Wrought Iron Devil: Gate of Blades

Colchis

The fact that you could ignore a spire being blown to pieces above you was a testament to Mind's Eye. There was no debris to worry about on your end, or the closer Issei, Iskandar and Kiba who were in their own discussion. You, Akeno, Rias, Gilgamesh, Mordred and Ravel were similarly discussing strategy for the upcoming Rating Game as Xenovia and Rossweiss clashed in a practice run.

Ravel had made the transfer to Kuoh not too long ago. Surprisingly, she was more shy, not sure of how to small talk with schoolgirls. Of the classmates her age, Koneko needed some convincing to help out by leveraging sweets. Gasper simply needed encouragement and kindness from Ravel in return. There was also the school festival coming up in which the ORC building was to become a haunted mansion of sorts, but that was for another time. Now was the time to talk tactics and strategem.

"Seems a bit obvious, but we should probably leave the weapon wielding ones to me and the Knights." You said.

"I'd agree except you're one of the better contenders for Sairaorg aside from Issei." Rias pointed out.

"Issei is better in the raw power department which counters him. And we still need intel on the remaining Peerage. It'll be close, our team symmetry against theirs."

"Perhaps not." Rias shook her head. "Sairaorg has previously stated that he would prefer to accept all of our various powers in a single fight. The higher ups involved have approved this request. And because of those particular concessions, I believe they'll make special rules for the match."

"Such as?"

"To start, they intend to hold the Rating Game in a floating city near Archduke Aegar's family. And they're planning to invite a rather large audience so they're probably not expecting it to be a very long battle. Since the Rating Game is entertainment, they'll cater to the fans."

"She's right about that." Ravel chimed in. "In fact, the games has already attracted quite a bit of attention. You're kind of famous."

"Yet these mongrels do not know of me." Gilgamesh could not help herself in complaining.

"Different world, Gilgamesh." Akeno pointed out. The blonde huffed in frustration.

"Speaking of which." Rias' brow furrowed. "Sairaorg made a more recent request. He wants to include the Servants."

"What?" You blinked in surprise. "He wants Servants involved?"

"Specifically against each other. Iskandar, Mordred and/or Gilgamesh against Beowulf." Rias added.

"But that doesn't make any sense. If he did that, then his Servant will be annihilated." Mordred stated the obvious impression from this news. "He'd be out of the war."

"I agree. It's strange he would put himself at a disadvantage like that. Maybe tomorrow we'll get the chance to hear why." Rias said.

"Tomorrow?"

"Yes. We have a press conference tomorrow. We have to be careful we don't overdo it in training today. After all, it's important that we look good for the cameras."

"Well it's a good thing I had something planned for tonight." You said. "It would be a shame to put resources to waste."

"It's the one for Kuroka and Medea right?" Ravel asked.

"Yep." You confirmed. "It took forever to come up with an idea."

But first things first, you went to talk with Rossweiss. The newly minted girlfriend would get your assessment of her spar and positive affirmation. The Valkyrie would hopefully perform better when given encouragement by her first ever boyfriend. Then you would meet with the Witch and her cat. Only the cat was in charge.