Chapter 1 - Episode 9 - Let the Tournament Begin

Training at the Arena continued relentlessly.
Muscle aches, blisters on their hands, wounds, insults.

A year after his arrival on Castore, Finde had grown accustomed to that routine.

One morning, Oku gathered everyone in the training yard.
“Recruits! It's time for a tournament.”

An excited murmur swept through the group.

“Four teams, eight recruits each” Oku continued.
“Open field, rough terrain, fifteen kilometers from here.
Three hours.
Those who capture win. Those who are captured lose.”

The recruits erupted into a chorus of comments.
They were already imagining their strategies.

Oku didn't say when the tournament would take place.
Instead, a week later, he simply woke them at dawn.
After breakfast, he ordered them to fill their satchels with weapons, water, and rations.

Then he set them marching.
Or rather… running.

After forty minutes, they reached a spot in the middle of the desert where the Arena staff had already set up two large canopies.
Beneath them stood two long tables:
one covered in monitors connected to the drones flying overhead;
the other loaded with water, food, and medical supplies.

The battlefield lay before them.
Four hundred hectares of desert dotted with craters and ravines.
At each of the four cardinal points, a pole had been driven into the ground, with a colored banner tied to its tip.
Oku handed out monitoring bracelets to everyone.

Then he read out the teams.

Finde was on the White Team.
With him were two of the Arena's best recruits: May and Katrin.

The most formidable team, however, was the Black Team…
The one with Gozen and his lackey Yano.
Inseparable and deadly.

On the Red Team, Jhoanna stood out as particularly strong and damnably intelligent.
On the Blue Team, the formidable duo of Serbice and Kleus was worth keeping an eye on.

Oku stepped forward.
“Listen carefully, because I won't repeat myself.”
His tone cut through the murmuring like a blade.
“A team that captures a flag gains points.
A team that has its flag stolen loses them.
Here's how the scoring works:
Flag captured: +2/−2.
Recapturing your own flag: +4/−4.
Capturing a flag that was stolen from another team: +5/−5.”

The recruits stared at him, bewildered.

Oku sighed.
“Oh, I almost forgot…
Solo captures are worth +1/−1.
If you kill someone, your team loses ten points.
Is everything clear?”

A low murmur spread through the group like the buzzing of flies.

One recruit gathered his courage.
“This scoring system is a fucking mess! You could've told us beforehand!”

Oku shot him a withering glare.
“Oh, I'm sorry, you idiot. Next time I'll leave a little note under your pillow!”

Stifled chuckles rippled through the ranks.

“What's the point of the points?”
Jhoanna asked.

Oku smiled coldly.
“To determine who's worthy of staying at the Arena.”

A tense silence fell over the group.

Then Oku's gravelly voice rang out again.
“Now go! Head to your starting positions.
The sound of the drones above you will signal the beginning.
And I'm warning you…
I'll be monitoring every single move you make.”

Each recruit took their bracelet, joined the members of their team, and set off toward their designated base.
Finde tightened his grip on the hilt of his wooden sword.

The tournament wasn't just a test.
It was the first war of his new life.

The White Team had been walking for ten minutes.
Heading north, toward their flag.
To the south stood the Black Team's flag.
To the west, the Red Team's.
To the east, the Blue Team's.

“Damn it, our base is the farthest away”.
Gill grumbled.

May took command with the authority everyone expected of him.
“The tournament is simple: whoever captures wins.
So we need to attack first.
Gill, Ancer, Luke, and I will scout ahead and capture enemy flags.
Katrin, Solus, Winny, and Finde… you'll defend our flag with your lives.”

Finde clenched his jaw.
The scoring system was making him uneasy.
“I don't know, May… Oku never said how many recruits would be expelled…
Or how many points we need to stay at the Arena.”

Katrin sided with him.
“Finde's right. We need to work as a team and understand the rules before making a move.”

As they spoke, the pole bearing the white flag appeared before them.
It stood in the middle of a small clearing in the desert, dotted with boulders and cracks in the ground.

May swatted at the air as though brushing away an annoying insect.
“Fuck the points.
If we capture all those fucking flags, we'll win for sure, right?”

Finde looked up.
The drones watched them from above, emitting a metallic hum.
Like flies circling a corpse.

An electronic signal pierced the sky.
The tournament had begun!

May gave a devilish grin.
“Enough talking. Gill, Ancer, Luke… Let's move!”

The four warriors led by May ventured into the desert.

Gusts of wind swept dust and sand across the faces of the four recruits left behind to guard the white flag.
A shiver ran down Finde's spine.
I've got a bad feeling about this.

As soon as the drone's siren shattered the silence of the desert, Yano began running northwest.
His mission was to head for the Red Team's base.
Twenty minutes earlier, he and Gozen had made things perfectly clear to the other members of the Black Team:
the two of them would take care of capturing the other flags.

Everyone else was to defend their base.
No one had objected.
Obviously.

After all, he and Gozen were the best fighters at the Arena.
Their leadership was unquestionable.

He maintained a moderate running pace.
He didn't want to waste too much energy.

Suddenly, the red flag appeared before him, about a hundred meters ahead.

He stopped dead.
He couldn't believe his eyes.

Where the fuck is the Red Team?

Silence.
Only the whistling of the wind.
Sweat trickled down his temple.
The whole situation reeked of an ambush.

Damn you, Jhoanna. You're always a thorn in my side.
He gritted his teeth.

What the hell am I supposed to do now?
Gozen, the best warrior at the Arena, had placed his trust in him.
He couldn't afford to make a fool of himself.
Fuck it… I'll take the red flag, then go after the white one too.

The thought brought a smile to his face.
He imagined Gozen congratulating him at the end of the tournament.

He started running again and reached the pole bearing the red flag.
The desert of Castore lay motionless, bathed in Galeo's pale light.
He looked around and whistled toward the dusty rocky outcrops.

Silence.

He pulled down the red banner and tied it tightly around his waist.
He raised his bracelet to his face and touched the screen.
It lit up, displaying the updated scores:
Black Team: 1
Red Team: −1
White Team: 0
Blue Team: 0

He fixed his gaze on the rocky hills surrounding him.

What the fuck was Jhoanna thinking?
A shiver ran down his spine.
He didn't like it.
That girl always had a plan.

He suddenly felt vulnerable, as though the very ground beneath him were watching.
Fuck that bitch and her entire team.
He turned north and resumed running.
He was uneasy, and he didn't like it.
He had expected to find the Red Team barricaded around their base.
He had imagined himself standing triumphant, the red flag in his hand, with Jhoanna and her warriors lying on the ground, bleeding and writhing in pain.
He couldn't even begin to imagine what strategy lay behind such a cowardly and reckless decision.

About twenty minutes later, still lost in those thoughts, he reached the White Team's base.
Three figures crouched on the ground.
Katrin.
Solus.
Winny.

Three second-rate fighters, he thought.
May had taken the best ones with him.

A smug smile spread across Yano's face.
The three hadn't even noticed his presence.
Katrin was drawing something in the sand with a stick, while the other two watched intently.

Idiots, he thought.
I could reach their flag without them even noticing.

He slowed his pace.
Approached calmly.
“Well, well. I thought I'd have to work up a sweat against May.
But apparently, you three won't even be good enough for a warm-up.”

The three spun around, their eyes wide.
They sprang to their feet, raising their weapons into defensive stances.

Solus answered firmly.
“If you think you're taking our flag that easily, you're dead wrong, Yano.”

He smiled, the axe swaying in his hands.
“Very well…
Let's see how much fun you can give me.”