Day 4

Somehow overnight Lara and Fonial had become more intertwined. There were odd moments when one or the other had moments of clarity, but as soon as I thought I could make progress with them their minds would disappear again. Whatever had happened to give Fonial such an unheard-of class as his first class was complicating my life.

The peaceful bond that I had shared with Lara, was now being interrupted by this interloper. I could feel my frustration growing.

The trip to the Arena was a nightmare, with Lara’s and that man’s presence would flare and causing panic in the streets. Elizabeth had to clear the streets in the end. Such use of power was frowned upon, but there was no choice.

By this time the influence of ‘His’ class had spread and all of the red squad had gained classes. While most were combat classes, there was a significant degree of variation.

The various single combats went much as could be expected. While the red squads comfortably defeated the various monsters they were pitted against, since they all had classes that supported combat. Even Fanny who as far as I could tell as a healer had no great skills in combat was able to fend off the boar that she faced until it collapsed and fell into an unconscious state.

When it came to that man’s turn, the organizers had arranged a fight that even I would have found challenging, even with more than 25 levels over him. I expected him to die. Yet Lara stood calmly by and willed him to win. This fight was so unbalanced it was clear to me that the imperials had decided to have him killed. Yet it was not long until he prevailed. I caught the flare of a leveling of his class, and at the same time, I felt the team bond grow. In my mind, he had gained a Feat that strengthened the team in some way. Yet at the same time, his personnel shield became qualitatively better. It was puzzling.

I became lost in my mind as I struggled to understand how he could be so powerful. The class was known to build very strong teams and eventually powerful armies but it had limited personnel advantages. Great as a subordinate class but it did not make sense as a primary class. All that came to mind was that he had been very lucky with the feats that he had gained.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

I snapped back to the present once the red team moved as one into the combat ring. There was a qualitative improvement in the coordination of the team. Without words, they had set up a defensive position near the combat ring shields Their backs faced us.

While they started well, with a powerful shield they were being slowly forced to become more and more defensive, as the elite Kobolds were able to direct their forces to stress the shield tiring the caster. Suddenly he threw his mace out of the defensive area killing one and luckily killing another with a deflection. The precision of the throw was outside the realms of possibility for such a neophyte. It then struck me that it was a variation of a skill set that Lara and I had been developing over the last ten years.

Shocked I stared at Lara until one of the trainers clipped the back of my head with a grain of sand that felt more like a club. The ring shields should have prevented any interference from anyone outside of the ring. Yet somehow Lara and the detestable man were communicating.

The sudden reversal of form resulted in the other elite approaching fractional too close to the fire shield and he sprang out and killed the last elite.

At this point, I realized that Lara was drawing from our shared pool of power and providing the power not only to him but to the other two that were fighting.

The announcement that followed shocked me. Lara and I were going to have to participate. And given her state of mind, this could easily result in my death as I would always place her life above mine.

I could see no alternative I had to break them out of the fog that they were living in. On the return trip, I ran various alternatives through my mind and could not come up with anything better than acting as a physical bridge between them. This would force a gap hopefully resulting in clear minds that could plan and drive all of the red squads towards some level of survival. Elizabeth and Holly had made it clear that victory was survival not any of the traditional measures of success.

By the time we had reached the barracks, I had decided that the only choice was to surrender and accept that we were now three, not the two that had always been the plan.

We moved to our room. I ensured that we would have whatever privacy was available to us. And I then acted and took all the pleasure that I could from what limited choice I had.

With this act, I claimed whatever control that I could hope for. With that, the day ended with me in an unfamiliar place. Yet the fog that had clouded the mind of my love was clearing and once again there was hope for survival.