by Andrew Rowe
I nodded. I hoped to go to at least a few of the elemental temples eventually.
We kept chatting for a while after that, mostly discussing the opening ceremonies. I asked her a few more questions about the other sacred swords, too. Finally, after about an hour of sitting around, we got an explanation from the staff member in charge of the waiting room.
“You’ll be heading down to the ground shortly.”
I raised an eyebrow at that. I’d thought the tests would all be on the floating island, but apparently not.
“This test consists of a variation on a simple game I’m sure you’ve all played — capture the flag.”
I don’t think they’re talking to you, Dawn.
“In this variant of the game, there are three teams — blue, red, and green. You will each be given three cloth flags of your team’s color.”
Let me listen, Dawn.
“You must wear your flags over the outermost layer of your clothing, unless you are planting one on a flagpole. There are three flag poles in the tournament area, each of which is atop a tower. You may take control of a flag pole by removing the other team’s flag from it and placing one of your own on it.”
I nodded at that. Apparently, the theme had been more direct than I’d expected. I didn’t regret the time spent studying how to capture local monsters, though — that would be potentially useful in the future, even if I didn’t need it during this test.
“The test lasts for two hours. Every half hour we will award one point to each team for each flag they control. For example, if your team controls two flags per hour for the entire time, your team would end the game with eight points. These points are different from your personal points. In order to move into the next round, you will need to be in one of the top two teams for team points, and score at least one hundred personal points.”
Meaning that even if I perform well personally, I need my team to succeed to move on.
“And in case of a tie for one of those ranks?” Reika asked.
“If there is a tie for the top rank, both of those count as first place for seeding future rounds, but members of the teams will earn fewer personal points than an individual team getting first place alone. Those people with too few personal points on either team would be eliminated. The team that doesn’t tie counts as third place, and thus is out of the tournament.”
“And in a three-way tie?” Reika asked.
“Unlikely, but in those cases anyone with enough personal points on any of the teams would move on.”
I looked at Reika. She isn’t aiming to force a three-way tie, is she?
“How do we get personal points?” Another contestant asked.
The arena worker turned to the contestant. “At the end of the match, you will be awarded personal points based on your team’s point total. There are a few rare items in the arena that can be turned in for points, but they are hard to find. You will also be awarded ten points for each flag you are carrying, regardless of which team the flag is from.”
Another murmur at that. That explained why we each had multiple flags; we were intended to take them from the other teams.
Or, I realized as I glanced around, even from our own team. Some people are going to be willing to sacrifice our team ranking to fight each other for personal points. This is going to be a mess.
I didn’t like it. I loved fighting people, but games of backstabbing were not to my tastes.
“Did the people who bought advantages start with more flags?” Someone asked.
“No. People who purchased a small advantage were given a map and sent down early.”
“And the large advantage?”
“They also got to choose which team they were on.”
Reika and I looked at each other for a moment, processing that.
Wait, that means...
“We’ll now hand out your flags. Please form a single file line.”
A few minutes later, Reika and I stood staring at the colors of the cloth we were carrying.
Reika had green, and I had blue.
She put a hand on my shoulder, made a pained expression and said, “I’m sorry, Keras.” She shook her head. “I was hoping you’d make it to at least the second round. I’d be so embarrassed if I was a wielder and I lost this early.”
I folded my arms. “You know, I was going to offer you an alliance. They didn’t say it was against the rules”
“Oh.” She blinked. “I hadn’t thought about—”
I put a hand to her lips. “Nope. You taunted me. It’s game time now. I hope you’re ready for a fight.”
***
Maybe I should have pushed for teaming up, but honestly, the idea of having her on the other side was kind of exciting. I enjoyed the added challenge it presented.
What’s life without a few potentially life-altering risks?
That said, while Reika might have wanted to get straight into a brawl, I had other plans.
I need to get to at least one of those towers before Reika does. If I can beat her to it, I can probably hold it.
I knew as soon as the contest was announced that Reika had tremendous advantages at this one. Flight was the most obvious. She could use it to find the flag areas almost immediately, or just find groups of people to target or avoid. And beyond that, she could go incorporeal if someone tried to grab her flags.
Even if I could physically overpower her without using a sword — which seemed terribly unlikely, even in her human form — she could just turn into her spirit form and slip away. I was fairly comfortable using Dawn against her, but Dawn couldn’t do anything about Reika’s spirit form, either.
So, avoidance. I’d compete with her by going for more points, not fighting her directly.
Unless she irritated me enough.
We were teleported into the arena for the match a few minutes after receiving our flags. I found myself in the middle of a hilly region, littered with rocks, bushes, and the occasional solitary tree.
Little bit of cover, but not a lot.
Numerous other members of the blue team were appearing around me. I ignored them, even as they began to talk to each other, presumably to discuss tactics. I could pick up a couple words of Edrian at that point, but not enough to meaningfully contribute to a conversation.
I headed for high ground, meaning the top of a nearby hill.
From there, I continued heading toward the tallest locations I could find, searching for any signs of the towers.
A few minutes later, I saw a winged figure in the sky — but it wasn’t Reika.
Someone was flying with tremendous bat-like wings, wearing an impressive suit of jet-black armor. I was in the middle of appreciating their aesthetic when a colossal jet of white flame shot from somewhere in the nearby hills, blasting the flyer out of the sky.
I couldn’t see where the fire had come from, but I suddenly found myself worrying that Reika was in more trouble than I’d realized if she decided to fly.
That was an impressive attack. It’d be dangerous, even to me.
I headed toward it.
I paused.
This is sort a time sensitive test—
Oh. Yeah, okay, that’s worth waiting a moment. Which dir—
I blinked.
...Gone?
Wait, what was that last part?
I frowned at that, then continued heading toward the location I’d seen the fire emerge from.
Is the Phantom Thief Ravenshade hiding her presence with that mask of hers?
She didn’t have the same problems I did with wearing a mask if she’d literally entered the tournament as “Phantom Thief Ravenshade”, as opposed to any sort of civilian identity. It was a viable strategy, but one I’d chosen not to use. I didn’t want to hide who I was during the tournament, and I could think of several ways that using my mask could have backfired.
I drew Dawnbringer and continued heading toward the location where I’d seen the flames.
I didn’t find another wielder there. Instead, as I crested a hill, I found a group of six people below. They were all mildly burned, but alive.
None of them were carrying flags.
“What happened?” I asked them, hoping someone would understand.
A couple of them turned toward me. “Some crazy bastard burned up all our flags. Didn’t even try to take them, just blasted them and moved on. We tried to fight, but he was...”
Hm. Interesting tactic. With no flags, they can’t take the towers.
Looking over the group, none of them showed any significant injuries. Whoever had hit them had done so both quickly and with extreme precision.
Another of the six slapped the first man on the shoulder. “We’ll be okay. In fact, I see some blue flags right there...” Then he said a few words in a language I couldn’t understand.
I caught the general idea even before all six of them turned toward me, raising weapons.
The strategic move would have been to leave. Either talk them down, threaten them, or just run off. They didn’t have any flags, so I didn’t gain anything from beating them.
But I hadn’t come out to this tournament to run away from fights.
When the first three of them charged me, I raised Dawnbringer in salute.
I’ll make this quick. Dawn, brace yourself, I’m going to be channeling through you.
“Golden Dawn.”
For a moment, Dawnbringer glowed brighter than the sun. The charging melee fighters were blinded.
I ran to meet them.
A blast of lighting flashed past the front-line combatants. I flicked Dawnbringer into it and reflected it right back at the caster.
Then I was in the midst of three half-blinded fighters. My swings were precise.
Break. Break. Break.
The weapons they wielded were merely ordinary. I had Dawnbringer and metal sorcery.
I shattered their weapons and rushed right past them.
I hit the long-ranged casters next.
My sword came upward, cutting through the center of a dueling cane that flickered with lightning on the tip.
Then I parried a swing from a quarterstaff and punched the owner hard enough to hurl him into a nearby bush.
Finally, I spun and caught a crossbow bolt, easily detected with my metal sense. I snapped it in half, then discarded the two pieces.
Body of Stone.
I took a few steps forward, hard, and allowed the ground to shatter beneath my feat.
“Run. Now. And until you’re stronger, stay out of my way.”
One and all, they ran.
***
I was so busy making my dramatic exit that I didn’t think to ask who had burned their flags. Even a physical description would have been useful.
But once they ran off, chasing someone down asking would have ruined the moment, so I kept walking instead.
Release Body of Stone.
I’d only used the technique for a few moments, so it hadn’t tired me out too much.
As I reached the top of the next hill, I finally got a look at the first of the towers.
I’d been expecting the tower to be a wooden one, like a watchtower for a small town. Instead, what I saw was a cylindrical stone building, more like something you’d find at the corners of a keep. It looked like it was about three stories tall, with a single open doorway at the bottom and a second opening right at the top. An archer stood at the top opening, vigilantly watching the ground below.
He was not, however, looking up.
Reika descended from the sky, faster than I’d ever seen her fly. She was in her human form, but she’d formed her wings and claws.
A moment after I’d noticed her, she’d slammed into the archer and carried him off the side of the tower.
I heard the crash when she rammed into him. Fortunately, I also saw the flash of his shroud, otherwise I suspected she might have been disqualified for killing someone outright.
She continued forward, wrapping her arms around the stunned archer. He screamed and flailed ineffectively, but she maintained her grip, dropping him off on the ground level and then flapping back upward toward the top of the tower without a moment of pause.
I approached the archer, kneeling down. “You okay, there?”
“Aaah!” He grabbed an arrow and stabbed at me with it.
I snapped the arrow, gave him a bemused expression, and punched him once. Lightly.
He collapsed to the ground, moaning.
I took his flags. Given how badly he reacted to my approach, I was confident I’d make better use of them than he would.
I looked back to the top of the tower, where Reika was landing again. I could have tried to blast her at a distance with Dawnbringer, but I was worried about seriously hurting her.
What exactly do you think my relationship with Reika is?
I headed to the tower entrance. By the time I’d got there, I heard screaming from inside the top room, presumably the one with the flag in it.
Then two people fled out the front door, right in front of me, screaming something about a monster.
I raised an eyebrow. I was going to ignore them and head inside to Reika, but they must have decided I looked like an easier target than she was.
They made a very poor decision.
Brace yourself, Dawn.
They lunged at me. I snapped their swords like twigs.
“Sorry.” I waved Dawn at their flags. “I’m going to need those, then you can go.”
I shoved six newly-acquired red flags into my bag. The two beaten contestants wisely chose to flee after that.
Reika landed next to me a moment later, and I understood why they were screaming. As soon as she got near me, I felt it — an itching sensation at the back of my mind that the creature I was in the presence of a horrible beast, terrible beyond comprehension.
It didn’t actually succeed at scaring me the way it had with those random fighters. I think that was partially because I’d trained to fight off mental effects before, partially my familiarity with Reika, and finally because of Dawnbringer’s bravery-enhancing effect. With all that, I could tell magic was happening, it just didn’t shake me.
But it did get my attention, and it took me a moment to figure out what was happening. “You’re using Frienemy’s power, aren’t you?”
Reika grinned at me. “You noticed! Isn’t it amazing? Cower in terror before my vast powers, mortal!”
“Yeah, no, going to pass on that.” I shook my head and lifted Dawn.
“Fine, fine. But also…mine.” She declared, putting a hand on the side of the tower.
I narrowed my eyes on her. “You staying here?”
She snorted. “Course not. I’m going to capture them all. I’ll let you walk away just this once, though, if you want to try to race me to the next tower.”
I nodded, leaning up against the tower wall. “A tempting offer. One thing, though.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Oh?”
Reshape.
The stone wall of the tower shifted, reaching out to encircle Reika’s arm. Within a
moment, it solidified, and her whole arm was stuck inside. “I’m giving myself a head start.” I winked at her and turned to rush away.
“Hey! That’s no fair! Get back here!”
I grinned and continued running.
Yep. It gets better.
I looped around behind the tower, outside of Reika’s view, and touched the stone again. I knew Reika wouldn’t be far behind me. Eventually, she’d stop struggling against the stone and just turn into mist, in spite of the mana that it cost her.
Ladder.
I climbed the back of the tower, all the way to the top.
Open.
I created a hole in the top room, opposite from the normal opening.
And there, inside, was the flagpole — still holding one of Reika’s green flags.
I took Reika’s flag off and replaced it with a blue one of my own.
Then I left through the same route I’d taken, touched the wall again, and got rid of the evidence.
It should buy me some time. She’s going to rush off after another tower as soon as she gets free, I don’t think she’ll bother to check this one again immediately. I think she’ll get back to it eventually, but I might earn a point by then.
I didn’t know which way to go next, but Dawn solved that for me.
I rushed that direction.
<...And they’re gone again.>
I frowned, but kept running. Why were they appearing and disappearing? Had someone knocked off their mask? Or were they using some completely different form of concealment, like a spell that had to be refreshed?
Either way, I pressed on.
A few minutes later, I heard a voice in my mind.
[One half hour has elapsed. Current score: Blue 1, Green 0, Red 2.]
Ooh, Reika is going to be pissed.
Oh, you couldn’t hear the announcement voice?
I told her the score.
Maybe, maybe not. Red could have already taken the one I took, we don’t know if the point we scored was mine or not.