Chapter 142: This Town Ain’t Big Enough (1/2)

The mirage chamber had created a sprawl of ancient, desert ruins. It was a town, long since dead and dry. Built into a hillside, crumbling buildings clung to the steep slope or were dug right into the yellow desert rock. Tunnels and stairwells were alternately exposed or buried by the dilapidating power of time, forming a rat’s nest of unsafe passages and hidden nooks. Of the handful of intact buildings, none had a neighbour in the same condition, the slope a mess of tumbled brick and stone, half-gone walls and debris-filled, hard earth streets. The air shimmered with heat as the unyielding sun beat down on the clay and stone remnants of the town. Through the steep ruins, three teams stalked one another. Hiding and moving, they risked precarious tunnels and rooftops as they sought to find prey without becoming someone else’s.

“Keep an eye on the shadows,” Rick Geller warned his team. “Asano is the strongest scout in here and we all know what he can do if we let him play his games.”

“Oh, I have all kinds of games,” Jason’s voice echoed loudly through the ruins.

“He’s doing it again,” said Claire Adeah, the healer and one of two elf sisters on the team. “That guy is so annoying.”

“He’s just trying to get you riled up,” her sister said from above. “He knows he can’t try what he did last time, but he’ll still try and mess up your thinking.”

Scouting from a rooftop, Hannah Adeah was an archer, the team’s only remaining ranged specialist. The expedition and its aftermath claimed both Jonah and Henry Geller, their front-line guardian and magic ranged attacker. Their new members were Dustin Kettering, a local who filled Jonah’s defender role, and Rick’s sister, Phoebe.

Dustin’s cousin, Hudson, was his counterpart on Beth Cavendish’s team and currently an enemy. Dustin was a classic defender, not very mobile but very hard to go around or through. This put him very much in the role of the team member he replaced, unlike Phoebe. Instead of a ranged magic attacker, she was a fast melee attacker using unarmed combat. This forced a change in general strategy for the team, who had previously bunkered around their twin ranged attackers. Phoebe’s presence failed to replicate their previous strength but broadened their abilities. In the weeks since gaining their new members, the team had been working on strategies that were less specialised and more adaptive and versatile.

Hannah stepped off the roof, dropping down lightly to rejoin the others.

“He isn’t as much of a threat in this environment as he was when we had to chase him through those mangroves,” Hannah said. “Did you hear how loud he called out? He’s trying to draw the other team to our location.”

In another part of the ruined town, Beth Cavendish and her team moved with the same caution as Rick's team did. Beth was widely known as both team leader and team healer, but it was her dangerous mix of wide-area afflictions and control powers that made her a true threat.

Their own archer, Emily, was likewise scouting from a rooftop vantage, but the steep slope made that tricky. The team was slowly moving uphill in search of visual and tactical advantage. Emily was a celestine with fair skin and a gold pixie cut that matched her eyes. She wore a simple cap to keep the sun from reflecting off her hair and giving away her position.

Their team was only four, compared to five each for the others and they were being appropriately cautious. Emily moved carefully down from her hidden vantage, returning to the team.

“I have at least a direction from Asano calling out,” she said. “Obviously, he wants to lure us into the other team and clean up whoever’s left. Do we scout it out and wait, or avoid it completely?”

“Let them thin each other out,” Beth said. “Jason’s team has his voice communication ability, so they have more tactical flexibility. We stay hidden and keep going for the high ground. We wait for the others to clash and then move.”

“Isn’t that what everyone is going to do?” Niko asked. Niko Tomich was from the smoulder race, with dark skin and burning red eyes. Niko used fire and iron powers to deal heavy damage in melee or combine damage and control powers at mid-range, making him the team's most versatile striker.

“Jason’s team is going to be more active,” Beth said. “Their defender is mobility-based and short on powers, where Rick's team has Kettering and we have Hudson. We're both stronger than his group at suffering an attack, while Humphrey is as strong an initiator as you could ask for. They'll try and catch us at a bad moment and make the most of it.”

Hudson was a huge, comic book character of a man and the guardian of Beth's team. He wielded earth powers and, like Clive, had a racial gift evolution that moved his aptitude from special attacks to another ability type. In Hudson's case, it was conjuration, allowing him to conjure up stone weapons, shields, walls and other objects to protect his team.

As Beth predicted, the three teams were slow and careful as they moved about the ruined town. Jason’s team made various attempts to bait one of their opponents into an ill-considered attack without success before regrouping to discuss the next move.

“Both teams are being extremely cautious,” Humphrey said. “They aren’t willing to risk extending themselves because they know they will do better defending from readiness. Everyone is waiting for an accident or a mistake that turns the tables, letting them swoop in and clean up the other teams.”

“So what do we do?” Neil asked.

“Our best bet is to strike first,” Sophie said. “For both of their teams, if we can overwhelm the key defender, it opens up the rest of the team to our attacks. We load up Humphrey with powers and use that to punch through their strongest front-liner and clean up the rest.”

“Initiating a straight-up confrontation will cost us in the long run,” Humphrey said. “Even if the other team doesn’t arrive in time to pincer us against the group we’re already fighting, they’ll be fresh and we’ll be hurt when they do turn up.”

“Hunkering down fits the other teams better than it does us, though,” Clive said. “Our core strategy is offensive, relying on mobility and power. We’re better off pitting our strengths against their strengths than our weaknesses against their, uh, mediums.”

“Their mediums?” Neil asked.

“Yes, their mediums,” Clive said emphatically. “I said it and I’ll stand by it.”

Jason chuckled, shaking his head.

“You’re right, Clive,” he said. “These aren’t teams we can beat with anything but our best. Humphrey had it right, too. If we want to catch them out of position, it has to be when they’re moving to capitalise on a mistake.”

“What are you suggesting?” Humphrey asked.

“I’m suggesting we make the mistake that they’re both looking for. They’re both waiting for someone else to get in a fight, so we’ll get in one and we’ll ambush them as they rush to swoop in. I found a good spot when I was roaming around, earlier. You’re good for one of those illusion rituals you were telling me about, right Clive?”

“In field conditions?” Clive said. “If you don’t want any old perception power to see through it, I can’t do any better than a blank wall.”

“That’s fine,” Jason said. “We just need them to think there’s only one entrance, so we can slip out as they slip in.”

“So, who will we be fighting?” Sophie asked.

“Each other, obviously,” Jason said.

Emily tilted her head, listening.

“Did you hear that?”

Beth gestured for silence. Soon after they heard the noise of an explosive ability triggering.

“They found each other?” Hudson asked.

“It might be a ruse to flush us out,” Beth said. “Move slow and quiet; we wait to see if it keeps going.”