Mahon and Zac were discussing before Yordar’s lesson started. They already had put their challenge into the duel box and at the end of the lesson, Yordar would read aloud the different duels for the day. If there were any, they would be taken care of immediately.

“First Red, Last Red... It’s a simple twist of word, but you jump up ten ranks!”

Mahon shrugged at Zac's exclamation.

“You were a real monster… No wonder you know a lot about strategy and training! And you got convoked by Rym because of how bad your strategy results were! Hahahaha... A Last Red commander with bad strategy results got scolded! Hahahaha!”

Zac was holding his stomach, laughing, as he enumerated the numerous failures of Mahon in Ratho. Mahon was smiling at his side, a sour taste in his mouth. Even he had thought he would have an easier time in Ratho, given his records in Nightmare.

Things were never as easy as one thought. But this time Mahon felt ready. With Elmer's personal training, he had advanced by leaps and bounds in strategy. He was not back to his former Nightmare level, but at least he could beat a First White without too much worry.

It was frustrating that a mere few tricks would help him so much. If you didn’t know them beforehand, you would never find out. Even Elmer had struggled for years to find the cheats for passing knowledge from one world to another. But now that he had found them, one could learn it very quickly. Someone at Mahon’s level, at least.

“And that time when we were selecting our specialized lesson, you said to me you already had some experience with weapons! A Last Red Nightmare commander! Some experience with weapons! Hahahaha!”

Zac’s happiness was very communicative and Mahon couldn’t help but laugh with his friend. The fun was short, however, and when the lesson started, they were back into focus mode. They would duel at the end of the lesson, after all.

Yordar talked about an umpteenth strategy and although Mahon knew every single detail of it, he practiced his ability to transport the situation from Ratho to Nightmare and vice versa, as Elmer had taught him. He also knew Yordar subtly placed some First Black or Last Green stuff hidden in the middle of his pitch for sufficiently advanced people to catch. For now, it was mostly aimed at Mahon, but in the future it would be spotted by elite students as well.

As the lesson reached its end, Yordar approached the duel box and opened it. Nowadays, duels occurred at least twice a week and that meant some days there were none. Usually, the students paid close attention to the duel announcement and if a high enough challenge was announced, they would stay to watch. Today, however, most of them left after hearing of the sole challenge of the day.

“First Red Mahon and First Red Zac challenge First White Laiex and First White Hagas in a duo duel.”

The challenged duo exchanged a simple look before answering.

“We agree to the duo challenge!”

In their corner of the class, Mahon and Zac sighed in relief. Most of the gamble was whether their opponent would accept the duo challenge or not. If they didn’t, they would have to do two separate duels and there was a high chance Mahon would lose his own as he needed Zac’s strength to fight a First White.

That’s why they had specifically targeted Laiex and Hagas. They were sister and brother and among the last First White. Laiex was stronger at strategy while Hagas had an impressive stature. They were much similar to Mahon and Zac and so they had guessed they would accept the duo challenge for the same reason Mahon and Zac wanted one. They were better together.

They stood up and joined Yordar, Laiex and Hagas for the strategy duel. As planned, Mahon was challenging Laiex and Zac had to beat Hagas. Yordar positioned himself in the middle of the two battles.

“Since it’s only two, I can deal with your two duels at the same time. Mahon, please start.”

“Random selection.”

Yordar acquiesced and from an opaque box, he drew a scenario at random and gave it to Mahon and Laiex.

“Scenario 23, fortress battle. Which side do you choose?”

Mahon knew all the scenarios they could choose by heart, and neither he nor Laiex needed to dig into the documents to prepare.

“I choose the attacking side.”

“Good. Laiex you’ve got the defensive side then. Please prepare your armies while I take care of the other duel.”

From the endless shelves, they picked the units they needed for the fight and they placed them on the map as the initial situation described. The scenario was a bit odd among the other scenarios because, at first look, it seemed to favor one side. The armies were of the same size, but the defenders were inside an impregnable fortress.

The battle seemed lost, but Yordar had shown them how the fortress could be exploited against the defenders. The truth was that both armies were too short to defend such a stronghold and the place was full of holes impossible to fill. If the defenders spread his army around, the fortress became too thin to defend and if they chose to only defend one part, then the opposing army could attack elsewhere.

So the scenario was actually pretty close and depended on the commanders' choices and reactions. For Mahon to win, he needed to seize control of the fortress. It was symbolized by a tower with a flag in the middle of the stronghold and whoever held that position for five rounds was declared the winner.

But it was irrelevant in that scenario due to the fighting conditions. Yordar’s own explanation of the scenario implied to place the attacking units in a subtle way that forced the defenders to hold its ground inside the stronghold while leaving the walls defenseless. That situation resulted in the two armies fighting each other on equal terms in the center, the stronghold completely ignored. Whoever won that standard fight won the scenario and thus, the flagged tower was ignored.

Soon, Yordar announced the beginning of the duel and Mahon started to write down his first orders. From the initial positioning, his troops were all gathered at the North of the fortress while the defenders’ own units were scattered among the whole length of the fortress walls. The first steps consisted of scattering his gathered troops for the attacker and gathering his scattered troops for the defender in order to prepare for the melee fight inside the fortress.

Mahon passed his first three orders and watched as Yordar opened the envelopes and read the opening moves.

“Attacking troops, everyone moves forward at full speed.”

Yordar threw him a slightly surprised look, whereas Laiex shook her head in disappointment. Yordar moved the units and then proceeded to Laiex’s order. She had followed the standard move and had started to gather her troops in the center. Yordar then proceeded to Zac and Hagas duel while Mahon concentrated on his own battle. He had a timing he should not miss and then everything would be done.

For the next rounds, his troops still moved forward and Laiex adapted her own strategy to meet him. Instead of gathering her units in the flat center, she put her men on the wall facing North. The window had been short for her to position her army in time, but she had reacted swiftly after seeing Mahon’s mad rush forward. The last of her units were still rushing to their defensive section as Mahon’s army arrived in front of the wall.

But Mahon didn’t attack first and politely waited for all her army to gather on the wall in front of him. When Yordar read that order, he hardly restrained a chuckle while Laiex frowned. She knew Mahon had something up his sleeve because there was no way he could win a frontal fight when all her units were standing behind the reinforced wall. She started to overthink every possibility and Mahon observed with a smile how she paced as the clock punctuating each round ticked.

He waited another round and the raging look she threw him told everything about how desperate she was. Mahon wrote a simple word on his paper and passed his envelope to Yordar unhurriedly, whereas Laiex used the full time of each round to think before giving back her own paper.

Mahon watched as her units rearranged themselves at the top of the wall in anticipation of moves he didn’t make. After a full fifteen minutes of this mess, she managed to calm herself and came to the logical conclusion that, if they both waited, then she was winning. If at the end of a hundred rounds he had not destroyed her army, then she would have won.

At the moment she issued for the first time for her army to rest, Mahon sent two units ahead. One rushed along the wall towards the east and the other towards the west. In response, Laiex entered another overthinking period until she sent her own units forward to match up with Mahon units.

The next round Mahon’s units simply came back to their initial position while Laiex defense was swarming with movements to counter his next possible actions. But Mahon did nothing for a few rounds and waited. Once again, at the moment Laiex started to calm down, he went all out.

He sent four units along the wall. Two east and two west. The next round two came back, but Mahon sent two others. A few rounds later, he even moved one of them backward, away from the fight. Like that, a strange battle of mirroring started. Each time Mahon sent a unit, Laiex tried to match with one. But every time she had to wait three rounds before her order was issued and the situation rapidly degenerated on her side.

On Mahon’s side, however, his units never went far and hastily came back a few rounds after their departure. The rounds started to pile up and Laiex never relaxed. Each round she tried to anticipate Mahon’s move, whereas he wrote whatever went through his mind in a few seconds and held his envelope to Yordar.

Then he stayed immobile, watching her with predatory eyes while she glared back at him with anger. Sometimes he flashed her a kind smile and that stimulated her even further as she hurriedly observed the map, Mahon’s envelope and her own units. She was counting and furiously pacing in front of Mahon while issuing her order at the last seconds of the round.

At some point, Yordar announced that Zac had won his own duel against Hagas and they went to sit nearby to watch their match, further increasing the pressure on Laiex. When the round ninety arrived, however, Laiex managed to calm down. There were too few rounds for Mahon to even dream of killing the army in front of him.

“Stupid bastard. You wasted too much time trying to mess with my organization, but I’m still standing in your way.”

Mahon threw her a questioning look and she spat angrily. “There is no way you can pierce that army now!”

Mahon perfectly agreed with her and so he smiled at her to show his support. Somehow, that pissed her even more. In the next round, Mahon’s army charged forwards, and the fight that had been pointlessly delayed finally started. It was a massacre.

Under four rounds, most of Mahon’s army got slaughtered trying to climb the walls, whereas Laiex was defending her position with tooth and nail. When the last man in Mahon’s army fell, Yordar announced the results under Laiex's proud smile.

“Mahon has won the round. You can proceed to the fighting duel.”

“Hahaha, stupid commoner, at least learn to… what?!” She threw an incredulous look at Yordar and the professor explained.

“An attacking unit held the flagged tower for more than five rounds and thus they took control of the fortress while all your warriors were defending the wall. You lost.”

“But... But… I killed all his men! I can take back that tower in an instant! I destroyed all his army!”

“I totally agree with you. But the rules of the scenario are set. You lost the flag for more than five rounds, thus you lost.”

“Aghhhh, fuuuckkkkkk!!” Laiex swore while punching the ground with anger as she unwinded all the stress from the long test.

Mahon smiled at Yordar. “It was fun, but you should rewrite the rules. It was not really strategic.”

Yordar chuckled as he shook his head. “And here I thought Elmer was teaching you real stuff…”