Make It Rain

Devin gripped his sword, kicking forward and rotating his body, dragging Franco in the process.

The man was pushed away on his shoes from the force but his posture was untouched. "Good, good."

"Everyone, Formation Alpha!"

Squad Lewis nodded and regrouped. Squad Alpha was formulated against several enemies. Since now that they have five, it was their best bet.

Their plan was to corner their enemies with their numbers, attacking simultaneously from all the directions, not giving them time to fight back.

"Looks nice," Maltoise complemented when the students started to dash towards their opponents.

Stephanie raised her hand to twirl her weapon when it was shot before she could attack. "I forgot about Adonis."

"I'll take care of him," Maltoise said and leaped to look for the sniper but was met with a strong slash of a zweihander. "What?"

Maltoise landed on his back with a thud while Morris had already shifted his attention to Andrei. Maltoise wasn't given a chance to gather himself when Margaux was already hacking her sword for him.

Their formation had three roles to play. Main, rest, and switch.

Since there are five enemies, five would initially become the main opponent, but only after a minuscule of time. The three reserves would switch with three main attackers while the two remaining main would switch places.

Adonis also had an important role to play. He was the one who ensures that their switch would go smoothly. There is a split second for two members to switch and an enemy might use it to counter.

It took them a lot if figuring out the timing and the order of the formation. They needed to be synchronized as much as they can for it to work.

The main should not delay an attack so the flow will continue. This flow ensures that the enemy's attack will be controlled since they'd be facing different forms of attack simultaneously.

Squad Lewis's teamwork was getting good until a body fell from the tree. Andrew leaped down and smirked at Devin.

Along with their formation, Squad Lewis had also assigned a buddy X3 system. Each member will look after two members if they're knocked out. The buddy will inform if one of their buddies was taken out. This way, the main attackers would not wait for a missing replacement.

Kagura was the buddy of Adonis and she yelled at everyone.

"Adonis had been knocked out!" Kagura informed. "Rain on the Parade!"

"Rain, now!" Devin yelled.

Rain nodded and focused his energy on his newfound ability, to manipulate the senses of his enemy. That's why Margaux thought of the rain when they fought. He positioned himself away from the commotion and targeted their enemies.

This was his undeveloped Ark. It was still in the very early stages of development since he only found out about his ability not long ago.

"A late-blooming Sanctity?" Franco smirked. "Interesting."

"Make It Rain!"

Through the vision of their foes, the forest was covered with rain. Their vision and hearing had been manipulated. Even their sense of touch had been tweaked to cover up what was happening around them.

Rodney helped Yuri recover Adonis before they retreated to regroup. Fighting with the adults was more draining than they anticipated. Their stamina was still not enough.

"Why did you let them escape?" Stephanie asked. "You could've caught the Ark user without breaking a sweat."

Franco grinned, "If we don't let them hold this battle for long, where's the fun in that?"

"You're still thinking about having fun, Franco?" Maltoise grinned.

"That's part of it," Franco replied and lit a cigarette. He inhaled deeply before adding, "There are more battles that they have to win in the future. Even harsher than the petty competition at the Summit."

"11 & 12, do you think they're read?" Franco asked.

Andrei sighed and looked at the path the younger students too. He shook his head, "I don't think they're there yet. But a bit more training should help."

"What they need is more than training," Stephanie said. "Let's go back to camp for now."

–

"We're still too weak," Kagura clenched her jaw and punched a tree. "I thought we were close."

A ringing of the phone interrupted their grieving of defeat. Devin answered his phone and placed it on loudspeaker.

"The odds have changed," Franco informed. "You must train harder now more than ever. The permission to leave the forest is denied until you beat us."

"What about the Summit?" Devin asked worriedly.

"If you cannot beat us, then joining the Summit will be useless. You will never win."

"That's too harsh–"

"Oceania updated their rankings," Franco cut Devin off. "They now have 5 Exorcist-level students instead of 3, UK earned their third, Africa got their second and North America is cultivating their third."

"You cannot rely on Morris. He may have kept his status but he's still a lot weaker now than he used to be. So, try to beat us. Because if you do, you'll never be beaten ever again."

Franco hung up, leaving the students speechless.

"Was that supposed to be motivational?" Kagura scoffed.

"I think so," Devin whispered.

There was silence for a few seconds before Devin let out a gruff.

"Let's reevaluate our plan," Devin said. "We have followed the steps, the timing, but what's missing?"

"Trust," Morris said.

Everyone looked at him, but he kept a stoic face. "Every time we switch, you hesitate. As if you're not sure if you could trust your ally to handle your previous enemy. This will mess up our synchronization."

"But sometimes, it takes time to fight, especially if the other side is quick on their feet like Franco," Margaux argued.

"That's why we shouldn't let them," Morris said. "The point of this formation was to switch and switch and make it harder for the enemy to keep up with the fighting style, right? If we attack stealth now then switch to strength, how can our enemies calculate everything? That's our goal."

"That's right," Devin agreed. "Morris is right. We're still hesitating. But why? Why are we underestimating our friends' powers?

"Let's do this right. Have faith in each of us, okay?" Morris raised his sword and the others followed. "Squad Lewis!"

While they were discussing their new plan, the opposing team had already surrounded them. Franco held out his hand to stop the others from engaging as he waited what the students are going to do next.

Franco was about to lower his hand when all of the students disappeared.

"What?" Stephanie gasped. They leaped down towards the direction where the kids were right now when Maltoise was shot in the leg from point-blank.

"What in the..."

"Hiya!" Morris backed up immediately. He swung his sword sideways to knock Maltoise out.

"Demolition–"

A sharp ping rang in their ears and excruciating pain in the head came with it.

"Treasure Bounty!"

Maltoise's cutlass twirled around the zweihander before he pulled his hand along with the long sword. He threw the weapon towards an unsuspecting Margaux, but a pair of iron gloves caught it before it could reach her.

Margaux yelled after seeing Rain holding the body of the blade while the tip was near her arm.

"Professor Maltoise, you could've killed me!" Margaux roared.

"Formation broken!" Morris yelled. "Rain, now!"

"Again?" Morris scrunched his face before using his Ark once more.

Once again, Squad Lewis fell back in defeat. Their opponents could only wait for Rain's Ark to deactivate.

"Do you think they'll be ready at this point?" Stephanie asked with a sigh.

"I don't know," was all Franco's response before he retreated to camp, waiting for the students to get ready.

When they got there, Xia was talking to Schneider while they replayed the fight that ensued not long ago. The forest was filled with cameras that could catch scenes from different angles.

"They had the element of surprise but still lacked perception," Schneider commented.

"Good observation," Xia said. "Until they evaluate how strong each of their opponents is, they could not finish this task."

"They need more experience," Andrew said that made Franco nod.

"Is that why we keep on letting them escape?" Andrei asked that made Franco nod again. "So they could evaluate their faults every time?"

Schneider pursed his lips and scrunched his face. "Wouldn't that teach them to cower in front of strong enemies?"

"No," Franco answered. "It's to teach them to know when there's a battle that they cannot win. Acknowledging and accepting that your opponent is stronger than you are not cowardice. In fact, it is the opposite of that. It is bravery. It takes one brave soul to accept that he is beneath someone else."

"Unless you're deeply masochist or something," Schneider remarked that earned him a smack from Stephanie.

"You're right, Franco," Stephanie said. "But how will they succeed?"

"What I said was just the first step to win," Franco said and smirked.

"The second one is working to surpass the gap between you and your enemy."

Meanwhile, at the base, Devin was also discussing with his teammates. Franco told him about the three steps long ago and he was telling it to his teammates.

Sofia asked, "And the third?"

"The third step is to beat the enemy with all you've got."