Chapter 69- Hehe...

"That was the last one Sir Falkner." One of the people who decided to form a group with me called out.

I didn't know his name, there was no need to as I would forget he existed as soon as he was eliminated.

I simply nodded my head in understanding then continued to think about more important things.

From what I could tell, this was likely a spell by Eric using dark forbidden powers.

With my guidance, we expelled them quite easily, only for more to return the next hour.

This pattern continued until the sun began to rise over the distant mountains.

Looking back at the exhausted group of people who followed me despite me telling them not to, I could only feel pity.

No doubt they were with me because they knew I was in Class A and my family title.

My family apparently were descendants of Lady Fairleigh herself and we held the most of her relics.

Because of this, I'm guessing they held me to a higher standard among knights, trusting that I could save them from whatever problems this Survival game held.

At first I was against the idea of forming a team, but as they began to do random things for me, I didn't refute their help.

I didn't mind their company and it helped me work on my leadership skills. Now I kind of fostered a sense of looking out for this group.

But even so, I knew their future was dire. The real point of this event was elimination of the weak.

It didn't matter how many ants grouped together; the boot would always win. Just as the sun begins to rise higher, the headmasters voice broadcasts in the sky.

"Congratulations on surviving the first night everyone. There is now only 33 of you guys left. Due to that fact, random events will now be every 4 hours. Let's see, your second randomized event is...."

There's a brief pause before he continues,

"Ohh. Monsters will now roam the forest.

If a monster encounters a group, it will flee and return with a group of its own, equivalent to the same number it first saw prior. Defeated monsters will now add to everyone's score who took it down, no matter how much damage they contributed. These will take effect as soon as the broadcasts ends.

Remember, although you may be working in groups, individual performances will be evaluated in the end. Good luck and I'll see you in 4 hours."

With the broadcast ended, I turn to look at everyone's faces behind me.

They all have expressions of defeat, as they know that they won't last long if they have to try surviving by themselves.

Especially now that monsters will be roaming the forest.

"Everyone gather around."

Solemnly, the group of eight come together, each have their eyes averted as they all know the unspoken truth.

"When you guys first came and asked me to form a party, I refused. I felt that working together was a terrible idea and had way of working in a game like this.

But yesterday, as I watched you guys working your hardest to defeat monster after monster, I realized I was wrong. As I look at each and every one of your faces, I see people who understand.

You understand that at any time, one could betray the other. You understand that one of you will score higher than the other. You understand that one will take the attack of a monster for the other.

And yet, here we are. You know why? It's because you also understand the true point of this game. Surviving. You guys are doing what you have to in order to survive.

But you're doing it in a way that will make your families proud to call you their child. Hold your heads high with pride and understand another thing.

42 others were eliminated whether they were from Eric's attack or other means. Yet, here you stand. We stood together through that, and no one was eliminated.

Understand, that even Lady Fairleigh had a party, and they did greatness. So now I will ask you guys, want to party?"

Everyone cheered, raising their weapons in the air, letting me know they agreed just as I expected.

It only took my spell Inspire and some encouraging words.

They were no doubt going to fall one by one, but the least I could do was let them get high on the scoreboard before they fell. Plus, if Eric was my enemy, I needed all the help I could get.

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"Another offering for you, my Princess."

One of my grunts kneels holding a medallion above his head.

Trying desperately to maintain my composure, I tell him,

"Good work, but I insist that you get that to the pit, lest we have to fight another monster unnecessarily."

He looks up, clear signs of mischief in his eyes,

"Oh my didn't think that through. I totally don't want to get punished for my incompetence."

Through a playful smile but raging on the inside I respond, "Oh we wouldn't want that now would we? Go help the others and make sure there are no other shadows lurking."

Straightening up, he salutes shouting, "Anything for you, my Princess!"

As he leaves my tent, my face quickly turns into a scowl. Taking a deep breath and letting it go, I calm myself down. I was hating every single second of this awful game.

At first, I tried desperately trying to find anyone from Class A to charm, preferably Eric, but I just had to settle on the strongest Class Bs that I ran into.

Using them, they set up a base near the river for me and defeat monsters and gather points for me.

Good thing I learned from my mentor to have a base of operations because when it turned night, we were attacked by relentless shadow creatures.

I wasn't too worried about them as my charmed minions are stronger while near me. I had a plan but now monsters roaming the forest complicated things.

I didn't want to reveal one of my aces, but my situation will fall out of my favor should I continue to just do what I'm doing.

The air around me stilled as I focused on a target. A thin pink cloudy trail forms leading towards the mountains.

Smiling I shout, "Prepare to move, we leave in 15."

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A sudden smell of roses and the rapid beating of my heart brought me out of my trance.

Thinking it was Mariath, I ask.

"Is she here?"

Chathis responds strained, "No she's not. Why do you sense something?" Still a bit disoriented from the distraction which brought me out of the spell, I mutter,

"No, I don't sense anything, but something did happen. Try to keep your guard up."

Closing his eyes and returning to back what he was doing he replies, "I should be telling you that actually."

Ignoring him, I return to doing my part to maintain the balance on this spell.

Alone, I could have easily summoned over a hundred shades to go out and terrorize. But what I wanted was for them to do more.

If they straight up eliminated a person, everything they had would go with them. Since the shades were a part of my mana, they counted as a new mana connection with any medallions.

But shades at that magnitude wouldn't have the capacity to listen to my commands. It's not that they wouldn't obey, they couldn't.

They understood only a few commands, like kill, or come here. Chathis' job was to be a director of sort, maintaining the follow along with my orders.

My job was to keep a constant flow of mana to the spell and upkeep the number of shades to a certain number.

Plus, I found that I could also use Pith Orientation from the shades, which helped locate other survivors.

Together, me and Chathis collected over 8,600 in points and eliminated quite a bit of students. But our own struggles began as day broke and we found that shades would disperse when any rays of sunlight hit them.

Plus, they were more sluggish now, and way easier to defeat. Also, since they were constantly emitting my mana, monsters would attack them as well.

All these factors going against us, it was no surprise that we were both about to stop the spell. We were just making sure that the shades holding the medallions were coming back. This was fine, as I came up with a new plan, one that would secure my place as rank 1 for sure.