Past and Future III / Blades and Arrows

“Aaaaaaaaand… START!”

Akio and I launched forward on queue, our eyes locked onto our respective targets. The walled training yard that served as the arena for this fight was spacious, so even while running, it would take a few seconds for us to close the distance.

“‘Start’? You said it would be ‘go’! Are we supposed to begin?” Rather than prepare for our onrush, Kerne turned to Professor Anellia in confusion.

This kind of reaction wasn’t surprising out of him, but we couldn’t let the opportunity go to waste. It felt a little cheap to exploit such an obvious opening, but it wouldn’t be right to let him get away with it, either.

Such an obvious opening…

“You can never trust your senses when she is present.”

Crap!

I kicked off the ground and bounced backward. “Akio, I think it’s an illu—”

“‘Start’ means ‘go’, dumbass!” Mara swung one of her legs in an impressive arc, colliding with Kerne’s back and sending him stumbling forward.

Or not!? Is he really just that much of a stickler?

While I had leapt back, Akio’s advance hadn’t slowed, and right as Mara’s kick sent Kerne floundering ahead, he entered Akio’s range.

From its position resting on his shoulder, Akio flung his halberd out before curving it back inward at his foe in one smooth motion, commanding the huge weapon intended for a mounted cavalier with a single hand.

Foolish as he might be at times, Kerne was still a capable combatant. Even with unsteady steps, he swung his shield at the incoming polearm, parrying it with perfect timing.

Rather than Professor Anellia’s call, it was this clash that announced the true beginning of our battle.

My gaze shot away from that pair and toward Mara, my designated opponent. And the moment our eyes met…

Thwoomp! I flung my head to the side on instinct, and I felt something brush against my cheek a split second later. Even with little direct contact, the affected skin stung.

Are you kidding me!? A headshot? Even if the blunted arrows can’t kill me, I’d get a concussion for sure!

According to the rules of our battle, taking a solid, direct hit would eliminate a fighter from the competition. As referee, it would be up to Professor Anellia to deliver the verdict, and her silence indicated Mara’s grazing shot didn’t qualify, as I expected.

Now that my focus was locked onto her, however, I wouldn’t let there be another close call like that. She nocked a new arrow without delay, but I was already leaping to the side, hoping to use my agility to confuse her aim.

Though he possessed respectable offensive capabilities, the fighting style I inherited from Leon placed emphasis on speed and precision over power. This dexterity was critical to the strategy our team had devised before we began.

“Th-the biggest threat is Mara,” Shina explained. “Kerne can stall, and Fleur can mislead, but Mara makes up the bulk of their offense. If we can eliminate her, the other two will struggle to take us down.”

“They know that too, though. Since Akio and I can only fight from up close, Kerne will make sure we can’t get to her.”

“Don’t worry about that,” Akio reassured. “I think I can hold Kerne down alone, and my halberd can keep him at a safe distance. You two should team up against Mara. If we can get the other two out quick enough, Fleur won’t have a chance to mess with us.”

“We shouldn’t underestimate her. She could end up being a big problem if we’re not careful.” As strategizing took over her thoughts, the shakiness in Shina’s voice faded. “But I should have the perfect counter to her illusions. Everett, do you think you can handle Mara alone?”

“Huh? No way. I mean, she’s crazy strong.”

“You don’t necessarily need to take her out; just hold her attention for a bit. I don’t want to reveal my hand until the perfect moment, so you need to stall Mara long enough that Fleur is forced to act.”

“But—”

“I’m sure you can do it. Don’t you trust me?”

“F-fine. But if she takes me out with the first shot, don’t say I didn’t warn you!”

I twisted my momentum in the opposite direction as soon as she let loose her next arrow. My original body would never be able to reverse course like this, but here, with Leon’s body, it was trivial.

“Tsk.” She clicked her tongue as her arrow whizzed past me, not even close to striking its target.

Still, this was the best I could do. I might have decent odds at dodging her attacks from this distance, but if I tried to get any closer, she’d hit me before I had a chance to react. Her aim was impeccable, so travel time was the only variable I could exploit.

Yet, as she nocked a third arrow, a surprise element entered my peripheral vision. Though my neurons were still processing the visual input, my intuition had already discerned the situation.

“Dammit!”

I leapt backward to increase the distance between me and Mara and expand my field of view, just in time to witness an enormous shield bounding toward me—or, rather, shields. In the blink of an eye, at least a dozen bodies, each looking exactly like Kerne, were rushing at me from all sides. Of course, only one could be real, and perhaps none of them were, but if I couldn’t figure out which one it was…

Don’t panic. Just trust them.

As the first one entered my range, he swung his hunk of metal at me from overhead. A moment later, a second closed in on my opposite flank, jabbing the pointed bottom of his shield at my stomach.

But I paid them no mind.

Thwoomp! I slashed my sword horizontally, splintering an incoming arrow into countless pieces. I had been too apprehensive to attempt it before, but I was well aware dodging wasn’t my only means of defense against Mara.

“Woratode!”

Two spikes ruptured the earth, piercing the pair of enemies who were mere milliseconds from striking me down. As the pillars of ice made contact, the assailants’ bodies warped and melted, dissolving into thin air as if they never existed.

Although no words had been exchanged between us, Shina’s backup told me a lot about the situation.

She wouldn’t have bothered taking them out like that if she knew for sure they were illusions… which means they’ve lost track of the real one!

Thwoomp! I effortlessly parried another arrow, my gaze still locked onto Mara. I wanted to scan my surroundings, but I knew the moment I took my eyes off of that hunter, I was done for. And as such, I ignored the horde of Kernes closing in on me from every direction.

One of them was surely real. If he struck me just once, that was it.

But handling them wasn’t my role.

Mara readied another arrow. This time, she held it in place, focusing her power into the shot. I’d witnessed her do something similar before when we fought against the Fragments, so I knew her full-power attacks were beyond what I could block with my sword.

So their plan was to gang up on me then, huh?

If I tried to flee, I’d be running straight into a group of Kernes, gambling on none of them being real. If I stayed still, Mara would shoot me down, and the same would happen if I took the time to fight my way out. Which left only one option.

Shina!

“Nantis ablis pelyosti funiostal!”

As if nature itself awoke to answer her call, a blast of icy wind sliced through the entire arena, leaving nothing in sight untouched. The frozen gales bit into my skin, but they were otherwise harmless. As an attack, this mighty spell was ineffective. But it was exactly what I needed right now.

“Fleur’s illusions are really convincing, but they’re not physical. If you can apply enough force to them, they’ll vanish. But any kind of force will do. That’s our big play. I can neutralize everything she throws at us in an instant!”

What had been an entire army mere seconds ago was reduced to nothing but a fading mist—except for one lone soldier tucked amongst their ranks.

“Gotcha!” Akio cried out, swinging his weapon down onto the sole survivor, who was forced to redirect his attention from me onto the approaching foe.

Now’s my chance!

I shot forward, bounding straight toward Mara. This would’ve been suicide earlier, but assuming our trump card had thrown their entire plan into disarray, there was no better opportunity to catch her off guard. If she lost focus for even a second, that would be enough.

Countless sounds erupted from behind me: the clashing of metal, the shouts of combatants invoking incantations, the dull thumps of heavy objects striking the ground. I ignored all of it, refusing to allow a single ounce of my attention to drift away from my target.

Mara had yet to shoot, a look of disbelief plastered on her face. Though, “horror” might have been a better term to describe it.

This is exactly what I was hoping for, but…

It was unnerving. Her reaction felt too extreme. At the end of the day, this was just a mock battle between peers. It wasn’t life or death.

Something was wrong.

Another series of blunt thuds resounded across the arena. Now that I was urging my brain to process the sensory signals in my periphery, I realized how off it all was. What kind of thing is making that sound? And repeatedly?

Thunk! A large slab of stone smashed into the dirt to my right, crashing in from the sky. I could feel the force of impact, so it couldn’t be an illusion.

Did that come from outside the arena? Who could’ve…

The rock’s face was glowing a pale, unnatural blue, the luminosity stronger where it traced an intricate pattern inked onto the surface. From those markings, a purple sludge began to emerge.

“Shit!” someone roared.

A projectile with the force of a rocket blasted in from my side, striking the stone and shattering it before the spell could be completed. Despite her attacks being magically weakened, Mara’s power output remained incredible.

I silently thanked her and spun around to survey the battleground. We may have been enemies mere moments ago, but somehow, the situation had been upended in the blink of an eye.

Over a dozen inscribed tablets had landed within the confines of the stone walls that fenced us in, and the mostly formed bodies of the monstrosities they manifested made it evident that the worst could no longer be avoided.

A part of me wanted to run. Instead, I strengthened the grip on my sword.

If we don’t stop them here, there will be hundreds of students at risk. This may have been intended as an attack against us, but…

“We can’t let any of them get away! Cover me!”

I charged forward, purging every ounce of hesitation within me.