Legend of Ransera

It was the natural evolution of the game they have been playing since the turn of the season. At first the game was to give them a chance to familiarize themselves with the idea of using weapon to match their opponents. Now... what was it? They could not really tell. The military brats obviously knew what they were supposed to do, they even knew to call it by its technical term, exercises? The adults call them military exercises "and we are supposed to play the game like the real thing. You mean we are going to have to fight one another? Wait kill? No, killing bad and I don't want to kill my friends. Can't we find another game?" but Shuai misunderstood the idea. A lot. They were going to play at killing everyone else. "That doesn't sound better. Why do we have to kill everyone anyway? I don't want to kill you." They tried to convince Shuai it was only a game, that they were only pretend killing and pretend dying so there was no reason to take it seriously other than the fact the losers were going to be responsible for lunch every Raellas for the rest of Searing. "I don't remember agreeing to that." but there was no getting out of it now because a lot already took the challenge.

Shuai still could not wrap his head around the idea of this military exercise, even when the other military brats who admitted to the adults learned it was also known as a war game, why did they not lead with that earlier? If he had thought of it as a game he could more readily accept the idea however now he could only see it as but. Already losing too much daylight they told him he could either play the game or sit out and watch. Not wanting to be excluded Shuai stopped making an issue of it and reluctantly joined. "So tell me, how are we going to play this? We split ourselves into teams? Team leaders? Who are they? No I don't think I want to be a team leader. I don't know what we are supposed to do. Yeah I'll follow the instructions. So I just have to wait now? Fine." The team leaders it seems were everything in this game and they could not continue until the team leaders were chosen and had the time to adopt their strategies.

Eventhough Shuai was considered one of the better players in the old game, he was not among the first picks. That was surprising but at least he was taken at around... the third pair of choices. With the teams split they continued to explain the rules. There were a lot of rules to remember like the objectives. Kill the leader or retrieve the box of treasure. What was a kill? A hit which would take them out of the game, not for real, a fake kill which was why in the spirit of the game they were all going to have to play out their deaths properly. Just like the old game, no hits to above the neck or below the waist, the last thing they wanted was for the adults to ban this game from being played but for something different, if a player catches an opponent off guard they could get a kill by touching the vulnerable parts of the body with their weapons as long as it was not a full on hard blow. Blocking hits. Hiding for most of the game. Dodging, running and ramming. Going out of bounds. Throwing their weapons to injure someone. Bla bla bla. There were too many rules. Like the others Shuai was getting impatient so "let's just play already!"

All he wanted to do was play the game but his team leader had his own plans and being quite serious about winning the game, ended up having a lot of plans for the group to pick from. Obviously the team leader's family educated him quite early for a career in the military as there were Xs and Os being moved around the dirt in the ground for how they were going to approach the two objectives and how they would end up deciding which to use for victory. There were some other things about picking off easy and lone targets to weaken the enemy further so they could better achieve their objectives. A classic strategy but as a lot of the children would be unable to appreciate that they just took it as something they were expected to do to win. And then there was another thing about formations and how they were the key to winning but relied so much on cooperation that the team leader had picked his teammates around that idea and- another whole lot of boring stuff. Bla bla bla. Shuai was glad when it was finally over and that he was not the only one to suffer as he saw when his eyes wandered towards the other team they were also all huddled up to listen to talks of strategy and all that boring stuff.

"That's it? Is it go time?"

From what he could remember from the strategy meeting Shuai and two others were to go along the boundaries of their warzone and towards the box while the rest of their team made a show of attacking the enemy team leader get the opposing team's attention on them. Shuai wanted to move in fast and hard but the other two with him had paid more attention to the strategy and held him back so they could move in stealthily, like in their instructions, to hide behind all the trees, boxes, benches and the like while they kept getting closer and closer. Gods it was so slow! He tried to get them to hustle but they were having none of that and Shuai had no other choice but to keep their pace. A little while later they ran into some of their opponents who were after the box too and were a little ahead of them. "Told you we should have been faster. Now they are going to beat us to it." There was still the benefit to them being slower which they could make use of as the others have not noticed the three man team yet. "Oh boy, action!" Shuai said excitedly when the other two agreed it was time to sneak up on their enemies and take them out.

If there was one thing the old game did right for them is that it got them into the habit of always having their weapon ready. With their fake wooden knives out in front of them so they could quickly transition into a strike once they got close enough or if they were discovered, would allow them to immediately go into a block, the trio slipped and weaved into the trees. But for their targets being too engrossed with the box they were all fighting over their sloppy approach would have been discovered long ago but in no time at all, the trio got themselves behind the nearest trees towards the other three children with the large wooden trunk doing its job well to shield them from their eyes. "Now? We go and take them out now right? They don't even know we are here" Shuai asked in a whisper although the other two believed that their targets would eventually find out if Shuai kept asking about it. It was not the time yet and they eventually decided to let the other kids take the box and start to make their way back to their side of the site. Only then they would win so even if they took the box up now, the game would not be over yet.

One of the trio to continue their observations on their target's movements and the other two to keep an eye out for any other of the children participating in the games approach. Shuai who was one of the two to keep an eye out for the other participants could only imagine what was going on with the box because he would hear the other kids planning and complaining, especially about its weight, what did the team leaders put in the box as the treasure they were fighting over? Now he was getting curious about it but a peek only showed him that he may be a little too far to pick out any details and some of the kids seemed to be a lot bigger now. A season ago he might have been able to get a better view of the box without so much an obstruction from at least Blake, if Blake was actually on this side instead of the opposite side of the box... After their targets had committed themselves to lifting the box out of there, the trio agreed it was time to win the game for their team.

Their approach was going to be hard though as the box was being carried by the sides which would leave at least one of their targets facing their direction but even so it was lucky for them that their targets were so focused on carrying the box and not being tripped up by the treacherous ground they barely looked up from their feet and box. The trio then made the decision, when it was their turn to bring the box back to their team, even if it would be harder for two kids to carry the box they should have at least one of them keeping an eye out for anyone about to beat them for their box. Nonetheless whatever they plan, they would still have to get the box first. In their approach, they kept to the trees right until they! Could! Strike! With flourish they flipped their wooden knives about, something a lot of the kids had begun to practice just to show off and intimidate the others in their other game but here the trio finding had the practical purpose of allowing them to adjust their grip to one more suited for their attack.

Shuai went first and was the quickest to reach the other group due to his impatience. With a hand on the first shoulder he could reach to hold down his target in place, he gave them a very cheeky "good afternoon" in greeting before the gave a light tap to the back of the other's head. Maybe it was because he went at it too fast that his teammates had to push themselves just to keep up or because the other child was too excited, poor Blake ended up getting hit hard and even ended up with broken skin although they would not even know about this until much, much later. With exaggerated death throes which was unexpectedly loud, likely for this reason, that the trio realized that their raid on the box was now known like a lit up beacon which said, now all of Kalzasi would knows you're here, the trio did not stick around for the rest of the show of their target's 'deaths' as they quickly picked the box to get out of there. "Go! Go! Go! We need to get the hell out of here before the rest of them come here!"

With their focus so suddenly shifted to escape they even forgot their plan to have someone keep watch while the other two carried the box back but it did not matter because by the time the opposing team caught up, their own team had enough time to meet them and give them some assistance so Shuai's team still won in the end.