Gladiators of Warsong

by Thomas K. Carpenter

  "It's another thing to do after we beat each clan, but it'll be worth it. They'll gain in magic and morale and maybe even levels and make the clan a tighter unit," said Alex.

  "Nothing can stop us, Battleleader," said Sophia.

  "More like, everyone wants to stop us," said Alex.

  Sophia tilted her head, the corners of her eyes crinkling. "I know, Alex. I'm just trying to keep a positive attitude. They're going to do everything they can to stop us from winning, aren't they?"

  "Yes," said Alex with a sigh, "yes they are. But we've got things that they don't have that will help us win."

  "What?" asked Sophia.

  "You," said Alex, winking. "I couldn't do this without you."

  "Thank you, Battleleader," said Sophia. "That means a lot to me."

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Two days later, it was their turn in the battle circle with the Death Frogs. Their banner was the body of a frog with a skull head. They took on the grim personas of their clan totem by painting their faces like skulls.

  "They really could use work on their edging," said Sorrow with a tiny disapproving head shake as he stared across the circle. "It looks like they were finger-painting with their feet."

  "Sloppy with face paint hopefully means sloppy in the circle," said Alex, "but I doubt it."

  There would be five matches with the Death Frogs, which would require her to use some of the newcomers in the fights. She was nervous about putting them in the circle, not because of fighting ability, but the betrayal from Tormane still haunted her thoughts. But if she was going to keep climbing the clans, she would need to fight more matches.

  After a long discussion with Sophia, Alex placed the stones for four ranged and Mancalf into the bag because they'd been unbeatable in the practice matches in the longhouse. The archers had learned how to bend the arrows over Mancalf's gravitational field, which meant they could avoid shields.

  The hilltop arena was packed with opposing battleleaders. Everyone had come out to watch her fight the Death Frogs. During the other battles, most of the clan leaders stayed in their camps.

  Her Bravebears were matched against a mixed mage and warrior side. True to her expectations, the four ranged, bending the volleys around Mancalf, decimated the mages in the first ten seconds of battle, leading to a quick victory.

  Clan Bravebear has won the match!

  Quest Progress: Win the clan battle with Death Frogs – 1 win

  You have gained conquest points: 45 CP

  Unfortunately, the next match didn't go off as smoothly. She'd sent Blaze with a group of four shield warriors, hoping to pull off the surround and enflame trick. But as soon as the match started, the opposing mage locked Blaze down in a cage of ice.

  The mage strained as he fed his spell faez, counteracting the flame Blaze tried to produce to melt the cage.

  While this war of wills was happening, her shield warriors panicked, looking back to her for instructions. But nothing she could say would prepare them for a battle that would be fought one-on-one, and they quickly fell.

  The shared grins from the opposing clan leaders infuriated her.

  "Merlin's hairy balls," said Alex. "That was a disaster."

  "I'm sorry, Alex," said Sophia. "I should have prepared the shield warriors better. They don't know how to fight a pitched battle."

  "No, my fault, not yours. I've been relying on that trick for too long. Finally someone found a way to counter it. Now every clan is going to train a frost mage to cage Blaze," said Alex, watching as the Battleleader of the Death Frogs consulted with Judith of Fallen Phoenix.

  "What's next?"

  "Me, you, Nayiri, and two healers," said Alex.

  "What? We haven't trained together. What's the strategy?" asked Sophia.

  "The healers keep us up, and the three of us freelance our way to victory," said Alex. "The three of us individually are better than any Death Frog."

  "You can't be serious," said Sophia.

  "I am. We need to show the other teams that we're not just tactics. They need to respect our fighting prowess as much as our cunning, so don't hold anything back. We need to embarrass this team," said Alex, jaw pulsing with intensity.

  "Count me in," said Nayiri.

  The idea settled into Sophia, resulting in a smirk. "Let's battle."

  As Alex positioned herself in the middle of the circle, she instructed her healers, "Don't use a spell unless we get below half."

  The two healers glanced at each other and shrugged.

  When the fight began, Alex mesmerized the healer in back with Whip Tricks at the same time that Nayiri dove under the shield of the nearest warrior, slicing his calves with her daggers.

  The big brute across from Sophia grunted as he raised his massive two-handed sword in challenge, and she responded by tipping her blade in invitation. He charged her, bringing his blade up for an overhead blow, which due to the weight of her weapon would require a counter block.

  The crowd tensed in anticipation of the impact between two heavy strength warriors. Sophia waited until the big brute's weapon was coming down before ducking beneath it as her own sword morphed into twin scimitars.

  Her two-handed sword was too large to nimbly maneuver, but the scimitars were made for quick strikes. Sophia raked them across his sides, leaving bloody wounds.

  The fight progressed without the Bravebears taking a single blow. Alex kept the healer mezzed, flung the archer's bow from the circle, and danced around the sword and shield warrior opposite of her, while Sophia and Nayiri made fools of their opponents, taking them down one slice at a time. The healers stood in back, picking at their fingernails in boredom. When the match was finished, the arena was deadly silent.

  Clan Bravebear has won the match!

  Quest Progress: Win the clan battle with Death Frogs – 2 wins

  +75 Renown for Bravebear Clan

  +20 Morale for Bravebear Clan

  Special Achievement Reached: You have won an overwhelming victory in the battle circle!

  You have gained conquest points: 1,085 CP

  You have gained experience: 5,000 XP

  You have gained a unique skill point: +1 Leadership

  Alex marched to the far end of the circle where the Death Frog battleleader and Judith stood.

  "It looks like her advice got you real far, you're down two to one," said Alex before she marched back to Sophia, Nayiri, and the rest of the Bravebears.

  "Why piss her off?" asked Sophia.

  "I don't want them to think rationally. Emotion interferes with good strategy," said Alex.

  Sophia raised her eyebrow. "What about you?"

  "I've got it under control," said Alex, even though she wasn't entirely sure. Her heart was jumping around in her chest.

  Out of gladiators with a unique class, Alex had to rely on her regular warriors for the next battle. As her blood cooled, she reckoned with the idea that she might have erred in throwing the three of them into the battle circle together.

  The only good point about the fight was she'd gotten bonus CPs and leveled her Leadership skill to 10, which made it Tier Two, giving her clan a +10% effectiveness. Overall, her personal and clan abilities gave the clan a +20% increase.

  Alex tried to spend the 500 CPs she'd earned from the special achievement, but the game wouldn't allow her to spend them in the middle of a clan battle.

  The next match pitted her group of two warriors and two rogues with a healer against a mix of fighters and healers.

  Alex thought they had a chance when they took the first enemy warrior down, but then an unassuming warrior with dark skin and a shock of white in his curly black hair touched the fallen warrior, reviving him for the battle.

  "What the Abyss?" exclaimed Alex.

  "A paladin," said Sophia, frowning.

  The reversal turned the tide, and rather than a close win, it became a close loss.

  "Last match," said Nayiri.

  "Yeah," said Alex, putting a hand to her chin
. She had another mixed group like the last, but her gut felt like it was filled with worms. "We're not going to win a straight-up fight. I shouldn't have sent us in the third match, wasting our best gladiators. It was stupid. The final team isn't ready."

  The Death Frogs had placed their stones in the bag. Everyone in the arena was waiting for them.

  "What do I do? It's not like we have a lot of options left," said Sophia.

  Alex did a quick review of her equipment, hoping to spark an inspiration, and one came after she looked into her Handysack.

  "Put the strongest remaining gladiators in the bag," she said, "and bring me five shields."

  Nayiri furrowed her brow, but ran off to collect them, while Alex gathered her team around and gave them instructions along with two long ropes. They looked at her like she was crazy, especially because the group had a mage in it. He barely knew how to hold the shield, but he looked like he could have been a bodybuilder by the definition in his arms.

  When the match started, her five gladiators had crouched together in a line, holding their shields before them in a wall. The other side had a mixed group, including a mage and a healer. With uneasy glances and shouted instructions from other battleleaders, they spread out on their side, expecting her shield warriors to try and knock them out of the arena for the win.

  As her team ran forward, they spread out, revealing a double line of ropes between them. The enemy mage fired a few force spikes, but otherwise, the other team braced for impact, not quite understanding the danger.

  Instead of running at the others, pairs of her shield warriors, a pair on the left and a pair on the right, ran around them, each wrapping an enemy in a double-binded rope. The ropes, which had been tied between her first and second, and fourth and fifth warriors, but loose in the middle, had confused the enemy team into inaction. Before they could counter the tactic, the pairs lifted up their captured warriors and tossed them over the short wall, making the odds five to three.

  While the other team was individually better, losing 40% of their side gave her team the advantage and they won the final match.

  Clan Bravebear has won the match!

  Quest Progress: Win the clan battle with Death Frogs – 3 wins

  Quest Completed: Win the clan battle with Death Frogs

  Quest Chain III: Challenge another clan to battle and win the match (20,000 XP / 2,000 CP)

  +400 Renown for Bravebear Clan

  +22 Morale for Bravebear Clan

  You have gained experience: 15,000 XP

  You have gained conquest points: 1,582 CP

  You have gained a unique skill point: +1 Cunning Strategist

  While the match had been going on, Judith had worked her way over so she was standing right beneath Alex's location when it was finally over.

  With her lips contorted with victory, Judith said to Alex, "I challenge you."

  But when nothing happened, Judith looked around her.

  "I challenge you," she said again, more emphatically.

  Then the form of Alex transformed into Nayiri, who had used her changeling ability to masquerade as her, giving the real Alex a chance to slip through the crowd with her hood up to challenge the very confused Battleleader of the Granite Songbirds.

  When Judith's eyes finally found her, Alex gave her a little wave, followed by a single middle finger held high on a defiant fist.

  Judith's rage scream followed by her storming away from the battle circle brought warmth to Alex's midsection.

  "It seems some gestures are universal."

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  The match with the Granite Songbirds was three days away, which gave Alex time to select and train the next group. Before she went through the Death Frogs' gladiator list, she pulled up the Clan Management page.

  She spent 1,500 CPs to level the clan to 5, increasing effectiveness by another 5%, which left 1,231 CPs to assign.

  Next, she spent 250 CPs on leveling the craftswomen to level 3. While she planned on taking the newcomers into the Warped Forest for magic items, she couldn't make everything, and getting another rank would allow Nadia to work in chain. Zelda's level was for the same purpose, to increase the general effectiveness of the clan.

  But after that, Alex focused on individual gladiators since having a key member on a battle circle team was more important than spreading out the abilities. Her uniquely classed gladiators seemed to have a larger capacity for improvisation. So she increased Nayiri, Sophia, Blaze, and Mancalf to level 4, which left 6 CPs.

  Alex didn't worry too much about who she chose from the Death Frogs, going for maximum CP value rather than trying to fill any holes. Since she had a base number of the various classes, she was more focused on getting them leveled up and integrated into the clan.

  After choosing, Alex waited for them at the longhouse, greeting them upon their arrival and giving them a version of the speech she'd given the others. By the reluctant nods, it appeared they at least appreciated the introductions, especially when she told them about going into the Warped Forest for magical items.

  "Can I have a word with you, Nayiri?" Alex said to the changeling after dismissing the new gladiators to begin their training with Sophia.

  "You can have more than a word," said Nayiri with her tongue playfully touching her lower lip.

  "Later," said Alex, resisting the urge to pull Nayiri into her arms. "I have a job for you."

  "For me?" asked Nayiri with an eyebrow raised.

  "One uniquely matched to your talents," said Alex.

  "Being able to roll my tongue and hum at the same time?" asked Nayiri.

  Memories shot through Alex's mind, momentarily distracting her. "Uhm, not that, but...let's remember that for later. I need you to be a spy. The other clans are sharing information about us, but we know little about them. I need someone to sneak into their area and take notes about what each clan is good at."

  "I thought you've been watching the other clan battles?" asked Nayiri.

  "They're vanilla fights. Clearly they're holding back, battling each other with only basic tactics, leaving the real stuff for us. It's like this whole tournament is a farce," said Alex.

  "That's probably true," said Nayiri. "I think Tormane kept us down so we'd be an easy target for the other clans. After clan battles, they'd get together in the longhouse and drink like old friends."

  "So you'll do it?" asked Alex.

  "Of course. I'm excited that I can be useful to the clan outside of the battle circle. I've been a little jealous of Sophia's position in the clan, though I understand why you picked her as your second."

  "Thank you," said Alex.

  Nayiri winked before she strolled away, adding over her shoulder, "See you tonight, babe."

  Next, she approached Sophia, who was instructing a group of new recruits in the proper technique for blocking with a shield. Alex waited until she was finished before speaking with the faithful weapon master.

  "How are they coming?" she asked.

  "More bad habits than good, but I'll fix them. Do you need something?" asked Sophia, idly twirling a short spear in her left hand.

  "More ideas," said Alex.

  Sophia tilted her head, making her loose Afro quiver. "What do you mean?"

  "For the battle circle. We can't just rely on the same tactics that worked in the past. I nearly cost us the clan battle by pulling out the same old Blaze trick. They knew exactly how to counter it. We need new ideas, new tactics," said Alex.

  "But that's what you do best," said Sophia.

  "I'm not going to stop thinking about them, but as my second-in-command, I need you coming up with them too," said Alex.

  Sophia looked aghast. "But how? I know how to fight, but not how to strategize."

  "Creativity doesn't happen in a vacuum. We need to experiment with other weapons, armors, ropes, barrels, whatever works to win the fight. We can use the best ideas in the battle circle," said Alex.

  "I...I suppose I can try," said Sophia.

/>   "I bet you'll do better than that," said Alex.

  "When do we start?" asked Sophia.

  "Right now," said Alex.

  "But how?" asked Sophia.

  Alex searched the room for an appropriate weapon to experiment with, but not finding one, peeked into her Handysack. As soon as she saw the nets, she knew they'd be perfect. They'd been using the nets to capture warped elementals, but now they could use them in the fighting arena.

  "Take this net and come up with ten different ways we can use them," said Alex.

  Sophia regarded the tangled net in her hands as if she'd been asked to eat a dead snake.

  "What do we say in the battle circle?" asked Alex.

  "Every fight is a puzzle," said Sophia with a sigh.

  Alex finished it for her, giving her shoulder a squeeze of encouragement. "You just have to figure out how you're going to win."

  Chapter Thirty

  The next month was a blur for Alex. Every three days she had a match with a new clan, then after they won, she picked new gladiators from the losers and met them in the longhouse. Then the following day, she would take them into the Warped Forest to cull magic items from the warped elementals.

  The fights grew in difficulty as she ran out of lower-level clans to challenge. While the Bravebears were increasing in rank and level, the competition outpaced them, requiring new tactics to win the day. Between the clan battles it became a contest to see who could come up with new ways to carve out an advantage.

  Alex brought up her character sheet, reviewing the upgrades from her last level.

  Character: Alexandria Duke

  Clan: Bravebear

  Status: Battleleader

  Level: 24

  Strength: 1

  Intelligence: 7

  Cunning: 51

  Agility: 2

  Endurance: 7

  Charisma: 1

  Class: Arcane Mastermind

  Subclass: Undecided

  Health: 411/411

  Faez: 315/315

  Armor Class: 42

  Fatigue: 0%

  XP: 3,301,030/3,500,000