A Look at Two Teams

Teri shivered at the sheer rage pulsing from K’mels as he knocked down another robot, its armor shattering under the **** of his blow. Her anger driven clan mate was panting from the exertion, and Teri was ready to reapply her strength giving enchantment on him.

She kept her dissatisfaction over being limited here off her face. The effects she could unleash with her new staff was sparse in such a plantless environment. The power she could draw from the Pruzonian wood could at all times bolster the strength of herself and allies, but its full power could bend plantlife to her will. That had proved useful in the last game, where she could interfere with the plant based enemies, but here, that was useless.

‘My lack of use is only making K’mels more agitated,’ she thought as she cast her eyes around for any sign of keys. Their plan was hardly one; K’mels charged in with their time advantage and raced towards any door. The triggered hoard of defenders he did easily defeat, but like a rock against the waves, he was slowly wearing down, and even her new magic couldn’t keep him going indefinitely.

What made things worse was that K’mels wasn’t giving them a chance to figure out where to find more keys. They had stumbled on a few, and had claimed two doors, but K’mels’ insistence on fighting everything made looking for more a harder task than it had to be.

‘There definitely is a trick to the keys, but K’mels keeps us moving too much for me to figure it out,’ she complained. ‘And I’m not confident I can deal with these guys on my own so I can’t go off alone. The others aren’t having this problem. Vivian probably figured out how to find all the keys already.’

Teri shook her head, not wanting thoughts of the redhead to cloud her mind. She definitely did not want K’mels to accuse her of not putting in effort and pointlessly pining wasn’t something that would preclude that.

“K’mels, take a break,” Teri said as her companion took in a ragged breath.

“We don’t have time for such things,” the warrior snarled. “We need to prove we can stand on our own.”

“Then let’s slow down and think,” she protested. “Rushing about blindly hasn’t netted us anything beyond two unlocked doors and exhaustion.”

“So we should just lazily pace around like this was some summer jaunt in the flower fields?” K’mels retorted. “We have to make a show that we…”

“That we’re bullheaded idiots that just rush blindly into things and our only solution to things is mindless battle?” Teri interrupted. “Showing our strength is one thing, but appearing no more than battle hungry barbarians does us no favors.”

K’mels growled but held back from retorting, a note of realization ringing through his anger. “Then how do you propose we proceed? The keys aren’t exactly falling into our hands.”

“If you had let me think for a moment while we had the time advantage, I could have come up with something,” Teri argued. “It’s likely that more keys are in hiding spots that we’d have to actually look for. Running around at full speed and triggering every enemy spawn is not conducive for such a search.”

“So instead we peer around and leave the prizes unattended for the others to take while we scurry about like scavengers,” K’mels spat.

“Better than to summon every enemy the game can throw out and have to be on the lookout for both them and the keys,” Teri countered, the control over her frustration loosening in time with the measured march of approaching machines. “We need to approach this with some strategy. I know you’re familiar with the concept, oh great warrior.”

“You forget your place, shaman,” K’mels slowly growed. “Perhaps you’ve grown too attached to these outsiders.”

“And perhaps you’re too wrapped up in trying to pretend what’s befallen our people isn’t as bad as it is,” Teri snapped back, her staff growing pleasantly warm in her hands. “Would our lost want us to keep marching onwards until our numbers dropped to zero? Because that was the path we were on! Everytime we stopped, there was some further tragedy nipping at our heels. Now we have a chance to be safe, and you’re making things harder than they have to be for what? Your pride? The elder’s pride?”

Teri felt something ring out underneath K’mels anger, but the rage filled chorus drowned it out. He stepped in close to Teri, his mouth clenched tight enough for her to hear his teeth grinding together.

“Do not accuse me, or the elders, of leading our people astray,” he snarled. “We have done everything we could to keep our people alive!”

“Everything but giving us time to truly recover!” Teri shot back, the marching growing closer but their argument deafened them to it. “If we could have rested for more than a few days at a time, we could have found a home before all this, with less losses!”

K’mels’ restraint broke and he grabbed Teri by her collar, his hot breath washing over her.

“Be quiet!” he ordered, shouting the command without a care. “You have no idea how painful each choice the elders made was. How they suffered each **** like it was their own.”

Teri felt the truth in K’mels’ words, his emotions clear in that. There was no faking that sincerity, or the sympathetic pain he felt in remembrance. But that didn’t absolve him or the elders of their missteps. And she wasn’t going to let them ruin this chance at real peace.

Calling up the full strength of her will, Teri pressed down on K’mels anger, suppressing it down until it was only a faint ember. The emotional magic in play caused K’mels to flinch back, his mind reeling from the sudden depression.

“You’re using your magic on me?” he asked in a listless voice, unable to feel anything about her actions.

“This isn’t the time or place for this,” Teri said, the sound of approaching footsteps growing louder. She let her magic weaken, allowing K’mels’ emotions to flow freely.

“No, it is not,” the warrior growled, his anger returning but now tightly constrained. “Know that the elders will be hearing of this.”

“Be sure to tell them how you were not abiding their orders to win by ignoring my suggestions on slowing down so we could figure out the trick to claiming more keys,” Teri shot back before drawing back her own frustrations. “Neither of us are taking this as seriously as we should. You want to prove our clan can stand proud? Then we need to prove that by tackling these games as best we can. Storming off in a huff isn’t going to win us anything but more frustration. Fights are won by more than just raw ****.”

Teri felt indignation well up in K’mels but he tapped it down a moment later as he took a few haggard breaths.

“Alright,” K’mels said, though he spoke like he was uttering the most distasteful thing imaginable. “We’ll slow down. We’ll deal with the ones close to us then take a moment to plan. But don’t think we can put a halt to everything for long. I’d rather fight to the end than sit planning for maneuvers we’ll never make.”

Teri nodded. “We don’t have the luxury of pondering every possible solution. We’ll spend a few minutes thinking about how they might hide the keys then try to find them. Defeating the defenders still nets us some rewards.”

“At least you aren’t getting caught up in some fanciful idea of how things on the ground are,” K’mels muttered as he hefted his sword as an enemy marched around the far corner. “Let’s get this over with.”

Rowan followed a step behind Ramirez as they made their way through the endless stone hallways. The methodical method was rather boring, as Ramirez was focused on obtaining keys over claiming doors.

‘At least we aren’t just leaving the doors undefended,’ she thought, recalling the lightning traps her superior had placed at each they had found. ‘I hope that the others don’t trigger them. Would one of them setting it off count as player versus player?’

“Something on your mind, my squire?” Ramirez asked as she inspected the wall, looking for any hidden hiding spot. Her tone told Rowan to not pretend she didn’t have thoughts on the current situation.

“I was just thinking about your blockade spell, ma’am,” Rowan answered in a practiced measured voice. “And if it’ll count against us if someone gets hurt by it.”

The knight hummed then glanced back at Rowan, a small smile on her face. “Considering adverse outcomes from our actions? A worthy use of time, Donnelly. I did think about that myself, but I think the rules of these events are on our side. It’s not an attack, it’s a clear hazard that only reacts when someone gets too close.”

“But, how will the other teams know it’s something we did and not a part of the game?” Rowan couldn’t help but ask, spurred on by Ramirez’s clear approval of her thinking about their actions. “The goblins do not know of your lightning magic.”

“True, and if they get injured by my spell, I will suffer the consequences for it,” Ramirez said. “And I won’t contest it. To be a leader, even if it is only with one subordinate, is to bear the weight of responsibility for the whole.”

Rowan suppressed a flinch as she remembered her failings from before. If her actions had caused **** or injury to Newman or Gryff, while she would have been punished, the Order too would have to pay some reparation to address the wrong.

“I see you grasp the weight of such things,” Ramirez said, reading Rowan like a book. “Leadership is not something to be brandied about carelessly. It is a burden, one I, my fellow knights, the Lord Protector and the Warden, bear with pride and caution. Our decisions have ramifications we must take into consideration before we make them. And even with the best intel and the right choices made, losses can happen. In truth, there is no perfect outcome.”

Rowan thought she heard a slight quiver to Ramirez’s voice and thought about how long her current mentor had served the Order. Her best guess was about two decades, which was more than enough time for there to be missions that went wrong. For people under her command to not come home.

‘Did any of those happen because someone was too reckless?’ Rowan thought, her mind going back to her own failings. She tightened her grip on her sword. ‘I don’t want to pointlessly die. And I don’t want my actions to cause undue harm. I need to be better.’

Before Rowan could voice her intent, Ramirez stepped back from the wall, a key in her hand, retrieved from a hidden alcove.

“That’s seven keys, enough for the doors we’ve got on lockdown,” the knight said. “We’ll claim the ones we have on lockdown before seeking out more. Best to not let our gains slip away. Donnelly, take point.”

Rowan was surprised that she was allowed to lead, but swallowed that and the slight amount of trepidation and nodded to her superior in acknowledgement. She turned on her heel, brought her sword into a ready position and marched towards the nearest door, ready to face any enemy that might intercept them.

Ready to show Ramirez that her decision wasn’t one made in vain.

Thanks again for reading this little story. If you liked the chapter, please hit that thumbs up, and if you want to support my writing, check out my Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/ScrapCrow. Get access to my chapters before they’re published here and join my private Discord.