"Nervous, bubblegum?"
Taya leaned forward, her arms propping her up against the wooden table. Jace sighed, gazing down. Below him was the terrain, the location of their battle.
A large mountain lay aside to the left, a small forest at the center. A large river lay right at the forest, a smaller river trailing from the foot of the mountain to an open space just beyond the forest.
Jace's forces were directly below him on the ground, leaving him alone to survey the entire site of the approaching conflict. Taya's voice rang as she sang a pop song. Jace grimaced. At least he wished he was alone.
Shifting his attention from the girl across the floating table, Jace pushed his attention to the corner of his eye where five videos played. He dragged two to the center, studying them. One of them was his scout's point of view. Stretched out in front of him were trees, branches and dead leaves.
The second pov was that of his Trap Master who was creating half a dozen snares around the King–A bloated androgynous figure who could barely move three steps.
Jace pushed the screens out of his face as Taya prodded. "You didn't seem shocked when we first appeared. Thought you might know something?"
Jace glanced up briefly, "Folds, right? I'm guessing they're folds. I noticed them at the Intellectual test. Dragged me in a room and threw a dozen questions at me," Jace chuckled, "Why did you think I wouldn't know about folds?"
Taya's response was quiet. "Because there were no folds at the intellectual test. No folds for us…Me and Thomas.."
Silence settled as Jace grappled with Taya's answer. Then he heard a loud creak. Jace looked to see Taya learning forward against the table as before, a bored smile on her face. Jace frowned as he realized oddly that he couldn't be thinking about things like that. He was in the middle of war. He needed to focus.
Yet there wasn't a lot to focus on. The scout was still in the midst of mapping out a part of the forest, the Trap Master was done making traps, the Assault teams couldn't be moved without proper information. There was nothing Jace could do.
Yet that did nothing to assuage Jace's anxiety. In the end, Jace switched to the Scout's pov. The young man acting as his Scout crept about the trees slowly.
He peered out from behind darkened barks, skipping over branches and sticking tiny strips into the ground. Those strips scanned the nearby area, giving Jace clear views of the areas surrounding them.
Jace's scout moved slowly, inching into a clearing. Jace instructed his Scout to stop as he surveyed the long yet narrow clearing where only soil and a couple of chopped off branches lay. As Jace gazed at the clearing which stretched for metres, a thought began to worm its ways.
If he had the Trap Master lay snares across the open field, he could potentially deny Taya a way of approaching. The issue lay in the fact that bringing another member alongside his scout was risky. If his scout was found out, he wouldn't only be losing one piece. He would be losing two valuable ones.
Jace debated the thought, trying to keep himself from reacting too suddenly. He couldn't alert his opponent. And so, Jace switched poVs, planning to instruct his Trap Master to start its journey, accompanied by one of the Assault squads.
As Jace was about to give the commands, he felt his Scout move. The game focused on realistic responses from the teams so each figure could still move without instructions. Yet, the scout's movements felt too sudden.
Jace switched back to the scout, spotting a female figure at the other end of the clearing. The figure wore close to the same attire as his Scout, tight fitting clothes with a light bag strapped across her chest.
Jace's scout moved forward, fishing inside his strapped bag to retrieve a small blade. A loose sheath hung over it, tossed aside to reveal a dark green dagger. His opponent did the same, revealing her blade to be a dark black.
Thoughts swirled in Jace's mind as he pondered whether to have his scout retreat. If his scout moved back, his camera strips would be as good as gone leaving him without eyes in the forest.
At the same time, Jace couldn't offer support. With both revealing one of their cards, the others would begin to move. This was the true start of the battle.
The two scouts clashed, the blades singing a shrill hymn as they slammed into one another. The female scout shifted back, swinging her blade at her opponent's face.
The male Scout held his blade to block leaving his front open, a move punished by his ruthless opponent. He groaned as he hit the muddy ground, his blade falling by his side.
He scrambled for it but his opponent was upon him, driving her blade to his forehead. His hands grabbed hold of hers as the two struggled.
The scout scrambled with his left arm, his right arm bending under the weight of his opponent. The knife remained inches from his face when he felt something on the ground. Hard.
He grabbed it and smashed it against the side of his soon to be killer, watching as she stumbled back from the heavy blow to her head. But he wasn't done.
He sprang upon her, smashing her head in with the object he had grabbed. Again and again and again. Until the body stopped moving and the grip on the deep black blade released.
Then, the scout stood, took a deep breath, smoothed over his bloody clothes, and slumped to the ground. Jace watched speechless as the just victorious Scout fell to the ground, the only mark on his body a bullet hole in the center of his head.
"Don't you think it's kind of sexist that she lost?" Taya prodded as she leaned forward, a bright smile plastered on her face.
She chuckled at her joke, her rainbow hair tossed around as Jace silently dealt with the fact that one of his best pieces was gone. With that realization came a stone cold calmness that settled over the teenage boy.
With Taya's scout gone and her second class revealed to be a Sniper, Jace was ahead. Instructing his assault squad to camp just short of the clearing the Scout had mapped was his first order.
As Jace instructed, his thoughts drifted to the mountainous range beside the forest. It was currently defenceless and rather exposed, a fact Jace wasn't okay with. But there was nothing he could do. Sending one of his assault squads to guard a random location would be wasteful, even more than sending his Trap Master out to lay traps, knowing a sniper was on the opposition's team.
In the end, it was Taya who made her move. A young figure walked about the mountainous regions, straight at Jace's king. Just as Jace was about to send his assault squad over there, gunshots erupted close to the point where the two rivers met. An assault squad?
Jace considered the chances of a trap. Taya had just shown she had a Scout, a sniper, heavy gun users and an explorer. The explorer was easy to guess: A scout or an assassin.
The gun users were either Assault teams or Heavy hitters and this was where Jace fell into a bit of trouble. If he sent his last assault squad to the man by the mountains, he would be defenseless against the guns by the river.
If he decided to recall his Assault squad deep in the forests, he would be wasting time and losing his only means of attack. And if the man by the mountains turned out to be resistant to the Traps set. Jace gritted his teeth.
First, he instructed the assault squad close to the clearing to dive in deeper and find the position of the sniper. Maybe he would have a bit of luck and find the King.
Secondly, he pushed his last assault squad to meet the guns by the river. As for the man by the mountain. He would have to make a gamble.
Minutes later, gun shots rang out. This time, the gunshots were from the forest. Jace switched to his assault squad to see them all dead. And lying beside them were the opposition's last card. Taya's last pick had been an Assault squad. His gamble had failed.
Yet it wasn't over. Jace switched back to his Assault squad by the river. Taya's team hadn't come any closer and Jace's assault squad hadn't gone any farther. Switching to the pOV of his king, Jace watched as he noticed his Trap Master slumped to the ground.
The dead body of the medic lay a few feet beside it. The main culprit of the incident, the Assassin on Taya's team, brandished a dark green blade coated in blood. No. The culprit wasn't an Assassin.
There were only a few classes that could evade traps yet only one that looked exactly like an Assassin. The scout walked calmly, arriving in front of Jace's king.
"Good game," Taya spoke as the dark green blade descended. The king fell a second later. Taya had won. Then the simulation crumbled.
Lights flashed in Jace's eye, green, yellow, red. A wave of nausea passed through him, filling him with the urge to throw up. Jace turned, noticing Taya and Thomas, the former trapped in a group of people.
Jace scarcely took a step forward before being swarmed by a group of people. They all asked the same question: Any and all information about the 'battle'?
With the limited number of people there and the ranking system, knowing anything about anyone would be a tremendous boost.
"I lost," Jace answered, struggling to cut through the crowd. "That's it."
A trace of unwillingness and maybe even anger flashed in their eyes as the group allowed Jace to walk away, muttering under their breath.
Jace ignored them, stumbling to the nearest wall. His head pounded and he felt slightly out of breath, as if he had just run a race.
"Feeling the effects of a fold?" Jace looked up, noticing Thomas. He adjusted, straightening up and forcing a little smile. "Yeah. Didn't think it would hit as hard the second time. Makes the first time I went feel like a hiccup."
Thomas shot Jace a quizzical look. "The second time, eh? When was the first?"
Jace shook his head in an effort to alleviate the pounding, muttering noncommittally, "The Intellectual Test."
Bowing his head, Jace felt the pain in his head lessen. He grunted as he questioned his roommate inwardly, 'Is it you. Is the pain your tantrum?'
There was no response, whether good nor bad. Jace saw Thomas's shadow move after a few minutes. Then he raised his head back up and tilted his head. The pounding was gone, thankfully.
Jace took a minute to breath, his thoughts drifting to the parasitic entity living in him. Shaking the thought away, Jace held out his hand and tried to feel it. The heat that had spread through his body when activating his skill.
The warmth came slowly, drifting from his chest to his shoulder in a slow drawl. The warmth slowed as it seeped into his hand, reaching even to his fingers. Then, there was nothing.
No fog rose from his finger tips, no explosion occurred, no weakness assaulted his body. There was just nothing. Jace huffed, feeling the warmth dissipating.
His headache hadn't awakened some magical latent power in his cells. It hadn't advanced his understanding or anything like that. It had just done…nothing. It really was just an ordinary fold sickness
Jace leaned back against the wall, his fists tightening. He needed to learn how to control his new ability as fast as possible. His entire plan of entering into a high ranking faction required that.
Thoughts rolling in his head, Jace felt a cold hand rest on his shoulder. He jerked up, noting a face above him. It was a man, his head a full foot above Jace's, wearing a black suit and holding up a silver briefcase.
He was built like something out of an action movie–The large grunt who would get defeated by the main character with wit rather than strength. The man standing before him, though, had eyes that shone with intelligence and recognition.
"Jace Vicea, correct?" His voice was gruff with barely concealed exhaustion. Sun glasses held over his face, obscuring the bags under his eyes no doubt.
"I'm sorry, who are you?" Jace questioned, a chill spreading through his body. While Drax had stated Jace had passed his execution and the guillotine over his head was gone, Jace could still feel the ghost of it everywhere he went. Always surrounding him.
The man grunted, "None of your concern. All I'm here for is to direct you to your place."
Jace frowned at the 'place', yet followed when the man began to walk. Students stepped out of his way, most bewildered by his stature yet the man kept his eyes fixed forward, or at least Jace thought he did. The sun glasses obscured most of it leaving Jace to make inferences.
"Here we are!" The man announced, stopping in front a brown door, a chess design drawn over it. Giving the door a rap, the man turned to Jace."Go in."
Then he walked away, not taking another glance at the student he had just led. Jace watched the man leave before turning back to the door.
Jace pushed it open, the sound of conversation quietening as the door swung. Taking a deep breath, Jace strode into the room, three pairs of eyes on him.
The room wasn't as large as the previous one, yet was far more decorated. Flashes of white light started and stopped, creating a both disorienting yet enchanting sight of dark and white. Reflected onto one of the walls was a holographic projection of a mountainous range.
Jace took a step forward, stuffing his trembling fingers into his pocket. He faced the gazes head-on, strolling over to the round table at the center of the room. He slipped into the wooden chair closest to him–the last seat–before examining his examiners.
The first was the legacy from before, his pale skin looking even whiter under the light. He nodded at Jace almost patronly, shifting his glance to his cyberlink.
The second, the female legacy with red hair, scanned him as if looking at an object on sale. She sighed, leaning back against her chair and closing her eyes.
The third. Jace paused as he glanced at the third. It was Hazel. She glanced away the minute Jace sat. Jace pondered how to start a conversation when the door burst open.
In walked a young man with white hair and almost blue eyes. He walked in carrying a bunch of items, a smile spread on his face. He passed a plastic cup–coffee–to each of the legacies, stopping and tilting his head at Jace.
"I'm, wha–Who?" He started, retrieving the last cup. He paused for a second before passing it over to Jace. "Here you go,"
"Thanks," Jace replied, pushing the cup back. The new student shrugged, pausing as he realized there were no seats left. Jace stood just as the boy sat on the same seat as Hazel, sharing a chair.
He smiled at Jace, leaning against Hazel almost casually. She showed no expression, neither disgust or anger, choosing to sip her cup. "So, you're the new guy? I'm guessing the others haven't introduced themselves."
Jace nodded as the boy laughed. He nodded to the student opposite from him, the red-haired girl, "That over there is Ruby, soon-to-be Heir of the FlameWeaver Faction,"
He nodded to the brown-haired legacy by her left, "And he's Connor, the Heir of the Earthen Federation,"
Jace momentarily froze at the name of the organization. While their size was immense, and barely a few factions could claim the title of being 5 stars, it was more the sheer incredulousness of meeting the heir the exact day he had learnt about Bastion.
His conversation partner didn't seem to know Jace's internal turmoil as he continued uncaringly. "And this beautiful lass over here is Hazel from the Revenger Faction. They're a four star one. I'm sure you've heard a few things about them."
Jace had heard. He had heard of how the faction rose from inception to popularity in barely a hundred years. More than that, Jace noted how her introduction hadn't been 'heir'.
"And I'm Cloud," The boy ended, picking up his cup and chugging it. A sharp burst of white light started as he finished his speech, his white hair bearing tints of grey under the light. Then that grey was gone and the room drowned in uncomfortable dark silence.
"And you're the heir of what?"
Cloud smiled at Jace's question. "Of nothing. And you, what's your name?"
"Jace. Jace Blank,"
"Heir of what?"
Jace remained silent. Cloud smirked as he rose from Hazel's seat and walked over to him. Leaning against Jace, Cloud whispered, "It's nice finally having someone who isn't a legacy. Like, don't get me wrong, legacies are good people. But they're still some topics that can't be spoken around them. It's nice having you in this class."
"And what class is this?"
Cloud moved away, grabbing his cup from the table and drowning the remaining drink in one go. Sighing softly, he stretched his arms out and presented, "Welcome to Commanders Class!"