The last two days had been odd, to say the least. First, they had classes during the Winter Solstice Tournament. Watching all of the other students making their way down to the arena had been a weird experience, made worse by the fact that they were walking to their first class. There weren’t many complaints, however, as the icy wind gently rustling the leaves on the trees around them would be blowing through the stands as well. At least the classroom would be warm.
And then the next day had been almost exactly the same, only this time multiple years had been given passes to leave campus, and streams of students were now headed in the opposite direction of the gates. The walk between classes was again an unusual experience, with how empty the campus felt.
Everyone quickly settled into their new routine though, with the additional classes feeling like a part of everyday life after just 2 weeks. Free time now included more study sessions, but since Yaric was studying with the same people he spent his time in class with, nothing felt different. If anything, things were more relaxed, and studying was now easier.
There were also new ‘trade’ days, where all classes were cancelled, and instead they would have introductory lessons to various trades that they could learn at the Academy. For the most part, these were lessons on crafting.
The whole class was taken to areas of the campus that they had never been to before, often on the other side. It took half an hour to reach the crafting sectors, which had their own dorm buildings and entrances.
Hours were spent in front of forges, receiving basic instruction on how to hammer out a simple bracelet. Yaric’s turned out fairly well, but he was amazed to see just how much better some others were. There was already a clear indication of talent amongst some in his class, with Li Na excelling. Her bracelet had a very complex looking pattern of twists all the way around, matched by very few. Sven’s was by far the best, however, with varying thicknesses and patterns all the way around.
Woodwork was similar, at least for Sven. His woodwork was somehow even better than his metalwork, earning some recognition from their instructor and handed around as an example for the rest of his class. Lauren and Yaric did fairly well again, though this time Li Na didn’t do as well.
Classes soon became a competition, to see who had the most talent in various crafts. Then, they became competitions to see who had the second most talent in various crafts, as no one wanted to compete with Sven anymore.
Lauren did especially well when working with cloth or leather, to no one’s surprise. She had grown up with parents who had made a career out of it, and had spent many evenings receiving lessons. Li Na was both surprised and horrified to discover that she had some talent working with leather, while Yaric grew increasingly frustrated as he never excelled at anything. He was at least average in every class, and often in the top 20, but he didn’t seem to be truly talented in any of them.
That’s not to say that there weren’t any that he found particularly interesting. His archery instructor gave them lessons on making arrows, as well as a demonstration of how different bows were made. He also got to use the arrows he’d made during the class, which was fun.
Cooking classes were similar, as everyone got to eat what they had made, and their instructor turned the end of the lesson into a big feast. He even threw in a ‘lesson’ on brewing, which totally justified the addition of various casks to their feast.
Some demonstrations were held off campus, such as construction. The class didn’t do much in the way of practical work, but they moved from site to site, watching buildings, bridges and roads being repaired or built from scratch. They even got to help with building a boat, adding 150 pairs of hands to a shipyard.
And not every trade day included crafting. Some days were introductions to diplomacy, urban planning or military leadership. Yaric was surprised to discover just how much time the military spent securing supplies or arranging transport and distribution. Military officers spent far more time on training and logistics than everything else combined, and Yaric felt like it was just one big headache.
The much-anticipated Fauna, Flora and Fiends class had not yet delivered on expectations. It was still interesting, and one of Yaric’s favorite classes, but the first few months were firmly rooted in plant life. Not that there weren’t any dangerous plants or plantlike creatures, they just weren’t there yet, covering the trees and shrubs found throughout the continent.
Another big change for Yaric was his combat classes. He had received his new armor 3 weeks after his fitting, but due to the nature of the new style he was learning, he had been instructed not to wear armor until he was told to. And he had finally been told to.
The entire set of armor was made out of a slate grey leather, almost black in low light, and it was incredible.
His new set of armor came with boots, made out of the same soft, supple leather. The greaves were designed to integrate with the boots, and had a semi detachable knee guard too. His new tassets had much better coverage over the thighs, and also attached to his new lamellar armor. If felt much lighter and was much easier to move in as well. There was also a separate cuirass, which could be worn as an additional layer over the lamellar armor, adding better protection against blunt force impact but also adding weight while limiting flexibility.
The pauldrons and gorget were far superior to his old armor, but it was his bracers that were his favorite, even if he had needed Sven to explain them to him.
“What are these pieces for?” Yaric asked, pointing to a flap of leather with what looked like horn embedded inside. The flap very obviously covered the laces under the forearm, leaving a strip of pale grey horn running down the length, but only one bracer had the flap. Sven took one look and burst out laughing.
“You’re wearing that on the wrong arm,” he said quickly, getting control of himself. “Here, look. If it was on your left arm, that piece would sit along here, and protect your arm when you’re using your bow. Or I guess in this case, it will protect your bracer and bowstring from wear.”
Yaric pulled it off excitedly, moving it to his other arm. Sven grabbed his wrist as soon as he put the other bracer on his right arm.
“And look here, this one has built in finger tabs for the bowstring,” he pointed out, pulling them out from under Yaric’s wrist. “They look like they’re made with archers in mind. Is this your new armor?”
Instead of answering, Yaric just beckoned Sven to follow, and led him back to his room. Sven was very interested in the entire set.
“What leather is this?” he asked curiously.
“No idea. No one ever said anything about it.”
Sven went to fetch his inscription kit, and using a sharp stylus, scratched back and forth on a small spot. It didn’t leave any mark at all.
“This is monster leather!” he exclaimed excitedly. “Look!” Sven kept testing sharp implements, but nothing he did was able to damage the leather. He wasn’t trying particularly hard, but dragging a sharp knife across the leather should at least leave a sign.
Unfortunately, students walking past had overheard Sven, and Yaric soon had people crowding into his room to have a look. It didn’t help that his room was right by the central common room as well.
His boots were soon found to be very lightweight and extremely supple compared to anything his friends owned, only possible due to the extremely durable leather. Sven discovered that his lamellar armor interlocked in such a way that it could only fold along his natural body movements, while becoming very unyielding when pushed in along any other line. It was also very breathable relative to most armor, and made his cuirass far more comfortable to wear when it was equipped.
Cuirasses were also notoriously difficult to take care of, as being damp for extended periods of time damaged the leather. Looking at their design and function, it was easy to see the problem. Thick, heavy protection, covering your entire torso, and used during activities that require a lot of exertion, meant that the inside was damp for much of the time it was in use. The design of the lamellar armor greatly reduced the issue, and provided a layer of leather between his damp clothes and his rigid cuirass.
It seemed like Lloyd had commissioned armor that was at a similar level to his bow, and Yaric received a lot of envious looks. Most of his class was happy for him though, with a few eager to try pieces on.
Then the armor had been relegated to its stand in his room, not seeing any proper use for weeks. Finally, Hiawatha directed Yaric to wear his armor for his next class, and he got to try it out in a real setting. Even Hiawatha was surprised by the armor, and very pleased to discover the layers of protection. He promptly had Yaric remove his cuirass and pauldrons, which would have helped a lot when delivering strikes with his shoulders. From then on, Yaric had every lesson in his new armor.
That was the routine every week for the next two months, at which point Sven pulled Yaric aside one evening.
“Come on, we need to start working on our plan for the competition. We only have 4 months left,” Sven reminded him.
“Only four months? That’s longer than the whole thing lasts.”
“That will be even more true when we finish it faster than any other team in history,” Sven answered confidently.
“You’ve looked into the records?”
“Of course. We were already so close to winning in our 5th year, we can’t just win this time. That’s not good enough. The record right now is five five. Five weeks and five days. Four different teams have hit the same mark, and I don’t plan on making it five five five. We’re going to beat it.”
“But you told me you wanted to win in three!” Yaric exclaimed. “That’s almost half the time.”
“I know. If we miss it, we will still smash the record. But there’s a reason for the three weeks.”
“I’m listening…”
“We get supply drops every three days for the first three weeks, and much of that time is used for building your own defenses. I know we got attacked early,” Sven hurriedly added, “but that’s not the most common strategy. Even when someone does attack early, they pause to carry on with their own defenses after. I want to use this time to hit everyone else. Before they finish their defenses.”
“We would have to launch frontal attacks to do that. We haven’t done that before,” Yaric replied skeptically.
“Another reason to do it early. Each supply drop is also reinforcement. If we attack on the 2nd day, and every 3 days after, we will stay at full strength.”
“Sounds overly simple. And we can’t just assume every attack will be a win. If anything, we can assume that most will be a loss.”
“But what if we do something no one else has?” Sven asked, grinning widely.
“Like what?”
“Like launching nighttime assaults. Most of those base camps would have been easy to take at night, think about it. We would already be close by when the warning is sounded, and most of the defenders will be asleep. They have to arm themselves and get onto the walls. We can be inside before they have a chance, especially if they haven’t finished building yet.”
“Still sounds like something people would have done before.”
“It is! If you look back far enough, there are records of other teams attacking at night. And they were usually very successful. Don’t get me wrong,” Sven added, “they had their own unique problems, but we will know about them in advance. And I’m hoping that no one will know which team is launching these attacks.”
“That doesn’t change my opinion. This still feels overly simplistic. So much relies on winning just because we attack at night.”
“How successful were your ambushes last time?” Sven asked. “My Sponsor spoke about you several times during my assessment, and he repeatedly spoke about how you took the enemy by surprise, and how they didn’t see you coming. This is exactly that!”
“I can see so many ways this can go wrong though. All it would take is for one lookout to spot us early, or for someone to have layered defenses, and everything would collapse.”
“And that is why we need to use the 4 months we have left, to work out the problems,” Sven replied. “We have 4 months to find out how night assaults are done properly, and see if there are any tricks or tips to make us more effective. I’ve already checked, there’s a full moon four days before the Summer Solstice. The peak period for this plan has the darkest nights without hoping for bad weather. Come on, I saw the look in your eye when we spoke with the Battle Mage. Even you were excited!”
Yaric looked at Sven in silence for several seconds. His usually quiet and reserved friend was much more animated than usual. But Yaric was concerned that his excitement was clouding his reason.
“Ok, we can look and see what there is to find. But, I think we need to be open to other strategies as well. Hinging everything on successful night assaults seems really risky. Especially since we need to pull it off seven times in a row.”
“What other strategy can we use? Almost every total victory I found relied on a lot of luck, and the few that didn’t just had an odd group of exceptional fighters. This one has hardly ever been used, but has a much higher success rate per attack.”
“I was thinking about targeting the supplies.”
“To get flags? You want to starve them out?”
“Not entirely,” Yaric explained. “Everyone rushes to build up supplies and establish their base camp when we start. If the first few supply drops don’t arrive it will push teams to try to take things from other teams. People will be desperate.”
“So you want to try and push teams to make mistakes?”
“Partly. I mostly want to create some chaos, make everyone confused and angry. Teams break down when things go poorly, and especially when no one knows why,” Yaric clarified.
Now it was Sven’s turn to look skeptical. “I’m not following. How will that get us their flags?”
“Under armed and underfed teams, fighting internally and hiding in unfinished base camps?” Yaric asked in reply. “And what happens if we ambush two supply drops in a row? They eat their rations over the first three days, expecting more, and none arrives. Then after three days with no food, no supplies arrive for a second time, ensuring another three days with no food. And they won’t be getting any of the weapons or building supplies either. Don’t forget that no team would have any idea that other teams also didn’t get their supply drops. What would you do in their position?”
“I’d want to attack another team for their supplies.”
“Exactly! Let them weaken each other,” Yaric pointed out.
“Until they all team up to take us out again.”
“Actually, that’s one of the biggest reasons for doing it this way. I was thinking that if supplies were low, teams wouldn’t be able to team up so easily. And if we can do it without anyone knowing it was us, everyone will be pointing fingers at each other. I bet that no one would even know if we had all eight flags. They would just one day get a message that the competition is over.”
Sven still mirrored Yaric’s earlier expressions, but he did seem open to the idea. Deep in thought, Sven opened his mouth to speak on two separate occasions, but never said a word.
“What is it?” Yaric prompted.
“Uhhh… I don’t want to sound like I’m obsessing on one thing…”
It took him a moment, but Yaric started snickering. “You still want to do your night attacks?”
“Not only… Come, let’s talk about this in the junior library. There’s a lot of information there. I’ve already found a few things we did wrong,” Sven said, clapping Yaric on his shoulder. Lauren and Li Na both looked up as they walked through the common room, but they were too engrossed in their own planning to notice. Despite his earlier complaints, Yaric was already deeply involved in working out a proper strategy. And many of the things Sven had already found made him want to face palm.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
“Some of our mistakes weren’t too bad, just obvious. Like why did we pack stakes to take with us when we left campus?”
“But they were so useful,” Yaric objected.
“Yes, but we could have used the space for things we can’t get otherwise. I’m not saying that we don’t have preprepared stakes, just that we should have made our own the night before the competition. We didn’t have to use valuable space carrying them all the way from here.”
“Huh…” was all Yaric could say.
“There are obviously things we have already worked out. Archers are very useful, we need to decide how we want to fight so we can pick our weapons properly, signal arrows, camouflaged netting is vital… You know all the things we learnt as well as I do. But there were other things we didn’t even come across.”
“Like?” Yaric said, prodding Sven again.
“I’ll show you properly when we get to the library, but there were some strategies that worked very well. Well enough to be documented and in the library, for one thing. And there were also subjects that I haven’t checked yet. How to build better palisades is one of them. None of us really knew what we were doing, and I don’t plan on just repeating things because we did it that way the first time.”
They both navigated their way through the darkening campus, making for the largest library they had access to. The warmth inside hit them like a wall, making them shiver with how cold they were in comparison.
Rows of shelves were scattered throughout the building, laden with books on almost any topic you could imagine. Wide corridors were left down the length of the library, filled with tables and chairs. There were no fireplaces, but the entire building was warm and well lit, with mage lights across the ceilings and walls. Wide staircases led to higher floors.
“Come on,” Sven said, tapping Yaric’s shoulder and leading him to one of the staircases. “The ground floor covers class subjects up till 7th year. We need to go one up.”
The next floor looked much the same, but included many volumes on the Academy, as well supplementary guides for a vast array of subjects.
“What’s on the other floors?” Yaric asked, curious to see what else they could have.
“I don’t know, we need 7th year IDs to go higher.”
“Not long,” Yaric replied, grinning.
Sven led him to the section with records on the competition, and quickly identified the books he was looking for. He had clearly been through these shelves many times before.
“Look at this one,” he said, turning the pages until he found the chapter he wanted. “See here? This team also used an ambush, but they didn’t have to watch their targets and hope they would be attacked by someone else. Look, they realized that every base camp has a small stream nearby.”
“So? You can’t ambush someone at the stream, it’s always clearly visible from the camp.”
“Yes, so they didn’t. They found a site upstream, and built a very detailed ambush. There were camouflaged walls, hidden fences, trenches, everything you can think of. Then they went further upstream and blocked the flow. They made a small dam,” Sven explained, smiling as though the Flagbearers had the team in the book.
“When their targets found their water supply had gone dry, they were forced to leave their camp and march upstream, to find out what had gone wrong. They didn’t even have a choice, and they never stood a chance.” Sven paused and looked up at Yaric, “By the way, this is the only ambush I could find that wiped out an enemy team with no casualties from the ambushers. Just in case you’re wondering why our instructors kept talking about your ambushes.”
“Our ambushes,” Yaric replied.
“Yours,” was all he got in return, along with another clap on the shoulder.
They spent another hour going over some successful strategies, including successful defenses. There were just so many possibilities. Yaric also noticed the same thing that Sven had. Night attacks were very uncommon, but statistically far more likely to succeed. He doubted it would be the case in a real war, but amongst 5th and 6th year Academy students, it was successful almost 90% of the time. When it failed, however, the results were often catastrophic, which only increased Yaric’s doubts.
Lauren wanted to know where they had been.
“Just looking into some ideas Sven had,” Yaric answered nonchalantly.
“Looking into ideas?” Lauren asked, obviously suspicious.
“Yeah, where would you go to look at ideas?” Li Na added, jumping into the conversation.
“Where else?” Yaric replied, shrugging. “We went to the library.”
Li Na pulled a face and immediately dropped the subject, along with Lauren, who seemed far more hesitant but didn’t push.
They had already finished their work earlier, so they continued one of their games instead. In all their time together, most games had been played repeatedly, but the large game tables had been avoided. Each game took a lot of time to set up, and the points and scoring system was complex. Different pieces had different values for a range of attributes, and you had to roll dice to decide how any move turned out. Despite the complexity, the game allowed you to control large armies, and each side had a turn to move their pieces and try to gain an advantage over their opponent. It had taken a lot of time to get Li Na to agree to try. She didn’t have the time for the math involved, but they finally managed to get her to try.
Yaric and Lauren had a very similar grasp on the game, though Yaric had to admit that she edged him out on the more technical parts. They were very good at tabletop games, and few could challenge them. Sven still managed to outmaneuver both of them, however, often using strategies that only became clear just before he knocked them out. All three of them would sit for hours, writing on their own pieces of paper. Calculating the best odds, testing strategies. Li Na seemed to play by making choices in the moment, and she certainly never worked out any of the math. And in comparison to her friends… she was a monster.
Li Na repeatedly demolished everyone, despite never clearly articulating any specific strategy. She did what she felt like, when she felt like it, and yet constantly snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. For the first time, Sven found himself frustrated. He had lost many times before, and no defeat had ever really phased him, but watching Li Na fumble about with no concerns, and repeatedly win, almost drove him mad. And when Li Na noticed, she never let up. Somehow, that only pushed Sven to try harder, resulting in the four of them taking over a table entirely. Every time Li Na won, another game was immediately started, meaning that there was always a game in progress.
The only interruption that Sven allowed was for the trips to the library. They had both started notebooks, and their research quickly expanded. Construction techniques opened their eyes to just how poorly their defenses had been built, though Yaric was proud to see that he couldn’t find a better method to build a tunnel.
A real game changer was when Yaric stumbled on a book for defensive structures. This book didn’t cover any techniques for building the defenses, but focused on the overall design of the actual camp. Different types of walls were discussed, along with how they could be integrated into other defensive structures. Basic screens could be employed to shield archers from return fire, ditches could be designed in different ways to achieve different goals, and again, every aspect could be integrated with the others in a hundred different ways.
Some things seemed ridiculous. Reading about how rope nets could be used by defenders made Yaric’s jaw drop. Seeing how berms and walls could be combined to double the number of defenders on a stretch of wall just made him shake his head.
Sven, meanwhile, had moved on to some more creative ideas. He was constantly researching things like incendiaries and siege engines. Things that Yaric felt they would be unlikely to use, even if they could. But Sven insisted on looking at as many options as they could.
The night attack idea had been partially abandoned, as they discovered just how difficult it could be. Many of the casualties in the competition records had been due to confusion, and they found that coordination was a major issue when attacking at night. That was also why night attacks could end so badly, as the attacking team often didn’t realize just how badly things were going until it was too late.
By the time the weather started getting warmer, Lauren had cornered Yaric and grabbed his notebook. She worked out what they were doing in seconds, and insisted on joining them from then on, dragging poor Li Na along. Yaric, Lauren and Sven endured half an hour of grumbling, until Sven found a section covering blunt force weapons, and eventually even a book on the function and structure of shock troops. He had to take the book out of her hands when they left, now pushing her out the door and dragging her back.
Sven also sought out Hiawatha several times, asking questions and looking for advice. If Hiawatha’s booming laughs weren’t enough of an indication, Svens’ wide smile after his discussions with Hiawatha made it very obvious that he was getting what he wanted. And Sven was taking the whole idea very seriously.
Oddly enough, with just 6 weeks before the Summer Solstice, Sven stopped going to the library entirely. Because as Lauren pointed out, if they had to go through the entire competition again, there wouldn’t be much time left to study afterward. And they had to pass their one and only exam.
Yaric also wanted to focus more on his exercises for their magic class. He had taken Lloyd’s advice to heart, and threw himself into building the best foundation that he could. His friends actually did the same, following all of the same exercises and spending almost as much time with them as Yaric did. Even Li Na could be seen practicing, and she had quickly picked up the habit of practicing at odd moments, like when they were eating or walking to their next class.
Something about what Lloyd had told Yaric had rubbed off on everyone, leaving all four treating their subjects like their future depended on it. The last 2 months saw the four friends move to the top of their class in almost everything. Yaric still struggled with subjects like Customs & Traditions, but that was only to be expected. No one was at the top of their class for everything… except Lauren.
The combat classes continued as they always had, but Sven made another leap forward, and he now stood almost in a class of his own. Only Lauren could compete, but it wasn’t much of a competition anymore. Yaric had made large gains in the new styles he was being taught, and he could go toe to toe with anyone – often literally with the new techniques he was now using.
Special lessons with the bow had also paid off, in a large way. In the same way that Sven dominated melee in general, Yaric now clearly outshot anyone, making everyone else look like beginners by comparison.
And none of these lessons had anything to do with their own, private study. Entire notebooks had been filled out with the best ideas from previous competitions, along with proper designs and methods for building a variety of traps, defensive structures, and offensive weapons. Sven had even gone as far as building a table of each structure’s greatest weaknesses, with special emphasis on the structures they had seen in the last competition. Most structures were used repeatedly by everyone, as they all went in with similar knowledge from their expeditions. Next to those weaknesses were notes on the best way to take advantage of them.
Lauren had suggested that they build tables based on everything they had been commended for, and everything they had been criticized about. All four had agreed to swap tables, and they now had notes on the best and worst decisions made by everyone else.
Finally, after what felt like just a few weeks, and with the sun beating down on the campus, everyone received the instruction they had been waiting for.
“Everyone gather around!” Hiawatha shouted, drawing the class’s attention. “Form a line, and come and collect your medallion. Hurry up, sign for your medallion and move to the side.”
Just 20 minutes later, the entire class was standing in a group, medallions already charged and hanging around their necks.
“Good! Now, we are going to spend the remaining time getting used to them again. Take off your armor and pick your weapons. I’m sure you all remember how they work, but delivering full powered strikes to your friends is never easy. Especially since you will be using real weapons and wearing no armor.”
Soon all of the 6th years stood facing an opponent, waiting for Hiawatha’s instruction.
“Begin!”
Delivering full powered strikes was easy. No one hesitated to go for the kill, immediately going all out. Everyone wanted to prevent their own shields from turning red, but most of all, they really wanted to use this chance to paralzye someone else.
“AHHH!” Chelsea screamed, looking like a flaming comet as she arced through the air, landing almost 4 meters behind where she had been standing. Her mage shield was a solid crimson, while her wooden shield was far less solid, lying scattered around her.
“Prospect Li Na!” Hiawatha barked, striding over to where Li Na still stood with a wide grin on her face and her mace over her shoulder. He drew to a stop half a pace away, the giant Battle Mage looking down at the diminutive student.
“You’ve been practicing!” he exclaimed, clapping her on the shoulder and causing her to stumble sideways. Yaric didn’t miss the shield that briefly flared over her shoulder on contact. Li Na’s grin didn’t even falter.
“Good! Keep it up!”
Hiawatha strode over to Chelsea, deactivating her shield and watching her scramble to her feet, eager to try again. Red and amber shields flashed up and down the line. Marlon, Yaric’s opponent, lay sprawled in front of him, paralyzed by the red mage shield glistening over his entire body.
Everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves, some more than others, and they were actually disappointed when it was time to run back and change before spending the rest of the day in classrooms. The classrooms had switched from places to warm up, to cool areas that sheltered them from the heat.
There were only three more days until the Summer Solstice Tournament, however, so they wouldn’t get to enjoy the magical cooling for long.
The day of the Tournament dawned like every other day that week, bright, clear, and oppressively hot. Yaric and Sven had finally settled on a more flexible plan, with multiple options and contingencies. There was still a fixed core to their strategy, however, and they knew exactly how to go about putting things in motion.
Yaric had also made sure his name was struck from the register, just in case. Their class had again opted to have team leaders chosen for them, and Hiawatha had confirmed that there would likely be changes due to past performance. Yaric didn’t think it was likely that he would be chosen, but he hadn’t expected Sven to choose him first either, so he didn’t want to take any chances.
They lined up together early that morning, waiting for the selection process to start. The 5th years grouped up as well, looking both nervous and excited. They would have recently come back from their expedition, the first and so far only time that their class would have travelled out of Lekton.
Sven nudged Yaric, looking serious. Concerned, Yaric followed his gaze, and couldn’t help but stare.
Another group of students stood nearby, those from the previous 6th year class that were being held back. Yaric expected several of his classmates to be held back as well, moving into the year below them and pushing the numbers up to make exactly 200. His own year would receive new classmates as well, just as Anton and Gerrick had been amongst those who joined them the year before, keeping their own numbers at exactly 200.
But he had not expected to see Andrew, the 6th year team leader of the Mighty Dragons. He had led his own team, and had come within meters of snatching the entire competition. Now he stood scowling with the rest of the students staying back, looking like he was ready to punch someone.
“I didn’t know a team leader could be held back,” Yaric whispered.
Lauren and Li Na looked over at the new group as well, and Lauren’s eyes grew wide. Li Na just smirked.
“I heard that he had a bad review,” she explained. “He supposedly had some issues early on, even issuing punishments to teammates after they got wiped out one time.”
Yaric glanced guiltily at Sven.
“But if he was a team leader then he had to have been amongst the top in his year,” Lauren protested. “How bad must he have been?”
“It wasn’t even about what he did,” Li Na continued, before pausing for way too long. “It’s more about how he handled things afterward. When he received some criticism during his final review, he blew up and started shouting at a Council Member,” Li Na said, starting to giggle.
“How do you even know this?” Lauren asked her, looking confused.
“I hear things,” Li Na replied mysteriously, looking away innocently.
“How? I hear everything you hear. The only time you’re…” Lauren trailed off, her expression turning accusatory. “Lina, what do you and Council Head Ivers discuss when you have tea together?”
“The inner workings of the Academy are not your concern,” Li Na answered, changing her voice to sound like someone much older.
The other three just stared at her, while Li Na pointedly ignored them.
“Good! You’re all here. Now, those of you who will be joining the 5th years, I need you to move between the classes now.”
Dozens of students began moving away from Yaric and the rest of the class, obviously already aware that they were going to change classes. Most were already standing to the side.
Not one of them had ever given Yaric any indication that they would be staying back a year, or even that those who were had already been told. From the looks on their faces, no one else had been made aware either.
Yaric wasn’t particularly close to any of the students now making their way over to an empty area between the classes, but his stomach still dropped when he spotted Stewart amongst the group. Stewart had been the first person from his class that he had ever spoken to. He had given some good advice before Yaric had met anyone else, and he’d even helped Yaric to move his stuff. Seeing Stewart join the other class left him feeling very uncomfortable.
The only other person who stood out to him was Trevor, who had been in their team during the previous competition.
“Hey, Trevor is staying back, but is there anyone else from Flagbearer with him?” Yaric asked.
No one noticed any other students from Team Flagbearer in the group.
“Only one student from our team didn’t move forward,” Yaric pointed out, nudged Sven. “Could that be a record?”
Sven’s eyes went wide, and he quickly scrambled to make a note, finishing just in time.
“All right, pay attention. You’ve chosen to again have your team captains chosen for you, but this time it is necessary to allow your new classmates to introduce themselves first. Listen closely.”
Each of the new students came forward and introduced themselves, giving some background information and stepping to one side. Quite a few of them glanced at Sven while they did, although Yaric felt like Andrew was still seething when he introduced himself. He glared at Sven first, then Yaric as well, before ignoring them and introducing himself to the rest of the class. Then the captains were called out.
“Prospect Sven McDavids! Prospect Cormac Vantchev! Prospect Christopher Reynolds! Prospect Andrew Nielson! These four will now select their teams from their classmates.”
Yaric looked at Lauren in shock.
“What? I asked to have my name taken off the list, I’m not a good fit,” Lauren said, shrugging.
Yaric’s jaw dropped. “Not a good fit?” he asked, just as Sven stepped forward to make the first pick.
“Lauren Silver!” he called, as Yaric was about to step forward. Yaric was taken aback, having just assumed that he would be the first pick, but seeing Lauren’s face light up, he realized he didn’t care. It’s not like the others would pick him, right?
“Chelsea Matilda!” Cormac shouted, choosing his girlfriend first. Yaric was disappointed, she was a damn good scout.
Chris stepped forward next, and Yaric felt confident, until Chris turned and looked him in the eye hesitantly. Yaric felt like ice had been poured down his spine, and something in his face evidently showed, because Chris looked almost taken aback. He quickly looked away, his face already expressionless.
“Cian Corcrain!” he called, picking one of the elven students who had been held back. Yaric was surprised at first, but he soon remembered how Chris and his team had worked with some 6th years in the previous competition, even teaming up.
“Jarrett Huey!” Andrew immediately called. Yaric recognized the student who walked forward as another one of the Mighty Dragons.
Li Na moved up beside Yaric and shoulder bumped him. She smiled back when he looked at her, and they both watched Sven step forward for his 2nd pick.
“Yaric Miller!”
Yaric nudged Li Na and walked forward, relieved that he didn’t end up on a different team. Taking his place behind Sven, he watched the rest of the names get called out.
“Alaya Chen!”
“Tracy Mayor!”
“Luke Dawood!”
It was about to be Sven’s turn again, and Yaric glanced over at Li Na. She was still standing where he had left her, but she was now shifting from foot to foot, anxiously wringing her hands. Yaric thought that she looked rather pale, even in the bright morning light. Her eyes darted around, never sitting still for more than a fraction of a second. If Yaric didn’t know better, he would have thought that she was afraid. He’d never seen Li Na behaving more un-Li Na like.
“Lina Jakobson!” Sven called.
Li Na immediately sagged in on herself, before looking up with a bright smile. Skipping forward to join her friends, Li Na shoulder checked Yaric as she went past. She turned to stand between Yaric and Lauren, beaming brightly.
The rest of the team was soon filled out, and they were all led to one side to get acquainted with their new classmates and start making their plans. There wasn’t much time to get to know anyone, and everyone felt awkward about it, particularly as they had already done a quick introduction, so they moved on to making their plans almost immediately.
Fortunately for Yaric’s new team, their captain already had a plan. Sven got everyone's attention, then leaned forward.
“Alright, so here is what I need everyone to do…”