An excerpt from the Royal Records of Sol Invictus, by Pithy the Younger
On the fourth day of the second month in the year of the 11th Wave, Livius the Prime Merchant came to the court of the Emperor and requested a public audience. Once a crowd had gathered, he began speaking on the merits of the 11th Wave and the potential markets that they represent. He was rebutted by Marius au Flavius, the Military Commander, who spoke at length on the risk that they represent. The crowd laughed at the idea of a lower wave posing a risk to the Empire but he remained committed to the idea.
Alejandro watches the bearded man. Het tries to strike again. The veins on his forehead swell. Muscles bulging as he puts his weight behind it. Still, the hammer loses motion as it gets closer. It hits him with the force of a tap. A little chuckle.
Alejandro responds by grabbing the handle of his hammer. Striking from below. Hitting the over-exerted man in the chest. A flare of purple light from his hammer and an explosion of force. The man flying back into the air and landing on the ground a few feet away. Clouds of dust upon his landing.
Carmen waits where he lands. Holds her knife blade side down in perfect stillness. Waiting for her moment to strike. Strikes a split second after he lands. Hidden in the dust. Blade goes through an opening in the leg armor. Slices through the cloth and hamstrings him. She jumps back to avoid his counter-attack. Pointless waste of energy he knew he wouldn’t land.
Standing a safe distance away, he watches. The man might have tricks, have to keep an eye out. Carmen’s Skill showed them winning every time but better safe than sorry. She can’t see every possibility.
Carmen walking up to the man, moving efficiently. That strange perfect movement. She seems … angry. No longer just selfish and lazy. More than angry, almost righteous. Better to let her do what she needs to do. To each their own decisions.
She kneels by the man, safe distance away. Stares him in the eyes.
“See Craig, I’m not really one for all of this. I like to be comfortable and do my own thing. But when I’m forced to watch you and your team kill my friends over and over and over again, well, then I have a goddamn problem.”
She moves forward, dodging his pitiful strike. Jumps over his body and quickly strikes. The knife is stabbed deep into his lower back. Her face contorts in exertion and anger. She drives the blade deeper and deeper. She looks conflicted but moves with resolve. Suddenly stops and pulls the blade out. Craig collapses onto his side.
Her hand reaches into his pocket, takes out a bandage. Staunches the wound for a minute and then steps over him again. His face is pale, ghostly white, eyes filled with fear. He knows what has happened but can’t accept it. The fear isn’t of death. Something deeper … worse than death.
She grits her teeth and kneels to him. “I’m not going to kill you Craig. No, I want you to watch and confront the fact that we will win. I want you to see what happens and then I want you to spend the rest of your miserable life regretting the day you decided to come up against us.”
The look on his face suddenly more pronounced. He looks at her as if she is El Cuco in human form. Tears build up in his eyes. “What did yah do to mah?”
Grits her teeth as she responds. Seems conflicted on her choice but going through with it. “I made sure you’ll never hurt anyone ever again. So when people ask you about Everwall, I want you to tell them about what happens to those who try to fuck with us.”
A familiar ping noise. A large notification blooms into vision.
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Kat stares at the young man in front of her, brows furrowed. Despite everything she’d hit him with, he was still standing and fighting. How had he survived it all!? She’d hit him with two arrows, a throwing knife, and even a rock to the face, and he’d shrugged off all the attacks like they were nothing.
It was obvious it had something to do with the strange flares of light that seemed to appear from his body but she couldn’t see what they were. Perhaps even more frustrating was the fact that he wasn’t even wearing armor. All he wore were regular clothes, a pair of pants and a long sleeved shirt, while she wore pieces of leather armor that from animals that she killed herself.
“We both know you’re running out of arrows. Do you want to surrender or are we going to have to keep going?” The young man asks her as he begins moving to the side, his eyes focused on her hands. He’d quickly realized her main Skill was in projectiles and had managed to dodge more than half. Hell, even the few attacks she’d managed to land had been more luck than anything else. It almost seemed as if he wasn’t used to fighting against another person.
“I’m just buying time for my boss, kid. He’ll finish up with Cael and then your time is gonna be up”, she responds, speaking with far more confidence than she feels. Peter may have become stronger in the last month but she still wasn’t sure who would win the conflict between the former friends. His only real edge was his ruthlessness, something she was sure Cael lacked.
The young man looks at her with condescension and pride. “You’ve obviously never seen Cael in real combat.”
He then begins jogging forward. She tracks his movements, carefully laying out a mental map of where his next few steps will take him, and then makes her move. Quickly reaching up, she grabs an arrow from her quiver and lines it up, drawing back the bowstring in one smooth motion. The arrow then flies forward and she begins sprinting to her next position, needing to keep the distance between her and her foe.
Out of the corner of her eye, she sees a light flare up and manages to catch a glimpse of the young man as he moves with a breathtaking speed. The arrow looks as if it is going to hit him directly in the chest and then he blurs slightly, spinning around the arrow and letting it fly past him.
Gritting her teeth in frustration, she turns to her destination and continues running, drawing another arrow and lining it up with her bowstring. Upon reaching the area, she spins around, bow raised and arrow set along her sight line, only to find the young man missing. Her eyes dart around, looking for him, and then she feels a heavy thump behind her.
Before she has the chance to react, a strong grip grabs onto her wrist and squeezes tightly. The bones in her wrist crack with a loud noise and she screams in pain before stopping herself, gritting her teeth to try and turn the pain into motivation. In that split second of distraction, however, the young man has taken her bow and snapped it over his knee. With a broken wrist, and armed with only two arrows, she grabs one by the shaft and holds it out in front of her, baring her teeth. Her body seems unable to handle the immense pain of her shattered bones as her other hand trembles beneath the weight of the light arrow. All she wants to do is fall to the ground and cradle her arm but that path ends in defeat.
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The young man then moves with a speed she can’t match, knocking the arrow out of her hand and kicking her legs to bring her to the ground. Lying there, barely able to comprehend this turn of events, she groans in pain and tries to get back onto her feet only to find her opponent’s foot on her back, pushing her into the ground with a steady force.
“Let’s stay down, alright? Last thing I want to do is take this further.” He says with a youthful exuberance, obviously happy that he managed to take down his opponent. His happiness fills her with the shame of having lost, but all of that falls away with what happens next.
A familiar ping is heard and a notification blooms within her vision.
Suddenly it seems as if she’s unable to breath. Anguish overwhelms her, tears falling out of her, as she begins to scream and cry.
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I sit on the ground next to the unmoving body of my best friend and hear that damnable pinging noise. Tears cascade down my face and I can barely read the words, but that doesn’t matter. I know what it says.
Congratulations Candidate of Everwall! You have defeated the Candidate of Farringham and completed the Trial of Leadership! You are the [9th] Candidate to complete this Trial.
Return back to Everwall within [Two] Earth Weeks to begin the Trial of Change. Further information will be provided upon return.
I read the notification out of a sense of obligation, not wanting Peter’s death to be in vain, but I’m feel damned by Genesis’s congratulations. Is this really the world we live in? One where friends are pitted against each other and then rewarded for taking lives?
A small part of me acknowledges that it was only his unwillingness to surrender that brought about this outcome but I ignore that voice, directing all my anger and sadness at the faceless entity that has changed my life so drastically.
Distant screaming brings me back from my mental void of despair, something I’ll have to deal with later, and I look around to see if my team is all right, finally taking in the outcome of our battle. Alejandro and Carmen seem to be fine, although Carmen looks as if she’s crying slightly. Craig’s limp body is by their feet and it takes me a few moments to realize that he isn’t dead but just unable to move. What on earth did they do to him?
Now’s not the time to worry about that, I need to focus on the screaming. Turning around, I spot Hakim, facing away from me, near the broken remains of one of the trees and it seems as if the screaming is coming from his direction. Despite the screams sounding feminine, I quickly cast Fleet Feet and Mana Infusion, the world around me blurring as I sprint towards my possibly injured teammate. I feel my face darken as I consider losing another friend today and I push myself forward even faster.
I reach Hakim quickly and stop, snapping the world back into clarity. I take in everything and that’s when the source of the screaming becomes evident. Beneath Hakim’s foot lies Kat, the first person I laid eyes upon after returning to Earth, and she looks up at me. I’m taken aback by the vehemence in her eyes and voice as she spits out each word. “You killed him, you monster! You fucking killed him! You could have let him go or …”
Her voice trails off, choking behind sobs.
I kneel to make eye contact with her, letting her see the tears flowing down my face to show her how I truly feel. “Do you really think I didn’t try? He was too stubborn to accept surrender and … I did what I had to.”
It’s obvious she doesn’t believe me as she spits on me. I wipe away the spit and then stand up, looking around at the glade that served as our battleground. The ground has been churned up and destroyed, half the trees have been knocked over or badly damaged, and blood is splattered all over the formerly green grass. The sense of peace and natural beauty is gone but the looming mountains remain, looking down upon us as if pleased by the battle and blood that has been shed. The whole area fills me with a sense of regret and repulsion but I know that there is a lot we need to do before we can leave.
Ignoring the continually cursing Kat, I turn to Hakim and put my hand on his shoulder. “You did a good job. Can you … can you go and get that kid and bring him over here?” He lights up from my praise and nods, jogging over to the young boy who I knocked out. Hopefully he’s still alive and we can end this unfortunate event with just one body to bury.
Motioning Alejandro and Carmen over, as well as pointing at the still limp Craig, I wait for everyone to gather together. It doesn’t take long for the three surviving members of the Farringham team to be lined up against the body of one of the destroyed trees. Luckily for the state of my soul, it seems as if the boy is still alive and seems to be coming around, eyes glazed and confused but better that than dead.
I then quickly confer with Alejandro, confirming what Carmen did to Craig, and look at her with sympathy. I was too concerned with the upcoming battle with Peter to even imagine what it was like for her to watch us die over and over again during out planning session. We’d gone through dozens of iterations to get our plan as efficient as possible and she must have watched some of us die in each one. I make a mental note to talk to her about it later, or perhaps even get Hakim to get her to open up.
But that is in the future. The present is grabbing my focus and I need to tie off some loose ends.
Staring down at the three dazed, injured, and crippled people below me, I speak, letting the sorrow I feel creep into my voice. “I didn’t want to kill anyone today ... unfortunately, I had to. The real question here is what the three of you are going to do next. If you all swear to not come after Everwall in the future, I’m willing to let you all return to Farringham.” I don’t bother mentioning the other option, as I imagine all of them know what their choice really is.
Kat is the first to respond, spitting in my direction, and glaring at my entire team. “I won’t swear shit! You killed Peter and either I’m gonna kill you or you’re gonna have to kill me.”
“Really Kat?” I respond, glancing over at her two teammates. “You’ve got one teammate who can’t walk and another who is barely coherent, and you just want to leave them out in the wilderness on their own?”
Obviously she’s partially blinded by her emotions but I can tell that statement gets through to her. She looks over at Craig and the boy, noting how unresponsive and shocked Craig is and how dazed the boy is. I continue, “Despite your wrist, you’re the single best shot these two have to return to civilization. If you insist on martyring yourself for a useless cause, then there’s a good chance these two will die out here. Please, be a better person than that.”
I can see the conflict on her face as she realizes that I’m telling the truth. After a minute or two of thought, she finally hangs her head and nods. Wanting to make sure she’s telling the truth, I rephrase my request and a Contract appears in front of all three of them. Each of them spends a decent amount of time reading the fine print, which basically guarantees that they’ll never take actions against Everwall or any of its citizens, and then they all accept.
Turning to Alejandro, I have him take one of our packs and fill it with everything they would need. We spare as much food, water, spare clothing, camping equipment, and spare weapons as we can before handing it over to Kat. She glares at me as she accepts the pack but doesn’t do anything more.
Before we leave, I walk over to Peter’s body and stare down at it for a few seconds. It’s strange to see his body like this. I expect him to jump up and surprise me, playing off the entire conflict as some elaborate prank that he’s been setting up for months. Of course, he doesn’t do that and he just lies there, the final remnant of my best friend.
Kneeling down, trying to ignore the fresh tears falling down my face, I put my hand to the ground and push Earth Mana out, manipulating the ground around him to open up and lower his body into the earth. Then, with no consideration for Mana costs, I begin manipulating the ground around me through a combination of all my skills. The final result is a slab of smooth heavy rock that rests above his body and an earthen tombstone that rises just a foot away from the head.
Walking up to it and letting the melancholy flow through me, I conjure a small Mana Blade at the end of my finger, carving words into the tombstone.
Once I finish, I walk away and join my team as we leave the glade and head back towards Everwall. Apart from the damage to the glade, which will recover over time, the only thing that will serve as a reminder of our battle is the slab and tombstone, carved with words that will hopefully last for an eternity.
Here lies Peter Clark, beloved brother, son, and friend.
He died fighting for what he believed in.
He will be sorely missed.