Vile Evil Hides Under The Veil

"Next match in the inter-year ranking war. The Ravens of first-year students vs the Roody's Wreckers. The match will start in five minutes."

The referee announced while standing in the middle of the battle ring and then retreated to his original position. Today was the second day of the inter-year ranking war. The compulsory matches were going to get held for a few more days. And this match was one of them.

The Ravens was the name of the party that had first-year students. Eren was one of them and Renita was the other. The rest of the teammates were taken from Ron's Raiders. They were Ron, Dino, and the earth-element tank that Eren had trashed in the previous match.

Eren's team only had one line of defence. The tank. Something to fall back on in case they need a breather. The rest of the team members were all fighters. The team was akin to a giant ball of kamikaze attack.

Roody Orton's team also contained five members including him. But his team looked more balanced than what the first-year students had come up with. All his members also looked more intimidating than the first-year newbies because of the subtle mana signatures they released out in the open.

All of the members of Roody's team were in the liquid stage of the F-Rank. And all of their BTP values had crossed the mark of 20. That meant individually, the second years were superior to the first-year students.

That meant, Eren's team could only depend on the team play. They couldn't carry out individual raids. The butcher didn't like that but he had already committed. And he was enough to play by the books when it suited him.

The five minutes were up quickly. And the teams were called into the battle ring they were assigned to.

"Do you have anything to declare?"

The referee asked formally both the team leaders. Eren was assigned as the leader of his team. He came forward before stating out loud to the referee and his opponent team:

"Roody Orton, a word."

Roody came forward uncaringly. He was intending to talk with the first-years anyway. He verbally shot forth as soon as Eren stood right in front of him:

"Eren, is it? I've heard from you. Lightning element close combat expert. Weren't those three your opponents in the inter-class war?"

"Yepp. What about it?"

"Hehe! Nothing. It just means you guys understand your situation better. So, what were you going to talk about? I have a few things of my own to add as well. Let's just get this over with."

Roody said after he looked at the referee. The match was a foregone conclusion according to him. So he didn't want to waste much time on it.

"I'd like to discuss the betting amount."

Roody acted like he expected this from Eren. He smiled before saying:

"Eren, you already know what the standard rate is these days. The second-year students don't go below 15000 Merps as their betting amount. The most I can do is make it 12K."

"Well, I don't care about the "so-called" standard rate. I wish to change the betting amount."

Said Eren with a stoic expression. Ron had creases on his forehead after he heard that.

'These first-year students won't learn the situation they are in.'

Thought Roody before replying with equally stoic countenance:

"Listen here, brat. I've tried to be nice. You can't go below 12K and that is something you can't negotiate on. Otherwise, you know the consequences."

"Oh! It seems there's a bit of misunderstanding. Who said anything about lowering the prices?"

Said Eren with puzzled expressions. Roody thought for a while before replying:

"You wish to accept the standard rate?"

"No. I want to go beyond that. 30,000 Merps!"

Roody had blank expressions on his face. Ron and Dino's expressions weren't too different either. It took a while for Orton Jr. to confirm what he just heard:

"You mean, you wish to bet 30K Merps on a single match? How loaded are you and why do you wish to lose all that wealth in one go?

Second-year students can go hard on you guys. But that's just how the academy works. You don't have to bend it backwards for us, you know."

Roody thought that the guy was just scared of the second-year students' bullying. So he tried to console him. But Eren didn't give him much time.

"Oh, we are not planning to lose here. Are you on board with the betting amount or not?"

Eren said and smiled at Roody. The latter smiled mirthlessly after hearing his young opponent's plans.

'I might have underestimated the delusion that comes from winning a few matches in the first year against other first-years. Who am I kidding? I was like this guy as well when I was in the first year.

I'll just make him realize the difference in our strength even when the average difference in our BTP values is no more than three digits.'

Thought Roody to himself before agreeing to Eren's offer. There was no point in talking with the first-year delusional lunatic anymore.

Eren smiled wholeheartedly after getting Roody on board. He called forth the referee and updated him about the new betting amount. The referee thought that it was the second-year student who was bullying the first-year students into submissions.

He tried to talk Eren out of this deal. But the latter assured him that the proposed betting amount was something he had asked from Roody. Not the other way around. The referee of course didn't believe him. But this time he didn't argue and just approved the updated amount.

But this was not all Eren had to say:

"We wish to use a battle pass on Roody's Wreckers."

Roody raised his eyebrows after hearing that. He was expecting this to happen. Since the guy was so confident about the sky-high betting amount, Roody thought that Eren must have had a good trick up his sleeve for him to act this way.

AN: Roody Orton is first introduced in chapter 73. He has also made a few sporadic appearances in chapters after that.