The Fusionist Book 2 -- Chapter 65

Chapter 65

When they arrived back at the arena and took their seats in the Skirmish participant section, the looks they received from the other competitors was a mixture of shock, disbelief, and anger. Larek simply shrugged it off, knowing that there was nothing he could do about the feelings of the others, but he was immediately cognizant that Penelope and the Dean were absolutely correct about the potential for an attack from some of them at a point in the future, because the general vibe he got from them was one of retaliation.

A rumbling of discontent among the competitors at their presence could be heard, but the crowd was loud enough that Larek couldn’t make out precisely what they were saying – though he could imagine. There were fewer teams present among the stands where he and his teammates were sitting, and he realized that not only had the match that had been going on when they were pulled away had finished, but the following one must have concluded as well. Now on the fourth of 16 matches, the Skirmish seemed to be going much faster than he expected.

“How long do these matches typically last? I know ours was relatively fast because of my Fusion, but these others seemed to finish quickly,” he quietly asked Nedira, hoping she would know, but it was Penelope on his other side who answered.

“I’ve seen matches last all of 5 minutes before to over 2 hours,” she explained. “It all depends on how evenly matched the teams are and what sorts of tactics are used.”

In general, that seemed to make sense to Larek, but he wasn’t exactly an expert on such things. Rather than ask for more clarification, he simply watched the Skirmish while he thought about what had just happened inside the room with the Dean and the Martial leadership. While the feeling of being manipulated and used without his knowledge still lingered, all of which he didn’t appreciate in the least, the results seemed to speak for themselves. The problems he had been facing before had been greatly reduced and not eliminated entirely, but hopefully it was enough that he could spend his time in the Academy without fear of persecution for his origins.

It wasn’t an ideal situation, but somehow the Dean and Shinpai had orchestrated events to the point where Larek could do exactly what he’d been wanting to ever since he learned that he could create Fusions. Learn more, experiment with new Fusions, and establish himself as a proficient Fusionist that would keep him off the front lines with Scission monsters. At the same time, he would be fulfilling his obligation toward the SIC to contribute toward the Kingdom’s defense – as much as he still didn’t care about most of the regular people who didn’t like him – which would additionally keep his family safe.

With a sense of hope and relief flooding through his body, he watched the rest of the Skirmish match in silence –  but without actually paying attention to any of it. It was only when the winners were announced that the announcer said something that caught his attention.

“…while we set up for our next match. Before that happens, I have a something straight from the top, a joint statement from Dean Lorraine from Copperleaf Academy and Vice General Whittaker from Fort Pinevalley.” The man cleared his throat before he seemed to recite something from a prepared statement; the reason Larek thought so was the formal way he spoke and it lacked much of the previous enthusiasm of his normal announcements. “As per official investigation, the actions taken by Team Fusion in the first match of the competition have been evaluated by the judgment committee to be fair and entirely withing Skirmish rules and regulations. They have been cleared to proceed in the competition without restriction.

“Furthermore, any attempts at deliberate retaliation toward Team Fusion either during the Skirmish or afterwards will be strictly forbidden. This includes all students, trainees, and faculty; punishments will be enforced to the fullest extent, with no exceptions. Any questions regarding this policy can be addressed directly to Dean Lorraine or Vice General Whittaker. Thank you in advance for your obeyance of these rules and enjoy the rest of the Skirmish.”

There was a silence that descended upon the arena at the announcement, but as soon as the announcer was done speaking the crowd erupted into a humming murmur that was full of questions and theories over the meaning behind it, though Larek thought it was fairly self-explanatory. The expressions on the faces of the other participants morphed into more disbelief rather than anger, though there was still a little of the latter. Regardless, while the statement wouldn’t solve all of Larek’s problems, it seemed to have smoothed out at least some of them. It would also hopefully shield the rest of the team – especially Nedira – from being the target of disgruntled competitor’s ire; when knowledge of his abilities were disseminated through the rest of the Academy and Fort, the focus would all be on him at that point. While that kind of attention was a double-edged sword, it would theoretically keep his friend safe by taking any focus off of her.

It was only slightly past noon when the last of the matches were over, as none of them lasted more than 30 minutes, with the fastest that he witnessed around 10 minutes. The quick turnaround time was due to a few factors that he slowly picked up on as he began to pay attention to the battles being played out in the future. First, the majority of the winning teams were well-balanced and worked extremely well together, reacting to different scenarios as if they were one mind instead of individuals. Second, for the most part the winning teams were decisive and committed early and fast to a strategy to take the lead quickly, but weren’t afraid to adapt to changing conditions in the fight. Lastly, each of the teams that went on to win had a particular focus while still maintaining a well-balanced formation of individuals.

What that meant was that while each of the teams had 3 Mages and 3 Martials, their specialties were quite varied. One team relied on spells related to light and darkness – the latter of which he hadn’t seen much of, though he hadn’t really paid attention to the different kinds of magic that were available to be used – as well as fast Martials to slip past defenders and snatch up flags before they were discovered. Another used illusions to “multiply” their numbers with illusionary team members, which caused confusion almost immediately. Another went almost entirely long-range attacks, absolutely bombarding anyone that got close with so many projectiles that they couldn’t survive. Then there was a team that had 3 armored Martials and a trio of Mages that specialized in protective spells, which allowed them to essentially march into any fortification without getting hit too many times.

Even with those specific focuses, they also made sure to maintain what was needed to defend themselves, as specializing in one area typically led to the detriment of another. While this was true, at least in part from what he could see, the winning teams were still able to defend themselves adequately from whatever came their way – though sometimes it came close to falling apart. It was only their teamwork and reaction speed that allowed them to survive and pull out a win.

On the opposite side, most of the losing teams had excellent individual participants and well-balanced teams in their roles, but their teamwork wasn’t nearly as good. They also didn’t seem to have a particular strategy in mind but attempted to simply take advantage of opening where they could, or strode out of the structures with the intent of overwhelming the opposition with a sudden strike with all of their team members, which – to be fair – usually worked, but ultimately led to their eventual loss as their own fortification was typically left unguarded.

Overall, it was educational for Larek to watch the different teams work together, and seeing how the winning teams worked in their formations gave him a better understanding of how his own Fusions operated. The balance between the different team members reminded him how every section of one of his Fusions worked together to accomplish a goal, and each of them had to be strongly created, balanced, and focused toward a particular purpose. It was an unusual insight that he hadn’t been expecting from simply watching people fight, but it was definitely something he thought about exploring in the future when he had more time.

“Congratulations to each winning team of the first round of the Skirmish! There will be a short intermission while we prepare for the semi-finals, where the remaining 16 teams will compete for a spot in the finals! Lunch is currently being served in the Dining and Mess Halls, so keep your energy up for the excitement to come!”

The announcement elicited cheers from the crowd, who immediately began to file out of the arena; Larek couldn’t tell if the cheers were for the Skirmish itself or for the promise of food, but he figured it didn’t really matter in the end. As he got up to join the masses in getting food, as he was getting hungry, he was interrupted by Nedira dragging him back down by his robe. She pointed at two figures precariously holding a pair of wooden platters piled high with food.

“Hey there, Larek! Nedira!” Verne shouted as soon as he and Norde were close enough. “We thought you and your team could use some food and figured you probably wouldn’t want to wait in line in the Dining Hall! We brought enough for everyone!”

The others, seeing the bounty of food before them, tore into it as if they were starving, and even Larek got his fill after managing to grab some of it. It mainly consisted of sliced loaves of fresh-baked bread, meat, cheese, and fruit, but it was filling and definitely better than having to venture into the Dining Hall.

“You didn’t bring this out here just to be nice, did you?” Nedira asked suspiciously after she began to work on her own lunch. A guilty look from her younger brother was echoed by Verne a moment later, and Larek had to chuckle as he suddenly understood.

“You want to know about what happened when we were taken away, don’t you?”

Verne attempted to look innocent, but failed spectacularly. “What? We can’t bring food to our roommate and sister out of the kindness of our hearts?”

“No,” Nedira answered immediately.

“Alright, fine. Yes, we want to know.”

Penelope and the other members of Team Fusion looked wary of discussing anything, especially with someone who wasn’t part of the team, but Larek shared almost everything with the two first-years.

“They already know about most of this, including the Fusion we’re using, so there’s no reason not to tell them,” he explained. They still seemed unconvinced, but as Larek vouched for his roommates, they didn’t protest.

He still ensured he didn’t speak loudly so that no one could overhear him, at least for his team’s sake. His own role in everything would be revealed soon enough, but he knew his team would be disappointed if he shared too much while the competitions were still underway. As much as he still wanted them to be over with, he had a feeling it would simply be easier and safer – despite the proclamation announced earlier coming from the Dean and the Vice General – for everyone if they just won the entire thing. It was technically only two more matches, so how difficult could it be?

It turned out to be extraordinarily difficult, especially when the first match of the semi-finals began – and, of course, Team Fusion participated. It seemed as though the matchups were dependent upon the order of the first round instead of randomized, so that those who had just competed before lunch wouldn’t be expected to participate immediately.

With a target on their backs and some sort of alliance agreement between the other three teams they were competing against, as soon as the match began they were attacked by a full 18 other people, who all abandoned their fortifications to overwhelm Larek’s team. The immediate assault put them on the back foot, as while none of the attackers could find a way to actually hit or dislodge anyone from Team Fusion, there were too many of them to easily defend against. Within 30 seconds of the start of the match, there were already 9 Martials attempting to push through the entrance to their fortification and it was all Bart and Penelope could do to keep them back. Larek saw almost immediately that eventually someone would be able to squeeze through, even if half of them ended up being pummeled by the defender’s Repelling Barriers.

His team was doubly hit hard as the Mages were plentiful enough behind the front lines to both cast spells at those on the walkway above and toward Penelope and Bart, hoping to catch them off-guard. At one point, Penelope was actually hit twice by a pair of fireballs as she spun in place while defending against four trainees, as the projectiles slipped through because the Fusion was only able to defend against two sections at once. Without backup from above, or even behind as the pair of Team Fusion trainees were blocking access to the entrance, it was only a matter of time before they fell or were unable to prevent one or two from slipping through the melee.

“Plan E!” Penelope suddenly shouted after she was hit by the shadow-casted fireballs.

Up on the walkway, Vivienne heard the shout and suddenly ran to the left-side of the fortification in a blur, dropping her bow and quiver to the walkway – and then jumped over the edge of the wall.

What is she doing?

The answer came a moment later when an announcement was shouted into the arena. “Team Carnage has been eliminated by Team Valorguard!”

The fighting abruptly stopped outside of the entrance as the other teams tried to figure out what just happened. Having seen how fast Vivienne was – especially now that she had her Agility doubled by Larek’s boosting Fusion – he suspected he knew.

“What? You betrayed us?” he heard shouted from outside the fortification.

“No! I have no idea—”

“Look! There’s someone running with our flag!

“Stop them!”

There was a confusion of shouted questions and orders outside, though Larek couldn’t see who was saying what.

“Team Destructo has been eliminated by Team Valorguard!”

“WHAT?! HOW?!”

At Penelope’s chuckle, he knew exactly what had happened. Vivienne had run to Team Carnage’s fortification, grabbed their flag, and then placed it into Team Valorguard’s flag bases so that it was officially “captured”, eliminating Team Carnage – and then she did it again with Team Destructo’s flag just a moment ago.

As the defeated teams were forced to vacate the arena, the sudden turnaround of numbers was all Team Fusion needed to recover from the onslaught and fight back. Caught out in the open without numbers on their side, the members of Team Valorguard – who were heading back to their own fortification to see what had happened – were suddenly attacked from behind by Bart and Penelope as well as by a few long-range spells sent out by Nedira and Kimble. A moment later they were joined by Vivienne, who was wielding only a wooden knife, but in between the three of them they were able to begin taking out the vulnerable Mage students one-by-one.

Despite being taken by surprise, the other team fought remarkably well from what Larek could see from inside the fortification. The three Martial trainees on the other side were even able to surround and take down Penelope as she was attacked on all sides, including by the Mage student she was fighting.

“1A down!”

It seems as though they’ve learned one of the flaws of my Fusion already. The rest of this fight looks like a forgone conclusion, however.

Despite Penelope going down, due to the multiple strikes during this particular fight and the fireballs from earlier, Bart and Vivienne were able to take down the last of the Mage students. After the Mage fell, Nedira and Kimble were able to assist in taking down the three Martials trainees that were left, trapping one with Binding Roots temporarily and bombarding another with Fireballs.

When they were all “killed”, the match was called.

“Team Valorguard has been eliminated! Team Fusion is the winner of this match!”

After some self-congratulations as they sat back down in the stands, Penelope turned to the team. “One of the flaws of the Fusion has most likely been identified by now, so we’ve got to watch out in the finals,” she told them seriously.

“Agreed,” Kimble said. “That was a smart play you pulled off, Vivienne. To eliminate not only one but two of the other teams was spectacular.”

“Thanks. I was honestly only expecting to get one eliminated before they caught on to what I was doing, but thankfully none of them saw me leave our fortification; that, and the fact that it was so unexpected all led to their delayed response.”

Larek had to agree, it was an ingenious plan to take advantage of the alliance arrayed against them.  Now all they had to do was win the next one and it would all be over.

Oddly enough, for the first time he was actually excited to see if they could do it.

Book 2 Chapter 66: https://www.patreon.com/posts/fusionist-book-2-84780327