THE LAST KEEPER

Chapter 41: Chapter 41: TAG OF WAR

It was only natural for the other team to choose a member of the other team who was not the best in archery. If neither member could hit the bullseye, then the member whose arrow was closest to the bullseye wins. The teams could only wish that the other Team did not know their weakest member in archery. That was impossible, however, because they had been training together for more than three years. And they spent more than half the classes training together. The classes were merely there to separate them into lessons that required a few members at a time, like medicine study.

Overall, class E is the strongest, followed by class C, then class B, then class A, then class D. That, however, did not mean there was a weak class. The difference between them is small, and if one class failed to work hard, they could be overthrown easily by the other.

Both chosen archers raised their bows and drew at the same time, aiming at the circular targets with a red eye at the centre.

”Release!” Miss Lakiya announced, and they released at the same time. They must not have been the best in archery, but they both hit so close to the bullseye. Miss Lakiya moved closer to assess the distance, and from a distance it was unclear, but after a moment she announced that class A’s archer won. Class A cheered before they decided in unison who to eliminate. It was one of the Tamelku twins. One was troublesome enough. Having to deal with two of them could be detrimental.

”Get into position!!” she pointed to the two marked lines drawn by a thick pen. ”Any team that gets pushed past the barrier is disqualified.”

The tag of war length does not depend on brute strength alone. It greatly depended on mental strength, too. Even a weak team could win if it could hold on long enough to make the strong team doubt itself. Even after Class B lost a member, with one Tamelku still on the team who was good at playing mind games, Class B ended up winning. It was a longer game that went on for five minutes before B won.

The next game was between C and D, and C won in less than a minute. Class C secured the win easily. Then it was D and E, and D lost to E. D, having lost both of their starting games, meant they were disqualified and could not get to play the rest of their teams. The next game between D and C was the most brutal, and it went on for too long, so it was clear that they tied. But tag of war is tag of war, and there were no ties allowed. Class B, led by the Tamelku twins, was good at playing mind games, but Class C was stronger in brute strength, and mind games could only take you so far if you did not have the strength to accompany them. Even with one member down, Class C managed to pull through, securing a close win. Then it was class E again with class A. Class A hesitated to choose Sagiri. After all, one member in team 25 was from class, and after watching the boy in action, he warned his teammates not to underestimate him. He did not know what the boy had hidden under his sleeves. It’s better to fight an enemy you know sometimes than to fight one you did not know. That must have been a mistake because they chose Asari, the class representative of Class E. He was a genius in studies and average in combat and weaponry. He sometimes missed and sometimes hit. However, taking a gamble was their downfall because he hit the bullseye this time, costing Class A a member. Class A, having lost their second, naturally earned a disqualification, so they won’t get to play their remaining two games.

The tension in the arena rose a few octaves. The three classes had exchanged the first position over the years before class E finally sat in it permanently. There was a rumour that if anyone dared to slack off in Class E, then they would have to take it up with Kaka Asakana, the very king bami of the Galka Academy. They whispered that the boy whom Sagiri had taken their position had failed to improve, and Kaka beat him half to death or to death. No one actually knew what had really happened to the boy, but no one dared to anger the king again. Even so, the class E performance had improved after the boy disappeared, and no one had been able to beat them. They did not have a weak link, or they didn’t. Now with Sagiri, other classes had finally found a weak link.

”With two classes eliminated, I have to rewrite the board. I thought each class could win only one game, so that we could have the second and third rounds. ”Miss Lakiya swayed to the board to write the order of the next and final round. Or perhaps not the last, if things went another direction.

”Here is the new order of the game.”

B-C

B-E

E-C

Everyone groaned loudly. The game between Class B and C had been intense to watch, and with the two teams evenly matched in strength, it was a hard game to watch.

”I will listen to the cadets this time,” Miss Lakiya grinned, an idea popping in her head. She turned back to the board and wiped the first two orders clean before redoing them.

B-E

B-C

E-C

Team B and E had not gotten to play against each other, and the tension in the arena grew even louder. The two classes had the longest rivalry, which had grown sour and grown stronger through the years. It could even be called enemity. They stepped forward, and with the wicked grins shot at Sagiri by the Tamelku twins, he did not need to use his heightened senses to know they were going to choose him. He happened to be standing in the middle of Kiuga and Kaka. It was Kiuga who had dragged him there. kaka had conveniently added the distance between them as if being in proximity with his weaker self was a taboo.

”Don’t worry, Sagiri the blind,” Kiuga called him by his new nickname for him. It varied from newbie to Sagiri the blind, but Sagiri did not care much about it. Kiuga maintained the silly grin on his face while he looked at the Tamelku twins. He seemed unbothered, but Sagiri knew the guy was as scheming as they come.

”If I lose, they will eliminate our strongest opponent,” Sagiri said, knowing that if he failed to hit the bullseye, they would definitely eliminate Kaka Asakana.

”Not if we chose the worst member of their team, too. Besides, the class does not need Kaka to win. I’m the only person the team needs,” he said, pulling him under his armpit. Kaka groaned in irritation but ignored Kiuga. He was too focused on giving class B a disgusted glare. He had always hated their way of playing, and he took every chance to crush them. hearing that he could be eliminated put him on edge. He wanted this chance to crush them.

”We chose Sagiri, the ash-gray sash,” one of the tamelku said, looking Sagiri up and down. thy had the same haircut. shaved on the sides with two locks covering the remaining hair, which were coiled on the head, one on the front and the other at the back. It was the signature haircut for the Tamelku clan, but the two made it look creepy with the third braid that ran down the front, which split their face in two. I was a braid only twins could get. In the Tamelku clan, twins were considered bad luck, especially if they were firstborns, because then there was no clear firstborn. yet they wore it with the bride, their curse braid.

Sagiri stepped forward, unintentionally looking towards the class C section where N’varu had an unreadable expression staring at him. He was mouthing something, and after Sagiri had worn the oru-shells for so long to block out sounds, he could read lips well. He was not wearing them, but he could still read his lips across the long distance.

”Remember,” he said. Sagiri could not understand what he meant as he walked towards the archery spot with the class B chosen archer. He was the same height as Sagiri, but he was much, much more built than him. Sagiri chose the bow and arrow behind him. The weapon was heavy in his hand, and it felt foreign. He had never wielded a bow and arrow before, and he did not know how to even draw and shoot. His hands caressed the backbone of the bow. His fingers curved letters behind it. It was a language he could not understand. He looked at the Class C section again, and N’varu nodded at him in reassurance and mouthed ’Remember He could not understand what the guy meant, so he ignored him.

He walked to the shooting platform with an artificial wall behind it. Standing on the platform, the shooting targets looked even smaller halfway across the arena.

”Bows drawn!” Miss Lakiya announced, and Sagiri remained unmoving. He did not know how to wield the weapon, let alone draw a bow. He went through the archive, and he did not have any information on drawing bows. His hand brushed on the curved letters and tried to ’remember’ if he had seen them before. Just like with the identity stone, something surged within him as if an untouched part of his mind was coming alive. All the hands that had ever curved the letter filled his mind in a rush, going back to the very first hands to wield a bow. The first unpolished moves of drawing bows. The bow and arrow were not just a weapon, they were history. All those hands crafting, creating, polishing, and handing it down as it became better and better. The very first hand to curve the letter on the tail of a bow. The word curved at the back of the bow was not a mere word.

’HISTORY’

The letters meant history, and he could agree more, many different ways and forms to draw a bow filled his mind, and his hands instinctively formed around its backbone, and one tightly around the arrow. He was deep in the history and barely heard Miss Lakiya say

”Release!”

It was as if some part of him was becoming one with the memory. Just like the first man to create the unpolished bow and arrow dance, his body moved back. One leg stepped on the wall behind him. His body merged with the man in his memory. Not the first man to wield it, but the first man to fall in love with it. They moved as one. They used the momentum to move forward, pulling the bow and positioning the arrow so far back on his chest in a non-polished move only he understood. They stopped the momentum, instantly sinking to one knee in a shooting position and simultaneously releasing the arrow.

There was a moment of silence as everyone in the arena watched the new move they had never seen. Even Miss Lakiya was at a loss for words. She had travelled far and wide and been in battle with many opponents, but witnessing such an unknown art happen in front of her eyes made her eyes grow wide with wonder and admiration. The arrow tore through the air furiously, together with the opponent’s arrow. The opponent’s arrow stopped at the target a millimeter before the bullseye, but the arrow released by Sagiri did not stop at the target. It pierced through the bull’s eye of his target as if it were made of paper. It shattered all the red, and yet it did not stop. It continued travelling to the other end of the arena, embedding itself in the wall. Only then did it stop.

There was a moment of silence in the arena as Sagiri finally came down from the memory. His body, however, had been pushed to its limit, and he had exhausted all his strength. Merging, remembering years of history, and becoming one with them had taken a toll on him. The bow fell from his hand, suddenly feeling heavier. Sending the arrow all the way across the arena. something he had never done before, because he merged with the past came at a price. One hand went to his chest, and another stilled him on the floor. He swayed as his chest twisted and he spat a mouthful of blood.

He could only sense amazement, curiosity, surprise, and pride from N’varu Neni and jealousy from Class B.

”Class E wins!!” Miss Lakiya announced after recovering from the shock. ”It seems class B judged a book by its cover,” he added, looking over at Sagiri again with amazement. Sagiri staggered when he tried to get to his feet, but N’varu caught him. He had somehow moved across the arena and was now standing beside him.

”You remembered,” is all he said, helping him to walk to the class E section.