A HORN BLEW AT THE END OF THE HALL. The officers at the praetor's table got to their feet—even Dakota, his mouth vampire-red from Kool-Aid.
"The games begin!" Jason announced, a grin on his face. The campers cheered and rushed to collect their equipment from the stacks along the walls.
"So we're the attacking team?" Selena asked over the noise. "Is that good?"
Hazel shrugged. "Good news: we get the elephant. Bad news—"
"Let me guess," she sighed, "The Fifth Cohort always loses."
Cato wrapped his arm around her shoulders, "Gods, you're smart. Come on, new friend. Let's go chalk up my thirteenth defeat in a row!"
Hazel grabbed her wrist and dragged her to a building to give her armour, "Reyna doesn't want you to use that dagger you arrived in camp with. It's not Imperial Gold, so we're gonna have to find something new for you."
It took a while, but they found a sword that was balanced enough for her. Not perfect, not like the dagger, but it was good enough.
Once they got out of camp, the Fifth Cohort formed two lines behind their centurions, Dakota and Gwen. They marched north, skirting the edge of the city, and headed to the Field of Mars—the largest, flattest part of the valley. The grass was cropped short by all the unicorns, bulls, and homeless fauns that grazed here. The earth was pitted with explosion craters and scarred with trenches from past games. At the north end of the field stood their target. The engineers had built a stone fortress with an iron portcullis, guard towers, scorpion ballistae, acid sprays, and no doubt many other nasty surprises for the defenders to use.
"They did a good job today," Hazel noted. "That's bad for us."
"Wait," Selena paused. "You're telling me that fortress was built today?"
Hazel grinned. "Legionnaires are trained to build. If we had to, we could break down the entire camp and rebuild it somewhere else. Take maybe three or four days, but we could do it."
"Let's not," She responded, "So you attack a different fort every night?"
"Not every night," Cato replied, "We have different training exercises. Sometimes death ball—um, which is like paint-ball, except with...you know, poison and acid and fire balls. Sometimes we do chariots and gladiator competitions, sometimes war games."
Hazel pointed at the fort. "Somewhere inside, the First and Second Cohorts are keeping their banners. Our job is to get inside and capture them without getting slaughtered. We do that, we win."
Selena's eyes lit up. "Like capture-the-flag. I think I like capture-the-flag."
Cato laughed sarcastically before his smile dropped, "Yeah, well...it's harder than it sounds. We have to get past those scorpions and water cannons on the walls, fight through the inside of the fortress, find the banners, and defeat the guards, all while protecting our own banners and troops from capture. And our cohort is in competition with the other two attacking cohorts. We sort of work together, but not really. The cohort that captures the banners gets all the glory."
Selena stumbled, trying to keep time with the left-right marching rhythm. She glanced down at her feet and tried to match it with everyone else's.
"So why are we practicing this, anyway?" Selena asked. "Do you guys spend a lot of time laying siege to fortified cities?"
"Teamwork," Hazel answered, "Quick thinking. Tactics. Battle skills. You'd be surprised what you can learn in the war games."
"Like who will stab you in the back," Cato grinned.
"Especially that," Hazel agreed.
They marched to the center of the Field of Mars and formed ranks. The Third and Fourth Cohorts assembled as far as possible from the Fifth. The centurions for the attacking side gathered for a conference. In the sky above them, Reyna and Jason circled on their pegasus' ready to play referee. Half a dozen giant eagles flew in formation behind them—prepared for ambulance airlift duty if necessary.
"That's comforting." Selena mumbled,
Hazel smiled at her, "Just stay with us, Selena. Chances are we'll get the worst duty and get eliminated early. They'll throw us at the walls first to soften up the defenses. Then the Third and Fourth Cohorts will march in and get the honors, if they can even breach the fort."
"Can't wait."
Horns blew. Dakota and Gwen walked back from the officers' conference, looking grim.
"All right, here's the plan!" Dakota took a quick swig of Kool-Aid from his travel flask. "They're throwing us at the walls first to soften up the defenses."
The whole cohort groaned.
"I know, I know," Gwen said. "But maybe this time we'll have some luck!"
Leave it to Gwen to be the optimist. Everybody liked her because she took care of her people and tried to keep their spirits up. She could even control Dakota during his hyperactive bug-juice fits. Still, the campers grumbled and complained. Nobody believed in luck for the Fifth.
"First line with Dakota," Gwen said. "Lock shields and advance in turtle formation to the main gates. Try to stay in one piece. Draw their fire. Second line—" Gwen turned to Selena's row without much enthusiasm. "You seventeen, from Bobby over, take charge of the elephant and the scaling ladders. Try a flanking attack on the western wall. Maybe we can spread the defenders too thin. Cato, Hazel, Selena...well, just do whatever. Show Selena the ropes. Try to keep her alive." She turned back to the whole cohort. "If anybody gets over the wall first, I'll make sure you get the Mural Crown. Victory for the Fifth!"
The cohort cheered half heartedly and broke ranks.
Selena frowned. "'Do whatever?'"
"Yeah," Hazel sighed. "Big vote of confidence."
"What's the Mural Crown?" She asked.
"Military medal," Cato answered. "Big honor for the first soldier to breach an enemy fort. You'll notice nobody in the Fifth is wearing one. Usually we don't even get into the fort because we're burning or drowning or bleeding in a corner somewhere."
Selena looked at the fort and all the challenges. The iron portcullis, guard towers, scorpion ballistae, the acid spray. They needed to come up with a plan.
"Can you get me closer?" Selena asked, turning towards the two,
The two glanced at each other before Cato nodded, "We'll get you closer."
"What's the plan?" Hazel asked,
"I'm not sure... but I feel like I can do some magic tricks." She grinned,
Cato pointed to the eastern wall of the fort, where the Fifth Cohort wouldn't be attacking. "That's where the defense will be weakest. They'll never take three kids seriously. I think we can sneak up pretty close before they see us."
"Sneak up how?" Hazel questioned.
Selena turned to them, "Leave that to me."
"Okay, say we get past all that mess, what then?" Cato asked,
Selena shrugged, "Improv, I guess. Make it up as we go."
"That's a horrible plan." Haze deadpanned,
"Thank you." Selena snapped her fingers and felt a tingly in the tips. She grinned at Cato and Hazel, "Let's go. I'm not sure how long this will last."
"How long what will last?"
"We're invisible."
"What!"
The three of them ran to the right, dodging the bolts from the scorpions and missing the acid that shot from the spray guns.
They made it in front of the east wall. Off to their left, Selena could see the main line of the Fifth Cohort advancing in turtle formation, shields forming a shell over their heads and sides. They were trying to reach the main gates, but the defenders above pelted them with rocks and shot flaming bolts from the scorpions, blasting craters around their feet. Acid began to melt it's way through their shields.
"That doesn't look very fun." Selena commented,
The Third and Fourth Cohorts weren't even advancing. They stood back and laughed, watching their "allies" get beat up. The defenders clustered on the wall above the gates, yelling insults at the tortoise formation as it staggered back and forth. War games had deteriorated into "beat up the Fifth."
They needed to get over that wall.
Selena had an idea pop into her head. She turned to Cato, "Can you make, like, plants appear randomly? And make them grow as big as you want?"
Cato shrugged, "I could make a Redwood tree. Those are massive."
"Perfect. Make sure it's big enough to cast a shadow over the wall." Selena ordered,
"Selena, what are you doing?"
"Shadow travel." She answered, "I can get us over the wall via shadow travel." She turned to Cato, "I just need a shadow first."
He sighed, "Alright. Just step behind me." They did as he said and Cato kneeled on one knee, one hand placed in the dirt.
"This is gonna bring a lot of attention so we're gonna have to do this fast." Selena told them and Hazel nodded,
While Cato was trying to do his magic plant thing, Selena turned towards the acid sprays and used her magic to turn them against each other, causing them to melt.
Suddenly, a tree broke through the soil. Hazel and Selena stumbled back as it grew 200 feet, "Oh my gods." Hazel gasped,
"Alright, come here." Selena held out her hands and each of them grabbed one. She closed her eyes and concentrated,
A defender appeared on the wall above them. "Hey!" he shouted to his buddies. "Check it out! More victims!"
"Selena," Cato gulped, "If you could hurry, that would be great."
"Have you done this before?" Hazel asked,
"Not exactly." She answered, "Now be quiet."
More kids came across the battlements to laugh at them. A few ran to the nearest acid spray gun and swung the barrel towards them,
"Selena!"
Suddenly, they felt ill. The three of them were over the wall. They fell to their knees, feeling weak, and the alarm sounded.
"Attack!" They heard from the other side of the wall.
"C'mon!" Selena stood and took out her sword. The could do this. Maybe the Fifth Cohort won't be underestimated again.