Mr Garris: "Usually in capture the flag, there would be 2 teams and the goal would be to steal the enemy flag and get it back to your own. The team who has both flags wins” he explained lazily “but in this game your goal will be to steal the flag from me instead of an enemy team. Same concept, different rules, The flags are hidden somewhere in that forest” he waved his hand towards the cluster of trees behind him.

  Before his half-hearted explanation began he made the class move from the field where they picked their weapons to the forest that surrounded the west side of Solarius academy.

  Mr Garris quickly counted the students using his fingers “there’s 24 of you… so groups of 3 should be fine” he muttered, double-checking the maths in his head “ that should be 8 flags then, one for each team” he said, placing ahand on his chin and tilting his head.

  ‘So it’s going to be… the entire class against you?” one student asked.

  Mr Garris: “hm? oh nah, not just me, there will be two 13 graders as well, they're already hiding in the Forrest though. But I will be the only person defending the flags”

  “There are enough flags for each team so you don’t need to fight each other but it's fair game if you do. you can use whatever magic and abilities you want, but I don’t want the paperwork so try to avoid serious injuries” he raised his hand to stifle a yawn “don’t bother with holding back against me or the 13 graders, we obviously aren’t that weak”

  Sarah politely raised her hand “Sir, is there a penalty for failing to capture a flag?” she asked.

  He gave a brief but sinister smirk, the only hint of emotion he'd shown so far other than boredom or indifference “hm? Well if you want one I can give one”

  Sarah: “Huh? Wait no that’s-”

  Mr Garris: “I’m kidding" he said, returning to his impassive state "there won’t be any penalties for losing, but as home work today all of you will individually write a two thousand word report of this game”

  the class collectively groaned

  He ignored their lack of enthusiasm and continued “what happened in it, how your team performed, what you would do differently, things like that” he explained with a bored expression, counting off the requirements on his fingers “that being said… any teams that manage to steal a flag from me won’t have to do that report”

  That seemed to get the class fired up as their despair over the report was quickly replaced with optimism for victory.

  Axel: “Sir? What about the teams? Do we choose them ourselves or what?”

  The class immediately fell silent and listened intently.

  Mr Garris: “Hm? Maybe I’ll let you guys sort it out…”

  “Hey Axel! Be on a team with us?”

  “Hayden! Wanna team up?”

  The students shamelessly swarmed Axel and Hayden, after witnessing their fight it seemed that the entire class desperately wanted one of them of their team.

  Mr Garris: “But it might just be faster to team you up myself…” he paused, noticing the students glaring at him “is something wrong?” he asked, confused by their sudden hostility.

  receiving only their silent glares Mr Garris let out a tired sigh “if it’s not important then I don’t care” his eyes lazily scanned the students “Alright, these will be your groups” he suddenly announced.

  Sarah: “Where are those damn flags! We’ve been walking around this stupid forest for twenty minutes!” she screamed into the empty forest, scaring away birds and rodents.

  Xarus: “Well I dunno what you expected, this forest isn’t exactly what one would call small, it’s not like finding anything in here was going to be easy” he said, resting his sword over his shoulder.

  Sarah: “I know! But still, I’m losing my mind… didn't we pass that tree already?” she said, indicating towards the tree with her hammer.

  Xarus: “We’ve been walking in a straight line so no… unless there's some tricky magic at play…” he frowned "but that would be a bit unfair for the first lesson"

  Sarah: “I’m just saying, that tree looks awfully familiar” she said, eying the tree with increasing suspicion.

  ???: “I’m sure it has nothing to do with the fact that we’re in a forest with thousands of trees that look identical to each other" a sarcastic feminine voice spoke.

  The voice belonged to their classmate and the third member of their group, Selena.

  She pushed her glasses up with the tip of her finger, her auburn hair catching the sunlight that managed to break through the roof of leaves, behind her round glasses were a pair of dark green eyes so sharp they made Xarus feel like needles were prickling his skin.

  Sarah: “Oh wow, you sound annoyed” she remarked

  Selena: "Obviously! Instead of being in a group with my friends I get stuck with the two new kids!”

  Sarah: “Woah, wait a minute, that’s not our fault! Mr Garris chose randomly!”

  Selena: “Yes, and I got randomly placed with two incompetent loudmouths”

  Sarah: “What!?” she exclaimed, surprised by the insult.

  Xarus: “that’s a little insulting but it’s not like I don’t get it”

  Sarah: “Hey! You shouldn’t side with her!” she yelled at him.

  Xarus: “I’m not siding! I’m not!” he said quickly as her fury turned on him “but I can understand it… although I would like to point out that most of the yelling is coming from her” he said sticking his thumb at Sarah.

  Sarah gasped “Betrayal” she said her voice was laced with mock venom.

  Xarus ignored her.

  Sarah turned to face Selena “I get me being loud is annoying and all but how does it make me incompetent?” she asked, annoyed by the insult but genuinely curious.

  Selena scoffed “It’s capture the flag, sure we coooouuld charge head first screaming and kicking, but a Stealth approach would be far better, but you’re yelling is going to ruin that”

  Sarah: “Ah… no that makes sense, sorry, you should have told me, I would have been quiet” she said, her face flushing in embarrassment.

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  Selena: “You should have realised” she said coldly, noticing Sarah’s embarrassment she felt bad and softened her tone “it didn’t seem to attract anyone’s attention so it’s fine” she said, trying to cheer her up.

  Suddenly a loud crash came from their left, it sounded heavy, but they couldn’t see the cause of the noise so it probably wasn't anywhere near them.

  Sarah: “what do you think that was?” she asked, still staring in the direction of the noise.

  Xarus: “sounded like something crashed, maybe a tree fell over?”

  Selena: “Yea that sounds right, Probably got knocked over in a fight”

  Sarah: “oh! You think that’s where the flags are?”

  Selena: “it’s possible… we should go check to be sure”

  Sarah: “yea!” She said cheerfully, happy that something was finally happening, she swung her hammer over her shoulder, mimicking what she had seen Xarus do with his sword “w-woah” the hammer's weight caused her to tip backwards slightly, but she avoided falling over and started walking in the direction the sound came from.

  Watching Sarah’s spectacle, Selena rolled her eyes and followed behind her, muttering something that Xarus wasn’t able to make out, but he didn’t think it was anything positive.

  Before he started following them he glanced upwards to his right “Yep, someone's definitely there” he muttered, giving a little wave, he could faintly make out a figure standing on a tree branch, he had noticed them a while ago but didn’t want to alarm Sarah or Selena so he kept it to himself until he thought it was necessary to tell them. Although now that they had changed course there wouldn’t really be any need to tell them unless the person in the tree followed them.

  The person in the tree suddenly became clearer, he thought as the figure sat down on the branch they were on, now that they were clearer Xarus could tell that she was a tall woman with brown hair. the distance between them kept most details vague, although he did think she looked annoyed, she plopped her hand on her cheek, rested her arm on her thigh and then returned his wave.

  He stared for a moment longer, then turned his back on her and started following the others, she wasn’t one of his classmates and based on the fact that she was alone he figured she was one of the 13 graders that were helping Mr Garris. Her job was to act as an obstacle for his and the other teams so turning his back on her might not have been an incredibly smart idea but she didn’t jump him when he revealed that he knew where she was so he figured that she would probably leave his group alone, at least for now anyway.

  He quickly caught up to Sarah and Selena. They walked in silence the only sounds were leaves and sticks crushing under Sarah's and Selena's feet and the wind rustling through the trees. It surprised Xarus that he couldn’t hear or see any birds or other animals. Then a thought occurred to him.

  Xarus: “by the way we should be careful when we find what caused the noise” he said suddenly, breaking the silence.

  Selena looked at him in mock surprise “Oh really? You think it might be dangerous?” she asked sarcastically.

  Xarus: “...” he gave her a blank look before answering “it’s definitely a trap”

  Sarah: “Definitely? As in you’re sure?” she asked, surprised by his confidence.

  Xarus: “Yea, I wasn’t too sure at first but now It’s obvious”

  Selena: “Well I don’t disagree with the possibility of a trap but I don’t see how it’s obvious”

  Xarus: “uh, well” he held out a finger “first off, the two 13 graders involved in this game should be much stronger than any one in our class”

  Sarah: “Yea… but why does that matter?”

  Xarus: “they should be able to beat any of us pretty easily, they wouldn’t need to do anything that would result in knocking over a tree”

  Sarah: “Oh! I get it, but couldn’t they just be showing off?”

  Xarus: “Maybe, but it makes more sense for that noise to be used to attract us and any other teams”

  Selena: “So you think a 13 grader is trying to lure us?”

  He shrugged "doesn't have to be a 13 grader, could be another team, in fact I think it’s more likely to be another team, a 13 grader would probably be hiding in the trees or something” he said, recalling the girl from before.

  Sarah: “What? Up in the trees? For real?” she asked in surprise.

  Xarus raised another finger “that's my second reason, the lack of birds and animals”

  Sarah: “Whuh?” she looked around at the trees but she couldn’t find any signs of life “I didn’t even notice there weren't any animals”

  Selena: “Neither did I. It would make sense though, if the 13 graders are hiding up there, moving from tree to tree would already scare the animals, and unless they conceal their magical presence the animals would definitely avoid them”

  Xarus: “Yup, and they aren't conc-” he stoped mid-sentence and dashed towards Sarah. Before she could react to his movements he shoved his arm against her and jumped backwards, pulling her with him. Immediately after a blast of green energy shot past where she had just been.

  Sarah: “Woah! What was that!?”

  Xarus sighed in irritation “someone's trying to snipe us. there's more coming by the way” he twisted to the side as another blast shot past him, striking a tree and dissipating on impact.

  Sarah: “Geez!” she yelled out as she scrambled behind the cover of a tree.

  -- he thought, scanning the area the magic was coming from.

  Another blast shot straight towards him -- he casually flicked his sword up, the green bolt split in two and dissipated shortly after passing him.

  Selena: “hey! What are you doing! Get behind cover!” she angrily yelled.

  Xarus: “Ah, Right” he said, darting behind a tree.

  A green blast struck the tree Selena was hiding behind, startling her “Gah! Damn it James! I’m so going to kick your ass!” she screamed.

  Xarus: “James?”

  Selena: “Yea! That’s definitely his magic” she grumbled as more bolts shot past them.

  Sarah: “Hang on, I can help with this” she peered around her tree, raising her hand towards the direction of the green blasts. Her palm began to glow blue and then a blue light shot from her hand and into the forest. She didn’t stop at one either, she fired multiple shots in quick succession, some disappeared from their sights while others crashed into trees and dissipated.

  She didn't know where their attacker was so instead she fired randomly in the direction the green bolts came from, hoping to scare them off. At the very least it stopped them from firing.

  When the green bolts finally stopped, Sarah retracted her hand and ceased her own barrage. After a few moments of silence, she hesitantly asked “Did they leave?”.

  Xarus: “hm… No, they did get closer though” he answered

  Sarah: “Whuh? Seriously?” she groaned

  Xarus turned to Selena “Do you know who the other two on his team were?”

  She shook her head “I was so surprised after being stuck with you two I forgot to check the teams” she said regretfully.

  Xarus: “I see” he stepped out from the cover of the tree.

  Selena: “Hey! What are you doing!”

  He twisted his sword around in his hand, rotating it a few times “if they're not leaving then we gotta fight them right?”

  Selena: “What if they hit you with a spell! Like Jame’s green bolts!”

  Xarus: “eh, it’s fine, it won’t hit me. Even if it did I could tank it, it didn’t seem that strong”

  Sarah: “Xarus!” he looked over at her, she was giving him a thumbs up “Don’t worry I’ll cover you!” she said confidently.

  Xarus: “thanks!” he waved “hm?” a green blast shot towards him which he easily avoided by leaning backwards.

  ???: “you keep dodging my spells and that’s really annoying me”

  Xarus: “well it’s not like I want to let it hit me”

  ???: “No, I get it, I get it”

  Xarus: “So you’re James then?”

  James: “you know my name? Is this the start of my popular arc?” he said hopefully, pumping his fist.

  Xarus: “Uh well, Selena just told me”

  James: “oh…”

  Xarus: “She uh… she recognised you magic”

  James started trembling, Xarus was worried that he had upset him but he was actually trembling from excitement.

  James: “A CUTE GIRL TALKED ABOUT ME!” he suddenly yelled in shock.

  It surprised Xarus so much he actually recoiled and covered his ears, which isn’t easy when you’re holding a sword, you end up slamming it against your head if you don’t drop it, and Xarus unfortunately didn't drop it.

  James took a moment to recollect himself but he still spoke quickly “Selena knew it was me, just because of my magic!? C-could it be that she l-likes me?” he stuttered out. A deep blush appeared on his face.

  Selena: “Yea right! In your dreams you monumental blockhead!” she furiously yelled from behind her tree.

  Xarus could hear Sarah laughing loudly to his left.

  James suddenly shifted gears “Oh yea! We’re supposed to be fighting!” he didn't seem to be affected by Selena's Harsh rejection.

  Xarus pulled his hands away from his ears “yea kinda” he said as the other 2 members of James' team showed up from behind the three of them.

  Sarah: “ack! There’s more people!”

  Selena: “Well obviously! It’s 3 people for a team” she yelled

  Sarah: “I know! I’m not dense! Their sudden appearance just surprised me!” she yelled back.

  Xarus groaned

  James: “Hah! We’ve got you surrounded!” He crowed confidently “If you let us tie you up we won’t have to beat you” he raised his arm and his palm began to emit a green light.

  Xarus watched the display, unimpressedhe thought, strengthening his grip on his sword .