Chapter 25: Volume 1 Chapter 24

“Blue team, yet another perfect score!. The teamwork and tactics you displayed were outstanding. You all have proven yourselves as marine elites. You have completed this year’s training with an excellent result. To end the year, HQ has decided to have a little tournament between the teams. The theme of this tournament is "Capture the flag". 

A flag and flagpole have been installed in all villas on this island. The aim of the competition is for you to make your way into your opponent’s base, grab their flag while defending yours. Simple right? 

For this competition, all close combat weapons will be swapped for wooden weapons and all bullets will be rubber paint bullets. Don't underestimate these bullets, they might not kill you but they still hurt a lot. If you are shot on a vital spot, then you are considered dead and will be escorted out of the battle. As always cheating is not allowed; several instructors have been deployed to the island to supervise the team battles.” The Blue team Instructor announced.

“The team battles have already been arranged, since there are 4 teams, only the winning teams will proceed to the finals, the others will be disbanded and returned to the academy to await the graduation ceremony. 

Blue (South) vs Red (West).

White (North) vs Black (East). 

One month has been allocated for this round. Go make your preparations!” He added.

 

At the same time, a similar scene was happening at the Red Team’s Villa on the west side of the island.

“Congratulations on completing the two missions assigned to your team. Hothead, just like your name implies your hot-headedness makes you too rash with your actions, being a team captain is not a one-man show, even if your team members are not as strong as you, you have to raise their level and believe in them to handle themselves. The last mission, you took it on alone while leaving defence and clean up to your entire team. I know you are strong and this will give you a very good assessment score but because of the side roles your officers took during all the missions their individual scores are nothing worth reporting. The Red team has completed the training but here are the areas I believe you all should consider for your self-development.

To end the year, HQ has decided to have a little tournament between the teams. The theme of this tournament is "Capture the Flag". 

A flag and flagpole have been installed in all villas on this island. The aim of the competition is for you to make your way into your opponent’s base, grab their flag while defending yours.

For this competition, all close combat weapons will be swapped for wooden weapons and all bullets will be rubber paint bullets. If you are shot on a vital spot, then you are considered dead and will be escorted out of the battle. As always cheating is not allowed; several instructors have been deployed to the island to supervise the team battles.” The Red team Instructor announced.

“The team battles have already been arranged, since there are 4 teams, only the winning teams will proceed to the finals, the others will be disbanded and returned to the academy to await the graduation ceremony. 

Your opponents will be the Blue team to the South.

One month has been allocated for this round. Go make your preparations!” The Instructor said as he walked out of the villa in the direction of the docks.

 

‘After two years of training together, now the academy is allowing the yellow scarfs to finally face one another, this should be fun. But why did I get that person? Water is not compatible with my power, it should be able to somewhat restrict my power. The only good thing is he needs to have seawater as his medium. If I can evaporate all the water he has prepared, I should be able to gain the upper hand.’ Hothead smiled mischievously. This was going to be a tough battle, but his chances were currently above 50%. 

“Get the new weapons checked and ready, you all heard the instructor, for this battle we will change our tactics. Take turns to scout towards the south part of the island, I need all the information on the surrounding areas, including movements at the borders.” After saying that Hothead turned around and left the training ground.

Not one of the officers commented on Hothead's plan. They were all afraid of his power. When he attacked there was no differentiation between friends or foe, everything in his path got burnt. Unlike Ezra who won over his team by ingraining teamwork and camaraderie, Hothead used fear to control his team.

The training ground was deserted as Hothead made his way through it, the air had a stench of burning and the floor was covered in soot. The centre of the training ground was the most damaged, This is the location where hothead had been training his devil fruit power since the beginning of the third year.

Hothead was a tall red-haired boy, his hair danced in the wind like flames. He was standing all alone in the large training ground. He was not physically built like the other officers but the serious expression he had made others wary of him. “Flame on” he yelled as his whole body was covered in flames.

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Blue team villa.

“Everyone gather round, let's discuss how to face this new challenge,” Ezra called for a team meeting at the training ground. 

No. 18 who was one of the officers who was selected to be a shooting trainer put up his hands. “Why don’t we snipe a few of them. We have all been practising our shooting skills for the past months and majority have made a lot of improvements. I believe this will be making use of our strong points.”

No. 5 who was good at making flexible plans added: “That is a good plan No. 18 but that plan will only work depending on if the Captain is able to take Hothead out of the fight.”

Ezra agreed with No. 5. “Even though water is strong against fire, there is still the limitation of my power on land and how quickly he can evaporate the prepared seawater in my control” Ezra added.

After the planning was done Ezra gave the order to start the preparations.

“No. 18 get everyone rifles and enough new bullets, coordinate with the other snipers in building platforms on some trees by the borders, we will be sniping the Red team as they advance. We should be able to pick them out one by one from an elevated position.”

“No. 20 get a few others to help you move barrels of seawater into various sections of the forest. This will be our hidden card, one it will allow me to move quickly through the forest and also provide enough water to slow Hothead down when we face off.”

“No. 5 you will be in charge of obstructions and flag retrieval. We need to position our enemies where we want to fight them.”

 Ezra recalled the strategy he saw during this placement, although the tactics used by the Skull criminal organisation was based on the false information the marine received, the final strategy was not bad. Shooters were placed above, the location was chosen for their advantage. But, like No. 5 mentioned in face of absolute power none of these preparations mattered. For this competition, that type of strategy should be effective.

“Everyone don’t neglect your shooting training, and always be prepared, this might be a competition but in the end, it is an opportunity to learn and improve,” Ezra said, calling the meeting to a close.

 

The Red team rested, The competition was just announced, a scout will be sent out in the morning. They had no idea that the Blue team had already started making preparations, Although a month was given to complete the first round, they were willing to go all out from day one. All through the night, clattering sounds of metal hitting metal and grunts from heavy lifting could be heard from the south island.

Ezra and Some-others were moving stealthily through the trees with barrels of seawater which were placed about 10m apart from each other.

No. 1 – No. 5 scouted the area, making plans to create traps and obstructions to direct their enemies into their prepared fighting ground.

By morning 10 trees had been fitted with the platforms along the border of the West and South part of the island. The platforms were camouflaged with leaves and hidden in the branches of the trees. On each platform there was a sharpshooting officer, a rifle and a box of rubber paint bullets which were covered by green rain protective cover next to it was a half-full barrel of seawater. 

For the next few days, the snipers will be living on these platforms, from the plans No. 5 suggested that Ezra would be using his power daily to provide each sniper with food as well as psychological support to reduce their loneliness in their post.

No. 18 and the snipers were in place, the defence team were in place with No. 20 in command. No. 5 was hiding at the border ready to make a break for the enemy's villa.  A few trees had been fell by the captain creating a funnel-like pathway towards the Blue team villa outside from the area of the beach.

Ezra thought about the next steps of the plan, ‘He had to bait the Red team to attack and also engage Hothead in a battle of attrition.’ This was not going to be easy.