Chương 135: Chapter 134 [Tactics And Trash-Talk]

Leo and Shai walked at the back of the group, hand in hand. He was happy. That wasn't something he'd have said easily a year ago, or trusted if he had. There were still moments where some part of him waited for the other shoe to drop, but they were getting quieter. Shai's hand in his went a long way toward that. What was harder to ignore were the stares.

The tournament win had done something to his visibility in this village that he hadn't fully accounted for, and the hand-holding wasn't helping on that front either, given what Shai had told him about her history with suitors. He'd chosen remote work for a reason, ordered his shopping to the door for a reason. He wasn't that person anymore, or at least he was less of that person, but the attention, even when it was warm, was going to take some getting used to.

"So," Sam said ahead of them.

"You going to shit-talk your way through the archery like Phil did, or let your skill do the talking?" Phil turned around.

"What do you mean? I wound that one guy up, but that's totally normal. Kai said as much."

"Kai said that after you did it. You had no idea before that. You just knew it worked in League and went with it."

"Well, yeah, but it works. It's a strategy. I wanted to win; why would I choose not to use something that works?"

"I love that you're taking your horrible tendency to be a dick in League and reframing it as tactics." Sam paused.

"Also, me and Luka need our magic to be fully combat-ready. You saying why not use every tool available when we had a similar issue is a bit rich."

"Yeah, okay, fair." Phil didn't look particularly bothered.

"But don't you lot play D&D? Isn't the bard literally a class built around winding people up? That's more or less what I did." Sam thought about it for a second.

"Okay, fair. But it was a trainee tournament. Friendly competition. It was meant to be honourable."

"Where in the rules did it say that?"

"It didn't, but—""Exactly. You heard Kai; it gets used all the time in the other tournament." Shai spoke without turning her head.

"That's because everyone in the guard tournament has seen real fighting, or enough of it to expect that kind of thing. The first tournament is about testing yourself and competing with honour. The second is about proving you're the best, however you manage it." Phil looked at her.

"No one explained that to me." He said it, fully aware she was his trainer. Shai closed her eyes briefly. Next to her, Leo grinned at his friend's complete refusal to concede the point.

"Just admit you're a troll," Leo said.

"You tried to wind up people who don't have the same thick skin you do from years of teenagers telling you they're going to bang your mum." Luka laughed.

"I think I know some of those guys. They were behind me in the queue." The group laughed. Phil glanced over and found Lyra with both hands over her son's ears, watching them. Phil's hand shot to his mouth before lowering it.

"Sorry, Lyra."

"It's fine. Just be careful." She dropped her hands. Lucas looked up at her.

"What was that for?"

"No reason." She glanced past him.

"Oh look, one of the cart dragons."

"Where?" He was already turning. Phil blew out a breath. Luka put his face in his hand. Leo had looked away when he noticed Lyra covering her son's ears. He found Parmo walking a half step apart from the group, talking quietly to Rika. Not loud enough to catch. Rika was listening intently, with none of her usual restless energy on display. A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Parmo had told him earlier he was impressed with how well Leo had handled being in front of the crowd. That was enough to clue Leo in on what the pair might be talking about. He left it to Rika for now.

"What was that about?" Shai asked, nodding back toward the direction they'd come from.

"The mum thing. Is that normal where you're from?" Leo grinned.

"Right, so. You know our communication tab?"

"Yeah?"

"Imagine most people where we're from have something like that, and they use it while playing games together. Some of these people are strangers, from anywhere. You want to win, they want to win. So people look for ways to get under each other's skin." He shrugged.

"It starts young, partly because people act differently when they're anonymous, and partly because people on Earth will argue about absolutely anything given half a chance. So certain things get used because they're reliably good at winding someone up. Claiming you slept with someone's mum is one of them. Nobody believes it. It's just a childish way to get in someone's head. Doesn't really work, but it's funny when you hear someone who sounds about twelve making the claim." He paused.

"Comes up in our group from time to time, but that's cos we're all a little bit childish." He glanced at her.

"Hope that's not a problem." Shai laughed.

"Childish insults are about half of what the guards say to each other on a slow day. I get it." She considered it.

"Which is also why I don't have a real problem with what Phil did. People who aren't used to that kind of thing, though, or who come from somewhere where it isn't normal, they might not take it as well."

"Back home we'd call that having thin skin." She nodded slowly, like she was purposefully remembering the phrase. The gate at the end of the street came into view. They filtered through with the rest of the crowd moving in the same direction, passing around the outside of the arena wall and toward the far side where another entrance sat open. Sam dropped back until he was level with Parmo.

"You alright? You've been pretty quiet."

"Aye." Parmo looked at the ground in front of him.

"Just a bit nervous."

"You'll be fine," Leo said.

"I was nervous, too, at first. Once you're out there with your bow and the targets in front of you, it just, the noise drops out. Everything around kind of fades into the background. It'll feel like the training ground back home." Parmo nodded.

"I thought as much. I know what people say about that. Crowd affecting you less than you'd think." He paused.

"Until you're losing and the pressure piles on. That's the bit I'm less sure about."

"You'll be fine, man," Leo said, smirking.

"Just don't try using it as an excuse if you mess up." Parmo laughed.

"Cheers for the vote of confidence."

"Think about it this way," Luka said from behind them.

"If you win, both you and Leo have gone further than Phil. You can use that whenever you want." Parmo's mouth curved.

"You know what, that's a good point."

"This coming from the one person who did worse than me," Phil said.

"My whole thing is being a tank. You know, with my magic shields." Luka's tone was perfectly reasonable.

"Your whole thing is the swords. You want to coat them in fire eventually, which sounds great, but you still lost to Leo. At least I know I'd have made the final if I'd had my shield."

"Yeah, whatever. Just wait until I figure out what my new swords do and coat them in fire. Your shield won't save you when we spar." Luka smirked, the tone of Phil's voice giving away the fact he wasn't a fan of that one. Shai looked at Phil.

"For someone who likes to get under people's skin, you don't take it particularly well when it comes back." Phil gave her the finger. The group laughed. The second gate opened onto a walled enclosure that ran long rather than wide, oval-shaped to fit the length of the range. Seating lined both sides, already filling up. The far end was open, nothing behind the targets but open ground and distance. Wide enough that no one on the benches was at any risk, the targets set well out from either side.

Parmo looked down the length of it. Shai touched Leo's arm and nodded toward the entrance. A guard in festival clothes was standing just inside, talking to a young woman who had the look of someone keeping their irritation managed. Shai led them over.

"Bredic," she said. The guard turned and his expression landed somewhere between pleased and slightly pained.

"Captain." He glanced at the woman beside him.

"Thanks for that tip this morning." Shai looked at the woman properly for the first time.

"Well. If it isn't Corren. Entering this year?" Corren's eyebrows pinched together.

"I am. I also can't believe my uncle put a bet on someone he's never heard of over his own niece." Bredic smiled, the edges never quite reaching his eyes. Leo suspected he'd been hearing about this for longer than he liked.

"To be fair," Rika said, stepping forward, "Shai's right. Brandon's going to win the whole thing." She looked at Corren and smirked.

"Good luck beating him." Corren looked at her with a sneer.

"So you're his trainer? What's it been since you left? A month? I'm surprised he hasn't run for the hills by now." Rika smiled. Leo wasn't sure if he'd ever seen her make that smile, though. He looked to his left where Sam, Phil, and Luka were watching intently. The Michael Jackson popcorn meme comes to mind. Corren's eyes moved to Parmo, standing slightly apart from the group looking like someone who would genuinely prefer to be anywhere else right now.

"Aren't you a little old to still be getting training from her?" Parmo looked at her for a moment.

"You have no idea," he said.