Tactics (Graded)

[Abra]

45, Vhalar 719
Evening

Abra sat across from another Syns mage in the Lyngvi Tower and looked down at a complicated board game that he was trying out. Each board piece on his end had a special ability while it was the other mage’s job to make scenarios that were difficult for Abra to overcome. This was a game of the Magus’s own creation and Abra was perplexed by all the different rules. He was here, believe it or not, just to vie for some support to get promoted to Magus himself. He thought that hanging around people of higher rank would look favorably on him.

“Okay, try this. You’re in a mountainous forest,” the Magus said while arranging pieces, “you must defend these buildings, “he laid down more pieces, “and you must defend them from these monsters.” He laid down even more pieces. Abra was given thee pieces that had different special effects. They were wooden pieces that had been very well carved so they were distinct, but he needed a notebook to keep track of all the rules. He breathed out slowly to keep his focus steady.

Abra placed the bulkiest piece front and center while his support pieces were placed on either side of his bulky piece. He hoped to defend the front line, because there were a lot of “buildings” that needed to be protected. He got first move, as was part of the rules. He had the disadvantage no matter what, so it was only fair that he got to make the first move. He moved his bulky piece up to destroy the scrawniest enemy and then used his other units to throw projectiles to make it harder for the enemies to progress.

The problems came when the Magus used his own special techniques to avoid the front line entirely. The Magus made quick work of Abra’s units and all the buildings he was supposed to defend. Abra couldn’t help but feel like this was plain unfair. “Good game,” Abra said with surprise that he made sound genuine with Empathy. “Well, I have to go. It would be nice if I got promoted to Magus soon, then I’d have more time to play with you.” The Magus smiled understandingly and waved Abra goodbye.

Abra navigated the tower and looked for the right room. They said something about practicing combat with others, whatever that was supposed to mean. Abra didn’t have any offensive sparks so what was he supposed to do? He entered through a set of large double doors and he walked into a room that looked like it was bigger than it should have been. It had a large ceiling and ample space for combat training.

There was already fighting going on in here. Different groups of people, mostly on the younger side, were duking it out. He looked at one fight that was the most exciting with flames shooting out from both oponents’ weapons. They both seemed to spring at each other at the same time, Blades swinging at each other again and elongating into fire whips. The two of them met in midair, blades clashing together between them, the young boys size making up for the fact that the older boy was stronger than him as they pushed off each other and fell to the mats below

The younger one seemed about to say something, but the older one didn’t give him a chance as his wrist snapped forward, sending the blade out toward him, the curve of the long metal like whip slashing through the air toward the older ones sides. The older youth quickly brought his blade to his side and let it meet one of the metal fragments of the blade coming at him. He then quickly slid his sword further up, forcing the whip blade to straight as he did so instead of letting it wrap around his block to still score a hit against his side.

The next thing he saw was the young guard glaring at him, those green eyes flashing with a bit of anger and challenge as he leaped toward the youth in front of him as the boy was retracting his own black blade, swinging the flat of his sword at the side of the boys head. He watched with the knowledge both in his current mind, and remembering it from when this had actually happened, that there was nothing he could do to stop it because of how quick it came. The next thing he knew he saw a flash of black as the flat of the blade and his head connected.

“Okay that’s enough,” A familiar Abrogator said, “that’s enough warm up so lets get into the group exercises.” He held up a palm and in an instant a strange glyph appeared in midair and the Acolytes were forced to stop fighting. “Today we’ll be working on one of the most important things about being in a team: teamwork. In this room we have defiers, attuners, a grafter, a honer, and an empath.” Everyone looked at Abra when they heard “empath.”

“Great,” Abra said under his breath.

“The goal for today is to have you understand what each other can do and which ways we can combine our combined talents.” The Abrogator tossed out a dagger to both Abra and the unarmed Attuner. He then motioned for them to swing around and get a feel of it. Shields materialized infront of them and they struck the shields.The shield absorbed the blow like it was nothing. “As you can see, not all of us are suited for combat. So it’s up to you more competent Acolytes to defend them while they do what they can to help.”

“Say your group is sent out to deal with a threat. There’s a monster about fifteen feet high that can spew flames from its mouth. Show me what formation you all would take.” The Abrogator created a solid wall of energy to show how large the monster would be. “Then, I want to see you take it down.”

The handful of mages awkwardly walked up to the wall and started positioning themselves. The two people who were fighting so intensely at the beginning to a spot right in front of the wall while Abra and the Attuner stayed back. The remaining mages spread out while the Abrogator took notes. “Not bad, but did you not forget that I said the monster could breath fire? What would you defiers at the front do if a fireball came hurtling at our weak back line and took out your only chance of detecting enemies.

“Then who stays at the front line? The useless Empath?” Snickering came from all about, except for the Abrogator and of course Abra. Abra already knew he didn’t like these people but he hadn’t expected to exactly be accepted as an empath.

“Perhaps he would be useless against causing the monster damage, perhaps not. If it has sentience then there’s a chance that he could take it down before it even spotted you. If not, then he should default to a supporting role. He can help deal with any mental effects the monster might have, he can heal mental trauma, etcetera. Plus, he has a handful of other sparks that might be useful as well. So let’s not say any member of the team is useless. So now, with that being said, reorganize yourselves and let’s work on this formation.

Abra never thought about using his magic for “good” things like healing trauma. He supposed it could be possible, if he got put in a room with someone that had emotional problems. He appreciated the support his superior had given him and now they rearranged themselves. Since Abra had multiple sparks, he put himself in the middle with one defier. The other defier stood at the front and the others stood to their sides or close behind.

“This looks a lot better. Now let’s talk about how you’d go about attacking it…”

The lesson went on for hours and Abra got to see a lot about what was possible with defiance. It was impressive, but way too showey for his liking. Any alchemist could create explosions, so what was the big deal? He was much more impressed with the grafter who could produce wooden shields out of his arms and create vines that could wrap around the wall. It made his own magic seem quaint by comparison.

One thing he picked up on was that each person in the group had their own quirks. Beneath their human shells were sparks with their own personalities. He realized that if he was going to befriend these people he was going to have to appeal to their sparks as well. He would make note of that next time he needed to use magic on another mage, it could prove useful.

[Pig Boy]

Abra

Points

10/10 these points may not be used for magic.

Knowledge

Politics: Spend time with people above your rank
Tactics: Don’t let them flank your front line
Acting: Use empathy to make “genuine” emotions
Meditation: Don’t get mad after being insulted
Meditation: Breathing out slowly
Discipline: Working with people you don’t like

Loot/losses

-

Wealth

-

Renown

0

Comments: GG !

I love the use of a board game in a story. That part really inspires me, and makes me want to start a tunawa chess team.

The rest was sound, although fairly safe so I doubt you'll get much more renown for it, especially given the secrecy of the Syns. Only deeds get out about the Syns, much of their internal training and such probably is more hush hush.

Altogether, a good thread, inventive use of tactics and training methods for such. Well done.