have said a squad like ours would be weak because of the members having different abilities but we actually work very well together." Juliet added with a strange look in her eyes.
When she said this, everyone turned to look at Ivan. They didn’t notice earlier but Ivan was the one who made their squad work well, their seemingly perfect cooperation was thanks to his instructions and plans.
It almost felt like he was used to leading a squad like this, but he was only a first-year student like them.
Ivan obviously noticed their stares but pretended not to. The group quickly arrived at the cafeteria. There were a lot of students here too and several eyes instantly landed on them the moment they stepped into the cafeteria.
Most of the students present had witnessed the fight between Ivan’s squad and Kent’s squad. As well as the one-on-one fight between the leaders of both squads.
That fight had changed the way many of the students looked at Ivan.
He didn’t fight like a Paladin at all! Paladins weren’t supposed to move the way Ivan did during the fight, he had easily overwhelmed his opponent who was supposed to be a senior student.
It was simply unconvincing.
