The next morning, right before their flight back to New York, Phong was met with something he did not expect.
Preparation.
Real preparation.
Not the kind that came from him dragging answers out of people. Not the kind that happened only after a crisis forced everyone to sharpen up. This time, when he stepped into the hotel lounge with coffee in hand and notes half sorted in his head, Team Nemean was already there, already waiting, and already holding files on their next opponent.
For a second, Phong just stood there.
Dominic noticed first.
"What?"
Phong looked around the room. Jake had a tablet open. Jack had printed pages with highlighted lines and handwritten notes in the margin. Joanne was scrolling through archived clips and forum posts with a focus she normally only gave to gossip or things she wanted to make fun of later. Janet had built what looked like a cross-reference list. Séline and Camille sat together with a laptop and several translated pages. Alexei had somehow found old interviews. Emma had a legal pad and three different color-coded tabs, which looked so aggressively Emma that Phong almost laughed.
"You all did research," Phong said.
Jake shrugged.
"We nearly got clowned by Boston."
Joanne did not even look up from her screen. "Turns out public humiliation is a decent motivator."
That got a quiet huff out of Alex from the window seat.
The near-loss against the Boston Jokers had done something useful after all. It had hit Team Nemean in the exact spot where they needed hitting. Not in confidence alone, but in complacency. They had grown too used to Alex walking into a ring and becoming the answer to everything. Emma's marketing had not helped. The hype, the narrative, the way the public started treating Team Nemean like a myth in motion. Even if none of them said it aloud until now, it had gotten into their blood.
Dominic admitted it first.
"We got overconfident."
Simple. Direct. Hard to argue with.
Emma, to her credit, did not dodge her own share.
"I helped with that," she said, pen twirling once between her fingers. "The brand building, the media push, the repeated narrative that Alexandra Vogel could solve any problem by herself." She met Phong's gaze calmly. "That was good for public image. Not so good for team discipline."
Alex did not seem offended.
If anything, she looked relieved to hear it said plainly.
Phong sat down slowly.
Good, he thought.
Good. Learn now, not later.
The next opponents were the New Jersey Rangers.
Technically, they were being hosted in New York for this round, and Team Nemean would be the home side welcoming them into Yankee Stadium. But everyone in the room knew the New Jersey Rangers were not some easy away team dressing. Philadelphia roots, regional fans, northeastern grit, and a roster built in a way that made them much harder to read than the Jamesons or Boston Jokers.
Jake, Jack, and Joanne had done the first set of digging, so Dominic nodded them forward.
Jake pushed the tablet around so the others could see.
"The captain is Kenai Haida," he said. "Class: Spirit Gunslinger. Level thirty-nine."
That alone was enough to make Phong pay closer attention.
Rare classes always mattered.
Jake continued.
"Online records say Josh approached him first before the Death Peak push."
Now that got a reaction.
Alex's eyes narrowed.
Joanne looked up from her own screen. "And Kenai turned him down."
"Smart man," muttered Janet.
Jake nodded.
"Apparently he wanted nothing to do with Josh's ego crusade."
Jack added the second part.
"He still fought during the Bamboo Black Ant march though. Heavy hitter. One of the names that kept coming up in the reports."
That was enough to make Emma lean in.
She had seen the Bamboo Black Ant disaster from a command perspective, which meant when she spoke now, everyone listened.
"Spirit Gunslinger is not just rare," she said. "It's dangerous in ways people underestimate." She tapped the side of the file. "Kenai carries a pistol carved from wood. The barrel is made to resemble an indigenous totem pole. Each animal spirit on the carving can be invoked into the shot."
Phong's brows drew together slightly.
Emma went on.
"The class uses less mana than standard spell-shooting classes, and the shots behave almost alive. They can track. They can arc. They can home in depending on the spirit invoked."
Joanne gave a low whistle.
"So he's annoying."
Emma looked at her.
"He's more than annoying. He's efficient."
That was the kind of wording Phong paid attention to. Efficient fighters were worse than flashy ones. Then it was Janet, Dominic, and Alexei's turn.
They had focused on the second member of the Rangers.
"Tara Inuit," Janet said. "Black Typhooner."
That name alone sounded like trouble. Dominic took it from there.
"She sits on the border between barbarian and caster. Dual axes. Wind generation. Doesn't fight the way you'd expect."
Alexei, who had clearly watched enough footage to start enjoying her style in a technical sense, explained further.
"She conjures wind like a dedicated caster would. Big area control. Pressure. Forced movement." He lifted a finger. "Then once she rages, the mana stops acting like spell output and starts converting into raw physical reinforcement."
Jake frowned. "So the usual anti-caster play gets you killed."
"Exactly," said Dominic.
Emma added the detail that made the room go quieter.
"Be careful of her weapons."
Everyone looked at her.
"Wings of Ascension," Emma said. "That's the pair of axes she carries." She paused. "I suspect they're relic-grade."
Now that mattered. Not because relics were common. Because Team Nemean had one. Eyeless Heaven. And everyone who had seen what a relic could do now understood how much even one unknown object could distort a match.
Next came Séline and Camille.
They had focused on Koda Angaiak, and the moment his class came up, Séline's attention sharpened in a way Phong recognized. Not fear. Kinship with a rival line.
"Koda is a Soul Warrior," Camille said.
"That's another branch of Soul Fist's base class," Séline added immediately. "Different evolution path."
Phong looked at her. "Meaning?"
Séline folded her arms and explained.
"Soul Fist leans elemental. Expression through force, discharge, and shaping external mana pressure." She glanced down at her own hands, perhaps thinking of dǒu for a second, then back up. "Soul Warrior doesn't do that. It imbues the body with animal spirits instead."
Camille picked up where her sister-in-arm left off.
"He changes stance by spirit. Different animal, different movement, different mana profile, different pressure."
Jake whistled.
"So he's flexible?"
"Very," said Séline. "He can become a different fighter depending on what he calls."
That made Koda dangerous for exactly the reason Dominic disliked. Fighters who could change range, timing, and rhythm mid-match made hard counters harder to trust.
Finally, Alex took the last piece. She had handled the coach.
"And fourth player who was also their head coach," she said.
Phong glanced toward her.
She had clearly done the deepest read here.
"Denahi Tlingit," she said. "Class: Ranger, evolved into Curses Archer."
That sounded ugly already. Alex continued.
"He's not Adam Choi. That was better."
A few people smiled at the comparison.
"But he shouldn't be underestimated." Alex's voice remained flat and precise. "Ex-special forces. First-day dungeon diver. Experience before the system, experience after it. His whole class line is built around ranged pressure, debuff application, and battlefield control."
Phong listened without interrupting.
Alex crossed one leg over the other and kept speaking.
"Unlike Adam, Denahi might not build a ninety-three percent prediction trap. But he's the kind of coach who knows what pressure looks like before it forms. And as a fourth player, he gives them extra flexibility in format reads."
Emma nodded once. "Which means they can pivot faster than most teams if the first matchup goes wrong."
There it was. The whole shape of the Rangers now sat on the table.
Kenai Haida. Spirit Gunslinger. Rare and efficient.
Tara Inuit. Black Typhooner. Half caster, half barbarian, likely carrying relic axes.
Koda Angaiak. Soul Warrior. Flexible stance fighter.
Denahi Tlingit. Curses Archer, experienced coach, dangerous reader of field dynamics.
Phong sat back and let the information settle. The room was quieter than it would have been a week ago. That alone told him they had learned something.
No one was joking now about Alex solving the group stage by herself. No one was coasting on her reputation.No one was assuming the world would arrange itself neatly a round Team Nemean's comfort.
Good.
Very good, in fact
He started thinking immediately.
Which was, to everyone else present, the sign to stop interrupting.
The flight to New York passed under the weight of that thinking.
Phong looked out the window for a while, then back down at the notes, then across the aisle toward Dominic, then at Alex, then back down again. He was not just sorting matchups. He was sorting what the Rangers expected Team Nemean to do, what they thought Boston had revealed, and how quickly they themselves would adapt to Alex's temporary absence from the field.
Because that was the central problem now.
Alex could not participate this time. And the whole league knew it. By the time they landed and the convoy began the ride toward Yankee Stadium, Phong had already started sketching rough trees of possibility in his head.
The stadium itself looked different from the other venues they had visited so far.
Bigger, louder, more polished for spectacle.
Maine had been hometown pride and cold weather loyalty. Boston had been sharp-edged sports hunger. New York was something else entirely. It was scale. A city that believed nothing mattered unless millions looked at it.
The whole outer district around Yankee Stadium had been converted into league territory. Banners hanging from elevated rails. Sponsor screens built into temporary structures. Security checkpoints at every entry line. Fans packed against barricades. Street vendors reinvented into league-merch sellers overnight. Giant posters of Team Nemean already hung near the main gate, even with Alex barred from the match.
That made Phong think again about Emma's marketing, and about how close they had come to becoming prisoners of their own image.
In the pre-game interview area, the press pounced on Dominic first. That made sense. With Alex sidelined by rule, he was the face of the match until proven otherwise.
"Are you opening for Team Nemean today?"
"What exactly is that shield?"
"Where did Eyeless Heaven come from?"
"What is Team Nemean's strategy now that Alexandra Vogel cannot participate?"
Dominic handled all of them with the easy control Phong had come to depend on. He never lied directly. Never gave away anything useful.
He spoke with the confidence of a fighter who knew his place and a captain who knew when not to feed a hungry media line. He called Eyeless Heaven "a personal asset." He said Team Nemean had multiple answers, not just one. He did not confirm he would open. He did not deny it either.
Then came the Rangers.
Kenai Haida stepped into the microphone line and, to Phong's surprise, carried himself with less theater than most captains at this level. He was not loud. Not arrogant in the polished Josh way. Just certain.
"We've got nothing to fear," Kenai said. "And we're looking forward to meeting Team Nemean in the ring."
That line played well.
Not because it insulted anyone. Because it sounded like a warrior's answer instead of a soundbite. Phong watched him as he said it.
Spirit Gunslinger.
Rare class. Strong fundamentals. Enough self-command not to waste words. Yes, he thought. This is going to be ugly.
Back in the locker room, the noise of the stadium became a dull living pressure through the walls. Phong spread the notes one more time. The team settled around him with the new habit they had built over the past week. Not waiting passively, but thinking with him. Ready to challenge, suggest, adjust.
He appreciated that more than he said aloud.
"New Jersey Rangers are hard to read," he admitted.
That got no argument.
Dominic leaned against one locker, arms folded. "You're not opening me."
It wasn't a question.
Phong shook his head.
"No."
Everyone looked at him. Then he explained.
"Dominic hard counters exactly one of them cleanly."
"Koda," said Séline.
Phong nodded.
"He half-counters Tara." He glanced toward Dominic. "But Kenai and Denahi are bad matchups now that people know what Eyeless Heaven does. The New Jersey Rangers lost 1 member against Boston Jokers on the first match, but they had a perfect sweep on the second. Right now, all 4 members are available to field."
Dominic did not argue with that. Spirit Gunslinger and Curses Archer were exactly the sort of ranged pressure classes that could force him into bad tempo if they respected the shield and played around it correctly.
Phong looked down again, then up, then down once more.
The team let him think. No one rushed him.
Outside, the crowd was already building toward the opening announcements. Somewhere in that noise waited the New Jersey Rangers, a team disciplined enough not to overperform in public and dangerous enough not to need it.
Phong drew one quiet breath, made the final decision in his head, and lifted his gaze.
He knew who they would send first.
But that answer, like any good one, would have to wait until the ring demanded it.