Starbreaker

“The goal is to remove an opponent’s options until their movements become predictable. Positioning, persistent spell effects, mastery of the field of battle, these are all vital aspects. A mage may cast spells until one hits. A soldier does not have that luxury. They must create the situation in which their spell hits.”

—Magical Combat Manual 1, Haxan Shaelar

Ducking under a bolt of green flame, Sylvas rolled back to his feet. Vaelith’s automaton wolves were closing in from all sides, puking out missiles when they were beyond biting distance and charging on when they thought that they had a better opportunity. He’d spent a few spells worth of mana picking off the closest with Arcane Arrows before they could really form up, but now they had overwhelming numbers, and he had no area of effect spells to speak of.

The instructor obviously knew his capabilities before assigning them their tasks, so the fact that others had to deal with a few powerful opponents and he was faced with a swarm spoke to his weaknesses as a caster. She knew his spell book was more limited than the others, and she knew that he would have to think outside of the box to win. It was entirely possible she was pushing him to modify magic again, since she had been so approving of it the first time around, but he could function within the limitations that were set for him without breaking any rules. He would admit that he didn’t have a good track record of that, but he could prove it today.

The green blasts of fire had held the majority of the wolves back from making the final charge to kill him, and that had bought him the time that he needed to complete his spell. Gharia’s flying spell might have been practically useless in ongoing combat against other mages, but against conjured wolves, it was ideal. Particularly now that he’d learned how to only feed it just barely enough mana to keep him afloat once he’d gained the height that he wanted. The drain was still substantial, but more cost-effective, and in that particular moment as the pouncing wolves’ jaws collided with one another instead of with his flesh, he felt like it was a very sensible investment of mana regardless.

The wolves didn’t behave like real wild animals, they didn’t fight after colliding with each other, just rebounded and recentered him in their vision. There was some degree of cunning invested in these patially-living constructs, but nothing else.

This felt good. To be back in the fight. To be moving again. He unleashed a spray of Arcane Arrows as the wolves tried to line up their own fire-breath attacks, one after another, puncturing the green glow of one wolf after another as it managed to get its shot lined up. He couldn’t keep it up forever, but he didn’t need to.

Gharia and Kaya had been fighting in the sectors beside him, their more substantial threats were already dealt with, and now they were closing in on where he hovered. He didn’t have the right tools for this job, but that was fine, because the Ardent were a team. Kaya was a shining blur as she crossed the battlefield. The liquid metal armor that encased her rippled in the air, ready to take on whatever shape she directed it into. Meanwhile, Gharia was already casting her ever spreading bubbles of destruction without any fear of hitting him while he was in the sky. They tore through the pack as swiftly as an widespread explosion could have, and thanks to the limited intellect instilled in the wolves, they didn’t even turn to face their new attackers, keeping all their attention on trying to snipe Sylvas out of the sky. He’d noticed this fault in their ability to reason the last time they’d done one of these mass combat drills, when he’d strayed into one of the officer’s designated sectors while trying to escape the seemingly endless horde of wolves at his heels.

The girls caught his wolves in a pincer movement, Kaya’s quicksilver armor lashing out in blades and chains, catching any wolves that tried to dodge around Gharia’s bubbles of doom. Sylvas himself picked off any strays that managed to get around either of the girls to flank them and came down with a bump in between the two of them just in time for his victory to be recorded.

“Thank you.” It wasn’t really enough, but it was all that he had to say to them.

“Like you wouldn’t do the same for us.” Gharia’s tail flicked casually.

For Kaya it was even simpler. The liquid metal retreated back from her face and she spat. “You’re kin.”

They were some of the earlier victors of the exercise, which should have bought them some time to rest and recuperate their mana, but Vaelith’s Sending spells sprang into being beside them before they had a moment.

“Come see me.”

It was succinct and threatening, like most of the things their Instructor said to them, and it seemed the other two had received exactly the same message, judging by their expressions. They had to pass through several contested sectors to reach the Instructor, but as they had in Sylvas own test, the glowing green constructs entirely ignored everyone but their target. Out of habit more than anything else, Sylvas launched a few Arcane Arrows at stray wolves to help out his classmates, but he wasn’t going out of his way. The ones that had decided to dislike him weren’t going to be swayed by a few acts of charity, and the ones on his side didn’t need the help anyway. Kaya had elbowed her way into the most promising group of mages on Strife, so far as Sylvas could tell.

Vaelith had a half dozen spells in motion when they reached her, existing controls on her constructs for the most part, but some stalled out in mid-cast, ready to be activated with a final sigil or two of mana added to the string. That kind of casting had been what gave Sylvas his scars, he looked forward to learning how to do it properly. Suspending spells so he could release them on his cue.

“What was that Sigil?”

Sylvas did a double take before realizing he was being addressed, rather than quizzed on part of a spell. “What was what, ma’am?”

“Why have you got these girls doing your dirty work for you?” She snapped back.

Gharia was usually quite boisterous when dealing with the Instructors, but with Vaelith, she tended to be a little bit more restrained. Like she was scared of the elf and trying hard not to show it. “We agreed to assist each other, ma’am.”

“You agreed to…” She snapped out a spell that sent one of her other partially completed ones flying off to its intended destination. Her eyes glowed green, not with mana from inside her, but with the magic of the many scrying eyes she was viewing the field with. “… It was not intended to be a test of your teamwork, but your skills.”

“Should have said that then.” Kaya piped up. Sylvas was never sure if she was brave or stupid, and he was even less sure if there was any practical difference between the two. All he knew was that he certainly wouldn’t be talking to this particular instructor like that.

“I am saying it now. Clear as can be. Do not intervene on the behalf of the weaker casters again. It defies the purpose of the exercise.” Vaelith turned her attention back to the other recruits still working away against her constructs.

Sylvas should have bristled at the word ‘weaker’ but it was the truth. Until he had an affinity, his magic wasn’t going to hold up to what the other two could do, and it would be three more days before he could undergo affinity testing again.

Vaelith finished up casting whatever she was casting and turned back to them. “Head east. It’s going to be another active combat drill after this. Mixed ranks. And I don’t want to see you three anywhere near each other. Fend for yourselves or fail for yourselves. No more carrying dead weight.”

Dead weight should have hurt too, but Sylvas had a life of taking the grim expectations of others and turning them on their heads. This would be no different.

Two training exercises back-to-back was unusual but not unheard of. It was a good way to test who was being careful with their mana expenditure and who was burning through their reserves too fast. For Sylvas, who had definitely been burning through his reserves too fast, it was bad news on many counts, particularly now that they’d been given very specific orders to go it alone. He forced himself to salute, and set off for the eastern segment, close to the drop off into the ravine, where he could already see some of Vaelith’s spells raising blocks, just like their very first live training exercise on Strife.

“She can’t tell us not to help you.” Kaya’s shoulders were set, and the metal had retreated to wherever it hid when she wasn’t actively calling it up.

“That’s exactly what she just did.”

“She can’t.” Kaya barked again. As if denying reality could make any difference.

“I’ll get knocked out early, same as usual.” Sylvas set his jaw. “It doesn’t matter. Not in the long run.”

He tried to convince himself it was true, as if his defeats didn’t shift the perception of the other recruits, as if the tenuous position of leadership they’d granted him couldn’t dissolve away like salt in the sea the moment that they decided he wasn’t as much of an asset as they’d assumed. Then I’ll be alone with no power at my disposal except what I make for myself. Power that I can’t even touch without passing affinity testing.

There were already other recruits in the false cityscape, wandering around, trying to find some position of tactical advantage before the fighting kicked off. The officers were all there. Sylvas didn’t know if they were just so much more powerful and better trained than the rest of them that they finished up early every time, or if they weren’t pressed as hard in their exercises to make sure they were fresh for the main event.

To start with, Sylvas hadn’t been able to work out the point of that, other than to drill into the minds of the recruits that the officers were better than them, but having fought eidolons himself, he suspected that he could follow the reasoning now. When you took on eidolons, you weren’t ever going to be fighting on an even playing field. They could do things beyond what magic was capable of, they were powerful beyond any mage he’d ever met, and if a tilted board was the worst that they could do in training to represent that, I will take it.

Taking Vaelith’s orders seriously, and painfully aware that her scrying eyes hovered overhead, he strode away from Kaya and Gharia without another word. Kaya called after him, but it was mostly a string of curse words that didn’t translate anyway.

The cityscape that Vaelith had raised from the red sands this time around was different from the simple blocks of their first battle royale. It loomed taller and more oppressive, and not only because Sylvas was entirely alone out here this time around. The individual blocks had been raised higher, so that it felt more like a city than a town. Sylvas hadn’t seen much of the universe beyond home and here, but from what he’d read it seemed that cities grew upwards as much as outwards on other worlds. The ruins on Strife had once been a city like that. The towering blocks would serve as good vantage points, and silhouette anyone foolish enough to stand atop them against the sky like a target. What interested Sylvas more was that some of these blocks were hollow this time around. Not all of them, some remained the stocky lumps of stone from their first time around, but others had simple spaces carved out within them, like they were real buildings. Given enough time and mana, Vaelith could have raised up a whole, real, city with this spell instead of the temporary facades that were thrown up now, but they opened up a new tactical dimension to things. Cover was no longer completely limiting. Line of sight could be manipulated much more readily. Being a solo player in this game was no longer the death sentence Sylvas had assumed it would be.

It was still too early to bunker down in one of the buildings, when there was a risk of others wandering by and catching sight of him, but he mentally noted a few key locations that could come in useful later as he walked through the city.

Here and there, he’d catch sight of an officer, secreting themselves in some little hide-away. Or a glimpse of a monochrome jacket flitting around a corner out of sight as others patrolled. They were working in groups as usual. Sylvas could trace their patterns of movement in his head, one central officer holding a good piece of real estate and others circling around to keep others from settling in too close. The restriction of working alone had been saved for him. This was a punishment for bypassing the last exercise with good sense.

Before he’d scouted even a fraction of the cityscape where they’d be doing battle, Vaelith’s voice sounded out echoing through the canyons and caverns that she had made. “Begin.”