That valley would forever be known as the valley of insanity and the tales of the battle there would live on in the annals of history.

Eventually, when the two hour limit was up, the overseer called a close to the games between the House Ventris and House Draco.  Lord Draco was angered beyond belief and some would even swear that they saw smoke rising from his head, though it wasn’t sure if it was because he was angry or because he had squeezed the chair handles so hard that they began to burn and combust.

Soon it was time for the first day of the war games to come to an end.  Tomorrow was the game between House Ventris and House Restav.  Everyone was getting up and starting to head out back to their respective House tents.  Hiro felt a tug on his sleeve and turned to smile at the girl still sitting next to him.

“Will you be here tomorrow?”  she asked.

“Definitely.  I’ll save you a seat?” he said with a smile.  She nodded and then hopped down and scampered off to her parents.  Hiro watched her until she meet up with her mother and then nodded and left. 

Lady Goodard nodded back before he turned to leave.  She watched his back until he had left the audience tent with his father.

“An interesting young man , indeed.” She mused.

“He’s my friend, Momma.” Said Lyra as she looked up to her mother.

“Of course he is darling,” she smiled back at Lyra before she lifted her up into her arms and headed out the door.  Lord Goodard joined her as they walked back to their tent surrounded by their guards.  “He’s the one, dear.” She said softly to him as Lyra was beginning to fall asleep on her shoulder.  “Make it happen.”

“Yes my love,” he replied before he motioned to the guards to close in before they proceeded on their way.

Back at the Ventris’ tent, Caden was holding his head as he listened to Christof give a performance review to Hiro.  As Christof continued onwards with the review, every word he heard kept adding to his pounding headache.  Eventually, he stopped Christof with a wave of his hand and turned to Hiro.

“Explain yourself.”

“We’re going to win, decisively.”

“That’s it?  ‘We’re going to win’ is your explanation??”

“Yes, decisively.  We will leave them no quarter, and they will all be on the ground before us.” Hiro replied.

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“Ugghh, fine.  You’re relieved Captain.  Off to bed with you as well Hiro.” Replied Caden as he waved off Christof and Hiro.  When they had left the room, Alicia came in and poured him a drink.

“I heard that we won against House Draco, dear.”  She smiled as she gave over the drink.

“Yes, but I’m not much sure that we won or we completely decimated them.”

“Oh?  We did that good?”  she mused.

“Yes, the training that Hiro provided Christof and the house guard was quite effective.  In fact it was probably downright brutal.  Alicia, I’m not sure to be happy or scared.  You didn’t see how painfully brutal Christof and the men were against Draco’s guards.  In the last battle, all of Draco’s guards were put down and they were either crying out in pain, calling for their mommy or outright unconscious.  Some even soiled themselves and trust me when I say that it was not pleasant the one or two times the wind changed and we were downwind.”

“Oh, so we were the attackers then?” she smiled.

“No…we were the defenders.” He sighed.  In the entire history of the games, the defenders have never won in this manner.  They all won by holding off the attackers until the time limit was up or even if they did attack, they usually did so to repel the attackers.  This was a different scene altogether.  Our guards didn’t really go on defense, they only gave Draco’s guards the illusion that they were defending.  When in reality, they drew them into a position where they were the ones in control.”

“Isn’t that a good thing, dear?”

“Yes, but I’ve been letting everyone think that there’s a new instructor who’s been training our guards.  Can you imagine what an uproar there would be if someone found out that it’s in fact Hiro and he’s only five years old.”  He sighed.

“Umm, what exactly did the guards do?” Alicia asked in a puzzled voice.

Caden pulled out the map and showed Alicia the topography of the field the game was played on.

“See here, this is the valley where Christof held Draco’s guards at.  They didn’t just defend they literally sat there like a turtle and allowed Draco’s guards to crowd them at the mouth of the valley and slam into them.  Then acting as one, they pushed the entire crowd of guards back and caused them to topple like dominos.  Once they were on the ground they swarmed out like bees and trampled down all resistance.”

“That doesn’t sound too bad, it sounds like we won as Hiro said.  Definitively.” She replied.

“Ha, if that was all it would be great.  However, our men then surrounded the two hundred fallen guards and proceeded to verbally bully them for the next hour and a half.  Alicia, the kind of things which they said, dear Gods…”

“They bullied them verbally?  With what?  Wait, no…go back for a bit there.  You said that they bullied them for an hour and a half?  Isn’t the game only supposed to last two hours?”

“Yes, they bullied them for an hour and a half.  The Draco guards couldn’t even surrender because both their leader and his vice were unconscious.  An odd thing that, especially since they’re usually the most guarded.” Frowned Caden as he went back over the attack in his head.  He went back over everything and for a moment it almost seemed that the swarm attack was only a two pronged attack which after reaching its goals, turned back to each other to finish off the rest, but then the memory faded and with it the conviction that it was all planned. 

“They won and then bullied them.  Hmph, well go and speak to your son because that obviously comes from you!” she pouted as she huffed out the room.

Caden watched until she finally exited the room and the door closed before saying very softly, “Dear, I think it really comes from you, you know.”