by Jakob Tanner
But he wasn’t scared.
He had long learned that fighting ability and strength could trump even the flashiest and most powerful of special abilities.
“Let’s go!” shouted Tiberus.
The shadow bear rushed them, but before it could even land a swipe of its massive powerful claws, Hadriana—the Caesarian team’s C-ranker—shot forth her laser whip.
The whip wrapped itself around the shadow bear, squishing its limbs together in a tight embrace.
Tiberius then led the offensive counterstrike: ripping his sword through the shadow bear’s flesh while his accomplices Maximus and Cicero also dug their melee weapons into the creature, killing it with ease.
“What are we going to do, Florence?” screamed Amelia, the Elestrian team’s E-ranker. “Will’s shadow bear technique was supposed to be our—”
A bullet went right through the girl’s head, sending her body flying backwards.
The D-ranker and B-ranker were quickly shot to death through the head as well.
Florence shook with fear. “How did you...”
Behind the four melee weapon fighters of the Caesarian squad was one of their powerful specialists.
A D-ranker named Marcellus.
Tiberius was so glad there and then that he’d brought the D-ranker onto their team.
The boy’s special mana weapon had never been of the typical variety of melee weapon that most Caesarian’s of the soldier class received.
No, Marcellus’ conjured weapon was special.
The boy’s weapon was a mana sniper rifle.
Hermia and Regulus watched the opening round of the tournament with bated breath.
There were multiple ways to observe the first round. There was the massive simulated environment in front of them all, but it was hard to see with all the trees. Most people watched the main screen on the arena where a team of Caesarians curated the most exciting moments of the fight up to that point. The alternative was to use a separate mana screen and choose which part of the battle you specifically wanted to watch.
Most people used a combination of the different screens to get a well-rounded view of all the excitement from the clashing teams.
“It’s turning into quite a frenzy,” Hermia exclaimed.
“I don’t know where to look,” said Regulus. “There’s battles happening all across the map!”
Sabriel, the tower god, sat behind the two ambassadors in silence.
She didn’t care about all the different battles the audience could watch if they were so inclined.
She only cared about one battle.
On the tower god’s personal screen was the fight between the humans and the cat-folk.
In fact, she didn’t even care about the majority of the people fighting.
Her eyes were focused on one fighter and one fighter only.
The red-haired human climber known as Max Rainhart.
36
The fight between the humans and the cat-folk was grinding to a standstill.
Each respective ranked fighter was focused on the other team’s nominee of the same rank.
What are we going to do, Max thought, his heart thumping in his chest, as he began to panic.
They were running out of time. They had under fifteen minutes now to acquire another team’s flag and that was assuming they didn’t lose their own.
Blake was locked in a fight with Gregoire. A back and forth of flame attacks and doppelgänger craziness.
Max, himself, was currently tailing Mirabel making sure she didn’t stealth kill any of them with her invisibility attack.
Then there was Casey air blasting the cat-folk’s slicer.
The two team’s E-rankers stood off to the side of the fray, clutching onto their respective flags with terror.
And then there was Harold, still locked in the fray with the cat-folk’s A-ranker.
Max was taking all this in when in the flash of the A-ranker battle, Harold shot Max a glare.
Huh?
What was that!?
Harold was trying to signal something to him.
But what?
Then it dawned on Max.
This entire time he had thought the cat-folk’s team member had been neutralizing Harold, but what if it was the other way around?
Max suddenly understood Harold’s glare at him.
The old man wanted him to take advantage of the A-ranker being neutralized.
But how?
All the moving parts of the battle rushed through Max’s head. They swirled in his mind and only made his heart thump harder in his chest. His panicked thoughts swirled, stressed out from the mismatched puzzle pieces of the different moving parts of the battle.
But then it all clicked together and Max saw the way to link all the pieces and how it was going to lead them to victory.
Gregoire dived out of the way of another titanic-sized fire blast from the human flamebringer.
Back on his feet, he back flipped further away to create more distance between himself and the human B-ranker.
“That’s right,” shouted the flamebringer. “You can’t escape my flames!”
Gregoire gritted his teeth.
This fight was going sideways. The plan had been to sneak up on them, crush them physically, and then rush off with the flag.
Somehow the humans had taken control of the fight and everyone on his team were now on the back foot.
Gregoire seethed with anger.
He was about to trigger his doppelgänger ability once more and then stopped himself.
He saw the air around the human team swirling back as they readied another huge attack.
Fools, Gregoire snickered to himself. You’ve signaled to us you’re about to do a big move.
Gregoire decided there and then that he’d weather the current storm of attacks and then when they were tired and exhausted, he’d retaliate with an army of doppelgängers.
Bring it on fools, Gregoire thought. I can’t wait for the tables to turn and have you beg me for mercy!
Max and Casey unleashed a swirl of powerful winds throughout the battlefield.
Max picked up sharp leaves along the way while Casey unleashed the remaining flock of paper cranes she had reserved in her pouch.
All of this happened as Blake lit himself a cigarette and set everything on fire. The leaves, the paper cranes, everything.
“Feel the wrath of my flames,” shouted Blake, revealing his true pyromaniac nature to everyone in sight.
I’d like to see the cat-folk survive this attack, Max thought to himself. But even if they do, this is only stage one of the new plan.
The swirl of destruction went across the forest and sent the cat-folk hurling backwards.
The sounds of trees snapping, bones cracking, ash popping, and groans of fierce agony reverberated across the battle.
“Take that kitty-cats!” shouted Casey.
Max checked his mana sense and he could still perceive blobs of strength, despite not seeing any of them within the clouds of smoke and debris they had just created.
They’re still alive, Max realized. But that’s okay, as we know what to do for stage two.
The clouds of smoke cleared and Gregoire walked out from the debris, ash swirling around him, snickering with manic glee.
Gregoire’s body ached from the cuts and bruises from the human’s most recent assault.
Even still, he limped his way forward.
“You won’t kill me or my team that easily,” he said.
The A-rankers were still locked in a fight off to the side, but Mirabel and the rest of the team were still with him.
They just needed to take back control of the battle and Gregoire knew the best way to do it.
He triggered his trait and created countless doppelgängers across the forest.
He hadn’t kept track of their trait usages, but he was sure the humans were spent or, at the very least, they would be temporarily.
There was no way they’d
be able to keep up the fight against an army of doppelgänger reinforcements.
“Not so cocky any more, are you?” laughed Gregoire.
His clones stepped forward ready to brawl with the human team.
Gregoire couldn’t see them surviving this attack.
He couldn’t wait to beat them all to a pulp, especially that red-haired kid.
Revenge really does taste sweet, doesn’t it? Gregoire thought to himself.
He locked eyes with the red-haired human.
For a second, Gregoire thought he saw fear in his eyes.
Then he saw a flash of a smirk.
Uh oh, thought Gregoire. What is this prick planning?
Suddenly, the red-haired kid began to multiply, until the forest was filled with an equal number of red-haired jerk doppelgänger to match Gregoire’s own.
“Attack of the clones, jerkface,” shouted Casey as the two armies of doppelgängers rushed into battle.
Gregoire gritted his teeth in anger.
That kid stole my move!
37
Mirabel watched from the sidelines as the army of Gregoire clones rushed into a brawl with the red-haired human climber clones.
The original squad-based battle had turned into a violent gang war of clones punching and kicking each other.
The damn humans, Mirabel thought. They keep turning the tables on us.
Mirabel wracked her brain. There must be something she could do to get them out of this predicament.
Then she noticed the challenge’s timer in her retina.
The challenge would be over in just under five minutes.
She grinned widely.
Victory was still possible.
They weren’t fighting to death. No, they were fighting to capture the flag.
She eyed up the human E-ranker, the one that had been so easy to kidnap.
The weak girl stood there between her teammates, shivering with fear.
The girl was the opposite of the cat-folk’s E-ranker who was standing strong, both holding the flag and sending whatever air blasts she could to help.
Mirabel grinned.
All I have to do is sneak up to that girl and steal the flag.
Mirabel triggered her invisibility trait.
Her entire body and presence disappeared from the battlefield.
She took a deep breath and began tiptoeing across the patch of forest.
She grimaced as she had to side step two clones that had tackled each other onto the ground right near her feet.
She had to be both quick and careful. Normally, she’d be even more cautious, making sure to cover the tracks left by her feet, but she figured with so much chaos happening in the battle right now, no one was paying attention.
She decided to make a wide berth around the battle. It was the long way around, sure, but it would mean she’d be approaching the E-rank girl from behind.
If anyone was going to notice disembodied footsteps appearing on the ground near her, it would be the girl guarding the flag.
Hence, Mirabel had to take the long way around.
With every step, Mirabel was getting closer and closer.
Wow, they don’t even see me coming, she thought to herself.
She stared at the shoulders of the human E-ranker, shaking and shivering as she gripped tightly onto her team’s flag.
Mirabel unsheathed a dagger and watched the timer in her retina.
The challenge was over in one minute.
If she planned it right, the human team wouldn’t even have a chance to retaliate.
Mirabel stayed patient, her eyes moving between the timer and the E-rank girl.
When the timer hit thirty seconds, Mirabel rushed up to the girl and still invisible jabbed her dagger right into the girl’s skull.
She stabbed it in and out a few times, blood splattering every time the dagger punctured the girl’s head and then was removed.
The E-rank girl fell to the ground and Mirabel wasted no time grabbing the human team’s flag.
Checkmate fools, she thought to herself.
There was only five seconds left on the clock.
Time goes by quickly when you’re having fun, Mirabel snickered to herself.
The game timer landed on zero and Mirabel reappeared triumphantly.
“Looks like you lost, suckers!” she shouted.
Defeat was plastered all across the human team. Their shoulders falling with despair.
Victory tastes so delicious, Mirabel thought to herself.
She’d just helped take her team to the semi-finals and moved them one step closer to overall victory in the tournament herself.
Regulus and Hermia were both glued to their mana screens as the opening match came to a close.
Regulus crossed his arms with a satisfied grin on his face.
“And so the human team lost in the end,” said the man. “After they caused us so much trouble. All for nothing but a short unimpressive performance in the tournament.”
Despite his own words, Regulus did feel slightly surprised. The team had showcased such a determined energy when they had arrived at the opening ceremonies, it seemed so anticlimactic for them to lose so early on.
Would they even stay for the rest of the games? Or slump back to their low-level floor in defeat?
“It was an incredibly frenetic match,” said Hermia. “I’m still trying to piece all the moving parts together.”
Sabriel watched the mana screen intently.
The tower god had yet to say a word.
Have I missed something? Regulus thought.
“Nice try, humans,” sneered Mirabel. “Better luck next decade.”
The cat-folk all chuckled and patted Mirabel on the back.
“If you want,” Mirabel continued. “I’m happy to give you pointers on how to improve. But then again, you are still weak and useless humans. You’ll never match up to the tower races above you. Oh well.”
Mirabel was going to say more but then caught the red-haired climber smirking at her.
“Are you done?” said the human C-ranker.
What’s he so confident about!?
“You might want to check your retina screen again,” said the human boy.
She called up her profile.
Her eyes immediately bulged with shock.
Round 1 Challenge: You lost!
Mirabel felt a horrible pit form in her stomach.
How is this possible?
They’d won.
She was holding onto the flag.
She looked down to the flag in her hands and it suddenly burst into white smoke.
Huh?
It was a fake!?
“Looking for these,” said a nearby voice.
The red-haired human climber jumped down from high up in the trees, holding onto two flags.
Everyone on the human team smirked, while Mirabel and the rest of the cat-folk had a look of utter shock plastered across their faces as they gasped for breath.
“How did this happen?” Mirabel said, still in disbelief.
She thought they had won. The feeling of victory and triumph had rushed through her and then just as quickly had been violently ripped away, replaced with the sickening feeling of utter defeat and humiliation.
“Let me explain then,” said Max. “When I countered Gregoire’s army of doppelgängers with my own, that was primarily a distraction. It also gave me a way to gather up the moves I needed. One doppelgänger attacked your A-ranker and I was able to nab extreme contortion. Then using my newly evolved mimic trait I was able to fuse extreme contortion and doppelgänger clone—borrowing the unique attributes of each ability—into a very interesting and new unique skill: object clone.”
Mirabel listened with horror.
This kid was something else.
That was why the flag she had at the end of the challenge had burst into smoke. It was a fake clone of the human team’s flag.
“Okay, so you cloned the flags, but when did you sw
ap them out?”
Max grinned.
“It was tough and I had to act quickly,” said the kid. “After I had created the new object clone ability, I used one of the doppelgängers to pick up your own invisibility trait. From there, I shadow blinked across the battlefield without anyone noticing due to the invisibility and swapped them out. I swapped with Sarah first which was easy. Then with your E-ranker, I very carefully timed the swap with the real flag and the fake flag until something eye-catching and dramatic happened—like the sudden killing of Sarah. Using my phase-out ability, I grabbed the flag and replaced it before your E-ranker could even notice.”
A pair of hands clapped in the distance.
It was the old A-ranker of the human team.
“You don’t need to be faster or stronger to win capture the flag,” the old man declared. “All you need to do is play smarter.”
“And it looks like we just did,” grinned the red-haired climber.
38
Max caught his breath as he soaked in their victory over the cat-folk.
The simulation began to disappear, starting with the tops of the trees.
“Well done, Max,” said Casey, followed by the rest of the team.
“We couldn’t have done it without your brilliance, mate,” smiled Blake, giving him a thumbs up.
“Ahem,” said Sarah, picking herself up off the ground, the wound in her head healing back to normal.
“I think our sacrificial lamb definitely deserves a pat on the back too,” smiled Harold. “We all do. Well done, team.”
Max grinned and then rubbed his eyes. He was exhausted. The challenge had only lasted an hour, but he felt like he’d been fighting for days. They’d need to take a good rest after all of that.
The purple puddle that had risen over them at the start of the challenge began to descend towards them like a draining water tank.
As the purple puddle dropped, the blue sky of the Caesarian floor came into view and shortly after the cheering and applauding audience that made up the giant arena reappeared as well.