I was sitting in my class.
Mala was sitting on my right, while Grimori sat on my left. Lila and Kel were sitting further to Grimori's left.
We were back to our regular lectures.
We were all Apprentice Class A Graders.
Our batch teacher was Sir Utham.
He was a great teacher.
He wasn't particularly powerful, but he was deceptive. And that made him dangerous.
His specialty was strategy building.
He had been our teacher for the past two years.
I bet I was already far more powerful than him now.
Ergh...
What was I thinking?
I had one day to think and one day to act.
I had to defeat Master Krishna.
Today, I needed to prepare my strategies.
I opened my notebook and started writing down my plans.
Plan A): Face him head-on.
Conclusion: Instant defeat.
Plan B): Make sure the battlefield is already filled with traps.
Conclusion: He would simply flee to another location before the traps could be triggered.
Plan C): Make use of clones and teleportation.
Conclusion: He would predict it and prepare countermeasures beforehand.
Plan D): Distract him and land an attack.
Conclusion: Not possible.
Plan E): Try to drag him inside my Range Shiftling, Shadow Lord's Garden, and prolong the fight.
Conclusion: Possibly my only chance.
I sighed.
How was I supposed to drag Master Krishna inside Shadow Lord's Garden?
I decided to forget about it for the moment and focused on Sir Utham's lecture.
He was teaching us about the hunting strategies of the Pehar Insect Flies, an exotic species found on a few intergalactic planets.
Despite their name, they weren't insects.
They were mammals.
Sounds weird.
Apparently, the misleading name itself was part of their deception strategy, designed to confuse local hunters.
But how could hunters not know the true nature of something they hunted?
That was exactly what I was wondering.
Before I could ask, Sir Utham answered it himself.
No hunter had ever actually seen a Pehar Insect Fly.
Because no one had ever successfully hunted one.
Huh?
They existed only in the folklore of several hunter clans.
According to those stories, they were extremely rare insects.
That entire image had been propaganda spread by the Pehars themselves long ago.
But why would they deliberately encourage hunters to target them?
For the fun of the hunt.
The Pehars enjoyed watching greedy hunters enter their territory in search of them.
However, hunters came equipped with tools designed specifically for catching insects.
They never expected to encounter enormous mammals instead.
That was the deception.
And it gave the Pehars a massive advantage.
Once someone entered their territory, the hunters were already at a disadvantage.
Why?
Because the Pehars were exceptionally skilled at using the terrain to their advantage.
And eventually...
The hunters became the hunted.
The Pehar Insect Flies made sure that almost no survivor escaped.
A few Pehars were stationed around the borders of their territory, while the rest remained deep within the forest.
They essentially created a Chakravyuh, trapping hunters inside their territory and making sure that almost none of them could escape.
But the Pehars weren't merely physically dangerous.
They were excellent manipulators as well.
They could somehow communicate with certain domesticated animals and manipulate them into helping the Pehars.
For example, whenever a large-scale raid was planned, those animals could communicate with the Pehars and warn them in advance.
To prevent the hunters from noticing this communication network, the Pehars sometimes used birds.
Sometimes even fish.
It was an absurdly sophisticated system.
Pehar Insect Flies were usually non-carnivorous.
However, they loved feeding on hunters.
They didn't harm other living beings.
Their hostility was directed exclusively toward members of the Hunter Clans.
Support and communication are tools that can greatly enhance one's hunting abilities.
Even some sorcerers from our Society had once landed on that planet.
They wandered through the forest and eventually encountered the Pehar Insect Flies.
So what happened?
The Pehars didn't attack them.
Even though the sorcerers looked similar to the Hunter Clans.
Why?
Because the Pehars immediately recognized their threat level and superior intelligence.
How?
Analysis.
One must understand the difference between one's own strength and that of the opponent.
Without that knowledge, one can never truly win a battle.
The Pehars became passive toward the human sorcerer team, allowed them to travel through the forest, and eventually left them alone.
I was completely intrigued.
Sir Utham continued teaching us through stories like this.
Every lesson was disguised as an interesting tale, yet each one contained something useful.
By the time the class ended, everyone was smiling and had learned something new.
As I walked out with my notebook, something suddenly clicked in my mind.
I needed all of those abilities to land a single attack on Master Krishna.
Predicting his actions would be difficult.
So instead, I needed to manipulate the circumstances themselves.
I had to direct events in such a way that everything eventually favored my "hunt."
I bit my thumbnail.
I was sure Master Krishna wouldn't go all out against me.
But he would make certain that the training wasn't easy.
I needed to meet his expectations.
With that thought in mind, I ran toward my apartment.
As soon as Pratik left, Krishna emerged from behind a pillar.
He had been there the entire time.
[Krishna]: You should have considered the enemy's presence as well.
He sighed.
[Krishna]: You couldn't even detect me spying on your plans, boy.
Krishna folded his arms.
[Krishna]: Still, it seems like he might actually come up with something interesting this time.
A faint smile appeared on his face.
[Krishna]: I'll make this test considerably harder for him.
He paused.
[Krishna]: And I'll spy on him again when he makes his final plan.
Krishna calmly walked away.
To be continued...