“Okay. So, not counting you and I or the fifth-years there are three sojourners currently at the academy.”

“Why not count the fifth years?” Gloe interjected.

“Because they’re not here. The fifth year is spent in what’s basically an internship or apprenticeship. Anyway, Slatany, Jate and Leo are all sojourners. There are also two bloodline chosen and one divine specialist chosen. Those six are the most powerful here. There are also a bunch of elite chosen, and of course most of the teams will be augmented by regular chosen from the Support Academy. I think almost everyone but you and I Emokha has an assigned Bodyguard for starters.”

Emokha rubbed her head wearily. “I did not realize your peoples’ nomenkhlature was so different from ours. I am afraid we will need to review all of these khategories, at least briefly.”

“Eh? Okay, right, I can do that. I got an A- in my chosen class. Let me think a minute.” She thought for a bit and when she resumed speaking it had the air of a recitation. “Chosen bloodlines are granted to a noble family for particular service to a deity, and recurrences are bestowed for ongoing devotion. Each bloodline is unique, although they can be similar. Divine specialist chosen are likewise granted for service to a deity, but rather than being unique to a bloodline they are unique to that deity. Most gods have at least one type of divine specialist and many have several.”

“Elite chosen are more common than either, but are still somewhat rare. They follow specific templates but are far more specialized and powerful than baseline chosen. Baseline chosen are the most common and follow one of a couple dozen templates. Approximately half are Bodyguards, a tank class focused on protecting V.I.P.s. Most high level nobles have at least one assigned to them, and this includes many powerful chosen.”

“I see. Now that you have exhplained it I khan match the terms to Viluota khoncepts. Thankh you.” She frowned. “They taught me the basikhs but I did not realize how delineated chosen are.”

“Do they sort chosen differently where you’re from?”

“We have very few chosen, khomparatively. For various reasons. I will exhplain it some other time. Let us move on. Do you know the team khompositions?”

Liuka grimaced. “Sort of? I can sketch some basics but a lot of the teams are still negotiating, and not all the regular chosen have been selected yet.”

“I m-might be able to help a bit.” When Liuka looked at him in surprise he reddened slightly. “I’ve been l-listening to the rumors. And of c-course some of the servants like to gossip with me.”

“Look at you!” Gloe slapped his back. “All that disgusting dish-washing paying off!”

“Moving on” Emokha said quickly. “Liukha, if you would?”

“Right.” Liuka got out a sheet of paper and a pencil. “Okay, let me think. First of all is the fourth-years. Last year a lot of them sided with the current crop of fifth-years, but I think they switched to Slatany this year. So…well you’ve met Slatany already. Her team includes Jate, who you’ve also met.”

“Jate does not have his own team?” Emokha was clearly caught off-guard. “As a sojourner with a useful ability I would not have exhpekhted that.”

“Well…” Liuka scratched her head. “There’s not really a refined way to say this. He has a major crush on Slatany. As a sojourner he’d have a good chance at matching up with just about anyone, but Slatany is not only a more successful sojourner but also a baroness’ daughter, whereas he comes from viscounts. And you know how that works out for guys here, which is kind of funny really.”

“I do not, but I will inqhuire about it later. For now I will takhe it on faith.”

“Okay. Well, long story short he’s been on her team since first-year, trying to impress her and show her parents that he’ll support her. Besides those two…” she began ticking off people on her fingers “…they’ve got a thunder mage, an explosion mage, a divine archer, a ki master, and a bulwark from the fourth-years. And then I’ve heard that two swordmeisters and a ninja from my class have signed-on with them.” She sighed as she wrote that all down, appending names from memory. “I’m not certain how many chosen they’ll get from the Support Academy, but I think they had around a dozen last year. I know Slatany and Jate have Bodyguards for certain.”

“I hear m-many of the support chosen are less eager to join with them this year. They are the favorites to win, but with such a large team already m-many fear they won’t have a chance to stand out.”

“Cool. I’ll write that down. Good work Ori!”

“It’s j-just something some of the support chosen are talking about.”

“Still cool.” She wrote for a bit. “Okay, moving on.” She grimaced. “Next is everyone’s favorite person. Elame is a bloodline chosen, and besides the prestige of that she has used her ability to recruit people. Almost all guys for some reason” she added caustically.

“Psst!” Gloe stage-whispered to Oresus. “If we ‘accidentally’ kill this bitch during the exercise we could redeem our whole sex.”

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

“Y-you’ll still be ugly though” Oresus whispered back.

“Enough you two” Emokha said sternly. “And Liukha, stop laughing. You are enkhouraging them. Let us kheep this moving along.”

“Right. She has…a shadow mage and a benevolent sister from her class. Aside from that she has a wind scout, a ninja, a shielding mage and two bulwarks. She’s still negotiating though, so I dunno.” She scratched her head with the pencil. “The last three years she’s taken her team and just tried to survive. You get points for that, and she’s not a combat class, so…besides, she always seems to know where everyone’s starting positions are…somehow.” She took a large drink of water as if washing her mouth out.

“Yet she tried to rekhruit me for some reason.”

“She s-seems to favor scouts and defensive classes. You m-make an excellent scout.”

“Hmm. Very well. But we should not assume we will not enkhounter her.”

“True. Especially because w-we have the smallest team.”

“Do we?”

“Yes. By quite a b-bit, because none of the support chosen are interested in joining us. The oddsmakers are b-betting we’ll be knocked out first. Especially b-because you get a bonus for finishing off a team. They think the other t-teams will focus on us first.”

“Interesting.”

“Nothing new for me” Liuka tried to play it off. “I’ve always been on a losing team. Anyway…right, next is…Leo I guess. You haven’t really met him yet, but he’s a nice kid. Young though. His ability has something to do with friendship or something. He’s really powerful when his team works with him. Last year he took all the outcasts, everyone no one else wanted, and he still did pretty well before we dragged him down.”

“So his team will be large?” Emokha breezed onwards.

“P-probably the largest. But we won’t know h-how many until right before the exercise.”

“I know he has a lot of the second-years onboard. He’s good at making friends.”

“Let us cirkhle backh to him later. Who is nexht?”

“Umm…Kentare. He’s a first-year but he’s also a bloodline chosen. I don’t know much about him but he’s apparently really good with weapons. Once Jate leaves for his apprenticeship it seems like he’ll become Mako’s new favorite. He’s recruited an axemeister and a spearmeister from the higher classes, and he has about half his class with him too. I don’t remember their classes though, sorry.”

“We khan fill that in later. Kheep going.”

“Right. The other half of the class is mostly signing on with Lreng. She’s a divine specialist, something to do with rocks and such. She recruited a flame master from the third years too.”

“Is that all the teams then?”

“All the ones I’ve heard of anyway. Ori?” He just nodded.

“Very well. Ori, before you try to help Liukha fill out the teams do you have anything to add more generally?”

“Yes. The oddsmakers are b-betting that Slatany and Jate are going to win. They think the t-two will want to impress before the summer hunt, so they will be trying very hard. The servants say the t-two are drilling their team every day already, even in the snow.”

“Leo is f-favored for second. The odds are about even on Elame’s team s-surviving. The s-safe money is on us being knocked out first, followed by Kentare and Lreng. Eighty-twenty Leo h-himself survives, but with most of his team out when time runs out.”

“We should exhpekht that the other teams will also be aware of this, and adjust akkhordingly. Good workh, both of you. Do you have anything to add Zekhow?”

“Yes. Several items in fact. First and foremost we haven’t addressed material inferiority. Magical gear is permitted for this exercise and from what I can tell we’re going to be way behind. We can try to address that but we don’t have the resources to do anything but deal with the most critical shortfalls. Emokha, you’re going to be the primary target. Do you need magical armor?”

She considered. “No, but khonventional joint guards would probably be a worthwhile investment. Although they would have to be khustom-made, so perhaps not.”

“I’ll l-look into it. I w-was browsing for armor for myself anyway.”

“Liuka do you have any magical gear?”

“Uh…my parents were worried about me so they got me some pretty decent armor. I don’t really have anything else though…” she blushed slightly “…we’re not real wealthy compared to all the other nobles here.”

“Okay. I’ll see about some sort of weapon for you at least.”

“I…I’ve been training for support shielding, so I’m not actually very good at weapon techniques." She was turning quite red now.

“Ori, you should probably add polearm drills to your training sessions. I’ll figure something out as soon as possible. Do you need a weapon too or are you good with your spears?”

“I’m g-good. Do y-you want armor too?”

“Double down on yours and Emokha’s. I’ll manage.” He paused. “Sub-point: not only are our foes going to have better gear but they’ll also be loaded up on potions. The healing and buff potions available locally are of relatively low combat utility for a variety of reasons, so I’m most worried about mana potions. We can’t count on attrition being in our favor in that respect.”

“Exhcellent point. If we are unable to kheep the pressure on we will have to assume that our foes have khompletely rekhovered mana, and perhaps healed as well.”

“Which brings me to my next point: we have to consider what our foes are going to be thinking and adjust accordingly. Ori and I are going to be considered non-factors, and Emokha is going to be a primary target. So we need to make Liuka our secret weapon.”

“Me?” She squeaked slightly in shock.

“Yes. You said it yourself, everyone knows all your secrets. Except you’re busy creating new ones. We need to take advantage of that dichotomy. Show them exactly what they expect to see, right up until it’s too late. So your training has to stay an absolute secret, and we need to work out tactics that play to their preconceptions before savaging them.”

“Ummm…that sounds…I mean, I’ll try my best.”

“You will do well Liukha. I have faith in you. I have faith in us all.”

“I do too, as long as we’re realistic. Let’s be honest, we can’t win a conventional fight. Given the rules we can’t win at all. If this was real combat we could hit and run, kill off a few here and there and steal their shit. The rules preclude that. So we need to adjust, redefine victory.”

“Another exhcellent point. We should review the skhoring system.”

“Each player w-wears a token that detaches with a command word or unconsciousness. If you t-turn it in you get points. One for a chosen, three f-for an elite, five for a bloodline or sojourner. T-team leaders are worth another five points. Five points for f-finishing off a team, another five if your team got them all. One p-point for each surviving team member, another five if your whole team survives.”

“Hmm. Interesting. We should all reflekht on this. There are obvious possibilities, but we need to find the road less traveled.” She turned and looked at Gloe. After a moment Oresus joined her. Liuka took a moment before she realized what was going on and stared as well. After a dramatic pause Gloe turned and stared off into the distance in the same direction.