Book 2 - The Usurper from the Wilds: Chapter 24; An Urge to Concede

The screen turns on as the chapter title plays "Chapter - 24; An Urge to Concede''.

It opens in the Spelldrive stadium as Ruggie runs in where the rest of the Savanaclaw team is waiting as he shouts panting "...Leona, I did it! Did you see the broadcast?"

Leona nods saying with a hint of pride in his voice "Yeah. That was nice work, Ruggie. So long, Malleus. This year, the throne is mine." Ruggie smiles wildly as he says in a slightly mocking way "Long live the king!" before doing his signature laugh.

But the other Savanaclaw students don't seem to pick up on the slightly mocking tone hidden within what Ruggie said as they shouted "Long live the king! Hooray!"

But just then Riddle, Ace, Deuce, Jack, Grim and Yuu step out into the main stadium as Riddle says "I believe we've heard enough."

This surprises the rest of Savanaclaw although most of all Leona and Ruggie.

But the two manage to get it back together rather quickly as Leona says "Well, well, if it isn't the Heartslabyul kids. And is that Jack?"

He then in a half joking manner asks "You transfer to Heartslabyul on us, frosh?" Jack replied "Nah." Before saying "I just don't feel like celebrating the underhanded accomplishments of a bunch of cowards!" as it slowly turned into a yell as pure anger fused in with his voice. This makes Leona snarl and shout "You filthy traitor!" at Jack.

But Riddle brings the attention back to the main issue as he tells the rest of Savanaclaw "You have tarnished a proud Night Raven tradition. As housewarden of Heartslabyul, a dorm focused on orderliness, I cannot possibly overlook this."

But Leona only says to him "Listen, kiddies – save your heroic speeches for someone who cares, all right?" Ruggie following Leona's lead tells them "Honestly, coming into our territory with only a handful of people…" his voice fades off before he shouts "It's like you WANT a beating!"

A random Savanaclaw dorm student asks Leona "You want us to take care of 'em, Boss?" Leona scoffs as he tells the other Savanaclaw students "Sure. Have a little fun with 'em."

As the Savanaclaw students get ready to start a fight with them. But the fight is cut short by Riddle using his signature spell/unique magic as he raises his magical pen at them and shouts "Off With Your Heads!" Causing the magic restricting collars to form on the Savanaclaw students as one of them says "Urk…He's so strong" as they're hit with the spell. Another one who was already hit agrees saying "Man, housewardens are no joke."

Riddle does a triumphant "Hmph." As he states "Nothing but a lot of hot air."

Before turning to his two first year members asking them "Ace, Deuce, are you all right?" Which gets a "Yeah. That was nothin'" from Ace as he brushes some leftover dust off his clothes and Deuce shouting "You bet, sir!"

Seeing this Leona clicks his tongue and scoffs as he states "I knew those chumps'd be no match for Riddle." Ruggie does his signature laugh as he says "Maybe not! But this doesn't change the face that they were too late to save Diasomnia."

As Lilia pops up and says "Oh? That's quite the interesting claim." The tall boy with neon-pastel green hair then states "They seemed right on time to me." Then the silver haired boy agrees stating "Indeed. It's thanks to them that not a single one of Diasomnia House's players got hurt."

This causes Ruggie to shout "What?! HOW?! I saw you get swallowed up by the stampede!"

This then causes Cater to step out now telling them "Oh! About that… So it turns out those were actually duplicates of me, made with my signature spell/unique magic Split Card spell."

That makes Leona's ears flatten as he asks "What?"

Cater continues to go off saying "I must admit, I really dig those Diasomnia House outfits. They're so extra! I'll DM you some of my selfies later." as he finishes with a wink.

This causes Lilia to say to Cater "Is that right? If I knew you were such a fan, I'd have gladly loaned you mine." Cater tells Lilia slightly embarrassed "Such a sweetheart! Though I think yours would be a little small for me."

But Leona then asks, exasperated by this sudden conversation "All right, can we get to the point?"

This makes Lilia turn back to Leona explaining to him "Riddle told us everything. So we had him put on that little charade for us."

Ruggie asks horrified already "So, then… Malleus?"

This causes the tall boy with neon-pastel green to shout "Oh, he's in tip-top shape, of course!" Before telling them "He's been clearing up the chaos, using his magic to guide all the people safely back to the coliseum. You can thank him later!" Shouting the last sentence with emphasis.

Ruggie shouts, stuttering it out "H-how could this happen?!"

Leona then slumps down as scoffs and now says "...Tch. Whatever. I don't care anymore."

Ruggie is shocked by this sudden change as he asks Leona "What?" Leona does a half shrug as he tells him "I'm done. It's over."

Ruggie shouts at him "Boss, what are you saying?!" Leona says "Are you payin' attention? If Malleus is able to take the field then we got no chance of winning. There's no point in even trying. I'm out."

Ruggie shouts "Y-you can't just…!" Before trying to appease to logic telling or in a way almost begging him "Malleus might still be in the game, but we took out all the other dorms' best players, right? But without you on the field, I don't even know if we'd have a shot at the top three!" But Leona still has his back turned which makes Ruggie shout at him "You're just going to abandon our dream?!"

Leona turns around as he simply states "For all the talk about "the world watching," this is still just school-kids playin' a game. All you wide-eyed tenderfoots talkin' about your dreams…" his voice trails off as he fights to hold in a laugh as he tells them with no sympathy "The whole thing amused me, so I threw you a bone. That's all this was."

Ruggie is hurt as he asks "What do you mean? What happened to working together to "turn the world upside down"?"

Leona puts a hand to his head as he asks "Are you seriously still goin' on about that? All right, fine. You wanna hear the truth?"

His face then morphs into one with hatred filling it as he tells Ruggie "You're a hyena who grew up in a dump, and I'm a second born prince who won't ever be king. And there is NO turning that around!"

Ruggie is absolutely heartbroken as he shouts at Leona "What?! You gotta be kidding me! What is this?! You can't just quit after we've come this far!" The Savanaclaw students are also hurt as one of them shouts "You can't do this to us, Boss!" Another one shouts, agreeing "You're gonna play, even if we gotta drag you out there kicking and screaming!"

But Leona puts a hand back to his head as he says to himself "Bah, I'm sick of this nonsense." As he looks at the Savanaclaw students and shouts at them "Shut UP, you nobodies!"

Just then Yuu sees the yellow shadowy flat background as three more drops fall and join the puddle making it much bigger. Just as it zooms out with Yuu's face showing even more worry.

The screen fades to black as "To be continued" plays before it fully turns off.