"Time."
Every group snapped to attention.
She walked the length of the arena with her hands clasped behind her back, gold eyes moving from cluster to cluster without hurry.
She stopped in front of a group near the Thrones section. Looked them over once.
"Four melee. One range." She pointed at one of the melee fighters. "You, move to Mr. Darkmoor's group and switch with one of their range users. I don't care which."
She continued moving from group to group, balancing them out, until she reached Arthur's.
"Good." A single word, simple and unbothered, before she moved on.
"Hey, how does she know what everyone is?" Mars asked Arthur.
"She probably went through each of our benchmarks before class. Knows what we all specialize in."
"Oh." Mars nodded. "That makes sense."
Ashveil turned to face the floor once she'd finished her rounds.
"Now that you're all in your groups, here's what we're doing today. Capture the flag. Mana reinforcement and mana iron spells are permitted."
A murmur rippled through the students.
"Two groups face off at a time. With a simple objective to reach the enemy flag and bring it back to your starting line before they reach yours. The match ends when a flag is captured." She held up a hand. "No lethal force. No spells over iron tier. And should lethal force be used I will step in and intervene. Otherwise everything else is fair."
She called out the first two group numbers.
Behind the amphitheater sat an open field roughly the size of a football pitch, flag poles planted at either end. Between them, a variety of large rock formations were scattered across the ground, breaking up the space and cutting sightlines. Along both sides of the field a row of spectator stands had been set up for the waiting groups.
"Mr. Darkmoor and Mr. Thornfall's groups, please step forward."
Two groups broke from the crowd and made their way toward the field.
"You have five minutes to prepare. Every group after you gets three." Ashveil turned back to the remaining students. "Now go."
They made their way to the stands and took their seats, watching as the two groups below spread out across the field and put their heads together.
Arthur settled beside Garrett and kept his voice low.
"Hey, I just wanted to let you know that Mira wants to meet you again so she can thank you for the other night."
"There's no need for that. I told her last time she doesn't have to thank me." Garrett shook his head.
"Look, I'm not going to say it again, she wants to meet you in her room later tonight. Room 214. Don't be a poor sport about it, just accept her thanks." Arthur left no room to debate.
Garrett sighed. "Alright, I'll stop by then."
"Good." Arthur turned back to the field. "Now let's watch this match."
The bell rang out signaling the start of the round.
Both groups surged forward at once, breaking from their flag poles and pushing into the terrain. From the stands the field read differently than it did at ground level, the rock formations carved the field into natural corridors, with larger clusters rising up like the ruins of a fallen city.
Darkmoor's group moved in tight with all five pushing forward together, using the corridors to give them cover as they closed in.
Thornfall's group split immediately — three pushing up the left side while two stayed back near their flag.
Mars leaned forward. "Thornfall's going to lose."
"Why do you say that?" Garrett asked.
"Their back two aren't doing anything. Just standing there."
"Three against five isn't going to work," Arthur said. "And two defenders can't stop a full push if it gets that far."
It didn't take long to prove the point.
Darkmoor's group cornered Thornfall's three in a narrow gap between two rock formations, cut them off cleanly, then sent their fastest member looping wide around the outside. By the time Thornfall's two defenders realized what was happening there was nothing left to do. The flag was gone before either of them moved.
Match over.
Ashveil made a note on her board without a word.
"Brutal," Mars muttered.
"Clean," Arthur said.
Angela said nothing from the end of the row. She had watched the entire match without expression, just one that looked on with boredom.
As more groups were called up a pattern started to arise among the groups where one would put themselves on the defense while the other would go full attacking, creating a clear back and forth type of brawl.
"Every group is doing the same thing," Garrett said after the third match played out the same way.
"It's the safe play," Arthur said. "Cause if you split your group you run into unfavorable fights at least with everyone being together you can expect even numbers.
"Is that what we're doing?" Amy asked quietly.
Before Arthur could answer Ashveil's voice cut across the stands.
"Up next Mr. Webb's group and Mr. Gemist's group."
Mars was on his feet before the words had finished. "Finally."
Arthur, not far behind, follows up behind Mars with the rest of his group falling into step.
'Why am I not surprised. The Gemist brothers.'
He clocked them the moment they took position on the opposite end of the field. Two heavyset fighters built the same way, same stance, same habit of standing shoulder to shoulder like they'd been doing it since they could walk. Fighting them would be like fighting one person with two bodies.
'Should be manageable. As long as everyone sticks to the plan.'
He glanced sideways at Angela, who was staring off into the middle distance like the conversation wasn't happening.
'Especially her.'
"Alright, gather up." Arthur pulled the group's attention in.
They tightened around him. Angela turned her head slightly but didn't step closer.
"Here's how we're doing this. Garrett, you're our frontline, I need you pulling their heavy hitters' attention and holding it. Don't worry about winning that exchange, just keep them occupied."
He looked at Amy. "You're on support. Stay back and keep our people on their feet." Then Mars. "I'll be with Amy since I specialize in mage warfare and artillery, but with the iron rank limit I'll be handicapped on offense. That's where you come in."
Mars straightened immediately. "What do you need, captain?"
"I need you to be our vanguard. Get in their faces, apply pressure, make them react. Panicked fighters make mistakes." Arthur paused. "Mistakes that Angela will exploit."
Angela's gold eyes slid toward him at that.
"You want me to clean up after him," she said flatly.
"I need you to capitalize on their mistakes." Arthur clarifies.
"Yeah I don't need you I'll finish this game all by myself you can just sit back and watch for all i care." Walking off Angela ignores the looks of her group mates.
"Hey you can't—"
"Leave it Mars." Arthur cuts off Mars holding him back.
"If she wants to throw away her grade then so be it. Just don't be a problem like her and besides it's not we need her."
"Are you sure I'm not much of a fighter and you're handicapped in how much you can do. And Garrett is a tank, it's not like we can do as much damage as Mars and Angela can…" Amy says as her hands are nervously rubbing each other.
"Don't worry I'm sure it'll all work out, we just need to–"
"RING!" The bell sounds out cutting off Arthur.
Angela at the single instance of hearing the bell dashes forth.
"Follow after her! She's going to go straight for the enemy team! We need to support her even if she doesn't want it!" Arthur runs after Angela who kicks it in second gear.
They pushed up through the first corridor of rock formations, the shadows from the overhead formations cutting the light into hard strips across the grass. Angela was already ahead of them, moving through the terrain like she'd memorized it, her silver hair cutting a clean line through the shadows.
They cleared the first cluster of rocks and ran straight into them.
Harold and Tommy came around opposite sides of the same large formation, cutting off the center path like they'd been waiting for exactly this. Behind them their three remaining members fanned out wide.
"WE MEET AGAIN GARRETT OUR BATTLE SHALL BE LEGENDARY!" Harold screams out challenging Garrett, however reality is often disappointing.
"Bam!" A bolt of mana smacks Harold clean in the chest before he can finish the thought, staggering him back a step.
Angela was already moving, pushing her advantage before he could recover. She closed the gap in one step and drove an empowered mana palm strike straight into his guard.
"You bitch!" Harold countered with his own mana fist, crude but fast enough, deflecting the strike with a grunt. The impact cracked the air between them.
Giving him a quick second which his brother abused jumping at the opportunity.
He came in from Angela's left with a low shoulder charge, trying to catch her off balance while Harold reset. She sidestepped it with a half step, barely, and the two brothers found themselves resetting on either side of her.
One in front. One behind.
However Arthur can't continue to watch Angela as he has his own fight on his hands.
Garrett taking the front strengths his arms using them to block the attacks of the other lackeys.
Taking a mana bolt straight on he deflects it all while blocking a fist from another.
"Don't worry, Mr. Tank, I will save you!" Mars jumping in from the side drives a mana reinforced elbow straight into the chest of the fighter throwing the mana bolts, sending him skidding back across the grass.
"I didn't need saving," Garrett said flatly.
"You're welcome!" Mars was already spinning toward the next one, mana building along his forearms as he pressed the advantage.
From behind, Amy provided support, sending out mana bolts that while not the most accurate kept the pressure on, forcing their opponents back and buying Mars and Garrett room to work.
Arthur joined her, his own mana bolts landing with considerably more precision. Not heavy strikes just enough to sting, redirect, and keep their opponents from finding their footing.
'Deliberate and controlled,' he reminded himself. 'Nothing more than what's needed.'
His eyes cut sideways toward Angela's side of the field between volleys.
Author Note: Sorry again about the lack of uploads life has gotten busy lately but I'll try to make an effort to do better.
20 Advance Chapters at Patreon.com/Lord_Cuckles or search in Patreon TabooQuill