The early days spent relaxing in the shade of the trees were long gone. Team Shadow was a hive of activity both day and night. Almost every limit was due to time and labor, as they had abundant supplies of almost anything imaginable.
Food was available in such large quantities that Sven couldn’t be bothered to ration it. The negative effect would have been significant in the face of almost 2 months’ worth of food. So many axes and hatchets were collected that the team sharpened everything at night, and simply switched out blunt tools during the day.
Ropes were normally used sparingly, as they were actually fairly heavy and took up a lot of space with porters. That was why Sven had been so insistent on carrying as much as they could themselves, and had included even more with their own deliveries. Combined with rope from the other drops that had now been intercepted twice, and their pile was getting ridiculous. Sven was still not happy.
Even so, Yaric didn’t complain, as the issue distracted Sven from his usual talk of night raids, and at least the rope could be useful. That didn’t stop Li Na though.
“Rope rope rope… You know what we need? More rope!” she said teasingly, standing on top of one of the piles.
“We’ll stop collecting rope when we have enough,” Sven replied calmly.
“What are you, insane?” Li Na exclaimed.
“No, I’m serious. We always end up using all the rope we have.”
“That’s stupid. Name one thing you’re gonna need this much rope for.”
“It’s not what we’ll need it for, it’s just that we always need it,” Sven answered reasonably.
Li Na jumped down from her pile, making a big show of landing hard as if she had jumped from several meters higher. “This is such overkill. We’re not ogres!” she protested.
“Is that right, ‘Og’?” Sven said, smiling and nudging Li Na’s mace while referencing a club wielding ogre from a well known children’s story.
“All right, keep your stupid rope,” she replied defensively, clutching her mace to her side and twisting its sling away from Sven. Yaric just watched the exchange in silence, hoping to pick up pointers. Sven was the only one who ever ‘won’ an argument with Li Na.
Outside of the piles of food and rope, they also had large amounts of camouflaged nets, left in piles, and a frankly stupid number of arrows. Not only were there the one hundred quivers that they themselves had brought, but they had another one hundred and eighty from the supplies they had appropriated. Two teams had even thought to have extras brought separately, bundled together and tied with string, allowing them to be brought in while taking up less space than they would if they were in a quiver. Several quivers could be refilled from those supplies. It was a staggering number of arrows for a single team of fifty students. This time it was Yaric who was still not happy.
Other odds and ends were just as useful. One team had requested a large number of 10cm and 30cm long nails, along with several hammers. Those had been delivered twice. There were pots of lighting oil clearly meant to be used as incendiaries, grappling hooks, saws and cooking utensils, to go along with food supplies that were kept aside from their simple ration packs. Using the entirely legitimate excuse that those food supplies would spoil quickly, Team Shadow had been feasting on fried eggs, pan cooked bread and soups cooked in the pots they had collected. To say that morale was high would be an understatement. Particularly after Laurne found the bundles of chocolate and coffee beans.
Weapons were also a non-issue for Team Shadow. Every single team had known to resupply with spare shields, so they had those in abundance. Everything from small bucklers to tower shields were stacked to one side, with every shield in between as well. Different types of spears were kept according to length, and extra bows were stowed away inside their ‘fort’. It was unfortunate that they now had more bows than teammates, as the space could have brought more useful supplies, but again, Yaric disagreed.
Day 9 was spent planning out their proposed defenses, while scouts kept watch so they could plan out their own assaults. The lack of food after three failed drops had caused a significant drop in activity outside of base camps, so there wasn’t much to report. ‘Killed’ team members came back with as much food as they could carry, but they had also needed to carry essential building equipment and replacements for damaged weapons, so no team did anything other than work on their camps. Even Team Earthshattering and Team Griffons, who had been receiving supplies, were stuck repairing the damage caused by previous assaults.
After a hard day’s work, Team Shadow always gathered around to be filled in on the status of the other teams. It was an additional morale booster to hear the difference in situations.
Meanwhile, their own plans went through several updates and evolutions. Sven’s plan for the wall went almost unchanged, with only slight modifications to take into account feedback from Lauren and Yaric. Anton had also had a great idea for defending the wall if they were forced to retreat. Yaric, as usual, kept adding entirely new ideas with whole new facets to their defenses, causing Sven a lot of stress as he weighed the benefits of each. It was only after Lauren pointed out that with enough planning, they could integrate almost everything into one design, so long as every idea was implemented right from the start. That got everyone really excited.
Some of Yaric’s ideas wouldn’t be easy to execute with the materials they had at hand, so Sven agreed to add things like lumber to future drops. Unprocessed tree trunks would be very difficult to use with some of his ideas, and Sven apparently had his own ideas as well. He actually spent several hours writing and drawing in his notebook, refusing to show anyone, but promising that he would if it all worked out.
Day 11 ended with another new development. Sven was aware that other teams would start adjusting to their strategy, so he decided to shift theirs as well. He called everyone together for a team meeting while they ate their hot, freshly cooked soup.
“We need to change our strategy if we want to keep putting pressure on the other teams,” he began, looking around at everyone in front of him, sitting in the failing evening light on top of their mesa. “Soon someone will turn the tables, and I want to change things before that happens.”
“Why would we change something that’s working?” Anton asked. He didn’t sound argumentative at all, simply curious.
“Because the enemy always gets a vote,” Sven simply replied.
“Look at it this way,” Lauren said, taking over from Sven. “If we were the ones who had our supplies missing, what would we be doing about it? How would you react?”
“I would go out in force and wait for them at the boundary,” Anton admitted.
“Well we can expect them to have ideas like that as well. No one is going to simply follow along with our plans just because we want them to. They will fight back, and you can be sure that some of them will have very good ideas. Worse, if we keep doing what we are doing, we will become predictable. We will end up being the ones on the receiving end if we keep going as we are. They’ve all had the same training we’ve had, they’re all just as smart and just as capable as we are.”
Yaric and Li Na both coughed at the same time, looking pointedly at Lauren, the number one student in almost every single class. Others caught on immediately, and in seconds almost everyone was coughing loudly and staring at Lauren. Yaric wasn’t sure which was redder, the clouds high above, still glowing from the setting sun, or Lauren’s face, now looking away and trying desperately to pretend that she didn’t know what they were implying.
Kaylin saved her, loudly asking her own question. “So we are going to ambush them when they go to pick up the supplies? How can we stop so many teams at once?”
“No,” Lauren replied quickly, looking both grateful and relieved. “Wouldn’t you be anticipating an ambush if you were in their position?”
“Yes, but that just makes it even harder.”
“Which is why we’re going to change things up,” Sven pointed out, jumping back in. “Tomorrow will be the twelfth day, but none of the camps look all that impressive. No one has been able to build properly. Not to mention that with everyone as desperate for supplies as we know they are, we are certain that most, if not all, will focus entirely on getting their things safely back to camp.”
“That rules out ambushing anyone then,” Anton said, sounding disappointed.
“But it leaves their base camps undefended,” Kaylin remarked.
“Or we could still prepare a proper ambush for one single team,” suggested Gerrick.
“We thought of both, which is why I wanted to sit down and discuss our options with all of you,” Sven explained, motioning for the private discussions to quieten down. “We can set up an ambush for one of them, allowing the rest to resupply and recover, or, we can hit every team at once and keep up the pressure. By attacking their base camps instead.”
Yaric wasn’t sure whether his teammates had the same opinion, or if Sven’s wording and swayed them, but they unanimously supported keeping the pressure on everyone.
“The current idea is to send four people to each of these camps,” Lauren explained, holding up her map with Li Na’s help and pointing out each of the five camps whose supplies they had been raiding while Li Na illuminated the map with her lighting stone. “They will go with axes and some of the oil we collected and join the scouts who are watching the camp. In the unlikely event that no one leaves that camp, they will move to intercept the supplies as usual and hide anything that they can’t carry. For those that do leave their camp, we will wait 30 minutes, then start breaking everything down. You will have 2 hours to break down whatever you can and get some fires going. Then you get out.”
“What if they split up?” someone asked in the growing gloom.
“That will probably happen,” Lauren acknowledged. “But the supplies will be so important that we are betting most send everyone, or at least most of their team. We are betting that two or three lookouts won’t be able to stop five of us attacking from every direction. Their large camp becomes an advantage for us in that case. If there are too many people on both ends, just leave. We won’t win every bet, but guess which team will be ambushed next time.”
“Why ambush them next time?” the same voice asked.
“When something works, everyone tries to keep doing it,” Yaric answered, jumping into the discussion. “If someone sends out half their force, and suddenly they succeed, they will do it again the next time. And we will have three days to plan and prepare for a proper ambush along their supply trail. We will know exactly where they will be and when, and we can make fairly safe assumptions about how many there would be and how they would be equipped.”
“More importantly,” Lauren interrupted, “not only will we knock out half their team and take their supplies again, but the next time they are all but guaranteed to leave with their full force. Every team gets to have their base camp burnt down,” she added, smiling in the light cast by Li Na’s stone.
“Yeah, and we’re gonna burn everything inside their building as well,” Li Na added.
“Most of you did that to us last year,” someone grumbled.
“Lina doesn’t just mean that we’re going to burn the things inside,” Lauren clarified. “We’re going to burn those things while they are still inside. Part of putting pressure on other teams is leaving them uncomfortable, so we want to make staying inside the building as difficult as possible.”
“Will the other half be fetching our supplies?” Kaylin’s voice asked from the darkness that had almost fully settled over their camp.
“Not exactly.” For the first time, Sven didn’t sound quite as confident. “Only one will stay here this time. The rest will split into three groups of eight. Eight of us will meet our own drop, and the other two groups will try to capture the porters meeting Simon’s team and The Griffons.”
“Just eight?”
“They’ve never been hit before,” Sven explained. “We’re expecting them to wait inside their own camps like they’ve been doing this whole time. And one is here in this sector while the other is just past Chris. They should be easy to take. So long as they don’t know what’s been happening with the other teams,” Sven added uncertainly.
“They won’t.” Li Na sounded very confident as she waved her lighting stone around, sending the beam across her entire team. “Every plan we’ve had has worked so well up till now. Hardly anything has gone wrong - this will go off without a hitch,” she proudly declared.
“Lina!”
“What’s wrong with you?”
“What in the abyss?”
“Lina!”
People immediately started shouting at her from where they sat, causing Li Na to shrug in confusion. “What?”
----------------------------------------
Yaric moved as quickly as he could through the darkness. It wasn’t as bad as the first nights, as the moon was waxing and getting brighter, and now sat high overhead, looking down at the four students as they stalked their way through the forest. Much of the novelty had long since worn off. Yaric found that he had to frequently remind himself to stay alert, since repeatedly moving around at night with no issues at all had left him overconfident and unjustifiably comfortable.
Still, they made it to their target long before sunrise. Yaric had been assigned to Team Spearhead, on the far side of the competition area. Lauren and Li Na also went east, as Li Na was targeting Andrew’s team while Lauren attempted to capture the porters assigned to Simon. Sven would be meeting their own porters.
Their biggest issue was actually finding their own scout. Delmar would usually have his own team, but the watch overlaps left him in the same team with Yaric. That didn’t stop him from having a laugh after the others searched for 15 minutes in the dark, before he stepped out of his hiding place from where he’d been watching them the entire time.
He took a few good-natured punches with grace, after which everyone settled in to wait for sunrise. Team Spearhead’s reaction was exactly as expected.
The sky was barely turning grey when they started making their way out of the camp, their flag hanging limply in the still air.
As far as camps went, the location was not as bad as some others. They were part way up a long slope, where it levelled out before climbing again. The camp was easily visible from far away, and anyone attacking from the boundary line would be attacking downhill, but the camp also had long sight lines and clear fields of view.
What’s more, they had managed to make decent defensive structures compared to most others, mostly due to the fact that they didn’t really make much in the way of structures. No wall surrounded their camp. The slope below them had wedges cut out, almost exactly as Team Flagbearer had done in the first days the year before. This team, however, had made the wall only high enough to reach your armpits, but had constructed several consecutive rows, all the way down. Archers could very easily cover the entire slope, while climbing the slope and defending yourself would likely be even more difficult than it looked. And everything had been done by digging.
What wood had been cut by them made up the defenses on the other sides. The sides and higher slope looked like a sea of simple barricades and stakes. Small, sharp pieces of wood formed layer after layer of defense, with their strategy made obvious when watching the team weave their way up through the gaps. They all had large, round shields and one-handed spears. Defenders would have to rush uphill to meet attackers as far uphill as possible, but then they would fight defensively, forcing their opponents to take casualties in order to take ground. Deceptively simple, and not much to look at, but costly to defeat.
Yaric wouldn’t want to be the one to attack them, but he also wasn’t sure how easy it would be to dismantle the camp.
Looking out from their hiding place at the sides and slightly above, they waited for half an hour before moving back up, planning to come down from the top. Every stake was pulled up along the way, with the five students competing to see who could throw theirs the furthest downhill. Once they got down far enough that they were hitting the building, they started seeing who could throw their stake through the trapdoor on the roof. Meanwhile, the heavier barricades took over as the item of choice for distance throws.
Doing nothing but pulling up stakes and tossing barricades, it still took them over 90 minutes to get to the bottom, and they still had layers at the sides. They moved as quickly as they could, finishing the rest in just half an hour. Then, for the first time, they went inside the building.
Delmar almost ‘died’ immediately.
The half light had made it difficult to count, especially with everyone moving around so much, but apparently, not everyone had left. One person had been left behind, despite how pointless that seemed. Obviously decided that five opponents would easily cut him down, the lone defender had decided to wait quietly inside and defend the doorway.
The sun had risen high enough to shine down from behind the building, even if it was slightly to the side. Nothing but darkness was visible inside. Delmar drew his sword and stepped in slowly, more out of habit than anything else. He hadn’t actually expected anyone to be there.
The spearpoint that struck his stomach defied those expectations and sent him stumbling back, his shield already amber. Yaric pulled out his ‘medical kit’, and bandaged him up immediately, moving quickly to prevent the mortal wound from becoming fatal. The other three moved inside as one, their shields up, and after only three seconds of furious fighting, the sound of combat disappeared, just as a glowing red shield appeared on the floor.
“Damn, he got me good,” Delmar said, wincing as Yaric helped him to his feet. “The paralysis is all over,” he added, experimenting with his movement. “This is going to suck.”
They walked in, finding another one of their teammates getting a bandage on his arm.
“It’s not serious, I still have movement,” he explained, moving his arm to demonstrate his point. Minor wounds like that only caused 25% paralysis, and only for 24 hours.
Delmar was surprisingly upbeat, and nodded to his attacker in acknowledgment when he followed the others inside. He even went so far as to bring everyone’s bags out, one by one, asking if they were his. You weren’t supposed to interact with any ‘killed’ opponents, but nothing he was doing had any impact on the competition, and nothing ever happened.
Finally, the 5th year started blinking rapidly, so Delmar put the one in his hand to one side.
“Don’t worry, we won’t burn your bag. That was a good wake up call, thank you.”
Bedding and furniture were all piled up in the middle of each room, with any other items like clothes thrown on top. The stakes thrown through the trap door were exceptionally useful, as they added a significant amount of flammable material to the piles, especially as they would take longer to start burning, but would burn longer once they did. There was nothing that they deemed worth carrying back.
The student lying in the entranceway was able to stand before they finished. He kept looking back hesitatingly, but soon left, making his way quickly outside and back up the hill.
“Damn!”
“What?” Delmar asked, looking up at Yaric as they were finishing up.
“That guy is going to leave by following the trail. His team will know something happened as soon as they cross paths.”
That lit a fire under them, pushing them to move even more quickly in lighting their own fires under every mound they’d made. Then they quickly set fire to the piles of wood outside and made their way down the hill, moving around toward their original sector. Delmar’s simulated injury made it slow going but they still made it back by late afternoon.
Every other team had already returned. Lauren had captured Simon’s porters, along with his entire supply drop, while Kaeden had done the same for the Griffons. Their captives were already hard at work with helping to prepare poles for the palisades and every other piece Sven had already planned out.
Andrew and Team Victorious had both been hit hard. Their camps were entirely destroyed, along with everything that the base camps came with. Cormac didn’t have it as badly, since he had left with his entire team, but sent fifteen back after marching for twenty minutes, hoping to catch anyone trying to attack his camp, and proving the wisdom of Lauren’s words the night before. Not only will your opponents be just as capable as you, but they might even think of something better.
Unfortunately for Cormac, the group attacking his camp still had almost 15 minutes inside, and worse, they had gone straight for the main building. Not everything was burnt, but everything that had been heaped together was lit before making their escape. Half the belongings were still as they had been, and the actual defenses were untouched.
Chris was even better, as he had left several team members behind. No one got the chance to even try and attack him.
Unfortunately, that meant that the two teams who had already claimed another flag were left practically untouched, and now, for the first time, they were resupplied.
Yaric soon found out that Li Na had taken it one step further. Not only had they burnt everything inside, but she had discovered that instead of simply cutting down the poles that made up the palisades, leaving any that didn’t burn to be reused as smaller pieces, she could rather smash each one with her mace. Augmenting her strikes that way crushed the impact point, but also caused the wood to splinter. Her team all swore that the poles also burnt better afterwards, and they didn’t think any would survive the inferno they had left behind.
On top of all that, Li Na had also found where they had dug a latrine for use when under attack. It appeared that it was seeing everyday use, so Li Na collected anything that could be used as kindling and dropped it down, followed by a few larger pieces of wood. Then cloth dipped in oil was lit and dropped in after, followed once again by more wood and finally, her entire jar of oil.
“It smelled really bad,” Marlon explained, laughing. “And there isn’t a lot of air flow in that holes, so it’s probably going to smolder for a long time.”
“Whaaatt?” Li Na asked, drawing out the word while looking surprised, trying to act innocent.
“What do you have against them anyway?” Yaric asked. “You always choose them.”
“You guys got to have all the fun last year,” she said defensively. “I want a turn to target them as well. Besides, he sounds like a dick,” she added with finality, making it clear that she considered her argument logical and unassailable.
No one wanted to push the issue when she had been correct the night before. Their plan had gone off without a hitch.
The rest of the day was spent filling containers with water and working on the pieces for their ground level fort. Sven had ordered even more containers, insisting that they have at least 3 days of water kept at the top at all times. As it was, they now had 4 days’ worth.
Day 13 was spent finishing the major pieces, helped along by the porters who now added their efforts to the job. Augmentation didn’t help much when trimming trees or shaping stakes, so they were a significant help.
Lauren insisted on practicing the assembly on top of the mesa, before they tried to make the real camp below. An area was cleared, and everyone practiced putting up the palisades and assembling the notched barricades. A problem with the walkway turned up almost immediately, necessitating a redesign. Lauren was rightly proud, though she never said a word and instead quietly worked on the solution.
Day 14 brought the next phase in their plans. Sven had been planning to wait until after the next supply drop, but events took things out of his hands.
First, Kaylin came running up the cliff side, panting. Simon’s team had left their camp, and were marching to attack Andrew. She had even followed them part way to make sure.
Soon after, Delmar came running up as well. He had been watching Team Spearhead, the same team who’s camp he had helped destroy and who had given him the simulated injury that slightly weakened him even now, with another day to go before he was at full strength. Delmar had insisted on pulling watch duty as the partial paralysis wouldn’t affect his ability to watch an enemy camp, as opposed to trying to help with preparing the construction of their fort.
Team Spearhead was also marching to attack, and they had actually left earlier, they were just further away. Following the team for a part of their journey, their target was obvious. Andrew.
“See?” Li Na asked. “He is a dick. Even the 5th years want to attack him.”
“Lina!” Lauren scolded. “This is a competition, everyone is attacking everyone.”
“If you say so,” Li Na answered airily, looking smug.
Sven acted decisively.
“Keep your bow and grab a spear,” he instructed Delmar. “You will need to sit between them and the boundary line,” he added, pointing to their captive porters, “but they already know what needs to be done today, and you should be able to watch them on your own.”
“I’m coming with!” Delmar protested.
“No. You’re slower than normal, and you won’t be as good in a fight. Someone has to stay behind, best it’s our only injured teammate.” Sven’s voice carried such a tone of finality that Delmar didn’t argue. He just went to grab a spear, looking deeply disappointed.
“Don’t worry, there will be other chances,” Lauren said consolingly, before turning to everyone else. “Mixed opportunity!” she called loudly. “You all know the drill!”
And know the drill they did, since Lauren herself had drilled everyone repeatedly over the last few days. With no clear idea of how they would be attacking, if at all, everyone armed themselves with swords and shields. They also carried utility knives and hatchets, while thirty also picked up bows and a single quiver, while the others carried two quivers a piece, camouflage nets, and more of the stupid rope.
Then they all made their way down the ropes and started running in loose formation, hoping that they could make it all the way to Andrew’s camp site before the battle was over. The scouts had run back to report long before either attacking team had even made it to Andrew’s camp, but it was two on one, and there was a lot of distance to cover.
They made it to Andrew’s camp midafternoon, having taken the fastest route they could. Yaric had led them in a slight curve, to avoid the worst of the terrain, leading them to arrive to the south of Andrews camp, with The Spearhead’s camp behind them.
The Behemoths had possibly the best location of any of the teams. Yaric felt that every location this year was better than the previous year’s had been, but The Behemoth’s had a camp without too many significant downsides. There were no advantages, just like the others, but they also didn’t seem to be overly penalized. And the current assault made that quite clear.
A very wide rocky area sat in front, with a shallow stream spread across most of it, not even ankle deep and barely a trickle. To the south and north, flanking the campsite, wooded hills obscured the view of those inside the camp and allowed attackers to move fairly close without observation. The rear, facing the boundary, had the same, though the hill was only half as high. Looking again, Yaric realized that that the three hills were in fact one single, U-shaped hill.
Andrew’s team had done a remarkable amount of work since Li Na had burnt everything to the ground. There was a large, 4-meter-high palisade around the main building, though admittedly with less than 20 meters between it and the building’s walls. This palisade had a walkway across the top. Then there was a 2nd palisade, only 2 meters high, less than 3 meters away from the larger wall. The ditch beyond that wall had clearly only just been started, and was so incomplete that it would have no effect on the battle playing out below them.
Yaric looked suspiciously at the piles of dead branches lying between the rear wall of the camp and the lower hill there. The offcuts formed a very thick mat, reaching all the way into the trees.
‘Maybe they did the same thing we’re doing, and had pieces of their wall already prepared but not used. If they hid the poles in the forest Li Na wouldn’t have burnt them. They probably didn’t want to waste their work when they knew they wouldn’t be able to build something that could be defended.’
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Looking at the gap between the walls, and how all of the defenders were on top of the larger, inner wall, Yaric was sure that there were some kind of traps lying in between.
Team Earthshattering and Team Spearhead appeared to have become impromptu allies. Their combined force faced The Behemoths from the front, with the stream behind them. They were bringing wood from the nearby forest to fuel the fires they had lit against the first wall, creating clouds of smoke that blew over the camp. Even from this distance Yaric could clearly see the defenders coughing, and occasionally even wiping smoke induced tears from their eyes.
This had obviously been going on for a while, because the outer palisade was burning very well already. It takes a long time to burn through thick poles like that, but it looked like they were already most of the way there.
Andrew seemed to think so too, because while Yaric was watching, five ropes were tossed over the southern wall, facing Yaric and Team Shadow. Five people slowly and carefully lowered themselves from the high wall, inching down and out of sight behind the inner wall. Whatever they were doing took a couple of minutes, but soon after, ten more joined them, climbing down much more quickly.
Then they hopped the outer wall together, maneuvering around with several bows ready. There was a brief discussion at the corner, followed by eight students running out with shields ready, quickly forming a line and then dropping one knee. The other seven followed behind them, arrows already nocked.
They got off two volleys before the other two teams started to respond properly, and a further three before anyone started moving against them. Once they did, all of the defenders pulled back around the corner, just as more archers still on the wall opened fire on the distracted defenders. The counterattack pulled all the way back and retreated, climbing back up the same ropes they had come down.
Yaric watched with the others as similar events kept repeating. The defenders kept trying to whittle down their attackers, until the assault force finally burnt through the outer wall and moved in, pulling up the stakes that were planted inside like grass. Then they started more fires, this time against the inner wall, with spearmen pushing most of the defenders away from the edge and unable to fight back.
The assault was going to take a while.
“Do you think they will make it before nightfall?” Sven asked dubiously.
Lauren just shook her head.
“Let’s pull back,” Yaric suggested. “We can meet those Spearheads on their way back to their camp."
“What about the others?” Sven asked, looking disappointed.
“No one is getting into Andrew’s camp today, but I bet they will arrange to carry on again tomorrow. Why not wipe out one attacker now, when they are rushing back after a full day fighting, then ambush the other tomorrow morning, when they are rushing to meet the team they think will be waiting for them?”
It was disconcerting to see Sven with a grin that matched Li Na’s.
No one felt the need to discuss anything, they just pulled back quietly and then started moving towards The Spearhead’s campsite.
Yaric led them almost 5km’s back before he found a suitable location. It had to be a route he was confident his opponents would take, otherwise they would simply be bypassed. It also had to be a location that would give them an unassailable advantage.
The stream cutting between two hills was too perfect to pass up. Much like the stream that passed Andrew’s camp, this stream didn’t even reach ankle height in most places, and ran over a very wide bed of stones. It wasn’t even the same stream, but formed in a very similar manner.
Each side was flanked by steep hills, but even more than that, the underbrush was exceptionally thick, likely due to the presence of the stream below. Faced with hacking your way through thick bushes, on a slope filled with trees, or marching through the relatively flat and completely open stream, Yaric was confident he knew which way they would choose.
They quickly got to work.
Two teammates were sent back the way they’d come, forming a short relay to warn the rest if the Spearheads were approaching. The others immediately started cutting down trees slightly uphill, randomly selecting which ones to cut down so that no gaps would stand out. Then they started chopping everything into stakes, just like they had done a hundred times before.
One hour of work resulted in enough stakes for half the team to move on to building barricades, again like they had done so many times already. They even put the notches Sven had shown them this time around, letting the pieces fit securely together and only requiring rope to keep everything in place.
Long sections were pushed into the bushes flanking the stream, and more pieces were hidden on either end of their chosen ambush sight, on both sides of the stream. A second row was hidden closely behind the first, and everyone was busy with the third when the message came down that the Spearheads were on their way back.
The sun was already low by this time. With everyone hidden in place and keeping silent, the entire ambush site felt quiet and peaceful. The stream trickled peacefully below them, while a cool breeze blew through the darkening forest. Even the birds came back in time, flitting from branch to branch and singing to each other in the last few minutes before heading back to their nests.
Then came the sound of splashes. Thirty-five tired looking 5th years came marching down the stream, looking both exhausted and rushed. They clearly felt their assault was going well, judging by the tired smiles on their faces, but none of them seemed particularly alert or wary.
Then Li Na stepped out in front of them, brandishing her mace and smiling like she was at a fair.
“Nice day for a fight, huh?” she said, ensuring that everyone noticed her.
All of Team Spearhead stumbled to halt, just as Sven walked out behind them.
“That it is,” he answered conversationally.
Yaric’s biggest concern regarding his ambush plan had been around Team Spearhead choosing to focus a counterattack on just one bank. Li Na had insisted on trying out her little performance.
The team below Yaric’s vantage point on the hillside hesitated for a moment, before their captain called out his orders.
“Pincer defense!”
Yaric was impressed with how quickly they formed two lines, interlocking their shields and placing their spears over in an overhand grip. Team Shadow responded immediately, with three team members carrying barricades from either side, on both ends, and blocking off the exits. Then each line drew their swords and raised their shields, clearly ready to defend their barricades.
Spears might work in a straight line when moving through thick underbrush, but turning would be almost impossible. A shield wall would certainly be impossible. Yaric was confident that they would be unlikely to try and make it up the hillside, and even if they did try, they would give up once they ran into the first barricade. That limited them to trying to fight through both barricades, one to escape through, and one to defend their rear. That would let the archers on the flanks fire at the rear of both lines.
Unfortunately, it was Sven who had jinxed them that night when they went over their plans, not Li Na. The enemy always gets a vote.
Team Spearhead’s double line did not split up to advance on both barricades.
“Move toward the camp!” their captain shouted. “Cover our rear!”
Both lines moved toward Li Na, one in front that faced her, with better than two to one numbers, and the other behind them walking backward, facing Sven and his group to protect their front line.
Not for one moment did Li Na hesitate or falter.
“Better hurry,” she quipped. “I don’t want to have to bash you all in the dark,” Li Na added, swinging her mace for emphasis.
One single factor prevented the ambush from becoming more costly than Yaric had hoped. They had planned to fire on two separate lines, moving away from each other. In order to give themselves the best lines of fire, fifteen archers had set up on both sides of the stream, not hiding along the sides of the slope, but in a line up the slope. The closer each archer was to the middle the better the angle they would have on both lines, instead of having a good angle on the side further away and a flat angle on the closer line. As it was, both lines had moved between them, and with their height over the targets, there was little risk of friendly fire.
Thirty arrows tore into the two lines below, striking from the side and sometimes from slightly behind. They had a perfect enfilade position, and both lines were being hit from each flank. Even better, most of the fighters naturally assumed that they were being attacked from behind, as the rear line was moving backward toward one known enemy position, while the front line knew there were attackers behind them.
The shield wall collapsed on the first volley, along with eighteen Spearheads. Each line was confused in the beginning, turning to face the line protecting the rear and expecting to see a large assault from the other direction.
The second volley sealed their fate, with only six left standing, and everyone else glowing red or amber in the shallow stream. Then the survivors charged Li Na, correctly deducing the situation and taking decisive action with admirable speed.
It didn’t help.
Li Na had already been moving her team forward, carrying their barricades in front of them to close the gap, and she now leaped over, moving to break up the charge before they could leap the barricades themselves.
Yaric tagged one opponent in the back, clearly seeing Lauren do the exact same thing from the other flank.
The rest of the arrows felled two more, but they couldn’t target the two in front for fear of hitting the group blocking the exit.
Li Na swung way too early, her mace flying down from behind her to strike the streambed. The expected splash of water rose up, but so did a storm of shattered stone, flying like shrapnel before her. The improvised projectiles peppered both attackers, one of whom even had her shield briefly flare when a shard of stone was about to impact her eye. Both slowed and raised their shield reflexively.
That was their last mistake.
Li Na crashed into the first with an augmented jump, shoulder checking his shield. Holding his shield strapped to his arm and high across his chest, the force of the impact sent him flying backward with his feet lifting high. Li Na’s own mage shield flared briefly, and Yaric could hear her pained grunt from his position several meters away.
Despite her reaction, Li Na didn’t pause at all, using her position with her mace held out straight behind her to immediately swing it over her head and down in a vicious chop. Her victim had only just lowered her shield after trying to protect her face, and had the briefest moment to see the descending mace, when a loud crack rang out and she was pummeled into the stream, her physical shield in splinters and her magical shield glowing scarlet in the late evening gloom.
Her teammate, who Li Na had struck first, impacted the stream at the same time, sending up a wide spray of water. Two of Li Na’s squad were on him before he could get up, both stabbing his unprotected chest while Li Na nursed her bruised shoulder, grinning like she’d just single handedly won their first tournament.
Lauren’s bow twanged, and a Spearhead who had been felled earlier with a non-fatal wound, dropped with his shield now scarlet, after surging to his feet and charging toward Li Na’s surprised squad.
Within a second of his splashing into the stream, everything fell silent, and the water once again babbled merrily over the stones. Everyone stood still, looking from one teammate to another.
“HA!”
“HA HA HA!”
At least half of Team Shadow burst out laughing simultaneously, releasing the tension that had built when everything started going sideways.
Still shaking with adrenaline, Yaric picked his way through their own barricades and made his way to his friends, where Lauren was inspecting Li Na’s shoulder.
“Well that could have gone better,” Yaric said, embarrassed by how his grand plan had turned out. More than one aspect of his plan had gone wrong, and he was very aware of how his team looked to him to plan things like this. He knew he should have kept looking for more, and possibly better, locations. And no ambush should rely on your opponent reacting exactly as you want them to. Just like he had done with the hillside, he needed to ensure any option came with consequences.
To his surprise, Sven replied by holding out his hand to shake.
“Huh?” Yaric asked, shaking his hand hesitantly.
“Thing went wrong,” Sven stated simply, still shaking Yaric’s hand. “How did it end?”
“Ahhh…” Yaric said eloquently, finally getting his hand back and looking around at the rest of his team.
“We got the flag?” he offered, watching Anton inspect their new addition. Not only was it bone dry, despite having been dropped in the stream, but Yaric distantly remembered seeing the material whip around when an arrow struck it. The flag was pristine.
“And…” Sven prompted.
“Look around,” Lauren said, trying to help Yaric. “Have you really got so used to pulling off ambushes like in the past that you don’t even notice anymore when we have zero casualties?”
It was Yaric's turn to try and match the sky above them. Sven interrupted to have his team strip the weapons from their opponents, and then recover all of their stupid rope, before setting off for their camp, knowing that most of the journey would be in the dark. To their relief.
“Hey! What do you mean, ‘zero casualties?” Li Na asked accusingly, while cradling her shoulder with her other hand.
“I meant ‘zero casualties that could be prevented by having a brain’,” Lauren replied, not even bothering to look at Li Na, but failing to hide the smile they could all still see even in the failing light.
“Yeah, we can’t be held responsible for the actions of children,” Yaric added, nudging Li Na’s good shoulder from the other side.
Li Na glared from one to the other.
“Well I would say she was a smash hit,” Kaeden chuckled behind them.
“See?! I turned the whole thing around!” Li Na exclaimed, not realizing that she was pointing at Kaeden with her supposedly hurt arm. The rest of her team started chuckling when they realized what she had done, but Li Na took it for confirmation, and walked proudly in front.
“Hold up,” Yaric suddenly said, coming to an abrupt stop. “Actually you guys go ahead, I need to check something out.”
“What is it?” Lauren asked curiously.
“I’ll explain when I get back,” Yaric called over his shoulder, starting to run back almost the same way they had just come. Only his route took him a little to the side. Towards The Behemoths.
The rest of the trip was made with only the occasional jab or teasing remark, but most of the time they marched in silence. Delmar let down the ropes, and everyone climbed up just as quietly as they had marched. They were up top for several minutes before Anton made a point of walking past Delmar with the flag.
“We got a flag?!” he exclaimed in shock, as no one had told him about anything other than the attack on Andrew’s camp. All at Yaric’s request.
Because one prank always deserves another…
----------------------------------------
Yaric climbed the same hill he had climbed earlier that day, when he had sat with his team and watched Andrew defend his camp. This time he looked over the aftermath.
Large sections of the main palisade were badly burned, visible even in the moonlight. His vantage point let him see the site of the fire from the inside of the wall, and it was very clearly blackened. Andrew had moved makeshift obstacles in front of those sections of the wall, but there was no one in sight at the moment. Thick smoke still hovered over the entire camp, and it was the cough of a sentry that finally alerted Yaric to the presence of defenders.
Andrew must have set up a night guard, because while there was no movement inside the wall, there was movement on top. Thick smoke from the still smoldering fires made them difficult to see, as the moonlight reflected brightly off the smoke. Clouds kept hiding the moon for brief periods, but whenever that happened, those same clouds of smoke shrouded everything in darkness.
Yaric was confused as why they weren’t working to fix the damage. It should be obvious to them that they would be attacked again the next day. Surely they would try to prepare, no matter how tired they were?
Quietly making his way down the hill, Yaric used every trick he had been taught, keeping trees further down between the sight lines, moving low down where the shadow was darker, and using the underbrush to obscure his movements. He didn’t allow himself to make any sudden changes in speed or direction, resisting the urge to jump down small drops or climb over fallen trees. Moving methodically around the side, Yaric finally made it to his goal.
The debris behind the camp.
Keeping low, Yaric inched his way through the discarded branches. Once a few branches were lying on their side, further branches tended to lie across the top of them, leaving large spaces below. Yaric was able to slowly move forward, using the offcuts and obscuring smoke for cover.
It took him almost an hour, but he finally made it to the outer wall. Just like the attacking teams had done, he was able to crouch at the foot of the wall and stay invisible to those on top of the inner wall.
As soon as clouds blocked the moonlight, Yaric carefully raised his head over the top of the outer, scanning the silhouetted palisade above him. There was no one there.
Uncoiling his rope, Yaric tied a simple loop on one end and hooked it over the nearest pole, leaving the rest of the rope hanging down the other side. Then he hopped up, pulled himself over, and lowered himself down the other side.
His caution was well warranted. The gap between the walls was the same on every side. Infested with stakes.
Holding his weight with his arms, Yaric felt his way between the stakes, finally getting his feet on solid ground. Then he maneuvered carefully between them. Once he reached the other side, he found that he wouldn’t be able to jump. It was impossible to crouch low enough with the sharp points below him ending above knee height, and if he missed his jump, well, he’d be back in the competition tomorrow.
Footsteps above made him freeze.
Even without the moon casting a shadow, the space between the walls was still darker than anywhere else. More importantly though, not once did Yaric see the defender above him. He never so much as glanced over the side, only walking along the top and looking out to the tree line.
He had no idea that an intruder was already right at his feet.
Once the footsteps had moved past and receded into the distance, Yaric moved quickly. He gripped each stake one by one, tugging upward and lifting them out of the ground. It took less than a minute to clear a large enough area, and only seconds later, yet another cloud slid across the moon.
Jumping quickly, Yaric managed to grab hold of the top of the wall on his first try, and lifted himself high enough to see over. There were two people keeping watch, walking in circles around their camp and on roughly opposite sides.
The one on his right was walking away from him, and had obviously been the lookout who had walked above him a minute earlier. The other one, on the left wall, was walking toward him, but looking to his side, at the forest facing the wall he was on.
It only took a moment for Yaric to get over the top and onto the platform inside.
A quiver of arrows lay against the wall nearby. Yaric reached out and pulled it closer, laying it on the ground where he had climbed over. There was a narrow area directly below there where he could land, so long as he dropped straight down at this exact spot. He desperately wanted to avoid dropping at the wrong place.
Yaric rolled off the edge of the platform and hung from the edge, twisting his head to watch the approaching lookout. He was hanging in plain sight, but Yaric was gambling that both the deeper shadow, and the attention on what lay outside would help keep him from being detected. And it did.
As soon as the lookout turned onto the platform Yaric was hanging from, putting the platform itself between them, Yaric let go. He landed as softly as he could, but the steps above him still froze. They started again, but far more cautiously, until they stopped again, directly over his head.
The lookout sighed in relief, and Yaric heard the sound of the arrows inside the quiver rattling.
Still, he waited for the footsteps to move further along, and slinked alongside the wall himself, putting the base camp building between him and the lookout on the far side. Then he walked quickly and confidently through the dark shadow cast by the moon.
The moon was high enough to light up the last three meters, however, so glancing back to make sure the lookout was still focused on the forest outside, Yaric jumped the last section, landing next to the south wall and back in the shadow.
Once he was shrouded again, Yaric inched his way forward, pausing only when the first lookout made his way around and came past again. Then he moved around the last corner, still hidden in shadow, and stepped inside.
If the shadows outside had seemed dark, Yaric felt like he’d been swallowed whole. And in many ways, he had. It was far too risky to make any light, so Yaric just moved very slowly, navigating by memory and making his way down the entire length. Deep breathing and soft snores let him know that Behemoths were sleeping downstairs in the rooms he passed.
Acrid smoke hung thickly in the air, even thicker than the smoke outside, bringing a brief smile to his lips. It was thick enough that he had to focus on not coughing.
‘Lina does good work.’
The staircase seemed even darker, but Yaric felt his way up, taking every step slowly and with great care.
Deafening noise pounded his ears, with his pulse beating like a drumbeat. Despite the noise, his slow, measured breaths roared like bellows. It was so dark now that circles seemed to sink in front of eyes, starting like a ring on the outside and shrinking into the center, only to immediately disappear and start all over again. And since when have the summer evenings been so hot? Both palms were clammy, and a cold line ran down his neck.
He was shaking even worse than he had after the ambush, pumped full of adrenaline, but still he moved further into the dark maw, inching down the upstairs corridor and back the way he had come, only one floor higher. The room at the end was not as dark, with small arrow slits at least letting in some light. One bar of which lay across a table, the twin of which he had seen in every base camp so far. Just like the stand that sat upon the table. The stand holding a single, large flag.
Reaching out a trembling hand, Yaric pulled it up and out.
…
…
…
Nothing happened.
No trap was sprung, no one entered the door behind him, no one jumped out of the shadows. Nothing. Yaric just stood alone in the darkness, clutching another team’s flag. In the middle of their base camp.
‘And I still have to get out!’
His heartbeat roared even louder on the way out, forcing Yaric to hold himself back. The temptation to just make a run for it was almost overwhelming.
Yaric made his way back down the corridor, down the staircase, and right past the sleeping students on the ground floor. Stepping back out the door, Yaric realized that the interior really was hot, not to mention humid.
Breathing large lungful’s of cool night air, Yaric started to inch back around, keeping to the shadows. It wasn’t just cooler outside, but also open. The feeling of being caged with a beast had disappeared, even though Yaric was not safe and free yet. The sweat down his neck was already drying when Yaric realized he’d missed something.
There had been no lookout in view when he came out the door.
Because both lookouts were now standing over the spot on the wall where he had climbed over, whispering furiously to each other. Fearing the worst, Yaric crept closer, right to the edge of the wall, where moonlight once again illuminated everything.
“I’m telling you it fell over,” one of the lookouts whispered furiously. “I saw it!”
“But how did it move over here? You know how particular Andrew is. You’re claiming it fell over and rolled more than a meter?”
“Of course not! Someone probably moved it…”
“Don’t be stupid! Andrew is already in a bad mood, no one is that dumb.”
“And so your plan is to wake Andrew up, to tell him that someone moved one of his carefully placed quivers?”
“I said don’t be stupid. I’m just pointing out that…”
Yaric didn’t wait to hear more. The moon had just slipped back behind a cloud, and there was never going to be a better chance. He had no doubt that some kind of alarm would soon be raised. It would have been impossible to take any guards out on the way in, as they would soon be missed, not to mention glowing a bright red in the dark. And now there were two guards standing next to each other, ensuring that even if he did take out one, the other would immediately raise an alarm. That left him with only one option.
Yaric charged out from his hiding place, sprinting as fast as he could. Arms pumping furiously, Yaric augmented himself as much as he was able, and leaped. Straight at the still arguing guards.
He never knew if it was the sound of his footsteps, the crunch of dirt as he jumped, or the frantically fluttering flag in his arms, but one lookout, the one who had ‘seen’ the quiver drop, looked up at the last moment, eyes wide with shock.
Flying through the air, Yaric twisted the flag around, so the pole was horizontal, and flew right between the lookouts.
Or he would have, but the pole connected instead, stopping Yaric dead and flinging the two Behemoth’s over the side with surprised grunts. A red glow began reflecting in the smoke hovering over the camp.
“Attack! We’re under attack!”
Someone on the roof of the base camp began shouting loudly. He must have been sitting earlier, because now he was so clearly silhouetted that there was no way Yaric could have missed him. Still, it hadn’t even occurred to him to check.
Moving quickly, Yaric vaulted over the wall and hung on the other side, holding the wall with one hand and the flag with the other. Looking down, he realized that he had no idea if this was the section he had cleared. Having no other choice, Yaric pushed off hard with both legs.
He sailed backwards, clearing the outer wall and landing heavily on the other side. Even augmented the landing still hurt, causing him to limp slightly as he ran.
Something flew through the offcuts that littered the area, and Yaric distantly heard the hum of a bowstring before confused shouts began echoing through the night air. If any other arrows were fired at him, they must have missed by some distance, because Yaric made it all the way to the tree line with nothing but angry cries following.
He made sure to run north. The trees were some of the closest, the wall would help to cover him from the building, but most importantly, that was where the other camp was.
Not his camp. Simon’s.
----------------------------------------
Delmar’s shock when he had noticed their new flag was nothing compared to the whole team’s shock when Yaric was helped up. Keeping the flag wrapped around its pole, Yaric secured it between his quiver and his back before climbing. A few people looked curiously at the thick staff he was carrying around, but when Yaric pulled it out after greeting everyone, and casually asked where he should put it while unfurling the flag, everyone’s jaws dropped.
Then the party started.
Sven surprised everyone by pulling out a bottle he’d requested for the last supply drop. There was enough for everyone to get a single sip, but Sven promised that there would be more with every flag they take. Then Yaric was forced to recount the entire tale, with several teammates left dumbstruck.
“So you just walked in and took it,” Li Na pointed out.
“No, I had to climb over both walls and get around the whole team.
“So you just climbed in and took it,” Li Na graciously amended.
“No. It was much harder than that!”
Team Shadow unanimously adopted Li Na’s position, and started requesting that Yaric go back out and fetch the rest.
“Why didn’t you get the rest of them?”
“Now I know why we’re stuck out here. Yaric’s just too lazy to collect our flags.”
“Do you need a shopping list? You forgot a few things.”
“Sneaky scout sneaking and snooping and stealing,” Li Na added sagely.
"I couldn't help but notice how your rope was critical to your success," Sven pointed out smugly. "You know, in your night raid..."
Sven, despite joking around with the others, immediately set up a guard rotation. Both passageways into their fort were to be guarded at all times. While it was far easier said than done, Yaric effectively had just climbed in and taken the flag, and Sven wasn’t sure if he’d be able to survive the humiliation. No one complained about the extra guard duty, because they weren’t confident about their own survival either. Shockingly, no one had ever set up guards to protect their flags inside the camp before. It had simply never been needed. Why would it, with the entire team guarding the walls?
But Team Shadow would go to great lengths to make sure Andrew survived, so they could hear about the tears of frustration from someone with experience.
Despite wanting to celebrate, they had to have an early night. The next day would see them trying to disrupt another supply drop, while also setting up another ambush.
To simplify things, every team was kept the same, which should have resulted in Yaric having the morning off, since The Spearheads had been wiped out the day before, and would be returning as a full team alongside the porters. That illusion was shattered when Lauren started splitting them amongst the four remaining groups.
The Spearheads were out, and both The Griffons and Team Earthshattering would have no drop, so they were all split amongst the groups attempting to harass Chris, Cormac, Andrew and Team Victorious. Despite Sven’s promise three days earlier, Chris was to be left alone for the time being. They couldn’t risk the casualties with an ambush, even if he had two flags. Everyone knew that Chris would be expecting it.
The same went for Cormac, whose supplies Yaric would be targeting alongside the usual team. Their new strategy didn’t work at all. They tried to harass him early on, firing two volleys at his team and running away, in the hope that he wouldn’t risk sending any team members away. Instead, Cormac immediately sent the same group back to their camp, expecting a trap.
Knocking out three of his team members was their only consolation. Yaric also acknowledged that Sven was right, they would need to properly assault the camps while people were fetching supplies if they were to have any chance of redistributing supplies amongst themselves.
The prediction about repeating successful strategies was also correct. Chris split his forces again, and again no one was able to do anything. Andrew also left a group behind, and even Team Victorious, who had apparently put great effort into improving their camp, left ten team members to guard the vastly improved fort.
If they were going to carry on as they had before, something was going to have to change.
Yaric was waiting when Li Na returned, clearly disappointed that she hadn’t been able to do anything. Her squad was the last to return, so the whole team set out immediately, this time with Marlon staying to guard both flags and Delmar happily moving forward to screen his team.
They made it all the way around Chris’s sector, intending to approach from Simon’s camp. That way they could confirm that he had already left, and they would have plenty of time to inspect his route. If they were lucky, they might even arrive early enough to follow Simon, and watch his route.
This time they were lucky, if not in the way that Yaric had hoped.
“Quick,” Delmar called, running back to his team. “He’s still there, but he’s not alone!”
Running up the last hill, Yaric rushed ahead, not needing to stay in formation like the others. He crested the hill and looked down on Simon’s camp.
Simon was still there. As was Andrew, who had launched his own counter assault. Yaric had no idea if he knew about the ambush of the Spearheads, or if he simply thought they really were the ones who had stolen his flag, but his team was methodically demolishing the last line of defense, and about to break through to the center.
Proper supplies and equipment made a huge difference. Motivation also helped.
The rest of Team Shadow caught up, with Sven and Lauren taking in everything in an instant. Superfluous equipment was dropped right where they stood. Thirty melee fighters moved to the front, with swords and shields already in hand, while the other twenty hung slightly back, arrows already nocked and swords close to hand.
Then they swept down the hill.
‘He definitely blamed Simon for my theft,’ Yaric decided. Every single member of his team was now inside the camp, forming a united front. Simon’s team gave a good accounting of themselves, but their cohesion had been shattered when their last line fell.
Andrew tore through their ranks, right up until the entrance to the fort, where the surviving defenders managed to reorganize and put up a last stand. Unfortunately, both the numbers and momentum had irrevocably shifted, and they didn’t last long, a dozen glittering red shields amongst Andrews team the only testament to their final defense.
They were almost at the bottom of the hill when Li Na dropped back slightly and fell in next to Yaric.
“Isn’t this like how you beat Andrew’s team last year?” she asked, looking up excitedly. “After they took Cormac’s camp?”
“It’s exactly like that.”
Li Na just grinned wider, and skipped back to the front, quietly chanting ‘me me me’ as she went, making it in time to lead the way through the hole Andrew had punched in the wall. Yaric heard the confused and panicked shouts even before he got in.
The Behemoths had handled the surprise well. There was no chance their team could hold back Team Shadow, not after a hard-fought battle with numerous casualties. Instead, they counterattacked, trying to whittle Team Shadow down as they came through the wall.
Unfortunately for Andrew, they really had been hyper focused on taking Simon out, and they actually had overlooked watching their own backs, even though the exact same situation had left them wiped out the year before. Team Shadow was already moving through the gap when they were first noticed, and no matter how decisively they counterattacked, it was already too late to push everyone back.
The Behemoths crumpled.
Once Yaric was through, he immediately split right, followed by several other archers. Lauren did the same, but she moved to the left.
“Ready to push!” Yaric shouted, giving the melee fighters the signal.
“Ready,” several shouted back, both acknowledging the signal and ensuring that if anyone near them had not heard, they did now.
“Push!” he shouted.
Team Behemoth braced themselves.
Team Shadow jumped back and crouched down. Confused by the lack of action and sudden lull, most of the attackers turned defenders lowered their shields, ready to defend against any attack from the crouching melee fighters 2 meters in front.
A hail of arrows flew into them, fired from only 15 meters away. Red shields bloomed as Behemoths dropped.
Then Andrew looked up at the commander, and realized it was Yaric. His eyes wide, he whirled back to the melee fighters while the archers nocked another arrow. Looking frantically from one fighter to another, his eyes eventually fell on Sven.
“YOU!”
If Yaric hadn’t just nocked an arrow, he was certain he would have buried his face in his hands. As it was, everyone heard Sven’s loud groan.
“ME?!” Li Na shouted excitedly, grinning from ear to ear. She looked like it was her birthday, and she had just been gifted the Kingdom.
Andrew looked like he had been slapped in the face. It certainly turned red like he had.
“ME?!” Li Na shouted again, this time followed by a chorus from the rest of Team Shadow.
“Me?”
“Me?”
“Me?”
If Andrew hadn’t been humiliated by the theft of his flag the night before, he certainly was now. Yaric silently wondered if they weren’t perhaps pushing things too far, but the snarl on Andrew’s face as he lunged forward, leading a charge not on Sven, but straight at Li Na, instantly changed his mind.
Li Na’s face lit up when she saw The Behemoths making a bee line for her, immediately standing up and taking her stance.
Lauren’s arrow flashed past her and took Andrew in the shoulder, followed almost instantly by Yaric’s, which struck Andrew just below the rib cage. Neither were fatal, but Andrew’s shield flashed over him, a bright amber, and the instant paralysis caused him to collapse and slide up to Li Na’s feet.
Li Na looked up at the rest of her attackers, each of whom had skidded to a halt when Andrew had fallen, only now realizing that they had broken ranks and run into the middle of the attacking force.
Feigning nonchalance, Li Na continued looking them in the eye as she raised her mace high above her head, stretching as far as she could and lifting onto her toes. Without even looking down, Li Na brought it crashing into the back of Andrews head. His shield flared a brighter red than usual for an instant, before settling down to the normal glow.
The rest of the archers loosed their second volley as well, without orders but still near simultaneously. The arrows were still falling after striking flaring shields when the melee fighters surged to their feet and fell on the survivors. The fight barely lasted 5 seconds. It wasn’t even a fight.
With the slaughter over, Team Shadow moved to patch up their wounded. They had several casualties, but only two fatalities, and that was with three team members keeping watch outside.
There were still many hours of daylight left, so Team Shadow methodically searched the entire camp, confiscating anything they thought would be useful.
There was a lot. Simon had been well supplied over the first week, so he had a lot of equipment, messing up Sven’s plans. They were forced to hike all the way back to their own camp to unload everything, collecting the equipment they had dropped earlier as well.
Then the whole team marched all the way to Andrew’s camp, looking for the supplies he would have received earlier. There was nothing inside, but acting on a hunch, Yaric led a squad to the rear of the camp, where all of the offcuts had been thrown and where he suspected much of their wood had been hidden in preparation for making their camp.
All of the supplies had been buried left just inside the forest, buried under branches carried in from their pile, and still in their original packaging. It was with mixed feelings that Yaric helped his team with carrying all of the debris up to the walls, where Sven planned to use it as kindling.
They set off back to their own camp for the third time that day, this time with a blazing backdrop and a thick column of smoke to mark their departure point.
Even though it was the middle of summer, there were clearly too few hours in the day. Team Shadow arrived at the foot of their mesa just as the sky started turning red, exhausted but excited.
Nervous scouts greeted them at the top, having come back from the vigils to find their team gone. Everything turned around when they saw the flag.
Half the flags were now in their possession, and in yet another repeat of the year before, they knew where all of the remaining flags were. With just two other teams. Two targets. And two more days with only five other teams still in the game.
Not to mention, two more days to meet Sven’s deadline. Because with the need to hold all eight flags for 72 hours, Day 18 was their last chance to finish within the 3 week deadline…