Dreiki remembered how he felt when he woke up this morning. There was a strange sense of calm. The previous night, which was rife with anxiety, had melted into a morning of tranquility. The calm quiet air of winter greeted him, and for a moment he had wanted to go back to sleep. They had risen early before the sun in preparation of the battles to come.
Everything was on his shoulders, and yet he felt free. Whatever happened today would be unavoidable. He had prepared as much as possible for this moment. If they failed here, he could be happy knowing he had done everything he could.
And yet with the thought of failure crept in that anxiety from the previous night. It had not left completely, and it tempted him to continue thinking of what might happen if they lose.
Each of them had donned a cloak made from kervaza fur. They each carried weapons, but only for defense, and safely tucked away out of view. A noble would only use their weapons against an opponent if their opponent was brandishing one. It was safer to engage in unarmed combat if they ever found themselves in a fight. Dreiki did not want to take any chances, though. The nobility often seemed to make exceptions to their codes of conduct for noxa like them.
They traveled light since they would be doing a lot of running today. Tulos had created various trinkets for them to make use of, including drake whistles to signal Ezo, caltrops to spread over choke points, and silver pocket mirrors for spying around corners.
Tadios had wanted to start off with the strongest opponent possible. Paxia was a solitary girl, and one of if not the strongest earth magic users among the other children in camp. She was a perfect first match for Tadios. While he fought her, Dreiki and the rest of the Noxa had worked together with the other Tibur captains to defeat Miiruka. The blood magic user was dangerous, but her style of magic was easily countered by overwhelming her with elementals. Between Gornax, Luna, and Lioku’s summoning magic, she did not stand a chance.
Surprisingly, however, she had put up more of a fight than Dreiki expected. When she could not utilize her blood magic to control her opponents, she instead turned her own blood into weapons. That strategy was clearly one born from desperation, though. It made her anemic. Dreiki could only imagine if she were a life magic user instead of a water magic user. She could have created more blood for herself to keep fighting.
The other two Tibur captains, Corvio and Orsika had paired up to take on the youngest of the Xirxus, Raktus. Since it was early in the morning, and neither Vilka nor Fealux had been tipped off, they managed to land a critical blow to Deka’s forces and send them into a panic.
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There were two outcomes Dreiki had anticipated. One was Deka going on the offensive and hunting them down. In which case, Dreiki planned on keeping their ranks fractured while they picked them off in a retreat. If the prince wouldn’t learn to respect the threat they posed, he intended to make him pay for it.
Lucky for Deka, he had instead decided to regroup his forces. Dreiki had hoped Arik and Rorik would continue to stay out of the war games to take care of Kaara, but it seemed as though both Sancta and Tadios would get the matchups they wanted.
Dreiki did not like it, however. Initially, he had hoped Kaara would be unconscious for at least one more day so that Sancta could be utilized elsewhere, and Tadios could work on other threats in the meantime. He could not deny their desires, however. Especially Sancta’s.
He had adapted the plan, instead of Tadios, Sancta, and Tulos picking off Anitus and Amaro while they tried to regroup with Deka, they would instead intercept Fealux, Kaara, Arik, and Rorik.
They were stretched thin at that moment. Without Tulos, they could not proceed to the next stage of their plan, and both Anitus and Amaro would be grouped up with Deka and his forces.
War was ordered chaos, and if he did not adapt to that chaos, he could not bring order. Dreiki and the other Noxa did what they could in preparation for their next strike. Lucky for him, Tulos had finished his part early, arriving on the back of Ezo in an exaggerated flourish. They had not wasted too much time, and Dreiki only had to hope both Tadios and Sancta could make it back soon.
Now here he was, sitting atop a tree branch and meditating on what had happened thus far. Right now, they needed to prepare their souls for a fight. Rixam was currently flying over their position and keeping a close eye on their movement. It was his hope that Deka would continue to stay where he was and defend his position. They needed to buy as much time as possible for Tadios and Sancta to regroup with them.
With the other team grouped up, it would be difficult to strike at their captains. He needed Tadios to be there to cover their retreat into the clearing. The plan was for Tulos to incite a rebellion within their ranks, and for the Tibur to fight conservatively to take out as many of the lesser nobility as possible while retaining their own numbers. Once the rebels had been defeated, Tulos would order a retreat and Tadios would cover that retreat with the help of the other Tibur captains. In a perfect world, Tadios would have already taken out both Anitus and Amaro leaving only Vilka and Deka. With Kaara waking up early, though, the plan had been adjusted to take the Xirxus brothers out during the ambush. They needed to buy time for their forces to retreat to the clearing and for Tulos to set up his traps. However, the moment Rixam landed on the branch next to him, he knew those plans had to be thrown out too.