Chapter 100

The math was simple.

There were four of them, and two of my team remaining. The extent to which the odds were stacked against my team was easy to see. They were down a member, me. They were missing easily their best member, me. I know how conceited it sounds to value myself so, but if I was being practical, if I was being purely analytical, then this was a simple fact. I might not have started out that way, but by this day I was the best. Stacking worse odds on top of worse odds, one of the two remaining members of my team was defenseless, drawing Flows from the orb. So, what this really boiled down to, was four against one and the ultimate question of whether they could buy enough time.

Leona stood listless, just a little ways off.

Lance came back to his feet quickly. I had to give him that, nothing seemed to faze him, never for long. His head snapped up, checking the banners, I could see he was doing his own math and doing it quickly. His decision was quick, his understanding comprehensive and instant. All he needed to do was ensure that the remaining members of my team did not get an opportunity to return 3 or more Flows to our base. That was it. I couldn’t stop myself from imagining what it must feel like in his head at that moment. Once again, he was inches from finishing the Choosing. In another few minutes, it could be all over, he could have the suit claimed for himself, secure the ecstasy of it, the glory, the triumph.

He was efficient, he made his decision quickly. The screen showed him waving at the other members of his team. Instantly Theo and Arthur peeled off and skirted back around the orb, racing to tackle Zara from the other side. He remained against Olaf, with Lauren at his side. Lauren’s Arrow suit would have type advantage over Olaf.

It was impossible to calculate how many Flows Zara might have absorbed at this point. I had a vague sense of how quickly she could draw the Flows into her suit, but the perspective on the screen kept changing. The display was only showing the highlights of the action; time was impossible to figure. She could have been attached to the orb for 30 seconds at this point or several minutes. My heart pounded in my chest. The din of the crowd continued their frenzy of cheering as I lay there, staring at the screen, watching my dreams fall apart and blow away. Everything was happening fast on the replay, and I feared that Zara had been drawing Flows for far less time than I imagined. Lance had done everything correctly, save for one element. His obsession with status had led to poor assumptions. He had selected his teammates almost entirely based on when they had exited the Choosing. He had assumed that that corresponded to a kind of ranking. With all the mistakes I had made that day, it was the one insight that I had succeeded with over him. I had taken Zara as my Axe and Olaf as my Shield.

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Even as I watched Lauren surge towards Olaf, there was a bitter satisfaction in me. She had the type advantage, that was perfectly clear. As she struck his raised shield, he staggered back, the force of her impact multiplied by the mysterious type advantage interactions of the suit fields. But he held firm, his own affinity for the suit bolstering him. I doubted Arthur would have stood up so well, or Emilia. Lance let Lauren lead the assault, absorbing Olaf's attention. Lance tried to circle him, but Olaf impressed me. He angled himself against the wall of the orb, using that to block angles of attack, deflecting Lauren's impacts while stepping and turning as needed to keep Lance from reaching Zara.

To this day, it is honestly a performance that I recall when I need to dig deep and drive through a challenge. Olaf had been the first to exit the Choosing. There was a mark of scorn on him in the community; his peers would always see him as the first to fail. But at that moment, with everything to gain for his family, he stood strong. The way his body jerked and flailed revealed the pain he was receiving from the jarring impacts of Lauren's relentless assault and from the occasional nips of Lance's CUT that penetrated his defenses. But he stood, completely unwavering. It seemed as though he would stand there like an oak, not falling until every piece of him had been chipped away.

It was strange to be lying there, knowing that it was already over, but it was the only thing I could focus on. Olaf stood so strong, despite the overwhelming opposition, that I honestly wondered if he could keep Zara on her feet long enough for her to gather what she needed. I was foolish enough to let the hope bubble up in me again, to think that maybe I had a chance. Whatever Olaf did, there was nothing to stop the two approaching around the other side of the Orb.

Zara stood resolute, her axe buried in the Orb. She had to know the danger that approached.

I remembered the awful moment when she had thrown herself over the pit. The complete defeat, the way she cast her body out into space with the near certainty that the result would be defeat, that the probability of dying was far greater than the probability of succeeding. There were pressures on Zara, she had muttered about her family's financial woes. On that day it had been the suit she was trying to claim, however hopeless, in the vaguest hope of resurrecting her struggling noble house.

And a doubt niggled at me. From what this tale has told of my character so far, you might find this doubt unfounded. But, as you will see, my later actions color my decisions sufficiently to make me wonder.

Did I pick her in part because of her desperation? Did I take her onto my team because I knew the pressure she felt? Because I knew how that could be used to drive her to self-destruction in the name of my benefit? I tried to believe it was because I saw her as having a natural affinity for the Axe. But I wonder.

Was I truly that much of a bastard?