Yaric watched the two teams as Sven confronted them. Their initial reaction made his stomach drop… Many of the 6th years started organizing themselves for an attack.

But then Sven started mocking the dragon team, and things quickly changed.

Dragon team members started pushing their way through the still forming Raven lines, disrupting them and making it impossible to regroup. Yaric struggled to resist the urge to fire now and really sow chaos, but he had to stick to the plan.

Not even half the dragon team was at the front when their leader screamed and began to charge, causing those further back to desperately shove Ravens out of their way, forcing their way through the ranks to join the charge. The sound of Sven's taunting laughter just spurred them on.

The Ravens, meanwhile, found themselves watching the backs of the Dragons as they charged. Yaric had no idea if they thought the odds were good enough, or if they were concerned about being separated in such obviously suspicious circumstances, but he watched as they quickly started charging forward as well.

Large groups don’t all move as one. Those in front started charging first, followed by those immediately behind, before the large group all joined in. That should have been enough to warn the majority.

It wasn’t.

Augmentation doesn’t allow you to run faster by increasing the number of paces, it increases the distance each pace takes you. Running while augmented is far closer to leaping great distances in very flat jumps than truly running. This meant that many of the vanguard were deep into the field of pits before the first attacker fell.

No one reacted when someone suddenly planted their face into the ground, likely thinking he had tripped. They still didn’t react when a 2nd fell, or a 3rd. When four more fell almost simultaneously, however, at least a dozen started trying to abort their charge, panicking. One of those who fell had dropped with a large crack, which was quickly followed by a piercing scream.

‘Did he just break his leg?’ Yaric wondered, alarmed.

Most of the attackers were in a large group at the rear of the charge, and the majority couldn’t see any of the drama unfolding in front of them. Instead, the scream only spurred them on, pushing them to join their friends and allies as quickly as they could.

The students who had hesitated only added to the chaos. They created small obstructions that the rest couldn’t see through the crowd in front of them, not until they were right in front of their still charging teammates. Multiple collisions happened all around, and Yaric noticed at least four mage shields flash in the confusion.

Unbelievably, one was red!

By now the fallen and pausing students were enough of a hindrance that any students behind them were forced to stop. Twenty students stood at the back, looking around in confusion at the chaos in front. One of them stepped to the side and her leg suddenly dropped into the ground, almost to her knee. Her arms flew out to try and keep her balance, but she tipped forward a moment later, dropping her spear and catching herself.

The game was up.

“Watch your step! There are pit holes!”

Eight of the dragon team members were already at the berm and were currently being overwhelmed by the thirty defenders. They were clearly expecting the rest of the two teams to be joining them, but only two others arrived in the seconds after the warning shout.

The tall asshole took a step to his left, moving further behind his shield, while simultaneously turning to his right and quickly whipping his head around to take a quick look over his right shoulder. His left leg disappeared.

The team leader dropped his spear and flung both hands behind himself, falling backward with Team Flagbearer to his left. But it didn’t help.

Two different spears darted out over the berm, one connecting with his rib cage, and the other taking him in the side of the head. His bright red mage shield paralyzed him before his hands even touched the ground, leaving him to fall on his back like a sack of grain.

The rest of the attackers fell within seconds, leaving the whole field almost motionless, with everyone standing or lying where they were. Around forty students were scattered within 10 meters of the berm, and another twenty were on the ground amongst them. The student who had screamed when he’d fallen hadn’t let up. His screams were even louder in the silence that had fallen over everyone else.

The berm was only 25 meters from the hill, putting all of the attackers at only 15 to 25 meters from Yaric and his team, though it was slightly further due to their added height.

“On me! Form up here! Move slowly!” The same voice that had called out the warning earlier now took charge, trying to restore order. “Take your time! They can’t follow us out here or they will also be stuck! We form our lines and move around. Don’t forget, we still outnumber them two to one!”

Yaric took that as his cue. The orders were still being shouted out when Yaric stood up with his bow, pausing for a moment to give his team mates a chance to stand as well. Then, drawing his hand back to his cheek, Yaric fired.

Twenty bows fired almost simultaneously, leaving a savage symphony of twangs on their quivering strings. Over a dozen mage shields flared up, eight of them a beautiful, bright red. The second volley was on the way before their initial victims had hit the ground.

Unfortunately, the 2nd volley was rushed in their efforts to take out as many as they could before anyone realized what was happening. Their 1st volley had also targeted those closest to them, as planned, leaving their next targets slightly further away.

Only five mage shields were red this time, and at least four arrows missed entirely. Still, the melee fighters had dispatched nine attackers and badly ‘wounded’ one, who had managed to crawly back and out of range. The archers had ‘killed’ thirteen, and ‘wounded’ at least as many. Another enemy had somehow ‘died’ during their disastrous charge, likely at the hands of a friend. Twenty-three of the seventy attackers were already eliminated.

“Behind us!” the leader of the combined teams shouted. “Archers on the hills!”

This time there was a mad scramble to get next to teammates, causing several more to stumble and fall as the third volley fell.

“Ignore the ones on the ground! They can’t move out here either! Form up on me and we will take out the archers first! Leave their teammates down here alone, let them watch what happens to their archers!”

Yaric fired as quickly as he could, pausing only to pick out a target and aim. One of the flags they were after was on the ground, its bearer lying next to it under a shiny red mage shield. The other one was moving deeper into their prepared field, seeking protection in the middle of the two teams.

“Three flags! They have three… FOUR! I can count four flags on the hill!” The Ravens and Dragons were spurred on by their teammate’s shouts, their panic and confusion now partially replaced by excitement and hope.

Their new leader kept directing them, helping everyone to get into a new formation. “They’ve split themselves up. We only have to beat two dozen archers and those flags are ours!”

All the while, twenty archers rained arrows down on the roughly fifty opponents below. Their barrage was far less effective now that their targets were facing them with their shields up, but Yaric and his team still kept up the pressure.

Yaric looked down on the scene and struggled to keep quiet. It was hard not to giggle.

Fifty students, all their seniors, were gingerly picking their way across the ground below, with one or two of them stumbling at any given moment. They were all helpless while they were inside the trapped field, unable to fight back. The chaos of their charge had scattered everyone, and now they were forced to test the ground with each step while archers openly rained down arrows on them. The whole scene looked ridiculous.

Things would change once they escaped the trapped area, of course, but for now it was the smaller force who held all the cards.

Then the reality of the situation hit Yaric. ‘We’re not the smaller force! We’re even now!’

The remnants of the two teams had mostly formed by this time. The raven team made up a greater proportion of the survivors, and they stood at the front with their thirty large round shields providing good cover against the archers.

Behind them, Sven quietly signaled his own group. Six of them sheathed their swords and quietly put down their shields, leaning down to pick up the weapons they had hid behind the berm.

Team Flagbearer and twenty archers on the hill, but they had twenty-six bows between them. These additional bows had been stashed away and out of sight by Sven’s group, for just such a moment. Yaric could see the size of Sven’s grin from all the way up on the hill. He watched as Sven’s archers nocked their arrows and drew their bows, aiming for the backs of their opponents who were currently picking their way back to the hills.

Sven silently raised his sword, his mad grin somehow wider. Then he suddenly dropped his sword, pointing it at the backs of the retreating fighters.

TWANG!

Their targets were barely more than 10 meters away and completely oblivious to the danger. All six arrows found their victims, every single one of whom flashed with a red or amber shield.

The second volley was almost as effective, taking out another five.

The student with the broken leg had ceased his screaming, now moaning loudly where he lay, but he chose the moment of the first volley to take a breath. Six bow strings weren’t all that loud, even on the oddly quiet battlefield, but the sound of half a dozen arrows hitting and shattering against mage shields had made everyone jump.

“Archers on both sides!”

This time the reaction was much smoother. The Ravens and Dragons quickly shifted into double line, with each side facing away from the center. Yaric could hear the furious discussion they were having from all the way up the hill.

Unfortunately, he couldn't hold back anymore.

“Ha ha ha ha!” he laughed, unable to draw his bow. That broke the ice, and several of his teammates joined him. They all had to take a moment before they were able to keep firing.

His single team had the remnants of two others pinned below them, almost immobile and helpless, while they kept up a barrage of arrows. Their enemies knew exactly what was happening by now, but there was very little they could do.

Sure, the situation would be much worse once the teams below managed to escape the trapped area. Then their entire force would be facing less than half of Team Flagbearer, and they would have the choice to retreat or take out Sven’s group after. But that was only if they managed to escape.

Just at that moment, both lines started marching forward, forward being the direction each line was facing. Several people from the line facing Sven turned and joined the line facing Yaric and his archers, with that force continued to make their way out of the field. They also picked up the dropped flag along the way. A dozen more marched back toward Sven, blocking his archers.

Arrow after arrow rained down on the thirty fighters advancing on Yaric, only managing to create a few minor wounds. Grazing a leg or hitting a foot only slowed the advance, but it had no chance of stopping it. Thirty heavily armed fighters were almost out of the trapped field, after which they would continue on to assault Yaric and his nineteen archers to claim their flags.

Worse, Yaric’s team was also split into two, with ten archers on each of the hills that were divided by the ravine. They only needed a few fighters to pin one side, while the majority launched an attack on only ten archers. Then they could switch once they were done. And each attack would net them two additional flags.

The winds had shifted.

Yaric had a moment of panic as he watched the advance. They were actually out of the trapped area already; they just hadn’t realized it yet. On the other side, twelve more were marching slowly toward Sven. It didn’t look like they were actually going to attack, but they had pinned Sven very effectively.

“Switch targets!” Yaric shouted, inspiration striking him.

His teammates paused, looking at him in confusion.

“Target the group that are attacking the berm!” he clarified, reinforcing his order by firing his next arrow at them himself.

An amber shield lit up on the other side of the field.

A moment later, another nineteen arrows sailed over the heads of the force that was advancing on them, creating nine more flashes on the other side of the battleground. Their other flag, the one that hadn’t been dropped, had been sent with the smaller group, no doubt with the expectation that the trapped field would provide safety. That flag was now on the ground along with its bearer. One volley and they had virtually wiped out one group of attackers. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the group that was threatening them.

Yaric could see Sven shouting to his group, but couldn’t hear what he was saying. He’d obviously caught on to Yaric’s plan though, because his six archers now fired across the battleground as well, striking the rear of the remaining group just as they approached the foot of a hill and began their advance up to the archers.

It wasn’t the hill Yaric was on.

Yaric had a moment to take in Sven’s group. Two had gone over the berm and were slowly advancing on the wounded lying across the field, obviously making for the dropped flag. Two more stood guard with the six archers, who continued to fire across the field. The remaining twenty, including Sven, had pulled back slightly to go around the traps, running around the same side as the hill that was under attack.

No one had moved to pin Yaric and his group, so he signaled for his team to start moving downhill, where they would be able to get a better angle on the fighters assaulting his friends on the hill opposite theirs. They each picked up their unused quivers, and started making their way down, pausing frequently to fire.

Sven’s archers were dealing massive damage. The thirty members of the assault force was noticeably smaller, with at least half a dozen already down. They hadn’t noticed that the fire was coming from behind them, where they believed their friends were covering them, and continued to bunch closely, overlapping their shields.

That just made them into one big target that was almost impossible to miss. Yaric couldn’t help but notice that Sven’s archers seemed to be enjoying themselves, despite how bad the situation was.

Team Flagbearer hadn’t had enough time to trap the foot of the hills properly, so the attackers were barely slowed down. Not even a minute later, the archers above them were forced to drop their bows and engage with their swords. The hill became too steep for them to retreat any higher.

Vano was one of the archers that had been with Sven’s group, and the dwarf was now standing on the berm down below, firing like a madman, letting three arrows loose for every two from the five archers next to him.

It wasn’t enough.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

All ten archers were quickly cut down, and their attackers began to cheer as they picked up both of the flags that had been on that hill. They had lost the one on the field, although they didn’t know it yet, had one themselves, and had now gained two more.

Then the twenty survivors turned to go back down the hill, to find ten archers lined up down the opposite hill, and Sven’s twenty fighters running up at the foot of the hill. They were outnumbered, outflanked, and trapped.

“Drop your weapons, give us the flags, and we will let you go!” Sven called up cheekily.

“ARRGGHH!” someone up on the hill screamed in frustration.

“No!” their leader called down, striding to the front. “We will keep the flags and leave, and you can keep the ones you have!” he shouted, gesturing to the archers on the opposite hill.

He paused, scowling when he took in the scene on the battlefield below. “You can keep the flag you took as well,” he added bitterly.

A scuffle broke out amongst their ranks.

“They can’t keep it! That’s our flag from our joint assault. We had an agreement!”

“There are only three of you from The Mighty Dragons left, the rest of us are Ravens. You get nothing!” the leader spat back.

‘Mighty Dragons? That’s what they called themselves? Seriously?!’ Yaric asked himself, laughing quietly.

“No! We have a history with them! We get at least one of the flags as well! Andrew would never agree to this!” Two others joined the speaker while he argued.

The leader of the Ravens stayed silent, while Team Flagbearer just watched from below. Then he thrust his spear, striking the arguing man in the shoulder. A brief moment of shock was broken by the rest of the Ravens savagely cutting the trio down where they stood.

“There!” he shouted again, looking directly at Sven. “Now we have an agreement. You keep the flags you have, and we keep ours!”

“We have no agreement!” Sven responded, clearly irritated. “You were already outnumbered three to two, and now you’re down three more. If you hand over every flag, you may go back to camp. Otherwise we will wipe you out!”

“Wipe us out!” he shouted back, visibly angry. “We have the high ground!”

“You have a steep slope you can barely move on! That’s not an advantage. And you have no ranged weapons! We will cut you down and take everything anyway!”

Yaric noticed that the three archers closest to the bottom of the hill had gone all the way down, and were now climbing the hill on the other side, moving to flank their opponents on the opposite side. He quickly signaled his remaining archers to go back up.

A new voice suddenly called out behind them, sounding very annoyed. “Could someone please dispatch this student!”

An instructor had made his way onto the trapped field without anyone noticing. He was currently standing over the guy with the broken leg.

One of the fighters Sven had left behind hurried over, stumbling into pits several times. Everyone from both sides watched as he drew up, holding his sword and shield ready, but hesitating.

“But sir, he’s already wounded?” he asked warily.

“Yes! He has a broken leg. And I can not help him while he is still in the game!”

The sword was quickly twisted in hand, pointing down, and stabbed into the student’s chest. His moans stopped instantly.

The instructor looked around at his audience. “Did you all forget that your medallions paralyze you and numb you to discomfort? If any one of you had done this as soon as he got hurt, he wouldn’t have had to spend all this time in so much pain!”

Yaric hadn’t been in position to hit the student, but he still felt shame after the rebuke. It had never even occurred to him to use the medallion to dull the pain.

“Continue!” the instructor shouted, already casting a spell over the prone student.

There was a moment of awkward silence, as everyone on both sides processed what they had just done. The team trapped on the hill soon broke it.

“We’re coming down! Move if you don’t want to lose everything!”

Yaric replied before Sven could utter a word, his arrow triggering another amber shield. This time, two different people rushed to bandage their teammate and prevent the ‘mortal wound’ from becoming ‘fatal’. It would still knock him out of the upcoming fight though.

Six more arrows struck the group before they could turn to the side and get their shields back up, knocking out two more of their fighters. Then another six arrows, fired from the other side of the field, struck them from the side they had originally been facing, causing three more shields to flare.

“Break out!” their leader shouted, leading his team back down the hill in big leaps.

They crashed into Sven’s line, hard enough to batter many of them backward. Sven’s line barely held, even with their slight advantage in numbers, and the six archers he’d left behind were now useless.

That wasn’t the case with Yaric and his archers. All ten of them fired down into the Ravens backs, aiming low to try and prevent casualties from friendly fire.

Sven’s line took half a dozen casualties in the first few seconds, but they’d been forced into very close range already, shield to shield, and now they had an advantage with their swords.

Despite this, Team Flagbearer were losing fighters at almost the same rate as the Ravens, and the fight was getting close. They just couldn’t overcome the difference between years. The 6th years had an extra year of combat experience, and more than twice as much experience with augmentation.

Still, ten archers firing at their exposed backs eventually overcame their superior combat abilities. The last Raven fell when Sven’s initial line of twenty fighters was down to just eight fighters, including Sven himself. Only Anton was unharmed, the rest had simulated wounds of varying severity.

Yaric made his way down with his archers, bringing their flags with them. The archers helped Sven’s group to apply their bandages, while Anton ran around picking up the dropped flags. Then they started stripping the fighters they had defeated.

No one was willing to let them keep anything after they’d chosen to fight.

“See?” Anton asked, crouching next to the fallen leader of the Ravens. He took a moment to glance up and down the prone body, taking in the glowing red shield. “Just like he said… wiped out!”

Sven just shook his head, turning to Yaric. “Take your archers out into the trapped field and strip everyone who fell there. Take anything we can use.”

“Sure. And you guys?” Yaric asked inquisitively.

“My guys won’t be able to move around as well, and I want to strip our own fallen fighters. They can come back with new weapons, so we will double up.”

Yaric and the other archers spent twenty minutes stumbling around the field, first stripping as many weapons as they could, then trying to carry them back out. They eventually started tossing them into piles, after which they formed a chain and tossed everything from person to person.

Sven was standing beside Anton, waiting for him when they’d finished.

“Twenty-two.”

“What?” Yaric asked, confused.

“We lost twenty-two teammates in that fight.”

“Yeah,” Yaric sighed.

Anton stepped around Sven to stand directly in front of Yaric. He reached up and gripped both shoulders, leaning down slightly to stare intently into Yaric’s eyes.

“Fifty of us verse seventy of them – we wiped them out, and we only lost twenty-two in return!” Anton was grinning, shaking Yaric back and forth to punctuate each word.

Sven was smiling as well. “Don’t fool yourself, that worked out really well. Much better than we could have hoped for! You did good! Don’t forget that the next supply drop is tomorrow. We will have a full team again in less than 24 hours!”

Others came to join in, with the first few clapping him on the back or shoulder. It quickly devolved into shoves, and soon they were all celebrating. While Yaric and the other archers had been looting the field, Sven and his group had stripped the weapons off their friends, then waited for their paralysis to end. Their fallen teammates had started their walk out of the exercise area with Sven and the others clapping and cheering.

“Are we going back to the camp they destroyed?” Yaric asked, while picking up the pile he would be carrying back. The whole team was loaded down with extra shields and spears. Not to mention two more flags!

“No, it’s too dangerous now. We’re not at full strength, and some of us are wounded. We don’t have that much time to get back and stash this stuff anyway,” Sven replied, struggling with his load.

They made their way back around the hills, approaching the same vantage point over the defeated camp that they had used earlier that day. Fires had been set all around the camp, but it wasn’t done very well. Many of the fires had gone out without catching properly and much of the wall was still standing. Despite this, the large pile of ash near the entrance made the fate of all the provisions very clear.

“Don’t worry,” Sven said to Yaric consolingly, “we’ll get more supplies tomorrow.”

There was an unspoken agreement that no one would celebrate that night. Everyone was waiting for their teammates to return, so they all settled in like any other evening and tried to get some sleep. The only real change was the more frequent guard shifts, but it was only for one night.

The sky had barely started to lighten when they left to meet their supply drop. They all marched quickly, in complete silence. Despite not having a party the night before, the silence and early morning gloom was not a reflection on their mood.

Team Flagbearer was riding high. They had six flags, more than any 5th team in the past, and there was only one more target for them to take in order to win the contest. If they could get the 7th and 8th flags, and hold them for three days, they would immediately win the entire competition. There would be no need to wait out the time limit.

If that wasn’t enough, they were on their way to meet the rest of their team. Anton had also let slip that Gerrick had promised to bring back celebratory drinks if he fell in a battle where they won another flag. There were a lot of jokes going around about Gerrick now.

Some swore that they had seen Gerrick drop his shield and jump into a spear. Others apparently saw him accidently ‘kill’ his opponent, then look around in disappointment until he found another spear to jump on. By the time the team had left to fetch Gerrick and the others, Gerrick had apparently died twelve times during the battle, most of which he only achieved with a lot of effort.

Anton was beyond ecstatic. He’d taken five of the flags, leaving Marlon with only their original flag. He also had a load of stories to laugh at Gerrick about, and he kept pushing his team to move more quickly.

They sat around the trail for five hours, taking turns to keep watch or nap.

No one had any problem working out when the supply drop was getting close.

Twenty-two people can make a lot of noise when they’re excited, and if Team Flagbearer was anything, it was excited.

“Hold!” Sven called, before stepping out onto the trail a moment later.

Cheers broke out from amongst the porters, and soon after from the waiting team members as well.

They quickly reunited, giving each other a breakdown of anything that might have been missed.

“We’re all carrying camouflage netting!” Trevor exclaimed excitedly, showing off the bundle he had tied to his back. “Some of them are made to look like leaf litter, and some look like bushes!”

“Where are our new flags? We haven’t seen them yet!” others shouted.

“I’ve brought a surprise as well,” Gerrick added smugly.

The team members who had been waiting for him suddenly went quiet.

“What?” he asked, taken aback. “It’s a good surprise!”

“We know you killed yourself so you could bring back some alcohol, Gerrick,” Sven answered very seriously.

Gerrick now looked VERY taken aback. “What?” he spluttered. “No! Those Raven guys knocked me over when they hit our line! I was targeted by two at once! I even had a fracture in my shield arm from the impact!”

“Yes,” Sven replied gravely. “But you also jumped on a spear by the berm.”

Gerrick looked around in shock. “What?!”

“And you were seen flinging yourself onto a dropped spear as well!” someone else called out.

Anton stepped between Gerrick and the rest of his team, glaring at them, before turning to his bewildered friend and placing his hand on a shoulder.

“Gerrick,” he said, consolingly, “they know you’re an alcoholic.”

“What?!”

The whole team broke out into laughter. It took Gerrick a few seconds to realize that they were all joking, but he soon joined in. “Well, this alcoholic will drink everything by himself then!”

“No, teammates share!”

“We need to drink to your heroic deaths!”

“We couldn’t have done it without you Gerrick!”

Everyone started shouting out excuses while the porters looked on, amused. Sven waited for them to all calm down, then joined Grizzly.

“I see you got yourself six flags over there.”

“Ahhh… yes, we do,” Sven replied sheepishly. “We’ve had some good luck, and I have a great team.”

“Hmmm…” Grizzly hummed, staring thoughtfully at Sven. “Well, maybe some of this will help bring you more luck, eh?” Grizzly grumbled, turning to gesture at the loads the porters had placed on the ground. “Your team made some changes to your previous list, as is their right, but I think when you add what they’re all carrying, you likely still have everything.

“Great!” Sven chuckled, happy with how things had turned out. He handed his new list over, and the reunited team began packing everything into smaller bundles for stashing away. They were soon marching back, wanting to get back to their temporary camp as soon as possible.

Sven was soon forced to move their camp right to the boundary line, afraid the fires and noise would reveal their position. Team Flagbearer partied late into the night, parading their flags and retelling stories of individual fights during the battle. For all his complaining, Sven did nothing to discourage the celebration, and actually brought more firewood when the fire started burning down.

The next morning was not as fun. Sven was adamant that they had to move camp immediately, afraid that they had given their location away the night before. Team Flagbearer barely grumbled though, immediately starting to hide as much evidence as they could while packing everything for transport.

They left early in the morning, making their way even further around, now moving back toward the sector with their old camp.

“How far are we going to go?” Chelsea asked Sven after an hour of hiking in silence.

“We were in Chris’s sector, partly because it was in between the two sectors with flags. I want to go past the only camp with a flag, and into Lauren’s sector. We already know she is searching for us elsewhere, so it’s the safest place right now. It’s also right next to our last target.”

Team Flagbearer found a decently concealed spot to set up a new camp, and used their camouflaged netting to make a better camp than they had had before. Yaric was then sent out to circle back and watch the last 6th year camp until nightfall. Not much happened, leaving the team feeling anxious.

They only had to beat one more team, but all they could do for now was hurry up and wait. The current situation created a lot of tension, though everyone was very good natured about it.

Things got a lot worse the next day.

Yaric was on watch again when he spotted the large column marching toward their next target. This time it was at least three teams.

He ran back as fast as he could, fully augmented the entire way, still running full out when he burst into the campsite.

“They’re under attack already! But it’s three teams this time! Maybe four!”

“Seriously?” asked Sven, alarmed.

Yaric nodded, waiting impatiently while the rest of his team armed themselves. Then they all started running, racing to get back to the site of the battle.

They were too late.

Flames were climbing high over the walls, with the full-sized guard towers they had built now looking like oversized, flaming torches. Thick clouds of smoke choked the sky. Everything was on fire, hidden by dancing flames and billowing smoke, but nothing else moved.

“Damn!” Anton whistled.

“Damn is right,” Sven replied quietly. “Now we don’t know where the last two flags are.”

“What I want to know is who teamed up this time,” Yaric added.

“Well obviously, then we’d know where the flags are!” Anton retorted.

“No, I mean, who would team up together? The raven team betrayed The Mighty Dragons,” Yaric replied, drawing out each syllable of the latter team’s name. “And they both attacked the only other 6th year team together. No 5th year team would make a deal like that, everyone knows they would get turned on, so how did three teams join up?”

Sven looked up sharply. “You think it’s the other 5th year teams?”

“Ahhh…” Yaric hesitated. “Actually, I didn’t think of that, but that would make a lot of sense.”

“We’re going to have to keep watch over every camp now. Those two flags are almost certainly split up as well.” Sven sighed, looking at everyone gathered around him. “We’re going to have to hit two more targets instead of one.”

Team Flagbearer were a little downcast, but it didn’t affect them too much. They still had six flags after all!

Unfortunately, things only got worse from there.

The next day, scouts were sent to watch each of the other six camps. Only five came back.

“Do you think other teams have scouts watching camps as well?” Sven asked, his concern as clear on his face as it was in his voice.

“Probably, but I doubt it’s new. The space is just so big that there isn’t much chance of running into each other,” Yaric replied carefully, deep in thought. “We’ve lost a scout before.”

“True. It just feels like we’re so close to winning now.”

“We’ll know what happened when Delmar comes back with the supply drop. Eight days, right?”

“Yes,” Sven answered, still looking just as worried. “Well, there’s nothing we can do about it anyway. Pick someone to replace him and keep watching. We know where one of the flags is now, there’s only one more left to find now.”

“What about the teams that left without attacking anyone?” Chelsea asked. “Two camps all marched out and two camps all returned without fighting. And one of them had a flag!”

“I’m more worried about Cormac’s team. Their camp is mostly rebuilt and completely intact, but there isn’t a single person in their camp,” Trevor said, speaking to no one in particular.

“Both are weird,” Sven informed them. “Think about it. There are only seven other camps, and two of them spent the whole day outside their defenses without fighting, while one looks like it already got annihilated without a fight. What are the chances that each of the two marching teams only came across one of the four garrisoned forts? Three camps were empty, and not one of them was destroyed, even though two teams are known to have been moving around in force!”

“Maybe three,” Chelsea added. “We don’t know anything about the camp Delmar was watching.”

“It was so much easier when we knew exactly what everyone was doing,” Yaric mumbled, thinking about how different things had been just two days ago.

“Cheer up!” Sven grinned, looking across the faces of each team member in turn. “We still have six flags, and we only need two more! Not much has changed! We just need to gather some more information now, and our scouting team is already on it!”

Sven clapped Yaric hard on the shoulder as he finished, bringing grins to many faces. Team Flagbearer was in much better spirits as the sun set, and they all saw their scouts off in the morning, before working hiding their camp better than they had already.

This time, two scouts failed to return.

“What is happening?” Anton asked, frustrated.

“I might have an idea…” Yaric hesitated, looking uncertain.

“Go on!”

“It’s nothing certain, but Delmar was watching the 6th year team that we watched the Ravens and Dragons attack, three sectors over. Chelsea took his place to try and see what could have happened, and now she’s missing as well. And Trevor never came back either.” Seeing the confusion on everyone’s faces, he hurriedly added, “Trevor has been watching Chris’s team. It’s two sectors over in the same direction.”

“Ahhh… so whatever is going on, it’s happening there,” Sven mused.

“And Cormac’s team is on the other side of both, four sectors over!” Vano quickly pointed out.

“Ok, we aren’t going to mess around with this,” Sven announced firmly. “Tomorrow we all move out as a team. We’re going to investigate with our full force! Make sure you’re all ready for a fight!”

Team Flagbearer all cheered at the news. Nothing had changed, but they now had a goal and were actually taking action.

The next morning, the whole team formed into columns of four, ten deep. The seven remaining team members were moving around their team, screening for ambushes and enemy movement. Sven had also opted to repeat a previous formation, where every second team member in the middle two rows had their shields stowed away and their bows in hand.

Everyone finally set out with the sun higher than they had wanted, but they had taken the time to talk over some responses for possible situations. They were much better prepared than they would have been if they’d left at first light.

They marched for almost an hour, and had barely made it out of Lauren’s sector, when a scout in the lead whistled back.

The whole team quickly fell into battle formation, and the scouts forming their screen drew closer as well. Five minutes later, one of their scouts led a group of six students to their waiting team.

They still had their weapons, but were holding their hands high.

It was Lauren and her team.

“You’ve come to talk?” Sven asked, both surprised and confused.

“We’ve come to warn you,” Lauren replied firmly. She hesitated for a second before adding, “And to team up.”

“What?!”

Lauren closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Look, we don’t have much time, they’re not far from here - and they're hunting you!”