by Victor Kloss
“What are you doing?” Charlie said, following suit.
“The enemy has reached our defenders,” Ben said. “We need to speed up and get to their flag before they get to ours.”
Their pace increased dramatically once on the forest floor. Ben was just starting to pick up some real pace, when a spell smashed into the ground next to him, spraying dirt. Another hit, and another, peppering the ground all around him.
“Get behind that car!” Charlie shouted.
An old Jaguar lay upended on two wheels, right in the middle of the battleground. Ben and Charlie dived for cover, and sat, with their backs to the car, panting.
“The defenders?” Ben said.
Charlie shook his head. “No, it’s the neutrals. I saw two of them, but I think there could be more. The spells were coming from all angles.”
Ben cursed, picturing his own team battling the D’Gayle attackers. “We were making such good progress.”
“Yeah, I was starting to think we’d be able to stroll up to their camp, and politely pluck the flag out of their hiding place,” Charlie said. “So now what?”
“On three, we turn and fire,” Ben said. “You ready?”
“No.”
“Good. One, two – three!”
Ben spun one way, Charlie the other. The neutrals had the advantage of knowing exactly where they were, and immediately Ben was almost hit, but he was able to get a sighting of one neutral, and even fire a few wild spells back, before retreating.
“I saw one in the trees,” Ben said.
Charlie wiped his forehead with the back of his hand. “I saw two others. They have us pinned down. Should we retreat and try something else – maybe come from a different angle?”
“No time,” Ben said. “Let’s fire again.”
This time, Ben was able to roll and fire with an accuracy that had the neutral ducking for cover. Again and again they fired and hid, until Ben managed to finally knock one of them off.
“Nice shot!” Charlie said. “I think I also actually scared my guy that time.”
Their temporary elation was cut off suddenly by the sound of Natalie’s voice.
“Guys? You still alive?”
“Yeah, but we’re pinned down by a couple of neutrals,” Ben said.
“Oh – okay,” Natalie said. “No pressure of course, but if you could speed up, that would be great. I’m not sure how much longer this fight is going to last.”
“What’s happening?” Charlie asked.
“Lydia is down, Damien is frozen and I think our team are out of freedom spells. Aaron is still alive, and he is with two others who are really good. I don’t know how much longer Will and Lisa will survive. So, yeah – hurry up, please.”
“Of course – no problem,” Ben said, rolling his eyes at Charlie.
As soon as Natalie had finished talking, Ben and Charlie launched another attack.
“Got him!” Charlie said, sitting back down with a huge grin on his flushed face.
They did a little fist pump, and went again, trying to eliminate the final neutral player, but it was clear he was far more skilled than the other two, and despite being numerically disadvantaged, the neutral was able to dodge their spells and launch his own with unerring accuracy. Several more times they tried, but without success. Ben became increasingly frustrated.
“We can’t do this anymore; we don’t have time,” Ben said.
“What do you suggest? Hoisting a white flag and asking him politely if he’ll let us past?”
“Not quite. I’m sick of ducking back all the time. It’s time for plan B.”
Ben explained his idea, and Charlie immediately started shaking his head.
“It’s stupidly risky,” he said. “We could both get hit.”
“It’s better than our current plan, which isn’t working,” Ben said. He was in no mood to argue. “Are you ready?”
“No,” Charlie said.
“Good – let’s go!”
Ben leapt up and over the car. He brought his spellshooter up and started firing. Instead of a quick burst and a retreat behind the car, he started walking forwards and kept shooting, angling himself to get a better shot at the neutral. He was getting closer, his spells were missing by mere inches. The neutral had the perfect position, nestled on a treetop, giving them little to aim at. But Ben was in the zone, and he launched three spells in quick succession, bang on the mark. The neutral managed to spot the first two, but the third hit him right in the forehead.
“Boom! Got him,” Ben said, thrusting a hand in the air.
The expected celebration from Charlie never materialised. Ben turned, and saw his friend frozen mid-stride, his face wide with shock.
Ben fired a freedom spell into Charlie’s chest, and he immediately became unstuck.
“Thanks,” Charlie said. “That was weird. I could still see and hear everything, but I couldn’t move a muscle. I saw your shot, though – very nice.”
“Yeah, it was a good one. Now, we’d better move,” Ben said. “The D’Gayle team could capture our flag at any moment.”
Ben set a good pace. He ran right down the centre of the battleground, taking the quickest possible path, not bothering with concealment. They no longer had time to dodge and weave in the interests of self-preservation. The whole game could be over in a matter of minutes, and Ben would kick himself if they didn’t win because he didn’t run fast enough. But he kept a keen eye out for trouble and, more importantly, any sign of the blue flag they were searching for. It wasn’t long before Ben could make out the owl tree straight ahead. The forest started to thin and, suddenly, they found themselves running in open land, with absolutely nowhere to hide if trouble started brewing.
“Dead ahead!” Charlie shouted.
Ben came to a grinding halt. At the base of a tall, slender tree was one of the D’Gayle defenders, standing with his spellshooter at the ready. The moment he spotted them, he raised his spellshooter and fired.
“Zigzag and shoot!” Ben ordered.
The defender fired like a maniac, mostly at Ben, and he was almost hit twice. He kept his own spellshooter trained on the defender, and returned fire with equal zest. The defender took one hit, but to Ben’s surprise, kept firing. It took three more hits before the defender finally went down. Ben and Charlie made it to the base of the owl tree, and stared down at the unconscious defender.
“Did you see that? It took several shots to knock him out.”
“Yes, that was interesting,” Charlie said. He looked around, his face anxious. “Now what? I don’t see any sign of the flag, nor the final defender. Are we in the wrong place?”
Ben had been thinking the same thing. “Let’s climb the tree, and see if it’s up there. If it isn’t, hopefully we’ll be able to see it from the top.”
The owl tree wasn’t an easy climb, especially when compared to the other trees near the middle of the battleground, and progress was slow, with some branches spread far apart. Ben was concentrating so hard on reaching the next branch that he failed to register the screech that pierced the air.
“What was that?” Charlie asked.
Ben looked up, branch forgotten. He knew that sound.
“Darzel!” Charlie screamed, pointing. “Darzel coming right at us!”
Riding the darzel was Joshua, standing with supreme confidence as the beast shot towards them, his spellshooter armed and ready.
Ben scrambled into position, trying to use the main trunk as protection, while grappling for his spellshooter. As soon as he picked it up, he sensed that his orb was almost empty. Rapid firing was no longer an option.
“Incoming!” Charlie said, his face scrunched, awaiting impact. He hadn’t been able to get his spellshooter out, and was instead hugging the trunk, trying to minimise target area.
Ben watched with growing dread, as Joshua pulled the trigger, and the spells went flying right at them. Ben plastered his
body against the trunk, and felt the spells smash against the tree. As soon as the onslaught stopped and Joshua zoomed by, Ben turned and fired three shots at the darzel’s back. But Joshua seemed to sense the spells, and banked gracefully. Ben cursed, and felt his orb. How many spells did he have left? Six? No more.
“Better climb, before he swings around,” Charlie said from behind. “You go as quickly as you can; I’ll see if I can distract him.”
Ben didn’t argue, and started scrambling upwards as fast as possible, ignoring the scratches his haste brought, as he grasped on to improbable footholds. Another screech from the darzel nearly threw him off, and he paused, watching Joshua come right at them again.
“Keep climbing!”
Charlie’s voice echoed from below.
Spells started streaking towards the darzel, and Joshua had to swerve and divert his course. Ben grinned. Charlie clearly had no shortage of spells. Ben continued scrambling upwards. He could now see the platform at the top, where the owl could view everything. On top of it was a small basket – the perfect lookout spot. Could the flag be in there? If not, he was in trouble.
“Ben, if you’re still alive, you need to get moving!”
Natalie’s voice came through loud and clear.
Ben grabbed his spellshooter and spoke through the handle. “I’m still alive. What’s happening?”
“Will is the last man standing, and he’s up against Aaron and one other guy. You’ve got minutes before they take down Will and start climbing. Our flag is in my lookout nest, and there’s nothing I can do to stop them.”
Ben didn’t even bother replying, but renewed his climb. He got only a few steps before the darzel’s screech alerted him to Joshua’s renewed attack. Charlie launched another blistering strike, but Joshua returned fire and, all of a sudden, Charlie’s attack stopped. Ben glanced down and could just make out Charlie, slumped over one of the branches. Ben tore his eyes away and climbed a few more steps, before Joshua diverted his darzel, and started flying right at him. Ben could see the steely determination in Joshua’s deep blue eyes, as he honed in on Ben with frightening speed.
Joshua fired. Ben hung on for dear life. Joshua turned, almost lazily, and came round for another go, at a slightly different angle. Ben only just managed to adjust his position, to keep the tree trunk between himself and a direct attack, before Joshua fired again. The tree was peppered with spells, but Ben managed to avoid them. Again and again Joshua fired, with the margin for error getting ever smaller. Each time, Ben was able to make only tiny inroads up the tree, before scrambling back into a defensive position. The lack of pace was infuriating. Was Joshua simply toying with him? Had he guessed that Ben was almost out of spells? More importantly, did he know what was going on at the other end of the battleground? Without having an owl, surely he was clueless or else he would have finished Ben off by now.
“Ben!” Natalie came through as a frantic squeal. “Will is down! They’re climbing the tree! They’ll be here in less than a minute.”
Ben cursed. He was pinned down, and couldn’t move more than a few feet at a time. He glanced up. He still had a good twenty feet to go. He wasn’t going to make it. It was time to change tactics. Ben drew his spellshooter out, and got into position – no longer cowering behind the tree, but with a full view to track and shoot any oncoming target. He watched as Joshua came right at him, noting the slight frown as he clocked Ben’s change in position. Ben waited as Joshua flew ever closer. To his surprise, Joshua didn’t open fire from a distance like normal – was he too running out of pellets? Ben waited until he could see the green of the darzel’s eyes and the saliva trailing from his sharp, white teeth before pulling the trigger. Joshua fired at exactly the same time. A flurry of spells crossed mid-air, some even colliding in an explosion of sparks. Joshua was almost upon the tree when Ben’s last remaining spell clipped the darzel’s wing. The creature screeched and went into a nose dive. Joshua reacted instantly, and flung himself onto the tree, grabbing hold of a branch, and grunting as he slammed into the trunk. For a split second, Ben had a clear shot. Joshua was busy rubbing his head, unaware of the danger. Ben pointed his spellshooter and fired.
Nothing happened. He was out of spells.
Ben cursed. He almost threw the spellshooter down at Joshua, hoping to dislodge him, but remembered that might be against the rules. Instead, he started climbing. As he approached the nest, Ben had to think about how to climb round the sides to get inside.
“Ben!” Natalie’s voice was a screech. “They’re here! They’re about to climb into the nest!”
Ben accelerated, all thought of self-preservation forgotten. He practically flew up to the nest, and grabbed hold of the base. Groaning with effort, he managed to find a branch so he could keep climbing up and around the nest. Just one final spurt and he’d be inside.
A spell smashed into the nest, making the whole construction shake so violently that Ben almost lost his grip. He glanced down, and saw Joshua slowly climbing up, spellshooter in hand, the tip glowing. Ben braced himself, as another spell collided into the nest, this one more violent than before.
Ben knew he had to move. He could practically envision Aaron climbing inside his team’s nest right now. The thought spurred him on and, with a cry of defiance, he leapt up, and over the nest, falling into the small basket, head-first. He righted himself, and looked about frantically.
The blue flag stared innocently back at him, planted firmly into the basket. His heart almost exploded with exhalation and relief.
“Ben!” Natalie shouted. “It’s too late, they’re—”
Ben’s hand swept up the blue flag.
A loud horn sounded from somewhere far off.
Not one horn, but two, each a slightly different pitch, Ben realised.
“What’s that noise?” Ben asked, speaking into the spellshooter.
“Oh my goodness!” Natalie said. Her frantic, almost fever-pitch tone had gone, replaced with relief and unexpected joy. “You must have picked up the flag at exactly the same time as Aaron. Both horns have gone off. It’s a draw!”
Ben wasn’t sure how long it took him and Charlie (who came back to life as the game ended) to stumble down the tree and make their way back to the centre of the battleground. Neither felt in a hurry and both revelled in the fact that they could just walk without fear of being shot at. It was most liberating.
The reaction of the two teams to the result of the game was vastly different. The moment Ben and Charlie made it back, they were surrounded by their team. To a man, they were grinning ear to ear, even Damien and Lydia. Ben was pleased to hear the crowd giving them a thunderous welcome, and delighted to see the D’Gayle team looking sullenly on. The sour expression on Aaron’s face was priceless.
“I can’t believe you guys did it!” Natalie said, giving them both effusive hugs before the rest of the team could get in.
“It was Ben, mainly,” Charlie said, his face going red. “I just came along for the ride.”
“Complete rubbish,” Ben said. “How did you guys do?”
“We held them off as long as possible,” William said. “As expected, they were really well trained as an attacking group, and ran all sorts of different strategies, many I’d not even seen before.”
“Will was incredible,” Lisa said. “We only held out that long because of him.”
The others nodded in approval, and Ben realised again how lucky he had been that Will had decided to join his team.
His thoughts were interrupted by footsteps, and he turned around to see Aaron approaching. The sour expression had gone, replaced with a gracious smile.
“I just came to congratulate you guys on a great game,” Aaron said, extending his hand.
A few of Ben’s team looked at Will, to see how he would respond. William didn’t hesitate in stepping forwards and accepting the handshake, leading the rest of the team to do the same.
Aaron
stepped back, hands on hips. “I don’t think I’ve ever played in a tie game before. It was definitely a surprise for both myself and the crowd. I think they were expecting a winner.”
“It was a surprise,” William said. “Not that surprises are bad – quite the opposite actually, they often make a nice change.”
“I agree with you completely,” Aaron said. He gave an awkward smile and pointed a thumb back at his team. “I have to confess, my team were hoping for a replay. A few of them even heard the crowd demanding one. They’re not used to seeing a draw, you see, and I think they’re a bit unsatisfied.”
“They look fine to me,” Ben said.
Aaron gave one of his great patronising smiles. “Of course, now that you’re here, they’re putting up a front. But underneath, it’s a different story. Trust me.” Aaron extended his arms. “So what do you say, do we have a replay?”
The team looked to William, and William turned straight to Ben. His initial reaction was to say yes. With more training, he was certain now he could beat the D’Gayle team. On top of which, it was fun as hell, and got the adrenaline going like all great games did. He looked at his team to see if he could read their thoughts. It was fairly obvious that Lydia, Damien, Simon and Lisa were up for another game, and a chance to get one over on Aaron’s team. William’s expression was completely neutral and impossible to read. Both Charlie and Natalie, however, were a different story. They both looked anxious. It took Ben a moment to realise why.
Elizabeth’s Armour. Tracing down the meaning of the dark elf symbol. The second grade of the apprenticeship. These were the things that mattered, and he’d put almost no attention on them while focusing on the spellstrike game. Another game would surely continue to distract him from what he should be doing. It was a soul-crushing decision, but he knew what he had to do.
Ben looked Aaron right in the eye. “Thanks for the offer, but we’re going to have to pass.”
Aaron was caught by surprise, and Ben could see from the corner of his eye the surprise and disappointment from some of his team.
“Fair enough,” Aaron said, recovering quickly. “It’s your choice, of course. Some people aren’t going to be best pleased, but I’ll see what I can do to handle them.”