The Fusionist Book 2 -- Chapter 61

Chapter 61

“Welcome, one and all, to the mid-year Skirmish!”

Larek blocked out the sounds of the cheers as the crowd responded to the announcement, made by an Academy Professor using some sort of air-based spell to amplify his voice so that it reached everyone within the massive arena. He was sitting next to Nedira and Penelope in a special section of the stands reserved for the teams participating in the Skirmish, squeezed between the two women as they looked around at the spectacle. Nedira was pressed against his right arm possessively, as if she was afraid someone would snatch him away, while the blue-haired trainee’s position slightly in front of him was more like she was guarding him from an outside attack.

Regardless of the reasoning, he felt slightly uncomfortable because he wasn’t exactly sure why they were acting that way, but from looks of the other teams around him that were looking at him with a mixture of curiosity and confusion, he thought that might be why his teammates were acting so strange.

“Are we ready if we’re to be called first?” Penelope asked of her team when there was a bit of lull in the crowd. At their affirmatives, including Larek’s own, she just nodded and continued to look around her as if expecting an attack.

“Calm down, Penny; you’re going to break your neck if you keep doing that,” Bartholomew chided the blue-haired leader, causing her to stop and sigh.

“Sorry; I just can’t help but be nervous. What if someone found out about… you know.”

Larek spoke up to reassure her. “Even if they did, there’s not much they can do about it. If they somehow know how to exploit its weaknesses, then you’ll have to adapt.” He didn’t mention that he hoped that another team somehow learned just enough to take advantage of his Fusion’s flaws to cause them to lose the match, but not to hurt any of them more than a few bruises. Still, he was confident that, without his actual participation in the match, his team wouldn’t have enough bodies to actually win; from what he’d learned over the last week, in between creating Fusions, was that there was a lot of complex strategy, trickery, deception, or overwhelming force involved – but all of that required every single member working together. He doubted that his team, as effective and accomplished as they were, would be able to penetrate the defenses of the other teams without his help.

Help that he wasn’t inclined to give. For one, without creating offensive Fusions – which he was loathe to do after what he’d used them for previously – he couldn’t cast spells. Secondly, he didn’t want to fight with weapons or even his fists, as he was worried it would expose his Martial stats with how hard he could hit and how fast he could move. Lastly, he had absolutely no interest in actually being part of this competition more than what he’d already contributed with his Fusions. While he could fight, and had done it in the past when it was necessary, he’d rather fight against monsters; just the thought of raising his hands or utilizing his Fusions directly against another person brought the disturbing memories of his actions underneath the Academy to the forefront of his mind.

“…remember that in this preliminary round, all 64 teams will be competing in groups of 4, meaning that there will be…”

Larek continued to block out what was being announced, as he’d heard it all before and he didn’t really care about it all that much. His intent was to get in a match, keep everyone alive and unhurt, lose, and then go back to his studies and work on breaking through to the next stage of Fusion creation.

“…now announce the match-ups! When you hear the name of your team called along with a number, please proceed to the corresponding fortification. Once all the teams are in place, I will announce the start of the match!”

Huh?

“Hey, Penelope, what is the name of our team?” Larek asked, searching his memory to see if he had heard it at some point.

She looked nervous for some reason. “Uh… well, I couldn’t think of anything fancy, so I just came up with something I thought was appropriate.”

“And what did you come up with—”

The announcer interrupted their conversation. “In the first match, we have Team Firestrike in Fortification 1, followed by Team Rumblesmash in Fortification 2, Team Silentkiller in Fortification 3, and Team… Fusion? Yes, that’s what it says… oh, uh, Team Fusion in Fortification 4!  Let’s hear it for our first matchup for the mid-year Skirmish!”

“Really? Team Fusion?” Nedira shouted her question toward the blue-haired leader to be heard over the shouting of the crowd.

Penelope just shrugged and hopped off the wooden bench she had been sitting on, gesturing to the others to get up. Larek unfolded himself from his seat, having had to bend in a way to fit in the tight space, looking at the arena at the same time. In his peripheral vision, he saw another three groups of students and trainees moving toward it, which he presumed were the others that had been called to participate, each of the groups heading toward a different fortification. He followed his own team toward the only one that didn’t seem to be occupied, which he also presumed meant it was Fortification 4, though he didn’t any obvious numbers on or around any of them.

What is the probability that we would be chosen to go first? I wonder if this is part of the manipulation Shinpai had mentioned, or if it is simply chance? And Team Fusion? Oh, well, I guess it works.

Down on the arena floor, the fortification that had seemed large from afar appeared huge once he was actually approaching it. Standing at 30 feet in height and 60 feet in width, it was essentially a large rectangular block of stone with Strengthen Stone +3 Fusions covering the entire fortification, which was a step up from the sparring rooms that the team had been practicing within. From what he could see, the Fusions themselves were also of a much better quality and appeared fairly new without the degradation he was used to seeing on most Fusions around the Academy, meaning that it had likely been done expressly for the benefit of the Skirmish.

There was a single opening that was 8 feet tall and 5 feet wide on what he considered the front side of the fortification, which faced toward the other structures in the arena. It was located in the center along the dirt-filled ground, meaning that it was highly accessible by any of the other teams – which he assumed was the whole point. It was a chokepoint that the entire Skirmish was hinged upon, as it was the easiest way into and out of the fortification. It wasn’t the only one, however, because the inside of the stone block was hollow, including the ceiling; if someone was able to find their way up and over the walls, then they could essentially get inside from any direction.

Inside of the fortification where it was hollow, there was a 4-foot-wide ledge along the inside perimeter approximately 3 feet from the top, which was accessible by a set of internal steps that led up either the left or right sides of the structure. This created a walkway which allowed anyone with long-range attacks to have elevation as well as a short wall to hide behind which would block retaliatory attacks. There was also a short wall on the inside to help prevent anyone from accidentally falling off, which Larek thought was a good idea. In the four corners of the structure just above the walkway and extending up approximately 10 feet was a pillar with an internal set of tiny stairs where a Professor or Instructor from the Academy or Fort ascended to the top of the pillar, where they could look down inside the fortifications as well as outside; these individuals were the ones that evaluated the number of hits someone had taken, as well as keeping track of healing.

Ignoring them, the walkway was where most Mages and Rangers like Vivienne would be placed during the match, with the melee-focused Martials would be down below defending the flag. He looked at the purple-colored flag and pole of theirs which sat in an iron base in the center of the stone floor, along with 3 others arranged behind it, waiting for their opponents’ flags.

From what he’d overheard of the rules, the only way to win was to bring all 3 of the other flags while still controlling your own. It was made easier by the fact that a team was immediately eliminated from the match when their flag was fully captured by another team, which meant that it was placed in an opponent’s flag base while the capturing team still possessed their own. If their flag was missing, then it wouldn’t count and nobody would be eliminated, meaning that the flags could be stolen back. The only exception to an immediate elimination was if the team who had their flag “capped” had possession of a foreign flag which would pause their elimination; as soon as they lost control of it without getting their own back, then they would immediately be eliminated.

In addition, any team member could only hold one flag at a time and they always had to pick up their own or the fortification’s own flag first before they could touch any of the others; what that meant was that if team 1 captured a flag from team 2 and eliminated them, team 3 couldn’t enter team 1’s fortification and steal team 2’s flag first – they had to take team 1’s first. If they had two team members inside, they could take both, as long as team 1’s was picked up first.  In the same scenario, if team 2 had possession of a foreign flag when their own was “capped”, they wouldn’t be eliminated and could steal their own back; as soon as it was out of the foreign flag base, they were currently safe from elimination even if they lost control of the other flag they had in their possession.

On the surface, it sounded like it was competition based on a simple matter of attrition, as a few team members would go out to assault a foreign fortification to try and steal their flag while the others stayed back to defend, but it rarely worked out like that from what he understood.  Sending an entire team to capture a flag and then carry it along with them while they captured their own undefended flag back was a risky tactic, but it apparently worked. Having a half a team full of extremely fast Martial trainees to get in and get out was also a strategy, or having a team of all heavy-hitting Mages with no support or healers, or all ranged team members who could pick off the competition from afar – the possibilities were numerous, and no single method seemed to work better than others, at least according to Penelope.

He wasn’t exactly sure what “Team Fusion’s” strategy was, because he didn’t pay too much attention to it, but he suspected it was all based on defense initially, considering his own contributions. He couldn’t really see them going out to assault another fortification, especially being down a team member who wasn’t going to participate other than as a healer if it was needed. If everything went well like he hoped, he wouldn’t have to do anything.

All of the others had a Repelling Barrier +10 Fusion on their person, each on medallion on a chain provided by the Academy’s supply storage and tucked underneath their clothes or armor; Larek had easily obtained them as he was able to request just about anything he needed and Shinpai made sure he got what he needed. Even underneath their outerwear, their area of ambience was such that it nearly interfered with the stat boost Fusions he’d placed on their weapons; as long as they didn’t hold their weapons near their chests for extended periods of time while the Barrier was active, they would be alright.

He was only able to add a pair of stat boosts combined into one per weapon, as the Magnitude 10 boosts had even larger areas of ambience than his own Magnitude accessories; even the two boosts was possible because he was able to combine them into the same Fusion, otherwise they would’ve interfered with each other.  Then again, having all three stats boosted was probably unnecessary, as each of them were Strength and Agility; Body would help them withstand attacks, but if his other Fusion worked, then there was no point.

The only exception was Kimble’s staff, which was long enough that he was able to add all three stats spaced out evenly between its length, though he reduced their Magnitudes to 9 to ensure they wouldn’t interfere with each other. Nedira’s staff he left alone because he didn’t want to interfere with balance of the Fusions on there, as she had the Illumination +7 and Healing Surge +3 Fusions on it, and she said it was perfectly fine for what she needed.

He did create a staff for himself, in which he added a dual Magnitude 10 Intellect and Pneuma Boost to one end and a Healing Surge +3 to the other… just in case. He wasn’t planning on using it, but if it was required, then it was much easier to fake spellcasting with the staff touching the one needing to be healed rather than pulling off his anklet mid-match. Speaking of that, both his anklets – with Healing Surge +3 and Acuity +9 – were out of range of his own Repelling Barrier +10 Fusion around his neck, thanks to his height, so they were just fine where they were; he had to put aside his armlets with his Magnitude 9 Fusions because they were too close to the new Barrier Fusion that they would interfere with it – and vice versa.

“Where do you want me?” Larek asked as soon as they all filed into their fortification. He realized that he never really understood his role in the actual match, but he suspected they would simply send him off into a corner somewhere.

“You weren’t listening to anything during practice, were you?” Kimble asked with a chuckle, echoed by everyone other than Nedira.

“I already made my objection clear, but I was overruled,” his friend said with a pout on her face – which made him worried.

“Uh, what do you mean?”

“It’s actually very simple, Larek,” Penelope answered. “Although, I have to say I’m having my doubts, but I believe you should be fine. As long as you’re confident in your new Fusion, that is.

Uh, oh. I’m not getting a good feeling about this.

“Well, you didn’t want to participate in the actual Skirmish, so you technically don’t have to. All you have to do is stand… right there… and don’t move.”

The blue-haired team leader was pointing at the base of their flag.

Oh. Great.

“The match begins in 10! 9! 8!—”

With the booming voice now announcing the beginning of the match, Larek didn’t have time to argue. With a sigh, he walked over to the flag base and settled into a comfortable stance, his body blocking a portion of the flag so that it was nearly impossible to see from the front, right across from the entrance.

“—2! 1! Skirmish!”

The crowd went wild and Larek knew the match had officially begun.

Book 2 Chapter 62: https://www.patreon.com/posts/fusionist-book-2-84646962