by Katie Pottle
“So, what’s wrong?” Lep asked after they dropped Charlie off at primary school.
“Nothing’s wrong,” Cadin said, “but I am going to use my gin-blade today in the Qualifier.”
“What!?” Lep said. “But, you’ve been forbidden to.”
“Well that was before I practiced, and Master Emilio is still not back—and my dad gave me permission,” Cadin said in one breath.
“Oh, well great then.”
“Kind of,” Cadin amended.
“What do you mean ‘kind of’?”
Before he could answer, Sun ran up to them and told them to hurry to Yi Field. They ran next to her where the stage sat, clouds curling around the base.
“What’s the big deal?” Cadin asked. “It’s the same as before.”
“Training!” Sun answered as if it were obvious. “I checked in at the Dragon’s Den and Instructor Kade said we didn’t have to do anything for class today until after the Qualifier. I haven’t found Bart yet.”
“First to check in again?” Clare asked from the table.
“No, we are still missing one team member,” Sun answered.
“I really don’t know why they stuck me out here so early,” Clare said to herself and then turned to them with a smile. “Okay then, come back when you are ready.”
Cadin turned to go as Ryker and his team walked towards them. They marched in such synchronization that their red Auras looked as if they had joined together to form one super Aura. They walked straight past Cadin, Lep and Sun to the check-in table.
“Hello, miss,” Ryker said with a smooth tone and striking smile. “Thank you for being here early for us at my father’s request. We are here to check in please.”
What a kiss-up, Cadin thought. Clare obviously had forgotten her complaints. She was smiling and dropped her pen more than once.
“No problem at all, young man. Can I get your team name please?”
“Inferno,” Ryker said, precise eyebrows raising slightly.
“Let’s go practice, guys,” Cadin said. He had no desire to be around Ryker more than he had to be.
They settled down under the small tree and began to set up their targets. When they finished, Cadin knelt and pulled out Tsuyo. It started to vibrate noticeably in his grasp. He closed his eyes and imagined the gin-blade in its natural form. A tingle shot up his arms, and he opened his eyes to the sleek katana.
“Wow,” Bart said as he walked up.
“What are you doing with that?” Sun asked.
“It is the best way to give us an advantage today.” He had no heart to make up any more excuses.
Sun scowled for a few seconds as she thought it over.
“You’re probably right,” she said with a nod. “Now, let’s check in and then practice.”
Cadin was relieved by her quick acceptance and jumped up behind her. He was shocked about how quickly Tsuyo had transformed. Clare was the only one around when they checked in and raised her eyebrows when Cadin presented Tsuyo as his weapon of choice for the Red Qualifier.
They practiced team drills for a while and then broke off to practice some individual targeting. Cadin was about to pull out his gins when he saw Ryker’s team sitting in the shade of the forest and watching them practice. Cadin felt mad and excited at the same time. He figured they were watching more to psych his team out than to scout what Cadin, Lep, Sun and Bart could do. He was torn between wanting to show off and wanting to keep Tsuyo as an element of surprise. When he was about to flip his gins in the air, Headmaster Tripharian called everyone over to the stage to get started.
“Welcome, students to the Glade Red Qualifier!” Everyone clapped and hollered before Headmaster Tripharian continued. “I want to extend a special welcome to our guests from the Contra Quad.” The ovation was much more limited, though a few girls eyeing Ryker were clapping quite exuberantly. “Now, I will give you over to Instructor Kade for the rules.”
“This one is simple,” Instructor Kade said as he stepped forward. “It is essentially the opposite of the Green Qualifier in that you are trying to attack rather than protect. Once again Academy Warrior Path students will be your opposition,” he indicated with a wave towards the disciplined angels standing to the side of the stage. Cadin made a mental note to try and avoid any green Aura defenders. Sun exhaled loudly, and Cadin realized it was a sigh of relief as he noted the absences of her ‘friend’ among the warriors.
“Any damage done to either the defenders’ armor or the statues they are protecting earns you points. Damage done to the statues is worth three times as much as damage done to the defenders. Note that any damage inflicted to your armor will deduct from your team’s total damage. Hits on shields are not counted on either side.
“You will have five minutes in the arena and five statues as possible targets. There will be five defenders, so once again you will be outnumbered. However, unlike the Green Qualifier, the statues will be randomly spread out where they will be locked into the green bases. You will have access to both natural cloud and cloud-land. Flying is allowed. The team with the most total damage done within the time frame earns first place. The top three teams earn qualifying points. Are there any questions?”
“If the visiting team wins, will another qualifying spot be available for us?” Cora from Freddy’s team asked.
“No. Each cloud-land is authorized to have three qualifying spots per event. As Contra is the host to this years’ Commons Games, they have the right to send teams to one Qualifier per Quad to attempt a qualifying spot.”
“So, the red visitors can just come here and take a qualifying spot away from us?” This time it was Araina asking.
“Not if you beat them.”
Araina cringed and then give Instructor Kade a nasty glare.
“Any more questions, or shall we begin?” There was some grumbling but no one spoke up.
“I have taken the liberty of randomly picking the order of when each team will compete and placing it up on the board for your convenience,” Instructor Kade said as he pulled off a cover from the board behind him. Cadin found team No Name at the very bottom of the list.
“Oh man,” Bart said. “That means we don’t go for at least two hours!”
“You will have access to the school artillery twenty minutes before your estimated start time. Please return all school gear when you have finished with the Qualifier so others can use it. Team Inferno, you are up first!” Instructor Kade said.
“Great; we will get stuck with the armor after it is all sweaty and stinky,” Sun said as she crinkled up her nose.
Cadin laughed. “I don’t know what you’re worried about. No one else in this school would ever choose leather armor over metal. The one piece of armor you like will be as fresh as cloud-daisies while we will be debilitated by the smell.” They all laughed as Ryker’s group marched to the entrance.
“It doesn’t look like they will have any problem with their armor.” Lep nodded towards Ryker’s group. Each red angel wore impeccably fitting suits of armor with fancy etching.
“We have time, so we should go over a team strategy so we are better prepared than we were for the Green Qualifier,” Cadin said.
“Good idea! And if we place in this one, we only have to place in one of the next two!”
“Not to mention the next is the Yellow Qualifier,” Bart said as he gave Sun a playful nudge.
Cadin was happy with their progress at the end of the hour and a half and felt confident as they entered the school artillery to choose their armor and supplemental weapons. He did not pick up a school shield, preferring his sword and gin-shield combo. He added a dagger to his belt after he put on his armor—which was apparently not as stinky as Lep’s. His friend was choking for fresh air, and seemed to consider forgoing the armor altogether.
They had time to check out the leaderboard as they had missed most of the team exits while they were strategizing.
“Stinks that the red team is still ahead,” Bart said.
>
“Yeah, it looks like they are going to place no matter what with only the team in there now and us left.” Lep kicked at the clouds and dirt at his feet. “Look at their total statue damage score.”
The scores split up between total statue damage and total armor damage. “I think that the armor damage is what actually put them in the lead,” Cadin said.
Slightly behind them in points was Gregor’s team—Oblivion. The next team was a third-year group who was again ten points behind Oblivion. After that most of the rest of the teams’ points clumped together. Cadin noted Vincent, Treven, Xeno and Jade’s team was standing in fourth place just one point behind the third-place team.
“Look, it was Araina’s team that was in there before us.”
Araina and her team of girls jumped up onto the stage, but the light pods where they measured statues were out of view. Everybody watching gasped as statue scores lite up the large scoreboard.
Araina’s team statue points was the highest so far.
“Wow. They could take first place away from those red jerks!” Bart said excitedly.
Cadin didn’t know who he wanted to lose more—Ryker or Araina.
“Hold on, we still have to see their armor total. The ‘red jerks’ were pretty vicious to the Academy defenders.”
The statue number slipped into place next to their team name with marginal armor damage—slipping them to third place, a few points behind Gregor’s team who were high fiving each other near the front of the stage. No matter what, both Oblivion and Inferno had qualified.
“Congratulation to the ‘Fast, Furious Fighters’ for performing incredibly well and grasping on to a Qualifying place with one team left to go. Team ‘No Name’ to the front please!” Instructor Kade called.
“We really need a better team name,” Lep mumbled as they headed to the stage.
“Place all weapons in the Light Bay,” Instructor Nightan said when they approached. Cadin unsheathed Tsuyo and watched as the blunting edge of light surrounded his sword. He extracted his weapons from the bay once the light waned and pulled out his two shield gins as he continued to the front of the stage. He had meant to assemble the shield earlier but he had gotten caught up in the scores. He held the gins in one hand to activate them, and Tsuyo in the other, trying to concentrate on what he wanted. He closed his eyes for a second and stumbled. Bart caught him from behind, and Cadin opened his eyes to see Ryker’s group off to the side of the stage.
The red girl laughed and said to the big guy behind her, “No team pride, no team name, and no team balance. I don’t think we have anything to worry about.”
Cadin stopped, closed his eyes, held up his blade and gins and asked Tsuyo to transform into the shield blade. He was anxious and mad and had no idea if it had worked until gasp ensued from the audience. His shield-blade had fully formed, though not quite the same as what he had accomplished at Mist Lake. At this point, he was grateful the sword morphed at all. There was pure shock on every member of the Red Team’s faces and Cadin didn’t stop to look at anyone else in the crowd.
Instructor Kade cleared his throat. “You have five minutes from my mark. Take your entrance places. Ready, go!”
They ran into the field and stayed together as a team. The statues were easy to find due to the angels with bright Auras standing guard. Sun let an arrow fly as soon as she saw the first warrior. He was a large angel with a green Aura. He held up his shield to block the arrow, which was enough to completely distract him from the second arrow that sailed past and lodged into the statue at his feet. They veered away from him and towards the angels with Auras that did not promote protection as much as the green.
Sun took the high ground. Cadin glanced at a red warrior who was protecting a solitary statue. He looked torn between defending his charge and coming over to help the others. He took two steps towards them and Sun let another arrow fly at the statue. He threw his shield in front of the statue in time to block the arrow, but then heard and probably felt another arrow bounce off his armor from the back. Fuming, he set his stance and stayed put.
Good, Cadin thought as they circled a smaller red Aura angel and gangly blue Aura angel. Cadin had picked up a few blue strategies on Air and it felt good to embrace his full Aura. They engaged the warriors one on one, leaving at least one of team No Name free to attack one of the statues, and Sun able to rain arrows down wherever she felt would be the most effective. This worked for them at first and Cadin knew they were racking up points. Soon the remaining two Academy angels came over and joined in the melee, leaving only the large red Academy angel out and Sun still at distance. They had planned for when they got out numbered and at Sun’s signal—a sharp cry like a hawk; they all quickly abandoned the current fight and ran for the other targets the Academy Warriors had to abandon to join the fight. The defenders seemed completely confused by their tactic at first, stumbling over their own feet and wings as arrows flew at them, and Cadin, Lep and Bart ran under them.
“There!” Cadin pointed. He spotted a statue raised a bit higher, and currently unprotected. They sprinted to it and Lep and Bart had a free for all on it for five whole seconds until two of the defenders charged at them. Cadin was ready, having reached into the cloud and cloud-shifted what was meant to be a wall, but turned into a speed-bump as the defenders raced in to attack. They both tripped hard and fell at Cadin’s feet. Cadin got a couple of swipes at their armor, but had very limited reach with his sword as a shield.
As the two tripped angels stood up, the green defender flew over the cloud and landed right next to the statue, picking Lep up and throwing him a good few yards away while striking his armor. Bart attacked with his spear, but was blocked and then tripped. Bart grappled with the green defender for a few seconds as Sun shot an arrow into the statue while being chased from above. The tripped two had taken their position in front of the statue and Sun let out the call again as it was announced in an echoing voice that they had two minutes left.
Cadin sent his slice-gins at the defender chasing Sun. The angel looked confused as he landed and brought out his shield to swipe at the gins. Sun took out her last three arrows and shot them at one of two unguarded statues. One arrow stuck into a statue and the other two glazed off a green defender’s armor.
Sun and Cadin ran full bore at the angel. Cadin rammed him back with his shield as Sun took out her dagger and started swiping at the statues. The defender called for help, and his two comrades flew over the hill—one knocking Cadin over, hitting him hard in the side with a sword, and the other fighting Sun away from the statues. Lep came around the corner as the one-minute warning was called and threw his dagger at the chest of one of the angels fighting Cadin. It allowed Cadin to be free long enough to decide that he needed Tsuyo in its true form in order to gain the points needed in the last minute to beat out Ryker.
No sooner had he thought it than Tsuyo transformed. Unfortunately, the gins acting as shields were not as fast and got expanded by Tsuyo transforming and then contracted so quickly in trying to return but not being specifically asked to do so that both gins shot off in opposite directions. One hit Sun in the chest and knock her down. Her opponent quickly took advantage of the situation and jumped on top of her, swiping at her armor with his knife. Cadin ran for her, but stopped at the sight of Lep who had taken on one of Cadin’s opponents. There was blood everywhere—though Lep seemed unaware as he continued to fight. The second gin was lodged into Lep’s right eyebrow, the wound leaking blood down his face and chest.
“Stop!” Cadin shouted as a second defender turned on Lep. They did not stop at his call and kept attacking Lep to earn back some of the points which had been gained on them. Cadin ran and sliced at one warrior with Tsuyo, knocking him back. He retreated to guard the statue, as did the second one after seeing Lep’s eye.
“What are you doing? We only have seconds left! Attack the statues,” Lep said as Cadin tried to attend to his eye. Cadin was physically restraining Lep from moving, afraid he was serious
ly injured with too much adrenaline in his system to recognize it.
“You’re hurt, Lep!”
“What, this,” Lep said as he reached for the gin lodged in his head.
“No don’t!” Cadin yelled, but Lep had already ripped the gin out and thrown it on the ground. The wound started to gush and Cadin froze in horror. His friends face was half obscured by blood, but Lep still didn’t seem to understand as he took advantage of Cadin’s catatonic state and lunged at the statues. The Academy angels defended against Lep’s attack and were covered in his blood in a matter of seconds.
“Time!” someone called from a distance and everyone stilled.
Lep lay motionless on ground next to the two statues. Cadin called for help as he ran to Lep’s side. Cadin grabbed his shoulder to roll him onto his back. Dirt and sludge clung to the blood still oozing from the gaping wound.
“Lep! Get up, Lep!” Cadin choked out.
Two instructors came to Lep’s side and the Academy angels had to pull Cadin out of the way. The instructors cleared the wound and held pressure on it. Headmaster Tripharian approached and one instructor stepped back to make room.
Headmaster Tripharian examined the injury, concern etched into his eyes. “Check the Light Bay! No properly light-blunted edge could have inflicted this wound.”
“A…I mean my… gin caused the wound, sir.” Cadin thought about lying, but he knew the truth would come out eventually. It was time to face up to his mistake, and Headmaster Tripharian had to know everything to help Lep. Blood was still running down Lep’s cheeks, and pooling in the divots in his armor.
Sun and Bart had come to stand next to Cadin, neither saying a word.
“I see. In that case…” he said as he held his hands up to Lep’s face over the wound. His hands started to vibrate, and it looked to Cadin as if his Aura was shrinking around him, but becoming much more bright and concentrated under his hands. Lep stirred, and Headmaster Tripharian removed his hands, the bright light dissipating as it bounced off Lep’s bloody features. The bleeding coagulated and the flow reduced to a trickle.
