Chapter 186 - Rules of engagement (1/2)

”Come on, it will be a good experience. We want to participate in competitions, and this is the best way to improve our technique and teamwork,” said Sultan.

”It will be very hard with all physical classes, but we always need to be able to get close to attack them and a team made of completely based physical classes would help us,” agreed Shadow with Sultan's words.

”Dude, we had to keep blocking the attacks continuously and half the fights involved us forcing them to deplete their mana. It was not much useful,” said Tang.

”Well, we will change our tactics then,” said Shadow. ”Not tactics, exactly but impose some rules of engagement when fighting our opponents.”

”What can we change?” asked Griff who calm all this time. ”I can hardly think of any method. Mages and archers keep attacking us from a distance, the only good thing is that Sultan and Tang have high defences and Sultan could heal while Tang keeps using her skill to jump among them to disrupt their formation.”

”Ok, let us make a few changes first,” said Shadow. ”Let us all separate and try to attack from different sides. No one stays together.”

”Suicidal,” said Griff to which the others nodded.

”You don't lose any experience in the damn thing. What is the problem?” asked Shadow.

”Combat points. We will lose combat points for every match we lose,” said Tang.

”How many of those did you actually use?” asked Shadow.

”None, but we are saving them up,” said Griff.

”OK. You all have shields?” asked Shadow.

”I don't. The others do,” responded Griff.

”The fighting is quite similar to real-life. If we are to get any decent advantage in competitions, we can't make rolls and evading jumps like we usually do in other games. Even blocking with our shields isn't the best practice. Of course, we need to learn to block while handling monsters because there are different factors as we are not sure of their numbers and other things, but in PvP we will always have a decent amount of information about the other team,” said Shadow.

”All projectiles or magic spells follow trajectories. Just try to bend your body or move the minimum so that those attacks will only miss by a few inches and you don't deviate from your path towards your enemy. As physical attackers, we have don't always block with our blades but try to avoid other swords by a small amount and attack all the time with monsters, right?” he asked.

”That is different. They have patterns and they don't make feints,” said Griff.

”It is true, but since we have already been able to do it with them, we can do it with these too. Some have already been trying to improve using those techniques. We need to be able to do it,” said Tetsujin. ”Even if we don't want to be in competitions and develop completely as an adventurer team that earns through playing the game and gaining resources, if we aren't capable of fighting others, we won't be able to keep anything that we find or hunt except scraps. So, actually it is not a bad idea.”

”Seriously!?”

”He ain't wrong. There is no point in training in weaker and easier methods if we actually want to be a strong adventurer team. I am ready,” said Sultan.

”Come on, it is not bad. We will just try it and see for a few rounds. If it doesn't work, we can change,” said Tang.

”Ok. Cool. Now that we are find with that, the second thing is that we should try to avoid helping others as much as possible at least in the starting of the fights,” said Shadow. ”I mean to say that we only try to employ working as a team if someone has lost more than 80% of their health. We don't try to finish the opponents faster by combining forces or attacking one-on-two.”

”How are supposed to improve our teamwork, if that is not allowed. If we find someone isolated and there are a pair of us, it is best that we attack together to finish them off,” said Sultan who found the second part a bit ridiculous. He was always trained by his family to use teamwork and improve his coordination with his teammates as much as possible to take down opponents faster.

”I don't mean that way. Let me rephrase that. If we manage to kill off a member or two of the team, we will not corner the remaining together and pile up upon them. At least not as soon as we finished our previous fight. We will only rescue our teammate when he is in low health state. I am suggesting this because, if a player is unable to kill his opponent faster or giving trouble, it is a good opportunity for the player and it is best to let him have some practice before he is really in trouble. I would even suggest that we don't help him, if he asks us not to interfere. Though teamwork is necessary, it is best to let one struggle and improve in the colosseum. Individual capabilities also need to be improved and we need to take every chance we have,” said Shadow.

”That is all nice and well, but I thought you told that it was a good way to improve our teamwork,” said Griff.

”How about changing it a bit further. We only use this when the opponent is also separated and make it something like we can't have more members fighting at a time than the opposing team, when some of their members died,” suggested Sultan.

”Sure, as good an idea as any other. I am just suggesting these for now. We can change and modify as we see fit after every game,” said Shadow shrugging his shoulders. ”Just want to use this to provide more pressure.”

”That's right. You guys are all taking this too seriously,” said Tang.

With that they soon went into the colosseum, paid and registered as a team of five. They were given an initial team points of 10. The points are calculated on the number of wins and losses of the team similar to that of a single man PvP, but when the players lose or they decide to end the matches, they each get combat points equal to the team points that they have.

Their first opponents were a group of a warlock, an assassin, an elementalist and two guardians in a forest map called Bramble woods. They would be informed of their opponents' names and occupations. They would not be informed of the other's locations.

”Do we really need to stick to those rules,” asked Tang. She had kept a brave facade during their discussion but when the actually started the match and their opponents had to mage classes, she started to wonder if it was the best thing to do.

”Yes,” said Tetsujin. ”I want to tussle with a guardian. I think it is time, I actually practice with my original occupation rather than use a great sword like a berserker,” he continued as he put back the weapon that Shadow had crafted into his bag and pulled out a pair of tonfas. ”If anyone finds a guardian inform me, I will take him on.”

”Let us move ahead then,” said Sultan. ”Spread out all of you. Inform if you find multiple opponents. As it is the first time, let us take it a bit slow.”