Chapter 175: Rules and Regulations [2]
There is also a flag within the fortress, at its center. If anyone from the attacking party can break down the flagpole, it is also their automatic win, regardless of the outcome.
But there is one person who can break this balance, that is, obviously, the valkyrie; she is just too strong. If she fights proactively with all her prowess and abilities, it would be almost close to impossible to stop her.
So, by the collective decision of the professors, she would not be personally engaging in any notable positions in which she could use her battle prowess, so they would basically put her in the backseat.
While it does seem unfair for her, she is so strong that she cannot even engage in the competition properly. But for that reason, the academy actually prepared another small stage for her, something that would be held after this fortress game is over.
As for the position management in this game, like who will be in what position, those kinds of things, the students in the section would have to decide for themselves; that was the whole explanation Professor Darwin gave them. A similar explanation was likely given to all the sections from their homeroom professors, while they were shown the fortress itself.
All 300 of them first crossed the long hanging bridge, it felt quite unstable to walk on as expected, but it was actually able to hold the weight of all three hundred students pretty well, though it slightly came lower because of so much weight in it, but there were no signs of the bridge snapping in any way.
Axel and Heinz looked down on the water everywhere, and they could see various hideous and large fish-like monsters in the water, gazing up towards them. Some even made growling noises from below wanting to eat all of them, a few jumped up from the water to 5-6 meters high in the air. But the bridge was about more than 20 meters high above the water.
There were handles on both sides of the walls on the deep waterway; they were there so that if someone did drop into the water, they could climb up immediately to the ground. Of course, if anyone’s life is truly in danger, the evaluators or professors will immediately take action.
Professor Darwin was giving them a tour inside the fortress itself. There was the flag poll right at the center of it, the poll itself seemed to be pretty strong, made of some unknown material which even Axel did not know.
Darwin spoke, “This fortress has been used for the first evaluation of the students throughout many generations, and this method of evaluation has been kept a secret from every new generation of students as well. And there is a good reason for it, it is a procedure that is necessary to prepare every generation of the brightest Seekers among humanity for the eventuality of war with any other race.”
“Though we will be pretty much no match for even a fraction of the military power of the other races. But we won’t be exterminated without putting up a worthy last stand at least,” he stated with firm and unshakable conviction.
All the gold sections’ students’ eyes brightened at that statement, as their moods lifted involuntarily at that gesture. The professor continued while shaking his head,
“Well, enough about that, as you can see, there are traces of brutal battle here, lingering marks of swords and arrows on the walls, and the structure is quite old. But it’s powerful nonetheless.”
“The defending team must protect the flag at all costs; otherwise, it will be their loss. You lot will have to select one fortress commander who will command all the sections as a whole and select three other division leaders, leading each division of either fortifiers, sharpshooters, or shock troops.”
Darwin took them to the 2nd floor, where there were various supplies stored in a small room, and there were small window-like holes on the walls, from which you could drop small explosives on the enemy army if they surrounded the fortress.
The walls and the floors of the fortress were made of ancient black marble, a layer of dust covered everywhere, which would be cleaned before the competition, their teacher revealed.
It was somewhat crowded for 300 people touring each of the floors at once, but the space on each floor also felt sufficient since the whole section will be divided into three.
They reached the top floor and could see everything from that height. A large area surrounding the square-shaped fortress was the waterway, and the only hanging bridge was the connection between the two lands. The hanging bridge could be seen swaying slightly in the wind.
Then there was the open area in which the attacking section would stand, beyond that area is the dense jungle, far in the distance, the academy building on the campus could be seen. There were various arrow-firing machines on the top floor; they were large ballistic arrows made of Archon-grade tier 1 materials, something that is capable of hurting any first-phase Seeker.
Darwin showed the students in groups how the arrows are fired from the machine and the general operations. But despite his thorough explanation of the multiple factors of details. Axel and many others could easily tell that the professor wasn’t explaining everything; it seems the gap in details is also part of the test, they would have to get those details from the academy through reading books, Axel surmised. Even the sheet of paper they were given in the class was missing many, many smaller details.
The competition will start next week, as in the first round, the gold section will have to face off against another section, for which section it will be, that is yet to be decided. Axel sighed to himself as the tour of the fortress was over.
Axel said to Lumina and Heinz, “Let’s go to the library.”
They both nodded and understood the reason long before he needed to even say it. Lumina added, “Many details are missing indeed, but I do get the picture of it.”
Heinz interjected, “My worries are more about how we are going to select the fortress commander and the other three division leaders?”
Lumina chuckled at that and said to Heinz in an almost mocking tone,
“Well, there’s only one person who can be the fortress commander on our section.”
Axel smiled disdainfully, ‘Yeah, who but that bitch can be the commander.’