Chapter 92 - Opportunity (Patreon)

The next two days were exhausting. After confirming that Senhal’s team had lost its flag and been eliminated, Reyna decided to spend some time observing the remaining opponents rather than risk another surprise. They left Arien and Missy to defend the camp while the others took turns watching enemy bases from the forest.

Effie’s group always kept three people near their flag, rotating them every few hours. Effie herself usually spent the time practicing magic.

Adam’s camp initially appeared abandoned, but Matt eventually spotted sentries concealed near the clearing. After a full day of observation, he concluded that the others were either resting inside the tents or waiting nearby in ambush.

Basil, meanwhile, had stopped sending scouts entirely.

By the time Reyna returned each evening, she barely had enough energy to shower before crawling into her sleeping spot in the tent.

The problem was that none of their options looked good. Attacking Basil would expose them to Effie or Adam, attacking Effie was close to suicide, and fighting Adam risked losses they could not afford. For now, everyone was waiting for someone else to make the first mistake.

Yesterday, Reyna decided it was time to approach Adam directly. An alliance with him was still their best chance of breaking the stalemate, even if she doubted he would agree.

She went to his camp alone, carrying a stick with a yellow cloth tied to it, the color of Sul and a traditional sign of peaceful intent.

Nobody attacked her as she approached, though she spotted movement among the trees and had little doubt several people were watching her.

At the edge of the clearing, one of Adam’s teammates told her to wait, so she did.

Minutes passed with no sign of him, and Reyna was beginning to wonder whether making her stand there was some deliberate attempt to insult her when Adam finally emerged from the camp.

He was lean, brown-haired, and so ordinary-looking that she doubted she would have remembered his face after a single meeting. What stood out instead was the way he carried himself. His posture was relaxed, his movements unhurried, and there was no hesitation in the way he spoke.

“What do you want?” he asked.

“An alliance against Basil, and afterward against Effie.”

“No.” He turned away immediately.

“Wait.”

Adam stopped.

“You know you can’t beat Effie alone. None of us can. An alliance is your only realistic path to first place.”

“I told Basil the same thing I’m telling you.” He turned back toward her. “I won’t let aristocrats use me. To people like you, everything is a game, and people like me are pieces on the board.” His mouth twisted. “So go build your castles and walls. Just don’t act surprised when somebody eventually tears them down.”

His words stayed with Reyna all the way back to camp. She understood why a commoner might resent the nobility, but deliberately sacrificing his own chances because of it made far less sense. Basil’s betrayal had been ruthless, but logical. Adam’s refusal felt almost self-destructive, which made him much harder to predict.

When she stepped into the clearing, she immediately realized she was the last to arrive. Dusk had already begun to settle over the forest, and a large campfire burned in the center of camp, casting flickering shadows toward the treeline.

Another one of Arien’s ideas.

At first she had wanted to forbid it. It was still summer, they didn’t need the warmth, and the fire was practically a beacon advertising their location. Yet there was something about sitting together around it that made the worries of the day slip away.

"How'd it go, Rey?" Arien asked once she had washed up and joined the rest of the team gathered around the fire.

"Poorly," she admitted.

One of Reyna’s tutors had once told her that a leader sometimes had to acknowledge failure. Done sparingly, it could even strengthen the bond with subordinates by reminding them that their commander was human. Too much of it, however, and people might simply decide their leader was incompetent.

"I spoke with Adam." She sighed. "The short version is that he told me to get lost." A few people chuckled. "I honestly have no idea why he's like that."

She glanced at Greg, who had been in Adam's class, but he was staring at the ground.

As usual.

"Greg," Arien said, catching her look. "Why doesn't Adam want to ally with anyone?" he asked on her behalf.

Sometimes he was wonderfully intelligent. Sometimes.

“Adam doesn’t like the upper classes very much. No offense, milady.”

“We know that,” Arien said. “I’m not particularly fond of them as a group either, but there are plenty of good people at the Academy regardless of where they come from.”

Greg nodded, though without much enthusiasm.

“I know. But Adam makes people like us feel like we actually belong here.”

He stared into the fire.

“When I was accepted, I never imagined I’d make it to fifth year. We spent most of our first semester learning how to read. Adam doesn’t look at me and see a peasant. He just sees Greg.”

For a moment, nobody answered. Apparently realizing he had just spoken more than during the entire competition, Greg lowered his head and began poking at the dirt with a stick.

Reyna still wasn’t convinced by Adam’s motivations, but Greg’s loyalty was difficult to dismiss. Whatever else she thought of him, Adam was clearly a natural leader. Outside the Academy, that might not matter nearly as much, but as long as Reyna couldn’t openly draw on her House’s resources, she would have to be careful around him. Part of her even envied how easily that authority seemed to come to him. Reyna had spent years practicing everything from her posture to the way she spoke.

“That’s stupid,” Missy said. “You’re still a peasant.”

Greg seemed to shrink, though for a brief moment Reyna saw anger break through his embarrassment.

You stupid idiot. Whatever confidence Geg had found was gone.

“Maybe he was born a peasant,” Arien said, “but thanks to magic, he can become whatever he wants. Besides, sooner or later, everyone finds peasants somewhere among their ancestors."

Missy glared at him. “My family’s lineage goes back to the founding of Wyndor.”

“So? What about before that? They probably plowed fields just like my father or Greg's.”

“I refuse to listen to this.”

She stood and walked toward the tents without another word.

"My father ran an inn," Greg muttered so quietly Reyna barely heard him.

Arien burst out laughing. "Then I guess I'm the finest representative of the common folk among us. Maybe I should be the one to talk to Adam."

"You'd better not," Greg replied quickly. "I think the only people he dislikes more than nobles are trai—" He caught himself. "People of lower status who serve aristocrats."

"Oh, wonderful," Arien said, visibly annoyed.

Interesting. She rarely saw him like that.

"So Adam, who's here thanks to a royal scholarship funded by the King, is some great champion of the people, while I'm a traitor because I have friends, who happens to be nobles."

"The King was chosen by the gods themselves," Greg replied. "It's his corrupt advisors who prevent him from seeing the hardships of his subjects."

This time Reyna snorted.

So that was Adam’s version of the world? A good king surrounded by evil advisors? If only they knew… Greg was doing little to challenge some of the assumptions she had been raised with about commoners.

The conversation died, and one by one the boys headed toward their tent.

A few minutes later, Reyna was alone beside the dying campfire.

The next day, Reyna had not even reached Effie’s camp when the signaling artifact in her pocket vibrated three times.

She had devised ten different signals for coordinating their movements through the forest. She had wanted more, but the others had objected, claiming that even ten was excessive.

Three vibrations meant another team was attacking a camp. After a short pause came five more.

Rally at the center.

Reyna immediately changed direction toward the meeting point. Someone had finally made a move. Was it Adam? Or perhaps Efie? She doubted it was Basil. Fortunately, neither Matt nor Greg seemed to think the attack was aimed at them. Otherwise, she would have felt only two quick vibrations: attack, return to base.

Fifteen minutes later, she emerged onto one of the clearings near the main camp that served as their designated meeting point. Matt and Greg were already waiting. Only Missy was missing.

“Adam’s moving on Effie,” Matt said as soon as she arrived. “All six of them. He left his base completely undefended.”

At first, the decision seemed absurd. They could walk into Adam’s camp, destroy his flag, and eliminate the entire team for ten easy points.

Then she understood.

“He knows we won’t take it.”

Matt frowned.

“If we destroy Adam’s flag, Effie becomes even harder to beat. As long as he’s attacking her, we need him in a game.”

Adam had gambled that Reyna wanted first place badly enough to protect his interests for him. Annoyingly, he was right.

“We attack Basil,” she said.

Matt and Greg nodded.

“We could take Adam’s ten points, but if we want any chance at first place, this is the best opportunity we’re going to get to remove Basil from the board.”

They set out as soon as Missy arrived. Reyna left Arien behind as insurance for the flag. If another team tried to exploit their absence with a small attack on the camp, he was still their best defender.

Reaching Basil's camp took roughly twenty minutes. She had to admit that with each passing day, moving through the forest became easier. Not that she would ever enjoy it. She had never intended to become an Explorer.

When they emerged from the trees, a welcoming committee was already waiting for them. 

"Are you sure about this, Reyna?" Basil asked, stepping forward ahead of his team. "Attacking me right now doesn't make any sense."

"Adam is attacking Efie as we speak," she replied.

The boy's eyes widened with understanding. She saw no reason to hide it. After all, Basil's previous move had earned a sliver of her respect. He had thoroughly outplayed them.

"So be it," Basil said. "Even if we lose, third place is guaranteed. I hope you’re not angry about that?"

"Not anymore," she answered honestly. "I'm angry at myself. I should have anticipated the possibility that first place wasn't your objective."

"Well, even if we'd beaten Efie, defeating your team afterward would've been a coin toss. If not for your friend, I'd have secured second place with more than twenty-eight points. And who knows? Maybe Efie would've stumbled too." He grinned. "How about a one-on-one duel?"

"No." She laughed. Even now, he was looking for ways to improve his odds. Their best strategy was obvious: let Matt keep Basil occupied while she eliminated the weaker members one by one.

"Remember," she told her team, "hold your opponents in place until I can help. Minimize risk."

Her first target was Orana. As far as Reyna knew, the girl possessed only the Fire Aspect. That made her dangerous offensively but poorly suited to defending herself against sustained pressure.

Matt charged Basil. Missy engaged Mikhe. Greg moved against Alfred.

Reyna launched a Flaming Arrow. She preferred it to the more common Fireball. It carried slightly less power but cost far less mana, which made it ideal for interrupting long incantations.

Orana absorbed the first strike with her shield, but the impact ruined her spell.

Reyna fired again before she could restart. 

After several more arrows, Orana was visibly struggling. Every time she attempted another incantation, Reyna interrupted it before completion.

Pathetic. No wonder Arien had held off Basil’s attackers so easily.

She glanced toward Matt's duel with Basil. That fight was relatively even, though Matt was gradually being forced onto the defensive. The others were managing reasonably well too.

Reyna switched to a stronger Fireball and sent it straight into Orana’s weakened defenses.

The shield shattered, and the Academy’s golden barrier appeared before the flames could reach her. Anger and relief mixed across Orana's face. Reyna was already looking for her next target.

Alfred, who was fighting Greg, had been one of the attackers during the assault on their camp and relied primarily on the Water Aspect. Well, that was a slight inconvenience for her, but his control left much to be desired.

She flicked her hand and launched a Wind Blade. Offensively, it was weaker than her Fire Aspect spells, but combined with Greg's Stone Spears it would be enough.

Resignation appeared on Alfred's face. Still, he didn't surrender. Instead, he committed himself entirely to defense.

A minute passed as they steadily drained his mana reserves.

Another Wind Blade finally broke his shield. At almost the same moment, Missy screamed.

Reyna turned and found her kneeling inside a golden dome.

Idiot.

“Greg, help Matt. I’ll handle Mikhe.”

The girl desperately defended herself with earthen barriers, but her mana ran out quickly. It took Reyna only thirty seconds to defeat her.

Stupid Missy. Apparently she had wanted to prove herself by defeating her opponent alone.

Only Basil remained.

Reyna needed to finish this quickly. Whatever had happened between Adam and Effie was probably already over.

She began weaving Air and Fire together. Knowing both Aspects was not enough; combining them was almost a discipline of its own, and even experienced mages could struggle to make two types of mana cooperate. Learning the technique under her family’s Great Mage had felt like discovering an entirely new branch of magic.

Reyna would never have attempted it in a one-on-one duel. It demanded too much concentration and left her vulnerable. But Basil was occupied with Matt and Greg.

She balanced the two Aspects carefully until the Gust of Wind caught the Burning Vortex and pulled it into a tight spiral.

Then she released it.

The spell tore across the clearing in a twisting column of flame, roaring loud enough to drown out the shouts around her. Basil threw up a Water Barrier, but steam burst outward as the spell ripped through it, smashed apart his Mana Shield, and kept going toward the flag.

For a heartbeat, the base artifact held.

Then the barrier shattered in a flash of light.

She had won.

Current standings:

Reyna’s Group — 23 points

Basil’s Group — 18 points

Efie’s Group — ? points

Adam’s Group — ? points

Senhal's Group — 0 points