The plan was simple.
Yaric and Chelsea were both assigned to watch the enemy camp. It wasn’t all that hard, as there were a lot of vantage points, allowing them to get clear views of almost any part of the camp.
They both took up positions in the hills around the camp, watching the comings and goings. Sneaking into place had been a literal walk in the forest. No one went that far out from their fortifications, and the early light of the false dawn was enough to navigate the forest floor without too much noise.
Everything was extremely quiet at that time of morning, however, making the small amount of noise that they did produce sound far louder than it should have.
“Why do dry branches have to hide under the leaves?” Chelsea asked, glaring accusingly at the forest floor.
“To warn us when people go snooping?” Yaric suggested, smiling at the thought of having a warning system in place once they start their watch.
“Yeah, well, we’re the ones snooping right now. I just hope there isn’t anyone keeping watch out here. We’ll be like pigs in a tree.”
Yaric snorted. It was Chelsea who had noted how little activity went on away from the camps. Every team dug in, then stayed nearby to defend their base. A few people would sometimes leave to get water or wood, and small scouting teams would sometimes go out as well, but otherwise you had very little chance of coming across people between the camps. Teams were either manning their defenses or marching out to launch their own assault; leaving the vast areas in between as grey zones with no activity.
They initially circled around, to approach from the boundary of the exercise area, thinking that it was the least likely to be watched. It was easy to find a good vantage point. The sun had now risen high enough to bathe the camp in a red glow, allowing the two scouts to observe the camp in detail. And it wasn’t really a camp like most others were. It was a fort.
Just like every other camp, the position was terrible. This camp was much like their own, sitting in a hollow depression, but they weren’t surrounded by a hill, they were simply in a bowl sitting on flat ground. It was still surrounded by hills, but the ground was flat for almost 100 meters in every direction. This team had taken advantage of that.
Two trenches were dug all around the outer perimeter. It was hard to tell exactly, but the outer trench looked to be around 5ft deep, it a slope on the inner side to make it impossible to use it for shelter. The inner trench looked to be 8ft deep, with a high rampart climbing up the other side, ending 6ft above ground level. And here was the first major problem.
The wall was a massive palisade, 15ft high, placed on a 6ft wall, standing over an 8ft trench. It was only possible because it enclosed such a small area, but it was huge. And they needed to get through it.
“Do you see the people walking along the top of the wall?” Yaric asked Chelsea.
“Yes. You’re asking because they look like the wall is waist high?” Chelsea replied.
Yaric nodded in response, despite the fact that neither was looking at the other, both too focused on the fort below them.
“They must have built an alure on the other side.”
Yaric finally tore his eyes away from the fort, turning to look at Chelsea with raised eyebrows.
“It’s like a raised walkway. They can fight from the top of the wall, but there’s still a bit left to protect them from anyone below,” she explained. “My family helped build small forts when we went logging…” Chelsea added, seeing Yaric’s expression. “It’s a long story.”
“OK… Well, do you want to split up? The wall blocks everything that’s close to them, if we watch from different sides we will see more of the fort.”
“Fort now, huh?” Chelsea joked.
“Look at it. It’s so much bigger than any of the others.”
“For now,” she teased, moving back into deeper cover. “Let’s get more of an angle, I’ll take the left, you take the right, but we stay between the fort and the boundary line. Sven wants to keep them guessing if we get spotted.”
“Great,” he confirmed, already moving to the left. “See you back at the camp.”
From there they spent the entire day watching the comings and goings of the fort, not that there was much movement. Yaric spotted 6 groups leave in total, 3 heading to the river for water, 1 cutting wood nearby, and 2 small squads that had left early but still hadn’t returned. One pair had left as well, carrying bows. Yaric suspected that they were the hunting team that had ‘killed’ Trevor.
Nothing else happened until midafternoon, when Yaric suddenly realized that the forest around him had gone dead quiet. Nothing stirred for almost a minute, before some of the leaf litter slid very distinctly, just 20 yards behind Yaric.
His heart jumping, Yaric inched around, turning as slowly as he could. Someone was moving just through the trees, inching forward. Yaric crouched lower behind the bush, hoping that they wouldn’t turn towards him.
A second student soon showed himself, carrying a bow with an arrow already nocked. The hunters.
Yaric watched them slowly make their way past and deeper into the forest, hardly daring to breathe. He waited for 10 minutes after they disappeared, then began inching his own way into the forest. It was time to go back, but those two could change direction at any time.
Only now did Yaric put what the army had taught him into practice, moving close to ridgelines, and using the terrain to hide his presence as much as possible. He also found himself moving around any locations that looked like good ambush spots, his blasé attitude from early already forgotten.
Sure, almost everyone stayed in their camps at all times, but there were still some people patrolling the forest. It meant nothing to any squads, but Yaric was on his own.
His heart hammered the entire way back, even though the journey was entirely uneventful. Chelsea had just arrived herself, drawing most people’s attention, so Yaric was able to calm himself and walk forward as if nothing had happened.
“How was it?” Sven queried, spotting him as he walked out from the trees.
“Nothing really happened. I didn’t see any sign of their flag, and their fortifications are really impressive. I doubt any team has much chance in an assault. It did look like they sent out 2 scouting teams though.”
“Well, it’s a good thing we won’t be assaulting them, isn’t it?” Sven laughed. “Chelsea also spotted their scouts, hopefully they are preparing to attack someone.”
“So we’re still going in tomorrow?”
“Yes, we will attack tomorrow. We were just discussing the best way to go about it.”
The rest of the team took that as their leave to continue the discussion.
“The moon is still almost full, we should move into position tonight,” Vano asserted.
“But then we will be exposed all night. They could catch us at any time!” Gerrick countered,
“We can get caught here too. Besides, no one will be patrolling at night, but they will in the morning.”
“What do you mean, Vano?” Sven inquired, interested to hear how he would avoid being spotted by patrols.
“Chelsea already told us that hardly anyone ever patrols in the forest, but when they do, it’s always during the day. We’ve never spotted anyone at night. So let’s rather move then. We move when there is no one around to spot us, and hide before they start watching for intruders.”
“That could work,” Sven concluded thoughtfully. “As long as we don’t get too close. We can even bring some extra food in case we have to wait more than a day.”
It didn’t take long to convince the whole team, which sparked a mad dash to collect everything they would need. All canteens and waterskins were filled, ropes were coiled and stowed, and weapons were sharpened and readied. Team Flagbearer was prepared and waiting just as the light began to fade.
Then came the long wait. They all sat around in silence, waiting for the moon to rise. The gleaming moon seemed extra bright after the 4 hours spent in near total darkness, illuminating the forest floor for the students as they wound their way through the undergrowth.
The moon was much higher when they finally found a good place to hide, 3.5 hours after they left. The enemy fort was very easy to spot, being brightly lit by fires outside their walls. Lookouts patrolled the top, and every now and then a shower of sparks would burst from one of the fires when one of the lookouts threw fresh wood from the top of the wall.
“These guys are organized,” Sven whispered in admiration.
“I guess if you go through so much trouble to build a fort like that, you have to use it properly,” replied Yaric.
“Look at that wall! It’s crazy! They can probably defend that place with 10 people!”
“Don’t get too excited, or the rest of the team will start to think that you want us to try and build something like that next.”
“HA!” Sven coughed, trying to keep quiet. “No one will think that once we’re done with them. Just wait for someone else to attack them. Or for them to go on the attack. Having such big walls is great, but losing them will hit them really, really hard!”
Lookouts were posted all around their position, with guard rotations to continue even after sunrise. They couldn’t afford to be exposed before anything happened. Only Chelsea and Yaric were exempt, after spending the entire previous day on watch duty.
Yaric still woke early, finding it impossible to stay asleep with the sunlight filtering through the trees. The light seemed to flash every time a breeze swayed the branches, creating shifting patterns of light and shadow across his face.
Sven with already deep in discussion with Anton and Delmar, with Gerrick listening nearby.
“Good, you’re up. There’s something happening at the camp,” Sven greeted when Yaric approached.
“What is it?” Yaric asked.
“We don’t know, but there’s a lot of movement inside. It looks like everyone is expecting an attack,” Gerrick offered from the side.
“Or they are getting ready to attack themselves. It’s more likely than them knowing about an attack in advance,” Delmar countered.
“Did they have any scouts coming into the fort?” asked Yaric.
“No. No one has gone in or out since we arrived. That’s why I think it’s so unlikely that they know about someone attacking them. How?”
Yaric nodded and turned to Sven. “So you think we’re going to get lucky. They’re going to leave to launch an assault a few hours after we got here?”
Sven started grinning before Yaric could even finish. “Looks like it! As long as they don’t detect us, I don’t see what else could be happening.”
Sven and Delmar were soon proven correct.
A section of the palisade functioned as a gate. The posts were firmly attached to each other, and all sat in shallow postholes. Several augmented students lifted that section of the wall straight up, then carried it open, where it was held upright by ropes attached like hinges.
“We could have done that!” someone in the crowd of watchers exclaimed.
“I’m sure they have some way of locking it from inside,” replied Sven, still watching the camp.
A column of four marched out. Their regimented formation made it very easy to count them, being 12 people long. Most importantly, though, was the flag fluttering near the rear of the column.
“Forty-eight! We only need to worry about 2 people inside!” Sven exclaimed.
Just then, 2 ropes were thrown over the top of the wall, as the formation below waited. The 2 missing team members appeared at the top of the wall and quickly climbed down one of the ropes, before tugging on the 2nd. The rope turned out to be a single piece, which dropped down to the waiting team. The 2 new additions ran around their formation and went ahead into the forest.
“Do you think they’re scouts?” Sven asked Yaric.
“Yes. Probably. But why would they leave their fort completely undefended?”
“What difference would 2 people make?”
Yaric choked. “What happened to only needing 10 people to defend the fort?” he spluttered.
“Yes, I said ten, not two,” Sven smiled. “They probably hope the fort is enough of a deterrence that no one will even try. And if they do, how will anyone take down such big walls? They don’t have to worry about damage.”
“Speaking of…” Yaric said questioningly.
“Ah, yes. We’re prepared, although we should start collecting more dry wood.”
Sven turned and started giving directions, sending most of the team to collect wood and kindling. He pointedly ignored Yaric.
“Hold up,” Delmar suddenly blurted, “who says the scouts have to go ahead of their team?! Maybe they’re hanging back and watching their fort from the forest!”
Sven froze.
“Ummm… that’s definitely possible,” Yaric confirmed. “I wouldn’t have thought of that, but now that I know about the option, it’s what I would want to do. They can fetch their team if they spot anything. Maybe even launch their own ambush when their attackers leave.”
Sven turned to both Yaric and Delmar. “Wake Chelsea up. I want all three of you to go to that hill they went over and have a look around. Make sure there isn’t anyone to warn the others. We’ll start moving firewood closer to the fort and wait for you there.”
“What happens if they kill us instead?” Yaric inquired.
“We won’t attack until you come back. And if you don’t come back, the whole team will move on that hill and take out anyone who’s there.”
“OK,” Yaric nodded, turning to fetch his weapons.
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Delmar woke Chelsea up, and he explained what was going on while the trio armed themselves. They each took their bow, knowing that they might need to stop someone from running.
It took half an hour just to get to the hill, where they split up a bit to cover more ground. Delmar stopped a 3rd of the way up and waited for Chelsea and Yaric to climb higher. Chelsea stopped they had climbed another 3rd, and once Yaric made it all the way to the top, all three started moving across the hill. They were too far apart to cover each other, but they would be able to hear if anyone got into trouble.
Yaric stalked quietly, carefully stepping through the wide patches of dirt that were left exposed this high up. It was very tense, trying to watch the ground and avoiding things that would give his position away, while also watching his surroundings to try and spot any potential lookouts. It was almost impossible to do both.
And in the end, he couldn’t. Yaric had made it halfway across the hill when a sudden noise from his left froze him in his tracks.
Further down the slope, no more than 20 yards away, was one of the scouts from earlier, sitting on a tree branch and idly swinging his legs. He had a bow across his lap, and it looked like there was already an arrow on the string. The tree the scout sat in was downhill from Yaric, but the branch he sat on was at almost the same height. Yaric had almost walked right past him.
The scout was facing away and seemed completely unconcerned. He had likely done this many times before.
Turning slowly, Yaric drew back his bow, sighting down the arrow. At this range there was little chance of missing. He pulled back the rest of the way, releasing when his hand met his cheek.
The twang had barely finished when he heard the thud. An amber shield briefly flashed, a brilliant light against the green canopy, followed by the student rolling off his branch.
He actually fell backward, having arched his back when the arrow impacted, and Yaric got a brief glance of the terror in his eyes as he rolled back, dropping headfirst. A shrill sound whistled softly as he fell.
“SHIT!” Yaric swore, trying futilely to run downhill before the student hit the ground. He had no idea how much protection the shield would be if you fell that far and landed on your head. A sudden stop was a sudden stop, whether you hit the ground or a mage shield.
And the student was going to hit his head. Yaric’s first step hadn’t even landed when he realized the student’s feet hadn’t carried on rotating. Then the student just slowed and stopped, coming to a halt a few inches off the ground, before suddenly dropping again.
This time he had his arms up, and landed face first in the heavier leaf litter that lay further down the slope. His momentum caused him to slide a few yards, headfirst down the hill.
Yaric snapped out of his shock, tossing his bow aside and drawing his sword as he kept bounding down the hill. Hoping that the simulated wound would keep him from standing up or calling out, Yaric made his way down as fast as he could. The shock of falling face first from such a height, while being paralyzed and made helpless by the medallion, would probably be more than enough to keep him on his back for a while.
The blade stabbed down, thrusting into his throat just above the collar bone. Or it would have, but the shield flashed again, this time a solid red.
Yaric looked down at him, making eye contact. His eyes were wide, and his pupils were heavily dilated. The student kept glancing away furtively before looking back, breathing heavily like he’d just come back from a run, despite having done nothing but fall and slide.
“Relax,” Yaric entreated him. “You’re on the ground. Your shield is up. Nothing can happen now, understand?”
Yaric waited for a response before realizing that the medallion would be keeping him completely paralyzed. He wouldn’t even be able to nod.
“If you’re worried, start recharging your medallion. Nothing can touch you if it’s full, right? You have less than 15 minutes before you can move again, so just lie here and catch your breath.”
Yaric glanced up, looking at the trees above them. Dappled light shifted around the branches above, creating a moving kaleidoscope. The speckled light sometimes caught birds as they flittered from tree to tree.
“Just enjoy the scenery,” Yaric smiled, patting the shield over his shoulder. There was no point in spending more time talking to the enemy. He wouldn’t have said anything at all if he hadn’t been in shock himself.
Yaric sheathed his sword and fetched his bow. He’d just picked it up when he realized there might still be a 2nd lookout hiding nearby. The adrenaline rush from earlier supercharged his reflexes, leaving him standing with an arrow nocked and no memory of how it got there.
The forest was just as quiet as before.
Yaric found the lookout’s quiver sitting below the tree. It hadn’t fallen, the lookout had placed it carefully against the trunk before he climbed up, probably worried about having the arrows spill out. His own arrow had shattered on the mage shield. It only took a second to spot the bow lying under the tree, just to the side of the trail its owner had dug while sliding through the trees. Yaric retrieved the bow and picked up the dropped arrow.
Phwwwwhhhtttt….
The arrow let out a soft whistle as Yaric lifted it up. It had also dropped headfirst, planting itself an inch into the ground. Yaric pulled it straight up, gripping it just above the fletching, before lifting the end to clean the dirt off the arrowhead. Whipping the end up produced a shrill whistle, it’s volume directly proportional to how fast he moved it.
Four small pieces of wood surrounded the shaft, attached just behind the arrowhead. Yaric blew across them experimentally, producing another very quiet whistle.
‘Huh…. This must be how he would warn his friends. He wasn’t going to chase after them at all, he could let them know from here!’
Yaric tucked the arrow away carefully and continued his search. This time he made a point of looking for quivers at the base of the trees he passed, but he didn’t find anything else. Not surprising after the noise he had made.
Chelsea seemed to agree. She glared at him when he met back up with her and Delmar.
“What the hell were you doing?” she asked caustically.
“I found their lookout. He’s out.”
“And you had to charge around shouting and whistling for everyone else to hear?”
“That wasn’t me! The only noise I made was when I chased him down the hill!”
“You were making so…” Chelsea trailed off, her eyes going wide and moving back and forth as the tracked the movement of the arrow Yaric had pulled out and started flicking around.
“It wasn’t me! He had this arrow to warn the others. He dropped it from high up a tree.”
“But I didn’t even hear it,” Delmar remarked, confused. He had been watching Chelsea with a big grin on his face, amused by her treatment of Yaric.
“He just dropped it. It gets louder when it moves faster, so shooting it into the air with a bow will probably make a noise you can hear for miles.”
“And the other scout?” Chelsea demanded, still annoyed.
“There was no sign of him,” Yaric shrugged.
“He’s probably further away,” Delmar speculated. “If he has another arrow like this they can work as a relay.”
Yaric looked doubtful. “We have no evidence for that.”
“Not directly,” he countered, “but I don’t care how fast you shoot that thing, there’s no way it can be loud enough to hear at the next camp. But you can double the range if the other scout acts like a relay.”
“Maybe,” Yaric mused.
“We need to get going,” said Chelsea. “Everyone else is waiting for us.”
The trio quickly started back, jogging most of the way.
Sven was waiting with the whole team. They had piles of dry wood built up by the time the scouts got back, and Sven was eager to hear how things went.
“This kraken trumpeted around the forest, but we think we got everyone,” Chelsea reported.
“You mean I got everyone,” Yaric countered, before explaining the whole incident.
“These are interesting,” Sven murmured to himself. “These would also be a deterrent. What would you have done if we started to attack the fort and suddenly heard whistling in the sky? I know I would think we had fallen for a trap. And these guys would be halfway back before I was certain there wasn’t some kind of trick.”
“But we still don’t know if the relay theory is right. There could be someone still watching. Or they already know we are here,” Chelsea retorted.
“No, no one has spotted anything. If they’re even there. But we will know soon enough.”
“What do you mean?” Yaric asked.
“This arrow… If someone had seen us, they would have signaled with an arrow like this, and we would have heard it too. Same thing when we attack. If anyone is watching, they will let us know,” he smirked.
Team Flagbearer gathered up as much of the wood as they could, and quickly started jogging up to the fort. Yaric spotted many of his teammates carrying baskets made of rope, with what appeared to be clay jars bundled inside.
The walls were even more impressive up close. Even the ramparts were taller than the students, with the 15ft high palisade towering over their heads.
Preprepared ropes were thrown over the top and quickly scaled. 15 students were up in less than a minute. More ropes were lowered for the bundles of wood to be tied to, which were then hauled to the top at the ends of the ropes, untied, only for the ropes to be dropped back down to repeat the process.
The rest of the team followed the last bundle of wood over the wall.
There was nothing very impressive about the fort on the inside. It was just a small open space, with their stone building right in the middle. More posts were sunk into the ground between the building and the walls.
“I think they’re building walkways from the roof to the top of the walls…” Sven whistled. “They’ll be able to move around very quickly.”
“No, they won’t,” Yaric smirked.
Team Flagbearer had been briefed in advance, allowing them to form small groups and move off immediately, each group going to complete specific tasks. Yaric realized that he didn’t have one.
“What are we supposed to do?” he asked, gesturing to Delmar and Chelsea.
“Speak for yourself, Delmar and I have to build the fires.”
Sven just laughed. “Sorry! I forgot to include you in the work teams. Maybe you can keep a lookout for us? We want to be the ones who surprise them, not the other way around.”
“You want to surprise them from inside the fort?”
“Where else? Look how good the defenses are, and we just walked in and took it all over! We can take them out from inside these defenses, then leave with their flag and burn everything down on the way out!”
“But they’re not going to stand around waiting for us. If they take too many casualties they’ll just retreat.”
“Says who? We’re in their camp remember.”
“Still…” Yaric said uncertainly. “They will also be alert when they come back. Shouldn’t we rather ambush them before they get here?”
“Do you have an ambush site?”
“No, but I’ll go look. Just get everything ready here. I think we’re making too many assumptions if we’re hoping they throw themselves at us to get their fort back.”
“Alright, see what you can find,” Sven concurred.
Yaric climbed back over the wall and started off in the direction of the other team. It didn’t take him long to find what he was looking for.
The route they took went up the hill that their lookout had been stationed on, down the other side, and then along the bottom of a low ridge that ran parallel to their path. The ground on the other side of the path was mostly flat, but the whole area was covered in thick, waist high bushes. Similar bushes ran up to the top of the ridge, and neither had many trees. The only place that was relatively clear was the path along the bottom of the ridge.
Yaric ran all the way back.
“I think I have it!” he shouted once he was back inside the fort.
His team had been busy while he was away. Piles of supplies were laid out below the wall, sorted and packed neatly. Other piles sat on top of some chopped firewood, obviously from the fort’s own supply, while further piles lined the base of the wall. The poles for the unfinished walkways had all been chopped down as well.
“What is it?” Sven asked hopefully.
Yaric explained the layout of the terrain.
“I want to put 30 of us part way up the ridge, crouching in the brush. No one will be able to see you from below. Then when they come past, everyone can stand and lock shields, and move down to engage. We wouldn’t be very far up, so we…”
“But that’s not much of an advantage,” Sven interrupted. “You want to attack them from higher ground in a straight up fight?”
“No, of course not. Only 30 of us will be there, remember? The rest of us will be on the other side, sitting behind the bushes. When they start fighting our guys on the ridge, the rest of us can hit them in the back with our bows.”
“Hmmm… sounds a bit simplistic,” Sven cautioned.
“It’s better than hoping they fight to the last man here,” Yaric countered.
“And what would happen if they turned to attack the archers?”
“The brush is very thick, it will take some time to force their way through, and the guys from the ridge will just attack their rear.”
“You’re sure there won’t be friendly fire? You’ll be firing at them with us on the other side.”
“No,” Yaric admitted. “But you’ll be a bit higher up, and you’ll have shields. We will be firing at their open backs from 15 yards.”
“You realize your plan is almost the same as mine, right?” Sven teased.
“How so?”
“I’m expecting them to launch everything at us to get their fort back. You don’t put this much work into something and just give it up. But you’re expecting them to just stroll past a very simple ambush without suspecting a thing.”
“Oh, I forgot! We set fire to this place first. Like you said, you don’t put this much work into something and just give it up. When they see the smoke from their fort, they’ll be in a hurry to get back. I doubt they’ll be screening themselves.”
“Hmmm… actually, it will also make it look like the fight is going to be over here. Ok, this could work. As long as we can finish here and get in position before they get back. You realize we lose everything if they come back too early.”
“Just the flag,” Yaric countered. “We can still clear out the supplies and destroy everything else. I was thinking that we should move everything into the forest first, closer to where our camp is. Then we can pick it all up on the way back.”
“Done. Let’s get started.”
Team Flagbearer had already finished most of the work. The next 20 minutes were spent getting the supplies they wanted over the wall and into the forest. Then the remaining fires were prepared.
The jars Yaric had seen earlier held lighting fluid. Meant for lamps, the oil was highly flammable. Sven had organized them for the next few assaults, but he ended up using it all on this one fort. Sections of the palisades were soaked in the oil, as were strips of linen that had once been bedding. These were crammed into the gaps formed by the circular tree trunks when they sat beside each other.
Torches had just been lit when Anton came running up.
“Wait! Hold up!” he shouted. “Don’t light anything yet,” he said when he got closer. “We should move into the ambush position first.”
“Then how will we light the fires?” Sven asked.
“Someone stays behind. Use that signal arrow you found to let them know when we’re ready, and one person can set everything alight.”
“That can work,” Sven conceded. “It will improve our chances of setting the ambush up in time.”
“Yes, I’d guess that they will start running back as soon as they see the smoke,” Yaric added.
Sven snapped his fingers. “The arrow is also their warning! They won’t know we fired it! Why would they have any reason to think it wasn’t their lookout! And their lookout was posted between this fort and our ambush site! It’s perfect!”
Sven got very excited now and rushed to get everyone out. Marlon, one of their quieter teammates, had chopped down most of the posts by himself, so he was selected to stay behind. He would light all the fires when he heard the whistle and quickly make his way to the supplies they had hidden.
Everyone else ran to the ambush site. They would be able to rest while they waited. They had 24 bows with them, leaving 25 teammates hiding on the side of the ridge, sword and shield in hand. The others moved carefully into the field, stashed their quivers upright on the ground, and carefully positioned their bows so they could stand up quickly without anything catching on the dense bush.
Yaric stayed on his feet, watching the archers hide by simply sitting down where they were. Sven did the same with the melee fighters on the ridge. Soon it was just Sven and Yaric standing in the underbrush.
“That’s crazy,” Sven whispered, loudly enough for Yaric to hear him from 25 yards away.
“Yes,” he said, making it obvious that he was talking in a normal voice. Sven smiled in embarrassment. “The corporals showed me how large units can disappear with just basic cover. Now take cover as well, I’m sending the signal.”
Sven ducked down while Yaric aimed high, firing the signal arrow almost straight up. He was worried about the arrow coming down on someone’s head, so he pointed it slightly back.
PHWWWWHHHTTTT!
The shrill whistle pierced the midday air, causing everyone to cringe. The noise died off and paused, just as a return whistle started shrieking a few miles away. It was soon drowned out by their own arrow making it's return journey, but they knew the signal had been heard.
Everyone settled down to wait.
It took less than an hour for the enemy team to make it back. They had all augmented themselves, and they were able to move even quicker by sticking to the natural path. Exactly as Yaric had hoped.
Heavy clouds of grey smoke were climbing above the fort, no doubt spurring them on even more. All eyes were on the horizon directly ahead.
Sven gave the signal earlier than he had intended, due to the speed that they were moving at.
It was impressive. Every single person stood as one, in what looked like a highly choreographed move. There was barely a pause before they raised their shields and started closing the narrow gap.
The enemy team was caught completely by surprise, but still reacted quickly. They looked tired and worn, and were a few members short, but they immediately slid to a halt, turning even before they stopped. The lines furthest from the ambushers quickly stepped forward to close any gaps in the row nearest to the ridge.
There was only one catch. They were all armed with spears. Short spears, which they held over their shoulders with one hand, leaving their other arm free to carry the large circular shields that covered them from chin to knee.
The ambushers hesitated for a moment.
“Break their line!” Sven bellowed. Still the ambushers stayed where they were, apparently ignoring their leader.
Then all hell broke loose.
Sven’s shout had been the signal for the archers. He had also hoped that calling for his team to break the line would prompt their victims to brace for an attack. It did. They all started bunching even closer together, just in time for the 1st volley to hit them in the back.
The sound of arrows smacking into mage shields was intense, but Sven was disappointed to see only 6 red shields pop up. Over a dozen amber shields flashed as well though.
Sven jumped forward just as his target started to realize what was going on, drawing his attention back to the ambushers on the ridge. Most of his line followed suit, lunging forward in a feint.
Another volley peppered the other team’s backs. The range was so short that they were already devastated. Twenty-four arrows ‘killed’ six and mortally wounded thirteen, knocking almost half out of the fight. The second volley left 7 standing.
They were slaughtered.
There wasn’t even a fight. The archers just picked them off, and two ambushers from the other side managed to take down an opponent with their swords, striking from behind when they turned to shield themselves from the arrows.
Anton was ecstatic. 5th year teams seldom got a 2nd flag, and they had three!
Sven looked like he felt the same way, but he couldn’t get over their victory.
“Forty-two!” he shouted to Yaric, pointing at the team lying on the ground. “I counted them, there are forty-two! We didn’t lose a single fighter!”
“And we got another flag,” Yaric smiled, pointing to Anton. Anton was running up and down the path, waving his new flag back and forth.
Almost everyone in Team Flagbearer was cheering him on, whooping and clapping him on the back every time he came past. The other team said nothing. They all just lay where they were, motionless, with a beautiful red glow.
Sven was watching Anton as well now. “You know, he told me that last year his team got wiped on the second day. Apparently, they never managed to get a flag again. They never even got their camp up and running, because other teams would keep attacking them before they could get anything finished, even though they didn’t have a flag anymore.”
“That’s rough…” Yaric acknowledged, unsure of what to say. If Yaric understood correctly, it sounded like Anton’s team were flagless for almost the entire competition.
“But this year will be different,” Sven promised. “We already have three! Both our extra flags come from 6th year teams! And we got our last one without taking a single casualty. No one was even wounded!”
Sven looked around at his team while they celebrated. “Now we just need to get 5 more, and we can celebrate with the entire set!”