As he heard Rae's departing words, Arthur felt a chill down his spine. However, he got rid of one of the obstacles that would hinder him from completing his plan.
"S-sir, I don't think I can keep it for long." Beran stuttered with a pale face.
"Oh, okay. You can stop. Why are you calling me sir?" Arthur watched as the illusion that coated the staff wore off.
"I… I…" Beran kept trailing as he panicked. Arthur could almost see steam rising from his head. He sighed and patted the young man on the shoulder.
"Have a bit more confidence, you have a useful ability."
"But it's not powerful," Beran whispered.
"Yeah, it's not powerful, usually." Arthur took the object from Beran's hands and weighed it down. "But it was powerful today. This will determine whether we'll win or not." Arthur said with a grin as he looked at the silver flag in his hand.
"Are you sure Alice is okay with this?" Moli asked with worry.
"Well, she thinks that Jonah has the flag. She thought it was a good idea to change the flag's location. It's a shame that we can't place it in our storage artifacts."
"This feels like cheating…" Beran mumbled, making Arthur sigh.
"I don't think it's cheating, but it certainly feels like a loophole in the rules. They said we should prevent the flag from being stolen, not the fortress from being invaded. This is a class to teach us about teamwork, not a competition of strength." They nodded in agreement at his words.
"What about the nobles from earlier?" Moli asked.
"Well," Arthur coughed. "May their souls rest in peace. Let's go and meet the others. Doli should be constructing our new fortress at the moment."
The three then began sprinting across the maze and Arthur had to slow down for the two to keep up. Luckily, they didn't meet anyone on the way and they managed to make it to the location they agreed on.
In the far corner of the maze was a space big enough to act as a sub-fortress. They had chosen this location and sent the other thirteen people there to construct some defenses.
"Moli! You're finally here. We need to block these paths. Construct a wall here too so that they can't attack at the same time."
"Alexie, how did it go?" Jonah stopped what he was doing and came toward them. Arthur grinned and gave him a big thumbs up. With a laugh, Jonah threw his arms around Beran and Arthur. "Hahaha, they'll never see it coming."
"Saying it like this sounds like a bad omen." Arthur smiled. "We still have a lot to do. Have you contacted Alice?"
"Yes, she's luring the northern invasion to the fortress as planned."
"Then we have to help them out," Arthur said as he looked at the rest. "I'll take the attackers with me. Contact me if something comes up."
"Maybe we should have told those nobles about the plan to lure the enemy into the fortress." Jonah ruffled through his hair. "They'll hate us a lot."
"Jonah, they hate you already. This will teach them a lesson. Plus, we still need bait. We can't have an empty fortress."
"Truly, diabolic." Jonah sighed. "Doli and Moli will be staying here. Take whoever you need with you. I'll be staying behind as well." Jonah said with a helpless expression.
"Hey," Arthur nudged him. "Your strength doesn't lie in attack power or defense, but deception. Change your mindset. Work smart instead of working hard."
Jonah paused for a second as he thought of something and nodded. His face then brightened as he thought of something.
"I think we can make guarantee our win."
Arthur looked at him with a smile as Jonah explained his plan. He was glad that Jonah began to think of ways to use his ability rather than simply trying to overpower the problem.
As Jonah constructed a plan of his own, Arthur took five students with him with Beran included. The thin young man looked as anxious as he was earlier.
"W-why did you ask me to come along?" Beran asked as he rubbed his wrist. Arthur smiled and gathered the five students around him.
"We need you again, Beran. Your illusions might be weak because they need an object to work on, but they're precisely strong because of this. Change the color of our uniforms to dark blue, that should be easy, right?"
"You mean…" A guy that was standing beside Arthur, whose eyebrows made a 45 angle with his eyes, looked at Arthur with confusion. "You want us to infiltrate the enemy?"
"Exactly." Arthur smiled. "Amid the confusion, it'll be our chance to approach the enemy's leader without being attacked. We'll eliminate him this way."
"Even if we can, why do you need five of us?" Another dark-skin student asked.
"To spread false information. We'll use this to cause chaos, allowing us to strike." Arthur then began assigning roles. "We'll be in the fortress, so each of you will shout that enemy reinforcements are coming from a different direction. As for Beran, he'll stay with me as we head toward the enemy's leader."
"Is this your idea of Jonah's?" The eyebrows guy asked.
"Uh, it's Jonah's idea. Don't worry about it and just follow the orders." The group agreed hesitantly and Beran began using his ability to turn their uniforms into dark blue color.
After they were done, they began sprinting toward the direction of the southern wall. They could hear the sound of battle going on and Arthur was grateful for the sacrifice of those nobles.
'We'll make sure to remember you.'
As they neared the southern wall, Arthur's group encountered another group of students coming from the western direction, wearing dark blue uniforms. They looked at each other warily and the eyebrows guy hurried to explain.
"Arlo has asked us to check for any reinforcements coming from the east. Miss Rae seems to have abandoned her position earlier." This was told to him by Arthur earlier. As for Arthur himself, he knew his face would be known after last night's event so he hid in the back of the group.
"What?" The man was shocked. "We were sent by Joseph to inform Arlo that reinforcements have arrived from the west. What about your side?"
"There's no one on this side yet, it seems the enemy didn't think of attacking from the east."
"Let's go together." The leader of the other group nodded his head.
The two groups joined together and headed toward the southern wall. The other group led them through a separate path that was secured and rejoined with the main force.
As they ran through the maze, Arthur asked Ruki to give him a briefing of the situation using her shadows. She came back with a report soon after.
Four paths led to the southern walls of the fortress. Eight in total, but four of them were a dead end. Currently, two of those paths were taken by the Nightfall class. As for the other two, one of them was the one that Rae had abandoned and it was filled with the daybreak team.
As for the last one, it was the one guarded by Joseph. However, the reason that reinforcement hasn't arrived yet was that they wanted him to be alone.
The Nightfall dorm might have thought that they wouldn't focus three-thirds of their forces on one side, but that was exactly their plan. The reason for that was simple.
There was no flag, to begin with. The fortress's central plaza was empty; that's what the Nightfall team is going to find. This was all due to Arthur's plan of fooling Rae into thinking he had tricked her.
This way, he had smuggled the flag as Jonah and the others used the pathway left by Rae to pick another place for their fortress. They traveled slow enough for Rae to notice and come after them.
When they stepped near the southern wall, they heard the sounds of battle-like bells. The air whistled as flames burned and abilities were used. The shouts of Arlo giving out commands transfigured any other voices as the battlefield was brimming with chaos.
"Split in two and attack them! They have been using a lot of mana, they can't resist for long!"
Arthur was amazed when he heard that the wall hasn't been breached yet. It seems that the nobles were capable enough to hold their ground, as long as they put their hearts into it.
"Sir, Joseph says the path is clear. No reinforcements are coming from the west side." The man that led Arthur's group reported.
"Good, what about Rae? Have you heard from her?" Arlo asked and the man looked at the guy with the eyebrows. However, he began stuttering in front of Arlo.
"Miss Rae isn't on the eastern side, but no reinforcements are coming from there." Arthur stepped up with his head down. Arlo looked at him silently.
"What's your name?" Arlo asked with suspicions clearly shown on his face.