Wife of The Demon Prince
Chapter 211: Disadvantage

Chapter 211: Disadvantage

At the royal reserved deck, where the queen sat with the king, two servants fanned Merona. She gracefully looked at the matches taking place in the arena, but when her eyes fell on the spot where her daughter was supposed to be seated. She frowned, then asked Cassius, who looked down at the arena with a bored look,

"Where is Eadlin?"

He shrugged, "Who cares. I don’t know, she left a while ago to who knows where."

Merona’s frown deepened, she then ordered one of the servants fanning her, "Go and look for the princess, tell her to get back here immediately!" She had been too distracted to notice when her stupidly stubborn daughter left her side. Maybe it was really high time she married her off to some Lord who could support Cassius!

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Down at the arena. Group five were a powerful team, filled with bulky muscular men, exactly the ones Henry was trying to avoid. This was the last thing he wanted with his group filled with teenagers. He sighed involuntary, then looked back at his team with calculating eyes. Including him, they only had about four veteran soldiers in the team.

One of the veteran soldiers spoke to Henry, "Leader, it will be hard having group five as our opponents with these new recruits in our team."

Indeed, it was the worst match up anyone could have ever expected. Why match such bulky experienced warriors with new recruit soldiers? It was as if lady luck had completely turned its back against his team. This was the last game before the finale, and they couldn’t afford to lose; he couldn’t afford to lose, Not when he had a score to settle with Kane at the finale.

Henry remained quite as he assessed the situation. His group would crumble if group five managed to close the distance. Therefore, the key was to keep group five as far away as possible while they tried to fight through this level.

Henry turned towards his team members, "Everyone listen, we haven’t fought them yet, let us not lose our fighting spirit just because of their appearance, we can do this together if we work as one team."

The young man with a female’s voice asked with a slightly hopeful tone, "Are you trying to say there’s a chance we can win this match against group five?"

Why does this soldier’s voice sound so damn familiar? Henry paused for a moment before he nodded,

"...Yes, we can’t give up now that we are here...I have a plan. I just hope it works, I want you all to do as I say, understood?"

Everyone nodded at his words. While the combination of his team wasn’t favorable, none of them took a negative attitude about the situation and followed his words and lead. He could feel the determination radiating from his team members, especially from the small soldier with the female voice, who seemed to stick to his side even though he moved away, the soldier followed and stood an inch from him.

He frowned but didn’t say anything and only continued to explain his plans. No matter how skilled a team’s members were, it would collapse quickly if they all didn’t work together. He continued to speak carefully to them.

The soldiers gathered around him, and Henry picked up a stick and began to draw their movement and explained his strategy with as much details as possible. However, as he and his members huddled in concentration, the matches between group six and one were held.

All the members of Kane’s group, were powerful, but he outshone them all. As expected, he began to overpower group one, he rushed towards and struck down all the men who were unfortunate enough to stand in his way to victory.

Red blood spilled onto the arena ground, and all the crowds gasped in shock including Henry’s team members. Injuries were to be avoided as much as possible, but it was only Kane who intentionally cut down the opponent members with his sword.

He grinned as a man fell at his feet with a slit throat, "Oops, that was an accident." The audience looked at Kane in stunned shock, but he confidently strode forward to the judges to get his score, and no one could dare say anything against him, and they cheered him on even louder. At the moment, it made Kane one of the contestants to have a perfect score in his group, and was the only one guaranteed to move on to the final rounds.

"Up next, group five and two!"

At the announcement, all the contestants of the respective groups came forward. For this level’s trial, small camps were made on each group’s side, and the goal was to capture the flag of the opponents teams.

Henry’s team were given a green flag, and their opponent team were given a red flag. Each team had to secure the flags in their territory. Henry’s team members exchanged glances among each other. Laid before them were ten swords, ten pouches of throwing stars, ten crossbows, for each to select one weapon they were good at.

Each of them began to choose, three members picked swords, including Henry. Six picked throwing stars, while the soldier with the female voice was the only one to pick a crossbow. It would be their primary weapon at this level of the competition.

The spectators couldn’t hide their wonderment. Although the group had the disadvantage, but they should have more sword wielding members in the team, otherwise, there was no way to stop the opponent team from barreling through them.

Some of the audience and the other groups who were yet to fight also began to whisper among themselves,

"Seems like group two will surely not make it through."

"Why are they picking throwing stars instead of swords? Tsk, look at that short soldier even picking a crossbow. What does he plan to do with a crossbow?"

"This team members are really stupid! What sort of nonsense are they planning to do?"

Kane, who sat nonchalantly on the rock he’d sat earlier while taunting Henry, sneered, "Such amateurs. I guess I shouldn’t worry about this one, it seems he won’t even make it to the finals with such amateurs as his team members."

The host spoke once more, "Group two and group five should be on the mark!"

The tension between the two groups mounted as they waited for the drum.

Da-dum-da-dum!

As the loud sound of the drum rang out in the large arena, Henry and the two other members of his team carrying swords, rushed towards the opponents territory. They attacked, and lept into assaulting group five. The bulky men guarding their flag were taken by surprise as they suddenly noticed sharp glittering throwing stars flying towards them without control, while Henry and the others holding swords fought the opponents trying to invade their territory.

However, the leader of group five noticed how Henry’s group were trying to trick them from moving away from their camp, he shouted loudly, "Stop them, don’t let them into our camp!"

At that moment all the group five members trying to get into Henry’s group camp, quickly ran back to their territory and made a wall with their muscular body to block the opponents advance instead of invading, and that was the opportunity Henry was waiting for.

Henry signalled his team, and the teenagers with the throwing stars began to throw it in the air again, making the bulky men blocking their territory fled for their life as they saw the swishing blades in the air coming for them.

With that, Henry got the opportunity to enter their territory, however there were still two men guarding the camp where the flag was. But soon, the soldier with the crossbow, suddenly released three arrows at the same time from his crossbow, he aimed to kill, seeing the arrows coming for them, the two men scattered to avoid it from hitting them. Which gave another opportunity to Henry, before they registered what was happening, he’d taken the flag, all that was left was to leave their territory with it.

He began to run, his group members cheered loudly for him, "Lord Henry, hurry and leave their territory!"

"Lord Henry, run faster!"

The group five members tried to chase down Henry, but the soldier with the crossbow was incredible with his ability, he began to target their legs and fire the arrows at them, while Henry forged his way through. And thanks to the soldier with incredible crossbow shooting skills, the men were too injured and in too much disarray to wall him in.

At last, Henry yanked the opponent flag high into the air as he reached his territory. A loud shout came from the audience, who’d been watching with their mouths opened. Henry’s group had snatched an astonishing victory from the favored winners.

All his team members gathered around him as they jumped and some even did a victory dance. They all made to the judges table, and each of the soldiers in his group were scored by the judges. The short soldier with the crossbow, scored seven points, while,

"Henry Boxton, group two, eight points!"

Henry received two points less from a perfect score, even though he had led a disadvantaged team to victory. The teenagers in his group began to murmur in protest amongst themselves, but no one dared to go against the judges words, unless_

"This isn’t right! My Lord. Lord Henry should also have a perfect score like the other group leaders!" The short soldier with the thin voice snapped at the judge, taking the rest by surprise, even Henry himself was surprised.