“The rules are simple. Whoever captures the opposite school’s flag first and gets it back to their side wins. Feel free to use all of your trump cards as there are no restrictions in this match, unlike the regular ones at your school. The winning team gets to serve in the royal mage guild for the next year. If anyone has any doubts regarding today’s match, please refrain from asking me.”
The young man finished his announcement and fell back into his chair. Shortly after, he pulled out a gun from his side and shot it straight up into the air.
The two gathered groups of teenagers quickly scrambled into the forest. The group that had red bandanna moved towards the left end of the forest where the team's red flag was planted in the ground. Similarly, the blue team’s flag was on the other side of the forest.
“Who do you think will win, Shigeru-kun?” An old man in a red kimono asked the young man.
Shigeru Gima turned to his left and observed the old man. After a minute of solid staring at the old man’s face which grew increasingly awkward, Shigeru finally said, “Oh, it’s you Nagata-san! I am sorry, I couldn’t recognize you when you spoke. My eyesight is getting worse with each passing day.”
“So is mine,” Shigeru heard another voice from his right side. He turned to notice a man in a blue kimono, squinting to look at his students who were disappearing into the thick of the forest. “But, thanks to that, I am having an upper hand in battles with my grandson nowadays.”
Shigeru snickered. “No wonder the mage guild forcefully retired.”
“You never know, they might call upon him to join the army if the peace treaty doesn’t seal the deal,” Nagata spoke.
“True. But I don’t think I would join the army even if his majesty ordered me to.” The man in blue spoke. Shigeru and Nagata suddenly turned their heads towards him in objection, “Don’t get me wrong, it’s not my intention to disrespect his majesty. It’s just that I don’t want to win my battles with such underhanded techniques. I have won all my battles so far fair and square. I want to keep that up until the end, even if that means I won’t be fighting anymore.”
Shigeru nodded in approval. He then tried to concentrate on the current inter-school capture the flag match but thanks to his poor eyesight, he couldn’t make out anything. “Butler, could you fly out the drones and arrange a display big enough for the three of us?”
In only a few minutes the Shigeru’s butler arranged what was asked.
“Like I was saying, who do you think would win?” Nagata asked again.
“I don’t know. I have been so busy with foreign affairs that I am unaware of their tattoos. But, who do you think would win?” Shigeru questioned.
“Every man would like to say that their students would win. But I also acknowledge that Karunji-sensei’s students are some of the best in the kingdom. So, I’m not too sure either.” Nagata replied.
“You flatter me, Nagata-sensei.” Karunji slightly bowed his head, as a gesture of respect. “But you are right. The realm of tattoos is changing rapidly and these kids, coming from the richest families in not just the kingdom but the world, have great potential. Two of my students even have Kristiglius tattoos. That’s supposed to be the rarest one in the world.”
***
The head of the red team gathered around his teammates and went over their strategy again. “Two of you will be at the flag post. I will go from the left. You go from the right. And of the two of you standing at the flag, if called upon, I want one of you to come for help.”
The Red team’s leader then ran through the dense forest towards the other side from the left side. After a few moments, he noticed a person with a blue bandanna sitting on the top of a tree, staring at him.
Immediately, he pulled the red bandanna on his head and exposed the tattoo on his forehead to the enemy. In an instant, he felt as if the skin around his tattoo was searing hot. Taking that as a signal, he dashed to the tree and punched it with all his might. The trunk cracked open on impact and the shock wave produced broke the thick trucks nearby. The red leader looked down and concentrated on the sounds instead of looking, to not activate his enemy's powers. Unfortunately, at his feet, he found a picture of a guy showing off a tattoo on his arm- a man with wings.
When he looked up, he found the blue team member suddenly growing out a pair of wings mid-air and flying away from him as the huge trees around them fell to the ground.
Thoroughly annoyed at the underhanded trick that his enemy played on him, the red team leader picked up the humongous tree off the floor like it was only just a tiny bit heavier than what he could handle and tossed it towards his enemy, who easily dodged out of the way in midair.
“You are Nathan, are you? The famous commander's only son. Must be nice getting a tattoo through lineage without working for it.” The guy with wings comments.
Infuriated, Nathan used all his might to punch the ground underneath him, which sent him flying into the air, close to his winged opponent. Upon getting close, Nathan clenched his fists again, but before he could do anything his rival swiftly moved out of the way of the punch. Nathan quickly reached out for his rival’s long-spanning wings and latched onto them. Pulling himself up towards his enemy who now struggled to keep himself airborne, Nathan pulled out a dagger from inside his waist belt and stabbed the glowing tattoo of a winged man on his opponent’s hand.
After some more bruising of the skin with the dagger, the tattoo on the grotesque hand became unrecognizable.
Nathan lost his grip and fell to the grassy ground alongside his enemy, whose wings suddenly disappeared out of existence. Nathan damped his fall by using his opponent's body and carried on moving towards the blue team’s flag post.
***
“When you think about it, a tattoo of the god of death should be a lot more powerful than that of the god of war. But because of how human brains interpret things, that just isn’t the case.” Shigeru spoke to the two representatives of the two schools sitting on either side.
“The faster your opponent realizes what your power is, the better. ” Nagata recited from his memory.
“Oh, that’s a sentence from my book.” Karunji, the blue team’s representative exclaimed. “Have you read it?”
“I have! I have recommended my first years to read the book for better foundations.” Nagata replied.
Karunji gave back a wide smile.
Suddenly, a few trees on the right side of the forest erupted into flames.
“They are destroying that forest,” Shigeru complained.
“I am sorry. That is my student. She is a very fierce one.” Nagata, the representative of the red team said.
“Oh, don’t be sorry, I don’t mind making my butler grow out new ones tomorrow. I have to make him work in some way, don’t I?” Shigeru said jokingly.
Shigeru looked at the digital screen which showed the live coverage from the drone which was currently making its way towards the burning trees. He observed two tiny pixels on the screen that became clearer as the drone got closer. A girl wearing a red bandanna, Nagata’s student, cupped her hands together and pointed them at her opponent. Flashes of red appeared instantaneously and the next moment everything in its path burned down to ashes.
Her opponent on the other hand… well, opponents. It was a single boy, wearing a blue bandanna, but his magic ability let him clone himself. Currently, there were over thirteen clones around the girl, all of whom were trying to tear open their shirt before they got turned into ashes, but weren’t very successful at that.
“I am thoroughly impressed by her magical ability,” Karunji spoke.
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The girl once again cupped her hands together and launched another red flash. As if it were an amplified version of her previous attacks, everything in the vicinity exploded and shrapnel flew all around.
Noticing the sudden change in the intensity of her magic, all the clones of her opponent looked around and spotted the drone flying above. In an instant, a handful of the clones climbed trees and reached for the drone, before it was maneuvered away from the battle.
“You probably shouldn’t be doing that Karunji-sensei,” Nagata spoke. “It’s not very nice to make it harder for your student to win.”
***
Nathan had been hearing all the sounds coming from the other side of the forest for a while now. His teammate hadn’t called for him or any of the others for help, so he ignored it and continued searching for the blue team’s flag post. But when he finally got to the other end of the forest, he found the flag stick, but not the actual flag.
It was then he realized what their idea was. This strategy had been used in a previous match between his seniors. One of the members of the team replaced their bandanna with the flag as it was necessary to not have the flag hidden inside and have a coloured cloth representing your team at all times. This bought them extra time until the other team realized where the actual flag was.
But then he also remembered another match that he watched a few years ago, where many fake flag sticks were placed in various places in the forest for distraction and wasting time while the actual flag was still present in a more secluded place.
To make sure it wasn’t the case, Nathan looked around for clues when he found footmarks wandering into the forest. He followed the footmarks. Eventually, he ended up back where he started, at the dead body of the opposite team member.
Realizing that somebody from the other team had come to this place, he cautiously looked around again but found no one nearby. Then he continued looking at the footmarks and then followed them when he found a trail.
His pace hastened when he recognized that they were going towards his team’s flag post. He ran to it, but there he found both his team members standing guard for the red flag. The flag was still there and the two of them hadn't noticed anyone coming that way. He noticed that the footmarks continued forward towards the right side, towards the side where his other team member was fighting someone from the opposite team. He followed it after telling his teammates to be more vigilant.
He arrived at the battle between his teammate and 5 shirtless clones of the same opponent. However, he moved ahead without interfering as he knew that the girl could handle the situation.
He found it interesting that these footmarks were very distinct from the many others, almost as if they were made to make him follow them. Regardlessly, he continued.
Eventually, he was led back to the blue team’s flag post, where, again, there was no flag, but just the flag stick.
In a fit of temper, he pulled out the metal stick and broke it in half with his bare hands.
Then, he heard a high-pitched whistle from the right side of the forest. He quickly made his way towards his teammate as a response to her signal for help.
When he got there, he found his teammate’s left hand amputated and heavily bleeding. Before she could utter anything, he landed a solid punch on her face, knocking her out. “Sorry”, he whispered.
Looking at his shirtless enemy, who had a tattoo of a black-coloured textureless hand grabbing another which was heavily textured and realistic, on his chest. On the cheek of the guy was another tattoo that showed multiple humanoid bodies coming out of one. Cloning.
Instantaneously, the tattoo on his enemy’s cheek began to glow bright white. Before his enemy could react, Nathan tore his shirt and yelled, “Ever heard of dimensions?”
Suddenly, he felt both his tattoos glow and knowing that his primary ability had successfully activated, he warped the space between the two of them. One second the enemy was two meters away and the other, he was thrown into the air after eating a sucker punch to his face. And in the next, he was again inches away from getting punched again.
When the enemy tried to retaliate with his many clones, the distance between them suddenly expanded and they were miles away from each other. Moments later each of the clones started to die from all the punches in their faces. This went on for a solid three minutes and then all the clones died.
The member of the blue team collapsed on his knees, excessively bleeding from all the orifices on his face.
***
“That’s a smart move,” Shigeru said. “He prevented the girl from giving away details about the other kid's primary ability, which would in turn help the commander’s son realize what the actual tattoo means. So in this case, knowing information about the tattoo does mean he would have to deal with that as well. Instead he chose to take him on when he is oblivious to the other kid’s power.”
“As much as I appreciate his quick thinking, I can’t help but get angry at the fact that he knocked out his teammate,” Nagata replied annoyedly.
“Sometimes they choose to do the wrong things to achieve goals. Kids are like that.” Shigeru responded. “By the way, how come two of your students haven’t been seen in any of the action yet, Kurunji-san?”
“I don’t know, Shigeru-kun. I don’t interfere in my students' strategic meetings.” Kurunji replied.
“One of them has joined the fight now,” remarked Nagata looking at the new developments on the screen.
The fire spread across the forest and at the center of the clearing, in the ashes was a boy on his knees and a few feet away a boy that was approaching the former. Suddenly, from within the burning forest arrived another boy with a blue bandanna. “Super strength is your primary ability? How lame.”
The kid pulled up his sleeve to reveal a lightning tattoo on his hand, which immediately started glowing after Nathan realized what it meant.
“I thought elemental abilities stopped working after the issue with nature gods in the Far East?” Nagata questioned.
“There are still some around who can use those if they have the blessings of the deity,” Shigeru replied.
Dark clouds engulfed the forest and a bolt of lightning struck where Nathan was standing moments ago before he dodged.
Nathan noticed the tattoo on his chest glowing and suddenly warped the space between the two of them and stabbed the other kid on the tattoo with a bloody dagger. The other kid yelled in pain. Then Nathan balled his fists and punched the other in his gut, knocking him out.
Nathan walked back to the other blue team member who was still on his knees and yelled, “Where is the flag?”, as he punched him.
***
Nathan stopped his punching when the other guy fell unconscious.
He was thoroughly irritated by how they were playing these games. The way he could easily defeat the opposite team’s members felt unreal. Yes, he was indeed one of the most powerful students in any academy in the kingdom or even in the world. That didn’t mean he could underestimate his opponents. He had seen many matches with the blue team’s seniors and they were remarkable. He didn’t expect the ones he was fighting right now to be remarkable, but at least challenging. Or to even put up a fight.
He quickly checked both the enemy's bodies and when he found nothing similar to the satin blue flag on them, he woke up his knocked-out teammate and apologized to her. Then he assigned her the task of checking at and around the blue team’s flag post. Meanwhile, he went on to check for the flag on the body of his first kill. When he arrived there, he found a folded paper stuck to the back of the now shirtless dead enemy body.
He picked it up and read it:
Something feels off, doesn’t it? This feels too easy and you can’t shake off the feeling that you are not seeing the bigger picture. Well, you are right. All of this is a TRAP.
Some people die just to be REBORN.
He crumpled the paper and threw it away. He noticed fresh new foot marks that were unlike any others that he had seen before. He followed them, which went back into the forest halfway towards where the previous fight happened and then circled back to the same place.
Fuming from how none of what they were trying to do made sense, he understood that this had something to do with one of their special abilities. All this circling following footmarks was a trap and he had to think of a better solution to finding the last team member.
“You don’t need to find me.” He heard a feminine voice from behind him. He quickly turned around to find a girl who pulled up her skirt to reveal a tattoo on her thigh. It was circular with lines inside- it was a maze. And suddenly everything made sense.
It was a trap. Her primary ability somehow traps people.
The tattoo on her thigh began to glow and so did the tattoo on Nathan’s forehead. He dashed forward to punch her, but another person came in between and blocked his punch. It was the cloning guy. Nathan then noticed that there was another clone behind him, making him see the tattoo on the neck of the dead body.
A tattoo that means rebirth.
His vision was engulfed by darkness.
***
“PAPA! PLEASE DON’T DO THIS PAPA! PAPA!”
Shigeru heard a feminine voice, shouting at the top of her lungs. The voice echoed through his mind. He opened his eyes to witness seven kids ranging from ten to seventeen, strapped to a chair and gagged. A bald man, probably in his early sixties went from one kid to another with a divine tattooing device and magic ink, tattooing a circular maze on their thighs. Shigeru knew this process all too well.
The divine artist would tattoo on another’s body and share with them the secret of what the tattoo means. But not everyone could survive this. Not everyone had the power to handle the diving magic ink, or the imagination to make use of the ability provided by the tattoo. And that was what happened in front of him. The kids who could not handle the magic ink, mostly the younger ones got disfigured and their skin turned into a sludge-like substance. Whereas the ones who could handle it, but could not use their power were ruthlessly killed by the tattooer.
And then, in the end, the tattooer came to Shigeru. No, this is a core memory of the girl who had the Maze tattoo. The tattooer came to the girl. Shigeru could feel all the pain, fear and a mix of many distasteful emotions, but his ability of omnipresence had far too numbed him to such emotions. He understood how it would affect others who were present in such a situation, say the other students in the forest area.
Using his omnipresence ability, he looked outside the maze that he was trapped in and into the real world, where he witnessed that all the people in the area were trapped in the maze and the real world was standing like statues. All except one.
He pulled his consciousness back into the virtual trap of the girl’s core memories.
“AGRGHH! PAPA PLEASE STOP!” Shigeru heard the same feminine voice again, as the bald man fastened the straps as tight as possible and began the procedure.
Shigeru knew how to get out of the situation. He had seen how a few hundred years ago Sir Virfaloust broke a similar maze. There was also Galrogunz who would break the maze again a few years from now. But he didn’t want to break it right away. The kids went through all that trouble to pull this off. He decided to wait until they were done with capturing the flag.
After a few minutes, the scene changed to another core memory when the girl was being beaten up by the same bald man. Shigeru noted that the girl had a very traumatizing past, especially with her abusive father. He looked into the real world again.
Then immediately he used all the might of the girl’s body and kicked her father in the balls. Reaching out for a knife from the nearby countertop, he stabbed the man while he was in the girl’s body in her memory until his vision went black again.
***
Nathan wiped the tear off from his face. He looked at the girl in front of him, who fell to the floor. She moved herself into a fetal position and began crying at the top of her lungs.
He crawled to her and put a hand on her shoulder.
“The Blue team wins!” Shigeru announces.
“This is probably the match with the least number of deaths in the history of the inter-school competitions, isn’t it?” Shigeru spoke to Kurunji.
“We’ve never had a zero, yes,” Kurunji spoke. “I think it was always their plan to use the rebirth ability Miura-kun has while Nikitani-kun traps everyone else in her maze.”
“And the timing and execution was impeccable. The way they faked the footmarks around the forest, following which wuld take you in circles gave Nathan the sense of being trapped. So when he saw the tattoo he instantly recognised what her power is. They even made sure that the rebirth ability was only activated after her Maze ability activated so that the other kid wouldn't be trapped inside the maze as well. So, I’m guessing, Nathan truly realized their whole plan only after he woke up in the maze.” Nagata explained.
“The students this time truly are interesting,” Shigeru remarked.