“What’s the situation?” Kalden asked as he entered Blood Army’s command tent. In all honesty, it wasn’t much of a tent—just a covered section of the parking lot near the Artegium. Portable shield Constructs surrounded the edges, glowing with the pale blue light of protection mana. Guards stood at attention near the gaps, armed with steel Missile rods.

Tori and Lyra huddled around a parked car, and they’d laid a map over its hood. The car was actually running, judging by the low hum of its engine. Several cables ran from beneath the hood toward the shield’s batteries, letting the car serve as backup power for their defenses.

Both girls glanced up as he approached. Lyra wore all her usual makeup, but Tori’s face was free of its silver piercings. Strands of dyed hair hung free from their braids as if they’d already been fighting.

“Where’ve you been?” Tori demanded.

“Sorry.” Kalden lowered his backpack near the car’s front passenger tire. “I started near the indy territory, two miles from here.”

“What’s in the bag?” Lyra asked.

“Alchemy supplies. Mostly mental enhancements and smoke grenades.” Their eyebrows went up at that, and Kalden explained how he’d made a quick stop at Professor Coleman’s house.

Lyra stepped closer, eyes wide with interest. “Mental enhancements, huh?”

Kalden waved a dismissive hand. “They’re useful for Knowledge Artists, but that’s about it. Anyway … “ He leaned over the map. “Mind catching me up?”

Tori cleared her throat. “Zukan’s army has the Combat Arts Center and Sigilcraft Building. Moon Army has Alchemy and Manatronics.”

Kalden followed her gaze and saw dozens of yellow and blue board game pieces scattered throughout the Artegium section of the map. How’d they find the right colors on such short notice? Somehow, that was even more surprising than their base’s elaborate defenses.

“We held the CAC for a while,” Lyra cut in, “but we lost it when they ganged up on us.” She gave Kalden an annoyed look as if to remind him whose fault that was. They hadn’t blamed him for Elise and Zukan’s alliance, not at first. But several of the lower-ranking officers had whispered in their ears since then, sowing more seeds of doubt between them.

“And now?” Kalden shifted his gaze to where the red game pieces surrounded the Healing Arts Center. Clearly, Blood Army intended to take those buildings, but something stood in their way.

Tori made a sound that was halfway between a sigh and a growl. “Dawnfire took a team of indies and hunkered down in there.”

“What?” Kalden glanced at the seven-story brick building, barely visible past the roof and shields. Relia was in there? He met his teammates’ eyes again and realized they’d both been watching for his reaction.

“How do we know it's her?” he asked. Relia’s aspect would be the surest giveaway—especially the offensive part. But Relia had never used those techniques in a school game.

Not yet, anyway.

“I got a visual on her,” Tori said. “Just before she went inside. We sent in six more soldiers. Three went through the front door, and Windstrider took two more through the roof entrance.”

“Any luck?” he asked.

“Look at your scoreboard,” Lyra mumbled.

Kalden pressed the middle button on his wrist device, bringing up the blue HUD in front of his eyes. As always, the scoreboard wouldn’t show who’d been eliminated until the end of the first day. All warfare was based on deception, after all, and they didn’t want the contestants relying too much on this.However, he spotted Relia’s name near the top with fourteen points. Probably all kills or assists.

“Got any brilliant plans?” Tori asked as Kalden closed his HUD.

He paused, glancing down at the paper map between them. Moon Army and Sun Army had each split their forces, leaving garrisons behind to defend their territory. And judging by the second cluster of yellow and blue game pieces, a smaller force had moved south toward the cafeteria.

The enemy garrisons wouldn’t abandon their defenses for an open battle, so Blood Army was in no immediate danger here. The southern force might try to flank them, but Kalden doubted it. That would mean giving up the primary food source. Besides, it was one thing for Zukan and Elise to ignore each other, but that was a far cry from a coordinated assault.

Kalden turned his attention back to the cluster of red game pieces. He obviously didn’t want to attack Relia. She was his long-term ally in this game, and his planned teammate for the interschool battlegrounds that came next. This was the whole reason he’d joined Blood Army—to control events from a place of power, and to give Akari and Relia a fighting chance. And the more he thought about it, the more he realized his own goals might actually align with his faction.

“Why do we need to attack Dawnfire?” he asked.

Tori and Lyra each stared at him as if he were a traitor, but he pressed on. “She already killed seven of our soldiers, so you want to throw more at her? Wouldn’t it make more sense to attack the cafeteria?” He jabbed the map with his finger. “We can handle this smaller force. Especially if we commit to it.”

“I dunno about that,” Lyra said. “Zukan, Elise, and Arturo all went that way. No way Dawnfire’s worse than all three of them.”

“At least the cafeteria has an open floor plan,” he said. “Our numbers will be meaningless in the HAC’s narrow halls. Besides, Blood Army already has a few healers. We need food more than we need medical supplies”

“The HAC has a cafeteria,” Tori said.

Kalden frowned. “How do you know that?” He’d visited Irina there several times, and he’d never noticed anything like that.

She gave an uncomfortable shrug. “I just know.”

The answer struck him a second later. Tori’s mother was sick, and she often stayed overnight for treatment. Of course she would be familiar with the place. And if the HAC had a cafeteria, then it really was too valuable to pass up.

“Alright,” he said. “So we’ll stay here.”

Tori nodded. “So what’s the best way to beat Dawnfire?”

The answer came to Kalden at once. If Relia were his true enemy, he’d lure her out with a promise of peace, then betray her once she was surrounded. But he couldn’t say that out loud, of course.

Tori and Lyra continued watching him closely, waiting with bated breath. Oh, no …

They valued his opinions, but not this much. More likely, they’d come to the same conclusion he had. Now, they were waiting for him to present the idea as his own.

Kalden backtracked to his original plan. Then he remembered a conversation he’d had with Irina several weeks ago.

“Do you know the biggest weakness of Knowledge Arts?” she’d asked during one of their afternoon training sessions.

He’d had several guesses at the time, but most of them would only prove her point if he guessed wrong. Instead, he remained silent and shook his head.

“Most of us focus too hard,” she said. “We waste time, trying to solve problems that don’t need to be solved. Always remember to look at the bigger picture. Ask yourself what you actually need in the long term.”

“We don’t need to beat Dawnfire,” Kalden finally said. “What if she joins us instead?”

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Tori stared at him for several heartbeats, and her eyes darkened like storm clouds. “What?”

“She wants to defend the Healing Arts Center.” Kalden waved a hand vaguely in the building’s direction. “So let her keep it. There’s more than enough food to go—”

“She’s a Death Artist,” Tori broke in. She left the rest unsaid, probably because of the invisible cameras that surrounded them. Tori didn’t care that much about Espirian politics, but she also didn’t want to alienate her supporters.

“She’s a Death Artist,” Kalden agreed. “That’s why this will work. No one else will offer her a better deal.”

Lyra glanced at the edges of the command tent, clearly afraid someone would overhear them. “We’d have a mutiny on our hands. What if Elise Moonfire finds out? People already think we’re the bad guys.”

“Do you want to be popular,” Kalden said, “or do you want to win this game?”

“Fine.” Tori ran a hand through her black and pink hair. “Let’s do it.” Lyra looked ready to protest again, but Tori silenced her with a look before turning back to Kalden. “You’re in charge of getting Dawnfire to come out.. Then we’ll discuss the terms here in the command tent.”

Kalden kept his own face blank, but he sighed internally. He’d known these two for almost a full semester, and he recognized the look on Tori’s face. It meant: “We’ll talk later when Kalden’s not around.”

Maybe she planned to betray Relia without telling him, or maybe she didn’t trust Kalden and planned to betray them both.

Either way, this moment marked the end of Blood Army.

~~~

Elend sat in the backseat of an 870 Mystic as they drove down the highway. Irina’s contact had gotten them to Vaslana, but they still had two more hours of driving before they reached the city of Calario.

The tropical sun hung high in the sky, and rows of palm trees loomed on either side of the road. Irina had rolled her window down, and her left arm flew free in the wind. It was almost eighty degrees here, twice as warm as Koreldon City.

Elend glanced down at the tablet on his lap, swiping between his students in the qualifying rounds.

Akari had used her portals to sneak into the bottom floor of the Healing Arts Center. There, she’d gulped down her share of healing potions, and began transporting several crates of food and water to her hideout. No one had noticed her so far, not even Relia, who’d positioned her team on the building’s opposite side.

Elend flicked back to Kalden, who was currently the most interesting of the three.

“His strategy was sound,” Irina said from the seat beside him, “but he gave up too quickly.”

“Aye,” Elend agreed. Kalden had seen the distrust in his fellow leaders’ eyes, but he hadn’t worked to mend it. Instead, he’d assumed a lost cause and prepared for a fight. “Still thinking too much like a Blade Artist, isn’t he?”

On the screen, Kalden downed a mental enhancement potion and left several more glass bottles sitting on a metal fold-out table. Then he joined a Sound Artist and approached the Healing Arts Center.

~~~

Relia led her new team down the HAC’s dark corridors. It looked like something out of a horror movie with its flickering lightbulbs and shifting shadows. She’d always found hospitals unnerving, and this apocalypse theme didn’t help.

Fortunately, she was the scariest monster in this place. She’d already taken out six more members of Blood Army, and she hadn’t even needed her aspect. But that wouldn’t last long. Another hour, and—

“Relia Dawnfire,” said an echoing voice.

Her teammates all jumped at the sound, and she could practically feel the mana racing through their channels.

“It’s okay,” she told them. “It’s just sound mana.”

“This is Kalden Trengsen,” the voice continued. “I’m contacting you on behalf of Blood Army.”

“Wait,” Gravity Girl said. “Dawnfire? As in … the Death Artist?”

Darn it. They knew her, after all.

“I’d like to propose an alliance,” Kalden said. “Come out the back door and approach Blood Army’s command tent. We can discuss our terms there. Come out, and I promise I’ll do everything in my power to keep you and your team safe.”

Kalden repeated the message once more, then the halls became eerily quiet once again.

Relia turned around and saw that the others had taken several steps back. She didn’t need her Silver Sight to see their cycling mana. She slumped her shoulders as she met their eyes. “If you’re gonna leave, then leave. I won’t stop you.”

For a second, no one moved. Relia remembered the first time Akari and Kalden had learned about her aspect. They’d never judged her or made her feel like a bad person for it. In fact, they’d even risked their lives to help her in Creta.

Deep down, she hoped this would be like that. She hoped this team would judge her for her actions rather than the stories they’d heard. She hoped they would laugh and refuse her offer to leave.

That didn’t happen, of course. The trio backed away until they rounded a corner, then their footsteps filled the halls as they ran.

~~~

Elend flicked away from Relia’s channel. He already knew she would accept Kalden’s offer. Relia desperately wanted friends she could trust, and she was willing to do her part to make that happen.

For now, Elend was more interested in the other Blood Army leaders. He opened the bottom menu on his tablet, revealing a long list of names. Then he selected “Tori Raizen” and brought up her personal channel.

While Kalden was off with the Sound Artist, Tori covertly met with Blood Army’s squad leaders in the command tent. Elend had missed the beginning of this talk, but he got the gist of it. Tori thought Kalden was about to betray them, and she wanted her troops to prepare for that possibility.

It was a reasonable assumption, and five more minutes of conversation could have prevented this fight. Oh well.

Back on the screen, Tori dismissed the last of her squad leaders, and the lad jogged off to join the others around the HAC’s back entrance. Then Tori’s gaze darted to her red-haired friend, who’d uncorked one of Kalden’s mental enhancement potions.

Tori’s hand leapt out and seized the glass bottle, stopping it an inch from Lyra’s open mouth.

“Hey.” Lyra scowled at her. “What are you doing?”

“Could ask you the same question.” Tori snatched the green-colored potion and read the homemade label.

“Relax,” Lyra said. “I took two years of alchemy in high school. I know a mindmate when I see one.”

Tori examined the potion for a few more seconds, then set it down on the nearby table. “I thought we agreed not to trust Kalden yet.”

“Exactly! He was lying when he said we couldn’t use these. Mindmates will make anyone focus harder. That’s why I passed them out to the squad leaders.”

“You did what?” Tori glanced down at Kalden’s open backpack, then narrowed her eyes. “Damnit, Lyra. You never think.”

She flinched. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Ever heard of reverse psychology?”

“It’s fine,” she said. “I saw him pick up a random bottle and drink it himself.”

Tori was about to open her mouth again when another soldier popped his head into the command tent. “Dawnfire’s coming out.”

Elend flipped the screen back to Kalden, where he waited in the parking lot outside the Healing Arts Center. Two dozen members of Blood Army surrounded him with their Missile rods pointed at the doors. Some hid behind Constructs of protection mana while others took cover behind parked vehicles.

Slowly, the doors opened and Relia emerged from the darkness.

“Stand down,” Kalden ordered.

The soldiers kept their weapons trained on Relia, while others cycled their mana and prepared techniques. Several of the squad leaders looked to Tori for confirmation, but she shook her head. Kalden couldn’t see the gesture from where he stood, but he clearly noticed the result.

Relia noticed, too. She stiffened like a startled deer, and she looked ready to bolt back inside.

“It’s alright.” Kalden took a few more steps forward. “Do you trust me?”

Relia nodded once, then descended the stone steps into the parking lot. That last question hadn’t been part of the act. He’d been speaking to Relia directly, laying their friendship bare for all to see. The tension thickened until he could taste it through the screen.

“Oh, hell yes,” Elend whispered. He didn’t normally get invested in these games, but this was different. He’d been training Relia for almost four years, and now he’d finally get to see her fight an entire faction.

Elend turned the screen back to Kalden, who now held a smoke grenade in his left hand. His right hand held the remote detonator he’d taken from Coleman’s basement, and his finger hovered over the red button.

Elend turned the screen to Tori Raizen, who watched the scene with narrowed eyes. The cameras didn’t show things like cycling mana, but Elend saw it in her breath and the rhythmic pulse of her muscles. She clenched and opened her fists several times, ready to form her blades at the first sign of trouble.

Just as Kalden sought to bring Relia into Blood Army, Tori wanted to eliminate Relia but keep Kalden on her side. Both outcomes were impossible, of course. Hence the standoff.

The squad leaders kept glancing Tori’s way, waiting for the sign to attack.

Then, one lad began to cough and press a hand to his chest. A few heartbeats passed, and the cough spread to the other squad leaders around the parking lot.

So, Kalden had poisoned the enhancement potions after all. Elend had suspected as much, but he hadn’t watched the whole scene in Coleman’s basement.

Tori must have realized the same thing, because she raised her hand and bellowed the order. “Attack!”

Kalden rushed forward, closing the distance between himself and Relia. He dropped the grenade at his feet, and a plume of dark smoke rushed out from the opening. In the same moment, several cars exploded around the parking lot, flinging the Blood Army soldiers ike rag dolls.

The remaining soldiers recovered their wits and attacked with a volley of Missiles. Kalden and Relia stood together, stretching out their hands and forging a double-layered shield against the assault. It wouldn’t hold forever, but it would buy them a few more seconds.

Tori and Lyra rushed toward the glowing blue dome. Ice mana gathered in Lyra’s palms, and she conjured several thick spears and hurled them forward. The Construct broke under the impact, shattering into a cloud of blue mist that mingled with the smoke.

Tori followed with a dozen daggers of blade mana. These flew like tiny birds of prey, attacking their targets from every possible angle.

Kalden and Relia deflected the blades with smaller shields, but that left them exposed to more attacks around the parking lot. Things only got worse as more soldiers recovered from the explosion.

One dagger struck Kalden in the stomach, and he stumbled back into the cloud of smoke. Another blade pierced the gray shroud, and an explosion of white mist erupted from the spot where he’d stood.

Several more attacks struck Relia’s torso, and she hit the ground with another burst of white mist.

Blood Army kept up their bombardment until Tori ordered the ceasefire. Several seconds passed as the grenade emptied the rest of its contents.

Finally, the wind carried off the last wisps of smoke, and Kalden and Relia were gone.