Frunk nodded.

  “That was expected, which was why we made our selections as we did. What are the point totals for each spot?”

  Arbor gave him a rundown of the rules and point system, as well as what could be expected of today’s race.

  “I see. The trick will be getting everyone through the obstacle course without getting any injuries. Remember, every team member must finish, so all anyone really has to do is knock one or two of you out. That will slow the rest of the team, as they’ll have to carry the injured along with them.”

  “I hadn’t even though of that,” Arbor said, thinking over the implications.

  “Also, while the Marquess said that using lethal force was prohibited, did he specifically state that killing another contestant’s team was?”

  Arbor thought that over.

  “No, he didn’t say it outright, though I thought it was implied.”

  Frunk shook his head.

  “Anyone with half a brain will realize that they can kill team members indiscriminately, so long as the actual contestant is left alive. In fact, they wouldn’t even need to go after the contestant, as killing off their team would pretty much make them unable to complete the race.”

  “That’s horrible!” Grak exclaimed, “Do they think so little of us that they would allow us to be killed to callously?”

  “Yes,” Frunk stated flatly. “We are, in essence, a hired military force. Thus, we are being paid to fight and die for the one who is paying us.”

  “I didn’t realize I was paying you anything,” Arbor said.

  “I assure you we are being paid, and handsomely at that,” Frunk said with a grin. “If you would like a full report, I can have it sent to you. Now, back to the matter at hand. I thought this might be the case, which was why I made my selections for your team as I did. Grak and Grab will be well able to defend you, while Sunk, Ribs, and Nervin will serve as the offense.”

  The three gremlins, two males and a female, all saluted when their names were given.

  “They are all ranged fighters and are quite fleet-footed. They should have no problems keeping up. I assume you will be taking the brunt of any attacks, though, and will be able to move on after taking a few hits?”

  Arbor nodded his confirmation, and Frunk continued.

  “I would not recommend getting into a prolonged fight. If you see yourself about to be caught up in one, try discouraging it by injuring one of their soldiers. If you are not seen as an easy target, you will be mostly left alone.

  “I do not know what the nature of this course will be, so you will need to use your judgment as you make your way through. You will also need to watch out for alliances or those here simply to reduce the numbers in the competition for others. Aside from that, I can’t think of anything else at the moment.”

  “A messenger will be delivering a scroll with tomorrow’s challenge,” Arbor said, remembering at the last minute. “Can you look it over and give us a briefing later tonight?”

  “Of course.”

  They spent the remainder of the ride discussing various strategies. Arbor got to know the others, as well as their capabilities and weaknesses. With that, they formed a plan on how to move once the race started.

  The coach came to a halt five minutes later, and Sebastian opened the door for them. The sounds of a cheering crowd reached them as soon as they exited. Several people turned to look as he stepped out, and his guards quickly moved to surround him, lest anyone in the crowd get too close. Thankfully, there were barricades, so most of the crowds were held back as they made their way to the starting line.

  Arbor could already see several teams waiting there, comprised of all humans. He didn’t see a single gremlin among them, not that he minded. It was their choice to make, after all. His eyes flicked up to the clock that had been set up out here to keep the time. It was two minutes to midday, which meant that the race was about to start.

  “Looks like we just made it,” he said, walking with his team to the starting line.

  He caught sight of Bertram, Quinn, and Regert standing on the far side with their teams. He had no doubt that they would be knocking some people out. Judging by the nasty glances Bertram was shooting his way, he had a feeling they would be gunning for him.

  Let them, he thought. He wasn’t worried.

  There was no grand announcement to begin the race. The Marquess himself wasn’t even there. As soon as the clock struck twelve, everyone was off.

  “Here we go,” Grak said, clutching at the basket-hilt of her rapier. “You ready?”

  “As I’ll ever be,” he said, watching as the other contestants bolted across the starting line.

  This was a marathon, not a sprint. Only idiots would be running full out from the beginning. Their plan was to wait a couple of minutes to allow a few teams to get ahead. This way, the others would fight each other instead of them.

  “Alright,” Arbor said as soon as the clock said five after twelve. “Let’s go!”

  39

  Their team set off at a jog, their feet smacking the hardened earth and their breath steaming in the frigid air. Of all the contestants, only six had yet to show up, but Arbor was fairly confident that he wouldn’t be running into them. The cheering crowd bordered both sides of the path but were held back by the barricades. However, it wasn’t long before the path wound into the forest and they were all lost from sight.

  As soon as they were under the cover of the forest, Arbor activated his Perception Field and almost immediately got something.

  “The ground up ahead is trapped. Everyone move to the right.”

  As one, his team did as they were told. Up ahead, the path became visible. Part of it was missing, causing a huge, ten-foot-deep ditch. Two people crouched over the lip of the hole, grabbing an arm and attempting to haul someone out.

  “Should we help?” Grak called back over her shoulder.

  Before Arbor could reply, something flashed in the corner of his vision, and he reacted almost without thinking. The glaive spun in an arc, slicing the crossbow bolt from the air and parting it neatly in two.

  “Ooh! It looks like you’ve got some sharp reflexes there,” said a voice that Arbor didn’t recognize.

  He whirled in place, spotting the trap too late as two groups of five emerged from the surrounding tree line. Turning, he found his retreat cut off as well, as the group that had been “stuck” was suddenly free.

  “Who are you, and what do you want?” he asked, trying to buy himself a little time.

  “Oh, just friends of Bertram,” the man wielding the crossbow said.

  “Really? You’re going to attack me just because Bertram told you to?” Grak asked, injecting as much scorn as she could into her voice.

  Arbor could sense her tension and see her hand clasped tightly around the hilt of her rapier. The other four gremlins seemed ready to fight too, but he knew that he couldn’t protect them and fight the enemy all at the same time. So, he needed to find the easiest route to escape.

  The man shrugged, seeming indifferent to Grak’s insult.

  “It doesn’t matter what you think. Firstly, I don’t care much for the opinions of your filthy race. And secondly,” he said, snapping the crossbow up and taking another shot. “You won’t be alive much longer to regret it!”

  Arbor’s glaive whipped through the air once more, slicing the blot neatly in two. He then flashed forward, pumping magic through his muscles and closed the distance between them in a blink.

  There was a scream of agony as his weapon sheared through the man’s hamstrings, leaving him to collapse to the ground in an undignified heap. The two men standing closest to him raised their hands, but Arbor could sense everything around him. He could see the magic twining around them in his mind’s eye and wasn’t about to let them get off so easily.

  His glaive arced through the air once again, humming with suppressed power. One man’s arm was cut clean off, while the other lost a leg. Neither of them were contestants, and while he didn’t really feel like killing them, he had a feeling that they wouldn’t be so generous.

  They both went down, clutching at the stumps of their limbs and howling in agony. Arbor then whirled on the rest of them, casually flicking the blood from the tip of his blade. Though it had seemed like an eternity to him, the entire attack had been completed in under a handful of seconds. Up until that moment, he hadn’t truly realized how powerful he’d become over the past few months.

  None of these men had even been able to react in time, let alone follow his movements. They hadn’t even seen him coming. To their eyes, it must have looked like he vanished, and a moment later, three men fell to the ground, two of them missing limbs.

  “So, anyone else want to try and stop me?” he asked, narrowing his eyes at the group standing in his way.

  He heard a loud thump and peered over his shoulder to see the contestant who’d pretended to have been trapped running the other way, followed closely by his minions.

  “Look, man, I don’t want any trouble!” the man before him said, raising his hands in surrender. “Bertram said to teach you a lesson, but I’d rather keep my limbs intact.”

  “Care to tell me why Bertram cares enough to come after me?” Arbor asked, repeating Grak’s earlier question.

  “No idea. All he said was that you had it coming for something you did by the welcome dinner. That’s all I know, I swear!”

  Arbor’s eyes narrowed once again, but he was pretty sure the man was telling the truth. He was inside his Perception range, so he could sense things like an elevated heart rate, which would be a good indicator of a lie. Still, he had been here to maim him and kill his teammates. If he let him go, there was a chance he’d try again.

  “Alright. You’re free to go. I won’t hurt you.”

  The man sighed in relief, then turned to run away. He screamed then, as a blade of ice pierced straight through his ankle, emerging a deep red on the other side.

  “I thought you said you weren’t going to attack me!” the man sobbed as his men rushed over to help.

  “Well, I did say I wouldn’t hurt you,” Arbor said as he passed. “Never said anything about my guards.”

  “I think that was a good enough warmup,” he said, turning to address his group. “Now, we’d best get a move on if we want any points. There’s still a whole lot of ground to cover before the day is out.”

  Their first major hurdle came when the first real obstacle appeared in their path. Up ahead, Arbor noticed the path splitting in three. This was a problem, as it was something his Perception Field couldn’t detect. Their party slowed as they approached the split, finally coming to a stop.

  “Any idea which way?” Grak asked.

  They’d been switching off who was running in the lead, to minimize the risk to any single person. So, she’d been running behind him.

  Arbor looked between the three paths, trying to discern any notable clues on which was the correct one. He knew that had Frunk been there, he’d have been able to find the correct one right away. However, he didn’t have nearly the same mental capacity, and thus, he was stumped. All of them looked the same to him.

  One led straight ahead, while the others curved away. Most would be tempted to take the center path, but Arbor was almost sure it wouldn’t be the correct choice. It all came down to which one people were least likely to take. Then again, they could have known the contestants would assume that and chosen the middle one just to throw them off.

  Arbor shook his head and then activated his Mage sight. It was inferior to his Perception Field, but it did give him a longer range. Color immediately sprang into his vision, and all three paths lit up. The center path was the densest, followed by the right, and then only a few lingering wisps on the left.

  It seemed that most had done as he’d expected, except for a select few. He knew that standing around wouldn’t help, so he decided on action.

  “We’re going left,” he said firmly, beginning forward once more.

  The gremlins following didn’t ask any questions, moving forward and falling into formation. The light overhead began to dim as they ran, the tree cover growing thicker and thicker the further they went.

  Arbor was soon forced to abandon his Mage sight and had to concentrate on enhancing his vision instead. Their party’s progression slowed to a near-walk, all of them moving closer to one another. Weapons were drawn as the smallest sound made them jump. Then, a low growl sounded from within the darkness, making them all whirl in its direction.

  “Stay on your toes,” Arbor warned, squinting ahead and trying to see what lay in their path.

  Unfortunately, the darkness was so absolute that his enhanced vision had nothing to pick up on, meaning he was essentially blind aside from his Perception Field. Another growl, this time from off to their left, followed by a rustling of trees from behind.

  “Everyone, pull in close!” Arbor called out, “We’re surrounded.”

  A moment later, he felt five people enter his field and breathed a silent sigh of relief. His vision would do him no good here, and enhancing his hearing would only deafen him as soon as the fighting began. His Perception Field gave him a ten-foot radius of vision, so they wouldn’t have much time to react.

  “Fan into an outward-facing circle and stay sharp. I’ll call out a name when I feel an attack coming. Best be ready to move when I do.”

  He could feel the tension in the air as each of his guards sounded off. There was nothing more frightening than being stalked in the dark by an enemy you could not see. Arbor was glad that none of them bolted out of fear, but he knew that they weren’t out of hot water just yet.

  His Mage Sight was useless, as whatever was stalking them was non-magical. If he had to guess, it was most likely a pack of wolves, though he could be wrong. Another rustle from their right, followed by more growling, made him turn. His glaive was extended, point following the sounds floating to them out of the darkness. Then, all at once, the creatures attacked.

  “Grak, above! Sunk, left!”

  There was a sound like cracking ice and the dull thumping sound of an arrow leaving a bow. The first sound was followed by a pained yelp, cut short a second later. The other, though, was not.

  Sunk screamed in pain, and Arbor felt his heart leap, spinning and slashing out with his weapon at the dog-shaped creature in his field of vision. He felt the blade sink home, cutting the creature down the middle and killing it on the spot. Sunk was down, though, and he couldn’t tell how he was doing.

  “Sunk! What’s your status?” he asked, keeping his senses trained on their surroundings.

  “Not good, sir,” the gremlin’s pained reply came back. “The thing got my leg. It’s bleeding pretty badly.”

  “Grak!” Arbor said.

  “Which way?”

  “Five steps to your left, swing around Grab, and then another five steps. Nervin, move in to close the gap. Grab, when she passes you, take five steps to your right.”

  He could sense everyone moving but knew that their defensive line now had some gaps. With Sunk down and Grak tending to him, they were effectively down two fighters.

  “Grab, attack left!” Arbor called, spinning in the opposite direction and stabbing forward with his glaive.

  The blade sunk home once again, taking the creature in the shoulder. Ripping the glaive free, he turned it in a half-circle and finished the beast off by slamming the heavy spike into its skull. However, they weren’t getting any reprieve.

  “Nervin, two big steps to your right! Grab, go left. Ribs, above!”

  They fought like this, Arbor calling out attacks as they came. At first, the attacks were heavy, wild, and came from several directions at once. However, as they fought, the numbers began to grow sparser. Grak finished with Sunk, and together, the four of them managed to drive the beasts off.

  Inevitably, his group took some damage. Grab suffered a few minor claw marks to one arm, though they weren’t as deep as they would have been, had he not been using his magic. Nervin had her ribs clawed open, and Ribs’s bow was destroyed, though the gremlin himself was unhurt. He had brought a backup just in case, though the new one was weaker than the one he’d been using.

  Arbor had been the busiest, twisting and whirling, his glaive an invisible blur in the darkness. He’d cut, slashed, and stabbed so often that he wasn’t even sure what he was hitting. Howls of rage and pain echoed through the forest, highlighting just how many enemies there were.

  The darkness began to slowly fade, and they remained tense, waiting for another surprise attack. None came. Finally, when they were able to make out the furry shapes piled around them, Arbor relaxed, allowing the tip of his glaive to dip and relaxed his hold on his magic. Though he was now at Tier 6, having both magics going at once put a serious strain on him.

  If it had only been the Perception Field, he could have kept it going for several hours. However, with the need to use his Perception magic to increase his alertness and movement speed, it caused him to grow tired far more quickly.

  “Everyone alright?” he asked, looking himself over to check for any wounds.

  Since he’d been able to sense anything coming, he’d been able to react much faster than the others and had gotten away without any injury.

  “That was way too close for comfort,” Grak said, feeling at a claw wound on her cheek. “I don’t know how much longer we could have held out.”

  The others nodded their assent, pulling bandages from their small travel packs and binding their various wounds.

  Sunk was the only one that was unable to walk. Normally, Arbor would have healed her,

  but he didn’t want to run the risk of bumping into more enemies without his full power.

  Unfortunately, this meant that Grab would need to carry her, effectively taking him out of the fight. Sunk traded bows with Ribs, taking the weaker one for herself.

  “We’d better get going,” Arbor noted, eying the black wolf corpses lying all around. “We have no idea how much time we lost with this. We’re probably in last place, so we’d better get a move-on.”

 

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