"I mean, so are theirs," remarked Lucian, coldly pointing to a series of four locations marked with 'x' on the northern half of campus. "They have one of their flags floating upon the villa of House MANASURA in the west, another one at the summit of the hill far north, their grand banner upon the Tree of Naran and Naru in House ARTAIA in center north, and one at the –" he paused, trying to make sense of the final flag.
"The Oracle of Aeternitas in the north-east," Elwin added. "I've been there a couple of times for a... walk," he groaned, imagining the pain of metal cylinders upon his ribs.
The hall was silent as ever, every head trying to deduce a plan.
"What were the winning conditions again?" A voice piped from the crowd.
"By capturing and bringing back all 3 of the other faction's flags to our grand banner standard – which is to say, capture all 3 of their flags and bring to House TERA, or by destroying their grand banner atop the Tree of Naran and Naru. Either one does the trick," Elwin answered. "We have 20 teams in total. If we spread ourselves evenly across the 3 flags and the 1 grand banner, that's 4 objectives... so we get 5 teams guarding each point, don't we?"
Katherine held up her hand. "The problem is 'evenly.' Our manpower is the bottleneck here. Do we need to protect everything, especially when we won't have an attacking force to spare? For us not to lose, we just need to protect at least one of our 3 flags, and our grand banner, right?"
A murmur of approval filled the hall.
"I guess so," Elwin replied, impressed by Katherine's instant dissection.
"But provided we follow your plan," surmised Lucian, "and we lose the single flag we were defending? What're you going to do then? Be responsible?"
Katherine shot an irritated glance at Lucian. "I don't know yet. We could defend two flags instead of one, just to be sure."
Robert pooled his thoughts next. "This keeps us from losing, but it doesn't score us the win. Professor William said the battle is going to go on forever until one faction ends up winning, right?"
"Yeah."
"So at one point or another, we will have to attack. The thing is, the Padishahs are already setting up defensive works. Even from the distance they look fortified, and it's just the first day!"
Everyone's hands were upon their chin, locked in thought.
"Wait... do we have to sweep their 3 flags one by one, step-by-step?" Daphne suggested, strolling out from behind her friends.
"What'd you mean?"
"We can just go straight for their grand banner upon the canopy of House ARTAIA! We win by capturing 3 flags, or by destroying their grand banner. Why not go for the jugular to save time?"
Everyone had dismissed that thought before, because the grand banner was so deep in enemy territory, and they would run into hefty resistance. But if they simply skipped all the three flags and pooled themselves into a singular spearhead... could they?
"No, that would be difficult," assessed Lucian, a cold clarity shimmering from his eyes. "The only conventional way up that tree is through the spiral stairways embedded in its trunk. Although it's wide, and eight of us can fight shoulder-to-shoulder going up the stairs, that's still eight of us who must face the enemy up the tree, with the rest of us waiting behind. We won't be able to make effective use of our numbers, even if we combine together."
"That's a fair point," said Isaac. "We've all seen the way up. It's not easy."
"On the other hand," Lucian continued, "there are four ways up our ziggurat. FOUR WAYS, and none of the sides are so steep that our enemies will be forced to use the central stairs. Which professor's imbecilic idea was it to put our grand banner standard on a place this exposed?" finished Lucian with a rant, smashing his fist into the chalkboard.
"Wait, wait, wait, not all hope's lost," consoled Isaac. "The area around the ziggurat is mostly flat, right? There's nothing but paved roads of brick and lime flanked by short trees and large lawns. Doesn't that mean that we'll very easily be able to spot whoever's approaching from far away, and prepare for it at the top? They won't have the element of surprise."
Lucian looked at Isaac with a measure of acknowledgement.
Not bad, air boy, he thought.
"In contrast," chimed Robert, raising his hand, "You couldn't have a harder time seeing who's approaching the trunk from the canopy of the Tree of Naran and Naru. We've all navigated our way past the boulders, the long steps, and clambered over the winding roots a gazillion times on our way to Professor Irina's classes. There are plenty of spots you could use to hide. This places them at a disadvantage in terms of information."
"Oh! Oh! I just want to add – it's not enough for them to capture our 3 flags! They must also bring all three back to their grand banner on the canopy in order to win!" interjected Daphne. "But because the terrain is so rough, they will have to spend far more time and effort just to get them up there!"
"That's absolutely right," added Khan – the boy that Elwin recognized from back in Professor William's class – stepping forward. He stood as tall as Lucian. "That means that compared to the Padishahs, we Celendirs actually have an advantage trying to capture and bring back the small flags instead of going for the grand banner standard. Because unlike them, the ground around the ziggurat is so flat and well paved that all we have to do is sprint straight up!"
"Huh," mused Lucian. Something was coming together. "Let me distill your points so far," he declared. "It will be harder for us to win by trying to destroy their grand banner, while it will be easier for us to win by trying to capture and bring back their 3 flags. Am I right?"
"Yeah," they nodded their heads.
"What did Professor William say about the winning conditions for the former?" Isaac queried.
"The former? You mean what counts as 'destroying' the grand banner standard?" asked Elwin.
"Obviously," muttered Lucian under his breath.
"He said if the shaft of the grand banner standard is in any way broken into two, it counts as destroyed," clarified Daphne.
"How thick is the shaft?" asked Mirai.
"About a foot thick, from what I've seen," answered Khan. "Made of extra dense oak. It's far from a stick, more like a pole."
"I understand the idea of going for the 3 small flags rather than their grand banner. I concur with that ambition," said Lucian, tapping his foot.
"Before we discuss further, let's have a vote on the strategy," announced Robert, taking the initiative. They didn't have all night, after all. "Alright, who here thinks getting 3 flags are better than attempting the grand banner on the tree?"
Three quarters of the Celendirs rose their hands in aye.
"Guess we have the people's opinion then," said Robert.
"They are only as useful as the people that have them, Robert," commented Lucian. "Anyhow, I'm not about to argue on a strategy that most of us have decided. Now then, how are we going to achieve our goal? How do we get those 3 flags, and bring them back safely to score the win?"
"That's what gets me," said Katherine. "Because if you look at the map – see right here – their flags are in House MANASURA, at the Oracle of Aeternitas as Elwin said, and on the summit of the hill in the far north. But they are each at least a quarter mile apart."
"Distance aside, the fact that their last flag is up on the hill kind of troubles me," remarked Elwin. "If the Padishahs have already discussed the advantages and disadvantages of their positions like we did, they would know that all they would need to do is pool their defenses on that hill to prevent us from getting the last flag. That, and HOUSE ARTAIA."
Lucian shot Elwin an irritated glance. Isaac, who noticed right away, joined before anything could steer off-topic.
"Lucian, you said that even if we pooled together at the tree, we couldn't make the best use of our number, right?"
"Yeah."
"Because we have to climb one-by-one?"
"Precisely."
"Elwin," nudged Isaac, "how wide is the stairway that goes up that summit on the hill?"
Elwin raised his eyebrow. "Quite wide, actually. I think at least sixteen of us – four squadras – could climb together. And plus, the stairs are not the only places where you could climb. There are some spaces between the trees where you can tread," said Elwin, remembering Professor Aionia's footsteps upon the soil of the hill, footsteps she made at the crack of dawn to install her metal cylinders among the woods.
Murmurs arose from the crowd.
"So by that – do you suggest we pool together and overwhelm them with numbers on the summit?" quizzed Katherine, making a wide circle on the chalkboard.
"How exactly are we going to coordinate that?" asked Cassius, stepping forward next to Lucian. "It's not like we're going to be able to spare everything. We still need to defend our grand banner, and at least one of our smaller flags."
"In order for us to commit our squadras, to put our attacking eggs into one basket, we need to know the tide of battle," chimed Rayo. "What if, say, in the middle of us besieging the summit, our grand banner suddenly falls to trouble? That would be a disaster."
"We can come up with a way to signal for help. Or at least signal what happened to our flags from far away. There's a couple of leftover fireworks from the festival, all sorted into color next to Professor Helen's office," voiced Claudia. "It's almost as if she wants us to use them."
Lucian's eyes were narrowed in deep thought. "From the way the Padishahs are already setting up defensive works, they would've already had a similar idea to ours. We should plan with the assumption that they know how to signal each other."
"Provided they are," clarified Katherine, "then as soon as we take one flag of theirs, all of them elsewhere would instantly know. They would double down their defense and make it a lot harder for us to get the remaining flags. So the best way to make sure we maintain our element of surprise is – is –"
"If we capture all 3 flags at the same time," answered Elwin. "If we are near all 3 of their flags, and capture them right away, then it'd do them no good whether they signal or not. They won't have time to prepare because we'll attack immediately."
"Flawless in theory, Elwin," retorted Lucian, "but how exactly are we going to attack 3 places at once? We all split up and agree on a time upon our watch? Our objectives are deep in enemy territory, and situated with varying distances from our starting point. Say the others carry out their attack but you were intercepted or ran into enemies mid-way. What're you going to do then? That's going to cost us the match."
"We get the point, Lucian," said Katherine, re-seizing the limelight. "That's why we are thinking. We have to coordinate our attacks all at once and at the same time, so they won't have a chance to respond."
"And we need to talk back and forth with the people defending our flag and banner to know what's up," Rayo added. "So that we know what situation we're in, and whether we can be confident enough to carry out our attack."
"Not only that," remarked Claudia, waving her finger. "If our attack doesn't go too well, then we might have to reinforce or withdraw."
"But from the distances," stuttered Isaac, shaking his head, "it's going to be a long time before we know what's up."
"We can have people run back and forth between the points," a voice remarked from the audience.
"They'll be intercepted by Eagle Watchers from the Padishahs..." said another.
"Our scouts could just amplify their shouts with Ayumastra, you know, and –"
"The Padishahs will hear us, you dunce."
"Oh yeah."
It was to choose between a rock and a hard place.
Lucian laid out his conclusion. "As much as three-quarters of us voted to get the 3 flags, I think we need to rethink our approach. There's too much uncertainty, too many hidden variables."
"If only there was a way to instantly know how others were doing..." Robert sighed.
"Yeah," Elwin added, "then we could move and attack with confidence as if we were next to each other..."
And in that instant, Mirai shot her hand up, twinkle in her eye.
"THERE IS! There is!"