The air crackled with anticipation, a palpable tension that clung to the sweat-slicked skin of the two
combatants. Their footsteps echoed on the weathered stone, each step a declaration of intent. One was a mage, robes billowing like storm clouds, eyes aflame with arcane. The other, a blade-master.
As they neared the overseer, she look at them and announced the rules of this round. The rules were
different to those of the first –in this round: The rules are fundamentally the same with one exception,
there will be an imposter in both teams and if you are able to eliminate the imposter on your own
team, you can continue playing until you guess the other team's leader.
In the events that you eliminate a wrong person on your unit as the imposter, you get eliminated. The
military has no place for reckless mistakes.
The combatants acknowledged the rules and walked towards their units.
From the black and red kingdom, known as Euryo, was Kimberly Crowfortt – a powerful wind mage
among the rookies of Euryo. The soldiers of Euryo wore black and red uniform like the soldiers of
Forgemire but theirs was red with black stripes. Euryo is an island kingdom in the western side of Tellus, it is also the fifth kingdom to join the ANTs.
Next to Euryo, lay Nexaria, which was between Motherland and Euryo. In Nexaria, soldiers wore black and green uniform. Their military clothes and coats were all black with green stripes on the sides. Nexaria was the sixth nation to join the ANTs, making it a rival of Euryo which was the fifth, and Forgemire which was the seventh to join.
The rivalry of these three aside, Nexaria is the only kingdom in Tellus whose citizens cannot use magic.
There are some but majority of the citizens of Nexaria are magic-less. But this didn't stop one of them from becoming a commander and queen of her own nation, thanks to their 'special' way of fighting.
The tournament commences with Sylfine Alexios from the kingdom of Nexaria giving orders to her unit.
"Hi, I am Sylfine Alexios. A mage that can read minds..."
Her teammates looked at each other in confusion, nonetheless she continued, "My power is unique so
believe me whenever I give out orders and follow them without hesitation."
"We are your soldiers. Does that mean you are announcing yourself as the leader?" Mei asked.
"In front of the spy? I wouldn't do that."
Skyler intervened, "I understand but we have to submit the name of the leader to the overseer."
Sylfine looked at her teammates and said, "The leader and I have spoken telepathically. To keep their
identity a secret, I will submit their name myself."
She walked towards Neith and gave her a piece of paper. With her back turned against her teammates,
they couldn't help but to be impressed by how well she handled herself. With her every word she
commanded respect besides being younger than all of them. An aura befitting a future commander and
probably queen of Nexaria.
Kimberly's unit wasn't any different, though her approach was different. Kimberly took advantage of the unit's loyalty with the wind carrying her words.
"To be honest, this game is designed in a way that we wouldn't trust our own soldiers but they expect you to trust and follow my orders."
She walked towards her teammates, "I will ask once, if you are the imposter, please show yourself so that
I could dominate this game and move to the next stage."
Her intimidation tactic was ineffective so she moved to a more logical approach. Using the wind to her
advantage, she was able to communicate with the imposter in Sylfine's team by merely whispering and
letting the wind carry her words to the intended target.
This super encrypted back to back communication also proved to be ineffective since Sylfine did not
really tell them who their leader was and if anyone asked questions, they would be calling themselves
spies.
This fact infuriated Kimberly but then that led her to two realizations. She can simply appoint herself as
the leader and order the twelve soldiers to look at each other all the time. Eleven of them would follow
her order and keep a close eye on the spy and on themselves.
Her other realization was that Sylfine only spoke to Mei and Skyler in her own team. From this, she
deduced that the leader either has to be Mei or Skyler, but Mei was the leader in the past game, selected by Kael, so she would stand out in this round. In conclusion, Skyler was the leader of Sylfine's team. They exchanged words without standing out and she was sure of this fact because she was constantly listening to the other team's conversation using her wind magic.
"You might think that you are smart, Sylfine but you are merely a rookie. I will crush you like a bug." She
said to herself. Kimberly announced herself as the leader and ordered her soldiers to attack anyone who seems suspicious within her team, and walked towards her Neith to give her a paper. When she came back, her teammates were fighting each other.
She deliberately gave out that order expecting this precise outcome. If people do not trust those around
them, they can simply fight over the fact that one breathed wrong. This was a barbaric method but it
proved to be effective.
As her teammates were fighting among themselves, the imposter also got attacked in the process, so
Neith pointed them out and they left Kimberly's team.
She couldn't help but to be proud of herself. Not only did she manage to identify the other's team leader,
she also managed to eliminate the spy within her own unit.
Neith stepped forward and asked the two rookies to identify the imposter within their own teams and
the leaders of the other teams.
Kimberly was the first to speak, "We, I think that we both know the imposter of my team."
Neith nodded.
"The leader of the other team is Skyler. My reasoning is simple. I was in constant communication with my spy in Sylfine's team and I was also listening to the entire conversation, thanks to wind."
It was Sylfine's turn to speak. She couldn't help but to smirk, because even the spy couldn't tell that
Sylfine was bluffing the whole time. She cannot read minds, because she cannot use magic.
That lie was intended to cause confusion within her own team whilst she was searching for the imposter.
"The imposter of my team is Skyler-"
Kimberly interrupted Sylfine with a heavy sigh followed by a single word, "WHAT?"
"As I was saying, the imposter is Skyler. She is the only one that demanded that I must announce the
leader. She masked her objective as an advice instead of making it obvious. As for the leader of the other team, it is you, Kimberly. I do not need a reason for that one. You would ask your own soldiers to kill each other just to eliminate a single rat. You are the selfish type, like Kael and Zick."
Neith smiled and announced Sylfine as the victor of this round, she is moving to the second stage to face
off Kael.
Neith proceeded with the tournament, with the next round being a face-off between the kingdoms,
Kaldaria and Lichtford.