“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.
Leah 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 op
ponent 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.
She glanced back at the fight happening out on the sands. Darin had joined Taji, and both pressed their attack against the remaining two members of Swift Angel. So far so good. Now, for the archer.
The arrow disappeared out of view when she turned back to her original target. Had it missed? Hit? At this distance it was impossible to tell, and there was no point in asking Erika to confirm it either way. It was just a stupid point of pride, some way to assure herself that she still had the ability to contribute. After spending so long as a destruction magic user her support abilities seemed tame by comparison.
“Hah, that takes care of him,” Erika said over telepathy a moment later. “Thanks Leah. He was so occupied with the arrow he didn't even see me coming.”
“No problem. You hear that guys?”
She looked back toward the other fight to see the axe wielder fall, cut down by a strike from Darin. Leah couldn't make out the last survivor's face from this distance, but she imagined he had a look of terror right about now. And likely unbeknownst to him, he was all alone.
“Let's finish this,” Darin ordered.
“Give me space so I can fire Bind,” Leah said. She nocked her arrow and cast the spell, then drew back the bowstring and took aim.
They had a four-on-one advantage, but Leah wasn't in the mood to take any chances. Neither were any of the others, most likely, and she wanted to leave an impression on anyone watching. If their next opponents were scouting the match they were going to know that Raven's Call was playing for keeps this time. If the could intimidate their foes before they even stepped into the arena, they'd gladly take that advantage.
She let the arrow fly and watched it streak into the enemy's armor. Ropes grew out of the shaft and wrapped around his body, then reached down toward the ground. They didn't stick in the sand, but they caused a tangled mess. He stumbled.
And that was the end for him. Darin and Taji didn't even allow him to get up before they piled onto him. Two brutal seconds later and it was all over.
The stage disappeared, but Leah paid little heed to the cheering crowd in the stands as the arena materialized around her. It was too soon to savor a victory. One down, two to go.
15
Darin watched the battle unfold on the screen, trying to gather any information he could on their prospective opponents. He already knew they'd be facing Lightning Strike in the next round, but the match was tomorrow and they had already prepared. Their opponents were skilled, the third seeded team in the tournament, in fact, but they weren't unbeatable by any stretch of the imagination. As long as they fought together played smart Raven's Call should come out on top.
It was the finals that worried him the most, especially because they were guaranteed to get into a confrontation with Iron Titan at some point. From the look of things Leo and Jon kept their usual character builds, a dual-wielding rogue and a heavily armored tank, respectively. They looked to be the most dangerous, but Darin knew very well they weren't the only threat. The other two members of the team probably weren't scrubs, and underestimating them could come back to bite them.
The first member, the red haired archer, seemed straightforward enough. She stood on a good vantage point in the middle of the arena firing off arrows laced with destruction spells. That seemed normal, but Darin wasn't so sure.
“See anything unusual?” he asked Leah.
“Well, she knows what she's doing. She's not just casting spells and firing them off randomly. There's a trick to that.”
“How so?” Erika asked curiously.
“Well, different spells are used for different things. Most people treat Fire blast and Force arrow the same way, but they have different effects. Fire Blast is more effective against something in the heavy undergrowth, for instance. It burns everything away. And you can use Force arrow to destroy harder targets like stones to flush them out.”
“Pay attention to how Leo fights,” Darin told her. “I know you use different weapons, but the way he uses manipulation magic might help you to come up with some new techniques. Or you'll at least be able to refine the ones you have.”
“Got it.”
He turned his attention back to the fourth member of Iron Titan, an all-rounder with medium armor and a longsword, wielding support magic. Apparently that was his replacement, though Darin didn't know what to think of him. He seemed unremarkable, just another player with decent skills, but that might be enough. Not everyone had to be a standout on a team. Sometimes good, solid hands were enough to let the aces go to work.
He had been like that once. Darin had never been subpar, but Leah and Leo were always the standouts in Silver Star, and Jon was no slouch himself. At the beginning Darin had felt like fourth best on the team, but that only motivated him to work harder to get better. Gradually he had come into his own, honing both his combat and casting skills. Now he was capable of fighting as an all-rounder as well, taking on any role he needed to play.
That might be the case with the fourth member of Iron Titan. He might be unremarkable now, but being around other skilled players would push him to get better. Darin thought it was fairly likely that he'd improve greatly as time passed. Or maybe not. Maybe Leo and Jon had just picked someone so they could get into this tournament. In any case, Raven's Call couldn't discount him. They'd have eight other players to contend with as well.
He watched with great interest as Iron Titan's archer flushed one of their opponents out with a Force arrow, right into Leo's path. His former comrade charged in with flash step and scored a pair of critical hits to the neck. His hapless victim fell and then disappeared in a cloud of dust.
“Must suck to be them,” Chad commented from the next row. “Must have sucked for Swift Angel too. You get an automatic bid into the tournament and get to face off against the worst team possible.”
“That's how the breaks fall, I guess,” Darin shrugged.
“And at least they were guaranteed decent winnings,” Taji pointed out.
“I wouldn't call them decent, but I see your point. Everyone wants to take the championship,” Chad said. “Not just for the money, but for the potential to jump up to C-rank.”
“I guess if you want to be the best you have to beat the best. Or something like that,” Taji shrugged. “I know that's a bit cliché, but...”
Leslie laughed. “A bit harsh too. You'll fit right in. If you're not prepared to fight all-out and take on all comers you don't have a place in the tournaments.”
“So it's about taking it seriously?”
“Eh, I wouldn't quite say that. Or I'd define that a little better, actually. Of course you need to take it seriously, but there's no point in playing to win over all else. We're here to provide entertainment. That's why we get paid. Because people watch this, and sponsors are willing to fork over the cash to shill their stuff.”
“Doesn't that just mean we're being a business?”
“You're not being very clear,” Evan said to Leslie.
“Well fine, why don't you explain it better,” she said, sticking out her tongue.
“I think I will. We're here to put on a show. We'd like to win, of course, but people don't want to watch something they think is boring. So they want to see the best teams compete, where the outcome is in doubt. That's more exciting.”
“And seeing lower seeds come out of nowhere to win the tournament is always exciting as well,” Winona said.
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