In the following days, Vince spent a lot of time with his new party members. They went to lessons together, practised together, ate together, and much more…

As for Estelle and her group, they didn’t do anything in particular. They simply greeted each other if they happened to meet. The only one she spent more time together with was Artemisia Wernher.

Soon, the following party combat lesson had come.

“Welcome, everyone. Today you will be fighting for the first time as a party. The purpose is to test out the waters with your party members immediately. This way, if you want to change party, you can do it now that no one has yet to bond with theirs. Changing party later may be very hard.”

“So, once in the arena, four parties at a time, you will take on one kobold per party. The kobolds you’ll be fighting are the most common ones, just a head higher than your average adult. Bigger and stronger variants exist, but you all aren’t ready for those.”

“As for their cultivation, don’t worry. All of the kobolds will be mortals.”

***

Estelle looked at the cage that was brought before her and her party. Behind the bars, she could see a monster twice her height. It had a head similar to a wolf but stood on two legs. It had two short horns on the back of the head as well.

Its claws resembled that of a hawk but bigger. And, as the kobold looked at the kids in front of it, drool came out of its mouth. He had the eyes of a hungry predator.

“Are you ready?”

“…Yes.”

“Well, then. Open the cage!”

Three soldiers wearing chainmail armour came. One of the three moved to the front of the cage and opened it with a big rusty key.

Click.

The cage had been opened.

The three soldiers stepped back a little. But they were still at a distance short enough to intervene if anything went wrong.

“Fighting a kobold isn’t like fighting a goblin. You will have a hard time overpowering it. You should work as a team and slowly chip away its stamina. Once it’s not able to fight anymore, you can finish it off by going on the offensive.”

The teacher gave them some suggestions, but Estelle wasn’t that interested.

‘Let’s try winning a physical contest with this thing.’

“Come and help me! I’ll charge at it head on. I’ll try to retain his attention on me! You try to injure it.”

Before anyone could say anything, Estelle charged at the kobold that had just come out of the cage.

Picking up her sword, which was two-thirds of her height in length, she swung it vertically with all her strength.

But the kobold wasn’t so stupid. With a bit of a sidestep, he avoided Estelle’s sword. It probably wasn’t the first time it saw a human fighting with a sword.

As he was trying to counterattack, Artemisia jumped in with her spear and forced it to take a little distance once again.

“Hey, let me have some fun as well!”

Andre charged from the side of the kobold, wielding a sword and a shield.

As Andre was charging, Estelle took the opportunity as well. Raising her sword once again, she slashed at the kobold from behind.

Schick.

The kobold managed to block Andre’s attack, but it was utterly helpless against Estelle’s.

Estelle clearly felt the kobold’s skin being cut by her sword. The kobold’s back was soon dyed red.

‘It’s not too deep, but with a wound like that, it shouldn’t last much longer.’

Andre, noticing the pained expression on the kobold, imagined what had happened.

Not letting the chance slip, he stabbed the kobold with his sword. The kobold didn’t react in time to dodge it. The blade went right through it.

It fell in Andre’s direction, who had to dodge. With its tongue out, it exhaled its last few breaths.

‘Let’s not make it suffer.’

Estelle jumped on its back and then cut its head off.

With just three people fighting, they managed to take it down in under thirty seconds.

The rest of the class turned towards them.

“Amazing! They already defeated it!”

“As expected of the party with the strongest members! Even the Prince’s party is still fighting.”

Turning her head, she saw Vince’s party coming to take their place.

Avoiding his gaze, she and her party left the centre of the arena and sat on the spectator seats.

***

‘She’s still mad, huh. Whatever.’

A new cage was brought forth.

“Gero, you stand in front. You are the biggest of us all. Nicole and I will fight at a distance with our bows. Zack and Harlan, you two will be on the front with Gero. Stand slightly behind him, and attack as soon as the kobold tries to hit Gero.”

Even though Harlan seemed slightly displeased, he followed Vince’s commands nonetheless, as he had agreed to.

“Teacher, we’re ready.”

“Release the kobold!”

The cage was once again opened.

A two-metre tall (6’ 7”) monster came out of it. With its tongue out, it slightly started approaching the party.

But, there was a problem. Vince soon realised Gero was slightly trembling. Having a fearful tank was the worst thing that could happen.

‘This… is going to be a slight problem.’

The others still hadn’t realised, but he knew. Gero wouldn’t move.

Stretching his arm backwards, he grabbed an arrow from his quill and charged his bow with it.

“Let it come! If it comes a little closer, I’ll have a good line of fire.”

‘Maybe showing him that monsters can be defeated is a good approach. I’ll force him to react.’

Following his commands, the three front line warriors didn’t move.

As the kobold approached them, Nicole shot an arrow. But the kobold slightly tilted its head and dodged it.

“You should have waited for more. I’ll tell you when to shoot.”

“Got it.”

After taking three more steps, the kobold was in front of Gero. The two guys right next to him finally noticed that he was trembling.

Tch.

Harlan clicked his tongue and prepared to charge, but Vince stopped him.

“Don’t! Stay where you are, Harlan!.”

“But this guy here….”

“I know! Just stay put!”

Shaking his head, Harlan stopped his advance.

The kobold wasn’t kind enough to wait. After seeing Gero standing there trembling, its instincts told it. The prey was scared. It was the moment to strike.

It swung its claws towards Gero’s face, but he still didn’t react.

Shiiick.

An arrow implanted itself right in the kobold’s right eye.

“Shoot!”

Shuck.

Another one came, grazing the kobold’s face, and piercing right through its left ear on top of the head.

“Charge at him now!”

Zack and Harlan immediately lunged at it, swinging their swords.

Zack managed to slightly graze the kobold’s arm. Harlan’s strike was dodged instead, as it came from the side where the kobold still had an eye.

Even though kobolds were two meters tall, their bodies weren’t cumbersome. Thus, they were very agile creatures.

Awoooo.

The kobold howled and charged towards Harlan, judging Gero wasn’t a threat.

Lowering his body a little, the kobold dashed.

Thwick.

Another arrow came. It implanted itself slightly ahead of the right eye. Going through the skull, the arrow pierced the left eye —from the inside.

The kobold was now blind.

“It’s blind! Zack, charge it from behind! Nicole, if the kobold tries to escape, shoot!”

Dropping his bow, Vince charged towards the kobold. Passing by Gero, he grabbed his sword and shield, which he had let go of.

The kobolds had pretty good earing. Thus, it could estimate where its opponents were from the sounds.

Vince circled around the still confused beast and placed itself on the opposite side to bar its retreat.

Noticing the kobold was aware of Zack’s and Harlan’s position, Vince started to slam his shield with his sword, making loud metallic clangs.

Suddenly the kobold wasn’t able to hear where its opponents were.

It didn’t last much longer.

Three slashes later, it fell to the ground.

Once it was dead for sure, the teacher approached Vince’s party.

“Wow! It had been years since I last saw such good teamwork coming from some newbies. You’ll make a great party leader! I also found it incredible how you immediately adapted to your tank not moving and covered for it. And at the end, thanks to your knowledge, you knew kobolds were weak to metallic clangs, as they have a sensible earing. Making use of that, and the fact that you had blinded it, you made it completely unable to sense your party members.”

‘Pretty decent analysis. He missed the part about the timings for the arrows, but it’s such a finesse that even if he noticed, he wouldn’t think a kid was capable of doing it deliberately.’

“Thank you, teacher.”

“You might have been slower than the top party, but you are far better as a party leader. I hope the others will follow this good example.”

Throwing a side glance, he could see Harlan clenching his fist.

‘This guy is up to no good. But I can’t kick him out of the party without a good reason. Well, we’ll see. As soon as he does something dumb, I’ll throw him out.’

***

Most parties eventually managed to defeat the kobold. Many had some injuries, but nothing too worrying.

Only a few required the intervention of the guards to rescue them. But given it was the first time they fought together as a party, it wasn’t too bad.

The quickest party to defeat the kobold was Estelle’s. In second place came Vince’s, in third, the Prince’s.

Currently, Vince and his party sat at the canteen all together. Since they were all in the top one hundred, they could sit all at the same table.

A crimson-haired girl was the first one to speak.

“We did great!”

“Mmh. Certainly, it could look that way, but I think Vince was the one who did great. We were flat out carried by him. Also, we have to work on Gero’s fear. He couldn’t move. Many people didn’t even notice, but he was frozen on the spot.”

Zack Lipsgold gave his impression of their performance.

“Vince carried us? Hmpf. He just got two lucky shots off.”

Harlan wasn’t convinced at all by what Zack had said.

While the three of them were discussing, Gero simply kept his gaze lowered.

He knew he was a dead weight currently. And he felt guilty for holding them back.

“Don’t worry, Gero. I’m sure you’ll eventually get the hang of it. Having fear is only natural.”

“B-but… I’m the only one among the tanks who couldn’t move. M-maybe I should-d… change ro-roles.’

‘His self-esteem is so low he can’t even complete a sentence while looking at me in the eyes. This is going to be quite a hurdle.’

“Hey, look at me in the eyes. You are talented. The tank role is what suits you the best. You just have to overcome your fear, and you’ll instantly turn into a great tank.”

“Y-you think so? Really?”

“Yes, I do really think so. If you want, I could help you train a little in exchange for a few favours.”

“F-favours? What kind of favours?”

Hearing this question, Vince gave his broad business smile.

---

Hello everyone, it's the author here. I just wanted to let you know that I made a discord server. If you are interested in chatting with me or some other fellow readers, feel free to join through the link: https://discord.gg/4cJv2EZvg6
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