The second round of Capture the Flag came much faster than expected. I’d thought that we could at least have a chance to eat lunch first, but the game after ours didn’t last all that long. So, with a heavy sigh, I walked back into the field, saying a hasty goodbye to the people I was talking with.

Kanda and the rest of the team were already there, milling around our flag with bored looks on their faces. Kanda’s switched to dislike as soon as he saw me, of course, but by now I was used to it. Maybe after the Crucible, I would take time to ask him why he didn’t like me. Or maybe I wouldn’t.

The commentator was taking the crowd through the usual hype up, but I wasn’t paying attention. I had my eyes locked on Kanda, who was doing something very strange. In his right hand, he had what looked like a bright silver sharpie, and he was using it to draw complex symbols onto the back of his left hand. Then he repeated the symbol on his right hand and the tops of his sandal-clad feet.

“You’re a Runist?” I asked him before I could stop myself. “This is the first time I’ve met one.”

He spared me the briefest of dirty looks, then tucked the silver pen into his robes. I didn’t think he’d respond, but he surprised me. “All members of the Okoye line are proficient Runists.”

“That’s cool,” I said. “I don’t know what my father was good at. He was a Reaper before me, but I never knew him.”

For some reason, the mention of my father created another dirty look on his face. Just for a second, I’d seen his face not wrinkled. Now the scowl was back. I tried to ignore the reaction, not to mention the way his ice-blue eyes seemed to burn with an intense fire and shook myself as I returned to the flag.

“All fighter!” The contestant bellowed, catching our attention. “Get ready! On your marks, get set, GO!”

There was no discussion of tactics this time. As the word go, Kanda dashed forward. My jaw dropped at his acceleration. He went from a stiff standing position to a dark blur in the space of a single blink. Then he was down at the boundary line and jumping over it with ease.

“Alright, then,” I grumbled, impressed in spite of myself. “Guess it’s business as usual, then.”

But the others, even those who had stayed back on defense with me last round, were also running forward. I opened my mouth to call some of them back, but before I could, two of them doubled over with shouts of shock. They hit the ground clutching their stomachs as if someone had gut-punched both of them. It was so sudden that I knew it had to be a long-ranged attack. I couldn’t sense anyone nearby.

Instinctually, my aura flared up to surround me in a defensive screen, and not a second too late. What felt like a cannonball slammed into my stomach, but thanks to the condensed aura there, I only slid back an inch or two, still standing. Only one of my teammates had managed to get their defenses up in time. He and the two burly boys were still standing, their natural constitution keeping them in the game.

Then I noticed three people pop out of the ground in front of us. I mean it. They literally flew out of the ground in Reaper form, looking ready for a fight. Behind them, I could notice another four figures who had crossed over from the boundary line. I looked around for Kanda, but couldn’t find him. Had they overwhelmed him, and moved into an all-out offense?

I put my hands up. We may have been at a severe disadvantage, but I was prepared to sell our flag dearly. They’d be lucky to have one single healthy person to carry it back, I determined. The two burly guys moved to my sides to reinforce my position, and our fourth stood behind the flag, his arms out to either side. I could feel the dense pressure emanating from the guy, as well as a faint smell of ozone, reminding me of lightning.

“Come on then,” I challenged the other team. “Let’s see what you got!”

As if they were waiting for me to speak, the first three launched their attack. They brought their right hands up, shaped like claws, the way you see villains in those space movies do when they want to choke you with their space powers. I felt aura come to life underneath me, and dove to the side to avoid it. I was nearly too late. Aura rushed up as if the earth were exploding, surrounding my two burly friends. The three enemies closed their fists, and the next thing I knew, my allies were encased in bright bubbles of energy.

I immediately went on the counter-attack, trying to grab the guy in the middle with my aura, but he deflected my probe. I was off balance and horribly outnumbered, and they knew it. Then my ally, the guy behind the flag who’d blocked the first attack in time, shot what looked like a thin line of lightning at the group we were facing. It spread out into dozens of smaller static bolts as it came in front of them, then each line burst with a loud boom.

“Holy shit!” I exclaimed. “How did you do that?”

Then I realized there was no time for a lengthy explanation, as two of them were still standing. The others weren’t out of the fight, but they lay on the hard ground of the forest, groaning and clutching their heads. The burden of the attack seemed to exhaust my teammate as well because he’d sunk to his knees breathing heavily.

I was still horrible out of my depth, I realized. With more than half of them knocked down, I realized at once that I could see Karanda. He was all the way down at the enemy side of the field. As I looked, I saw him take a running start and jump across the ditch. My heart leaped in my chest, only to sink again as some invisible force stopped him mid-jump and smacked him back. He landed, hard, and dropped the flag.

“What did you guys do to him?” I asked, staring at the two still standing. “Why can’t he cross the line?”

“There’s a barrier in place,” one of my enemies said. “It will stay in place as long as I have aura to feed it.”

“Eesh,” I said with a grimace. “He can’t be happy about that.”

I jumped to the left to avoid another attempted grab and sent my own aura slamming into the guy who’d attacked me, or at least I tried to. The taller one, the one who’d made the barrier, jumped in the way and swatted my aura away. With his bare hand. My eyes widened.

“How the fuck did you do that?” I said, staring at his hands. There weren’t any runes on his hand.

He grinned widely at me, but it wasn’t a happy face. Then he moved forward at once, starting to strike me with combos. I parried his strikes as they came, and occasionally threw some of my own back, but the longer we traded blows, the heavier my arms seemed to become. Before I knew it, this guy was hitting harder than Ivan did. I couldn’t make sense of it, and I retreated back a few steps.

More electricity shot at him from over my shoulder, but it shattered harmlessly against his skin. Or rather, the energy broke apart as soon as it was an inch away, then it seemed to absorb inward. Oh shit, I thought to myself. He’s a Bulwark. The specialty that allows for an obscene defense. Even with little to no aura, you couldn’t really scratch a Bulwark.

On the bright side, Master Mikel had taught me how to fight against Bulwarks. It had been part of my training with him since he was one. I forgot about trying to keep a safe distance, and charged forward. A bulwark’s greatest weakness is that it requires a lot of concentration to maintain our superior defense. Keep us occupied, and you can force us to make a mistake.

So I began what was possibly the most reckless attack of my early years as a Reaper. I put all the aura I could into my fist and feet and hammered away. He looked surprised at first, then his face contorted in a snarl of concentration as I peppered him with blows. Left jab, right jab, kick, right hook, left kick, right stomp. Each of my attacks ended in a little explosion of aura. Slowly but surely, I forced him back away from my flag.

He got a few shots in, but even the minuscule film of aura around my body was enough to protect me. I knew that it would take me forever to completely deplete his defense, but that wasn’t my goal. I wanted him to focus on me, and he did. He put his arms up defensively as I continued to hammer on him, his attacks becoming less and less frequent.

“Silas and Kanda’s team wins!” The commentator’s voice boomed, and I finally stopped attacking. “What a surprising turn of events! Silas manages to beat down Matthias’ defense, allowing Kanda to slip through the barrier in his way!”

Now that I wasn’t hyper-focused on my opponent, I could hear properly again. The sound of the crowd shouting their approval reached us clearly, and I took a step back, putting my hands on my knees. I could see Kanda jogging towards us, passing by the other opponent. Apparently, the opponent had tried to grab my flag while I was busy and make a break for it. But Kanda had made it across first.

“Damn!” I heard the big guy say as he sat down. “I thought my barrier would hold!”

“No sweat man,” I told him. “If it hadn’t been for my friend there, you would have crushed me under sheer numbers.”

I looked back to where my ally had fallen down, his legs too weak to support him. “That was badass, dude. How did you turn your aura into lightning?”

He grinned at me and tiredly brushed snow out of his blond hair. “I’m a Transmuter. That means I can change the property of my aura at will.”

Kanda drew level with us, still holding the flag high as if it were a trophy. He locked eyes with me, realizing as I did, how close we’d come to losing. A lack of teamwork had nearly done us in. He nodded silently. It wasn’t his way of saying I’d done well, but it also wasn’t rude or disparaging. It was the simple nod of the Reaper, which was an improvement. I returned the gesture, although my face probably wasn’t as calm as his.