The knight in magic armour speaks as we approach. “I am Ser Galvin Ilonhal, and I will be administering your first group tests. You will all fight me in a group two times. The first time you will not be using any magic weapons. Your rods will not emulate enchantments, while mine will ignore the enchantments on your armour. Likewise, you are to leave any enchanted bows or other launcher type weapons on the side. Mages are allowed to use whatever spells you know, unless specifically forbidden. We’ll fight for five minutes, and you’ll be scored based on how many of you stayed alive. The match area is fifty yards. A wall of light will appear if you reach the boundary.

“Final word of advice. This first test is meant as practice for working with your team before facing the other examinees. You have five minutes starting now to strategize, and position yourselves in the enchanted structures, and you’ll have another five after the first match. Even if you all die, it may teach you valuable lessons. So don’t be discouraged. Now, get ready.”

I look around, analyzing the features of the fighting area and the several house sized buildings made of the grey dust. The walls slightly vibrate as the magic continually forces it into shape, producing a haze that obscures the inside and distinguishes them from the surrounding grey. Still, they should bear my weight, so climbing up one should be the best spot for me.

Adrian casts a spell, and a shimmering haze appears between us and Galvin. “All right, he can’t see or hear past the barrier. Ranged people go up on roofs, melee position to obstruct. Any objections?”

There are none, so everyone gets moving. There’s a slight issue as we realize that while we can go in the buildings, they don’t have stairs to the roofs. It’s not a problem for me as I just jump up and climb the short remaining distance. The sides of the building are malleable and deform slightly with pressure, allowing for finger holds. The others need to be helped by Terrance. Billy stays on the ground since I don’t need him to reload, something he’s very happy about. Adrian and the frightful youth join me, as do the spear wielders to screen us. The knightly pathed stay on the ground to engage Galvin along with Billy.

The ready whistle sounds, and we all act. I cast missile guidance and throw with my mundane sling. I know I can’t penetrate, but the bludgeoning force is significant even for a knight, and a faint small circle appears where I hit the helmet – quickly fading from his regeneration. He glances up, but then ignores me. I’m a bit hurt.

The frightful boy shoots his crossbow (he is allowed to use it despite being magical since the academy included a feature to disable the enchantment). He misses. Adrian’s invisible missile seems to hit, at least from the clang, but it doesn’t seem effective as no circle appears. So, they change course and focus on their other illusions to help the melee fighters.

The knight stands still as the team circles them. A haze appears over Terrance and Riley that quickly intensifies until it suddenly vanishes along with their bodies – more of Adrian’s illusions, though a targeted invisibility is more advanced than they let on. I glance over and see Adrian gritting their teeth, sweat appearing on their brow as they grip their head in a familiar looking headache. It’s rather impressive they’re able to cast it on two people at once while also maintaining a stationary veil over the ranged fighters.

Billy and the two pages rush in upon seeing their teammates disappear, and I shoot another bullet which hits a moment before they reach. It hits in the same spot, but the knight only flinches for the slightest of moments before recovering and facing the attackers.

Billy reaches first and… instantly dies. He tries to swing his war hammer in an overhand motion, but the knight stabs him in the neck causing him to drop spasming to the ground with a dark red circle that quickly goes fully black. He stays on the ground, clearly in shock from the simulated death.

Then the invisible squire and knight reaches – presumably at least, from Galvin’s suddenly defending against thin air. The knight administrator seems completely unhindered in fighting unseen foes and agilely shifts to parry and dodge. A few moments of fancy footwork and interposing his shield at nothing with a few clangs, then he lunges with his sword and a medium red circle appears in mid-air. The circle seems to stumble back in pain, then quickly retreats. The pages move to cover him, but are both quickly cut themselves – one wounded, one dead.

“Well, this is going miserably,” I say between trying to shoot the knight with some useful timing that he just brute forces his way through. “Do you think he has an enchantment on his armour to see through invisibility, or is his perception just that high?”

“It’s his perception,” Adrian answers, gritting their teeth through the headache. “Specifically, his hearing. I know because he’s not even looking at them. My spell is helping, just not enough.”

“Can you mask sound too?”

“Yeah, but I’m at my limit.”

“Then drop the spell on the wounded one; he’s out anyways. I’ll go down and try to heal him.”

“You didn’t mention you had a healing spell.”

“I don't know if it’ll work on simulated wounds, and besides I didn’t want to get that close.”

They nod and chant. I loose another bullet, which clangs off the same spot (I think he gets perverse pleasure in not dodging) then jump down to find the wounded squire – Riley as it turns out.

He’s panting against a wall when I find him, the illusionary pain clearly more than he was expecting.

“What type of sword does that guy have? I get that it ignores the enchantments, but the armour is still quality made, and it barely seemed to impede it.” He half mutters to himself.

“Do you think it’s iron phasing?” I say as I begin chanting my spell.

He shakes his head. “If it was, I’d already be dead. Besides, he parried with it once.”

“Hmm. Hold still.” Fortunately, the circle begins rapidly fading after I finish casting until about half a minute later when it stops getting better at a pinkish hue.

“Thanks, that’s a lot better.” He tests out the movement without grimace. “It won’t completely heal it?”

I shake my head. “It’s just a basic spell meant to stop people from dying. If it were a real wound, I’d tell you to stay put until your regeneration had a chance to finish so it doesn’t tear.”

“Thanks. I guess you’re slightly useful,” he says then rushes off towards the fighting. I don’t feel anything at the compliment.

Galvin seems to be struggling a bit more against an opponent who is now both invisible and inaudible, though he is still somehow holding his own. Terrance has managed to score a few faint hits against the limbs, but nothing that seems debilitating, while Galvin has likewise scored a few minor wounds against him. Really, it’s a bit unfair since the hovering circles give his position away in a manner that wouldn’t happen otherwise. We’ll have to complain after the match to see if we can’t get compensated.

Not thinking my sling will do much good, I go find the still living page and apply treatment. By the time I’m done Riley has gotten wounded again and I have to deal with him. The page dies in the meantime, and it seems Terrance has gotten severely wounded so is retreating to the opposite side of the area.

The knight takes the opportunity to rush the ranged group. The spear bearers do an admirable job in intercepting his leap to the roof, and even score a few very minor wounds. Likewise, I hit him mid-air with a bullet in hopes of messing up his trajectory. However, nothing works as he just bulls through our efforts.

The spear bearers are quickly cut down with horizontal swings, followed by the frightful youth then Adrian. It seems that putting them up there was a mistake, since unlike me they couldn’t jump down to escape. It’s just me and the squires now. Well, squire and knight.

“You’re healed enough. Stall him while I heal Terrance.”

“I won’t last two seconds on my own,” Riley complains.

“Be creative then… I don’t know, use the terrain or something.” I run off without looking to see if he complies.

He lasts five seconds, but it’s enough for me to reach Terrance and start healing him.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

“Thanks. You have a sword. Can you help me fight?”

“No,” I laugh, “I’ll be running. I’ll try to help at range, but once you’re dead I’ll just stay away.”

He nods. “Probably for the best. At least we’ll get points for you living.”

“I think you’re the only knightly pathed I’ve met in days who hasn’t chastised me for dishonourable behaviour.”

“…No problem?” he says quizzically, then Galvin is upon us.

I run as promised, turning briefly to loose a bullet that once again clangs uselessly off his helmet. Terrance is fairly impressive, shifting his feet back defensively as he frantically blocks with his shield and sword. He’s clearly skilled enough for the title but is still only at the lowest level a knight can be, while Galvin is well past the minimum – not to mention the nearly invincible armour. Terrance is impressive, but still falls in less than ten seconds.

So, I run. The protective properties of my items are ignored by the illusion system, but the movement properties can’t be. That, combined with the cat god’s grace, means I’m faster than even a very strong knight in armour. A pattern emerges: I run, then turn and sling a bullet which he usually fails to dodge, scoring a faint wound circle that quickly disappears.

After the third hit he stops the chase and jumps up to the archery perch to retrieve the frightful youth’s crossbow and loads it in a smooth single motion despite its hefty draw weight. However, it’s not a knightly weapon, so the sound of its shooting reaches me well before the bolt does, allowing me to dodge nimbly to the side.

That was too dangerous. I don’t know how much time we have left, but I’ll probably tire myself out enough for him to get a lucky shot. I need to deal with the crossbow. So, I turn to face him, hitting him with another bullet while I’m at it. He shoots back, but it’s much easier to dodge now I can see it coming.

So, he charges while reloading – the obvious move. I have to keep watch to reliably dodge, but that will slow my retreat and allow him to catch up. Unfortunately for him, that brings him in range of a firestream.

Naturally his armour makes him immune to the heat – but the crossbow isn’t. He shoots anyways, impressively hitting me despite being blinded by the flames. I stumble back, dropping the spell and clutching my chest where it hit; expecting pain, but none comes. The flames vanish to reveal a black circle over the crossbow – apparently the system determined the bolt would not have hit me if this were real.

However, the vanishing flames also reveal the knight has gotten much closer than I expected – within striking distance in fact. I jump back, dodging his sword by inches.

I continue running, dodging through the fake alleys until I gain enough distance to feel safe hitting him with another bullet. Upon being struck he oddly stops, audibly sighs, and shouts. “All right, you still have another minute left, but I’m calling it here. You can’t kill me, and I can’t catch you. I could start throwing stuff, but you’ll probably just dodge, and I have some dignity left. Congratulations: one of you lived.

“All in all, you people did pretty decently. Starting with the survivor your slinging was annoying and supported the melee fighters well, plus healing your teammates really helped. Good job. Next the illusion mage. You did well. The invisibility was annoying. Though the screen on the archers was useless since I could tell where the shots were coming from. Next time focus on one or the other. Also, climbing to the roof was mixed. It gave you a better vantage, but then you couldn’t get away. Having the spears try to protect you was good, since knocking me back down before I landed would have been significant. Unluckily it didn’t work, so you died. Squires, you did ok, just figure out how to use the invisibility better. Pages, your moving to help the squire’s retreat was probably the best you could hope to do. All in all, very decent. Now you have five minutes to prepare for the next match. Remember, magic arms will be allowed. Get to it.”

Riley speaks first. “The instructor was generous. We did awful. How will we do better?”

“I’m going to shoot him with this crossbow.” I laconically hoist the heavy weapon.

“You think it’ll penetrate his armour?” Riley asks.

“If it doesn’t, I’m getting a refund. Adrian, can you make the shot invisible and inaudible?”

“Yeah, no problem.”

“Good. Billy, be ready to reload it.”

“… Yeah,” he says softly.

“Don’t look so glum. You fought a knight. There wasn’t much you could have done.” Terrance pats him on the back.

“Yeah, but he said those good things about all of you. He didn’t even mention me.”

“You weren’t hoping to get in off the back of this test, were you?” Adrian asks, as tactless as I would be.

“No.” Billy laughs. “I lack the learning to get in. But I hoped if I did good here, they’d give me a better job when I joined the army.”

“Well, we’ll see what we can manage.” Terrance says with a smile that the others no doubt find charming, but I find it irritatingly similar to Alan’s. Much less lecherous by default though.

With that settled they go through their plans, assuming that I’ll fail to kill in one shot. Reasonable, since I won’t be aiming for the head as that might be dodged by accident.

The match starts. I load the lightning round for maximum damage, but I wait to shoot until the others can distract him. Riley does well – the enchantments on his plate mail letting him take blows that would have killed him in the previous round. I wait until Galvin is forced to turn his back to me, then pull the lever.

I don’t even have time for trepidation as the bolt hits nearly instantly, causing Galvin to spasm in pain as a dark red circle appears at the impact. He turns, ignoring the knight and squire in front of him to stare at me in shock before a blow from Terrance forces his attention back to the fight at hand.

“Reload,” I casually say, handing the crossbow to Billy after quickly attaching the winch. He gets several turns in, grunting with each one, before Galvin suddenly wounds Terrance and the two pages in a flurry of precise thrusts, allowing him to break through and rush us without warning. “Oh, never mind. Run.”

“What?” Billy says, turning to me, but I’m already gone. He turns back to see Galvin too late and gets decapitated before he can react.

Still running I pull my light crossbow off my back – thumbing the symbol on the adhesive strap to negate the enchantment. Already cocked, I quickly load an iron phasing bolt, turn, and shoot. Galvin tries to dodge, but is too efficient. He tries to twist barely out of the way to lose the least speed, but underestimates the course correction from the spell and so gets hit dead on.

A thrill courses through me as I see the red circle appear, followed by crushing disappointment when I realize how faint it is. The iron phasing property let it penetrate the plate, but he likely has a magic gambeson underneath, or maybe he enhanced his skin to just be that tough. Either way, the result isn’t much better than when I used the sling.

What follows is farcical. I don’t know why, but he seems intent on stopping my shooting even with weapons he knows won’t penetrate. He knows he can’t catch me, but he especially doesn’t want me to get back to the heavy crossbow, while naturally that is all I’m trying to do. Unfortunately, the weight from the light crossbow slows me down some, so the chase is much closer than last time.

Though it’s not like he’s focusing entirely on me. Naturally I try to put my teammates between us, but he just hacks through them while hardly slowing down. I shoot him again after the crossbow cocks, trying for his throat this time, but it only produces a light wound again. Disgusted with its results, I toss it aside to lighten myself, since I doubt the other bolts could even penetrate the armour.

I find this annoyingly similar to last time – we're supposed to be doing better with our magic gear, but he’s picking us off just as quickly. He must have been going easy on us last time. Adrian tries to help by creating illusionary copies of me whenever I leave Galvin’s sight, but he somehow instantly see’s through them and ignores them. It’s frustrating.

But then I notice Terrance winching the heavy crossbow. Hope: I need to remember to praise him later. I make another round of the arena to give him time to finish then rush past Galvin in a manoeuvre that brings me dangerously close to him– sacrificing the last page for a bit of space.

“Thanks,” I say to Terrance as I casually grab the weapon.

Terrance nods, as he and Riley move to interpose themselves between us. Riley goes first, but Galvin sweeps his legs out with a kick, pins him on his front and brutally stabs him in a weak point at the back of the neck – killing him instantly. Terrance charges, but Galvin suddenly shifts back and kicks him in the chest, sending him flying into a wall. He’s only lightly wounded, but the way is open.

Not wanting to merely survive again I stand my ground. If I die, well, Adrian should be able to hide under invisibility until the time runs out. I aim, but hold the shot.

Having learned his lesson, he dodges much more drastically on approach, jumping and kicking off walls to confuse my aim. Unfortunately for him I practiced hitting precisely such targets and wait until the last straight charge then calmly pull the lever, sending the bolt towards his head.

He tries to twist out of the way, but it’s too fast, and his armour too rigid for success. The bolt slams true, instantly causing a black circle of death to appear.

Unfortunately though, since the bolt is near massless on impact, it does nothing to stop his momentum, and I let myself get too focused to dodge. My shoulder flairs in pain as his sword stabs into it, seemingly penetrating my shield and multiple layers of magic armour with little resistance. Then more pain as his body collides with mine, supining me a thump.

Fortunately, the shield spell (the disk’s, not my own) holds, and cushions me from any real damage. An instant later the pain vanishes as the illusion system determines the match is over with Galvin’s death.

Galvin gets up, pulling off his helmet to reveal a scowling bearded face. “Well, congratulations, you killed me. That’ll get you a lot of points. Some good shooting on your part. Not many can track a dodging knight on a charge. Your teamwork was shit though. You relied too much on your weapon, and you sacrificed your teammates needlessly as you tried to get away. Once you realized the lighter crossbow could only barely penetrate you should have done what you did last time and only shot when the distraction would help the others. But you were so eager for victory that you forgot the goal was keeping your team alive.”

“…I’ll keep that in mind.”

He goes through the other’s performances, but I don’t pay attention. For some reason I take his criticism seriously. I find I wanted his approval of my performance and felt bad when I didn’t get it. I don’t know why. Surely victory is all that matters, and I should only care if his advice was useful. It’s disturbing that my mood can be so dependent on a random imperial’s opinion.

“You good? You’re spacing out.” Adrian suddenly speaks next to me.

“Oh, yeah, fine. Why? Did I miss something important?”

“No nothing. It’s just a long day ahead, and it’ll be bad if you’re already fatigued.”

“I’m fine. I was just thinking.”

“Right. Well, you’ll have enough time for that soon. We’re heading back to the waiting room. Riley seems eager to discuss our performance before the tournament starts.”

“I bet he is.” I sigh, not really caring what he thinks.