Every time Orelio took a break from exerting himself he quickly found himself once again bored out of his mind. To him, the days of rigorous training had been something akin to bliss. Unlike Stein who'd spent a good part of their training getting beat black and blue, Orelio had made substantial advances. His physical skills hadn't improved overly much, as Albatos was horrendous at teaching anything not related to magic, and fighting a single opponent over and over didn't promote growth, but rather stagnation he found. Even still, he'd always found joy in simply exerting himself.
He thought back to his conversation with Stein. No plans to do anything but follow that grumpy old man around, huh? Yeah, something tells me that won't last forever. Even if it does, there's surely a much better chance to shine at your side than anywhere else I could go.
He heard a knock on the door in the middle of a set of pull-ups he'd been doing using a bar he'd stolen off the garden fence supported on the chandelier hanging in the middle of the room. He found that having to pull himself up while balancing his weight so as not to swing the chandelier was a unique challenge.
"Yeah?" He said, letting go of the bar and dropping to the floor.
Vanderburst entered the room, a jug in hand. When he looked at Orelio's sweat-soaked figure and the slightly swinging chandelier with a bar shoved through the silver arms he said, "Please don't do that. I seriously doubt the chain that holds that up is made to withstand your weight."
"Oh, right," Orelio said, scratching the back of his greasy hair in embarrassment.
"Here," Vanderburst said, setting the jug he was carrying on a table, "I thought you might want some water, though I didn't think you'd still be going with what's going on outside. I'd advise stopping your strenuous activity to reduce the amount of smoke you breathe in."
"Smoke?" Orelio asked, tipping his head sideways. Now that he focussed on his nose he did feel as though he could detect the acrid smell.
"Not looked outside in a while? There's a fire on one of the lower levels. Shouldn't be anything too bad, I hope. The noble mistress is taking care of it. I just hope we don't have to sound the bells to signal the evacuation. I believe the last time that happened was over 150 years ago."
"Huh," is all Orelio says as he looks out the window and sees the ashen smoke settling over the city. Really, it's amazing he hadn't noticed it at all till now, considering some of it was pooling and settling in the administrative district, creating a haze in the streets. He watched as some pedestrian took out a handkerchief and covered their mouth as they continued on their way.
He turned from the window and picked up the jug. "Thanks," he said before taking several long gulps. Vanderburt's attitude towards most of the group had soured since the events of yesterday, but Orelio had come to know the small tink pretty well over the past month.
The tink had noticed the change in the attitudes of the manor guards almost instantly when Orelio had swiftly and effectively cleaned out most of their pockets. He'd approached Orelio one evening after training to see if Orelio would be interested in a different type of game, one Vanderburst called Onketalo.
Games were perhaps the only thing that Orelio enjoyed as much as exercising, but his family had never been particularly wealthy when he was young, so cards were the only adult game he'd ever been exposed to. When Vanderburst said the game he'd suggest didn't involve gambling Orelio had been hesitant. The stake in the game was what made it interesting, after all. Still, he couldn't deny his curiosity and went along with the proposition.
If Stein had seen the board the game was played on he likely would have likened the game to chess or checkers, but to Orelio the gameboard was something entirely alien. After an explanation of the rules they had their first round, and Orelio lost so decisively he wondered if perhaps his opponent was somehow cheating.
In frustration he had demanded they go again, and Vanderburst gladly complied. After half a dozen bouts Orelio determined that so long as one understood the rules it was fundamentally impossible to cheat in this game. It was this realization that frustrated him more than anything, and he stormed off after that.
However, he found that he couldn't stop going over the games they had played in his mind as he fell asleep that night. The next day he sought Vanderburst out and asked that he be shown the game again. Without a word about the sore loser Orelio had been, he brought the game out again with a friendly and knowing smile.
After another dozen sound defeats Orelio felt himself growing frustrated again. Vanderburst sensed this and asked if Orelio wanted any advice or if he wanted to figure out his own strategies.
This surprised Orelio. When he'd learned cards and dice nobody he'd ever gone against had bothered helping beyond explaining the basic rules. It was their money on the line, after all. And who didn't love winning? So with a fair bit of trepidation Orelio agreed to some light coaching.
As the days wore on and Orelio and Vanderburst played in the evenings after training he started to understand the game better and better. He stopped losing so terribly but still lost almost every game. Even the games he won were only because Vanderburst played with a handicap.
It struck Orelio one night that though he continually lost, Onketalo was fun. He hadn't thought it during his matches as he continually lost, but he could not deny the irresistible urge to keep challenging that seemingly insurmountable wall of skill.
Coming back to the present, it seemed like the tink had anticipated Orelio's exact thought process as he brought out the gameboard, "I know this may not be the best time, but I'm not sure we'll get another chance from one last game."
Orelio nodded with a smile, and they sat down to play.
***
"Say, when you go into battle, you're usually the type to charge off on your own, aren't you?" Vanderburst asked with a smile.
Orelio looked up from the board, surprised, "I guess so, yeah. How'd you know?"
Vanderburst gave a soft chuckle, "Well, I have been watching you boys train every day, so even I, who's never seen or hopes to see combat can tell you're the brash type that throws yourself headfirst into any situation. I think it's that confidence that lets you do so well in cards as well."
"Yeah, well it doesn't seem to help much here."
"I'd beg to differ, actually."
Orelio snorted, "How's that? Confidence doesn't help me when you've got me pinned three different ways."
"You can't tell because your playstyle doesn't have confidence in it, none at all. No, in fact, you haven't been confident in even winning a game ever since the first, when you didn't even know what you were doing. I'll bet you thought to yourself I must have been cheating after the first game."
Orelio didn't say anything, but he did vaguely remember thinking that at the time.
"No, confidence is just as essential here as it is in cards, maybe even more so."
"You still haven't explained how," Orelio says grumpily as Vanderburst takes one of his pieces.
"Why don't you take my pieces when I advance forward?"
"Because you set a trap behind every move," Orelio said, moving his own piece.
"Yes, but you've also learned how to trap by now. I step into yours quite frequently and yet I still come on top. Why?"
"Because you're better?"
"Because I have the confidence to step into what I know is a trap and still believe it will gain me an advantage," Vanderburst stepped into one of Orelio's traps at just that moment to prove the point. Orelio moved the piece he had poised for just the situation, taking Vanderburst's piece in retaliation. Vanderburst took back with a different piece, and Orelio took that one as well.
Surely that must be all of them, Orelio thought. Yet, just as he relaxed his composure Vanderburst placed his hand on a piece Orelio hadn't even considered as it had been locked behind one of the previous pieces. Even before Vanderburst moved the piece Orelio knew he was defeated, as the moment it took back what now stood in the trap square it had a straight line of movement to Orelio's Johinkephan, his loss square."
"And that's game," Vanderburst said as he moved the piece into place.
"See? No matter what I do it seems like you've always got something else up your sleeve."
Vanderburst chuckled, "It's you who doesn't see. Two times in this game and three in the last you held the better boardstate, had the advantage."
Orelio frowned, feeling like he'd know it if he was winning.
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"At most of those moments you could have chosen to push forward and exploit my subpar defenses, but because you're so lost in the mentality that I'm better therefore I must have something you don't see up my sleeve you let the opportunity pass. In those crucial moments you play passively when you should have the confidence to make an aggressive move."
Orelio shrugged and sighed as he started to reset his board, "If you say so."
"Confidence aside, do you know what led me to the conclusion that you're the type to rush out on the battlefield?"
"Didn't you say you guessed that after watching how I fight?"
"That's part of it, but the real giveaway is how you play."
"You just said I play too passively."
"For the most part, you do. However," Vanderburst reached across the table and picked up one of Orelio's pieces, "This is what allows you to gain the advantages you do."
The piece Vanderburst had grabbed was called the Hnkephalin. It was the piece with the longest movement and capture range, but it could only move properly in certain situations.
"Somehow you manage to throw a hitch in my plans every time with this little piece. It's almost art how consistently you manage to set up the Hnkephalin's movements without my noticing. And then suddenly my key piece is gone, and yours is there in its place."
It was the one part of the game Orelio was confident in, and he used it in every game he could. However…
"But even with that, the way you use it is crude at best. It's a sacrificial piece, played at a pivotal moment and discarded. You throw it into enemy lines much like you throw yourself I presume. It rushes forth heedless of either the boardstate or its own safety. Much like you, I'm guessing."
Orelio could only frown at that. It was eerie how close it was to the truth. He didn't usually give a damn about his superior's strategy and rushed headlong into what seemed the most dangerous territory, seeking opponents to hone himself against. He didn't do it for anyone but himself and never actually thought about his own safety in advance.
"I'm sure at your core you believe you're a man of action," Vanderburst continued, setting down the piece among his own, "That you're a one-man force of nature. An island, in need of no excess weight to survive and thrive. And I'm sure at least some part of that is true.
"But tell me Orelio, do you plan to live like that forever? Because I can assure you if that's the path you choose you'll end up just like your own piece, left without support in a situation you can't escape." Vanderburst flicks the Hnkephalin, and Orelio felt more than heard the clatter as it toppled to the board.
"What are you trying to say?" Orelio managed to squeeze out, his chest feeling tight.
"Just trying to give some advice is all," Vanderburst said as he picked the Hnkephalin up and placed it back on Orelio's side of the board, "I think you'll find that you can soar to heights you've never imagined if you broaden your horizons and cooperate more with those around you. Instead of relying on purely physical supremacy try mixing in some strategy. I think it'll change the way you view certain things."
"I've never been very good at that. I mean, I'm just a simple guy, you know? I've never bothered giving strategy much thought before. I'm sure I'd just get in the way of those who actually know what they're doing."
"Once again you run into the problem of confidence. You tell yourself you've always been simple so you'll always be simple. But is that really the case? I know Stein and your mentor both treat you as something of a simpleton, only useful for your great physical prowess, but why would they treat you any different when it's the only side of you they've ever seen?"
"What makes you think I would even be any good at strategy? I've never actually thought about it before."
Vanderburst chuckled and motioned to the board, "What do you think you've been doing?"
"So you're saying I should have confidence in my ability to strategize when I can't even beat you at a game? It's fine if I fuck up and lose here, we can just go again. But out there… it's different. One wrong step and it's over, no redos."
"So you think because you can't beat me that you're no good at strategy in general?"
"Well… yeah," Orelio says with a shrug.
Vanderburst gave Orelio a knowing smile, "Boy, I have lived a century and more. I have faced hundreds of opponents, seen dozens of strategies, fought generations of masters. Trust me when I tell you it would take at least another month for you to be my match. But I'll tell you this as well, the progress you've made in a single month has been astonishing. That isn't just empty praise either. When you leave this city I urge you to seek out other players, to test yourself against a wider variety of opponents. I promise you'll find your skill isn't as lacking as you assume."
Orelio thought over that. It was true Vanderburst was the only opponent he'd had in Onketalo. He'd unconsciously assumed Vanderburst was about average skill, but that assumption was likely mistaken. Before he could say anything Vanderburst continued.
"And besides," He said, eyes cast toward the board yet looking at something far away, "Real life and Onketalo are not played with the same rules. On this board, every piece is wholly unique, and sometimes the rules change at the drop of a hat."
Vanderburst's words gave Orelio pause, and he couldn't help but look at the tink in a new, unknown light.
I'd always thought of tinks as easygoing pacifists. But looking at that expression I realize how woefully incomplete my understanding of them was. He said he's lived a century and more. What must he have seen in those hundred years? Surely he views this world in a different way than I do.
"So you think I should try to strategize more when I fight," Orelio said, trying to break the ice.
Vanderburst looked up, snapped out of his thoughts, "Yes, I believe you should try. And you need to have more confidence, else you'll never get anywhere. You're smarter than you give yourself credit for. Now come, let's play again."
Orelio wore a bittersweet smile as they continued playing, both happy to play and sad that he knew it couldn't last much longer. Then, in the middle of their game they heard a bell, then two and then more, sound out in the distance.
Vanderburst looked out the window, "No… It can't b-" He didn't get a chance to finish the statement as the outside wall exploded inward.
The breath is knocked out of Orelio as he slams into the opposite wall, battle hardened reflexes being the only thing that allow him to move his head slightly out of the way as the shaft of a steel sword pierces the wall where his head had been a fraction of a second earlier.
Without even giving himself the time to regain his breath Orelio reached past the hand holding the sword into the dust cloud. He grabbed onto the hem of a shirt and pulled himself and the opponent together and slammed his forehead into the invader's nose.
The attacker reeled backward into the dissipating cloud of dust, leaving his sword stuck in the wall beside Orelio's head. This left time for Orelio to shoot a glance to the side, and the glimpse of red on the wall and the unmoving form of his friend was enough to spark a rage in his heart like he'd never known.
The misty haze of airborne ash drifted in as the dust settled, giving Orelio a look at his attacker. The man was slightly taller than himself, holding his left hand up to his bleeding nose while his right reached behind him and started to pull out a dagger. These were the only details Orelio took in before setting himself in motion.
Orelio was upon him almost faster than he could believe. Orelio saw the surprise in the man's eyes but paid it no regard as he threw himself straight into his attack without giving himself the time he usually would to set up either an Area or a projection. He was in a state of action, all instinct and rage.
The man's left hand left his nose in a panic, letting the crimson torrent gush forth over his hand and face as he desperately made a hand sign. Orelio simply reached out with his right and took the man's hand in his own, exerting all the force he could to crush the man's fingers.
The man tried to swipe at him with his dagger, but it resulted in only a nick on his arm as the man's aim was thrown off by Orelio leaning back with the man's hand still in his own, pulling him along. Orelio took a step to the left, planting his feet as firmly as he could before pulling the man with every ounce of reinforced and rage fueled strength he could muster.
The man was lifted off his feet helplessly as Orelio flung him around, almost replicating the situation he himself had been put in just the day before. But Orelio wasn't content to simply swing the man around in a circle. With a pivot and a grunt of effort, he brought the man's arc upward, sending him crashing through the chandelier.
Orelio felt only the briefest of snags as the man caught on the chandelier before the ceiling chain gave way and the man was sent crashing the rest of the way down to the floor, the chandelier forming a sort of wretched and mangled cage around him.
The man, disoriented and stunned didn't even have time to register what was coming as Orelio brought his left fist down upon his chest with all his rage-filled might. "Kuh…" was the only sound the man let out as the blow shattered his sternum and cratered his chest. The only other thing that came out of his mouth was blood from his collapsed lungs and probably heart.
Orelio took a deep breath to steady himself as he watched the man look down upon his ruined chest and the light of life slowly drained from his eyes. After taking a few moments to make sure the man wouldn't be getting up the adrenaline rush receded and Orelio felt a panging pain from his left hand.
Lifting it, he saw that he'd dislocated or broken every one of the knuckles on his left hand, leaving the fingers in his fist looking slightly tilted or off. Naturally, the full brunt of the pain only came on as he noticed the injury. Regardless, he shoved it down.
Damn it. I put too much into reinforcing my strength rather than my toughness. This is what I get for not paying attention in training and instead getting lost in the fun of it.
Orelio shifted focus from himself to his friend, and quickly rushed over when he realized Vanderburst was still moving. "Hey! Are you alright?"
A thick structural beam lay on the tink's legs. Orelio quickly grabbed it and lifted it away. Looking down at Vanderburst he saw a sliver of wood impaled through the tink's abdomen. Before he could even do anything the tink said, "I'll be– AH! I'll be fine," as he wasted no time in yanking the piece of bloodied wood out and tossing it aside before quickly moving his hand back onto the hole in his stomach.
"We have to get you-" Orelio's words are cut off as Vanderburst reached forward and grabbed his shirt, yanking him closer.
"No," Vanderburst says through quick and pained breaths, "That can't have been the only one, which means the noble mistress is in danger. I'll be fine, see?" He nodded down, and Orelio looked to see a soft golden glow around the hand putting pressure on the wound, "Healing magic, remember? I'll be fine, so please… please go fine the noble mistress. If anything happens to her I'll…" He trailed off, but Orelio could see the despair at the mere possibility in his eyes.
"Alright," Orelio says, putting a hand on the tink's shoulder to reassure him, "I'll go." Without any more wasted words or time, he yanked the unfamiliar sword out of the wall before he dashed out of the room, heading towards the foyer as a series of crashes sounded out.
The sight that met him upon his entering the foyer was of Lleig and two of his minions standing at the doorway, a Stein and Albatos standing more in the center of the room, and several small holes in one of the walls, the smokey haze drifting in from without. He had a good enough angle to look through the holes and see several figures running across the property, Annora and Andora among them.
Thoughts raced through Orelio's mind as he took stock of the situation. A flash of doubt ran through his mind but he shoved it down, buried it within. After a moment only one course of action was left to him, the only good play he could make.
Sorry Vanderburst, I can't go after Andora in this situation. She has someone far more reliable at her side anyway.
He stepped forward, aligning himself next to Stein as they faced their enemies down.