Avalon Rebirth (14 page)

His ferocious attack stunned the enemy. They tried to recover, but Darin gave them no respite. One, two, then three fell to his blows. Taji was suddenly beside him, lashing out with sword and shield to inflict even more damage. With Stone Skin active his attacks weren't powerful, but they kept their opponents off balance.

More enemies moved up the outcropping toward them, but they started to falter as they realized that there were two fighters. Darin didn't want to give them a chance to rally or retreat.

Thinking on the fly he activated Wraith. Four copies of himself suddenly appeared and went on the attack. They wouldn't do any damage, but at the very least they'd buy him and Taji more time for the others to arrive on the scene. Meanwhile he could continue to rack up kills.

A pair of blurs tried to attack him, but Darin simply whipped his halberd around in a wild arc. Even if the didn't score a hit he'd make the enemy fall back, or at least throw them off balance. One moved away, but the other wasn't able to change direction in time to avoid the axe blade. The rogue stumbled, badly wounded, and then Taji finished her off.

One of his wraiths disappeared in a cloud of smoke, but it provided him with another distraction. Darin made a leaping thrust and caught his foe under the arm, scoring a critical hit in the process. He yanked his weapon back and finished him off with another sweep.

The enemy started to fall back, apparently cowed by the fierce resistance they were putting up. Darin didn't blame them one bit. Why bother charging into a strong enemy-held position only to be cut down? There were other, easier targets to deal with.

But then they had another problem to deal with. The enemy could just retreat to a safe distance to bombard them with destruction spells, and there was very little they could do to counter. Darin had to wait until Sky Walk and Flash Step recharged, and Taji didn't have a good way to get across the deep snow. In fact, how had he gotten across in the first place?

“Muscle power. A lot of it,” Taji told him as they watched the enemy start to retreat. “Of course, they weren't shooting at me then, so that makes it a lot easier.”

“I'm sure,” Darin responded, his mind racing. What to do? They had jumped up to fourth in the points rankings, but that didn't mean much if their team was wiped out in the process. Should he have the other two leave and go pick out more targets, just to make sure that part of their team survived?

Half of the field was still active. That put them in good position to make the tournament, especially because they were quite a few points ahead of fifth place. The top teams seemed to be making kills as well, so as long as Raven's Call finished in the top eight they were fine. It didn't matter if they won by a lot or a little, they just needed to win.

But splitting up the team also smacked of playing not to lose instead of trying to win, and that often ended in failure. Desperate teams in the bottom were able to make miraculous comebacks as they seized the initiative and made their push. The teams that sat back and just tried to keep their spot ended up struggling, and sometimes lost despite their best efforts.

What to do…

He made a snap decision and activated telepathy. “Erika, Leah, if you're still headed for the rocks stop and don't come any further.”

“We're almost there,” Erika said.

“Are you together?”

“We are.”

“Then it works fine. We drove off the enemy and they're falling back. I'm guessing they're going to start dropping destruction spells on us.”

“Oh, you mean the group of three or four teams over on the northwest end?” Leah asked. “I wondered why they weren't fighting each other.”

“You can see them?”

“Yeah, we can. Hold tight. We'll wait for them to start focusing on you, then we're going in for the kill.”

Taji made a face. “Two of you against how many?”

“Eleven, it looks like. Don't worry. As much as I'd like to just drop a Fire Blast on them there's other things we can do.”

Darin and Taji looked at each other.

“What are your orders?” Taji asked.

Darin shrugged. “We'll sit tight. I've learned to trust her on these kinds of things. She knows what she's doing. Hopefully.”

“You really didn't need to add that last part.”

“Eh, I felt like it needed a disclaimer.”

He stood and waited, watching the timers tick down, wondering how long it would take Leah and Erika to put the plan into action. Or, if he was thinking in a more negative direction, how long it was going to take for destruction spells to come raining down on their heads.

“Well this is pretty intense,” Taji commented. “I never had that many players come after me at once. Made me wish I didn't have to use stone skin to stay alive.”

“Did you get any kills?”

“Yeah, two of them, but they weren't easy. It was like I was beating them with a stick, not a sword.”

“Still points for us, no matter what,” Darin said. He decided to take a look out toward the enemy positions to see what was going on.

At first the wind and snow obscured his vision, but Darin soon spotted the group of shapes of in the distance. Several were moving, but others seemed to be standing still. And one particular shape moved like a blur…

He laughed, despite himself.

“What?” Taji asked.

“I don't know why I even worried,” Darin said as he realized what was happening.

Leah had shot one of the players with Bind, probably the strongest one to take him or her out of the fight. Once that was set she started firing arrows and sent Erika loose on their hapless foes. With all their attention focused toward the rocks the element of surprise had been deadly.

And as a bonus, they had a lot more points. Darin watched as their team marker moved up to third on his HUD, well ahead of the bottom ranks. They just needed to stay alive to keep it that way.

That wouldn't be much of a problem. The pieces for the were beginning to fall into place. So far the top five teams were head and shoulders above the rest, and everyone else was scrambling for the bottom three spots.

“What do we do after this?” Taji asked.

“We hold here and we wait,” Darin said.

It wasn't exciting or particularly sporting, but every one of the top teams would probably do it. Once they had enough points to feel like they were comfortably ahead they would go into defense mode, likely anticipating their rivals would do the same.

Sometimes a team with a particular grudge would try to seek out their foe to eliminate them and force them out of the qualifying rankings, but that was a double-edged sword. The hunter could quickly become the hunted, and end up losing their own spot in the process. As much as he wanted to take out their former comrades, Darin didn't want to take that risk. By the look of things neither did Leo and Jon. Their team's marker hadn't moved in a while.

“We're through,” Leah said.

“Got it. Join up with us here and let's wait it out.”

Their first step on the road back to the top was nearing completion.

L
eah could feel
the tension in the air as the eight qualifying teams stepped up onto the platform. All eyes seemed to be turning on Raven's Call and Iron Titan, and they certainly weren't friendly.

She tried to ignore them, instead focusing on the tournament bracket being displayed on the arena's screen. Raven's Call had finished third in the running and picked up the eleventh seed, matching them up against the sixth seed, Swift Angel. Leah didn't know anything about them, but they were the next team on the list.

But that wasn't the only thing that had her attention. Iron Titan had placed high as well, beating out Raven's Call, but they had only come in second. Instead, a new team called Crimson Flame had come in first place, and they had done it with a much larger score than the everyone else. Apparently they had continued to hunt and fight even after their spot in the tournament was secure.

Was it just impulsiveness, or did the team have an aggressiveness, a killer instinct that they decided not to reign in? Both could be very dangerous, but the second more so, especially if it was paired with good tactical sense and a bit of restraint. Unbridled fury could be a powerful weapon in battle, but it could also lead the users to fall into traps if they weren't aware of what was happening around them. Did Crimson Flame have that knowledge? Only time would tell.

But for now they had to focus on their next match, which would happen tomorrow. They'd have little time to prepare, and if their opponents were smart they would have been watching the qualifiers to do some scouting.

“Well, at least that's one hurdle down,” she said as the team walked back down the arena tunnel.

“And at least that gets us decent payouts,” Taji said. “A thousand for qualifying. Better than I ever got with my other teams. Though we never even came close to sniffing the top eight.”

“Makes up for me having to take this weekend off,” Erika commented.

“Right. I had to take a vacation day, so this is at least a nice consolidation prize.”

“It'll be even nicer if we can win the entire tournament,” Darin said. “Remember, these are all just consolidation prizes. The real winnings are at the final.”

Leah frowned. “We have to get there before we can start thinking of that. First up is Swift Angel. After that it's probably going to be Lightning Strike, if the seeding holds up. And then we have a four-way match. That's not going to be easy, especially if Iron Titan is in it.”

“That other team. Crimson Flame, was it? They seemed like they were pretty good,” Erika said. “Granted I never ran into them. Must have been on the other side of the stage. But they were racking up a lot of kills.”

“Yeah, that's the sign of someone who either got really lucky, or is really good and coming out of their shell,” Darin said. “Let's hope it's the first one. It's going to be hard enough with one top level team in this tournament.”

Leah glanced over at him. “Speaking of which, do you have any idea who the other two members of Iron Titan are? I didn't recognize them from anywhere.”

“Well, one's female just like Chad said. The other I know nothing about.”

“What's this about what I said?” another voice rang out.

Leah looked up to see the members of Night Dragon leaning up against one of the tunnel walls.

“How'd you get down here?” she asked.

“Once the qualifiers ended they opened up the entrances. So we walked down here. Congratulations, by the way. That was sharp fighting by you all.”

“Thanks.” She greeted the other three. “Leslie. Evan. Winona. Good to see you all.”

“Good to see you're up and kicking,” Leslie said. “Though I would have liked to see you kick Leo up and down the stage.”

“Give her time,” Winona said, running a hand through her long pink hair.

Leah smiled. “Yeah. As much as I might want to do that, it's not happening. He's a rogue as usual, and I'm kitted out as a support archer. So I'd rather not have to face him in close combat.”

“Naturally,” Evan said. He glanced over at Leslie. “You're way too emotional about these things. Isn't winning the better way to go?”

“Huh, too emotional. That's my team for you.”

“Better than having your team run out on you.” Evan paused for a second, then turned to them and made an apologetic face. “Sorry, I shouldn't have said that.”

“Oh, that's fine. It's true anyhow,” Darin said.

“So what are you planning on for the rest of the day?” Chad asked. “Prepping for your next match.”

Leah nodded. “That's the hope, although I'm not sure how much film there is on Swift Angel. They're pretty new, if I'm not mistaken.”

She had looked over the profiles of the top-ranked teams in the D-rank tournament before this all began, though she didn't remember much. Leah's focus had been on winning the qualifiers, and once they were past that they could focus on taking care of business with their next opponent.

“Sucks to be them,” Winona said. “Sucks to be the team going up against Iron Titan as well. You have to fight two former A-rankers who know what they're doing.”

“We're not the only ones on our team,” Leah said.

“Nope,” Chad said with a grin. “And you picked two good ones, by the look of things. What were your names again?”

“Erika.”

“Taji.”

“Right. Well, you both handled yourself pretty well for your first tournament.”

“It's actually not my first,” Taji said.

Leah's attention drifted away from the conversation as Leslie caught her eye. They moved a little further down the hall to talk.

“So you just decided to come today?” she asked.

Leslie shrugged. “Can't come cheer on a friend? Besides, watching the D-rank tournament is always tons of fun. Or at least the qualifiers are. It's complete chaos.”

“That's not always a good thing. Especially when a lot of the teams aren't very good,” Leah said. “I got one kill because the other guy wasn't paying attention to where he was going. Shot him right off the edge of a cliff.”

Leslie laughed. “Oh come on, that's where the fun is. The upper ranks can be a bit too clean, you know? There's too many skilled players that know what they're doing. There's no rough edges, no mistakes. You get that a bit more in the lower ranks, and it makes it exciting. Or at least entertaining.”

Leah had to laugh as well. “Oh come on, you're so mean. Picking on lower-ranked players for your own entertainment.”

“Hey, at least I'm not just stomping all over them in the middle of a tournament. You're basically taking candy from babies, you know that? Shame on you.”

“Well, wouldn't have happened if we didn't get demoted. But since it happened...”

“You'll do what it takes to get back on top,” Leslie finished for her. “Well, I'll be pulling for you guys. Up to a certain point, of course. If you just wanted to hang around the upper end of the B-rank division, that would be great.”

“Sorry, but once we've been at the top we can't just let it go.”

“Eh, it was worth a try. But good luck to you anyhow. I'd like to see you move up the ranks a lot more than those other two.”

“Yeah.” Leah paused for a moment, thinking. “Weren't you the one that got the information on Iron Titan?”

“Hm? Oh yeah, I did. Well, at least I got some of it. One of my friends passed it along to me, and it was technically before they formed up their team, but I guess it counts.”

“Any idea who their new members are?”

Leslie shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine. The girl was the first one to join, but I don't know anything about her other than that. She fought as an archer in the tournament, if you didn't know.”

“Didn't see her in combat, so that's good to know,” Leah said. They might just be making idle conversation, but there was no harm in gathering a bit of intelligence at the same time. She had a feeling they were going to have to fight Iron Titan in the finals.

She tried to remember her brief glimpse of the new member of Iron Titan, but it wasn't clear. Red hair and pale skin. That was all Leah could recall at the moment.

The second one she knew even less about and could barely recall any details about him. If she passed him on the street Leah would have never been able to pick him out, but he must have some ability. Leo and Jon wouldn't have let him on the team without it.

“Anyhow,” Leslie continued, “don't think too much about it. At least that's what I do. The more you think about it the more it bothers you, and then your performance suffers.”

“So have confidence in our abilities.”

“That's about it. And who knows, maybe this'll work out for the better. Now you won't have three teams ganging up on you. At least, I don't think.”

“That's another way to look at it,” Leah agreed.

Whatever the case, it didn't matter unless they won their next match.

* * *

L
eah heard
the arrow zip by her, but she ignored the threat and tried to focus on her target. Standing on top of a rock in the middle of the shifting desert sands she had a perfect vantage point, but that worked both ways. If she could see the enemy the reverse was true.

But with so many steep dunes in the area this spot was too good to give up. It was important enough for her to risk being hit by the enemy archer's destruction spells.

The Force arrow managed to hit, though the Fire Blast missed. Leah healed herself, but she knew she couldn't hold here forever just taking shots. The last arrow probably had Crush cast on it, which meant her foe was out of spells.

“Erika, where are you?” she asked.

“Getting there, if you want me to take out the archer,” she said. “It's rough going on the sand without Sky Walk or Flash Step.”

“Just keep going. I'll hold for now.”

“Do you want me to come back to guard you?” Taji asked.

Leah watched him press forward over the sands, being attacked by a pair of enemies. One had a longsword, and another carried a two-handed battle axe.

That accounted for them all. Darin, Taji and herself had dealt with the enemy tank already, hitting him with weeping wounds and then a flurry of powerful strikes. Their foe had a lot of health, but without the ability to regain it he fell under the unrelenting assault.

That put her team firmly in control with a three-on-one advantage, but they couldn't afford to take it easy. Not with the enemy archer still roaming about with all the destruction spells at his disposal. One well-placed shot could completely flip the match on its head.

Leah scanned the dunes, trying to figure out where her opponent had ducked away. Ideally Erika would be able to sneak up and kill the archer with a quick strike, using a combination of flash step and sky-walk, but she couldn't count on it. If she got the opportunity to make the kill she'd take it.

Raven's Call wasn't just fighting against the enemy, but the clock as well. To ensure that matches ended on schedule they had time limits, and if one team wasn't eliminated by the time it expired the side with the highest point total would claim victory.

They had the lead now, but that might not last. One kill would tip the scales back in Swift Angel's favor, and then it was anyone's game. Right now the most likely kill was her, and Leah was determined to ensure it wouldn't happen.

What else could she do, though? Weeping Wounds wouldn't help much, since her teammates were too far away to exploit the opening. Bind would be of limited use as well due to the terrain. There wasn't anything solid that she could attach the ropes to, so the best Leah could hope for was to slow the enemy down a bit.

It was their armor seals. Even though they were a much lower seed in the tournament Raven's Call had the higher points total, and their foes had picked the terrain to exploit that. They had both open fields of fire and enough areas to hide in, and Leah's support powers were limited. She'd be more useful in something like a town stage or a forest, but…

But this was where they were right now, and wishing for something different meant nothing. She had arrows and a clear line of sight. She'd make something work.

“Leah, can you distract the archer?” Erika asked. “I'm two dunes away from him and have a clear path, but it's long distance. I don't want to get shot while I'm using Sky Walk.”

Leah quickly opened her map scroll and found Erika's position. “Got it. I'll try to hit him with a Weeping Wounds arrow to make him flinch.”

“Thanks.”

She nocked an arrow and cast the spell, focusing on the dune where she though the enemy was waiting. The arrow didn't have to hit, but it had to look like it was a threat. Whenever he popped up…

There. It was little more than a dark contrast against the tan-colored sand and blue sky, but it was enough to aim at. Leah let her arrow fly, silently hoping that it hit home.

“Arrow away,” she said over the telepathy link.

“Thanks. I'm closing in right now.”

Leah watched the shaft cut through the air, trailing an ugly red and black streak of magic as it flew. The hit meant nothing at this point, not when it already provided the distraction, but she wanted it to connect anyhow. It was part of her marksmanship, a confirmation of her ability to contribute something to the fight outside of her magic.