When last we checked in on Apparently, Disillusioned Adventurers Will Save the World, the Survivors were gearing up for a "bareknuckle math" battle against Nick's ex-girlfriend and her new (old?) beau, a tigerman named Leon. "Gearing up" involved Nick was fistfighting werewolves in a cave, while Karan tries to learn math.
Over a third of volume 5 is the actual contest. Where the previous volume focused on Nick's efforts to prepare for the fight, we really only see enough punching to establish Leon's strategy. He plays defense, passing up opportunities to do major damage to Nick, while just throwing enough punches not to be suspicious. That's because he's counting on Claudine to win the math challenges, each of which will grant him a free hit at the start of the next round.
So the focus is on Karan - struggling to do math in front of a crowd, Nick taking hits every time she falls short - and Claudine. With Claudine, we learn why she operates like she does, and it's essentially because she doesn't think she's good enough at anything to succeed in a straightforward manner. Not a strong fighter, not a brilliant mind, not that pretty, not that slick a thief. These are her assessments, not mine. So she does what ever it takes to get ahead, and resents people who try to hold her to their morals, like Nick.
The denouement comes when Tiana suggests they hurry this along by combining all the math rounds into one. Sure, that means the loser will take multiple rounds worth of punches, but Nick's fine with it, and Leon is too. For good reason, as the Survivors have figured out how Leon's group is cheating (thanks to a little investigating Zem did by talking to club hostess girls), and use the added pressure and time of the tougher questions to push Claudine to use it, so her lifeline could get caught in the act.
The funny bit is, the guy helping via "telepathy orb" isn't even a math whiz. He's still having to use textbooks and an abacus to figure out the answers. At least he can read. Most of the spectators were amazed at the fact Karan and Claudine can do basic arithmetic.
With Leon's crew seemingly locked up for all their scams, and the people they cheated lining up for recompense, it's time for relaxation. Nick has another conversation with the idol he's so obsessed with, then gets dragged to a casino by Tiana, who encourages him to find more to enjoy in life than just idol concerts. That seems like a violation of the rule the party established about not judging or interfering in how the others spend their share of the funds, but it also shows how Tiana and Nick's relationship is different from Nick and Karan's, which was so much the focus in the first 3 volumes.
Where Nick was watching out for Karan and helping her feel more confident, Tiana comes off as the experienced adult when dealing with Nick. She seems to have made peace with her fiance's betrayal, unlike Nick with Claudine or his old party. She could just be better at hiding it, but she admits she's not the sort to hold back her feelings.
It may be she's realized married life with her fiance wasn't going to be fulfilling, that she has a better sense of what she wants in life than Nick does. Nick doesn't even seem entirely sure why he was so hellbent on getting his old party to a higher rank, let alone what he wants for himself. But he is, as he and the rest of the party note, a worrier, always thinking about what can go wrong. Which is a trait I share, and means Nick's as uncomfortable in a casino as I am.
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