9.4 Old ways

Games didn't exist in the demon realm. Any feud will only cease with either you or your opponent ending up dead. There were no second chances. Tricking the enemy, using cheap tactics, one had to do everything possible to stay alive. Humans have it easy. Puny games like these aren't a threat to a demon like me who had survived decades in the hostile environment of the demon realm.

Rahul and Abed stood flabbergasted in front of me. Even though I would like to avoid talking about my strategy and revealing that I didn't win rightfully. I don't think Rahul would let me be after seeing me defeat Reyana. So I decided to let them in on how I defeated the girl who overpowered the prodigy.

"Even though I was the one who challenged her, the probability of me defeating her was close to nil, that is by following the rules. Fair play was out of option, so I decided to bluff."

"You bluffed? But didn't you get the answers right? How is that bluffing?" Rahul asked.

"I noticed that she had too much pride in her speed and hard work. So I bluffed to break that pride and make it her weakness." The more work one puts into something the more pride one develops. So I used her pride in the immense hard work she put in against her.

"How did bluffing against her pride help you solve the questions? I don't understand?" Looks like I would have to explain everything or he won't let me breathe.

"Reyana had studied and solved questions a million more times than me. Even if I knew how to solve the question, I stood no chance against her godly speed. The first step towards defeating her was to slow her down.

The first two questions were just a means to put up a false persona that I am way better and faster than her. I had an idea about the first zoology question, but to prepare for the rest of the quiz I had to sacrifice a point."

"You gave up on a point you could have scored!?" Rahul exclaimed.

"It was a rational move. Similar to the sacrifice of a pawn to trap the queen." In wars, we had to sacrifice a few of our soldiers to let the enemy lower their guard so that in turn we could save more lives and win the war.

"Chess strategy in a quiz?" Rahul scratched his head as he seemed to struggle to comprehend the metaphor I used.

"Didn't you tap in the second question? You lost because you forgot about the rule, right?" Abed asked.

"There is no way I could have solved a physics question that fast. If I could, I wouldn't have resorted to bluff. I knew the rule so I used it to tap before her and avoided the need to answer."

Both of these losses were merely preparations for the third question. In the beginning, I had decided to give away only the first question but after seeing that the second question was a physics problem I decided to take things further. Of course, if I had confidence in solving any of these questions I would have gone against the plan and took a shot at scoring a point. But in the end, things turned out to work in my favour.

"The third question was where she had started to fear me. The easy electrochemical chemistry question was only a matter of speed. I made sure to intimidate her before the start of the question. She had begun to panic which made her do simple calculation mistakes and slow her speed. Even the small speck of doubt that she might have had, was probably gone by this point."

There was one more factor that seemed to have played a major role in my victory but I still don't know how it is functional with this mana less human body.

"The 4th question was a close call. As soon as I heard the botany question I knew that I wasn't sure about the answer but wasting even a second was a risk and all the momentum and pressure I had built up till now will go to waste. So without thinking I tapped instantly.

Time was ticking and everyone's eyes were on me. I knew that if I didn't answer immediately I would be disqualified. I thought this was as far as I could go but then I saw Reyana tapping her feet restlessly on the floor, panicking and complaining to the Qmaster. I thought if I could get this question right, I could win. So I decided to choose the one option I had ever heard of and it turned out to be right."

"So you got lucky?" Rahul asked with suspicious eyes.

"You could say luck was a contributing factor in my victory." I wouldn't deny the fact that my win against Reyana was no less than a miracle.

"Now that the scores have settled down. It was finally time to use the final trump card against her. The advanced physics question. Her confidence was at the breaking point. To make sure I win I had to take extreme measures. Any other question wouldn't have had the same impact as the advanced physics question, which would have reduced my chances of winning.

Almost all of the questions from the syllabus of this test were from the laws of motion. I haven't solved many of its questions but Abed has taught me how to solve these questions and how to approach them.

I said that I would solve the question within ten seconds to make her completely give up."

If I had made such a ludicrous bluff in the beginning it wouldn't have worked out.

"While she was busy looking at my hand and the clock, I gave it my best and began solving with complete focus. It took me three whole attempts to solve the question."

I turned towards Abed, "It wasn't all bluff. If you hadn't taught me how to solve the question I wouldn't have made it."

"Hehe, you are giving me too much credit." Abed seemed to have returned to his normal self.

"So it was just some bluff and luck. And here I thought that you had surpassed me and that too in only a week. Fwoo." Rahul let out a relieved sigh.

Just because I didn't win using knowledge doesn't mean that it was all luck, but his primitive brain won't be able to comprehend such a concept. I had used my decades of experience of tricking and intimidating the enemies.

He must have been scared to see someone surpass him on such a large scale. I didn't even intend to participate in the quiz in the beginning. But seeing things get exciting and an easy chance to return Abed's favour, I decided to give it a try.

I am still nowhere close to his level or Abed's and Reyana's but I am aiming to surpass all of them.