"This whole thing feels weird… Why would anyone even do the last shrine, or any for that matter? Of course, they need to be deactivated eventually for the exam to progress, but there is no individual motive for anyone to make the first move. It forces us to, on some level, trust each other, unless one class completely eliminates everyone else, in which case the remaining class can just deactivate the shrines without having to worry about hurrying to the island… It would be a viable strategy to use Yuki's powers that way, but having her beat everyone all on her own might be a little much… I'm not even sure if she would be able to, in her current state of sealed power… Yet, it ultimately does not matter. Futile attempts to control my own control, that's all those rules were. If my assessment is correct, I have already won without the slightest chance of defeat, as long as class 3 remains manageable…"
They decided to split up, or more Yamato did and everyone just did as they were told. Yamato, Yuki and five other students when right around the lake, while Arina, Elara the remaining six went to the left. Of course, this meant they would only be able to activate two shrines at once, but no one questioned Yamato's decisions. After only 30 minutes of walking, they arrived at the first shrine. A stone pillar in the form of a triangular prism, which stood in a glowing circle and had some sort of runes on them. Once they came into close proximity, its bottom edge started to glow in a red light. Said light seemed to rise, like a thermometer, though very slowly which aligned with the one hour period professor Reed mentioned.
Suddenly a voice echoed through the land.
"Hey, it's me again! Yeah, I know, I know, I said that was it. My bad! Forgot to mention another thing. If your class does not deactivate at least two shrines, you will be disqualified! Same goes for when only one is left, and you did not deactivate a single one yet, since it is impossible for you to fulfill the requirements by then, and you will then be disqualified and removed from the exam area. If two classes are simultaneously at one shrine, the one that got there first will be the one that is seen as having deactivated it. If they got there together, it's a tie nothing happens until one is clearly the first, so one has to leave or be made to leave. Only full groups of five can however even make such a tie, obviously. So even if you enter together, if it's only one while you are five, your group is the only one able to start the deactivation process and thus there is no tie. You can tell by which class is currently deactivating the shrine by the color of the light, each class has their own. You will find out what your own color is by going to a shrine on your own. Haha, like I said, fell asleep while reading them again, but now it was really it! I promise! Once again, good luck!"
As Yamato had suspected, the rules had been incomplete, which was why he felt like the lack of individual motive was weird. With this new rule, another way to won open up to them. If one team deactivates four shrines, and each other class only one, both will be disqualified and the remaining class is left alone and free to reach the island. Even if one gets two, it still removes an entire class. Even getting three shrines guarantees that at least one class will be disqualified due to being unable to meet the criteria. This changed everything. Of course he only learned of this after splitting into groups of two, but it was of no consequence in the end as he would need to secure two as quickly as possible anyway, so having more than the absolute minimum on multiple shrines was the safer choice. With that in mind, the next priority would be to clear a third one. Unless of course, that is the last one, in which case getting ready to go to the island would take priority again. It just became a lot more complicated, as he now had to anticipate how the other classes would asses the situation and try to solve it, as they could either focus on getting their two deactivations, or go for more. If everyone just prioritizes getting two, going for the ones that are not fought over would make the most sense. But with that logic, everyone would deactivate two and the barrier would be deactivated. So one class has to go for fighting over shrines, while not wasting time deactivating shrines they already have control over.
In other words, if everyone plays safe, everyone gets through the first stage, but if one or more try to use this alternative strategy, everything would get messy quickly.
Yamato wondered if Yuki understood all that already, or if he would have to explain, which what answered by the sadistic shine in her eyes. So she wanted to fight with others for shrines, which was indeed very Yuki like. Due to how they split, it would technically be possible to leave together with Yuki, since in that case there would still be five remaining, and once they finished clearing the shrine, they could follow up and start clearing the shrine that Yamato and Yuki would have secured by then. Meaning that if anything went right with Arina and Elara's group, they would have three shrines in no time. Said and done, Yamato went with Yuki further along the shore, now flying since time was of the essence.
"Ah, Master, finally alone again~"
"Is something?"
"No~ Just empathizing how I like it more this way."
"Well, anyway. Once we have three shrines, we go onto positions to focus on class 3."
"Class 3? Ooh, because class 1 is not a threat at all!"
"That's right. Though, just to make sure… Do you know why that is?"
"Because of the twins of course. Once the barrier drops, everyone of your class needs to go onto the island. But since Lily and Andrew are on our side, class 1 cannot win until the two are disqualified. So the only thing we need to worry about is class 2."
"Good, you almost have it fully figured out."
"What? Only almost? I thought I had everything!"
"You missed one thing… But you will see when the time comes."
"Ah, I'm getting teased~"
"…Looks like it's down there. It is being deactivated by class 1, and even Shin is there…"
"I could take everyone out from here, Master."
"No, that won't be necessary… I have a better idea. Just follow me."
"As always~"
They landed near by and walked towards the shrine, without defensive magic or concealing their presence.
"Yamato? Didn't you listen, you can't deactivate a shrine with just two. Unless you have some guys waiting for your signal to start a surprise attack."
"There is no one but us."
"Hmm… I know. I just wanted to see if you'd buy into the bluff and try to scare me off. You're so honest, I love it."
"I don't need deception to win."
"Ah… Honesty built on pride…"
"I'm not here to contest for this shrine with you."
"That does seem to be the case… What else are you here for?"
"Let's do a little team up, what do you say?"
"…Now this is unexpected! Why would I believe you?"
"Because it's only two of us. We can't do anything with this shrine even if we beat you here."
"Why do you want to team up though…"
"It's for two reasons. First, I can't stand Maruyama. You were there, after all. I can't stand when someone talks to my girlfriend that way."
He pulled Yuki towards her, and even though she knew it was just a performance, he was bursting with joy at being referred to as his girlfriend and the close physical proximity.
"Ah… You are that close, huh… I suppose that makes sense. And the other reason?"
"Did you not ask for a fair fight? How can it be fair, if it is not a duel but a fight with involvement of a third party?"
"That… Is true. So what are you suggesting?"
"We need to prevent Maruyama from getting two shrines, so he will be disqualified and we can have a fair competition. But for that, we need to control all shrines."
"I'm following."
"So I suggest, we move out fronts forward. We steal both of the shriens in his reach, and leave him with none. Because that won't work time wise while we deactivate the shrines in our current control, we need to leave those active for now and only after stealing his, we fall back and deactivate our own. That way he has no way of fulfilling the requirements of two shrines. Even if he can hold one, with our full combined forces, we can forcefully take one."
"I see you… But we would need to move right now."
"I already told the rest of my class to move towards Maruyama, all you need to do is tell class 1 to do the same."
"…How do I know you won't just take my shrines once I move my forces to invade Maruyama?"
"I will stay here with Yuki, and you may leave up to four students here with us two. That way neither of us can deactivate the shrine, but you have a security left here."
"Counter offer… You come with me, as we invade Maruyama, and everyone leaves this shrine together. It only had about ten minutes in it anyway."
"I accept."
"Alright… I guess we are moving now."
"That we are."
"I of course lied. I did not tell Arina and the rest to attack Maruyama. How could I? We never even met up after the message about the minimum shrine deactivation requirement. I told them to hold positions and at all costs deactivate their assigned shrines, which is what they will keep on doing even now. But if I come with Shin personally, he has to trust me. And when either he or Maruyama gets beaten, I can just overwhelm the weakened survivor. In the more likely scenario that Shin wins, since he already beat class 3 pretty quickly last time, I I auto-win due to the twins preventing him from winning by getting on the island as a class. But even if Shin loses, together with Yuki it will be no problem to fall back and since we will have already secured two shrines by then, it won't even matter how many anyone else ends up getting through this move since by then the only goal is to reach the island in time, which is not affected by how many shrines one has as long as it is at least two."