ARC II chapter 18

George looked at the gathered Oarai tanks. There were only 10 of them, because of the regulations for the 1st and 2nd round allowing only 10 tanks. There were: Panzer IV H, Tiger (P), his commander's Tiger I E, M3 Lee, Hetzer (Flag tank of the match), Type 89B I-Go, Char B1 Bis, Mark IV Male, Type 3 Chi-Nu and the recently by Tsuneo updated Sturmgeshütz III G.

He knew that Boris and his crew protested at first against this lineup, but they gave up, when Traf told them that they'll be in the next match instead of the Leopon team, who agreed to that. After all, their mechanics needed at least some rest to help Tsuneo later. He also was aware that BC Freedom was a fractured school, but what he had heard from the more reasonable commanders… there was a possibility that the school might have something prepared to catch them off-guard.

And then, when only one minute was left until the start of the match… their enemy for the match arrived. They had four ARL 44s, five SOMUA S35s and one FT 17, the latter one making him nearly start laughing. Their commander was either brave or extremely stupid to bring the old thing into the match, but so were they with the Mark IV and its overly pirate-like crew…

They even put on a show of fighting each other, but when he looked at Traf, Erwin and Miho Nishizumi, he knew that they didn't buy it. "That acting is very good," Takashi muttered from next to him and George nodded at that. And then, they waited another five minutes for the enemy commanders to calm down only for…

"Why should I do it?" Marie, the captain of the enemy team asked, when they were supposed to say good luck to each other and proceeded to eat a cake that she brought from nowhere. "I would've expected that more from Itsumi than her to be honest," Takashi whispered and George noticed that not only he and Traf nodded slightly at that.

And after that, they finally were allowed to crew their tanks. George went to the radioman's hatch, only for Traf to stop him. "You'll be the loader today. I'll need to fire faster against those ARLs," he announced and George nodded, before climbing up the tank and sliding into the loader's position, hands already in gloves and ready to grab an AP round.

Only then, he heard Momo's slightly embarrassed voice shout something into the comms that sounded like: "Pantsu vor!", making him snort at that.

Marie looked at her enemies' position when hers and Andou's crews were playing criquette, while eating another cake. Mmmhmm… cakes! she thought in delight as another slice ended in her mouth. She simply loved them! Oh, how she wanted to eat only cakes until she is on her deathbed… the taste and texture of cakes was simply too good for her to ignore them-

"Bon ami!" Andou shouted, breaking her train of thought easily. "What?" she lazily asked, barely even breaking eye contact with her cake. "The enemy Tigers split up from their formation and are pursuing the rest of our forces," Andou finished her report and Marie nodded at that. Her trap was slowly closing around Oarai. Oh, how she wanted to achieve the same thing as Anzio and reach at least the quarter finals!

"Good. Don't let them get into a position that would hinder us," she responded finally and Andou quickly relayed her order, almost managing to not bicker with Oshida. The key word being almost. But then, the unexpected happened, when she started eating another cake. "Bon ami! The enemy Tigers somehow managed to take down two ARLs and one SOMUA in under ten seconds!" Andou shouted and Marie gulped down a spoonful of cake, before ordering retreat to her forces.

This is getting out of hand quickly! She thought and jumped into her FT 17 (37 mm gun variant) with such grace and flexibility that many envied her even if all she ate were cakes.

Viewing platform for VIP #1

Erika looked at the screen with shock in her eyes. What the two Tigers of Oarai managed just now was… "Blitzkrieg at its finest…" Fritz muttered in shock, taking the words from her tongue before she had any chance to say them. But, she managed to compose herself and not lash out at the boy.

She was doing it for Koume's sake, not for him! I don't know what the hell she is seeing in him! she thought as she caught from the corner of her eye her second-in-command tried to "discreetly" hold Fritz's hand in her own. If Erika needed further evidence about Koume being in love… she'll just need to look back only a month ago, when Koume pleaded to let Fritz and his crew stay in the team.

And then, she shook her head and refocussed on the match to clear her thoughts about it.

Viewing platform for VIP #2

Kay knew that this might be one of her last chances to do it and she was still reviewing her plan in her mind. This should work, she thought and smiled as she excused herself under the guise of nature calling her and walked towards Darjeeling's position after she was out of Naomi's and Alisa's sight.

And as she reached the right distance, she greeted Darjeeling, only to "stumble" and fall on her, their lips connecting in a kiss. She noticed that the shock in Darjeeling's eyes slowly faded as she deepened the kiss, instead of breaking it, their surroundings becoming less and less pronounced, but the feeling of their lips only grew stronger.

It felt like forever for them until their lips parted, but the kiss really lasted for a few seconds. "That was… wow," Kay muttered as she reluctantly parted herself from Darjeeling, only then noticing the shocked expression on Rosehip, Assam and Orange Pekoe, but which soon turned into a smirk on Rosehip's face… Oh no… Kay thought and sat down next to Darjeeling, her smile renewing at the sight of her plan being successful.

Yukari blinked in surprise, when she heard about the elaborate trap to split their heavies from the main force, try to hold them off and maybe let the unoccupied forces go straight against the Flag. "They seem to be retreating towards either the bridge or maze. Be on high alert," Trafalgar's voice suddenly announced and she grabbed a random shell, ready to load it into the cannon breech.

"We'll go for the bridge," Miho responded and Yukari looked at her in shock. "We must spring their trap to take the focus of their tanks off of our Tigers," she explained without even looking back at her. All of them knew that it was a very risky move to do it, but also necessary for their enemy to make an exploitable mistake, even if they didn't like the idea of it at all.

And when they reached the middle of the bridge a few minutes later… Two SOMUA S35s, the FT 17 and a single ARL 44 opened fire at them in tandem, but rather than hit their tanks, they destroyed the bridge, the BC Freedom's team (or what was left of it) ended up trapping them on it.