Team 13 stayed low behind the ridge and watched the clearing below.
No one near the gate had noticed them yet. That was good. But the longer they stayed here, the worse the situation would become.
Ren was the first to say it aloud. "Should we wait for another team to arrive first? If someone else attacks, we might slip through in the mess."
Taren looked like he agreed. Even Kale glanced at Arin.
On the surface, it sounded safer.
But Arin shook his head. "Waiting makes it worse. If another team arrives and spots us first, we could end up trapped between both sides. And if more survivors gather near the gate, the clearing won't get easier to cross. It'll get harder."
Liora understood first. "Right now the teams below are settled, but the numbers are still manageable. If more people come, no one will know who's colluding and who's just desperate. Chaos doesn't always help."
Mila nodded. "And if another team rushes in carelessly, the gate groups might just kill them and become even more alert."
Ren let out a breath. "Your plans always sound worse the more you explain them."
Taren muttered, "Comfortable plans usually fail anyway."
Neither argued after that.
Kale had been quiet until then, but now he finally asked, "What am I supposed to do?"
His voice was steady, but something bitter sat underneath it. He already understood Team 13 was not planning around his safety.
Arin looked at him. "Stay close. Support when needed. If a gap opens, run for the gate."
That was all.
Kale lowered his eyes.
Useful, but not important. That was what it meant.
A hard thought passed through him and stayed there. If things collapsed and he saw no path for himself, then he would not go down alone. If he could not make it, maybe one or two from Team 13 would fail with him.
He kept that thought to himself.
Arin did not ask what Kale was thinking. He already knew the boy would be measuring his own chances. That was normal.
He looked over the clearing again and laid out the plan.
"We split into two groups of three."
Ren frowned first, then understood. If all six moved from one direction, the teams below would lock onto a single target and crush it. But if two groups came from different angles at nearly the same time, the defenders would have to shift.
Even a few breaths of confusion would be enough.
"How do we split?" Liora asked.
"Me, Taren, and Liora on one side," Arin said. "Ren, Mila, and Kale on the other."
Taren gave a short nod. Ren clicked his tongue.
"So we're the side that suffers for the plan."
"You talk too much to be on the important side," Liora said.
Ren looked offended. "That sounds personal."
"It is."
Even then, the exchange eased some of the tension.
Mila kept her eyes on the clearing. "Timing matters more than the split. If one side moves too early, the other just becomes free points."
Arin nodded. "We move close enough together that they can't judge the real goal immediately."
He pointed toward the left side of the clearing. "My side hits harder. We force the strongest reaction."
Then he looked toward the lower right. Broken stone, uneven dips, and half-covered roots cut through that path. Bad ground, but not completely open.
"Ren's side moves lower and faster. You don't need to win. You only need to pull attention."
Ren listened, then asked, "And if the confusion side dies?"
Arin looked at him. "Then create confusion before that."
Ren stared at him for a moment, then sighed. "I miss my peaceful life from three hours ago."
Taren almost smiled.
Liora studied the teams near the gate again. "The leftmost group looks more alert than the others."
"That's why we hit there," Arin said. "Once they move, the rest will react too."
Mila looked toward the right-side approach. "There's enough broken ground for a fast push if the timing is right."
Arin agreed.
"No one stops for points. No one chases a clean fight. No one wastes time trying to win properly. We force movement and make one path. If you see a clear line to the gate, take it immediately."
The silence that followed was heavier than before.
This time, no one objected.
Ren eventually asked, "Who goes through first if a gap opens?"
"Whoever has the line," Arin said. "If it's you, go. If it's Taren, go. If it's Kale, go."
Kale looked at him after hearing that.
For the first time, the answer did not sound fake. Cold, but fair.
He still did not trust him.
Below them, one of the teams shifted again. Another figure moved between two rocks and stopped. They were still watching the approaches. Still waiting. Still too comfortable.
That confidence was the first thing Team 13 had to break.
Arin looked over his people one last time.
Taren was ready to move the instant he was told. Liora was calm and focused. Ren was tense, but alert. Mila had already memorized the right-side terrain. Kale looked pale and quiet, with too much going on behind his eyes.
That was enough.
"We move on my mark," Arin said.
His side would strike harder. Ren's side would move lower and faster. If a chance opened, no one was to hesitate.
Arin lowered himself further behind the ridge and watched the rhythm of movement below.
One boy near the center drifted left.
Another turned to check a side path.
For a moment, the spacing between the three enemy teams loosened.
Arin's eyes sharpened.
"This is it," he said.
He moved first.
Taren and Liora followed him down the left slope at once, keeping low behind broken roots and dark stone. On the other side of the ridge, Ren, Mila, and Kale broke right, moving through the lower ground where the dips and exposed rock gave them just enough cover to stay hidden for a few breaths longer.
For one moment, the clearing below remained unchanged.
Then one of the boys near the gate noticed movement from the left and turned sharply.
"Contact!"
The shout cut through the clearing.
At the same time, Ren's side burst from the right.
The three waiting teams reacted at once, but not cleanly. Their formation shifted in two directions instead of one. Two moved toward Arin's side first. Another hesitated and turned right toward Ren, trying to judge which group was the real threat.
That half-breath of confusion was all Arin had wanted.
"Push!" Taren snapped.
He hit first, charging straight into the leftmost line before they could fully settle. The boy in front of him barely got his guard up in time and was driven back a full step. Liora cut in from the side immediately after, forcing a second defender to move with her instead of supporting the front.
Arin did not stop.
He did not waste time on the first clash or look for a clean exchange. He drove forward through the loosened gap, forcing the defenders to collapse inward sooner than they wanted.
On the right side of the clearing, Ren shouted something that sounded half like a battle cry and half like a complaint. A moment later, a sharper voice—Mila's—cut through the noise, followed by the sound of feet sliding over stone.
Good.
That meant the second side was still moving.
The teams near the gate were no longer settled.
The clearing had broken.