The weekend came far too quickly, along with the first interschool games. Akari’s team boarded an airship on Kelsday afternoon, joining several more squads of their peers. The ship flew north across the bay, passing miles of open water and coastline before it set down in Garriland.

The landing pads were on the north side of town, and a pair of buses carried the teams down a busy road that cut through the school. Garriland’s campus was far newer than Koreldon’s. Instead of old brick buildings, everything here had a smooth stone exterior, with shiny glass windows and red clay tiles on the roofs. And while Koreldon’s buildings were all clustered together, these had plenty of wide open spaces between them. The lawns were probably green if you came here in the summer. Now, they were a mix of brown grass and half-melted snow.

“Hey,” Relia said from across the aisle. “Isn’t that the arena?”

Akari craned her neck to see over Kalden’s shoulder, then she followed Relia’s gaze to the cylindrical structure on the right side of the street. Big enough to hold fifty thousand people, the arena towered over the surrounding buildings and trees.

Butterflies danced around Akari’s stomach as she sank back in her seat. She should have felt excited for this. She’d reached Apprentice this past year and finally gotten her new aspect. This was a chance to unleash her full power.

But then Elend had gotten called to fight Storm’s Eye, leaving them without their coach. To make matters worse, their last two practice sessions had fallen through. Elend had planned for them to train with a team from Voltara, but that team’s coach got called off to fight. No one could figure out the logistics after that.

Kalden had tried reaching out to his old alliance for a practice session, but they’d turned him down. Tori and the others ran matches every day in Raizen’s class, and they knew Akari’s team needed the practice more than they did. It was the same story with Elise and her old friends.

The bus drove for another half-mile until they reached the Starview Inn. Here, they unloaded their luggage from the back, then waited in the hotel lobby while the teachers checked in at the front desk.

Akari and Relia shared a room, and Kalden bunked with them, not even bothering to check out his official room. Zukan and Arturo did their own thing across the hall, while Elise was apparently sharing with Irina. That must have been awkward for both of them; Irina wouldn’t even be here if it weren’t for Elise and her shady friends.

After dinner, her team spent the next few hours resting upstairs. That meant no training, studying, or serious planning sessions. It wasn’t like they could plan much, anyway. Their opponents wouldn’t be announced until just before tomorrow’s match, and there were dozens of possibilities until then. Not just the teams from Garriland, but all the other schools who’d attended this first game.

It felt strange to lounge around, but training before a competition was proven to decrease performance. Akari knew that, because Elend had once dumped a massive stack of papers on her lap and told her to read them until the message sank in.

~~~

Her team waited in the stands the next morning, along with fifty thousand cheering fans. Needless to say, the massive scope did nothing to calm her nerves. Her stomach jumped between hunger and nausea every few minutes, and sweat covered her skin, despite the cool winter air.

At least the qualifying rounds had forced her to hit the ground running. Here, she and her teammates had no choice but to sit on the sidelines, waiting for their turn, and pondering the possibilities. Which team would they face? What game would it be? What type of arena?

The current field was a massive jungle, with tree trunks as wide as houses, and a raging river that cut through the center. Mana soared back and forth as Dario Santano’s squad faced off against a squad from Nobleton University. They were barely two minutes in, but Nobleton was clearly outmatched.

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As a Gravity Artist, Dario specialized in trapping his opponents in midair. Raw power didn’t matter in a suspended state, and even Zukan and Relia would have struggled to break free from his grasp.

Lyra Manastrike doubled down on the crowd control, freezing their opponents with tendrils of ice. Then Tori Raizen swooped in for the killing blows, launching storms of blade mana at their helpless forms.

“These teams are well coordinated,” Kalden said from beside her. “It’s like they’re reading each other’s minds.”

“Takes a ton of practice to get that way,” Arturo said. “No offense to Elend, but he might’ve glossed over some stuff.”

“Hey,” Relia said. “Elend’s a good teacher!”

“The guy knows his stuff, but coaching a team is different. He’s also got a sink-or-swim approach.”

“But our training got cut short,” she said. “It’s not his fault he got called to fight!”

“I mean, if you wanna get technical, then it kinda was his fault.”

Akari ducked her head as they talked. As captain, she was supposed to fill the gap Elend had left behind. She was supposed to lead the practice sessions, give the speeches, and issue the orders. But that was the problem with sink-or-swim. Sometimes, you really did flounder and sink to the bottom of the pool. And Elend seemed perfectly willing to let that happen, especially if it taught her a lesson in some vague, far-off future.

Meanwhile, the other captains all seemed so strong and sure of themselves. Not to mention taller, and more conventionally good-looking. Those seemed like silly things to worry about now, but her surroundings must have gotten to her. The crowds, the cameras, the sheer size of this arena . . . it was enough to make her feel like a Bronze again.

What’s more, the other captains were consistent. They were always watching the battlefields—their own teammates, their opponents, and the terrain. They always knew what to do and how to communicate it.

Until recently, Akari had focused mainly on her own techniques. Now, she was supposed to worry about five other people, all at once? Sometimes, she’d have bursts of inspiration in battle, and those ideas would extend to her teammates. Other times, she got tunnel vision and focused only on her own goals.

“Hey.” Kalden leaned over and squeezed her hand. “You okay?”

“I’m good,” Akari said with a quick nod. “Just sucks having to wait.”

Yeah, that’s it. As usual, her stupid brain was going in downward spirals like it always did. Her team was the strongest one here. They could do this.

Ten o’clock finally rolled around, and Raizen pulled her from her thoughts yet again. “Zeller,” he said in a sharp voice. “Take your team and get on deck.”

Akari stood up from her seat, drew in a deep breath, and led her team down to the locker rooms. Here, they changed out of their street clothes and into their combat uniforms. The workers also gave them generators for their specific techniques and equipment.

As usual, only Arturo’s tech would be allowed in the arena. Anything they’d purchased from a third party—like Kalden’s pouch—would have to stay behind. Relia’s Aeon techniques were off the table as well. There simply wasn’t enough data for the game to recreate Angelic mana. Even if it could, Relia wasn’t ready to reveal that part of herself to the world. Aeons were even rarer than Mystics, after all.

Once they’d all changed, Akari’s team stepped into an antechamber on the arena’s ground floor. The current match was still going outside, so they used this time for their warmup routines.

Akari tried to visualize her own success in her mind’s eye, but even her meditation training wasn’t enough to keep her focused. The worries swirled through her head, and the time passed like a sleepless night.

“You seem really nervous,” Elise said.

Akari stopped pacing and gave the girl a flat look. “Gee, I wonder why.”

“I can help with that if you want. Dream Artists can—”

“I don’t want your mana,” she cut in.

“Fair enough.” Elise glanced at the others. “Anyone else?”

Relia pretended not to hear her, while the other three declined more politely.

Elise gave a weary sigh. “Look, I know you guys don’t like me, but my techniques can enhance your cognition—focus, confidence, whatever you need. Elend went over this with you.”

Akari crossed her arms. “How’d that go for you last time we fought?”

“You’re being illogical,” she said with a huff. “Even a one percent improvement is still an improvement.”

“It’s only illogical if you’re telling the truth,” Kalden said. “If you were planning to betray us again, then now would be the perfect time.”

Elise winced at that, but what did she expect? She’d literally betrayed everyone in this room at least once. Akari could suffer Elise as a teammate, but she wasn’t about to trust her with any “friendly” techniques. Focus could easily become tunnel vision, and confidence could become recklessness. Elise could use any of this to shift the game to her favor.

“Ten seconds,” a worker’s voice called from down the halls.

Akari and the others took their places by the metal doors and waited in silence. The announcer’s voice echoed just beyond, introducing their opponents from Garriland University.

Finally, the doors slid open, and the spotlights shone directly into her eyes.

“And in this corner,” the announcer’s voice filled the arena, far louder than before “Team One from Koreldon University, lead by Akari Zeller.”

The crowd cheered, and Akari lead her team forward.