"What do you think?" Sona asked while passing me a bunch of papers.
"What do I think of what exactly?" I replied back with another question while folding the papers and placing them into envelopes. I came back to the school after my training lessons with Ise to hand my homework to the teachers before coming to the Student Council to help out a little. Honestly being a student again put a damper on my lifestyle as I needed to keep up my quota of being in this school to avoid trouble.
"Their chances of winning." Sona turned to me and folded her arms. "Do you think they are ready for their match with Raiser?"
"Quite honestly, they can handle themselves with the Pawns and maybe the Rook, given the videos I have seen of their matches." I said as I leaned back on the chair I was on and gave thought to the current predicament. "The Queen could be a totally big wall to overcome, but if they keep their cool, they might handle her well."
"I detect a 'but' coming along." Momo throw in her two cents as she and the rest paused in their work and listened in on the conversation.
"As it is, they have several major hurdles they need to deal with." I put up my hand and started to list the points. "Firstly, despite Raiser being the King of his Peerage, he doesn't necessarily lead them in their fights, rather that girl with the drill hair is the one doing so, and she has a very good head for tactics and warfare based on the manner she directs the members into their fights. She is the type who would analyze the opponent, read their behaviours, and find out their weakness, before completely crushing them."
Yup, I was really familiar with those types, after all my ass got handed to me by those guys more times than I could count, and it was those types that found out about my Reality Marble in the first place.
"The second reason stems from the abilities of Raiser himself. It is not so much of true resurrection as the actual bird, rather it seems to be mostly high-speed regeneration." I paused as I considered what I have seen from the videos. "Typical regeneration could still be dealt with since they are still attached to the physical body, but given his ability of flames, that means he does not need to worry much about anyone trying to attack him during his regeneration as he can stay incorporeal for quite a while, thus allowing himself a more roughish style of combat."
"That is true. I have been studying their fighting styles for a while, and one thing I can say is that alone they are formidable if not a bit open with their superiority." Sona nodded her slowly as she recalled her side of information. "But once they start working together, each other's strengths covers the other's weaknesses, making their defences airtight and their teamwork more solid."
"Mostly." I countered with my own thoughts. "Based on what I have seen, Raiser tends to be a little rasher and more flamboyant in his actions, while the girl seems to lack actual combat skills considering how she tends to have one or two of the members around her. Still, there is the issue of numbers; Raiser has the full set if I am remembering your Peerage System correctly, while Rias is still short of a Knight and a Rook, not to mention Ise being her only Pawn, Asia being a non-combatant medic and there seems to be a missing Bishop."
"That would be the third weakness Rias has, lack of numbers?" Sona asked to clarify the issue. "Regarding the other Bishop, he would not be able to attend the Rating Game because of his power's instability, he can't control it well enough to be of use."
"That would be a problem for fighting I suppose." I frowned at that information. "So effectively, Rias only has Kiba, Akeno and Koneko as the main fighters. It would be a hard match for them."
"You have been giving a lot of thought to this." Tsubaki remarked as they digest the information I had pointed out. I merely shrugged as a reply.
"So in my opinion, they would have quite a hurdle to take on."
"So how would you take on such individuals?" Sona asked, now fully giving me her attention as she considered all the information in her head.
"For that, I shall answer by asking you a question." I sat up straighter and looked her in the eye. "Supposedly you are going against someone like Raiser, and you happen to have a member who has a Longinus. It does not have to be Boosted Gear for this scenario. You too end up having ten days to train yourselves for the match. So what would be your strategy?"
Sona folded her arms and looked down for a moment to ponder, before giving me a reply. "I would first try to increase the user's compatibility of the Longinus for better control like Rias is doing. Then for the match, I would probably use the others to take out the others while retaining the Longinus for Raiser to ensure that it would be at its full power to take him out. I would also try to retain a couple of others as support in the event Raiser proves harder to take down. If by some odd chance that does not work, I would use my available members to try and wear him out before using the Longinus again to take him off the game."
I nodded lightly as I listened to her short reply. "That is a pretty decent plan, but there lies the problem." I paused to glance at everyone who had a confused look on their faces. "You are making the same mistake as Rias in depending on the Longinus to take Raiser out."
"! ~ Is that so?" Sona recovered quickly from my reply and focused on what I was telling her, no doubt trying to see the flaw in her plans and at the same time prepare herself to fight Raiser if such a thing happened.
"As with most people, if you are given a weapon that has a sure-kill method of taking down a major opponent, you would always reserve it for that person alone, and more than likely build a strategy solely on that. But when it comes to actual fights, that type of plan would only work 3 out of 20 times." I took 'Tohsaka Pose Number 7" using a pen and paper to illustrate my points. "Those stories you heard about those successfully using such tactics are mostly blemished to showcase the end result and not the problems that come with it."
"For Rias, this tactic could possibly be her downfall, considering her straight forward thinking in fighting and how much she hates Raiser to the core." I wrote those points for them to read. "She is concentrating too much on Raiser's ability to resurrect himself and is pouring all her effort into overcoming such an obstacle. Her other members are making progress in terms of skills, but in the end she may have underestimated the difficulty of having fewer members and battle strength, not to mention she is in essence going against two tacticians in the group."
"So what do I do?"
It was a good thing I had smelled her a while back, so I was able to defend my dignity while watching the others get startled and turned to the doorway to find Rias listening to our conversation. She stride right in and stood in front of me.
"Tell me Shirou, what would be the best method to defeat Raiser?" Rias asked with a slightly stern but formal approach. Clearly she may have been a little insulted that I downplayed her tactics in my explanation.
Which if I may add, was kind of the plan, since I caught her scent earlier and Sona had given me the opportunity to try something for the group.
"Rather than me telling you, why don't I show you instead?" I turned her with a neutral expression. "The next couple of days are the weekends, so there should be no issue if I demonstrate your flaws and hopefully iron them out in time. Gather your Peerage together because tomorrow I will be facing you all in a mock fight."
"What~ you want to take on all of us?" Rias asked with her eyes wide open.
"Yes." I gave that blunt reply. "I will show you what happens if you are going against someone who has been fighting for a very long time. You may have power; that much I will give, but that means nothing if you are focusing on that as your primary form of attack and nothing else."
"Ah Emiya-kun!" Sona stepped forward with both arms stretched at both mine and Rias chests in time to stop an outburst from Rias. "Perhaps you would want to reconsider the idea?"
"No need to."
"Then would you mind if we come along?" Reya threw in her remark as she alternated her gaze nervously between us. "I mean, just in case you might need some assistance."
"Yeah, I could use your assistance actually." I let out a frown as I considered what I was about to say. "Because I think Asia would have her hands full tomorrow and she might need your assistance."
"Emiya-kun, are you saying you will beat us in combat?" Rias let out a very dangerous smile as the Prana leaking out of her intensified. Yup, she was ticked off big time.
"I am just being prepared for both sides." I gave that remark as I got up from my seat. "I myself could use some patching up after the fight, but we will see." With that, I made for the door and exited the room in time to catch their words.
"He's not seriously thinking he can beat us, is he?"
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Hey guys I really need you to throw some power Stones ;)
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