Nyte Guard: Chapter 8 - Álvaro

Álvaro grinned, lifting his head toward the crowd as the stadium roared around him. He and the other candidates were standing on a raised circle of stone at the center of the arena as a disembodied voice thundered out each of their names to varying levels of cheers. It was clear some competitors were already favored, but Álvaro didn’t care; he’d show all of them. 

Especially Nye. 

He knew his older sibling didn’t expect him to lose; in fact, he suspected they were more worried by the idea that they knew he could win. But Álvaro wanted to prove that he deserved it. That Nye’s concern was misplaced. He wasn’t a little kid anymore. He could take care of himself. And if Nye wasn’t going to believe it until they saw it, well… Álvaro would just have to make sure they’d see it.

He scanned the stadium, squinting against the setting sun in search of Nye, but it was impossible to pick out any individuals among the thousands of spectators. Probably they were up in the central decorated box with the royals. Álvaro smirked to himself, knowing how miserable that almost certainly made Nye. They hated formalities. Well, that’s what they got for dating a prince.

The crowd’s cheers abruptly crescendoed, and Álvaro glanced around to find a young woman stepping forward in answer to her name being called. She had blond hair pulled back in a ponytail, suntanned skin, green eyes, and a lithe build. Nothing special to Álvaro’s eyes, but the stadium clearly knew who she was. She swept into an exaggerated bow before stepping back into line, and Álvaro gave her a quick Check. 

[Verity: Level 27 Human Royal Sentry. Guard within the Moonfall Dynasty.]

Just a guard? Probably related to the royals, somehow. Not that it mattered to him; everyone here was an equal threat to his goal, and he needed to overcome every single one of them.

Finally, the platform clunked underfoot, and Álvaro and the other competitors swayed as they began to sink toward the stadium floor. A thrill fluttered through Álvaro’s stomach, and he found himself grinning once more. His fingers itched in anticipation, and he rested one of his hands on the coiled whip at his waist, eager to begin. This was it. The first of three trials he’d spent the last month training for. Everyone around him was tense with anticipation as well. 

Unfortunately for them, they didn’t have an Echo on their side. 

The platform came to a jarring halt as it sank into the ground and came to a rest. A forest of trees stretched overhead to his left, and a stony field was to his right. Behind them was the giant brazier of fire that marked the center of the arena, and between forest and stone was a wetlands, now swirling with magically-imbued rivers and lakes. A dozen different pedestals spread throughout the grounds led into a tangle of chains that draped overhead. Álvaro didn’t spend much time looking at each of these; he’d already scoped everything out from above. 

Then a firework exploded overhead, and the match began. 

Álvaro dashed forward in a burst of motion, adrenaline pulling laughter from his lips. The competitors scattered, each heading for the terrain that best suited their abilities. Not Álvaro, though. He made a beeline for the area with the most bangles. 

The first competition was simple; one hundred gold bangles were hidden throughout the arena; those who collected the most, won. 

Well, it was simple on the surface, at any rate. The metal bracelets all had coin-shaped disks dangling off of them, purely for the purpose of jingling and making noise when they were moved. This meant that the more bangles you gathered, the louder you became, and the easier it was for other competitors to find you. 

Since this was a Hero’s Tournament, outright attacking your other competitors was frowned upon. But there was nothing against the rules about stealing bangles—not to mention, there were plenty of ways to hamper your competitors without interacting with them directly. 

Echo was incredibly useful for all of this. A lot of her functions only worked for things that were within line-of-sight, but that was enough for Álvaro to work with. He’d set up triggers so if animals, people, or, in this case, bangles fell within his line of sight, Echo would automatically bring up stats for each of them. This made it way easier to keep track of everything moving around him—well, at least while he was facing in that direction. No one could see out the back of their head, but he figured this was the second best thing. 

Álvaro dashed into the jungle, drawing his whip as he glanced every which way. It would be just his luck (not really) if his Role Requirement triggered right now. They tended to pop up when he was around wild animals. If it did, and it wanted him to track a scorpid or fight a chimera, he’d have to just make it look like he meant to do it. 

God, he hoped it wouldn’t ask him to do something dumb, like carry around another one of those scorched tortoise eggs. There was no way the audience wouldn’t have questions about that.

Álvaro broke out into a clearing. A small pedestal stood in the center, and sitting on top of it, out in the open, was a bangle. For a moment, he wondered if it was a trap—just sitting there was too easy. Then again, there were a hundred of these things, and only half the game was gathering them; the other half was holding onto them before the time ran out. 

The bushes hissed as someone else darted into the clearing. Álvaro had just enough time to clock that it was a dhampyr before he was also jumping into action, both diving for the first prize. 

Álvaro wouldn’t make it in time. He snapped his whip out instead, activating a Grip spell. The tip of the whip wrapped around the bangle just as the dhampyr made it to the pedestal, and Álvaro yanked his weapon back right as the other competitor was reaching for it. The woman snarled as her prize was literally swiped right out from under her nose, but Álvaro wasn’t sticking around. He dove back into the forest, activating Camouflage to help him melt into his surroundings. 

As a human, he was at a bit of a disadvantage. Humans didn’t have as much strength or stamina as dhampyrs, orcs, and arachnoids—the primary other species in the kingdom. He could beat an orc’s speed, at least, and of course he could beat a goblin’s strength. But if he wanted to hold onto his lead, he was going to need to rely on every spell he had at his disposal. 

Álvaro plucked the bracelet from the end of his whip and slipped it on a wrist; it didn’t make much noise by itself, but as soon as he found one or two others, that would start to be a problem. Stealth and tracking were about the only two things his class excelled in, and noisy bracelets were about to make both of those skillsets a lot more difficult to use. 

No time to worry about that now. He had more points to collect. 

Once he thought he’d lost the dhampyr, Álvaro used his whip to Grip a tree branch and pull himself up into the nearest tree. These were the first large trees he’d seen in the desert, so he wondered if magic was involved with these ones—probably. Magic seemed to be everywhere in this world. Álvaro grinned: he still couldn’t believe it sometimes. Even with his Role Requirement occasionally getting in the way, it was more than worth it to be here, fighting monsters and learning magic. If this was a dream, he hoped he’d never wake up. 

His Balance skill helped him run along the tree branches, jumping from tree to tree and using his whip to swing across gaps. Echo noted a handful of birds he disturbed into flight, fleeing from their nest. Wait, a nest?

Álvaro pivoted and went back. He’d been learning a lot about the local fauna because of his Beast Hunter class. A lot of it was useless animal facts—and to be fair, this wasn’t much different. But those birds were jabberbeaks, and they didn’t nest in trees. 

Sure enough, nestled in the center of the twigs was another bangle. Álvaro grabbed it, slipped it on his other wrist, and then was back to the hunt. 

That settled it, then. If even the bird nests were part of the game, he’d need to keep an eye out for even the slightest hint of something out of place. Nothing in the arena was here by accident. Somehow, that just made him even more excited. 

Keeping to the canopies, Álvaro dodged a conflict on the forest floor where two candidates began to fight over a bangle. He considered watching and waiting for a time to swoop in and steal it for himself, but the two were both higher level than him, and the judges might decide that waiting for the two to wear each other out might not be very “heroic” of him. So he kept going, always on the move, always on the lookout. 

There were thirty-two candidates in all. For a hundred bangles, that averaged out to about three each. If he wanted to be in the top half of the candidates, that meant he should aim for at least six. Of course, Álvaro wasn’t planning to only be in the top half; he was shooting for the very top. 

Over the next hour, Álvaro nabbed another three bangles. One he was able to grab from the top of the arena by using his Balance skill to race across a series of suspended chains, beating three other candidates who were crossing from other pedestals. Another he found inside a sunfruit, still attached to the tree. The last he’d actually had to fight for; a sand boar had snuck up on him when he was rooting around its den. He’d managed to keep it at bay with his whip, but it was a near thing. Getting gored definitely didn’t count as a heroic activity. 

Álvaro was still kicking himself for letting something sneak up on him like that. His whole class was about spatial awareness! He should be better than that. Especially if he wanted to win this round of the tournament. Álvaro was still one short of his goal, but probably nowhere close to first place. He didn’t know how the other contestants were doing—he avoided them at every opportunity—but the stadium would occasionally erupt in cheers, and it was never when Álvaro happened to be doing anything. Peeking out from his current hiding spot beneath a rocky outcrop in the desert section of the arena, Álvaro was able to make out the time remaining, displayed in the sky through some sort of illusion magic: ten minutes left.

It was coming down to the wire, and Álvaro had decisions to make. Probably most, if not all, of the hidden bangles had been claimed by now. Option one was to lay low and hold onto the five bangles he’d managed to find, waiting for the time to run out. It was guaranteed to place him in the top half, if not the top quarter, of the competitors. But sitting around and hiding wasn’t very heroic and probably wasn’t going to win him any points with the audience.

The alternative was to be more proactive and try to contest someone for their bangles, possibly pushing him up to the top of the rankings, and also buying him a bit more favor with the crowd. He hadn’t done anything particularly interesting yet; if he wanted to change that, now was the time. 

But who did he stand to beat without resorting to under-handed tactics that might cost him favor with the crowd? That was the real question. His class wasn’t well suited to fighting people head-on. And probably the trap stunt he’d pulled with Nye a few weeks back wouldn’t win him any points here. 

As he was still mulling it over, Echo notified him as a woman stepped into his line of sight. 

Verity. That guard the crowd seemed to like so much. Álvaro Checked her, but her mana pool was even lower than his. Her class was pretty generic, too. Seemed like she was just a normal guard, and based on the scabbard hanging at her hip, her weapon of choice was likely to be mundane. She was about his same level, too: if he wanted someone he stood a chance against, this was probably it. 

Álvaro stepped out from his hiding spot, and Verity spun his way, hand at her hip. The bangles on her arms chimed with the motion; she had at least ten. 

“You wasted your advantage,” Verity said, narrowing her eyes. Her voice was as sharp as her features. “Should have tried to sneak up on me while you had the chance.”

Álvaro grinned, which seemed to just annoy her even more. “That doesn’t sound very sporting.” 

She scoffed, straightening back up and letting go of her hilt. “It was your only chance at winning in a fight against me. Or are you really that naive?”

Álvaro wasn’t sure if she was bluffing, but he was pretty sure he was starting to dislike this woman. “You’re acting pretty confident for someone I was able to sneak up on.”

At this point her glare was so narrow, it just looked like she was squinting. Álvaro wondered if remarking on this would make her close her eyes completely. 

“If it’s a duel you want, then I’m more than happy to give it to you,” Verity said. “How many bangles will you wager? Don’t worry, I won’t force you to offer all of them. Wouldn’t be very sporting.”

Okay, yeah, he definitely didn’t like her. 

“That’s not necessary,” Álvaro said. “I’m more than happy to wager all five of mine. Unless you’re worried about losing too many.”

For the first time, Verity smiled. It wasn’t a particularly friendly smile, though. In fact, it was the sort he imagined a lion might wear after it took down its prey.

Álvaro was beginning to have second thoughts. 

“Winner takes all, then,” Verity said, the crowd immediately roaring at her words. Well, at least Álvaro had their attention now. “It’s only fair.”

“If you insist,” he said, removing his whip from his hip and dropping the excess length to the ground. Álvaro made sure to maintain his confident smile and stance all the while; he needed to make a good impression now that everyone was watching. Was Nye watching, too? The realization fired him up. Now he definitely couldn’t lose. 

Watch me, Nye, he thought as Verity unsheathed her sword. I’m not just your little brother anymore. I’m not a kid. 

Álvaro activated several spells in rapid succession. 

I’m not in need of rescuing. And I’m not going to lose.