After so much success in only 3 days, things settled down significantly. The next two days were both very rewarding and extremely frustrating.
Back at their camp, preparations were finally finished, and final adjustments were being made. Almost every plan had come to fruition, even those they had made on the fly in the middle of the process.
“How many planks of wood do we have left over?” Yaric asked on Day 16, the day after they had interrupted Andrew’s successful assault on Simon’s camp and claimed his spoils.
“A few,” Sven admitted, looking sheepish.
“Good. Come over here.”
Yaric led Sven over to one side of their mesa, where very basic fortifications were being built just in case anyone tried to climb up. The cliff side was a double-edged sword. Climbing was very difficult, and necessitated using both hands. It also took several minutes even if you already had a viable route up, leaving you very exposed for the entire duration. At the same time though, the cliff itself shielded any climbers from those on top, as you would have to lean over the edge with your weapon in order to attack from directly above. Archers below would have close, well silhouetted targets to fire on.
That left the moment when attackers climbed over the edge as the easiest and most vulnerable time to attack. They would be in a difficult and awkward position, with no way of defending themselves and no weapons in hand. The problem here was the possibility of being overwhelmed, with such a long perimeter to defend, possibly against multiple defenders. And Yaric had brought up the issue of plunging fire, whereby attacking archers might try firing at very high angles to allow their arrows to drop along the ridge line. He doubted it would be all that effective, but it would complicate their defense. Even worse, they had found incendiaries in the supply drops of five different teams. Pausing near the top to throw firebombs over the lip would be a major issue if anyone thought of it.
So Yaric decided not to let anyone near the top.
“I want to cut them shorter,” he explained, coming to a stop right at the edge, where two of their excess poles lay. Both poles were around 8m’s long and took up a lot of space, lying parallel and a meter apart. “Not these, the planks,” he clarified. “We cut them so they’re only as wide as this, and nail them across the top to join these poles together.”
“How will that help?” Lauren asked, having joined Sven when he followed Yaric.
“We join the last two meters of these poles with the planks, and then we nail full length planks vertically around that section, covering the end and both sides,” he said, pointing as he went. “I know it will be very weak, but it only has to stop some arrows.” Yaric grinned, standing in between the poles right at the end closest to the edge of their mesa. “If someone finds us and tries climbing the cliff, we push these out, so the covered section sticks out a couple of meters over the edge… with an archer inside.”
“You want to make firing nests that can cover the whole cliff!” Lauren exclaimed.
“We’ll have to make gaps in the sides for archers to fire through, and we need to test how much space the bows would need inside, but yes. We can make protected nests that can fire down on any climbers. They will be practically immune to return fire, but can easily pick off climbers with good angles and clear shots at the entire body, instead of trying to lean over and shoot at the head and shoulders of people hugging the rock.”
Work began almost immediately. Lauren fetched a bow and had Yaric stand in between the poles while others held up planks. It was far too narrow if he hoped to aim at targets below him. In the end, each side had three nests made, 2.5 meters wide, with large gaps between the rear most planks making the flimsy wall. They had to be careful not to damage them, as they were only nailed at the bottom. The gaps were no danger to the archers either, since the archers would be standing in the outermost part and facing back to the cliff, someone would have to be firing from the cliff in order to hit them.
Sven used offcuts from branches to make diagonal crossbeams at the rear, stabilizing the whole structure. Then he used cloth cut from sacks to make large containers at the far end and filled them with rocks and sand, to create a solid counterweight. The two poles everything centered on acted like a sled, allowing the defenders to keep their nests retracted and out of sight from anyone below, but still quickly slide them into place in the event of an attack. Small, low barricades made up of short stakes created the rest of the defenses. They looked like comical, miniature versions of the barricades that they normally made, but were ideal for making climbing over the edge particularly difficult.
The morning of Day 17 saw Team Shadow making their final preparations, going over the assembly process and practicing their assigned roles. It would be absolutely critical to their success. Getting caught at the bottom of their mesa, in the middle of assembling the defenses, would put them in a similar position to those they had taken flags from. No one wanted that to happen.
Things outside the camp were far more frustrating, and they only got worse in the afternoon. Neither Cormac nor Chris had ventured out of their camps, and no one had attacked them either. As successful as Team Shadow’s strategy had been, it did rely on others creating opportunities for them. There wasn’t much they could do if no one left their camps.
One option remained, which was to try an ambush when one of those teams went to collect their supplies. Team Shadow had succeeded in one area, which was forcing every team to leave their camps on supply days. That ensured that every team would move through a known area at a known time, but things weren’t quite so simple. Other teams also knew the risks, and they took steps to mitigate them.
Some teams would leave the evening before, or even at night, and camp right at the border to wait for the porters. Every one of those teams had also come up with the same idea of waiting at the border for random durations, making their return trips unpredictable. Other teams would head out into the forest and move in a route parallel to the path. Yet others set up an effective screen and travelled prepared, expecting an ambush.
Whether their opponents changed the time, moved through a different location to the one expected, or simply travelled while alert and well prepared for an ambush, it didn’t make an attack impossible. But it did significantly increase the risks, and their chances of success would be significantly lower than what they had gotten used to. Even if they did succeed, the costs would likely be high, and there was a reason most teams never attacked on the day of a supply drop. Losing team members for the maximum duration had a large impact.
So when a scout come running to report that Chris was under attack, and that the 5th year team launching the attack seemed to be well prepared, everyone jumped up in excitement. The helplessness of the last two days disappeared when they found the opportunity they had been waiting for, and it only took 10 minutes for the entire team to get their things, organize themselves and set off.
The Griffons had marched out in force the day before and approached Chris’s camp, but they had done nothing but observe from a distance and talk amongst themselves. Surprisingly, three of them had even approached the outer line of defenses, prompting Chris and his team to man their defenses in force. After poking around for a while without doing anything, the Griffons marched back to camp. Earlier that morning, word had come back that they had marched out again. No one was willing to take Li Na’s bet that it was The Griffons who were attacking Chris.
Yaric had come to realize that this year’s camp locations were far less varied than the year before, with Chris’s camp location much like everyone else’s. It sat surrounded by low hills on three sides, with the side facing the center of the competition area being open. Trees covered the hills, limiting visibility even further and providing cover for attackers to make a closer approach without being detected.
Chris had cut many of those trees down, extending his visibility and providing a lot of raw materials for defenses, which were made up of three concentric rings.
The outer ring seemed to be very basic, and not much use. Where Team Shadow favored making barricades that crossed stakes and used horizontal pieces for stability and to close gaps, while focusing on forward facing stakes to create a wall of ‘spears’, Chris had simply crossed short stakes as supports for the large, horizontal beams that formed a waist high fence. It didn’t look at all difficult to go over or under, even with the visible line of stakes just behind it.
The middle ring was even worse. It seemed to make sense in some ways, but Yaric felt it was inside out. A large trench was dug all around the camp with the outer edge being a 2m vertical drop, which then sloped up steeply toward the camp. In some ways it made sense, as attackers would be forced to jump the drop if they wanted to approach the inner ring. That would break up formations, and Yaric knew from experience that jumping from that height with a shield on one arm and a sword or spear in the other hand was never easy. Being surrounded by teammates who were also jumping down around you with their own weapons in hand made it worse. On top of that, the slope on the inside meant that the trench provided no cover from the defenders, who had a clear line of sight throughout.
But the more traditional barricade on top made no sense, as they would be jumping down into the trench anyway. It was hardly an inconvenience to jump slightly before the edge to clear the barricade as well. And while the trench was lined with spikes, the spikes were set into the vertical wall, which would be behind attackers once they jumped in.
At least the innermost ring was solid. Chris had constructed a large earthen wall all around his camp, almost 2m’s high on its own. On top of the wall was an additional palisade, another 3m’s tall. Unlike the two outer rings, which seemed almost afterthoughts, the inner ring stood tall and imposing. It would be a formidable obstacle.
And that was where The Griffons had come unstuck.
The outer ring looked untouched, obviously completely bypassed with little effort, though Yaric suspected its purpose was more to break up formations than provide any real barrier. The middle ring had been passed as well, apparently without too much difficulty. And now The Griffons were crouched in between the middle ring and the inner wall, covered by screens they had obviously brought with them. Scorch marks on the palisade showed where they had tried and failed to start a fire, with the team now clearly having a discussion in the middle of the battlefield, covered by mobile walls made of interlocking shields that had been fastened together.
“Why didn’t we think of that?” Sven asked, sounding impressed. Team Shadow was spread around him, crouching low at the crest of one of the hills and watching the assault unfold below them.
“Ah, because we aren’t stupid enough to attack a fortified position?” Li Na countered, smirking.
Sven’s retort was interrupted by The Griffons finally starting to move. It appeared that they had arrived just in time.
Lifting their screens, The Griffins approached the wall slowly, angling their makeshift barrier up as they got closer and making the defending archers all but useless. Now at the foot of the wall with their barriers directly overhead, most of the team held their protective cover while the rest got to work, stretched out over 10m’s at the base of the wooden palisade. The constant thwacking of axes started to sound out from the camp, with shouts of alarm coming from inside.
Bows were abandoned in favor of long spears, which the defenders started leaning over the wall to drive straight down, aiming for gaps between shields and between the shields and the wall. Several large rocks were also lobbed over, making the attackers holding the shields stumble. At least one of their makeshift barriers started coming apart from the impacts.
Then Yaric’s worst fears were realized.
Five students jumped backwards, moving out from under the protective shields but also out of range of the spears and too far back for the heavy rocks to hit. Each one threw several small objects over the wall at the concentration of fighters defending from the wall.
Fire splashed against the top of the wall from the inside, the incendiaries bursting to cover half a meter in each direction. Multiple incendiaries overlapped, creating a small inferno right where a significant number of Chris’s team had been trying to hold back the assault. Yaric couldn’t see the shields in the flames and smoke, but he knew several defenders had just been taken out at once. Yet still Team Unyielding refused to yield.
Team Shadow had a laugh though, when one Griffon rushed his last throw and struck the top of the palisade, splashing burning fluid onto the outside of the wall above their heads and sending much of it onto their own shields. Yaric could hear the swearing even from where he lay hidden on the hilltop.
Then Griffons started flashing amber and red, with several others falling to the ground as well. The barrier they had made started coming apart, as too many of the students helping to support it over their heads were dropping, and far too quickly for anyone to react and compensate.
Panic ensued.
The barrier came apart as The Griffons jumped back from the wall, just as defenders popped up over the top, again wielding bows. A volley of arrows added to the confusion, and a second later The Griffons broke and ran, trying to get out of range from archers they suddenly had no protection against.
Looking closely, Yaric saw that sections of dirt just below the palisades had fallen away. There were gaps in the palisades at those points, with cloth covering still hanging down. It appeared that Chris had left small openings around the base of his wall, below where the palisade was sunk into the earthen wall, which also had gaps to create small tunnels all the way through. A simple cloth covering had allowed the dirt to be piled over without giving any signs of the holes that lay below. Spear points that even now protruded from the base of the wall told the rest of the story.
The Griffons had been standing at the base of the wall, chopping at the wooden poles, when spears suddenly struck up from the ground, catching everyone by surprise and sowing confusion, not to mention downing over a dozen of them.
Then Chris’s final trap was sprung.
Yaric and his friends watched in disappointment as the Griffons ran to escape the fusillade of arrows, hopefully to regroup, only to find themselves caught between a wall of spikes in front and a rain of projectiles behind. The middle ring was back to front. Because it wasn’t meant to slow attackers, it was meant to trap them.
Whether Chris had worked out that a successful defense would often result in the attackers retreating chaotically yet safely due to the defender’s unwillingness to leave their fortifications, or he had simply been on the receiving end himself and knew from experience, Yaric didn’t know. What he did know, however, was that Chris had obviously planned for just such an occurrence and had taken steps to ensure that attackers couldn’t regroup and try again, now with better knowledge of what they had to overcome.
Stolen novel; please report.
The survivors ran down the slope, still under fire, and found themselves faced with a 2m vertical wall, lined with stakes, and a sharp barricade across the top. Jumping carried a great risk of landing on the barricade above. Trying to climb the wall was next to impossible, as while you could possibly use the stakes themselves as hand holds, the other stakes in front of your face and body would be impossible to avoid.
Yaric watched as one attacker tried to crawl away from the wall, having been struck in both legs by the spears that came up from the ground. The simulated wounds must have been bad, as his shield soon flashed over him, glowing amber and likely signifying blood loss.
One of his friends turned back, braving the arrows to pick his friend up and carry him back. The wounded teammate was a dwarf, so instead of trying to get an arm over his shoulder, the rescuer picked his friend up and slung his whole body over, courageously running back while under fire.
He made it halfway to the middle ring when his friend was struck in the head, the arrow instantly turning the amber shield red. He took a few more paces before he noticed the change in color, and just as he slowed to check on his friend, he himself was struck in the back, dropping instantly with his own shield amber and his friend paralyzed over him. A minute later both shields were red, joining the dozens lining the foot of the wall, the trench, and even the ground beyond.
Only eight Griffons made it out.
It was a disaster for both The Griffons and Team Shadow, as despite the action below, everyone knew that there would be no opportunity for taking Chris’s flags. The importance of cohesion was again driven home as well. More than anything else, Chris’s plan had broken up formations, sown confusion, and created panic amongst his attackers, the result of which was not simply defeat, but near annihilation.
“Did you see anything there that we can use for our own camp?” Sven finally asked, looking for a consolation prize while they watched the ragged survivors dejectedly making their way back to camp. Team Unyielding were already climbing over their own walls to inspect the damage and loot the fallen.
“No more additions,” Lauren stated firmly. “We have enough going on as it is, and we’re already finished.”
“It wouldn’t be worth it,” Yaric added, agreeing with Lauren. “Besides, our plans accomplish the same things, and we have enough layers that we can fight off multiple attacks with a different surprise each time.”
“Shouldn’t we at least send them on a team vacation?” Li Na asked, sounding deeply concerned. “That way they also won’t be needing any of the things they left back at their camp.”
“Sounds like the right thing to do,” Lauren agreed.
Team Shadow moved to intercept the survivors, leaving a single scout behind to try and get a count of the casualties Chris suffered. At least they would be able to see how many bright red shields left the camp when the paralysis wore off.
Intercepting the surviving Griffons was surprisingly difficult, as they made good time. Feeling vulnerable with such a small group no doubt contributed to their speed. Being such a small group was also an advantage in itself, but Team Shadow knew where they were going, and had no need to go out of their way to remain hidden.
There wasn’t even a proper fight. The eight Griffons approached the crest of a hill just as Team Shadow came over the top, having circled around. Eight vs fifty was never going to be a fight to begin with, but when the first five were felled almost immediately by the initial volley, the last three didn’t even raise their shields. They simply glanced dejectedly at each other as Team Shadow fell upon them, halfheartedly raising their weapons to at least act like they tried.
“We watched your attack,” Yaric told the nearest Griffon while his teammates stripped her weapons. “It was actually pretty good, especially that shield thing. Only one of Chris’s plans even worked. Unfortunately for both of us, it was enough to break apart your entire plan. Now you know that if you want to use fire, you can’t use incendiaries on their own. You have to…”
“Yaric!” Lauren exclaimed in exasperation as she walked past. “Are you trying to teach our opponents?”
“Uhhh… no?” Yaric said in embarrassment, realizing how it sounded. “I just felt bad for how everything ended. The results don’t reflect how close they came.”
“How close they came to fetching us two more flags you mean,” Li Na interjected, smirking.
The 5th year on the ground was still completely paralyzed under her shield, her eyes darting between everyone in confusion while she was forced to listen to every word they said.
“Anyway,” Yaric said finally, “I’m just saying that you guys shouldn’t feel discouraged. You did well.”
“Yaric, stop encouraging our opponents!”
“Sorry…”
“Yeah, better luck next year.”
“Lina!”
“What? I said next year.”
“Yes, Yaric is encouraging them and you’re throwing veiled insults at a downed enemy!”
“Nothing insulting about wishing someone well. What’s wrong with you?”
Natasha felt oddly relieved when the strange team moved away and out of sight, their voices growing quieter as they went back up the hill, until the arguing faded away completely, replaced by the quiet breathing of her teammates and the occasional bird song in the gently swaying branches above.
‘How are those idiots the team everyone is scared of? At least we won’t be stuck overnight by ourselves. And the camp outside has running water! And showers! Those fools don’t know it, but they’ve just given me a short vacation…’
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The Griffons didn’t have anything particularly needed inside their camp, but Team Shadow still took anything that wasn’t nailed down. Arrows, axes and hatchets, even more of the nails that had suddenly become popular, and yes, even more rope was piled together to be carted back.
Kaylin had thought she’d seen someone slip over the camp wall when they approached, forcing their team to move toward the center and set up a large screen behind themselves. Everyone was paranoid about being followed and having their camp discovered, so Yaric led everyone on a winding path and paused frequently.
Lauren stayed behind to watch the camp after they left, meeting up with the rest of her team at the prearranged point they had marked on their maps.
“It was Stewart,” she reported when she arrived. “He was struggling with his arm, so I think he was wounded in a previous fight and got left behind to watch the camp.”
“So that’s where he ended up,” Yaric mused, remembering how the first person from his class that he’d ever spoken to had become one of those to stay in the 5th year class.
“Did he try to follow us?” Sven asked.
“No, he went back soon after you left. He seemed far more concerned about what we had taken.”
“He was probably just shocked that we didn’t burn everything down when we left,” Li Na joked.
“I still think that was a mistake,” Sven said, looking pointedly at Yaric. Yaric pretended to be interested in something in the trees and completely ignored the comment.
They were able to take a far more direct route back, particularly since Yaric had led them south of their camp, allowing them to return without crossing the supply path for The Griffons. There was very little risk of coming across casualties leaving the area.
Gerrick was already back and waiting for them when they arrived.
“Chris took at least twenty casualties,” he informed them once everyone had climbed back up with their loot. “They started mixing with Griffons so it’s hard to tell for sure, but I think it’s either twenty-one or twenty-two.
“That many?” Sven asked in surprise.
“Maybe they were already preparing that attack from below?” Yaric speculated. “Those firebombs could have hit people on top of the wall and below it as well.”
“What difference does it make why they lost so many, the only thing that matters is that they did,” Lauren pointed out, before turning to look expectantly at Yaric.
“Can’t we just attack them like normal people for once?” he asked helplessly. “I bet that would catch them by surprise.”
Everyone just continued to stare at him, not saying a word but waiting impatiently.
“Fine,” he relented. “But if we’re going to ambush them it will have to be when they are making their way to the drop, before they join up with the others. And Chris isn’t stupid, he will still try and avoid an ambush.”
“We know,” Sven said approvingly. “That’s why you need to come up with something.”
Yaric sighed deeply and looked around at everyone watching him, uncomfortable with all the attention. This year’s competition had gone very differently, and in the opposite manner to what had just happened to The Griffons. Unlike last year, most of his ambushes had not gone as expected, but they had gotten lucky anyway. Now everyone was looking to him for the plan.
“We’ll have to move this evening,” he began. “If Chris leaves early, we need to already be in place. I know he likes to use different routes, which means we need to ambush him soon after he leaves. The further he gets from his starting point, the further he can drift from the path. Our biggest problem will be making sure he goes where we expect him to. Also, I think I know the best place to try.”
Yaric began issuing instructions for the things they would need, while Lauren began organizing for the whole team to camp out in Chris’s sector. It was already dusk when they left, making their way north along the boundary line. Yaric already had one location in mind, but he still wanted to go over the route again to make sure there wasn’t anything better.
There were plenty of better locations. Some were so good that Yaric was suspicious. But none of them were along routes Yaric felt Chris would be likely to take, making them useless. Of course, Chris could take any route at all. Just because one hill was especially steep and overgrown, didn’t mean that Chris couldn’t force his way through. That did not mean that it was likely though, so Yaric focused on the most reasonable options. Chris would most probably focus on not going the most obvious route, instead of focusing on choosing the least obvious. From his perspective, as long as he wasn’t on the obvious route, he was safe.
Yaric needed to focus on the alternatives. If Chris didn’t take the path, where would he go instead. And there was one location, 4km’s from his camp, that seemed most likely. A row of steep hills formed a virtual ridge, with two main routes through it, 1.5km’s apart. One was the route the supply path went through, the other was a dry riverbed that likely had flowing water when it rained. It was far from the expected path, but also easy to navigate and travel along.
It was far from a sure thing, but if the chance of Chris taking the supply path was 50/50, Yaric was sure that at least 40 of the remaining 50% would be the riverbed. Which was convenient for him, as his last plan involving a similar location had almost gone horribly wrong. This would be a chance to redeem himself.
Obstacles were created along the gap the supply path went through, just in case Chris took the most obvious but also most direct route. That option was narrower and with steeper sides, making a fantastic kill zone for archers. They really only needed obstacles to prevent a quick escape, and Yaric was sure that they would cut everyone down relatively easily.
The riverbed option was more difficult, mostly because it was much wider and far more open. Hiding fifty people wouldn’t be as easy, and archers would have to shoot from a longer range. The wider area would also give Chris more room to maneuver.
So Yaric avoided it.
Once the riverbed went through the ridge line, it turned sharply east, travelling uphill towards the distant mountains – and directly away from the supply drop. Yaric felt confident that if Chris chose to follow the riverbed, he would certainly keep going straight once it turned away, and head directly into the forest ahead.
So that was where he set up the second ambush.
Berms were dug alongside the obvious route, pits were dug in front of them, and trees were even scouted for archers to sit in, safely behind the melee fighters on the ground but with a clear vantage from which to fire down on The Unyielding. Meanwhile, the dense trees would break up any formation the defenders tried to use, while the attackers would be set up independently.
Satisfied, Sven set up camp directly between those two locations and sent two lookouts to watch the camp. They would follow Chris when he left, and once they had an idea of his planned route, one would run ahead to warn the rest of the team while the other kept watch to ensure there were no nasty surprises.
Unfortunately, there was a nasty surprise.
“They’re coming!” Anton called loudly, running into their temporary camp and waking his teammates up. They had been hoping to get some sleep before the upcoming ambush, but those hopes were now dashed.
“Already?” Li Na asked groggily, rubbing her face.
“But it’s at least 3 hours before sunrise,” Sven protested.
“Either way, they’re coming. We followed them for a while, they’re definitely going to the riverbed, and they’re no more than an hour away. Probably less.”
Yaric swore.
“It doesn’t change anything,” Sven protested, his face shrouded in the shadows cast by the moonlight filtering through the trees.
“It changes everything. Look how dark it is here. The ambush site is even thicker than this, we’ll be blind.”
Lauren punched his shoulder lightly. “So, what do we do?” she asked confidently.
Thinking frantically, Yaric went through every option he could think of. Chris could take any route once he got past their ambush site. There were far too many reasonable options to choose from. And there were no decent locations before the riverbed. Not unless they simply wanted to fight head-to-head with a possible advantage if they managed to catch Chris by surprise. Which would be unlikely.
“It will be dangerous to suddenly change plans just before they arrive,” Yaric protested weakly.
“We trust you.”
“Ok,” he said reluctantly. “I need everyone to check their things. The new plan…”
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Chris led his team out very early. With the previous attempts on his supplies, he wasn’t willing to risk immediately losing almost half his team again, but he also knew that he faced the very real risk of being attacked enroute. He wouldn’t put it past Yaric to already know about his casualties, nor would it surprise him if Yaric set up an ambush along the way. That’s why they left early, so they could be most of the way there before the sun came up. They were also taking a different route, so Sven and his team wouldn’t be able to wait for them along the path.
Walking quickly yet cautiously, Chris spread his team out on the wide riverbed. Archers on the slopes would be far less effective with the gaps between his team members, and he wasn’t going to take the chance. People could also be hiding along the bushes on the banks, but there was still more than enough distance between them for his team to prepare to meet any attacker that rushed out.
The bright moon, only slightly waning from full, lit up the entire riverbed in its soft glow. No one would be sneaking up on his team. Silence hung over most of the forest, broken jarringly by the crunching of stones under Team Unyielding’s boots as the wound their way through the ridgeline by moonlight.
Two loud cracks sounded behind him, making him turn quickly. More cracks came from the ground, quickly followed by something skipping along the stones. Then came the staccato sound of many more impacts. The darkness was suddenly lit up by several shields, four of them red.
“Archers! Defensive positions!” he shouted, lifting his shield and moving to form a line facing the side closest to him. He had no idea why Yaric would have chosen to be here, but that didn’t mean they were defenseless. They might be outnumbered, but if Sven wanted a fight, he would get a fight. Face to face, shield to shield. At least with the rocky ground and wide open space there wouldn’t be any funny tricks.
‘Just team vs team, and may the best team win.’
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Yaric watched Team Unyielding making their way through the riverbed. His team had run ahead, and spent several minutes combing the riverbed for lightly colored stones. Every stone was laid out in a line, clearly visible in the bright moonlight. Despite the wide spaces between each one, it was very obvious to those sitting higher up and further away, but far less obvious to anyone on foot and walking over it.
Fifteen archers lined the hills on each side, spread out widely. They had all been instructed to hold their fire until the first person crossed that line. Unfortunately, Yaric had forgotten to take into account how those further away might perceive someone as crossing the line before they actually did, due to the angle they were watching at.
Five arrows launched early, and seeing this, everyone else fired immediately after. Four red shields flared into life. Chris began directing his team below.
The next volley followed. No shields were activated. Following his earlier instructions, the third volley was aimed at the line furthest from each side, striking the rear.
This time, six more shields added their color to the monochrome moonlight.
“READY FIRST PHASE!” Yaric bellowed at the top of his lungs.
Silence descended as everything went still. Team Unyielding shifted nervously, peering over the top of their shields to see what this ‘first phase’ was. Still nothing. Chris prepared to give commands, unwilling to simply sit still and allow Sven to do as he pleased.
Then dazzling beams of light flashed across the riverbed. Shockingly bright light bathed the defenders as they looked over the top of their shields, forcing their eyes shut and most to duck their heads behind their shields.
Just 2 seconds later, the lights vanished, leaving bright spots flashing in front of them as they squinted into the sudden darkness. A stygian darkness that seemed far deeper than the one they had been moving through just moments before.
The silence was broken by the sound of crunching pebbles, coming from all around them.
“They’re coming!” Chris shouted desperately, blinking rapidly and shaking his head, hoping that the rest of his team were not as blind as he was. Raising his shield, Chris waited with trepidation, praying he would be able to see enough to fight back. He didn’t even react to the sword that came over his shield and into his neck, telegraphed by Anton from 3m’s away, yet utterly undetected.
In just seconds, Team Unyielding lay in darkness, with bright white lights flashing every time they blinked their unseeing eyes. Team Shadow stood over them in the riverbed, bathed in the bright red lights that glowed brighter than the moon.
No longer needing them, they tucked their lighting stones back into their pockets and stripped everyone of their weapons, working quickly in the crimson glow.
The archers made their way down and joined the rest of the team, before calmly making their way back. Unlike the previous fight in a river bed, this one felt more like one of their training exercises at the Academy, but easier.
The whole thing had been over in a flash.