After every wave of opponents that Leo defeated, he staged the same unfortunate accident again and again after the fifth wave, which made the other rankers feel as if ambushing him out of the blue was the best tactic to take him down.
For this, he would purposefully not dodge when an attack came from his blindside and although he could sense it coming, he let it connect, just so that the others felt like they could perhaps do the same.
Mostly, when his opponents noticed that the untouchable 'TheBoss' was not invincible to sneak attacks, they started to go wild with their attacks, taking little regarding for their team-mates, and this helped Leo conserve his stamina big time, as rather than having to kill all 100 opponents by himself, he simply needed to dodge their attacks and watch them kill each other instead, greatly helping him recover his own strength reserves.
As a trade off, he had to lose 2-4% of his total HP after every wave to make this stunt look real, however, he was willing to pay this prize if it helped him conserve energy, as the biggest problem for him after facing 8 waves of enemies was not defeating them, but rather maintaining his own strength so that he could push through 10 waves more.
This fight was a marathon and not a 100 meters dash, and Leo knew it all too well.
Currently, conserving his stamina was more important than conserving his HP and hence he baited his opponents into killing one another as often as he could.
**********
(Meanwhile PinkLotus)
After being eliminated, PinkLotus logged into the livestream eager to see Leo's performance, however, the moment she logged in, the first thing that she was stunned to see was how despite having faced 4 waves of enemies already, Leo still had 100% of his HP intact.
"His speed and skill, those are the real deal…." PinkLotus murmured to herself, as she watched Leo's performance with great interest.
Then, seemingly out of nowhere, the first attack seemed to blow him away, chipping off his HP, as PinkLotus grinned watching Leo struggle.
She had already determined that the other rankers were too scared of Leo to fight him to their total potential, however, seeing him take the first hit, PinkLotus believed that they would change their approach.
"Let's see you try and come out of this…." She muttered, as just as she had expected, from that moment onwards the approach of the rankers changed significantly, however, things did not quite play out how she expected them to be.
Instead of being overwhelmed, Leo's fights became easier for him instead, as he precisely guided the attacks of his opponents against themselves, turning the situation overwhelmingly in his own favor.
"Nonono… this has to be the rankers losing their minds…. Why did they ditch their cautious approach and suddenly start behaving like horny monkeys?" PinkLotus wondered, as for a moment she thought that it was just this batch of rankers that were brainless, however, her hypothesis proved to be wrong once more and more waves entered the central room and performed similarly.
It wasn't until Leo cleared the 8th wave that she finally realized that it wasn't luck.
That Leo had not been struck because of his negligence, but more because he had orchestrated his own hit.
At the start of every wave, he dominated his opponents psychologically…. Went all out and made them feel like they had no chance.
Then…. Sneakily he always allowed himself to take a hit, losing a fraction of his HP, but in turn made the rankers lose their minds as a free for all began.
It was like he was an 'Actor' playing the role of a wounded warrior, as everytime he recreated the perfect scene again and again, and manipulated the battlefield to his own liking.
"He's terrifying….. Not only is he faster and stronger than me, but his understanding of warfare is on a completely different dimension—" PinkLotus said, her throat parching as she admitted these words.
She did not wish to believe that there was someone so far above her in this game, however, Leo's performance was undeniable.
'The only reason I lost is because I did not have the stamina to continue…. It's because I did not have it in me to conserve my strength like him, however, while he is facing wayy more opponents than I did, his stamina bar never dips below the 60% mark, as he's simply not going at 100%.
He's conserving his strength and only doing the bare minimum, as he seems to understand that this is a marathon and not a sprint.
He's a genius far beyond the likes of me' PinkLotus thought, as from that moment onwards she let out a deep sigh and began watching Leo's performance from the eyes of a fan rather than a critic.
At first she wanted to think that perhaps the gap between the two of them was not too large and that she could take him on as a rival, however, after watching him defeat the 8th wave, those ideas died as fast as they had arisen.
She was not worthy to carry his shoe, much less become his rival, as in this life at least it seemed like 'TheBoss' was always destined to stay at the top.
********
(Meanwhile Jacob)
Jacob too logged into the livestream after his defeat, and was enjoying the performance of his son with a big smile on his face.
Just like everyone else, he too worried that his son might not be able to defeat all the waves of opponents that he had to, however, once he began with his act and turned the rankers against one another, Jacob could not help but feel extremely proud of him as he started to grin from ear to ear.
"By lords…. Elena has raised a little predator. He puts the bait…. He waits for the prey to take the bait and only then does he pull the trigger.
What a ruthless boy" Jacob said in joy, as he seemed to be thoroughly enjoying the stream at this point.