[ 52 ] Fallen to Thievery

Three hours passed as the two allied teams made their way through the forest. 

Even though they doubted they were likely to find unfound objectives, that didn’t stop them from using those objectives to fuel the lantern. Going over the list, they continued until the stream of blue light began to trail out toward one of the objectives and started walking.

They were headed toward something called a warp turner. The name sounded a little ominous, but the objective was only worth 40 points. Not that it mattered since they expected to find another team holding onto it—a team they could rob.

As the blue glow from the lantern brightened, they picked up the pace. Kal hadn’t realized it at first, but the light was leading them straight to one of the caves marked on the map.

As the forest thinned, rocky terrain took over, interrupted by only the meekest of trees and scraggly bushes that grew from cracks in the rock and pools of dirt dotted along them.

Flowery vines dangled down across the cave’s entrance, and the cave delving below quickly disappeared into darkness.

“I guess it’s in there,” Ellie said.

“Remain on guard, everyone,” Vae cautioned, more to Team Lunar than anyone else. “There is a relatively high chance that a group has chosen this place for its defensive properties.”

Looking around, Kal doubted holding up in a cave was a great idea. Not unless you had spells that were suited to the environment. The cave would box you in, and if you didn’t have an escape, it would greatly reduce your options in the event that another team found you. 

“Vae, keep hold of the Astral Pouch and stay in the back, okay?”

“Understood, Kal Jakari,” Vae nodded.

“Ellie, you stay near Vae. We’ll be relying on your Shield spell if anybody passes us. Arix, you keep watch. Team Lunar, pick two team members to join me inside—if you want a share of the rewards.”

“Seriously? Ha, count me in,” Michel said. “If anybody is going in, it’s me.”

“I can go with him,” Daphne said.

“Ye sure, Daphne?” Bandy said. “

“It’s fine. Your nature magic will be more useful out here. I want to help you, and Michel has been doing so much. Besides, if I want a good academy spot, it seems like I’m going to need to do something about it.”

“Alright,” Bandy said. “Take it easy in there, will ye?”

“It’s the last day of the exam, Bandy. There’s no time for taking it easy. I’m going in to win this thing,” Michel said as he stretched his arms.

“Sure ye are. Just don’t be reckless,” Bandy said.

“Alright, let’s get moving,” Kal said, waving the group on as he began to descend into the gradually darkening cave.

Perfect stone stairs covered in damp moss descended down. The cave for the most part looked natural, but the stairs had to have been carved out.

Gradually, as they continued deeper, a distant light crept around the cavernous corner, growing brighter with each step. 

“Took you long enough,” a boy said. Unlike Kal and the others, the teen boy had a full beard and lay stretched out on a chair at the far end of the cavern by the light source. He wore a silky shirt unbuttoned to show off his hairy chest and pointed boots. “Welcome to Orbel’s dungeon, Team Ebenshire.”

“What in the world is Orbel’s dungeon?” Kal said as he raised the bracelet up and scanned the teen. 

Team Hijinks.

“Team Hijinks, huh? So, this is some kind of ambush, then, is it?” Kal replied, looking around the cavern. He couldn’t see much besides the kid. The light cast ominous shadows through the cavern but didn’t illuminate much.

“Why do you say that so calmly?” The boy said, rising from the chair. “Think you’re so hot because you’re the top-ranked team? Well, lucky me. I knew hiding out here and waiting for objectives to come to us would be a good strategy, but bumping into an overconfident team like yourselves is just the icing on the cake.”

They haven’t gone looking for objectives at all? At least if everything they have is stolen, it will soothe any moral objections. 

Kal loosened his limbs and stretched as he hopped on the spot. He knew he couldn’t let his guard down, though. This team had collected 190 points by ambushing and thievery alone. They no doubt knew what they were doing.

“Think you’re ready for this, huh?” Orbel said, watching Kal’s stretching. “You’re about to find out why House Anderlay has continuously held a council seat for three centuries.”

“Keep your guard up, Daphne,” Michel growled, inching backward.

Kal caught a thin stream of light reflecting across the chamber as Orbel raised his hands, and his eyes widened.

He had been hiding it before by exposing the mana in his own core, but the moment he reactivated his mana focus, Kal sensed it. Mana was wrapped around the entire chamber like magical wires. 

Suddenly, from either side of them, the magical wires shot out. Reflexively, Kal cast Swift Step and propelled himself out of harm's way, dodging the wires by barely an inch.

That was way too close.

Taking a quick glance back, Kal confirmed that both Daphne and Michel had been caught in wiry threads wrapping around their arms and legs.

“Damn it, let go!” Michel roared. “You’ll pay for this.”

“Ahhh,” Daphne moaned as she struggled against the wiry threads. “Too… strong.”

Seriously, they got caught already? Looks like I'm doing this alone.

The threads came again, zigzagging through the air in time with the movements of Orbel’s fingers as if he were playing an instrument.

Kal had a hard time believing the spell was a first-circle, but even second-circle spells came with weaknesses. 

The mana focus of Orbel’s spell seemed to entirely occupy him, for starters. Similar to Vae’s Puppet Hand. However, the mana fluctuations weren’t high, meaning that he wasn’t casting new spells everytime he ordered the wires to move. That didn’t necessarily mean it was cheap to maintain, but it was likely wise to find a solution instead of just dodging since Kal did need to cast a spell every time he used Swift Step.

Outlasting this guy is likely not an option. I’m going to have to find an opening.

Ducking and dodging several speeding wires as they shot for him, Kal cast Swift Step again and shot toward Orbel.

Orbel’s eyes widened. He likely had never seen anybody dodge his wiry threads so easily, and even if they could, it was unlikely teen mages had the mana or ability to keep it up for long.

Within seconds, Kal had dodged dozens of attacks in quick succession and moved within a couple of yards of Orbel.

“You're mine now!” Kal shouted as he cast Swift Step again, blinking into range of Orbel.

“Argh!” Orbel grunted and jerked to the side.

He had moved fast, unreasonably fast, but Kal realized that the threads were connected to Orbel. That’s how he had managed to dodge Kal. He could use the threads to pull himself out of the way. 

But Kal noticed a weakness. Orbel had moved fast but not far. The strength of the threads was quite strong, so if they managed to wrap you up, getting out wasn’t easy. But the pull behind them wasn’t great. The forceful tug had been enough to inch Orbel out of the way, but the strength behind the pull had quickly exhausted itself.

Nice trick, but there’s no way it’s saving you from me.

Kal cast Swift Step again and effortlessly snatched the Astral Pouch from Orbel’s belt. 

“Why you! Give that back,” Orbel swiped at Kal, but he easily dodged. “Those are mine.”

“These wires of yours are annoying,” Kal said, casting Mana Whip and lassoing Orbel’s arms. “Now, calm down so we can have some dialogue.”

“Calm down? Hey, you guys! Help me!” Orbel shouted, and figures stepped out from the nearby rock, but since Orbel’s spell had been broken with his capture, Michel and Daphne were also free.

“We've got five more team members outside, and since you were the one doing most of the work, I have a feeling those three aren't the most impressive mages.”

“Hey, we're plenty impressive,” a girl shook her fist at Kal, who just raised a doubtful brow in response.

“Look, you don't have to lose all your points,” Kal said to Orbel. “You're not winning a top spot, but you're a good mage. That much is obvious. Prove yourself to the clerks in the next exam, and I'm sure you'll get a top academy spot. There's no point risking everything. Piss me off, and I’ll take your entire pouch, and you’ll have just one day to try and win it back. Work with me, and I’ll let you keep 100 points.”

“Damn it. Fine,” Orbel growled. “What do you want?”

“For you to be my guard, of course,” Kal smiled. Taking out 110 points worth of objectives from the pouch and, in turn, adding one of the botflies to it. He then split the loot between Team Lunar and Team Ebenshire, keeping 60 points for himself and giving away 50, to which no one complained.

“Now, you. How about you take hold of this for safekeeping?” Kal said, pointing to the girl who had shaken her fist at him.

“Me?” The girl said.

“Yes, you'll stay back at the end of the cave with the rest of us—keeping your pouch safe. Orbel, you'll be our first line of defense. If you see anyone trying to get in, use your little wire trick to keep them out whilst alarming the rest of us, okay?”

Kal had changed his mind about the cave. Sure, he wouldn't choose it to defend by himself, but the cave was practically made for Orbel’s spell. Even if another mage came along that did have the skills to deal with it, they would still need to face Kal afterward. It was the perfect place to rest, take stock of the exam, and evaluate whether or not it was worth hunting down additional objectives.

With 545 points, Team Ebenshire was well ahead of the other teams. But that didn’t mean it was over. Team Alpha and their flying ship could race across the examination zone and collect points at remarkable speed. 

Setting up camp within the cave, they let the previous night's watch catch up on some sleep.

Kal sat on a rock, nervously tapping his foot and watching the leaderboard.

Teams were constantly swapping spots, and many lower on the list were seemingly going wild in consolidating points. 

It wasn't particularly surprising. This was the home stretch now, and any team with less than 100 points no doubt knew there was no point taking caution. Any score below 100 was a fail, so at this point, they might as well go for it, even if it did result in losing everything they had collected so far.

Team Alpha flicked over to 460, and Kal felt his heart race. They still had a decent lead, but their score had been rapidly growing recently. The lower-scoring teams had become desperate and, as such, were like worms wiggling out into the open for Team Alpha to swoop down and feed upon.

“How often were teams walking into your trap before we came by?” Kal asked the girl, who was tightly clutching the Astral Pouch.

“Huh?”

“You know. The ones you robbed,” Kal probed.

“Other teams? Not often—really. But they always had at least two or three objectives, so it didn't matter too much.”

“I had a feeling you'd say something like that,” Kal groaned.

“Thinking of changing the plan up?” Vae said.

“Not sure. But Team Alpha is on a roll. If they keep it up, they could knock us down to second.”

“And if we go out there, we increase our risk of losing it all,” Vae finished his sentence.

“Exactly. Wait, what if we could lure another team to us?” Kal mused aloud.

“I like it,” Vae nodded. “But precisely how are we supposed to do that?”

“The level of control that Orbel guy has over his wires suggests that he must have some means of sensing or even seeing the wires, don't you think?”

“That conclusion seems logical,” Vae nodded.

“They're at it again,” Ellie said to Arix, rolling her eyes. “You’d think we turned into statues.”

“I wonder if by connecting one of his wires to one of my clones, we could turn it into some kind of walking bait?”

“Hmm, fine idea, if it works, Kal Jakari. We had better ask him if this plan has legs.”

“What do you two want now? Can't you see I'm busy guarding the entrance?” Orbel said as Kal and Vae approached from deeper within the cave.

“I’d watch that tongue of yours if I were you,” Vae said. “Kal here is nothing if not reasonable. Who knows, play your cards right, and he might even help you gain more points than you had before meeting us.”

Yeah, you wouldn't want to go making promises we can't keep or anything, would you, Vae?

“Look, I can't promise anything, but if you help us, we'll give you the same offer we gave the others. Any objectives we find will be split between the three of us.”

“What's the point in that? We're not getting top three, and like you said, it really isn't going to make any difference to me. The way I see it, I'm better off remaining here nice and safe and passing the exam. Helping you score more points is only going to bring more risk upon me,” Orbel countered. “Tell me, what do I gain out of this?”

“Well, we could just take your remaining points,” Vae shrugged.

“You wouldn't dare!” Orbel hissed.

“Don't worry, we're not taking your points,” Kal said, glaring at Vae.

“Oh, come on, I was only kidding,” Vae smiled.

“Look, you're right,” Kal continued. “There's a good chance we won't find anywhere near enough points to make a difference to you, but I'm sure we can find a compromise.”

“Fine,” Orbel flicked his wrist. “Give us a quarter of whatever you win from this exam, and it's a deal.”

“A quarter?” Kal raised a brow.

“There's four of you, isn't there? Well, whatever the government gives you, it's going to need to be something that can be split four ways, isn't it?”

Yeah, right. I wasn't really thinking about it, but he has a point.

“Okay,” Kal said cautiously.

“If you want our help, just give us a quarter of the prize. Easy.”

“Wait a moment,” Vae raised a hand. “If we agree to this, Team Lunar is probably going to ask for the same deal.”

“How much help are those guys really?” Orbel said with a bored expression. “My family heritage has some of the greatest secret spells in all of Lyssia. Don’t compare me to those Lunar guys.”

“He’s got a point,” Kal agreed.

“There, you've got your answer. If they've got a problem with it, just threaten them like you did me,” Orbel rolled his eyes. “Or am I special?”

“And another one,” Kal sighed.

“Agreed. He is quite cunning,” Vae said.

“So? What's it gonna be, kid?”

“First, tell me. If you were to put one of your wires on, say, a mana clone, would you be able to provide directions out of sight, and how far can your wire go?”

“Ha, easy. The wire length is huge, but it could limit my ability to create additional wires. That said, In total, it's about 5 miles. So, I guess you're trying to make some kind of trap? Not a bad idea. My uncle, who's a demon hunter, does something similar. It'll work easily. Most of the participants in this exam don't know their hands from their feet.”

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