After breakfast, we were told to gather in the hall to receive the rules of the seventh and final challenge of the Mixed Outdoors Bootcamp special exam.

Unfortunately, because I was talking to Akihiro, I didn't have any chance to talk to Yukina before the final challenge begins. Well, she'll be fine though. The girl's side has been more or less decided thanks to the landslide victory Ichinose's group got yesterday.

That meant that it was the boy's side that was still in fierce competition mode. With such slim margins between the top groups, even the smallest point gains could be overturn the outcome of this special exam.

I was one of the last people to arrive, joining my group that had now shrunken down to five people at the back. Unlike yesterday's explanation, we had returned to being separated by gender.

"It's do or die time. Let's try our best to win as much as we can, even with all our handicaps."

The one who gave us those encouraging words wasn't Nakajima, our new leader, but rather the usually silent Yamamoto, who had regained his usual edge thanks to Shimada no longer breathing down his neck.

It's surprising just how much someone's personality can change based on the people around them. Yamamoto was a strong person, but while in Shimada's presence, he seemed as docile as Kishida or Nora.

Now that he was free of those chains, he now had a much more confident, almost leader-like, look about him. It would've been nice to see this side of him earlier in the exam, but it can't be helped. At least we got to see it now near the end, where it really counts.

"Yeah. Everyone might be tired, but today's the last day, so let's go all out, alright?"

Nakajima, feeling some kind of responsibility as leader, added onto Yamamoto's words half-heartedly. I didn't like that he was staring straight at me when he said "let's go all out" though.

"Ahh... it's a pain in the ass, but fine. I guess I can stop slacking for one day and actually give it my best."

Kouji, mistakenly believing Nakajima's snide comment was meant for him, promised to also go all out. Considering there was an aspect of today's challenge that he genuinely excels in, I had high hopes he would pull through.

"I'll do my best too." Kishida said.

Seeing as everyone else had said their piece, they all turned to me to see what I'd contribute. I raised an eyebrow before scratching the back of my head.

"...yeah, me too."

Somehow, they all seemed disappointed in me. Even Nakajima, the one who disliked me the most, looked at me with a gaze of admonishment.

Stepping on stage to give out the rules of the final challenge was none other than Hiden-sensei, the A Class homeroom teacher. They really like having him be the one present, huh?

"Hello and good morning everybody! I hope you've all recovered from yesterday's gruelling challenge with a well earned rest and are ready to take on what's about to come! Woooooooooo, aren't you all excited that we're nearly at the end of this thing? I know I am! After today, you'll have completed the Mixed Outdoors Bootcamp special exam, and I could not be more proud of all of you for making it this far! Well done, well done! But before I can offer more praise, one more challenge stands between you and your hard earned summer vacation! That's right, I'm talking about the final challenge! The one that will test all of your skills like never before! So, let's proceed forward with the rules, shall we?!"

From what little energy the boys could scraped together, we cheered in frightened anticipation for what was about to come.

"Alright, I hear you all loud and clear! Welcome to the final challenge, the Three Merits Assessment! As the name suggests, we'll be grading your groups on three distinct aspects! The first aspect, intelligence! Two members of each group will be taking part in a marathon of exams that lasts one hour each and cover all five core subjects!"

Now at the end, after we had played a ton, the school wanted to test our academic ability without any prior preparation. It seems they wanted to measure "natural" intelligence between groups by springing a test on us suddenly.

While there were mental aspects in certain challenges we've faced, this was the first time the school was so forthright about it. I guess the school was taking the "assessment" part of this challenge quite literally.

"The second aspect, physicality! Much like your challenge on the fifth day, two members of each group will be participating in a series of five sports related activities, including a long distance relay that covers eight kilometres in total! I hope you're not all warned out from running around yesterday, because this one's going to get your heart pumping even harder!"

In other words, the two members would have to run four kilometres each. I assume that, like in a normal relay race, each person would run one or two kilometres each before switching the bat over.

Despite the looks my group gave me, almost trying to urge me into participating in this challenge, I wasn't interested at all in doing it. After all, the third and final aspect of this challenge would be more up my alley.

"And finally, the third aspect... strategy! The remaining three members will form a team that will participate in a Vanguard tournament! In this tournament, all groups will fight against each other, earning cumulative points each time you win a game! Not only that, but you'll also get an additional bonus based on where your group ranks at the end! Finally, the two groups with the highest amount of wins will get to fight against each other in the finals, where a special bonus is up for grabs!"

There it was. The final aspect, strategy, revolved around my speciality— Vanguard.

It was the challenge I had been anticipating this entire time, and the one I wanted to do the most.

It seemed Yamamoto was waiting for this moment as well, as a confident smirk bubbled up on his face without him realising it after hearing the announcement.

"Now, now, for the groups with less than seven members, don't worry. I can see your panicked faces right now after hearing my explanation. I'm aware that, due to some circumstances, you won't be able to fill all the roles, which is why the school has come up with a measure for this exact scenario. Each group must allocate three members to the strategy aspect— this is non-negotiable, otherwise the tournament would not work. However, you can take away one member each from either the intelligence or physicality aspect! If you choose to have only one person participate in the intelligence aspect, we'll double their scores across the exams to make up for the missing person! However, if you choose to only have one person participate in the physicality aspect, they'll have to do all the things the missing person would do in addition to what they need to do as well! Do I make myself clear? Great!"

In other words, only having one person entering the written exams would double their scores. On the other hand, only having one person do the sports challenges would give them additional attempts, but they'd have to do all the work themselves.

On one hand, this might be beneficial for things like shot-put, where multiple attempts would give you an advantage. At the same time though, it might be detrimental, like in the relay race, which is probably why Hiden-sensei mentioned it beforehand.

That person would be forced to run the entire eight kilometres by themselves with no one else. At that point, it'd basically be cross-country running, so we'd need to pick someone with excellent stamina who could go the distance without exhaustion.

"We'll give you ten minutes to discuss amongst yourselves who will participate in which aspects. Afterwards, we'll make a start on the challenge! If you're doing intelligence, please follow me to the exam hall. If you're doing physicality, please follow Kawaga-sensei outside. And if you're doing strategy, please follow Anjou-sensei to the miniature war room. That's all!"

The hall became lively with chatter as the groups began assigning roles to everyone. I turned to the rest of my group.

"What should we do then..."

Nakajima sighed. Being the leader, everyone was looking at him for guidance.

"Look, I know we all decided I'd be leader, but I'm really not suited for the role. Let's just decide this between ourselves fairly."

"In that case, I'd like to nominate myself for the Vanguard challenge."

Immediately, Yamamoto took the reins and asserted what he wanted to do. Nakajima nodded.

"Yeah, sure. I heard you're good at Vanguard, so it's a perfect fit for you."

"Thank you. I'll do my best to not let our group down."

With that, Yamamoto had secured his spot on our team. I looked between Kouji and Kishida, trying to decipher what they wanted to do, but it was hard to get a read on them.

In Kouji's case, his face was plastered with pure dread. It looked like he wasn't looking forward to any of this. Meanwhile, Kishida's face remained neutral, not giving any signs of what he himself was interested in.

I glanced over to Nakajima, who seemed like he had already chosen a role in his mind. When he noticed me staring at him, he returned the stare back. I looked away, refocusing my sight on the entire group.

"I think we should decide who's doing the exams and who's doing the sports before we pick the remaining two members."

I decided to speak up to get the conversation moving along. Standing around like this would've been a waste of time. Considering we were all pretty quiet and reserved people, nothing would happen unless one of us kicked everyone else into gear.

"The exam and sports, huh... hey, aren't you pretty fast, Takanori-san? Maybe you could do the sports for us."

It was a reasonable suggestion from Kouji, but considering I wanted to participate in the Vanguard challenge, this would be a hard pass from me. However, before I could speak up, Nakajima cut in.

"Pardon my rudeness, but I don't think that's a good idea. Have you seen the state of his face? Imagine how badly injured the rest of his body is."

"...yeah, Nakajima-san's right. I'm covered in bruises from head to toe, and all my joints are still sore from running around the mountain yesterday. Under my current condition, I won't be able to perform as well as I usually do."

"Well, crap. You can count me out as well. If I'm going to do something, the intelligence's my only choice. I'm bad at Vanguard and useless at sports."

"Well, if you're fine with doing the exams, I am too. I personally wouldn't want to do them either."

"That okay with the rest of you guys?"

Yamamoto turned to Kouji.

"Hang on. Aren't you the same guy who failed all your exams on purpose during the midterms?"

"Well, I can't exactly deny that... but yeah, I am."

"So why would we trust you with the exam portion...?"

"Hey, hey. That was back in May, alright? If you look at my score from the finals, you would've seen I got Bs across the board. With no studying too!"

Kouji said it as a flex, but Yamamoto seemed disappointed in his lack of self-discipline.

"I can vouch what he said. Even though he failed all his exams in past, he's changed now. During last month's finals, he ranked the fourth highest in our class, just after Nora-san, Alice-san, and Ayano-san."

"I would've beaten them all if I had actually studied. Trust me, me and Sakigamiya used to go to the same middle school, so I know what her grades are like. And Ayano-san's only a smart ass in science, so I'd crush him in any other subject. The only one who'd give me a run for my money is Nora-san, but... heh, I think I'd still beat him in a math exam. It's my strongest subject."

Yamamoto was surprised by the amount of self-confidence Kouji had. It was just enough to convince him to let Kouji tackle the exams for our group.

"I'm still sceptical, but... with that much self belief, it's almost hard to say no. Just don't let us down, alright?"

"Yeah, I won't. I'll crush 'em, easy."

That just left Nakajima and Kishida to decide between themselves who'd do the physicality aspect.

"Kishida-san, are you much of an athlete?"

He shook his head.

"Nope. There's a reason why Shimada-san made me a hider after all. I have really bad stamina."

Considering the extra toll whoever enters the physicality aspect would take on, especially during the relay race, this was basically a dealbreaker for our group in sending Kishida in. It would be a huge throw for us.

"...looks like it'll have to be me after all."

Nakajima sighed, but he didn't seem upset by it. If anything, he looked relieved that he ended up being chosen more than anything else.

"Takanori-san and Kishida-san will join me in the Vanguard tournament then."

"Yep, that's fine by me."

And with that, our roles were decided.

Kouji would do the intelligence aspect. Nakajima would do the physicality aspect. And me, Yamamoto, and Kishida would do the strategy aspect.

Saying our farewells and wishing each other luck, we all went our separate ways, heading straight to the destination of our final challenge.