Dawn broke over a frost covered field, the grass crunching underfoot, and every breath condensing into small clouds in the crisp, cold air. Yaric found himself watching the sunrise while he did lunges across the training fields, kitted out in his full set of armor. This was his new routine, for however long Hiawatha decided that it needed to continue.
'At least no one is up to watch me. Except Sven, and he’s focused on his special training. But this still sucks!'
Hiawatha was completely unmoved by Yaric’s look of pain as he made his way up and down the field, and he didn’t let Yaric stop until Lauren and Li Na had made their way down to the field. At that point, he would allow Yaric to join them in their run. Li Na had noticed the pattern by the second day already, and both her and Lauren started arriving earlier.
“Why so wobbly?” Li Na greeted Yaric, causing him to bump into her as he caught up, too out of breath to reply. The whole week had been the same, and everyone had fallen into a rhythm. Working on his fire affinity when he woke up, the same technique practice in the mornings, followed by unarmed combat for Yaric while everyone left for lunch, then sparring and unit training for the rest of the day. Yaric had been interested to see what other students with no meal ribbon did during lunch time, but they all disappeared with everyone else. The fields were practically abandoned as Hiawatha put Yaric through his paces.
Lauren had good news when they were finally dismissed for the day. “You will be able to eat with us again tonight, the ribbons will be reset for everyone for the new month. Come on, you will be able to eat as much as you want!”
The three jogged straight to the food hall, this time just to miss the crowd. 'Actually, I do need to try to avoid Chris again. Otherwise I’ll miss out on this food!'
Lauren seemed to be having the same thoughts. “Hurry up, let’s eat and get back to the dorms. I’m starving.
Yaric smiled at her attempts to cover her motivations, but kept quiet. Even Li Na stayed silent instead of calling Lauren out. Every student that had already arrived was in the ribbon holder queue, holding up their cards to be reset and grabbing their own plates. Yaric had been missing lunches, so he helped himself to two.
'Damn, I forgot how much better this food was!'
“I need to become a better fighter. I had no idea how much motivation the meal ribbons were! There’s no way I’m going to give this up by choice.”
Lauren just smiled sympathetically, but Li Na commented. “We wouldn’t know. Never been without a ribbon.”
“What?! Never?”
“Nope,” she shrugged. “I’ve lost ribbons before, but anytime I went to zero I just challenged someone else and took theirs. I’m not going to go hungry for no reason. I’m not a hobo.”
“Lina!” Lauren exclaimed. “Yaric isn’t choosing to go hungry. No one does!”
“People who are on a diet, people who are on a hunger strike, people fasting for special events, people with upset stomachs, people…”
“You know what I meant!” Lauren interrupted Li Na.
Yaric was chuckling at their back and forth. “I’ll challenge someone else just as soon as I can actually beat someone else. Until then I just have to keep practicing. And enjoying this food whenever I can!”
Lauren and Li Na raised their glasses, and everyone dug in. Other students started to file in, and there was soon a large group all eating and laughing together. Most of the students that Yaric recognized were there, even Stewart, who had shown Yaric to his new class right after the last tournament. He was disappointed when Lauren dragged him and Li Na out, but he also felt the need to get back to his room as quickly as possible.
The evenings had become one of his favorite times of day since he had lost his challenge match against Lauren. They always ate early, which meant he was back in his room while many were still leaving to eat, and he was able to practice with his lightning aspected affinity cube before everyone else got back. Math classes followed, and left him almost as tired as the physical training had. His tutor was very pleased with his progress, however, and indicated that he was ahead of where she had expected him to be. Her happiness with his progress often allowed him to leave a little early, and that left the rest of evening to play games in the common room. There were a lot of games he had never seen before, but it was always fun.
The mornings were less so, especially now that he had to be on the field an hour before everyone else. He already had to spend 30 minutes channeling with the fire aspected affinity cube, meaning he was up an hour and a half before anyone else. Only Sven got up at a similar time, and they both left together as Sven had elected for extra lessons an hour before everyone else.
It took a week for Yaric to be challenged, and in the end it wasn’t Chris. It wasn’t even one of his friends. A student Yaric barely knew came striding towards him as soon as he came into sight, and Li Na didn’t hesitate. “I challenge you!”
She had a big smirk on her face, and actually rubbed her hands together in anticipation. The student who had been making for Yaric stopped, turned around, and walked away in disappointment.
“You’ve been waiting to do that all week, haven’t you?” Yaric accused.
“Mayyybeeee… Saved you though. So now you owe me.”
“How did you save me, that wasn’t Chris. Hell, maybe I could have even won!”
“Oh… I didn’t think of that. But do you really think you could have won?”
“Mayyybeeee…” Yaric answered, imitating Li Na.
“You have 2 days before you actually have to fight. Why don’t you two book the field for then, and Yaric can keep eating with us for two more days.” Lauren suggested.
“I was going to do that anyway,” Li Na replied.
“Hold on a second!” Yaric exclaimed. “Why did you challenge me?”
“To stop someone else from getting to be the one who beats you up and takes your lunch money?” Li Na answered innocently.
“But why didn’t you just challenge him? Then he still wouldn’t have been able to challenge me!”
“Ummm… Because Lauren already got to beat you up? I still haven’t had my turn?”
Yaric just stared at her.
“Ohhh… wait! Are you asking me to fight your fights for you? Do you want little old me to protect you from the big bad challengers?” Li Na asked, speaking slowly and drawing out each syllable as if she was talking to a baby.
“Shut up, you know what I mean.”
“I can say what I want, you owe me now.”
“You’re going to fight me in two days and take my ribbon, and I’m going to owe you?”
“Yip! Got it in one!”
Yaric felt weird being on the receiving end of Li Na’s logic, while Lauren was the one watching and laughing. He much preferred it when it was the other way around.
“Let’s go make the booking!” said Li Na excitedly, as she skipped forward and turned toward the arena. They had just eaten and were heading back to the dorms, so they were already part way there.
“You actually do owe Lina,” Lauren said quietly as soon as Li Na was out of earshot. “We thought Chris would back off for a while after your little incident. He won’t want to be seen challenging you with the way Battle Mage Trokhym reacted to your fight. But some of the other guys in our class realized you would be an easier fight. We overheard a few who were arguing over who would get to challenge you. They’ve been discussing it in the mornings before breakfast.”
“What? But then why did no one do anything until now?”
“Lina has been making comments in front of them all week. Things like, ‘Imagine how instructors would react if someone chose to challenge Yaric’, or ‘I wish I was being watched by the instructors like Yaric is, then I also wouldn’t have to worry about challengers.”
“But that doesn’t make any sense? Instructor Trokhym wouldn’t care. He would make me fight all of them! And no one is watching me. Every word of that is nonsense!”
“I know,” Lauren smiled. “Lina is good at that. She said that the important part was never suggesting anything, just saying it as if it was fact. Because no one else knew if it was true, she thought she could create doubt. She was hoping no one would risk challenging you. But this morning they were arguing again, over which of them would test if what they had heard Lina saying was true. This time it was the loser of their little draw that had to challenge you.”
“So I guess it didn’t work then.”
“It did, kind of. It’s been a week before they worked up the courage to try, and you will only have 3 weeks without a ribbon now. Though they’re going to be mad at Lina when they hear who challenged you.”
“Why? You said she never told them anything directly.”
“Yes, but they’ve been hearing her talk all week about how you shouldn’t be challenged. And now she was the one who challenged you. If anyone else had been the one to challenge you, it would have been ok. But what can she say now?”
“Then why did she make the challenge?”
“I don’t think she’s realized yet. I’ll tell her though.”
Yaric sighed deeply. “Thank you. Sorry, I always end up being a problem.”
Lauren bumped his shoulder. “You’re not. This is normal. Now let’s catch up with Lina before she puts you both down for every day this month.”
Yaric laughed as they both started running, trying to catch up with Li Na, who was already halfway down the hill that lead to the arena.
Their challenge match was booked for 2 days later, and Yaric left to channel his arcana through his affinity cube again. He had made no progress on rehabilitating either of the atrophied affinities, but James assured him this was normal. It could be 3 to 5 years before he started seeing results. And as he was an arcanist, he had all the time in the world.
The next 2 days were a blur, exhaustion steadily building as Yaric did his hour of punishment before classes even started, and added his hour training during lunch. Hiawatha hadn’t been impressed when Yaric pointed out that he had a meal ribbon again, and could eat lunch.
“And how do you suppose you will eat your lunch while working on remedying your lack of combat skills with me? Do you think you have time to eat when every one of your classmates can defeat you whenever they choose?”
Yaric had no reply to that, and ended up losing out on lunch regardless. Breakfast and dinner were still much better. Better food, and all you can eat. It made the extra training almost bearable.
The evening of his fight with Li Na arrived, and they both made their way onto the field in their full armor. Lauren held their ID cards, and while there were a lot of students around, they were all there for other fights.
“At least it will be best of three this time,” Yaric smiled.
“Oh yeah? Think again!” Li Na answered with a smirk, pointing behind Yaric.
Yaric’s stomach dropped. 'Not again!'
Hiawatha strode onto the field, a wide smile across his face as he looked both of his students up and down.
“Good! You’re both here and both in your armor! But are you both ready?”
“Yeah!” Li Na shouted enthusiastically.
“No,” Yaric muttered.
Hiawatha’s grin grew wider, and he pretended not to hear Yaric as he held his arms out wide. “This is where you will be learning today! Some of you need the practice more than most! And what better way to see where you are lacking than a stress test with friends? Although Prospect Yaric seems to have an unhealthy interest in fighting his friends.”
“Instructor? Prospect Li Na challenged me!”
“She did?” he asked, checking the booking. “Huh, so she did. My apologies, I saw your name and switched myself in as your referee. I’d assumed it was your challenge. So Prospect Li Na, were you just looking for an easy fight, or an easy meal ribbon?”
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
“Yes!” Li Na answered with no shame and a wide grin.
Hiawatha just matched her grin and motioned both fighters to join him in the middle.
“Alright, same rules as your last fight Prospect Yaric. And this time I want to see you land a blow.”
Yaric froze for second as Hiawatha’s words sunk in. 'This time? Did I not land a single hit on Lauren?' He took a second to run through all three rounds in his head. 'Crap! I didn't hit her. Not once!'
His mind running a mile a minute as he thought over the implications of not managing to land a single blow, Yaric almost missed Hiawatha’s next words.
“This is a challenge match between Prospect Li Na Jakobson, the challenger, and Prospect Yaric Miller, the challenged. The stakes will be one meal ribbon! Begin!”
Li Na was very different to Lauren. She raised her guard immediately, but approached Yaric slowly, smirking at him the entire way. Yaric hesitated, but eventually moved into striking range as Li Na drew the fight out. She launched several quick probing kicks, but nothing near as devastating as the kicks Lauren landed.
'Lauren is number 2, maybe I actually have a chance with Lina?'
Then Li Na was right in front of him, dropping low and striking at his knee. Yaric tried to reach down and grab her so he could use his weight advantage in a grapple, but Li Na raised both arms together, outside Yaric’s grip, and twisted her body, pushing both of his arms out to the side. Then she leapt up, landing with her arms across his neck, and her legs swinging around his back and under his arm on the opposite side.
He was sent flying, and he looked up to see that Li Na had somehow landed on her feet. It was a ridiculous move, she should have been thrown with him, instead of standing there and savoring her victory. Hiawatha never called the fight though, so Yaric stood up, looking up just in time to see the front kick, first from her leading leg and with all of her momentum behind, then from her rear leg as she stepped forward. Two quick punches connected with his face even as he fell backwards from the kicks.
“Match!”
Yaric didn’t need Hiawatha to tell him that, that much was obvious as he lay on the ground. The rules had been made clear before the fight with Lauren. No healing until after the final round. Injuries inflicted in earlier rounds are an advantage in later rounds, and are considered advantages that were earned. There would be no getting rid of his nose bleed until the match was over.
Li Na was enjoying herself way too much. She raised her hand palm up and called him with a beckoning gesture. The challenge was clear. But Yaric knew it was a losing proposition even as he took up his starting position again.
“Begin!”
Both approached each other warily again. Yaric could feel his blood dripping across his lips and down his chin. Some even ran down his neck, although most was dripping from his chin to land on the ground.
This time Yaric went on the attack. Every time he let someone attack him first, he barely managed to put up any defense at all and lost quickly. He lost quickly when he attacked as well, but at least he had a chance to actually land something first.
Yaric lunged into range, throwing several punches. Li Na tried to dodge them all without blocking, but was forced to deflect a few that came too close. When Li Na backed up to give herself some space, Yaric decided to try the same kicks both Lauren and Li Na had used against him so effectively, and thrust forward with a front kick. Lina stepped forward quickly, seeming to shift right past the kick, before lifting her knee as she got close. Yaric dropped to the floor like a sack of grain.
Apparently the ‘no healing’ rule was not a hard and fast rule after all. It seemed that there were exceptions. Like when you take a knee to the groin. Hiawatha quickly stepped over Yaric as he groaned on the floor, the same healing spell from before washing over Yaric. His nose popped slightly and the nausea receded. Even the blood was cleared away.
Li Na at least had the decency to look slightly guilty. Hiawatha didn’t care at all, as he moved back to the side and gestured for Yaric to hurry up and take his position again.
“And you still think I’m the one that owes you for this?”
“Yeah! I could have hit harder, but I chose not to. You’re welcome!”
Yaric glared at her as he moved back into position. “Well maybe I’ll help you in your scheme during formation practice to…”
“Actually, friends don’t owe friends!” Li Na shouted as she cut Yaric off in a panic. “I’m not keeping count, but you can count on me!” she said, giving Yaric a thumbs up and bright smile. Yaric just shook his head as Hiawatha started the last round.
“Begin!”
Yaric charged in again. This time he aimed to strike with his hands while advancing in close, where he could try to grapple her. He miscalculated. It hadn’t even occurred to him that she would just accept that and simply out fight him, but as soon as he started throwing punches and launching a barrage of strikes to let himself get close, Li Na simply counter attacked with her own punches, deflecting everything Yaric threw at her while pummeling him in return.
Her punches to his chest managed to wind him slightly, but the fight really ended when she landed a punch to his jaw. His head was rocked back and he lost all sense of his surroundings for a moment, taking several more hits in the time it took him to recover from the confusion. Her second punch to his jaw took him to the floor.
“Match!”
Li Na helped Yaric sit up, and he stayed there, unable to stand, until Hiawatha cast another healing spell over him. Li Na helped him get all the way to his feet as Lauren came over and handed Hiawatha their ID’s. Yaric’s ribbon was quickly moved across to Li Na’s ID.
“I’m disappointed. You still didn’t land a punch!”
Yaric was shaken by that. It was true, he hadn’t landed a single blow in any of the matches so far.
“It looks like we will be continuing your training during lunch Prospect Yaric. I will see you tomorrow while the rest of the class leaves to eat and rest. But from now on I will only see you when regular classes start. Dismissed.”
“Thank you, Instructor!”
Hiawatha turned and started walking away.
“Looks like I’ve still got to train during lunch. Not that I have a ribbon for lunch anyway.”
“Funny how losing a match means both no lunch, and extra combat training. And should the combat training bring someone to a level where they can keep their ribbon, it would mean that they both get lunch, and don’t need to spend extra time practicing with me.” Hiawatha mumbled as if to himself, but very loudly and very clearly as he walked away.
Li Na grinned after Hiawatha. “Looks like you might be missing lunch for a long time still!”
“Lina! Don’t you feel even a little bad?” Lauren asked.
“Why would I feel bad? I just helped a friend improve his combat skills. Now he knows several things he should never do!”
“On the bright side, at least you get more private lessons to help you catch up.”
Yaric froze as he looked at Lauren. 'That was my entire plan when I first got here! To work in as much combat training as possible. Practicing techniques, forms, sparring, everything. It’s the best way to improve across every area!'
“I might be missing more lunches than you think. I need to keep getting this training for as long as possible!”
“Ha! You don’t have to worry about that. You will be getting your one on one time with Battle Mage Trokhym whether you like or not!” Li Na laughed.
The three of them made their way back up to the food hall, where Yaric had to have the basic meals that were served to those who had no ribbons, before running off to his math class. He met up with Lauren and Li Na after, who'd just had one of their bi-weekly classes, and the trio carried on as if there had been no challenge match just an 3 hours earlier.
Nothing else changed. Every day had the same schedule, day in and day out. The only variation in their routine was at the start of the new month, when ribbons were reset to one per person and challenges started getting issued again. Yaric had another challenge match with Lauren. He much preferred fighting Lauren to fighting Li Na, but the matches ended even quicker and with even less of a fight.
The month after his second fight with Lauren, Yaric was too slow when leaving the common room to breakfast. It was a habit now to leave challenges for as long as possible, and only issue his own when he had no other choice. The choice was taken from him however, when the challenge was issued from someone who approached him from behind. They didn’t even notice her arrival until Tracy actually issued the challenge, and Yaric was forced to fight her for that month. It went just as well as his other fights up until that point.
The following month had exactly the same scenario, where Stewart of all people was able to challenge him before Yaric knew what was happening. This time he at least managed to land his first punch in a challenge match.
The weather was also getting much warmer, and the sun was now over the horizon when they left for breakfast. There was also more daylight after they were dismissed, so the trio spent some time wandering the academy. Others occasionally joined them as well, and more than once they made a group of over 20 students, walking around and just enjoying themselves after classes.
Other than the small changes in routine, nothing big happened all through the start of summer, right up until the two months before the Summer Solstice Tournament. Everyone was in the common room, about to go get breakfast, when Li Na came running up to Lauren.
“Look! The Academy is starting to issue weekend passes to go into Lekton again! The fourth-year class has next weekend off!”
“Finally! It’s been so long!” Lauren exclaimed.
Everyone started talking at once. It seemed like this was a big event, but Yaric was confused.
“We get to leave the Campus?”
“Yes, all Prospects get time off. Mostly over the summer period. Didn’t you go into Lekton last summer?”
“Uh, no. I’ve never even heard of this. I haven’t had a day off since I joined the Academy!”
“What? You can’t be serious?” Lauren asked, concerned.
“I’ve been on the training fields every day, and there’s always been other students there too.”
“Of course,” Li Na answered, “they don’t let every year out at the same time. Different years go on different weekends.”
“Come on!” Lauren smiled. “It will be fun! There’s so much to do. And you need to have break. Especially if it’s your first one in over a year!”
“Yeah, what’s wrong with you?” Li Na laughed.
That settled it, and everyone went to breakfast talking about their plans. It seemed like the breaks were common, but they had been paused for a few months over the winter.
The routine training carried on like normal, and one day after another rolled on by, until finally, Yaric woke up to his first morning with no training. He spent 30 minutes channeling through his fire aspected cube, got dressed in an Academy uniform, and went to wait in the common room. No one was planning to eat in the food hall this weekend, so everyone had planned to head straight out into the city. Yaric was more than a little nervous. For the first time since arriving, Yaric would get to see the city he lived in. And for the first time, he’d get to spend time outside the Academy with friends, doing things that had nothing to do with classes or training or competitions. They could do whatever they wanted, and he planned to make the most of it!
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3,200 miles to the East, near the eastern border of The Kingdom of Brackburn
King Novak sat on his mount, watching the bulk of his army reserves form up in the valley below. The sounds of the men working could be heard even from up here. Soldiers were chopping down trees all along the edge of the valley, while others were cutting the wood into stakes and creating temporary palisades. General Floros never allowed the infantry to drop their guard, even this far from the front lines. The dwarf wasn’t even in the valley, as he had left to organize the conscripts that would be joining his regular forces, but his men were well trained and didn’t need his direct supervision.
Florian Novak had pulled everyone he could, from every fort and castle that was close enough to make it in time. The Kingdom would need every soldier and fighting man it could get. The conscripts were already congregating just outside the valley.
“Sire!” General Iliescu called as he rode up to his King. “The reserves will be ready by tomorrow, but General Floros has indicated that the conscripts need four more days. They won’t be ready to march before then.”
“If Mitko says they need four more days, then they need four more days,” King Novak sighed. “But no more! We have to strike soon! Or this will all be for nothing.”
“Understood sire. The main army have sent back reports, and we’ve updated the maps. Everything seems to be as expected. I can’t see any way for the Wedals to concentrate their forces again, not in such a short time. They are far too spread out right now.”
“We’ll see. I hope so, this is by far the best chance we’ll get. The Bocralons fought for fifteen years to kick the Wedals out of their Federation, and they lost. If we have to spend the next fifteen years at war, the Kingdom will be devastated. And the longer the war goes on, the more the war works in those bastards' favor. We need to drive them out quickly!” Florian vented his frustration. They had been over the new strategy many times already.
“I agree sire. If you would like to have a look at the most recent reports of Wedal locations? We have also updated our current force dispositions.”
“Let’s go then.”
King Novak turned to ride with his military advisor, and they made their way down to the command tent, escorted by his personal guard. They both handed off their mounts and headed in. The other officers stood at attention when the King entered, but no one followed courtly protocols. This was a war zone, and they were out in the field.
“I take it the situation is still suitable for our counter attack?”
“Sire, it is better than ever. We have reports of attacks along half our border regions now. Their main force was situated between Yustin and Edomouth, attacking both fortified cities. The reports of attacks to both the north and south have only increased in the last month. Their forces have spread the front line over 80 miles in each direction. It may even be further; the timing of the attacks at the far edges of the front lines make it likely that any attacks against towns further out are too far away to be reported on yet.”
“Do we have any better information on how much of their forces are left in the main group?”
“I’m sorry sire, they’ve left their camp structures intact, we still can’t tell how much of their forces were sent to raid further afield.”
“The estimates?”
“To attack along a front as wide as this, at least 40% of the force we have been fighting would be required. And that’s conservative sire.”
“So at most, 60% of their forces are still concentrated between Yustin and Edomouth? With our reserves and reinforcements, we will outnumber them better than 2 to 1.”
“That’s our estimate as well sire. But we have still not had any reports of mages in the raiding forces. We believe that all arcanists are still with the main force. They will outnumber us.”
“How many mages has Teross sent us?”
“The same as before sire, 2,300 across ranks. But that includes those specialized in crops, construction, everything sire. They’ve also sent their students from 7th year and up, which we will be using as shock troops. That still puts our numbers at almost a third of their Wedal arcanists, which are known to be especially heavy in full mages. And we are using estimated numbers from the Wedal Empire’s war with the Bocralon Federation. That was over 50 years ago, they likely have more now.”
“Which doesn’t change anything, we knew what the odds were likely to be, this is simply confirmation of our initial assessments. We still need to hit them hard and hit them fast. The goal, as you all know, is to defeat them in detail. We have all of our reserves, much of our garrison forces, and every conscript we can equip. If we hit their main troop concentration with our field army, backed up by these additional forces, we can destroy the bulk of their army in one blow. The rest will be easy to mop up. They’re scattered in small units all across our borders. Now, how is Edomouth and Yustin? Will they hold for long enough?”
“They are taking damage to their walls, but the Wedal’s haven’t been able to properly besiege either city. Our field army is too great a threat, so they have built their camp fortifications facing our troops. It’s only from the far reaches of their camp that they can bombard either city. Their camp is over 2 miles wide, and the cities are unusually close together due to the river, but we are confident that they are only managing their bombardment due to their arcanist forces. There’s 5 miles distance between each.”
“Well, we now know the exact forces we will have at our disposal. We need the operation plan drawn up before we leave camp. I want everyone drilled on the operation order by then, right down to your lieutenants. We cannot let this opportunity slip!”
“We have already begun sire; we just need your authorization on a few points. Essentially, our field army is already a combined arms force. They will have the majority of the arcanist forces, and will be reinforced with most of the conscripts. Our conscripts don’t have the experience necessary to do anything other than attack to the front, but with the added spearmen in the ranks, we will launch the frontal assault with a far greater force than we have been fielding previously. The garrison and reserve troops will advance behind the main force, and swing around once the attack begins to press the flanks.”
“General Floros has seen these battle plans already?” the King asked.
“Yes sire, it is General Floros who will be leading the main assault.”
“And you, Valeriu?”
“Sire, I helped develop the plan personally. May I take you through the details?” General Iliescu replied.
“Yes, we need to nail this down today. Our timeline is very short.” The King sighed as he added. “We don’t get to choose when our opportunities present themselves, but we do get to choose whether or not we take them. And this opportunity may be our only shot at truly saving the Kingdom.”