Team Shadow celebrated all the way back to their makeshift camp, the proud owners of two more flags. Yaric was the center of attention, which he hated, though it came with vindication after his previous mistakes. He simply kept quiet about the fact that his last-minute plan worked better than he had hoped his original was going to.

The people who hadn’t been on his team the year before seemed particularly excited. They had all heard stories of the clean sweeps of opposing teams, engineered by Yaric, only to be disappointed by reality. Not anymore. And not with only two more steps to the first straight win in decades.

Now only Cormac and 72 hours stood between them and victory. Unfortunately, the returning Griffons stood between them and their actual camp, so they had to wait a few hours before heading back, otherwise they risked being seen somewhere they had no reason to be. That could lead to people getting the crazy idea that they might be hiding in The Griffons sector.

Not that it mattered, as they had a camp to raid. A quick count of the fallen had revealed that Chris had either brought everyone with him, or left only one behind, depending on the casualties he had suffered the day before. Sneaking up to the camp, it quickly became evident that he had chosen to travel with his full strength, as no one slipped out and there was no one inside when they picked their way through his defensive rings.

His supplies were also quite good, since not only had he received drops recently, but he had also successfully defended his camp every time he was attacked, making Team Shadow the first ever customers to shop his selection. It was an all for nothing sale as they picked his camp clean.

For the second time ever, they chose to leave a camp standing. His previous casualties would be returning in a few hours, and with the camp still in good condition, no one would have any reason to suspect that he had lost his flags. Sure, Chris would be back in three days, and he would know Team Shadow had taken them, but the longer the other six teams were kept in the dark, the better.

Then, anticipating that the others would all be moving to protect their own supply drops, Team Shadow cut through the middle of the competition area, racing to get to their own supply drop at the opposite end as quickly as they could.

The three teams to the east, Team Earthshattering, The Behemoths and Team Spearhead, would all be returning with their own supplies, as they had each been wiped out previously. The same went for The Griffons, leaving only The Titans, Cormac’s team, and Team Victorious to worry about.

Grizzly had almost made it to their original campsite when they finally reached him. He looked relieved when Lauren ran up to him, having gone ahead as part of the team scanning for trouble. Apparently, the entire logistics team had been getting more and more concerned the further they travelled. They all spoke with each other outside of the drops, so everyone knew what had been happening to the other teams, and Team Shadow had never been late before.

“Good to see yah,” Grizzly said enthusiastically, shaking Lauren’s hand. They didn’t have to wait long for the rest of the team to arrive, and soon got busy with unloading the supplies and repackaging them for easy transport through rough terrain.

Grizzly himself unloaded three large leaf springs, to Sven’s obvious excitement. They were each over two meters long, with a 30 centimeters plate under a 50 centimeter bar, itself under the 2m bar, both sides curled into circles at the end.

“Uh… what’s that for?” Yaric asked Sven, eyeing the portable hand winches being unloaded by another porter.

“It’s a surprise – I’ll show you if it works.”

Lauren didn’t seem to know either, but she was more concerned about how it would impact their plans.

“It won’t, I promise,” was all she could get out of Sven before he turned back to Grizzly, thanking him and giving him the instructions for the next drop. Yaric had already seen them, and he’d noted how Sven had added a lot of incendiaries as well.

“Next time don’t travel more than 100 meters past the boundary,” Sven instructed them. “If we aren’t there, turn back and take everything with you. It will be more likely that something went wrong than us being late.”

Then they said goodbye, picked up their individual loads, and began the long journey back, travelling all the way around the boundary line, just 1km in.

No one had the energy to do much more than climb back up, and even that was a chore that augmentation didn’t seem to help with. Everyone was exhausted, and with the exhilaration of taking two more flags wearing off, they all began to crash.

Kaeden had left a message to say that he had come back from his shift watching Cormac, but had gone back out when he’d found everyone but Marlon gone. Lauren left immediately to relieve him, while Sven picked up his new toys and took them into the fort, where the walls at least dampened the noise that started coming from inside.

Everyone else found a shady spot and went to sleep, lulled by the peaceful sounds of muffled sawing and hammering coming from inside their fort.

Lauren must have run the whole way to Cormac’s camp, and Kaeden had to have run the whole way back, because he was let up onto the mesa just 4 hours later, only to say that nothing had happened and then promptly went to sleep as well.

Sven left Kaeden alone when he went around rousing his team after another 2 hours. The sun was already beginning to dip when Team Shadow gathered around Sven with bleary eyes.

“Delmar, are you up for Titan watch?” Sven asked.

“I can do it,” he immediately confirmed.

“Alright, you can go and replace Lauren once we’re done here,” Sven informed him, before turning to the rest of the team.

“As you all know, we only need Cormac’s flags to start the victory countdown…” muted cheers interrupted him at that point, quickly gaining momentum as everyone started to properly wake up.

“Alright, alright, calm down. We haven’t got them yet,” he said, raising his palms to everyone. “As I was saying, we only need to take those flags and get them back here, and the countdown will start. THAT MEANS,” he continued loudly, talking over the second round of cheering that was just beginning to start, “that means that we need to have our other plans in place before then. And we have no way of knowing when an opportunity might come up. Lauren could be running back right now to let us know about an attack on Cormac’s camp.”

Most of Team Shadow immediately peered around Sven, half anticipating that exactly that was about to happen.

“We will be in big trouble if something happens before we’re ready to defend those flags, so I don’t plan on waiting until tomorrow. You’ve all had some sleep, so it’s time to start working on putting those fortifications in place.”

That got several groans.

“But there’s hardly any daylight left!” Li Na protested.

“And what is the biggest risk when we’re working on the fortifications?” Sven asked, looking around at his team.

Yaric felt his stomach drop slightly, realizing where Sven was going.

“That we’ll be found while we’re all on the ground digging,” he mumbled unhappily.

“Exactly! So, we’re not going to start during the day. We’re going to start after the sun sets, when we can get several hours of work done before there’s any realistic chance of someone finding us. It’s a good thing you all slept during the day, because now you won’t be able to sleep tonight anyway.”

“I’d sleep like a baby,” Li Na argued quietly.

“We’ll start when Lauren gets back, so in the meantime, water teams need to do their shift, and everyone else can prep some food. We might as well eat the last of the cooked food, because I don’t want any fires after tonight. Other than that, rest or do whatever you want, just be ready.”

“Why is tonight different from tomorrow night? We don’t want to get caught now either.”

“Because,” Sven answered, grinning, “tonight is the last night where someone could accidentally stumble on to us, which is highly unlikely. From tomorrow night, I expect people to be actively looking for us. And the best victory would be one where we never fight. If we go all three days without being found that would be fantastic.”

“Are you sure we should be building anything on the ground then?” someone else asked, bringing up the same topic for the hundredth time.

“Yes,” Sven patiently replied. “The place where we’re building the second fort is in between the two ‘horns’ at the end of the mesa, there’s only a very small area where it will be visible. And anyone who comes past there is almost certain to check up here as well, so we’d still be found. Only, we wouldn’t have the fort on the ground that we can defend first. Remember, any time we spend fighting on the ground is bonus time that we don’t have to defend our real camp. We need to make it count.”

Sven’s explanation inadvertently fired everyone up. They’d all heard it before, since it had been discussed numerous times, but talking about it again now, with their chances of taking the last flags being a very real possibility, just drove home the reality of their situation. These discussions weren’t hopes and dreams anymore, this was really happening.

Lauren arrived to find her team eager to get started. While everyone else had been sleeping, she had been running, so she struggled to summon the same excitement that everyone else displayed. Despite her weariness, she still went to fetch her notes, resolutely giving the first instructions to get everyone started.

Almost everyone would be starting with spades. Yaric had contributed multiple smaller things all over the place, but his one big project would need to be in place before anything else got started. Forty-two augmented students started digging, going down far deeper than they ever had before. The first 2 meters weren’t so bad, but the next 2 meters added the difficulty of getting dirt out of the trenches. Because there were also two separate trenches.

Five hours later they finally finished, to everyone’s relief.

Then they moved onto the next phase. Digging a trench.

This trench was only 2 meters at the deepest and shaped almost exactly as Chris’s middle ring had been, but with the vertical wall facing out. Then the poles they had spent so long preparing were brought down and laid out along the sloping side of the trench, also facing out, with their bases against the vertical side. Most of the team got started on fastening poles together, using ropes and already cut joints. Their walkway on the inside was also planned as part of the same structure, instead of being a second, shorter wall inside that they could walk on. Small beams with precut joints were fitted at regular intervals all along the length of the wall, sticking out over 1m. When the wall was lifted into place, these pieces would be horizontal and facing the inside.

Sven had climbed back up while this was going on, leaving an anxious Lauren to direct everyone while listening to the sound of unplanned chopping. The wall was mostly done when he climbed back down, asking for help and studiously avoiding Lauren’s glare. With the moon having long since passed over the top of the cliff, they were now in deep shadow, so Sven simply pretended that he didn’t notice.

He couldn’t avoid her when she started giving directions for the wall to be raised.

“Hold up a second, I need to get some other pieces in place first.”

“Why? We already worked all of this out after days of planning. Just do whatever you’re doing at the same time,” Lauren replied, slightly annoyed. Sven knew she was right. They had worked hard on their plans, Lauren most of all, and now he was just doing his own thing independently.

“Ummm... because I don’t want to risk breaking our wall…” he answered to an exasperated looking Lauren.

And his concern was well warranted. The people who had stopped to help him dug three more holes, very close to the cliff, and over 3 meters deep. Then the group at the bottom watched with open mouths as Sven and his helpers started pushing a simply massive trunk over the side, end first. Many of the shocked observers ran to the ropes and began climbing, rushing to help.

While Sven hadn’t chopped down the biggest trees, these three were by far the largest they had tried to use. They were practically the whole trunk simply stripped of branches, with square joints cut out high up the trunk. It was a mammoth task to get them into the hole, and they still rose almost 7 meters high.

The palisade wall lay forgotten while the rest of Team Shadow sat in the shadows, watching more reasonable size logs get lowered by ropes. Brave teammates jumped across onto the vertical pillars to pull the logs into place. Cut joints on both slotted into place, and once additional logs were maneuvered into similar cuts on the other side, the two parallel pieces were tied tightly together at multiple points, holding the horizontal pieces in place.

‘Who would be crazy enough to fight from that thing?’ Yaric wondered quietly to himself. He was just as much in the dark as Lauren, currently sitting in quiet disbelief beside him. In the dark.

They were more comfortable with the structure when Sven first started adding cut planks across the gaps between the horizontal pieces, then actually nailed those horizontal pieces to the massive trunks they’ve been fitted to. Just when they thought he was done, Sven brought more pieces down and started making three wide platforms across the one had had just made, extending them another two meters from the wall. The whole thing was insane, though Yaric was grudgingly impressed by how much Sven had prepared in less than 5 hours, as crude as it was.

He had his team putting simple frames together with spare planks when he climbed down, over which they were currently fastening some of the camouflaged netting.

“Sorry, my other idea looks like it’s going to work, and it will need a platform to be effective,” he said by way of apology. It wasn’t received very well.

“We can’t just throw things together randomly. Do you have any idea how complicated it was to fit all your separate ideas together?” Lauren asked. She was holding the hem of her shirt over her hand, breaking the beam from her lighting stone and diffusing the light over everyone.

“I know it makes things difficult for you,” he acknowledged. “But I promise it will be worth it. And look here,” he added, pulling her drawing of the final plan closer. “I didn’t have the chance to cut the joints yet, but the inner walkway against the cliff will now be between the rock and those trunks. I can easily add joints to help support your walkway as well.”

Both Lauren and Yaric felt it was more likely that their stable walkway would help support the massive trunks, but neither said anything. Besides, with 30% of the trunks below ground, they weren’t really the issue, it was the platform above that made everyone uneasy.

“It won’t be able to support that thing,” Lauren said, pointing up.

“Actually, the joints fit so well that I probably didn’t need the rope or the nails,” Sven replied happily, proud of his work. No one else felt as confident as Sven, but no one else had learned as much as he had either, so Lauren dropped it for now.

“Well, we’re behind schedule now, but I have to get to some sleep. Even I can tell that I don’t have a lot of patience right now.”

Yaric thought her reaction had been very reasonable, but everyone else nodded agreeably.

Sven was the only other person to get no sleep up until this point, but he still took over from Lauren, directing the raising of the wall and the filling in of the ground in front. They had everything stamped down, smaller poles raised inside to support the far ends of the walkway fittings, and much of the walkway itself done before sunrise.

Smaller poles were also nailed through one end to fit them to the edge of the walkway, with the single nails acting as simple, crude and weak joints. The three-meter-long poles hung down from the walkway above, almost reaching the ground, but each could pivot up and over the walkway to lean against the palisade wall, stick out from their camp. Several people were busy fastening their camouflaged netting from piece to piece, creating one long net that hung down behind the wall.

Then they copied Chris’s middle ring exactly, minus the stakes in the wall. A deep trench was dug in front of the wall, which would force deeper formations to break up as the front row jumped down, exposing the row behind them. The trench then sloped up all the way to the wall, providing no cover for any attackers. Two odd holes formed at the back of the trench, where the wall cut into an already existing hole. No one seemed bothered, and they simply fitted a large wooden cover over it, before plastering over the wood with yet more dirt, until the covers were hidden and indistinguishable from any other part.

Another platform was created against the cliff face, now between the cliff and Svens massive tree trunks. This platform was absolutely crucial. Two raised walkways joined it to the one that ran along the palisade. There was no other way up. To actually man their defensive positions, Team Shadow would have to lower themselves down from the mesa and onto the platform 3.5 meters above the ground, then move across one of the walkways joining the platform behind the 4m high palisade.

Not only would it be difficult for any attackers to get up, but even if they did, they would be completely exposed to archers on the platform against the wall, and they would only have two narrow, exposed walkways available to the defenders. The platform against the wall, meanwhile, had raised cover to provide protection from return fire.

Rope ladders that had been assembled over the previous week were lowered down and tested, even featuring a crude ‘cage’ that would provide some protection from archers while going up or down. They hung from the very top of the cliff, almost 10 meters high at this section, right down to the ground, passing through cutouts in the rear platform.

Lauren had come back down just before lunch and taken over again, for some reason feeling the need to apologize for her attitude earlier. Sven waved her off, while Yaric didn’t understand what she was talking about.

They had a quick team meeting before Sven went up to finally get some sleep himself.

“We are probably going to have to plan something for Cormac as well. We can’t just hope that he attacks someone or gets attacked instead,” Sven pointed out, looking for help in solving their final problem.

“Do you think we can pull off another ambush like the one on Chris?” Lauren asked Yaric, looking hopeful.

“I don’t think so,” he replied truthfully, even though he didn’t want to disappoint her now that they were so close to victory. “His area is one of the worst for planning something like that. I don’t remember finding any good areas at all. And Chelsea is on his team, she has a good eye for avoiding things like that.”

“Yes, I remember,” Sven mused.

“Why don’t we assault his camp then?” someone else asked. “It’s one last attack, we can afford to lose a few people.”

“Because there is every chance that we will fail. It’s not easy to pull off something like that, not against prepared positions. And we have to be honest with ourselves, that isn’t where our skills or experience lie.”

“What about doing what you did last year?” Li Na asked, interrupting the individual conversations that had started up amongst the team.

“We did lots of things last year,” Sven pointed out.

“Yes, but during my review, the Council Head kept mentioning how you manipulated the other teams into doing what you wanted. Not by making traps or being sneaky like Yaric, but by telling people things or talking in certain ways.”

“Are you suggesting that Sven convinces Cormac to hand over the flags?” Anton asked, chuckling to himself.

“If he can,” Li Na replied with a shrug. “But I was thinking more along the lines of getting other teams to attack Cormac. Instead of waiting for it to happen by itself.”

“Li Na!” Sven exclaimed, sitting up straighter. “Did anyone ever tell you that you’re a genius?”

“All the time, duh. It comes with the territory.”

Sven looked excited and almost hyper, but still buried his face in his hands, letting out a muffled scream.

“Sorry. I’m too tired to think straight, but this also has to be done right now. Please just bear with me.”

No one was feeling the slightest bit upset, only worried that Sven would burn himself out. Possibly just in time for their final assault as well.

“Ok, hear me out. And I need to hear feedback, so I know I’m not missing something obvious. We send teams out with white flags, just to parlay. Each team will go to one of the other camps and ask for an alliance, to join forces with us so we can take Cormac’s camp and his flags.”

“Just one problem,” Anton pointed out. “No one would ever team up with us. And if they did, they would be a bigger threat than Cormac.”

“I’m not planning on anyone joining us. If someone says yes, we’ll have to make excuses. Maybe just disappear again and leave them hanging.”

“But then what’s the point?”

“I get it,” Lauren said, smiling gently. “You just want to spread the word that Cormac has two flags and we’re aiming for him next. You want to push someone into attacking him.”

“Why two flags. Only Team Not Victorious has been around recently, so for all anyone else knows, Cormac has more than two,” Li Na added.

Sven just pointed at Lauren and Li Na in turn, smiling. “So it makes sense? And you know what to do?”

“I think we can make it work,” Lauren said encouragingly. “Go get some sleep. We’ll send out messengers and finish off here.”

Sven made his way back up while Lauren looked for volunteers. There were a surprising amount of people wanting the job, and they all seemed excited to be meeting enemy teams face to face in order to trick them.

Once camps had been assigned and the exact message formulated, the messengers ran off to let everyone know about Cormac’s five flags, along with hints about how they needed help to get those flags. The fact that they wanted help would be directly communicated, the fact that they needed help to get the flags back would be a simple, honest mistake.

Hopefully that would buy them some time while also painting a target on Cormac’s back. They only needed one team to fall for it. The worst thing that could happen would be nothing. Well no, the worst thing that could happen would be if every team fully believed them, then the other six teams might all join forces to take Cormac on together. There would be no chance of interrupting that assault. Both flags would be lost.

Meanwhile, the rest of Team Shadow worked to finish off their ‘base camp’. With the trench and rampart outside done, the palisade wall put up, the platform against the cliff done, and the walkways both along the palisade and connecting the palisade to the platform done, work started on the ground level defenses.

In comparison, those were extremely simple. The first 6 meters from the palisade back were filled with small stakes, with only 30 centimeters sticking up. They were mostly made from branches that would usually be discarded, but these were more than enough to discourage anyone who made it up the wall from jumping down. Halfway between the palisade and the cliff, another trench was dug, half a meter deep and 3 meters wide, filled with the same small stakes. As was the ground on the other side, ending at a line of proper barricades.

There was no way to travel through these defenses, even for the defenders, leaving the two narrow walkways 3.5 meters above them as the only way to get from the palisade wall to the other side of the barricades. Behind that barricade was a small gap for the defenders to fight in, followed by another line of barricades and then another field of stakes, leaving only a narrow gap along the cliff.

It was almost identical to the defenses Team Flagbearer had built in the very first days of the last competition, only this time, Sven knew to leave methods for blocking the pathways they would use to retreat. And it was very simple to do. This time those paths were diagonal. That actually used less stakes for the same width, but had several advantages.

First, the path through the defenses was much longer. Second, the attackers would be fighting their way down one direction while defenders fired at them from their flanks. And third, there was no straight line that augmented arcanists could use to try and jump. If you tried to jump into the diagonal line, just a little too far or too short would see you impaled.

All of this would be happening while defenders on the rear platform fired down on their attackers.

If the final line looked to be in danger, they would climb the protected ladder up to the platform, pull the ladder up, and keep fighting. If even that was somehow threatened, they would retreat all the way to the top of the mesa, only then beginning the final defense that would have been the initial defense, had they not built their fort on the ground.

They were still busy when messengers started to return, most of them grinning like idiots. Apparently, half the teams had asked several questions about Cormac and his camp, then when the messengers didn’t have any further information to give, they immediately rejected the proposal.

Team Unyielding had listened but chosen to keep their options open, as they outright stated that they would wait for Chris’s return before making a decision. They already seemed to know that Team Shadow was the reason that no one met them on their return, and why their camp had been empty and stripped bare.

Only Marlon and Li Na had experienced things differently. Team Victorious had opened fire when he got to close, and no matter how much he waved his small white flag around or showed that his hands were otherwise empty, they kept firing every time he got into range. He was only able to come back at all due to the fact that they kept opening fire as soon as he got into range, instead of allowing him to approach more closely first, and then opening fire.

Li Na was actually invited inside by The Behemoths, which was far more suspicious than the several arrows sent flying toward Marlon whenever he got too close. Li Na had obviously refused, but Andrew insisted that he would only talk when Li Na was safely inside. Supposedly, people were constantly watching his camp, and he didn’t want others to overhear what she had to say.

He was actually correct, though he didn’t know it. His camp was under constant surveillance, as Li Na well knew. Instead, she simply smiled and shouted back that it would be good if others heard, because the invitation was open to anyone. Even though Andrew immediately left, trying to force Li Na to come inside, Li Na just delivered the message anyway, shouting at the wall. Then, when she started to leave as well, three ropes dropped over the side, followed by three students, who then chased her for several kilometers before she managed to lose them. Li Na seemed quite proud of herself for throwing off her pursuers, though Lauren and Yaric were more impressed with her handling of the situation at the camp.

Darkness fell while the fields of stakes were being set, with the stakes they had already prepared seeming to rain down from above, only for someone to plant them firmly in their place and rush back for more.

With the heavy lifting done, proper sleep shifts were set up, and work carried on in a rotation.

Hatchets were placed along the palisade wall, ensuring that they were readily available. They had collected so many from other teams that there were at least two per person along the wall.

Quivers were put in place as well, and spare bows were balanced behind them. Even more were put into place on the rear platform and behind the barricades near the cliff. All six archer nests were supplied with several quivers, and they even had spare bows as well, just in case. Half of the remainder was placed along the top of the mesa above their ground level fort, while the rest were stowed in the real fort on top.

Some team members also got to work on another of Yaric’s ideas, and they sat tying long lengths of thick rope together, making a long, narrow net. More groups were also sent to fetch water, as they had all agreed to keep their water storage topped up at all times.

The only thing left to do required Sven’s input, as he had needed to take measurements once the palisade had gone up, but he’d forgotten. He was still sleeping though, from midafternoon all the way through the night, only waking up an hour before dawn. Lauren had also gone back to sleep after midnight, still exhausted from the lack of proper sleep.

They were both up bright and early, however, and the whole team looked much better. Their spirits were certainly higher as well.

Once the sun came up, Sven immediately disappeared into the proper fort to finish off his project. Lauren helped to set up the net Yaric had wanted, and she worked with her team to practice coordinating everything.

Yaric also managed to interrupt Sven long enough to get him to take those measurements. Then, with his help, they worked out how to make boxes that could be placed over the palisade, using the sharp points on top to hold the entire thing firmly in place. Those boxes worked much like the archers’ nests on top of the mesa, only far shorter.

Lifting it over the side and dropping it down, loops of rope secured it to the wall, while the bottom half braced against the outside of the wall. That created a narrow platform, not even 50 centimeters wide, but 3 meters long. Lightweight and quick to install, they could rapidly place covered firing positions over their wall that would have a clear field of fire on anyone against the wall, while completely protected from any return fire coming from further away.

Yaric and his team managed to finish four by late morning, and were working on a fifth when they were forced to stop. Sven had already finished his own project and shown it to the others, working with Lauren to figure out proper procedures and the best way to use them. His screens were also in place, hiding everything from view.

But then the report came in. Cormac was under attack. And not only was it Andrew who had launched the attack, but he had somehow joined forces with Simon, and they were working together. Delmar didn’t think they would hold for much longer.

Everyone raced to grab their gear and form up, creating confusion at first with some following old habits while others remembered their new procedures. Then, they all climbed down the covered rope ladders, made their way across the walkway, and climbed down the 4m high palisade. Just in case someone was somehow watching.

Running through the forest, Team Shadow raced to get to Cormac in time. Delmar had given detailed information on the assault, so they had a good idea of where to approach from. Circling around, they came back up from the south, appearing to be coming from their official campsite, and crawled up the final hill to peer over the crest.

It was chaos.

The main wall hadn’t been breached yet, but large sections were burning furiously, forcing the defenders from the wall. Both of the attacking teams had retreated out of range anyway, so there wasn’t anything that Cormac could have done. They were sitting to the east of the camp, and to Team Shadow's right.

Cormac had also added smaller wooden forts inside the walls, with one near each corner, that looked like well-fortified firing positions. They would allow The Titans to keep fighting back even if the wall was breached, instead of simply falling back into the stone fort, which was almost impossible to defend with its wide-open doorways. It was more of a deathtrap for a last stand than anything else.

There was one odd thing about the small forts inside the camp. They were spread out, ensuring that the whole camp was covered and that each fort was supported by two others. There was nowhere inside the walls that didn’t put an attacker under fire from at least two directions, and Yaric was actually disappointed that he hadn’t thought of something similar.

‘So why is everyone retreating into the same fort? Shouldn’t they be manning all of them?’

….

….

….

‘Son of a…’

“Cormac, you thief!” Yaric blurted.

“What is it?” Lauren asked, looking slightly alarmed. Everyone nearby had turned to look at him as well, and Yaric felt his ears start to burn.

“He stole my idea,” he explained quietly, pointing at the fort that everyone was retreating into.

“You spoke to him about this design?” Sven asked. He looked almost hurt, and his thoughtful expression made it very obvious that he was thinking about adding something similar to their own fort.

“No, he’s made an escape tunnel.”

“What?!”

“Look, they’re all running into that one fort, the one closest to us. There’s no way so many people can fit inside. It can hold maybe ten people. But everyone keeps going in, and no one is coming out.”

“That seems a bit thin…” Sven replied, looking uncertain.

“Do you remember what happened when we went through our tunnel last year? With the spears?”

“Everyone kept getting stabbed by the people behind them, we had to – they’re leaving their spears outside!”

“Exactly.”

“And that fact is valid,” Lauren added, interrupting Sven. “There’s nothing ‘thin’ about how many people are fitting inside a fort that isn’t even 3 meters wide. Almost everyone is inside now.”

“That’s because they’re not,” Yaric explained. “They’ve gone into a tunnel. That fort is just covering the entrance like we did with our wall.”

“Imagine if we had tried to attack them and got through. I wouldn’t want to be the one who finds the prize missing,” Sven said, warming up to the idea.

Just then, Marlon spotted movement below them. A dozen students were standing at the foot of their hill, 50 meters south of the camp, and well covered by the fire and smoke coming from the burning eastern wall. More students were appearing, seemingly popping up and out of one of the large bushes below. Two flags fluttered in the breeze.

“They’re going to go west,” Yaric confidently declared. “The gap there is the easiest way out, and it will put their camp directly between them and the others. They would be too exposed if they tried to come up here or go around and up the other side.”

“What’s the plan?” Sven asked instantly, not even questioning Yaric’s assessment.

“We go back down this side, so we’re out of sight, then we run ahead and cut Cormac off. Did anyone get a count?”

“At least thirty,” Kaeden answered.

“Damn, I knew it was high, but I’d hoped he’d lost more fighters.”

While Yaric was still speaking, both attacking teams moved forward, gathering speed as they got closer. Yaric didn’t miss the axes held by many.

Shouts of alarm came from the lone lookout who had stayed behind to cover his team.

The message was quickly passed along and shouted into the fort covering the escape tunnel. Only 15 seconds later, heads started turning to the hidden exit, and Cormac strode quickly back. Team Shadow watched him have a quick back and forth with whoever was in the tunnel, eventually shaking his head. Yaric saw his shoulders sag, then he spoke one last time and started jogging back to the rest of his team, waving them on ahead of him. A quick count put their numbers at eighteen, but Lauren beat him to it.

“Does everyone count eighteen?” she asked.

The next 10 seconds saw several people answering in the affirmative, while Yaric watched a stream of Titans moving out of the fort and back to walls. Cormac obviously felt that their trick would be discovered too soon, so a large part of his team stayed behind to buy them more time. It wasn’t really that big of a sacrifice, as the last supply drop on the 3-day cycle would be the very next day, day 21. The day Sven had been hoping to win by.

After this next drop, there would be seven days before each drop, and every casualty would be a much bigger blow. As things were right now, anyone who fell today would be back tomorrow.

“Come on,” Sven instructed, pulling back from the crest of the hill. Team Shadow followed, and once they had descended far enough, everyone began to run toward the boundary. Cormac had a head start, and he was travelling over flat ground.

It took half an hour for Sven to accept that finding eighteen students in such a large forest would be almost impossible, even with such a narrow head start.

“How can we get ahead of them if we can’t even find them?” he asked, starting to share in the rest of his team’s frustration.

Yaric stayed silent and instead pulled out his map, looking closely at it for several moments.

“Do you remember what this area was like?” he asked Lauren, pointing to one of the positions they had marked in their first 24 hours of the competition. It was one of their fallback campsites.

“That was the weird hill with the steep sides. It would be easy for a team to defend.”

“And this one was the hidden site?” he asked, looking for confirmation.

“Yes, that one was more or less the opposite. It was a hollow depression that would be very hard to defend, but there were very few trees and the bushes were extremely thick. I think rainwater collects in there. Anyway, it would be hard to defend but very easy to hide.”

“That’s the one,” Yaric stated, looking up at everyone who had gathered around him.

“How would he have a copy of our map?” Marlon asked.

“He wouldn’t, but he would have scouted the area just like we did. I bet he even hid supply caches like we did last year. He has so few people with him, two flags to keep safe, and two teams hunting him. He will be looking to hide, and this is the best place to do it.”

“You’re sure?” Sven asked, sounding more curious than doubtful.

“More sure than any other option. I’d say it’s our only option.”

“Then let’s go,” Lauren said, turning to orientate herself and plot their new course. “This way!”

Team Shadow made good time, moving far more quickly now that they had an actual destination in mind. Once they drew nearer, Yaric snuck forward with Lauren and Kaeden. They sat looking down into the hollow, but other than some branches that might have moved unnaturally, there didn’t seem to be any sign of Cormac.

“We didn’t see anything, but I think Yaric might be right,” Lauren reported.

“What now?” Li Na asked.

“We form a line and march through?” suggested Anton.

“No, I want to try and do this with as few casualties as possible. Cormac is a good fighter. Most of his team is. I’d rather try to smoke them out.”

“Or we could just surround half of the depression and fire blindly. If some of us wait on the opposite side we can smoke them out with arrows,” Yaric suggested, earning himself several grins.

“Or we could do that,” Sven acknowledged.

They all agreed to follow Yaric’s plan, and after a brief discussion, settled on twelve melee fighters to block an escape. As Lauren pointed out, even if the thirty archers only managed to hit six Titans, that would still give Sven even numbers. And their archers would be pretty sad if they could only hit six out of eighteen with such an open area and targets that were forced to push their way through dense underbrush.

With their plan set and everyone comfortable in their roles, the archers moved out while the melee fighters got into position.

 

---

 

Cormac’s first warning was the sound of something slamming through leaves, followed by an instant silence as the entire forest fell quiet. Even the birds had gone still.

Then more leaves were hit, but this time it was followed by a grunt from one of his team members, hidden nearby. Cormac was well aware that something was going on, but he didn’t think there was any chance that they had been spotted. His cover was just too good. Someone had most likely managed to follow them part way and were probing his hiding spot. Their best chance would be to try and wait it out.

A third volley arrived, followed by a fourth, and fifth. Then someone got struck again, but cried out in surprise. They caught themselves, so it wasn’t very loud, but it was enough. There was no chance of the mystery attackers moving on.

“Fall back position number two!” he yelled out, surging to his feet and pushing his way through the underbrush. The rest of his team began appearing all around him, spread out to avoid creating unnatural flat spots and the temptation to talk to one another. This time he saw several blurs from the incoming arrows, as well as three shields flashing into existence nearby.

Finally breaking free, Cormac was surprised to find Sven waiting, part of a line made of a dozen fighters. Perhaps he shouldn’t have been surprised, because of course it was Sven. He saw Li Na jump forward to engage, her mace held ready. Cormac raised his long sword, held with both hands. He liked his chances. If he could take just one person with him, he would consider it a fair trade, seeing how he was outnumbered and surrounded. Stepping forward to meet Li Na, Cormac crouched slightly further, ready to engage.

‘At least it isn’t Yaric. He’d be so pissed if he found out about my tunnel.’

Then something struck his back, and Cormac dropped like a rock, his shield glowing red before he even hit the ground.

 

---

 

Nothing happened after the first few volleys, and even Yaric began having his doubts. Then one volley was met with a muffled shout, and everyone knew they had the right place. Cormac must have realized the game was up, because he shouted for his team to run, and Titans began popping up all over the place.

Yaric decided to put his months of training to good use, and started picking out his targets. He might not be able to shoot someone in the eye, but at this range, he could comfortably hit a torso any time he wanted.

Two Titans went down after being struck by one of his arrows, one of whom was carrying a flag. Then he saw Cormac himself break free on the opposite end, coming to a stop before Sven. Li Na started forward to engage, moving out of sight when Cormac ended up between them.

‘Sorry Li Na, but not this time. I’ll buy you a drink after we win. Cormac too, but for now, payment is due.’

Yaric aimed carefully, drew his bowstring the rest of the way, and loosed his arrow. A second later there was a red flash, then Cormac dropped, revealing a shocked and dismayed Li Na on his other side.

‘Oops.’

But then reality set in, and Yaric felt like his hands were trembling slightly. The adrenaline rush of previous fights was nothing to what he felt now, making his way to the where he had dropped one of the flag carriers. Kaylin already had one in her hands, their seventh.

Li Na knew it was Yaric who had taken her fight away, and watching him making a beeline through the bushes, she also knew what he was trying to do. Augmenting herself as much as she could, Li Na leaped over the bushes, crashing into the bushes several meters in. Then she did it again, this time from inside the thicket. The branches whipping past her legs tugged them back, sending her face first through the air with her arms windmilling wildly, but she managed to correct herself before she crashed back into the bushes.

The next time she compensated properly, and landed directly on Yaric’s path. Not knowing how far he intended to go, she cast around frantically, until she saw the red glow close behind her. And the flag draped over some branches.

“Looking for this?” she asked smugly, lifting the flag high. “Wait, isn’t this the last one?”

It was, and everyone knew it.

The cheers and whoops were deafening this time, but also short lived. Everyone knew that the time would only start counting down once they had everything secured in their fort, and they were eager to get back. Not to mention a little apprehensive about moving through the forest with all eight flags. Suddenly every tree seemed to have eyes, which they all knew was ridiculous. There was no one around for miles. No one still in the game anyway.

“I can’t believe we have all eight flags,” Anton said loudly, unable to contain his excitement.

“Yeah, and so close to the time Sven set,” Li Na pointed out. She turned to him and added, “Just two days late, still a record.”

“Still a record?” Anton asked incredulously. “This smashes the record. It blows everything to pieces.”

“Calm down,” Sven said, smiling as he did. “We haven’t won yet. We still need to keep our heads down for three more days.”

“Yeah, but everything has just gone right. Ever since we walked in here on the first day!”

“Careful Lina, don’t tempt fate,” Kaylin admonished, grinning just as widely as everyone else.

“Fate is just the excuse used by those who drift through life,” she retorted, speaking as if she were repeating something from memory.

Yaric reached around Lauren to push Li Na sideways. “Lina is right though. Even when things went wrong, they still ended up right. And today, nothing has even gone wrong.”

 

---

 

Chelsea managed to hold both teams back for almost 15 minutes. She focused on firing as many arrows as she could, trying to make it seem like their camp was still well defended. Every minute she added was another minute they had to get the flags far away.

When their attackers broke through, it happened suddenly. One second she was firing into the wall of shields, and the next the wall fell down, unleashing a wave of attackers into her camp. She was forced to run for their tunnel, and only just made it, along with nine teammates.

Making sure to pull the cover over their tunnel, Chelsea was the last one out. They made it outside unnoticed, and immediately ran for the cover of the trees. Their hiding place wasn’t all that far, but Chelsea still cut back twice to make sure they weren’t being followed.

The sound of cheering just ahead was the first sign that something was wrong.

Stalking forward quickly, Chelea and her squad came across Sven and his team, standing near Cormac’s prone body, his shield active and bright red. Several of them were dancing with the flags.

“They got our flags,” Tracy said, pointing out the obvious.

Vano leaned forward to whisper, “That’s not all they got.” He pointed off to the side, where more flags waved, carried by Marlon.

Squinting, Chelsea tried to make out the individual flags Marlon had his arms wrapped around.

‘Shit!’

“Pull back, now!” she whispered urgently, already inching backwards, terrified that they would be spotted.

“What do we do with no camp and no fallback?” Tracy asked once they were clear.

“We call for reinforcements.” She quickly pointed to one team member after another, giving each one a cardinal direction. “Each of you need to run to the camp at that location and deliver a message. They all need to meet us at our basecamp urgently. Today! Everyone they have. That includes Simon and Andrew - we can probably still catch them before they leave.”

“But why would anyone do what we tell them?”

“Because if they don’t, we’re all going to lose. Sven and Lauren don’t just have our flags, they have all the flags. If we don’t take them back in the next 3 days, this competition is over.”

“Where will you be?”

“I’m going to follow them, so wait for me at our basecamp. I’ll come back with their location as soon as I can. You need to be ready to march straight there.”

Chelsea looked up at the sun, just about directly above her.

“Go! Run!”

Then Chelsea turned and ran as well, but back toward Sven and Lauren. She had a hiding place to uncover.

 

---

 

During one of their trips to meet Grizzly, Sven had sent someone to fetch their stand from the base camp building. The large wooden stand was meant to hold any flags they took, but it was bulky and heavy, so they had initially left it behind. Sven had made sure it was brought back to their new camp, however, and now it stood proudly in their fort, completely filled.

Lauren immediately began fresh drills, making sure that everyone knew the procedures for various situations. She also started practice runs for everything from setting up archers’ nests to running fresh quivers to the wall. Team Shadow was even timed climbing up and down the rope ladder, getting pushed to go faster each time.

It was getting late when she finally relented. Everyone was tired, but no one wanted to get caught out at the last minute.

The current water shift had just collected everyone’s canteens when the first alarm cry sounded, followed closely by several more.

Yaric ran to the edge of the mesa, with Lauren and Li Na right beside him.

Looking at the tree line in front of their palisade, Yaric saw at least a dozen students, all of them staring at the wall and talking animatedly. One even pointed up at where they stood at the edge of the cliff.

Then more students stepped out from the trees, and then even more, until an entire team stood just outside the tree line. But still, students kept coming, until a second team stood before them, then a third, and a fourth, and finally, knowing that one team had been entirely wiped out, all six remaining teams were looking at their wall, large bundles of weapons and other supplies in hand.

Yaric noticed Chelsea amongst the initial group, and realized that there must be survivors from each team present.

‘Some of them must have made it out.’

Chelsea’s group split up just then, quickly striding to different clusters of students. Simon and Andrew were amongst that group, which had clearly been made up of the team leaders.

Different teams started passing their bundles back before strapping shields to their arms and checking their weapons. People with large tower shields were already moving to the front, and rows forming behind them were starting to lift shields over their heads.

'What crawled out of the abyss this time?! It’s been 4 hours!'

All along the wall defenders were scrambling to take their positions, and Yaric quickly joined Lauren and Li Na in making their way down one of the ladders. He was almost at the bottom when a whistle blew, followed almost immediately by a battle cry.

Then a rapid staccato of thuds echoed all around, like hail falling from the sky, as a cloud of arrows started raining down.