Selena: “Come on! Don’t stop! We’ve only got about ten minutes left!”

  Sarah: “I’m the type that does better when someone isn't SCREAMING IN MY FACE!”

  The two of them argued as they sprinted through the forest. The reason for their bickering was because the end of the game was steadily approaching, with them now having a little over ten minutes left, it meant that they only had that amount of time to deliver the flag.

  Typically in Capture The Flag, the flag bearer would be required to bring the flag to a designated location, usually their own team's flag which would be located at their base, although sometimes it might be a podium or similar marker.

  However because Mr Garris didn’t actually expect anyone to be able to capture a flag in the first place, let alone escape him. He set the rule that, for the flag to be considered scored, they only needed to return to where the game began.

  In short, to win the game they only need to return to the starting point. So despite the unfair opponent that was Mr Garris, there was at least one part of the game that was an advantage for the students.

  Selena: “I wouldn’t have to scream if you RAN FASTER!”

  They continued to squabble and Xarus continued to ignore them, Truth be told, he was actually running far slower than he normally would so that he could keep pace with them. Limiting himself like this felt weird and it bothered him but he figured it would be rude to leave them so he stuck with it.

  Sarah: “This hammer is heavy! and Big! it makes it hard to run!”

  Selena: “You picked it!”

  Sarah: “I know! And I don’t regret it! But that doesn't change the fact that it’s heavy!”

  Xarus: “Do you want me to carry it?” he looked at the flag in his left hand, and then his sword in his right hand “Uhm, might be hard actually… oh!” he brought the flag up to his mouth and gripped the pole with his teeth, then he held out his now empty hand towards Sarah.

  They both stared at him in confusion, and rightfully so, it was quite a bizarre sight to see a boy running through a forest with a sword in his hand and a flag sandwiched between his teeth.

  Sarah: “Um… is the flag heavy?”

  Xarus: “arr, noe rarrly”

  Sarah: “... right, why don’t we switch then?”

  Xarus: “ar!” he took the flag out of his mouth, a sheepish smile crossed his face as he returned it to his empty left hand “that’s a better Idea” he said, holding out his hand to pass the flag to her... “hrrk” but before they could make the exchange, Xarus suddenly swung his sword towards her. his body turning with the sword as it passed underneath Sarah’s outstretched arm and then rose upwards, slicing cleanly through a thin arrow.

  There was a loud crack as the wooden shaft broke in half, the two broken pieces flying off in skewed directions.

  Sarah: “What the-!” her words were forcibly cut short as Xarus put his arm around her waist, leaping backwards and dragging her along with him.

  Sarah: “Waooah!”

  Another two arrows streaked towards them, leaving green trails through the air as they did so. Xarus raised his sword and blocked both of them in the same motion, the arrows making small metallic pings as they bounced off the sword.

  Sarah: “Dude! Nice blocking!” she praised.

  Xarus: “T-thanks" he said, A slight blush creeping up his face "Ugh… theres like… a bunch more coming though”

  Sarah: “H-how many? I don’t see any?”

  Xarus: “Uhm, enough for me to deal with…”

  Sarah: “Oh! Okay good”

  Xarus: “If I was alone…”

  Sarah: “O-oh I see” as she finished that sentence the arrows finally came into her view, it was hard to tell because of all the shadows the trees were casting and because the arrows were moving so fast but there must have been somewhere between fifteen and twenty arrows. She briefly wondered how Xarus had been able to see the arrows coming long before she did but quickly abandoned that thought as panic took over.

  Sarah: “Uhhhhhh c-cover we need cover!” as if responding to her panicked cry, There was a loud clap from behind them, followed by someone shouting “WALL RISE!” and immediately after the voice finished the ground in front of them rose upwards, creating a wall of dirt in front of them that was covered in pink glowing cracks. They heard multiple thuds as the arrows crashed into the other side of the wall.

  Sarah: “Whuh?”

  She looked at Xarus expecting an answer but he looked surprised as well.

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  Selena: “You guys alright!?” she asked as she ran up to them.

  Xarus: “Was this you?” he asked, pointing his thumb towards the newly created wall.

  Selena: “Yea, It’s my spell”

  Sarah: "This totally saved us just now, So I don’t mean to sound ungrateful… but please say you have more spells than just making walls”

  She bit her lip in frustration “I do, but they won’t be useful for situations like this…”

  Sarah: “great… and arrows? Really? That's super dangerous! I know this school takes training seriously but this is too far!”

  Xarus: “Well, the arrows shouldn't be able to hurt us in any major way, look” he handed her one of the arrows that had been fired at them, it was a regular arrow up until the head, which ended in a flat, circular shape instead of the normal triangle shape used for piercing.

  Xarus: “Blunt heads, see?” he tapped the blunt arrow with his finger “but it would still hurt”

  Sarah: “great… Should we just run for it then”

  Selena: “We’d get shot at again, and if we get hit we’d probably fall unconscious"

  Just then there was a loud thud and the dirt wall behind them shook as something heavy crashed into it, cracks that weren’t a result of Selena’s spell formed in the wall, and a cloud of dirt floated to the ground.

  The three of them stared at the wall for a moment.

  Xarus: “we should go”

  Sarah: “yep!!”

  Selena: “agreed”

  Leaves and sticks were trampled underneath their feet as they ran through the forest, avoiding the arrows they were constantly firing at them.

  Sarah: “What the hell is this! Is this guy a machine or something? Why won’t the arrows stop?”

  They hadn’t stopped running once since they left the dirt wall Selena made, which crumbled apart right after they left it. It was annoying for him to run since he was carrying both his sword and the flag, but he made do.

  -

  Selena: "Hey! pay atte-!”

  He sliced an arrow out of the air as it passed by him before it could hit Selena.

  Xarus: “sorry what were you saying?”

  Selena: “Uh… nevermind, you have it covered”

  They ran in a straight line, with Xarus at the back since he was able to react fast enough to block or deflect the arrows, and thus could protect them from the arrows being shot at them.

  There was a short conversation about passing the flag off to either Sarah or Selena, like he had tried to do before the sniper showed up, but that fell short when they realised that the flag would end up continuously whipping the face of the person directly behind the carrier, so the flag bearer and group defender roles were both assigned to Xarus.

  Four more arrows shot in, two aimed for his back and the other two would miss him so he ignored them, he blocked one arrow with his sword and brought the bottom of the flag pole down on top of the other arrow, redirecting it into the ground.

  Xarus: “woah…” he tilted his neck to the right to avoid an arrow shooting in from in front of him, and caught another arrow by hooking his pinky finger around the shaft. It was awkward to hold because it was the same hand he was carrying his sword with, so he quickly dropped the arrow.

  The two arrows that he just dealt with were the same two arrows that missed him just a moment ago, right after passing him they suddenly turned around mid-flight and shot back towards him.

  Xarus: "Did the arrows just turnaround mid-air, by their self?"

  Selena: “hey! I can see the end of the forest! Just a little further!”

  By this point the arrows had stopped coming in groups and were instead continuously being shot in rapid succession.

  Their single line formation broke apart as they scattered about to escape the onslaught of arrows, but that didn’t stop them from running forwards, the end of the forest was steadily getting closer and closer.

  More arrows sailed past them, crashing into trees or flying out of sight, they somehow managed to dodge any arrows that would hit them.

  Sarah: “Woah! That was close!” she blurted out as she ducked to avoid an arrow that would have smashed into the back of head.

  Xarus swung the flag in an arc behind him, smacking two out of three arrows out of the air, the third one striking his lower back.

  Xarus: “hm” he rubbed the spot on his back that was hit, but besides that small action he barely acknowledged it and continued running.

  He sped up so that he was running in line with Sarah and Selena whose faces were flushed red from what he assumed was exhaustion but still pushing forwards nonetheless.

  Xarus: “hey looks like we’re here” he said as they burst out of the forest, the academy coming into full view the moment they passed the tree line.

  Xarus: “So… this is it right? We don’t need to take this anywhere?” he asked, holding out the flag.

  Sarah: “I hope so” she groaned as she collapsed to the ground in exhaustion, laying flat on her back.

  Selena: “Should be done” she said, she didn’t fall to the ground like Sarah but she did lean on her knees.

  Xarus: “do we just wait?” he asked, looking around uncertainly. They weren't the only people here but they were the only people conscious, the group they had fought in the forest were spread out along the grass, as well as the group that got beaten by Mr Garris before he fought them. Besides those two there were two more groups of people from his class he hadn’t met yet, one of which only seemed to have two people.

  Sarah: "you know, you kinda move on quick"

  Xarus: "hm?"

  Sarah: "We were just running not even a thirty seconds ago, and it's like you barely acknowledged that"

  He shrugged "I don't know what to say to that"

  Selena: “well anyway, the game should be ending in a few minutes so we won’t be waiting long, so we can rest” she said, slumping to the ground and making herself comfortable.

  Xarus waited for a moment, looking around one last time before jamming the flag into the ground and sitting down with them.

  Xarus: “I’m surprised you lost to be honest”

  Axel: “...”

  Xarus: “I mean, it was just running at that point”

  Axel: “I know! I know, I know, we would have been fine if it wasn’t for that girl!”

  Xarus: “oh?”

  Axel: “She totally kicked our asses, seriously it was worse than Garris, he at least held back”

  He briefly recalled the girl he spotted watching his group from the trees and concluded that it was probably the same person that Axel was complaining about.

  Axel: “at least everyone else lost, well besides your group and that other team that was hard carried by Maxius”

  Xarus nodded his head “Yea, but I think that was only because the other 13 grader just shot at us with arrows, It could of been different if he caught up to us”

  Axel: “You say that, but I definitely saw you fighting Garris”

  Xarus: “um… you fought him too though?”

  Axel: “nuh uh, we got demolished by him, couldn’t land a single hit” he sighed.

  Xarus: “I don’t think it was that bad… oh, our next class is starting”

  Axel: "Ergh, after such a crushing defeat, now I have to do maths?" he dramatically fell to his knees screaming "Oh the inhumanity!"

  Xarus: "..."