Solsday, 3rd of Juno, 470th Year of the Fifth Era

"Are you a damned idiot?!" Josias screamed out in frustration as he pointed towards an annoyed but crestfallen Alvaro. "You had one job and you ended up losing half your team and let the Hutapadan be decimated by the Moslems!"

Josias appeared fuming as he deliberately chose whatever words would be the most searing towards the Sinarian Prince. Was Josias truly angry? He was greatly annoyed, true, but in all honesty his rage was hiding a feeling of satisfaction. He had complete justification to rage against what he viewed as an incompetent warrior. However, even with all that, Alvaro still managed to raise up excuses.

"How easy it is for you to say that when the support that Nabolga and the Parmalim was meant to give to me magically disappeared because you called them away!" Alvaro spat back as he also eyed Silua menacingly. "I was outnumbered! I did what best I could with what was available to me. Were I to have had the backing of our group captain, we wouldn't be in this mess!"

"Don't bring Silua into this! We annihilated two teams and decimated another with no losses!" Josias responded as he crossed his arms. "If you had even the slightest bit of strategy, you would've fallen back to regroup with the rest of us!"

"Was it not you who suggested that we don't get in your way, O Mighty Prince of Goria?" Alvaro seemed to have purposefully made his tone mocking.

"Do you not realise that with your incompetence you're doing a good job of that already?!"

"Why you-...!!"

"Ancestors have mercy, would you two cut the needless bickering out?!" Silua finally decided to intervene between Josias and his catholic counterpart. "Not everything has to be someone's fault, Sigumogo."

"Then do you absolve this fool of his incompetence? Do you then place the blame on yourself for abandoning him as he had accused you of doing?" Josias deepened his tone and tilted his head as he engaged the Nabolga captain.

"I am not absolving anyone of anything! All that is beside the point now. Shouting at him won't make three men fight any better against over a dozen warriors."

"Whose side are you on, Nabolga?" Alvaro asked Silua with indignation.

"As I have said time and time again, I'm on the side that's trying to get our team through this!" Silua answered with a slightly frustrated tone. "So instead of arguing like this, why don't we refocus ourselves and – like what lae Sinaria here had said – figure out what we could do with what we have right now."

Hearing this, Josias exchanged a few glances with his allies and companions before he gave a shrug and nodded. "Alright, so what do you have in mind here? What can we possibly do with five teams and three dead weights?"

Silua merely rolled his eyes at Josias' petty comments before explaining his strategy. Alvaro of course did not appreciate Josias' comments. He was about to engage Josias in another battle of insults but Silua quickly raised his hand once more to stop them.

"Our current situation is not ideal, I admit. But, there's a silver lining to all of this, my friends. Regardless of how anyone would frame it, our team is not currently in the worst position." Silua said as he pointed towards the white team. "In case you're all forgetting, the white group is currently at their wits end. Two teams completely annihilated and another team running without its captain. That only leaves them effectively with four teams to deal with two other groups."

"Are you suggesting that we…" Josias said before Silua immediately nodded.

"That's right. We wipe them out. With the white group gone, the first round would be immediately over and we'll go forward to the brackets. Capturing flags be damned, we'll hunt their warriors instead."

"We'll just be continuing onward like what we've been doing then…" Prince Alvaro cut in "How would any of this help in dealing with the red team? Honor dictates that we return to them what they had done to us! If all our teams instead focus on the red group, the combined pressure with the white group would force them back!"

"Are you truly this insane, Sinaria?" Josias looked at Alvaro with a frustrated expression "Honor is not going to buy anyone victory and doing what you've said would just be prolonging this match! Dealing with the white team quickly is the obvious course of action. They're weakened and most of their teams are damaged. The quicker we end the first round, the sooner we'll get to rest for the brackets!"

"...I am in full agreement with Josias on this one." Silua said as he shrugged his shoulders. "Dealing with the red team would be pointless and a waste of our manpower. We only need to eliminate two more teams from the white group and judging from the tallied scores, we know clearly who we're supposed to target…"

The Inamarians and Tanjung Narians had frowns on their faces when they realised the rest of the group were adamant on not engaging with the red group. However, despite the huge scowl on his face, Alvaro managed to heave a sigh before he finally looked towards Silua.

"...I only have Ernesto left on my team and Manuel here is on his own. How are we supposed to help the group in the next match?" Alvaro asked.

Silua looked like he was thinking as he scratched his chin. He took a few glances towards the field and the other teams. He then turned his glance back as he looked at his fellow captains. He then smirked before finally saying, "You're not going to like this but here's what we're going to do…"

***

Soon enough the half-time recess was over. The first round's second half then began in earnest as the teams returned to the field. All the eliminated warriors and teams sat the match out on benches to the sides of the field as they took on a spectator role. As all the teams took their positions, the Matanitao elder unleashed his aura as he announced the commencement of the second half.

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With that, the warriors immediately rushed out and started engaging with the other teams. Most of the teams looked battered with the white group looking to be the weakest. They had lost three flags and had two teams completely annihilated and another two teams with only about half their numbers left.

For the second half, Parulian had climbed up one of the tribune stands to get an elevated position over the field. He wanted to get a complete picture of the match and to better support his Gorian team – particularly to support his son Josias. Following him up to the tribunes were his lieutenants who also wanted to support their realm's team and children. Even Lord Ronggur Sigompul who always showed a cold exterior to his son Mateus was there, roaring like a madman in support of the team.

The first half was a great deal of fun to watch. Parulian could only laugh and cheer as he saw his son absolutely obliterate the Hutaraja team. The Blood king wasn't at all too happy with that performance but he had to save face.

However, the second half would prove to be more of a challenge as his son's black group was also struck with bad luck. The Inamarians and Tanjung Narians gave a good fight against the moslems when they were still being supported by the Nabolga. However, as soon as the Nabolga and Matanitao left, their position crumbled quickly.

Regardless, Parulian had noticed the captain of the Nabolga to be a talented little runt when it came to strategy. The Nabolga boy was a chip of the old block of his own father, King Poda Nabolga. Had the great strategist of the Nabolga not declared neutrality during the Parhalian wars, Haumarara might have turned out differently.

Now, Parulian was eager to see what the black group had left to pull out of their sleeves. If it was up to him and his lieutenants back when they were younger, they would've foregone any strategy and just focused on overpowering their opponents through sheer brute force. Partogi had always been the bigger plan thinker between the two brothers.

Speaking of which, Parulian had given his younger estranged brother a few glances. It would seem that the king of Saorma had made Partogi the trainer of the Saorma warriors. In the first match, they had shown somewhat of a decent fight. But it was clear that they were being carried by the other teams of the red group.

Focusing back on the current match, Parulian saw the black group split in two. Well, it was technically split in two but the vast majority were charging towards the weakened white group. Only three people – the Sinaria and Hutapadan – were making a charge towards the red group.

Parulian scratched his head at the nonsensical act. Were those boys trying to throw the fight by taking down as many enemies as they could? Parulian turned to his most strategic lieutenant, Lord Hasudungan – Hesekiel's father.

"What do you make of that, Sudung? Are those boys just being stupid?" Parulian asked.

"Hmmm… could be." Lord Hasudungan scratched his chin before taking out a smoking pipe. He took a puff from it as his eyes were still trained on the field before blowing it out. "But I doubt the Nabolga boy would come up with such a stupid strategy. And I also doubt the Sinaria would be so dumb as to do something out of pure pride. They're probably trying to bait the red teams into chasing after them."

"Would they even fall for that?"

"We were all as young as those boys once. Those moslem boys might think the Sinaria were making a desperate charge against them. They're all banking on the destruction of the white group anyways so they'd probably just spare a single team to deal with three warriors."

Just as Lord Hasudungan had said, the match was playing out accordingly. The red teams saw the encroaching black team warriors and sent out the still fully-manned Sombanarian team against them. Thus they began a chase trying to surround the three men and eliminate them for good. After all, the main black group was currently already clashing with the white teams.

However, the chase by the Sombanarians led them unwittingly into a trap. They had expended a little bit too much energy trying to chase the catholic warriors who were running like they were chased by ghosts. In fact - to sell their desperation - they even throw their sabres towards the Sombanarians who didn't quite expect that.

When the Sombanarians looked like they had finally surrounded the black group warriors, something unexpected happened. The full might of the black group had already turned their attention towards the Sombanarians and were running at full force. They had just finished off one of the white teams, taking an additional flag with them.

Seeing the incoming black group reinforcements, the Sombanarians had looked to make a quick retreat. But no one could've expected what was about to happen next. All the black warriors had thrown their training sabers towards the Sombanarians. This act confused the red team warriors greatly.

A hail of over two dozen projectiles were peppering the five red team warriors. While they deflected some of the projectiles, a few of the sabers still managed to land. The sabers had hit them anywhere from their chests, forearms, and legs. One even managed to hit the Sombanarian captain in his eyes with its hilt.

Taking advantage of this confusion, the surrounded warriors immediately pounced at the Sombanarian captain in unison. They quickly overpowered the captain and took his armcloth thus eliminating him from the match.

Before the other Sombanarians could do anything to react to that, the other black group warriors had arrived. They had made short work of the Sombanarians, eliminating all of them.

Parulian clapped and cheered at the completely unorthodox methodology the black team pulled. Who would think of throwing their sabers as projectiles to pin down an enemy and confuse them? If there ever was going to be another tournament in the future, the strategist of Nabolga would single-handedly be responsible for the addition of an entire book of new rules to counteract such absurdities.

After eliminating the Sombanarians, the black teams had quickly regrouped and picked up their sabres from the ground. Joining as one massive block and strengthening into a defensive formation, they took a couple of minutes to catch a breather. Parulian could see the fire of youth still burning within the boys.

The red teams had noticed that a whole team of theirs had been eliminated but they decided against pursuing the black group. The white group was making a desperate last stand against the red teams and they were fighting ferociously. The red teams couldn't afford to turn their backs towards the cornered white team. But at the same time, neither could the white team. Just one more team being eliminated meant that they wouldn't make it to the next round.

Taking full advantage of this, the black group had all raised their sabres and made a final battlecry which Josias had led.

"HAMATEAN!!" Josias shouted which was answered by everyone else shouting the warcry.

The black group had smashed into the white group from the rear, taking much of them by surprise. They had caught the white group by surprised, causing a mass panic. The black group's focus on capturing armcloths and eliminating their competitors made them absolutely ferocious.

The white team – stormed on two fronts – stood little chance at survival. Soon enough most of their warriors had been eliminated. When the last of their flags had been taken from them, the Matanitao elder appeared once more in the field and unleashed his aura. After about half an hour, the match had been settled.

The white group had been eliminated and the two other groups would automatically make it to the next round.

Parulian and the rest of his lieutenants cheered and roared at the victory. So too did the other spectators cheer in euphoria. Well, at least the spectators from the clans that had won. Those family members and clansmen had absolutely ashen expressions. Parulian was happy enough to see the expression of the blood king of Hutaraja as contorted as it was.

Regardless it was a good match and Parulian got up to give his son and his friends a good pep talk. Lord knows they were going to need it.

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