“Incoming!” one of the rank ones warned, his posture shifted to be on the defensive for whatever was approaching.

“You all know the drill. The five of you get to it!” Plamus Starhelm ordered, his voice loudly bellowed through the nearby parts of the swamp, if their opponents were unaware of their presence so far, then that would have changed now.

The five rank one mages stepped in front of the rest of the group, their facial expressions showed their absolute unwillingness to abide by the man’s orders, but none of them dared stand up to him, between the rank one locals and a human rank three mage, they all knew which was more dangerous.

Balls of water appeared in the air around one of them, whips of fire at the foot of another, Reyna Ironhoof turned towards her rank two and rank three companions while she sneered, “Members of my family would be executed if they kept displaying such a miserable excuse of magic.”

The others remained silent at her remark, simply watching for their targets, who should soon be emerging.

With incredibly little sound six Treemen came rushing out of the fog in front of them, just like the rank one mage had warned ahead of time.

The whips lashed out at the big locals, leveraging their long reach.

Burn marks began to appear all over their bodies, they managed to whittle away at the outer bark, slowly, but rather effectively.

The mage’s face however scrounged up, “Not fast enough!” he loudly lamented as the Treemen closed in on them, seemingly unbothered by the attacks.

Vines, roots, and strands of grass rose out of the ground, they tightly twisted around the locals’ legs, but were ripped through with sheer force only moments later, the mage who controlled them spat out a mouthful of blood in response, his cheeks turned pale from the backlash.

“Tch. Useless.” the young master of the Whitewood family cursed, he impatiently gestured for the water mage to hurry up and attack using his spells already.

The water mage gulped, with another wave of his hands the floating orbs of water shot out at the approaching Treemen, the water splashed onto their armour like bark, but had absolutely no effect.

The young master of the Whitewood family however stretched out his hand, and as he forcefully closed his palm to a fist, the water particles that now surrounded the locals gathered and once again turned to life!

Large chunks of ice tore through the upper bodies of their foes, obliterating more than half of their frames in an instant, and turning them back into inanimate objects.

“That’s how you do it.” he applauded himself with a content smile, Reyna also clapped slowly, “Not bad Hadrian.” she commented, but her words felt more like a sting than actual praise for some reason.

The rank one mages at the front let out breaths of relief, their lives had once again been extended by an inestimable amount of time.

“Wait! There is another!” the rank one nature mage realised, much to the horror of his likeminded fellows.

They all gazed back at the fog, from which yet another Treeman appeared, but unlike those before him, this one was not as tall as the others, instead smaller, and a lot bulkier, outwardly compressed when compared to the normal ones.

Its movement was slower too, but its appearance made the rank one mages’ knees go weak.

Hadrian harrumphed “You think you won’t end up like the others?” he scorned the creature as it ran at them.

The water puddles on the ground next to it took the shape of a spiky surface, the Treeman stepped right into the trap, but a single stomp of its foot crushed the ice below.

Hadrian coughed, his eyes became bloodshot from anger, “You dare!” he roared as the majority of the water particles around them gathered in one place, the rank one mages jumped out of the path between him and the approaching monstrosity, trying to save themselves.

“Die you bastard!” he shouted, the veins on his forehead bulged out, the bundle of particles turned into icy projectiles, one after the other shot out at nearly unobservable speeds, with each a loud thud came from the Treeman’s bark.

The speed of the foe did not reduce in the slightest, icicles were buried deep within the Treeman, wounds that would have killed any human opponent, be it a regular one or a mage, yet the creature pressed on without as much as a yelp.

Hadrian snapped, this disgusting creature that refused to fall to his feet had offended him yet again, it simply should have dropped dead, but instead it humiliated his prowess and prestige!

He raised his hand once more, prepared to make another strike, cast another spell, but before he could do so a veil of black had already surrounded the bulky local, without a moment to prepare or a word of warning the darkness struck.

An awful cracking punctured the eardrums of everyone present, and by the time the veil lifted, only bits and pieces of the Treeman remained.

“I’ll be taking this one. The rank two Treemen do give a bit more points after all.” Plamus shrugged like it was no big deal.

Marv did his best to stop his hand from shaking, several scenarios played within his mind, but no matter what actions he took, he couldn’t see himself defeating, or even escaping from this single rank three spell.

Plamus turned his head, and Marv felt like something gripped his heart as their gazes met.

Cold sweat ran down his back, and before there was any chance of a confrontation, he decided to flee as fast as he possibly could.

“Is something the matter?” Hadrian looked to the leader of their group, he sounded more sceptical than concerned.

But Plamus just waved him off “No. Nothing. Let’s continue.”

... ...

Agnes was seated in a bar back in Aventia, it was late afternoon, and the place was nearly full.

The waiters and waitresses were rushing between the counter and the tables, trying to serve the many customers to the best of their abilities, “Another round!” those words would signal for them to pick up the speed every few minutes.

Cheerful and drunken laughter, as well as gossip and rumours were flowing as naturally as the alcoholic beverages from their respective barrels.

“I pu’ 60 gold coins on ‘em gettin’ last place... now look at those Sparrowbrook idiots placin’ even worse!” one man complained with a flurry of slurred words.

“You ‘ave 60 gold coins...?!” someone else who was half blacked out at his table asked in shock.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“Had! I had!” the first loudly corrected the man, almost breaking out into tears while doing so.

The people around her did their best to get plastered in the shortest time possible, but no matter how much she too wanted to let go and join their mindset, she felt sick to her very core.

In front of her at the counter stood an empty glass, and right next to it lied a piece of paper.

Her insides churned whenever her eyes landed on it, but she got snapped out of her focus and looked up after another full glass was placed atop the paper.

Several sets of insults gathered within her mouth, at the tip of her tongue, but as she saw the bartender’s kind smile, she chose to swallow them, “If that paper is making you so angry, you should stop looking at it... Enjoy, it's on the house.” he spoke as he gestured in front of her, then returned to his duty of preparing drinks for the remaining drunkards in the building.

She curiously eyed the bartender while he was working, the movements of his hands were smooth and showed his years of accumulated skill.

Agnes picked up the jug of beer and downed it in one go, she slammed the empty cup onto the counter, then placed a golden coin alongside it and left with the piece of paper in hand.

The people out on the street kept a respectful distance to her as she slowly walked uphill towards the palace.

A cool breeze blew across the capital, the fresh air helped sober her up a bit.

The guards bowed and allowed her to pass without any questions, unlike Frey who had mostly been holed up in the treasury, or the palace in general, she regularly went out to see the various corners of the land she resided in, so nearly everyone could put a face to her name.

She waltzed through the halls and went straight towards the throne room, where her master, Cykrus Aventia, was seated.

In front of him was a small table stacked with tons of letters and other papers, as well as a quill and ink.

The head-maid Lena was also present, dusting off the decorations within, to keep the place presentable.

Cykrus looked up from his work as he saw her coming in, “Ah, Agnes. Good timing, could you-”

“Have you seen the rankings?” she interrupted him, her hand that held the piece of paper was raised into the air, so he could get a good look at it.

He sighed, “I have but-... wait, is that...?” Cykrus spotted the fresh ring mark that was on the paper, likely coming from some kind of cup, “Have you been drinking again?” he raised his eyebrow.

“Oh my…” Lena covered her mouth with her hand, shocked by the exchange between them, and with quiet steps she sneaked towards the exit.

“That’s not what's important right now. While Frey is out there fighting for his life, trying to get what little points he can, we are sitting around pretty!”

Cykrus went quiet for a moment, “That. Or he realised just how little he can do, and he decided to just sit the competition out. That would explain why his points didn’t change the last couple of days.”

Now it was Agnes’ turn to go quiet, her face showed just how baffled she was from his words, “You... still don’t believe in Frey? Is that it?”

Cykrus put his current work aside and stood up, “You still don’t find it strange that, right at the most desperate moment, the perfect candidate to represent my family in the competition that quite literally decides our future, our survival, appears out of nowhere?”

“Records of his birth were destroyed by a group of bandits, led by the spy our greatest enemy had sent into our territory... Who then also proceeded to bring the boy along, instead of killing him like the rest of the towns he attacked?”

Agnes went silent, be it the influence of the alcohol she had or not, Cykrus’ words did make some sense.

“...So... if Frey wasn’t your main focus for saving Aventia all this time, then what was?”

Cykrus turned away from her, then looked up at the many flags that formerly represented Aventia and their rulers, the passage of time was slowly destroying everything that remained of them, be it the cloth it was made from years ago, or the land they used to rule...

“You know me, Agnes. I do not gamble. I leave nothing up to chance if I have the option. To put my faith and hopes onto a twelve-year-old boy… I haven’t gone senile yet. And during our stay in the capital, I found it! I found a way to save us!”

“I only need a bit more evidence to support my claims, the rest will be smooth sailing.” Cykrus smiled lightly while dreaming of a perfect future.

“I don’t like how vague you are about all of this... don’t you trust me anymore?” Agnes stepped closer.

“No, no! It's because I trust and know you so well, that I do not want to get you involved. No one understands better than me just how hot-headed you can be when something doesn’t go your way immediately and letting you in on this with such a personality might just get you killed.” he turned towards her.

“All I need is for you to continue trusting me, or have I just destroyed any chance of that?” he took a step towards her, the two now only inches apart.

Agnes avoided his gaze, “You know that would never happen... Even if all of Aventia got destroyed, and we were down to just you and me, I wouldn’t turn my back on you.”

“But know that as much as I support you in every possible way, I also fully believe in Frey. The boy is smart, and we don’t know the full extent of what is currently happening in that plane they went off to. I mean, even that other Lord’s competitor got killed, maybe we are lucky, and Frey outlives his opponents, then he could also reach the top.”

“Maybe that is what he is going for...”

Cykrus decided against saying anything in response, he could only destroy the mood.

... ...

Frey was currently eating some of the dried Delightful Deaths that Marv frequently brought back with him, they managed to both quench his hunger and thirst for another while.

“How is it going... your, uh, idea?” Marv asked him, they each sat at the opposite corner of Frey’s tent.

“Not bad actually. The last few times you left I too went to the edge of the camp to put some things to the test, and I realised that I need some more time. But I am very close, I promise!” Frey assured him.

“How are things on your end? Have you caught up with the others at all?” he changed the subject.

Marv sighed, “Don’t you look at the obelisk anymore?”

“I don’t, no... I don’t want to be reminded just how far I am behind the rest.” Frey frowned at the thought.

“But that is going to change, right? You still haven’t told me yet, but you at least sound more confident now when talking about your plan than before.” Marv nudged him.

With that said, the awkward silence returned in full force.

Frey was reluctant to speak, uncomfortable by the chance of boring his new friend, his lips quivered, but he decided to go for it anyways, “Marquis Gomon also stopped by my tent a few days ago, twice actually.”

“Oh? What for?”

“The first time he came, and he spoke about some of his past, of a different plane he had been to. He said that he was part of an exploration team when he was younger, he was the vice-leader.” Frey spoke while absorbed in his imagination.

“What was that plane like? Anything like this one?” Marv’s eyes shone with interest.

“Uhm, it was mostly made of water and stuff, small islands he said. They had to make the portal wide enough to fit entire ships through in order to make any progress. It took them several days of fighting off the monsters in the water to make it to land, where they encountered a semi-intelligent race of locals with dark black fur and green eyes.”

“The locals even lived in crude huts and stuff like that, and unlike the monsters in the water, they could also use gestures to try and speak with them a little bit! Hearing him say that blew my mind! Think of it... we don’t know how many planes are out there, but there may even be one that fully understands the words we use, I think that is really incredible.” Frey fawned.

Marv nodded, “It really is an incredible thought, but also incredibly scary... since we are invading other planes and stuff, what if the same happened to us?”

Frey fell into thought, this sounded oddly familiar to him, “Is that what the demon attack was about?” he mumbled.

“Demon attack? What is that?” Marv asked.

“I also don’t know much about it, I only heard it from a friend of my master, but he talked about some sort of genocide... When we get back home, I’ll see if I can’t find anything about that.”

“I also might, if that actually happened, then it sounds like something that shouldn’t just be forgotten with time.” Marv said, “What was Marquis Gomon’s second visit about?”

Frey lowered his head, “Well, he thought that I had given up on the competition and started to hide myself away here... he didn’t even hear me out when I tried to explain myself... something about me being a ‘worthless brat’...”

Marv frowned, “Now I get why no one likes him. Don’t take it to heart, we both know that isn’t the truth, and soon he will also see that his perception of you was wrong.” he spoke and stood up, “I will go and get some sleep for today, you know where to find me in case you make a breakthrough on your idea, good night.” Marv waved his hand and left.

Frey smiled after Marv left, “What do you think Lu? Isn’t he a good friend, just like you?”

As if saying his name summoned him, the familiar brown human figure appeared at his feet, with each passing day he felt his connection to his best friend grow stronger, but unlike within Frey’s expectations the small figure was shaking his head.

“No? Why not?” Frey’s smile abruptly vanished, but no matter how intently he gazed at Lu, the little thing gave him no answer.

“If only you could speak... or maybe write? I might teach you how to write...” Frey considered his options, but Lu’s action just now, as well as the words of advice Agnes had left him both heavily weighed on his mind.

What about Marv was it that the two people he trusted the most had such negative opinions of him... even though Frey felt like he was an older brother that he never had.

“Hng... well, I guess I should continue, I cannot afford to waste any time.” he yawned after stretching his arms and legs.