Free Web NovelChapter 22: Forming the Team
Holden had read the briefing twice before he fell asleep. He had to read it again when he woke up.
By the time he stepped into the main hall the next morning, he knew the Ruins of the Ashen King well enough to sketch the layout from memory.
The hall was huge. It had high ceilings, polished floors, and roughly two hundred first-year students packed inside, buzzing with noise. Some were excited. A lot were nervous.
Holden found a spot near the back wall and leaned against it.
It took a moment for him to notice Draven.
He had arrived early enough to claim the center of the room, surrounded by twelve other students. All of them were wearing better gear than anyone else in the hall. They had custom boots on, reinforced bracers and weapons that the academy didn’t provide.
Draven caught Holden’s eye across the room.
The look he gave back was not friendly. It was the kind of look that said he hadn’t forgotten about the exam scores, the Prime estate, or pretty much anything else.
Holden gave him a small nod.
Draven’s jaw tightened.
A sharp whistle broke through the noise.
Bzzt.
Three instructors walked onto the raised platform at the front of the hall. One of them held a glass board that projected text into the air above her head.
"Keep it down," the tough-looking man in the middle said.
"We’ll say this once."
The hall went silent.
"The Ruins of the Ashen King are classified as a Rank 2 danger zone," he said.
"This is a survival test. The ruins are filled with toxic fog and Ashen beasts. Your objective is to travel from the entrance to one of the designated safe zones inside and survive there for three days."
A few students let out shaky laughs to break the tension, but most were too worried to find it funny.
"Because of the fog and the beasts, if anyone tries to be a hero and goes off alone, they probably won’t come back alive," he said. "You must be in teams of four.. Once you pick your team, you can’t change it. You
have fifteen minutes to form up. Anyone without a team gets assigned to cleanup
duty for the next three months and sits the mission out."
Chatter instantly erupted across the hall. Students began running around, grabbing their friends by the arms and shouting names to find partners as fast as they could.
Holden didn’t move.
He was watching Draven.
Draven had turned to his circle and was speaking quietly to two of the older-looking students in the group. One of them walked over to a group that was heading toward Holden and stopped them. He said a few things and pointed back at Draven’s group. He probably promised them a reward or threatened them with trouble later. The group changed their minds and walked away from Holden.
Holden watched it happen two more times. Draven wasn’t even trying to hide what
he was doing. He was moving through the room and making sure there was no way
for Holden to find a partner.
Smart, Holden thought. Annoying, but smart.
He then looked around to see how many students still didn’t have a team. There
weren’t many left. He stopped leaning against the wall and was about to go look for a group, but then he heard someone walking toward him across the hall.
He turned and saw Lyra was walking straight toward him.
It got quiet for a moment while everyone watched her. People recognized Lyra because her family was well-known. She was the kind of student that every top team would have wanted.
And she was walking past all of them.
She stopped in front of Holden.
"One," she said.
He raised an eyebrow. "Good morning to you too."
"That’s one," she said, ignoring this completely. "We need three more."
She looked back and raised her hand. Two students left their spot at the corner of the room and walked over to her.
The first student was a broad-shouldered, tall boy carrying a heavy tower shield on his back. Despite his size, he had a friendly face and carried a small notebook. ƒreewebηoveℓ.com
He gave Holden a short nod.
"Emric," he said.
"Holden."
"I know," Emric said simply.
The second student was a short girl with a recurve bow slung over her shoulder. She wore thick leather archery bracers on her forearms.
"Renna," she said, sticking out a fist for him to bump as her way of saying hello.
Holden bumped it. "Nice to meet you."
"Lyra’s told us about you," Renna said brightly. "The sword thing in the courtyard. And the monolith. And also the bruiser with the gauntlets." She turned her head. "You had a very action-packed week."
"I’m getting that reputation, yeah."
The fifteen-minute timer ticked down on the projected board above the platform.
Around them, teams were locking in and filing their names with the instructors at the side tables.
Lyra looked at Holden. "Battle plan." freēwebnovel.com
"Now?" Renna said. "We have like eight minutes."
"Eight minutes is enough," Holden said.
He pulled the data crystal from his pocket. It projected a map of the ruins layout, just wide enough for the four of them to see.
"There are two main paths from the entrance," he said, keeping his voice low.
"Both leads toward the primary safe zone. The outer paths are going to be full of the toxic fog and Rank 1 territory beasts. We need to move fast and conserve energy. We take turns breathing through the filters and watching our backs."
Emric had his notes out already, pen moving. "What’s the formation for the first path?"
"Emric, you are up front with the shield to take the pressure," Holden said. "Lyra, take the
right flank for reach. Renna, you stay in the center-back and cover us with the bow. I’ll take the left and push forward when there’s an opening."
Emric nodded, looking pleased with the plan. "Solid line of defense."
"Lyra told us you were crazy," Renna said, looking at Holden closely. "But you sound like you just want to play it safe."
"I do," Holden said. "I have a little sister at home. I just want to reach the safe zone, finish this mission, and get back to her. We play it smart, and we all walk out alive."
Emric finished his notes and glanced up. "You’ve already been through the
briefing in detail."
It wasn’t really a question.
"Did that last night," Holden said.
Emric nodded. He kept the notes, capped his pen, and looked ready.
Across the hall, Draven noticed the group of four. He looked shocked for a second, then angry.
His eyes moved from Lyra to Holden and stayed there.
Holden looked back at him, then looked away, already done with it.
"We submit our team name and roster to that table," Lyra said, nodding toward the far side of the hall.
"Do we need a name?" Renna asked.
"Technically yes," Emric said, not looking up from his notes.
"How about Team Soup," Holden said.
Three blank stares turned in his direction.
"Never mind," he said. "Let’s go register."
They crossed the hall together.
In his head, Holden was already reviewing the layout again. While his team slept in the Safe Zone, he was going to have to sneak out into the fog alone. He thought about the Ashen Lotus, and what it was going to take to find it, secure it for Vespera, and walk back out with it.
