“That page is surprisingly skilled.” I point to Preston in the opposing lineup. “He beat several squires in the unarmoured tournament.” We’ve won four matches so far with no losses, and I’m excited to take the frightful youth’s place of providing convenient intelligence for once.

Riley answers. “That is surprising, though I’m more worried about the irregular composition.” He refers to the fact that unlike our own team, and every other one we’ve fought so far, which has two mages, squires and pages, this one has two mages, one squire, and five pages, meaning that nearly all of them are enhanced in at least some minor way. “He does sound skilled, but that was in the unarmoured fight. To fight armoured foes, strength is needed.”

I nod. “I agree, I just thought it was worth mentioning… do you think the extra pages could beat you together?”

“…Three on one? Maybe. Depends on how strong their weapon enchantments are.”

“Terrance, your thoughts?” I ask.

“Hmm. I think if we’re going to compromise, I’d prefer Ser Terry.”

“Noted. The squires. How many would it take to beat you?”

“Um, bare minimum? Those two with bows might be hard to deal with. They seem decently magical and can probably penetrate me. My armour is mundane, and my skin isn’t that much more resilient than an average squire.”

“Can you dodge?” I ask.

“Oh, yeah. No problem. My senses are pretty sharp. So, they’d probably want to have two more to tie me down, or maybe the squire.”

The squire in question is in magic army armour with a poleaxe I can tell from here is heavily enchanted to deal with hardened defences – recursive variable mass and resilience symbols.

“I think they’ll try to send the squire against Riley,” I say in reference to the weapon. “The roster doesn’t indicate you’re a knight, it just puts you in the squire category. So, they probably don’t know about that. If I were them, I’d focus on killing the guy in expensive full plate and bypass the other squire. Have each of their pages rush in separately in hopes of at least one getting through… We should really move the spears up.”

“I thought we were done with that.” Riley grimaces.

“No, listen, they’ll approach in six vectors. The squire and each of the five pages, all finding separate paths to reach our ranged fighters. With you, ser Terry and the two pages each in your own positions, that means at minimum three will slip past you. I can take down one of them easily, but the remaining two will overwhelm the spears leaving us vulnerable. But if the spears move forward then they should only have to deal with one page at a time, which they should be able to handle. They’ll be safer farther up.”

Riley shakes his head. “Regardless, the mundanes should be in the back.”

“That’s not Arkothan doctrine and you know it!” I whisper shout. “Y…Our entire manual of tactics and equipment selection is based on the idea of infantry advancing quickly against hard positions to take ground. Mundanes are never limited to the rear in actual battle.”

“In battles, yes, but not in skirmishes where the majority of fighters have magic.” Riley counters. “Aggressive use of mundanes is needed in large battles because otherwise, enemy mages will just blast them from afar. But our groups aren’t big enough to worry about spell attrition in the same way.”

I grit my teeth, wanting to say that I know he’s wrong about current imperial skirmish tactics, but fear that such detailed knowledge would be suspicious. Some might be explained by my claimed history on the border, but not all.

“Fine, standard tactics then… Do you know anything about the mages?” I turn to the frightful youth whose name I still haven’t caught.

“Um… I think he has some lightning spells.” The youth points.

“Right, I’ll go for him first then.” We’ve previously decided to eliminate the known danger before the unknown. It’s always a hard choice, but easier here. Lightning magic is very potent, capable of killing even knights in magic armour.

The ready whistle shrills, and we all rush to our decided positions. The lightning mage is a loud chanter – easily audible from my shooting perch – so I’m able to home in with the rod more quickly than normal and eliminate him without issue. Knowing we’re about to be rushed, I pass the weapon to Billy and load its light counterpart.

I hear the clang of weapons, though no more chanting. A few moments later a page, armed with sword and buckler, bursts into view. I cast missile guidance and shoot them. They somehow see it coming and dodge, though not completely – causing a severe shoulder wound, which makes them drop the buckler, rather than kill. They scream from the pain and immediately point in our direction.

Odd, I wouldn’t have expected for a page to sense where the first bolt came from, much less in time to partially dodge it.

A second one, wielding a bow, comes into sight and starts shooting as directed. They’re surprisingly accurate, given that they shouldn’t be able to see us behind Adrian’s veil, and severely wounds one of the spear bearers and lightly wounds the frightful youth.

“What’s going on?” I shout to Adrian as I reload. “How are they spotting us so easily?”

“Their powers are being supplemented!” Adrian shouts back, shooting an invisible dart at the enemy archer, which hits but only moderately wounds. “The second mage must be boosting them.”

Shit, an augmenter. Now I see the reason for the team’s imbalance. They’re likely more effective when working with several mildly enhanced allies than one moderate one. Safe to assume they can give their whole team a low to medium low-level boost and maintain it at a distance. Their mundanes might equal a page, their pages squires and their squire… well, not a knight, but closer.

“Hurry with that winch Billy,” I urge, suddenly feeling rather stressed. If I can eliminate the augmenter, then their team should fall apart.

Preston comes into view followed by a crossbow wielding mundane who drops to a knee and shoots at us. I move in front of the spear bearers, letting the bolt bounce harmlessly off my shield spell.

There, Riley should be happy about me ‘doing my duty’, though I’m sure he’ll find something else to be annoying about.

Preston sees the situation and gestures for his wounded fellow melee page to take cover behind a building as he does the same with a different one. My light crossbow is reloaded so I turn and shoot the archer page, though not before they kill the previously wounded spear bearer. Then Preston and the wounded page emerge on the top of the buildings they took cover from and run towards the edge.

Not good. We didn’t account for all the pages to effectively be squires when we selected this building. Leaping to us from those buildings will be much harder to defend against than if they tried to climb.

I shout for the spears to intercept Preston then quickly unravel my sling while casting guidance on the other page. My thrown stone hits them in the helmet the moment before they jump, causing them to jerk at the crucial step. They still jump, but don’t put in enough power, and instead of landing coolly on their feet they slam into the wall and fall back to the ground with red circles appearing on their head, front chest where they hit the wall, and backside where they land.

I look back just in time to see Preston twist past the second spear, the first one already cut down, and slam their sword point into their throat. I shout for Billy to stay back, but he doesn’t heed. He tries for an overhand swing of his hammer, but Preston casually sidesteps then brings his sword up to cut both of Billy’s extended arms followed by a thrust to the throat.

Adrian runs to jump off the side, and Preston follows. I shove my sling into my pocket and draw my sword while rushing to intercept. I’m a moment too late as the sword stabs into their back. Preston turns and, seeing me charging and the frightful youth levelling his crossbow at him, shoves Adrian off the roof and follows them down – using their body to cushion his landing.

I pull out my sling to shoot him but stop as I see him pick up Adrian, who’s still barely alive, and use them as a shield.

“That doesn’t violate your knightly path?! Friend.” I shout down to him.

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He shrugs. “No, not really. Besides, what do you care? Friend.”

I grit my teeth. Of course he developed a sense of pragmatism just in time to employ it against me. I could shoot anyways, the guidance spell would let me hit, but he’ll probably duck away in time, causing the bullet to veer into Adrian.”

A crunching sound from behind me and I turn to see the wounded page climb up from the other side of the building and run towards the frightful youth.

“Behind you!” I shout in warning – redrawing my sword and rushing to defend too late. The youth turns and shoots his crossbow an instant before the page reaches but misses in the panic and is run through.

I assess the page, and they me. I can’t win against a pseudo squire, even with my excessive gear. However, they are severely wounded. I don’t know how much the illusionary pain actually affects fighting ability, but it might be enough to win.

They apparently come to the same conclusion and so grab my heavy crossbow from where Billy dropped it and leaps off the roof with it. I run to follow but hear a cry of pain behind me. Deciding that’s more important I turn back and see Addrian on the ground with their wounds turned death black, and Preston turning a corner out of view.

I rush back to see the wounded page limping away with my crossbow. The previously cast guidance is still active, so I throw a bullet into the back of their knee. They crumple to the ground, but with a surge of strength crawl behind cover before I can loose another.

Sigh. I need that crossbow. The only way to win this is to kill the augmenting mage, and at the very least I’ll need the silver rod for that. How did they even know it was important? Did one of their team see my demonstration like the youth did the others? Maybe they just saw an impressive magic item and decided it would be useful to grab it.

I grab the light crossbow, finish loading it and jump down to follow. It’s not hard to catch up given their two wounded legs. They’re still crawling to get away when I shoot them in the back, finally killing them.

I move to grab my weapon but am alerted by a crunch to my right. I turn and see Preston charging so I drop the light crossbow and draw my sword. I parry his first thrust, but he twists his sword back with a supple bend of the wrist that allows him to stab true before I can return to form.

His power is significant, but still not enough to penetrate my shield. I swing back while he’s still recoiling, but he twists his blade again and blocks before turning it once again for another thrust that hits in the same spot. The point bounces off again, but the accompanying flash of the shield spell is brighter, and I feel the point of impact begin to thin. Another exchange, and he stabs the spot once again. This time it penetrates – the point digging into my shoulder.

I leap back, assessing the harm. I expect pain, but it seems he failed to penetrate the multiple layers of enchantments on my armour. Likewise, while the shield was penetrated, it hasn’t collapsed. I’m still in good shape, though it’s obvious I can’t beat Preston in a sword fight, especially when his powers are supplemented.

I continue back away from Preston, expecting him to follow while I cast a firestream, hoping he isn’t warded. But he doesn’t take the bait, and instead jumps back out of range and towards my heavy crossbow. I curse and stop the steam after a second of fire, not willing to see if the weapon can withstand my heat.

Preston stays standing next to the weapon, tapping his sword against it with a ‘come and take it’ smile.

“That’s some good armour you got there. First the sword tournament, and now this. You really are pretending you’re a knight!” He shouts, jokingly.

My eyes go to my discarded light crossbow. It’s still auto-cocking. I could cast missile guidance on Preston, move to fight him, then dash to the light crossbow once it’s done loading and try to shoot him before he can ‘cut’ the string. But I doubt he’ll move more than a few steps away to threaten me to not try anything ranged.

So where does that leave me? How many of them are left? How many of us? If their squire fought Riley without him knowing about the augmentation, then Riley likely lost. Conversely, I doubt Terrance would have lost to anyone regardless of augmentation. So, on our side I can count on myself and Terrance still being alive, and either Riley or the pages. On their side, there’s the augmenter, the mundanes, Preston and the squire. Best case scenario is that Terrance fought the squire and Riley is still alive. But Preston is clearly still augmented, so that’s still five v five at best. Since the augmenter would have shifted to more concentrated boosts if they were found, meaning they’re likely hiding with mundane guards.

But more likely is that either Riley or the two pages encountered the squire and were killed. Meaning if I just stand here with my crossbow held hostage then we will lose when the time runs out in a few minutes. I need to deal with Preston, and I need the crossbow.

Sigh. Preston has light armour and can’t easily beat my defences. All I need is one good cut while he needs to hit me several times. I might as well try to get lucky – victory in my heart and all that.

We enter into a flurry of exchanges that typically go as follows: I strike, he parries and strikes back, I try to parry but fail and his sword bounces off allowing me to try to strike again and fail. Rather than striking the same spot repeatedly to try to penetrate the shield as before, his aim is to collapse it by striking all over.

The idea is to build up a sort of resonance caused by the shield straining to repair itself until the continual demands make it almost a contradiction for the shield to be in existence. Or at least that’s how Gebal explained the theory of collapsing shields with insufficient power. I’ve never seen it done though, since he always just used brute strength.

Sensing my impending doom, I leap forward, trusting the dying strength of my shield to turn his blade one more time and attempt to tackle him. He’s likely stronger than me right now, but maybe the surprise will give me a chance to slip my dagger in.

There is no surprise though, as he sees my intent and jumps back out of the way. However, this opens the way to my crossbow, which I eagerly run towards.

A slight twang and air rushing noticed too late as a bolt slams into my shield. A shattering sound, heard only in my mind, as the entire shield flashes bright blue then dissipates – fully collapsed into nothing. Preston sees this and leaps forward again. I try to defend but he agilely slips his thin sharp blade into my off shoulder. Pain flares immediately this time as a medium red circle appears at the point of impact. It’s a shallow wound, corresponding to less than an inch of penetration, but still hurts.

I leap back, rapidly thinking. The mundane crossbow wielder is here. We failed to kill them before due to being distracted by the pages. But they’re here now, and vulnerable. If I kill them, and stay alive, then it might be enough to still win.

My hopes are dashed with thudding armoured footsteps announcing the arrival of the squire, poleaxe casually leaning on their shoulder as they move in front of the archer and cuts off my retreat.

Sigh. Not much to it then. My chance to get the heavy back gone, I ignore the threat of its destruction and dive for the now cocked light crossbow, loading an iron phasing bolt and shooting it at the squire. I don’t have time to cast guidance, so they easily dodge out of the way, but don’t realize the archer was directly behind them. They cry out as the bolt hits their chest but… failure once again. The circle is medium red – they won’t die from it.

What to do? I don’t have time to cast another shield spell, as it takes about two seconds where I must remain still, and being interrupted is a headache. The archer is retreating, I can’t try killing them again. My shoulder hurts way more after shooting than it should. Apparently, since they can’t enforce movement restriction from wounds, the examiners opted for greater than realistic pain to simulate it. Annoying. The squire is rushing me, and I hear a twang behind me as Preston cuts my heavy crossbow then charges as well.

The squire stops as the archer screams again from behind them. Jubilation as I look to see Ligryn standing over them having cut them down. She rushes towards me to attack the squire from behind, but they know she’s coming and swing out with the pole axe. Ligryn dodges back at the last second, but it buys me enough time to turn and fight Preston.

“Where’s your partner?” I shout to Ligryn, moving to the side so I can see her in my periphery.

“Dead!” She shouts back between dodging. The page we caught was unexpectedly good. He killed Grift before I could finish him. I think they’re augmented or something.”

Grift? Oh right, the other page. He keeps on drifting from my memory. I think it’s part of his powers and definitely not me continuously ignoring the quiet youth.

“Do you think you can handle that one?” I shout.

“No!” She laughs. “What about you?”

“No!” I shout, just before Preston slips his blade into my stomach.

“Oh, well… Run?”

“Yeah!” I shout, making to strike again, but suddenly turn and dash away.

When I turn back it’s not Preston chasing me, but the squire. Not good. They must have realized I’m faster than Preston, and so sent the better runner. I’d normally be faster with their heavy armour, but my wounds make it harder to run. Still, it’s a close thing.

“Terrance! Get over here! Terrance!” I continually shout as I run.

Eventually, he finds me and, seeing my pursuer, moves in and quickly kills the squire with an impressive show of skill.

“Thanks.” I pant.

“No problem. Have you killed the second mage yet? I can’t find him.”

I shake my head. “They took my crossbow. It still has my rod on it. I can try finding them with the pendulum, but I doubt I’ll make it in time. Have you killed any mundanes?”

“No, you?”

“One died in my sight. The other two are probably with the mage.”

“Are any of our team still alive?” He asks.

“Ligryn still was when I ran. She was being chased by a page… If she kills him, I think we win, since it’ll be three to three, but we’ll have more magic… How good is she?”

“Pretty good, but I’m better.” Preston answers before Terrance can, smugly sauntering in from the side with his light thrusting sword leaning on his shoulder. “At least right now. Good to meet you Ser Terrance. I saw your last match in the unarmoured tournament. I don’t think I can beat you, but I’ll be happy to try.”

“Yeah, why not.” Terrance says, stepping forward while giving me a ‘stay here’ gesture.

“Oh, I’m sure you are happy to try Preston, since you have nothing to lose.” I chide before they can meet. “You guys have four left while we have two. So even if we kill you, you win. Our only chance is to ignore you and try to find the rest of your team with the remaining time. Come on... Terry. Ignore him, and let’s go,” I say, moving away, but he stays put.

“You go. I may not be the most devoted to knightly ideals, but I’m not so rude as to deny a challenge.”

“Sigh. Fine. I was hoping to use your ears, but I guess I’ll just have to do this on my own.” Like I always do.”

I run around, frantically looking for the hiding augmenter with the minute or so we have left, but as expected the crystal pendulum is insufficient to overcome his hiding divination. When the end whistle shrills, I’m panting – covered in the shiny sheen of my defeat.