Apollos Thorne

Codename: Freedom - Book 5 - Chapter 33

Added 2025-07-10 16:10:57 +0000 UTC

Twenty-four hours into the event, we were returning what would likely be the last of our “easy points”. Not that fleeing from a dozen rank D casters could ever be easy. It wasn’t even our intention to continue antagonizing Brendon Black and the Forefathers. They were just our only real competition when going after these the flags captured by weaker battalions. They were also helpful enough to attack the bases in question to give me all the distraction I needed.

Of course, Brendon and his battalion were looking out for us now. Mel didn’t stay put in one place. That was our main advantage. We could attack from any angle. We also had a much better view of the defending bases.

It had been an interesting first day. The Forefathers leaving the central arena to the Real Major and Ebrima Okoro had far reaching consequences. It wasn’t exactly a stalemate since both battalions occasionally scored a point. However, they certainly slowed each other down or the competition would already be over. It also allowed other weaker opportunist battalions to make it to the center and get away with a flag more often. That gave us more flags to target.

Only one other members of the top ten had been defeated besides the man I ambushed which left eight of us.

Scoreboard

First Place – 9 Points

Ø Lethal Accord

Second Place – Tie – 8 Points

Ø Forefathers

Ø Prodos

Third Place – 7 Point

Ø The Burden Bearers

Only about half of the flags from the center had been taken. The Real Major’s advantage over Ebrima Okoro was too much for him to keep up but not overwhelmingly so. As for the race for points between us and Brendon Black, it was very back and forth. We’d been ahead, but Brendon had personally taken out the other top ten guy.

Points came slower, but our strategy didn’t change. Mel’s sniping paired with my stealthy overhead approach was a deadly combination.

***

Hwan had been sitting here with his back to a podium for more than a day. His butt was asleep. They had a squad worth of stealth users left. There had been some close calls, but they weren’t the only battalion looking to take advantage of any lulls or chaotic moments on the battlefield. He knew that no real opening had come. Not one that would allow one of their guys to grab a flag and run the mile plus back to the maze. It didn’t help that they no longer hand any men waiting there to cover them.

There was no way to sugarcoat it. The Forefather’s had messed up a whole litany of contingency plans when they attacked them as soon as the event began. It was always a possibility, but it had put them in the worst position.

Of course, not all of the stealth team had died. A squad had returned to the base. As long as they didn’t grab a flag, getting out alive wasn’t impossible. Grabbing one, however, made any stealth technology worthless.

Some of them had decided to stay. He and HandshakeDeath either had the patience to be elite stealth users, or they were foolishly optimistic. The latter seemed more likely at the moment.

“Maybe we should try something a little different,” Handshake said. “I could grab a flag and throw it to The Burden Bearers, then one of our guys could try and run for it.”

“Why throw just one?” Hwan wrote back. “Why not go down the line and start throwing them in random directions in mass. Why do things halfway?”

Another guy responded. “I’ll do it. You two should stay here just in case there are any other opportunities in the future. I’ll start throwing them and let the rest of our guys grab a flag and run in different directions. Have Lucius be ready to come and grab it if one of the guys makes it to the maze in a place not close to the base.”

Hwan felt a smile pull at the corner of his mouth. “Just wait until they start fighting again and there aren’t any other battalions making a run for it.”

As he said it, his AI showed him a squad from a section of the maze they hadn’t seen much action from that was about to do just that. Hwan didn’t even have to wait until they got close for him to see something strange was going on. Without needing to take a peek, he relied upon the eyes of one of the many microdrones to give him a close up. Lumbering toward the flag array, was a group of large men dressed in what looked like homemade plate armor. The man at the lead was excessively wide in the shoulders and carrying a sword strapped to his back as wide as a small surfboard.

Destiny chose that moment to appear in the other corner of his peripherals. “It’s ceramic,” she reported. “And two to three inches thick.”

“To repel psionic attacks?” he asked.

“Not quite, but it should greatly damper the effects. It’s just… extremely heavy.”

It certainly didn’t look like it was slowing down Chewme. He couldn’t even see his old guildmate’s aura except threw his helmet’s eye slots. They looked more like golems than armored humans.

Hwan wasn’t on the right side of the podium array to see the man when he arrived, but they made it there easy enough. Chew was the one that grabbed the flag. They then unceremoniously ran back the way they came.

They made it a quarter mile before a flurry of bolts including several rank D ones flew at them from Lethal Accord.

Two of Chewme’s men fell. The group tried to run faster.

The next volley came, but the group was moving fast. Despite the armor, they were running at full speed with their rank E aura carrying them.

Another of their men fell and a rank D bolt hit Chewme in the back. It staggered the giant man, but he just kept going.

Hwan realized his massive sword made as good of a shield as it did a weapon. He internally shook his head to himself. He was kind of proud that they’d at least score one point even if Lucius might come by later and steal it.

“Get ready,” Handshake wrote. “You call it.”

The man who was in charge of the nonsensical mission was already crawling across the small gap between the circle of podiums to the side where Lethal Accord and The Burden Bearers were facing off. Once he was in position, he waited until the conflict between the two powerhouse battalions was at its worst before plucking a flag from its podium and throwing it half the distance between them and Ebrima Okoro’s squad.

Both groups paused in the middle of battle and just stared at its sudden appearance for the briefest of seconds.

The man had already grabbed a second flag and was throwing it before he spoke verbally through his headset, “Go!”

Seven other individuals grabbed flags from the opposite side of the array of podiums and ran for it. Not one of them were headed for the exact same entrance to the maze.

Hwan even flinched as the man called it. He wanted to finally be doing something, but he and Handshake were the craziest of the bunch.

Not all of them made it. Even out of the four that did, two of them were quickly taken out by lesser battalions and their flags were captured. Two slipped into the maze without being caught.

As for the man who had tried to play javelins with the flags, he’d reached his forth one before he became the first psionically, deep fried human. Six or seven rank D bolts pulverized him. At least his death was quick.

One of our two men made it back to the base himself. The other found a corner in the maze the hide. A few minutes later, their own messenger pigeon flew down and snagged it before flying away. Even if it wouldn’t last for long, they’d once again taken first place.