Elara stood at the edge of Class B’s camp, watching students reinforce the area that Sapphire had marked with basic warning runes.

Two of them positioned logs wrong.

She corrected them with more force than necessary, then immediately regretted her tone because Darius never needed to shout.

He just gave orders, and people listened.

She tried not to think about Darius.

Or Cole.

Her hands wouldn’t stop moving. Adjusting her belt, checking her water pouch, brushing dirt off her sleeves – nervous habits she’d trained herself out of before the Academy.

Now they were back. Leading a class felt nothing like the practice drills in her private tutoring.

Ronan crossed her peripheral vision, heading toward the supply tent.

Elara’s eyes tracked him without meaning to, irritation and a little bit of envy flickering in her chest.

He’s been reliable.

She hated admitting that.

Ronan was still rude, detached, and absolutely infuriating in every way.

But when she needed an answer during the ambush, he’d given her one.

When she needed someone to stall Irene, he’d told her exactly what to say.

When Class A arrived with Armani’s careful diplomacy, Ronan had seen through their script before she had.

Even a few moments ago, she was having trouble getting a few students to do some tedious tasks for her. They didn’t want to, and Ronan saw she was struggling and gave her advice on the matter. And it had actually worked.

Elara forced her nervous hands still.

The alliance with Class A was holding, at least.

Information sharing, coordinated patrols, warning signals if Class S moved.

It was safe, and it reassured her and class B if anything.

But neither class had found another statue yet, and though she reminded herself it was only the second day, she couldn’t shake the creeping certainty that Class S was ahead.

Class S’s operation against them had been too clean.

"Elara!"

Elara turned sharply. A scout stumbled into the clearing, breathless and pale.

"Report."

The girl gulped air, gesturing vaguely south. "We found an abandoned statue. Down past the ridge south."

Elara’s stomach dropped.

Abandoned.

Students didn’t abandon the statues.

"Abandoned you say?"

"Yes. There were several signs of students having been there, but we didn’t see it claimed."

Elara stood frozen, uncertainty welling her gut.

It wasn’t a good idea to rush blind. But the thought of missing this opportunity was insidious.

Not only that, but this whole thing seemed rather... sloppy.

Before she could issue a single order, Ronan gestured towards her, calling her over.

"Elara, if you haven’t already pieced it together, someone wants us to investigate that statue."

Annoyance. She was not dense enough to miss obvious traps, but Ronan’s tone was contemplative, not condescending.

"I suspect you know the risk," he continued. "But what if they expect us to act like novices?"

Elara’s hands reached toward the belt she wore, gripping the buckle slightly. Ronan spoke her suspicion out loud.

"We make ourselves appear weak," Ronan suggested. "We send a visible group that seems vulnerable – enough for whoever’s watching to think they can overwhelm us – while keeping the real forces hidden."

Her mind raced as he said the words.. Ambushes could turn tables, and while the idea wasn’t anything special, it was good.

"And then," Ronan continued, "once they’re drawn by what appears to be easy prey, we hit them with more force than they anticipated."

Elara hadn’t realized how much she’d leaned on his advice, how seamlessly his plans slid into her considerations.

It wasn’t so much that she couldn’t have thought of a similar strategy; it just sounded so much more... certain coming from his mouth.

"Alright," she agreed, almost too quickly.

Ronan smiled at her appreciatively, and she didn’t like the way his approval made her feel.

· ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

Ronan moved through the trees as quietly as the terrain allowed, hidden among the shadows with the more perceptive members of Class B.

The first thing that came into view was the massive boar statue.

This was more like what he had read in the novel. Statues of animals, insects, etc. Not nude women.

He gave a short nod to the students visibly approaching from the east. Their movements were deliberately loud and clumsy. It was earnest acting. The kind that would bait anyone less observant into believing they were idiots wandering into a trap.

Elara was among them, exuding an air of false confidence.

Her role was crucial. To make them seem overconfident.

In all honesty, their acting wasn’t good, but he didn’t think the organizers of this trap would realize that.

Ronan crouched within the thick foliage and muttered to himself. "There’s traces of them, but not enough for a real fight. Class C and D merged in the novel. Expected them to be a bit more scattered."

And in the novel, they were described as overconfident and clumsy due to their classes merging, and their leaders weren’t described as the brightest either.

"Just how it should be," Elara agreed, her movements amplifying the less-than-savvy persona she projected. "Those idiots left this statue unattended. Now class B will capture this statue!"

Ronan almost groaned at her terrible acting.

They reached the statue, paused with what could almost be mistaken for hesitation, then Ronan caught Elara’s gaze amidst the orchestrated stupidity.

He made a subtle, affirmative gesture towards her.

The node slipped into place, locking with the statue’s base, and for a heartbeat, there was silence in the forest.

Then, as if scripted, a large amount of students emerged from the shadows, both from class C and class D as he had expected.

Their commander, Locke, stepped forward with arrogance, as if he believed everything was going all according to plan.

"Surrender, fools!"

Ronan’s grin threatened to surface, buried beneath the careful mask he maintained within the shadows. They were exactly as he’d imagined—loud and visibly restless, bearing weapons almost as if they doubted their own effectiveness.

"It is an ambush!" Elara observed loudly, the act intensifying. "We have been tricked!" 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

Another class B student also joined in. "Spare us! Show mercy!"

They were having way too much fun with this.

The class B students raised their hands up in mock surrender, and the class C and D students smirked as they approached them. Doing so, however, made their formation scattered, creating countless weaknesses in their defense.

Class C and D yelled out demands, and class B followed with poorly concealed confidence.

Amidst the nonsense, Ronan whispered to Mira, "Watch their movements. Signal the retreat on my mark, if needed."

"I doubt we will need that," Mira said, almost laughing.

"Always good to have a backup plan."

Ronan moved away from Mira, allowing the situation to unfold.

Class C and D students spread out even more, attaching themselves to singular class B students. If there was a time where their formation was the weakest, it was now.

"Now," Ronan whispered, and he flared his mana, causing Elara to do the same, and the rest of class B to do so as well.

Mana signatures flared from the shadows, and class B began their counterattack.