Zac’s foot was stamping the ground with excitation as the two friends watched Yordar slowly approaching his desk. All the students were focused on the professor, following his every move, and the tension could be felt in the classroom. Today wasn’t a normal day, as the army of secondary professors swarming around attested.

“I guess you’re all ready for the tournament.” Yordar started. “Today, we’ll focus on strategy while you’ll do the fighting tomorrow. I know Rym explained the main points, but let me recap the part about strategy.”

As always, Yordar grabbed his colored chalk and approached his board to draw out what he would explain.

“We’ll follow a simple system in six rounds. Each round, you will face another student with the same number of victories as you. We have already chosen the scenarios for each round, and everybody will have the same. Attack and defense will be chosen randomly, but don’t worry, we made sure the chances of victory are perfectly equal whichever side you are.”

Yordar sketched the different steps as he talked, while keeping an eye on his class to make sure no question arose.

“After six rounds, we will have four people with six victories each. Only these four people will go into the semi-final and final. You’ll then be able to observe the best among you go against each other. It will be a great opportunity to learn and improve.”

Yordar threw his chalk back into their jug, rubbing his hand to get rid of the colored dust.

“It’s a good way to know your level after six months with us. Also, I must remind you that the four best students will be able to take the weapon of their choice from our armory. There are hundreds of amazing weapons gathering dust for centuries in there. Some have been used in the past years by past students. Some were yielded by impressive commanders before Nightmare. Others have their history lost in time. This incentive is here to push you to do your best. Show us what you’re capable of.”

The professor eyed the students nervously waiting in front of him with a simple smile. More than one had a greedy look on his face at the mention of the armory.

“If you don’t have any questions, then I’ll proceed with the first round.” He paused for a second to make sure there really was no question before continuing. “The first scenario is double bridge. I’ll now call you two by two for the first round. The first person called will always be the attacker. Ravatoris and Gantar. Jorik and Methild…”

Each time Yordar called a pair, a secondary professor walked up and gestured for the duo to follow him. The school had made impressive changes to its infrastructure to host such a big event. Outside of Yordar’s usual classroom, there were dozens and dozens of tables to host the hundreds of battles that would happen simultaneously.

Zac was called first, but Mahon stood up just after and joined his own opponent. Being First Green, the two friends were just above half of the students, and their first fight was against the top of the First White.

Contrary to sword fights, the students didn’t have that many opportunities to fight against each other in a strategy battle. There wasn’t much opportunity to do so, whereas they fought with swords each day during Slander’s training. The phenomenon was easily explained due to the necessity of having a professor supervising a strategy battle. If there wasn’t someone who knew enough about strategy to tell what the results of their units’ fighting were, they couldn’t battle.

Mahon had been dueled a lot when he had jumped from First Red to First White, back in the beginning, but he had done few duels on his own. Actually, the people he had fought against the most were Yordar and Elmer. Mahon had not a precise assessment of what the First White in front of him was really capable of, but he wasn’t afraid, far from it.

The Last Red already knew he’d stomp anyone in this challenge. The interesting part for him would be to gauge at what level the best students actually were. He was especially interested in Jorik and Ravatoris and hoped the men would hold until they got to him.

Mahon focused back on the situation at hand as his assigned professor handed him his stack of envelopes. Double bridge was a simple scenario where the defense had to hold its position around two connected bridges. The attack’s task was to cross the two bridges. It wasn’t a scenario about killing each other to the death, and the armies were big enough they could last a long time.

The key to the conflict was to use one’s units the best way to pierce or defend the small bridges. If one had too many units rushing at the same time, they would impede each other, and it would be a failure. But if there were too few, they would lose any penetrative or protective power and fail all the same.

Mahon had taught Zac a trick to gauge the perfect amount to send, and his friend had managed to beat a great First Green with it. The First White in front of Mahon simply never stood a chance. The professor almost forgot to announce Mahon’s victory with how fast it came. He asked for the next envelope mechanically when Mahon pointed out to him his unit had crossed both bridges.

With a surprised look and an apologetic smile, the professor quickly fixed his mistake, and Mahon was the first to end his duel. His opponent shook his head in disgust, and with a heinous look at Mahon, he left and went back to Yordar’s classroom.

Mahon searched for Zac’s table as there wouldn’t be any interesting fights at the beginning because all the best ranked had been seeded with the lowest. In these conditions, Mahon preferred to support his friend, and as soon as he had located him, he walked to his table.

It was still in the early rounds of the battle. Zac was handing his nineteenth envelope, but Mahon could already see the end results. Zac implemented Mahon’s strategy, and the First White in front of him had even fewer answers than the First Green Zac had beaten a week before.

The forgone conclusion still took another thirty moves to turn into reality, at which point a good third of the battles were already over.

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“Not my luck.” Zac sighed once he was alone with Mahon.

“Why? You won.”

“Yeah, but against one of the easiest opponents… If this scenario had appeared later in the rounds, I might have snatched an impressive victory!”

Mahon chuckled. “Seen like that…”

“You want to go see another table?”

“It’s not worth it. Save your energy for the next duel. There will be nothing interesting to see for the next two or three rounds, I think.”

Zac nodded wisely at his friend’s advice, and the duo came back to the classroom to get some rest. The first round slowly ended a bit later, and by the time Yordar started to call the battle for the second round, an hour had passed.

It’s gonna be a long day.

Upon being called, Mahon went with his opponent to their assigned table. It was another First White, and Mahon showed the same ruthlessness. The battle was over in less than fifteen moves, and once again, Mahon was the first to finish his duel.

Zac also won against his First White, although with more difficulty than the previous scenario, and the third round started shortly after. By sheer coincidence, Zac was paired against Filarion, the First Green he had dueled when he got promoted to First Green.

Mahon hurried his victory to witness his friend’s battle on a less favorable set up. Filarion took a malicious pleasure to kill every single unit from Zac’s army while he could have won much sooner given the scenario’s conditions. The spark in his eyes as the professor announced Filarion’s victory showed how much the noble despised his previous defeat against Zac.

“Ah, two victories, one defeat. If I hadn’t been against Filarion, I might have had three victories!” Zac complained.

“Hahaha, yes, probably. But you’ll have to fare against an even stronger opponent afterwards. You’ll win your next one now.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t hear well. What did you say?”

Mahon looked at his friend with a puzzled look. “That you’ll have been paired with anot…”

“No, not that. Before.”

“Before?” Mahon asked, unsure of what his friend asked him. “I said, yes, you’ll probabl…”

“Here! Stop! You said what?”

“I said ye… yeah, you’ll probably have three victories if you didn’t duel against Filarion.” Mahon finally caught up on his mistake, a smile lingering on his lips.

“Oh, great. I wasn’t sure I heard it well.” Zac grinned back.

Mahon chuckled, shaking his head at his friend’s behavior. “Focus on the next battle instead.”

“Why? You said it’d be an easy one. You focus on your next battle!” Zac retorted.

“There is nothing to focus on.”

“Look at you! A First Green and already so arrogant.”

“Did you mean realistic?”

“Well, then, I want you to be by my table before the twentieth round.” Zac said with a provocative smile.

Mahon weighed the odds. Depending on the scenario and his opponent, it might be close to impossible, even for him.

“Or what?” He asked his friend.

“You give me tomorrow’s weapon.”

“Tomorrow’s weapon?”

“Ah, stop it. We both know you’ll win the strategy tournament and the fighting tournament. What will you do with two weapons? It’s useless. You should give one to me.” Zac stated shamelessly.

“You put too much faith in my abilities. I will refrain from using the Flow tomorrow. There are more important things to use It for, especially in the evening.” Mahon answered, thinking about the next cultist’s mission.

“As if it made any difference. You’ll beat everyone even without the Flow.”

“Jorik knows how to Flow.” Mahon stated, at which Zac raised an eyebrow.

“Efficiently?”

“Yes.” Zac threw him a threatening look, and Mahon quickly rectified. “Yeah.”

“Bah, you’ll still reach top four, I think. The weapons are worth the same, whatever your final rank. So do you take my bet?”

“Wait, what if you lose?”

“I’ll give you my weapon, of course.” Zac said with a brash smile.

“Your weapon?” Mahon asked, amused.

“Yeah. If I lose the bet, I’d give you my weapon. If I win one.”

“Hahaha, ok, then. Deal.”

The two friends shook their hands while holding back their laughter and went back to the classroom for the announcement of the fourth round.

Mahon was paired with a First Green, among the top ones, and he could see the woman was already entirely focused on the scenario as the professor handed them their envelopes. Mahon glanced at the board before thinking about his strategy.

Let’s make it not too obvious for Zac. How can I win in the twenty-first round?

The First Green woman was already writing her first moves with intense concentration, while Mahon was still pondering on the best start to win not too fast he would lose his bet with Zac.

Maybe I could delay my attack. Or not move for the first rounds. No, it’ll be too obvious. I don’t want to deal with an angry opponent afterwards.

Mahon sighed, the problem being a little more complicated than he had expected.

Oh wait! I know.

He placed his units on the battlefield and handed his first envelopes to the professor, and the man was already going to open the first one when the First Green woman interrupted him.

“Wait professor!” She shouted.

The man stopped his doing and looked at her, intrigued.

“What is it? You can’t go back on your orders. It’s too late now.”

“No, no, that’s not what I meant. It’s just… my opponent forgot to place one of his units on the battlefield.” She finally said with a shy smile, pointing to a small gap in Mahon’s formation.

The professor looked at Mahon’s side and noticed the missing unit. “Oh, you’re right!” He turned to Mahon. “You should be thankful you’re paired with such an honest person! Quick, place your missing unit.” The professor ordered.

Mahon obeyed as he observed the woman in front of him with a frown.

A tough opponent.