Patrick put a hand on her shoulder. “We can handle this as a team, Sera! The four of us can handle whatever Teft throws at us.”
Sera turned her head to Patrick, her eyes meeting his. Then she nodded, and with new resolve, she turned back to Teft and curtly shook her head.
“Good.” Teft nodded in return, then turned his head to Patrick. “And because you’ve chosen to influence her, Master Wayland, you can be on her team. Your opponents,” my heart sank has he gestured, “Will be Master Cadence and Miss Callahan.”
I knew there would be a twist to this, I just hadn’t expected…
Resh.
“Your team will be up second.” Teft turned his back to us and walked away to split up the other teams.
“Well,” I glanced from side to side, “This is awkward.”
Patrick was full of resolve. “Sorry, Sera. Didn’t think he’d do that, but this is better in some ways. Uh, go easy on us, Mara?”
Sera stepped in between the two of them, put her hands up in a warding gesture, and shook her head vehemently.
I turned to Patrick. “Yeah, if you think Sera wants us to go easy, you haven’t been paying enough attention. She’ll murder me if she realizes I’m going easy on her.”
Sera raised a finger and made a throat-slitting gesture, her expression serious.
I said that, but the key part was “if she realizes”.
It was working, so I decided to add to the effect. “And, in truth, I’m not sure you’ll need it. Sera is vastly better with things like tile puzzles than I am. Don’t know about you, Mara.”
“I’m nae any good at them. Much better at punching things.”
Seems fair.
“Not sure how much that’ll help.” Patrick sounded dejected. “We don’t even know what they do yet.”
“I think that’s part of the point.” I jerked a thumb at Teft. “He’ll probably give us some basic rules in a few minutes, after he’s done splitting up the other teams, then we’ll have to figure out how the tiles work once we’re in there.”
We chatted for a couple more minutes. Teft did another round of walking to every group, checking on the status of our shield sigils, then headed back to the front of the class to address everyone.
“You will not always be able to choose who your allies — and who your enemies — are. For today’s test, you face a scenario every soldier dreads: a battle against some of your closest allies. Or, in the case of some of you,” he scanned the crowd, “merely the people you thought would make the most efficient team.
“In either case, you very likely know something of the abilities of your opponents, and vice versa. This will be a test of both your combat abilities and your knowledge of how to counter the tactics of your rivals.”
I caught Sera’s eyes. The tip of her mouth curled up just slightly.
She’d always dominated me at games of strategy. Valor, Crowns…it didn’t matter which.
“This test,” Teft waved at the arena, “will be a simple one, but not an easy one. Each colored square has a different effect. Some are beneficial, some are detrimental. Both the layout and the effects of each square vary between matches, and thus, fighting later will not offer you an information advantage.”
I heard a few groans at that, but I didn’t agree with Teft’s assessment. Not entirely. If there was a discrete list of possible effects, we could learn those from early matches and have an idea of what some of the squares might be, even if the specifics were different.
I also suspected Teft knew that, and that he was expecting a few of us to pick up on it.
“A few rules, of course. First, you will be given an attachment called a sigil monitor to put over your shield sigil before the match starts. When your shield sigil is depleted, the monitor will immediately detect this and teleport you out of the arena to the Mender unit.”
He pointed to a nearby door on the side of the arena. “When you’re teleported out, you’re done. The Menders will see to any injuries you sustained in the fight, then you can return to the stands to watch the remainder of the battle. You may not return to the fight, even if you can recharge your sigil.”
Well, that’s one idea down right away.
Was Teft looking straight at me when he said that? Probably just my imagination.
“Second, the match has a time limit of ten minutes. If neither team has eliminated the other in ten minutes, it will be considered a draw. Since eliminating opponents is the primary way to earn points for the exam, a draw will not be advantageous to you. While you may feel obligated to allow a draw if you are fighting against your friends, I assure you that this will not be the way to earn the highest amount of points.”
But it’s not expressly disallowed. Interesting.
Sera shook her head at me as soon as I looked back to her.
Fine, fine.
Teft continued. “You may not leave the arena during the match to maneuver. If you leave the arena, you will lose immediately.” He glanced at Kyra Dyson’s team, one of the few teams I considered almost as likely as my own to try to find a loophole in the rules.
Kyra was one of the few people with the Shadow attunement in the class, and while she wasn’t as good of a straight fighter as someone like Marissa, she was one of the most proficient at finding and exploiting weaknesses in her opponents. I liked her style.
“And you also may not interfere in matches other than your own.” He glanced at Patrick when he said that. Apparently, he hadn’t forgiven us for when Patrick jumped in on my “duel” against him on the first day of class. I brought a hand to my mouth to unsuccessfully attempt to stifle a laugh.
“Finally, you will only be fighting with dueling canes. Other magical items will be permitted, but for safety reasons, I will not be permitting other enchanted weapons.”
Another advantage gone. It was a sensible rule, however. Selys-Lyann and similar weapons could cause a lot of damage in a test like this.
“I will be watching your performance carefully. Today’s match will determine which of you are prepared for the second half of this class.”
That was an intimidating implication. Was he going to be failing some of us outright?
That was not an acceptable outcome.
From the looks on the faces of my friends, I could tell they felt the same way.
“Teams One and Two, come with me.”
Team One was Kyra’s team, consisting of her and an Elementalist named Loria Marshall. Team Two was Rupert Kent — another Elementalist and a constant subject of Marissa’s ire — and Desmond Vyers, a Shaper.
I could see why they’d assembled their team of four the way they had. Two Elementalists and a Shaper would have given them tremendous long-ranged firepower, and Kyra could have handled virtually anything else. I would have given them good odds against our own team, at least in our current state. If Sera had her Summoner abilities…
I shook my head. Hypothetical matches didn’t matter. I had a real one to watch.
Just one, presumably. We were Teams Three and Four.
We headed to the stadium seats, getting as close as possible to get a good look at the action. Teft led the two teams to the steps into the arena, where he knelt down to open a box. He retrieved four discs from within — the sigil monitors. It was hard to see at a distance, but they had some kind of prongs on them to attach to the shield sigils.
Could I disable mine to stay in the fight longer?