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Chapter 28: Leaves of Avas
🕑 Added 2024-11-11 08:00:05 +0000 UTCThe Scar was formed when the Avatar broke through the barrier range, and the Hardune enlisted the aid of the scattered remnants of the Imperial Coterie to seal the gap with a great work of Barrier magic.
-A Brief History of the Flood by Albert Moonsuckle
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Runt took the opportunity to “deal with some business” when the otherswent inside, promising to find her own way back to Edgewater, “eventually."
The group attracted much attention as they walked in, and situated themselves at a table. Doug gave a big wave, uncomfortable with all the attention and unsure what to do with it. Kole, Faded just a little, but he was certain none of the attention was on him.
They weren't questioned on their credentials again, and they ordered and got settled at a table, waiting for the match to begin.
Just like in Edgewater, the match appeared in a large illusion above them. It started with a wide shot of a meadow, twenty yards wide with the stone ball in the center on a plinth. A forest surrounded the meadow, and then the image split to show the Risen Dahn in another clearing and four Assuine Blessed student’s Kole recognized by sight, but didn’t know the names of.
“Leaves of Avas,” Zale supplied. “From a village near the Conclave.”
“They’re pretty good,” Doug said, taking in the surroundings. “This isn’t going to go well for them.”
The match started, and both teams ran for the middle. On the Leaves’ side, two of their members turned into birds. Their bodies shrank over a handful of seconds, their clothing and weapons melding into them as they went until a crow and a blue jay stood on the ground. They took off, flying ahead, while the other two turned into a wolf and lynx before running on, the forest parting around them.
“Oh yeah, they're screwed,” Rakin said, smiling.
Mouse led her team through the forest, parting the woods ahead of them far better than Doug could do for his own team, the branches staying parted until Esme passed through in the rear. Kole noted that this was the first time he’d seen the girl, Blessed by a demigod of beauty, without the effects of her glamour. He found that, despite himself, the glamour might not have been entirely necessary for attracting his eye.
Kole looked to Doug and saw the demonkin boy watching intently as his girlfriend ran into a battle against a group far more suited for the environment than her own.
The birds reached the ball quickly, but stayed in the branches, waiting for their teammates to arrive.
“That’s dumb,” Zale said, “They should have ambushed the other team and got them caught in the forest.”
Doug nodded in agreement.
The wolf and lynx reached the forest, and wasted precious time as first the wolf, and then the lynx tried to pick the stone ball up with their mouths. Neither succeeded, and finally one of the birds flew down, turning back into a human girl.
She picked up the stone in one hand, and a voice called from the forest.
“Pass that here!”
The girl looked at the stone, then up to Esme.
“It’s pretty heavy,” she said, under her charm. “I’ll bring it over.”
The wolf growled, and the lynx let out a roar, but the girl walked over toward Esme.
Gray suddenly appeared between the animals and their traitorous teammate, Blinking in with his rapier drawn as Harold lumbered in from the side.
The wolf broke to the right to intercept Harold, while the lynx pounced at Gray. Harold met the wolf’s bite, bashing it’s head to the side with his shield, and following up with a slash. The wolf let out a yelp and collapsed to the ground, transforming back into a human male who rolled away, regaining his feet. In his human form, he still had a bloody slash across his side that was darkening his leathers around the wound.
Gray met his own attacker, thrusting his open palm out before him and speaking the words for Shield. The barrier appeared between him and the pouncing cat and stopped its flight. Before the cat could even reach the ground, Gray thrust his rapier forward through the shield, getting the lynx in the shoulder. The cat however, recovered quickly from the midair attack, and as soon as its claws hit the ground, it jumped on Gray again, this time pinning the wizard to the ground.
The cat clawed at Gray, his Mage Armor protecting him from immediate death, and giving him enough time to Blink away to the edge of the clearing. The lynx looked around, muzzle stained with blood as it had a gap in the armor a moment too late.
Before the druid in cat form could find a new target, Mouse suddenly appeared behind it, transforming from her mouse form into her human one, and jumping onto the large cat’s back and stabbing it repeatedly with her daggers. The cat let out a roar, and tried to throw Mouse off her back, before it transformed into a human woman. Mouse lost her grip on her weapons as her opponent’s form shifted suddenly, and the two began to wrestle in the grass.
The second bird, a large crow, upon seeing its teammate walking the ball to the enemy, cawed, flew at Esme and began pecking at her face.
“What!? Stop it Fior!” the enthralled girl yelled. “It’s Esme! From class!”
The enthralled girl paused at that for a moment, and looked at the ball in her hand with confusion and then suddenly her thoughts became clear, and she looked up at Esme with horror at what she’d almost done.
“I lost her!” Esme shouted as she swatted at the girl, drawing her short sword and trying to swat away the crow.
When the illusion showed a close up of this battle, Rakin let out a satisfied chuckle.
“Bite her nose off!” he shouted, gaining looks from the other patrons.
The girl with the ball began to transform into a bluejay, the object of everyone’s desire disappearing with her shifting form.
“That’s cheating!” Kole found himself saying, despite knowing that there were essentially no rules in hardball.
“It’s not,” Zale said, not taking her eyes away from the battle.
Esme finally landed a solid blow on the crow, sending it crashing to the ground, a raven haired boy appearing there.
“Bird!” Esme shouted, taking the opportunity to take in her surroundings.
Harold was fighting against the former wolf boy, who was wielding a wooden staff, Mouse was still wrestling the former cat-girl, and Gray was recovering his feet after teleporting away.
“Shoot true!” Esme commanded, looking at Gray, speaking the magic of her Blessing into the words.
Gray seemed to recover some of his strength as he stood up straighter. Seeing the bluejay fly away, he took a moment to steady himself, and then cast his hand forward pointing ahead of the bird’s path.
A jagged spike of ice appeared before his hand, flying up into the air. The bolt met the bird twenty feet above the ground, and when it hit, the bird began to grow back into her human form, ice spike still protruding from her side. She maintained her forward trajectory and continued downward, only now she fell towards the ground. She screamed as she fell the brief distance, and as her outstretched arms touched the ground in front of her, she vanished.
Mouse, who was being choked by her opponent who sat on her chest, saw the bird’s fall, and suddenly transformed back into a mouse, disappearing in the grass. Her opponent transformed back into a lynx, the act taking more time for her than it had taken Mouse, and she began sniffing at the grass to find the other girl.
Distracted as she was by watching Gray’s efforts, Esme didn’t see it coming when the former crow boy shot her with an arrow, causing her to immediately vanish.
By then, Harold had dispatched his opponent, causing him to disappear with a swipe that would have cut his arm off at the shoulder. He’d outmatched his opponent, but the Assuine Blessed had kept snaring Harold’s feet with roots and capitalized well on the advantage. Harold was fighting free of the vines that still grasped him as he looked around.
Gray had lost the strength Esme’s words had briefly granted him, and he was clutching at his bleeding shoulder with one hand as he limped for cover behind a tree. Harold ran for Gray, even as the lynx prowled looking for Mouse.
The former crow fired arrows at Harold as he ran towards Gray, but the warrior hid behind his shield as he ran. Once he reached Gray behind the safety of the tree, he touched his next, and the wound healed beneath his hand.
“I didn’t know he could do that,” Kole said aloud.
Blessings of healing were rare—outside the insane demigod of competition who only let his Blessed heal wounds gained in battle. The more sane gods could only grant the power to their Blessed who had selfless hearts on top of their alignment to the diety’s path.
Kole didn't remember what god Harold followed, but he was certain it wasn't Ganik, God of the Contest.
“It wasn’t a secret, you literally never asked me about him when we were dating,” Zale said, taking her eyes from the scene to look at Kole.
Kole suddenly felt very uncomfortable.
“I... uhh... was taking my lead from Rakin, who wasn’t a fan,” Kole said, looking to the dwarf for help.
“Aye,” Rakin said, taking Kole by surprise by backing him up. “I told him you were besotted with a moron who had no redeeming talents.”
“Well, maybe next time you’ll trust my judge in character,” Zale said, looking back to the illusion, smiling.
Gray and Harold had broken out from cover, Harold running for the Lynx, while Gray ran for the archer. As the archer broke from cover, Gray vanished, appearing beside him and stabbing him with his rapier. The blade pierced the archer’s side, but he didn’t vanish. Instead, a ball of flame appeared in his hand, and he punched Gray in the face. Gray jerked his sword, and then both boys vanished.
The lynx broke from its search for Mouse, and engaged Harold in a one on one confrontation. As soon as the cat had turned to face Harold, Mouse rose up out of the grass, hidden behind a tree, and ran for the ball, snatching it up without Harold or the Lynx noticing, and running through the forest back to their base.
The battle against the wolf Blessed had been tougher on Harold than it had appeared to be, and he was mostly on the defense against the lynx’s attacks. The two held each other off, the large cat easily dodging the few tired swings Harold gave out, until Mouse made it back to her starting location, scoring a point.
The match however, didn’t immediately end, and Mouse stared at the ball in confusion, before remembering that she had to destroy it to end the match. What followed was Mouse slamming the stone ball against the stone platform they’d appeared on. On her third attempt, the stone broke in half, and the illusionary projection vanished.
