by Jakob Tanner
“Humanity is always breaking with traditions,” said the Boldrin leader.
The other leaders snickered along.
Sakura bristled.
They weren’t taking her seriously. She had come expecting that, so she wasn’t really surprised, but it was still irritating.
“Maybe that’s a good thing,” said Violet, breaking up the laughter of the other leaders.
She smiled to Sakura.
That’s right, Sakura thought. I didn’t come here today to champion a cause on my own. I have backup.
“Alright, that’s enough bickering,” said the Caesarian emperor. “Can we begin the meeting? The sooner we finish this distraction we can return to the tournament ball. I have a toast to make.”
Hermia nodded to Sakura.
“Zestiris Climber President Sakura, leader of the tower race of humans,” said Hermia, “you have the floor. What did you wish to discuss at this impromptu emergency meeting?”
Sakura cleared her throat.
Here goes nothing, she thought. I hope this works.
“The United Floors Alliance was formed as a means for the lower floors to protect themselves against threats from the higher floors and to stop wars breaking out amongst each other. The only way to defend against a stronger power was to show a united front.”
The other leaders nodded in agreement.
“And your point being?” snarled the Caesarian emperor. “We didn’t need to gather like this for you to read the motto of the alliance.”
Sakura clenched her fists under the table and held back her rage to punch the Caesarian emperor in the face. As much as she wanted to unleash her anger in such a way, she knew that was not the diplomatic solution she was going for that evening.
“I’ll try and get to the point then,” said Sakura. “Those ideals that the alliance stands for are currently under significant threat from a deadly foe.”
Many of the leaders raised their eyebrows.
“And who or what might this threat be?” said the Caesarian emperor. “Don’t forget, beyond each other we do have a tower god on our side?”
“The tower god can protect us from the higher floors yes,” said Sakura. “But can Sabriel protect us from killing each other?”
“Now, you’re speaking in tongues,” said the emperor. “You just regurgitated that alliance motto. Why would we hurt each other when we’re stronger together?”
“We wouldn’t,” said Sakura. “Unless there was a force trying to accomplish that very goal. The threat I speak of is the inter-floor tower terrorist group known as The Fallen Angels.”
The group of leaders snickered at that.
“You really believe a group of bandit rogue climbers has the capability to take down the alliance?” spat the Boldrin.
“They tried to engineer chaos in Zestiris,” Sakura explained. “And I believe Queen Violet can say the same about her floor as well.”
The Caesarian emperor crossed his arms and stuck his nose in the air.
“Perhaps that is a problem for you lower-floors,” said the emperor. “But I highly doubt it will be a problem for the rest of us.”
Sakura kept her fists clenched beneath the table.
The arrogant idiot, Sakura thought to herself.
“Why do you not heed our warnings?” said Queen Violet. “What do you gain from being so complacent? Why won’t you listen to us?”
The Caesarian emperor sniffled and said: “Do you heed the warning of ants when they say giants are coming?”
Violet was about to protest but Sakura gave her a look to stop her.
“It’s not worth it, Violet,” said Sakura. “The council will not listen. They’ll only listen to us once something truly terrible has happened. It doesn’t matter that innocents could be saved. First, we must sacrifice them so the council here can wake up from their comfortable slumber.”
Both the Boldrin leader and the Caesarian emperor stood up with outrage.
“How dare you—”
At that very moment, a bomb was dropped into the temple banquet hall and a big explosive blast went off.
46
It happened in seconds.
“We have to get out of here,” Harold had said. “Something bad is about to happen.”
And then it happened.
A shadowy figure dropped a bomb from the glass roof.
The explosion happened as soon as it hit the floor.
A huge blast of flames and smoke.
Rubble and ash flew across the banquet hall.
“We have to leave now,” Harold ordered.
The words sounded like a far away echo in Max’s mind. He wasn’t sure if it was the shock of the bomb or whether his ears were ringing that he’d temporarily lost his sense of hearing. Whatever the case may be, Max was less focused on the words of his team’s A-ranker and more preoccupied by the screams and cries of the panicked ball goers.
The majority of people here were aristocrats and wealthy merchant families; most of them weren’t highly trained climbers such as themselves.
They couldn’t just leave them here to potentially die.
That went against Max’s own beliefs, but also the beliefs that the United Floors Alliance was supposed to uphold.
Max shook his head.
“No,” he said. “We have to help everyone.”
Deep breaths, he told himself, as he ran to a nearby window and opened it to let in air.
“Casey,” said Max. “Push the smoke out the window.”
Casey nodded and stretched out her arms and created a blast of wind to propel the residual bomb smoke out the window of the temple.
The cat-folk’s airbringer saw what Casey was doing and helped out.
Meanwhile, the waterbringer on the mercenary team dampened the flames of the bomb with his water blast attack.
The ballroom quickly began to clear up and Max reassessed the situation.
People were crouching down on the ground, crying and screaming.
As far as Max could see, though, there weren’t any attackers.
The bomb had been a one-off.
What the heck is going on?
He then stepped towards the crater to see where the bomb had gone off and he shuddered at the sight of it.
In the center of the cracked and destroyed stone floor was a single black feather.
The calling card of The Fallen Angels.
Sakura led the charge with the other leaders out into the main banquet hall to witness the chaos.
A cracked crater of stone lay in the middle of the temple where the bomb had gone off.
Sakura could hear the gasps of the other leaders behind her.
She didn’t have the time or energy to be surprised though. This was the exact sort of thing she had been expecting.
Climbers and guards were helping innocents back to their feet and reassuring them that they were safe.
She sighed with relief when she saw everyone on the human team was okay and helping out.
Good work everyone, she thought to herself.
She then scowled and turned around to face the leaders of the other tower races.
“Maybe we can have a do-over of that meeting we just had? One where—I don’t know—you take Queen Violet and I seriously.”
Max watched as the leaders discussed and agreed to rearrange their meeting for a later date.
The chaos had died down since the initial blast, but everyone’s face still carried the look of shock.
“Well,” sighed Casey, “this evening just took a turn.”
Max nodded along, but he was preoccupied with the scene of destruction in front of him.
What were The Fallen Angels doing? What were they trying to accomplish tonight?
Max broke from the spell of his thoughts and looked around the remnants of the tournament ball.
All the opposing climber teams were grouped together and were shooting suspicious glances all across the hall.
The cat-folk. The frog-folk.
The mercenaries. The Boldrin. The Flaron. The Elestrian. The Caesarians.
Max then suddenly understood the answer to the question floating in his mind.
The Fallen Angel’s goals were simple.
They had succeeded at making all of the teams even more suspicious of each other than they were before. The teams were all looking at each other, wondering which one of them was nefariously manipulating the game’s events.
The strands of diplomatic friendship that had held them altogether were beginning to wear away and it was The Fallen Angels who were lingering nearby with a pair of scissors to snap the thread entirely.
47
The morning after the tournament ball, after a night of restless sleep, Harold called a meeting of Team Zestiris in the outpost common room.
Everyone sat on the couches of the lounge area, yawning and rubbing their eyes from a lack of rest.
“It’s time we start seriously preparing for the semi-final round of the tournament,” Harold declared. “Despite the massive explosion and terrorist attack, we actually did succeed at our mission at the tournament ball.”
“Way to find a silver lining, boss,” said Blake.
It’s hard to believe that there’s any way to consider last night a success, Max thought to himself. But then again: we did find out who we’ll be facing in the semi-finals, so there’s that.
“We know we’re going up against the Caesarians,” said Harold. “We’ve already gone over a bit of the common elements of a Caesarian climber, but let’s go a bit more in-depth now that we know for certain we’re going up against them. Blake, what can you tell me about Caesarian climbers?”
Blake blinked in surprise. He was obviously dozing off with his eyes open.
“Busted,” giggled Casey.
Blake ignored Casey’s teasing and sat up straight.
“So, all Caesarian climbers start out with the soldier class. It’s the only class that allows mana affinity to be raised—and given that you need to raise your mana affinity to continuously go higher in the tower—the soldier class is the de facto Caesarian climber class,” Blake explained. “Their traits are usually quite simple. They have the ability to manifest a mana weapon of varying degrees and strengths. As I said, not the most exciting trait ability in the tower, but they make up for this with augmented manatechnology crafted by their technician and inventor classes. For what they lack in natural innate ability, they more than make up for with powerful inventive gadgetry.”
“Can you elaborate on what kind of manatech they might be using?” Harold asked.
“Sure. Most Caesarian soldiers are equipped with special mana armor that increases their overall endurance and an infrared eyeglass that they use to see through objects.”
“How is that even fair?” asked Casey.
“We can bring in infrared gadgetry if we want,” said Blake. “In fact, there are many market stalls catering to the teams for that right now. Those are the rules. Is an axe-wielder not allowed to bring his axe to a fighting tournament? The tech is one of the Caesarian’s strongest attributes. It would be unfair to ask them to not use it to their full advantage.”
“I guess so,” sighed Casey. “Should we go pick up some of this stuff for ourselves then?”
Blake shook his head.
“Tried that. The Caesarians won’t sell to us. Even tried to pay someone else to make the purchase on my behalf and it still didn’t work. The Caesarians don’t hold their climbers in high regard, but that doesn’t mean they don’t want to win the tournament. Not selling to us means they can help leverage their team’s advantage against us.”
Harold chimed in.
“We’re going off topic. Let’s focus on the good news. We know who we’re up against. We can plan strategies to go against their strengths and weaknesses.”
Max scratched the back of his head. “And what’s the bad news?”
There’s always bad news, Max thought to himself. A catch. A big “but” at the end of a long sentence.
“The bad news is we don’t know what kind of challenge we’ll be facing,” Harold replied.
The team sighed.
There were so many variables. How could they prepare for all of them?
“But, here’s the thing,” said Harold. “We might not know what the exact challenge will be, but we can narrow it down a little bit.”
“How?” asked Sarah, who looked to be finally waking up, only halfway through their meeting.
“We know it will be a one-on-one team match of some kind,” said Harold. “Knowledge of the previous tournaments helps in that regard.”
Max perked up at this.
He’d momentarily forgotten about the fact that Harold had faced off in one of these games before. They could use that prior knowledge to their advantage.
“So, there’s the strong possibility that the semi-final challenge will be one of three types of challenges,” Harold explained. “Capture the flag, team death match, or some form of asymmetrical battle.”
“I think we can rule out capture the flag, no?” said Blake.
Harold shrugged. “It’s precisely because of that type of thinking that it’s still a possibility. It’s what no one expects. For the most part, though, I think you’re right. Plus, we’ve already gotten a pretty good capture the flag strategy down after the last challenge, so that option is the least of our worries.”
“Awesome,” said Casey. “What about the other two?”
“Team death match is simple,” said Harold. “We face off against the other team and last man standing wins.”
“And the asymmetrical challenge?” said Max.
“That one is more tricky. An asymmetrical challenge will usually be conducted with multiple rounds, with the winner succeeding at best two out of three.”
“I’m sorry,” said Sarah, chiming in. “What exactly is an asymmetrical challenge?”
“It’s a challenge where the two opposing teams have separate victory goals,” Blake answered. “Unlike capture the flag or team death match where the two teams have to accomplish the same goal to win.”
“Okay, I think I understand,” said Sarah. “But could you give an example?”
“Sure,” said Harold. “An asymmetrical challenge usually takes place in a simulated urban environment—not always, mind you—but the buildings allow for a more balanced environment for an asymmetrical challenge. An example would be: one team is defending against a monster-wave, while another is leading the monster-wave. The team leading the monster-wave wins when they gain control of key spots in the urban environment.”
“Ah, okay,” said Sarah. “I think I understand now.”
“Good,” said Harold. “A quick analysis of our strengths and weaknesses versus the Caesarians tell me that we’d benefit from a simpler challenge like death match or capture the flag. Mainly because we have flashier and more unique abilities, which will allow us to overpower them. The Caesarians, meanwhile, would benefit more from an asymmetrical challenge which would give them more opportunity to take advantage of their strong teamwork and manatech.”
“Oh man,” said Casey. “I hope we get team death match then.”
Harold shook his head.
“We can’t think that way,” said the old man. “We won’t win if we only plan for what we hope to get. We must prepare for the worst-case scenario.”
48
The night before the semi-final round, Tiberius stood in the office on the top floor of the gymnasium his team had been given to prepare for the tournament.
He looked out the window at the setting sun, ushering in the evening to all of Caesaria.
He let out a deep sigh as he stood there.
Tomorrow was the semi-final round. This was Tiberius’ next step towards achieving his own dream of making the Caesarian soldier class a more respected class in their society.
Despite hosting the tournament, the Caesarians rarely won it.
Everyone in society blamed it on the soldier class.
/> It’s too weak, they said.
Too simple a class.
Worthless.
Tiberius clenched his fists, shaking with anger at the very thought of all those people.
“Forget them,” he cursed to himself.
He and his team had been training hard for months in the build-up of this tournament. They weren’t going to lose now when they were so close to victory.
The door to the gym’s office swung open.
Tiberius looked over his shoulder to see Regulus.
What did he want?
“Good evening, Tiberius,” said the alliance ambassador. “Could I have a word?”
Tiberius bristled.
Regulus was his superior so he couldn’t say no. He hated how Regulus asked him, as if he even had a choice.
“Come in,” said Tiberius.
Tiberius turned away from the window and faced Regulus.
He could see by the way the ambassador’s fingers were twitching that the man clearly had something on his mind.
Something was bugging him.
“Are you prepared for the semi-final match tomorrow?” asked the ambassador.
Tiberius winced.
What kind of question is that?
Of course, my team and I are prepared!
“Do you doubt us, ambassador?” Tiberius asked.
“No, not at all,” said Regulus.
Tiberius kept his eyes on the man’s fingers. They were still twitching.
“It’s just...”
Here we go, thought Tiberius.
“I can tell you precisely what kind of challenge it is, so you can spend the rest of the evening preparing a foolproof strategy.”
Tiberius gritted his teeth.
He didn’t want the ambassador’s help. He wanted to win with his team fair and square. He had told him this after the man had shared with him that they’d be facing off against the human team.
He hated the idea of having an unfair advantage. It was why he and Hadriana had tipped off the humans at the tournament ball.
“It’s okay,” sighed Tiberius. “We don’t need the help.”