Kyouko gave him a worried look. “How are you feeling?” 

“I’m fine,” Ash replied as the cold sensation within him spread throughout his body. Anxiety, doubt, it all froze over. Just breathing in and out brought him to his usual state of calm, though last night’s outburst was still fresh in his mind. There were other things to worry about. “This outfit feels kind of weird though.”

“The Vintrkind Combat Outfit was designed for physical preservation so that you won’t have to put so much strain on your Valkyrie Gear’s shielding.” Liesa explained, though Ash didn’t see how that was possible considering it was just as skin tight as the regular transformation outfit. The only difference was it covered about every inch of his body, as well as a helmet he could summon on command. “According to the documents I received, it won’t assist in your need to ‘ramp up’, but it does serve as a conductor for your abilities.”

His partner sighed, brushing her hair out of her red eyes. “Having to go into battle with experimental tech is not my idea of a good time, but it’s better than nothing.”

“Any edge in our favor is an advantage we need.” Magnolia said as she glanced out the operating bay’s window. “It’s a full crowd out there tonight, and it wouldn’t do to give them a poor showing.”

Ash didn’t think it was just a ‘Full Crowd’. Unlike the last time he stepped foot into the Arena, the stands were absolutely packed with seemingly everyone in Valhalla. The whole campus was abuzz with excitement, even from here he could feel pinprick stares as all the staff and Valkyries-in-training waited to see what would happen. Most sickening of all though was the attitude they held. People were leisurely chatting with each other, snacks were being bought and eaten, Ash had even been ambushed by what seemed to be a journalist before Magnolia had dragged him to where they were supposed to wait. 

“They don’t have any stake in this,” Ash muttered under his breath. “They’re just here for entertainment.”

“Of course,” his handler scoffed, having apparently overheard him. “The rise and falls of Wings, the conflicts between houses, to them as long as they’re not the ones on stage then it’s just another drama. Asgard is all about the actors and audience.”

“What a stupid waste of the realm.” Kyouko sighed, blatantly giving their resident Asgardian a cold look. “At least back in Midgard everyone was too busy looking out for themselves to waste their time on stuff like this.”

“I do not know, nor do I particularly care about what the laws of man are like. You are in the Realm of the Gods, and as such you would do best to follow its rules.” Magnolia didn’t even bat an eye. “Everyone is expecting a grand performance from us. And as such, we shall deliver.”

“Yeah yeah. Not like I’m against standing in the spotlight.” Really not against it, if Ash’s memories and occasional scar served him correctly. “With the plan I made, we should be able to snag victory.”

“Yes, the plan that I approved of.”

“Why are you so picky about the details?”

The white haired boy sighed before flicking up his helmet. A familiar HUD, one that he had only seen when he was using his Valkyrie Gear, flickered to life as he spoke up. “Enough arguing already you guys. Didn't you two agree to work together for this.”

“Vargr, you should know this.” His childhood friend clicked her tongue while wagging her finger. “Working doesn’t mean we have to get along.”

Magnolia nodded. “Exactly. As long as we are not in conflict then we don’t need to act like we’re close.”

“Everything seems to be all set on my end.” Liesa spoke up, nervously fidgeting at the tense atmosphere in the air. “Miss Kyouko, have you double checked your loadout? According to the logs you’ve recently modified your equipment. As the rules state-”

“I can’t change weapons or Einherjar once I’m on the field. Not that I have one.” She tapped her head. “Don’t worry about it Liesa. I was just changing to a weapon that I thought would suit me better.”

Before more could be said, the cheery voice of Miss Peach wandered in through the speakers. Ash’s eyes turned to the projection overhead to see her standing in the commentator’s booth along with a surprising figure. “Good morning everyone! We’ve got an exciting day ahead of us and I, the best Data Analysis Teacher on Campus, Amelia Peach, will be serving as your play-by-play commentator today!”

“That’s a bold claim.” Miss Rivers' dry voice followed up. “And why am I serving as the Color Commentator? Get someone who actually wants to do it.”

“But there’s no one here more knowledgeable about dueling than you!” her fellow commentator laughed as she threw an arm around the smaller woman’s shoulders. “If we got someone else to do the job, you’d just shoot them if they got something wrong!”

“That’s an exaggeration.” The cowboy teacher adjusted her hat and looked away, causing a laugh to ripple throughout the stadium. Great, now Ash felt like he had actually stepped into some sort of sporting event. Why couldn’t he have just hit Anemone and be finished? Oh right, points. “Let’s just move on already. Domination Rules are some of the longer matches, so we can’t waste any time.”

“The clock doesn’t start until we say go, you know! But you’re right! Everyone’s excited to watch a match between Asgardian Wing Candidates!” Miss Peach winked before gesturing to the opposite side of the field. “Introducing our first competitors! This match’s Red Team! Lorenza Mimosa, Shizkua Azuma, and their leader, none other than our darling Anemone Montague herself! Please come out and claim your first node!”

There was an ear defenning cheer, only muffled by the walls of their room as their opponents stepped out onto the field. Anemone looked completely in her element, giving the crowd a wink and a wave as her squad approached a white pillar on the ground, before pressing her hand against it. There was a brief flash before the node changed to a deep, ruby red and a beam of crimson light shot into the air. 

“And the Blue Team.” Miss Rivers continued. “Led by Magnolia Hale, along with Ash Whitelund, and Kyouko Hagemu. Please come out and claim your first node.”

Ash rolled his eyes at the announcement. For some reason Magnolia had insisted that her name be put on the paperwork marking her as the leader, even though he had claimed that position for himself. Granted he was more of an acting leader, though he didn’t particularly feel that way as Kyouko patted him on the shoulders. “Ready to take Valhalla by storm?”

“...Yeah.” The glass windows began to frost over. His gaze cold and sharp as he looked forward. “Let’s go.”

“Good luck out there!” Liesa waved, though her voice was soon drowned out by the absolutely deafening sound of the crowd. 

Magnolia walked ahead of them, practically posing as she spoke through the Valkyrie Gear’s comm lines. “Remember to please the crowd.”

Ash was lucky no one could see him rolling his eyes underneath his helmet. Freezing the awkward feeling in his stomach, he gave a stiff wave to no one in particular. The sound of shouts suddenly grew to an eardrum bursting decibel, causing the vinterkind to flinch. The Asgardian Wing Candidate placed her hand on the white pillar, causing it to turn as blue as the suit that clung to her skin. 

The shrieks of excitement went up another notch, but Ash paid it no mind. With this action, there was no turning back. Both sides had claimed their spots, the only thing left to do was wage war. 

“And now for the random terrain generation…!” Miss Peach cheered as hard light projections began to manifest throughout the arena. The crowds faded away, blocked out by towering trees that rose above them. Soon, everywhere he looked was filled with thick, sturdy roots and boulders. “It looks like we’ve got a forest biome today everyone! How exciting!”

“...While it may seem simple at a glance, the natural terrain makes it difficult to navigate, especially when moving at high speeds.” Miss Rivers commented. “It’ll be interesting to see how the trainees will deal with this.”

“Now you’re getting into things!” her cohost replied. “And finally! What we’ve all been waiting for! Starting the match in three! Two! One! Commencer le jeu!”

A loud siren blared as something rippled throughout the arena. Liesa’s voice cut through to their comm lines. Instantly, Magnolia and Kyouko activated their Valkyrie Gears as Ash dashed forward into the foliage. His heart raced in his chest as he ramped up the blizzard inside of his body. “Hey Liesa, what was that just now?”

“If you are referring to the most recent phenomenon, that would be the energy barrier set up around the facility.” His operator replied. “It was set up for the safety of the spectators as well as to block out sounds outside of the arena itself. From now on, I will be serving as your only link to the outside world… Though even I can’t hear what the announcers are saying.”

“That explains why it suddenly got so quiet,” Ash muttered to himself, only to suddenly shield his side as Magnolia shot forth from behind him. 

“I’m the only one who needs to mind them now.” She replied, zigzagging through trees but still flying at a pace that the vinterkind’s winter infused limbs could keep up with. “Just focus on ‘ramping up’, as you put it.”

“And you should focus on your job as well!” Kyouko cried as her armored form caught up with them. “You’re the key component for the first step of this strategy after all!”

Their strategy… Frankly a lot of the sessions they had spent the week discussing went over Ash’s head, but he still paid attention well enough to understand what Breaker was trying to achieve. The rules for Domination Battles were pretty simple to understand really, it was only when Valkyries and Einherjars were put into the mix did things get confusing.

“Domination Battles split the arena into fifths with seven nodes.” Liesa had explained with a handy projection display. “One node on the ends, two nodes at the second and fourth zones, and finally one node placed into the very middle. As mentioned earlier, the objective of the duel is to ‘dominate’ your opponents by either claiming all the nodes or having the most nodes when time runs out.”

An alert soon flashed by Ash’s HUD as the top node on Anemone’s side of the field soon turned red. Kyouko let out a whistle. “Damn they’re moving fast.”

“It wouldn’t surprise me if that carrier girl of Anemone’s has some sort of speed boosting gear installed.” It would’ve surprised nobody. Ash still recalled the footage of Shizuka walking around like a living armory. “Still, Anemone’s moving as we suspected.”

“For now.” Ash grunted. The cautious card counter was busy setting up her side of the board. Meanwhile, his team had something else planned that would corner her from the very start of the match.

Theoretically, it would’ve been best for the team to have split up once the game started. That way, they could each claim the two nodes on their side of the field first, as Anemone seemed to be doing. It would’ve been a safe, strategic play. However, this was a plan designed by Breaker. Aggressive and straightforward, the plan relied on one thing. 

“The node is coming into view!” Ash declared, his eyes narrowing as he spotted the white pillar standing next to a tiny creek. “Go!”

Magnolia nodded, the wings of Arke shining as she blasted forward. Her two teammates were left in the dust as the swift footed valkyrie charged straight ahead, landing right next to the node before stabbing her spear into the dirt. With not even a single sign of exhaustion, she flicked the golden locks out of her eyes before slamming her hand onto the node. There was a brief moment of pause before finally it was dyed in her colors and she smiled. “Middle Node captured.”

That was right. A bold and aggressive strategy to completely ignore their half of the board and instead move to take hold of the halfway point of the arena! It was a risky maneuver, but they were facing a gambler after all.

“Higher risk, higher reward.” Ash muttered under his breath as Kyouko began to survey the area. “I’m sure Anemone knows this principle.”

It wasn’t like they were completely abandoning the nodes anyways. The only reason the whole team had decided to move together as one for their opening move was in case any of them engaged in combat. Now they only needed one person to go and safely claim the rest of the nodes behind them while the rest of the team continued to charge forward.

“Speaking of!” Kyouko cheered. “Liesa! What’s she up to?!”

“I’ve informed you before Miss Kyouko, I can’t see the entire arena from my operating room.” Liessa grumbled as screens from her cameras began to filter onto their visions. Most of them were blank but one of them caught their attention, namely because of what the Valkyrie on screen was doing. “It appears that Miss Mimosa isn’t moving to capture any nodes,  but instead is ascending to overlook the arena.

The pink haired girl, now sporting a set of metal animal ears, a bushy black tail, and what could charitably be called a fur bikini, was prowling around the skies of the Red Team’s field as if it were her territory.

“...An Aerial defense unit to prevent us from getting further into her territory.” Magnolia concluded. “It’s too fast for Anemone to respond so this must’ve been what she was planning from the beginning. Stark, what can you summarize about her Einherjar.”

“Besides the fact that someone’s trying to steal Vargr’s wolf gimmick?” Kyouko snarked.

The boy in question rolled his eyes. “It’s not a gimmick.”

“This isn’t an Einherjar seen in her earlier combat footage so it must be one that Miss Mimosa acquired recently. Still, it’s quite a complex choice, especially for an aerial unit.”  Liessa said. “Given her tendency towards Fairy Tale Class Einherjar, it is not difficult to infer that this is like The Big Bad Wolf. An archetype quite commonly found fairytales in Old World Europe. Though nothing about the myths from that time period would imply a ranged unit…”

Ash’s senses tingled as the pink haired girl turned to face them. “I think we’re about to find out.”

Mimosa took a deep breath before unleashing a shout so devastatingly loud it ripped through the entire forest. “Huff and Puff and Blow You Away!”

Instinctively, the Vintrkind manifested a wall of ice in front of him, but it shattered like glass as the trees around them were torn and uprooted. Both him and Kyouko were blasted off their feet, only Magnolia holding her ground, and even that with visible strain on her features. Liesa quickly shouted through the comms, the only thing that Ash could hear as his actual ears had briefly gone deaf. “A sonic attack?!”

But as quick as it came, the blast faded, leaving only the chaos and destruction it had wrought. Ash groaned, not in any actual pain but with a slight dent in his shielding and a shaking throughout his body that didn’t stop even as he got back on to his feet. With a wintry breath, he stabilized himself before turning to the Asgardian. “Think… you can handle another one of those?”

“Most definitely.” Magnolia breathed out. “Now that I know what to look out for, none should be able to get past me. The middle node shall be ours for the rest of the duel.”

Ash supposed that was what happened when you had the Invincible Warrior on your side. Magnolia wasn’t just a great offensive asset, she was the best defensive player one could ask for. As long as she didn’t get hit in her weak spot then she’d be able to hold out for the rest of the duel. But even still…

“Fuck, that’s like someone just hit every single bone in my body individually with a tiny hammer,” Kyouko groaned. “We’ve got to find a way to take out that thing if we want to make some headway.”

“I can shoot a hail storm at her,” Ash suggested, already lifting his hands towards the sky. The suit he was wearing seemed to take in the frost he was exuding, and the ice building up towards his hands came far easier than it ever had before. The Vintrkind let out a momentary blink of surprise at the sensation. “Woah.”

“That’s the power of Alfheim technology for you. Always keeping you at your best!” Liesa commented, sounding more like an ad campaign than an operator. Suddenly her good cheer was quickly dashed as she let out a worried gasp. “Oh no!”

Before anyone could even ask the girl what that was about, they saw. 

“What?!” Kyouko shouted.

Magnolia clicked her tongue before letting out a fiery glare.

“...Dammit.” Ash growled underneath his breath as he read the alert floating across his vision, accompanied by the red pillar of light going up. Anemone’s team had claimed another node from themselves, but it wasn’t from their side of the field. 

One of the nodes they had left behind had turned red.

---

Opening Moves were very important. They were the things that dictated how a game’s ‘flow’ would start. Even in Chess, if one failed to start with a proper opening they’d have already lost the game even if the checkmate came fifteen turns down the line. It was almost as much of a mathematical principle as anything else. Just as a^2 + b^2 would always equal c^2, so too was victory assured as long as one always dictated what the flow was going to be. 

But unlike the simplicity of such elegant equations, applying that to the numerous variables of real life was by no means a simple task. That was why not only was your own opening move important, but your opponent's as well. By analyzing an opponent's opening moves, one could learn all about their temperament and even predict what they were going to do next. 

Information led into Flow, and Flow led into Information. This was the key concept that applies to all games. 

“Still as hot headed as ever, Magnolia, aren’t you?” Anemone chuckled to herself as she looked over the camera feeds. From behind her ear, the entire team of operators she had hired all busily worked analyzing every last detail they could scrape together and feeding the information into her ears. “That hasn’t changed. Still, I’m glad to see that you’ve finally found others like you. It was so pitiful seeing you stand all by yourself.”

Even that Vargr, for which she had started all of this for, gave off the aura of a rabid beast ready to bite her at any moment. It was just something that she’d love to tame, to take for herself. So what if it was risky, or that he would most likely hate her? As a gambler, it was only natural she loved to play with fire. 

“Now then, I wonder what you’ll do next?” The blonde smiled to herself. 

In the end, whether it burned her or not didn’t matter. Whatever Magnolia ended up doing, at least it wouldn’t be boring. 

 

I apologise for being a day late with this chapter. The second shot of the Covid Vaccine just beat the hell out of me. Feeling better but that was not a fun time.

Anyways welcome to the Anemone fight or as I like to call it, "Shonen Jump Bait". It's gonna be a thing. For reference, this is what the arena looks like during Domination Battles.