The dust hadn't yet settled from Juni's victory when Harlen raised his voice once more.
"Next match," he called, pausing just long enough for tension to coil in the air like a drawn bowstring."Squad Reed versus Squad Yanis."
The words dropped like a stone into a pond.The reactions were immediate.
Several students turned to look — not at Yanis, but at Reed.
Or rather, at the tiny, outnumbered squad that stood by his side.
A murmur ran through the gathered groups. Some wore thinly veiled smirks, others just shook their heads.
Reed caught snippets as they passed between students — low, muttered.
"Three? Seriously?""Is that even fair?""Poor guys are about to get flattened."
Marek only stretched lazily, rolling his neck until it popped.
"Popular already," he muttered.
Lannis's expression sharpened, but she said nothing, simply adjusting her gloves with crisp, precise movements.
Across the field, Yanis was already stepping forward, leading his squad — six strong — into the circle.
They looked confident, grinning amongst themselves.Yanis himself, tall and broad-shouldered, wore an easy smirk as he spotted Reed's tiny group.
Reed held his gaze briefly.
No fear. No bravado.
Just calculation.
Without a word, he moved forward, Lannis and Marek falling into step beside him.
The packed earth beneath Reed's boots felt steady.Solid.
The ring they'd been assigned was slightly smaller than the last — forcing closer engagements.
He liked that.
Inside the circle, Yanis' squad fanned out, taking space aggressively, spreading wide.
Trying to hem them in.Box them up early.
Professor Treesha strode to the center, raising one hand again.
"Squad Leaders," she said, her voice sharp.
Reed and Yanis stepped closer.
Face to face.
Up close, Yanis was bigger than Reed by a head and a half, muscles thick from clear years of training.
But Reed didn't flinch. He didn't need to.
He wasn't fighting alone.
Treesha's sharp gaze flicked between them.
"You know the rules," she said simply.
Both nodded.
Then, stepping back, she raised her voice:
"Begin when the signal is given."
Reed shifted slightly, feeling Lannis fall into place a step behind and to his left, Marek to the right.
A triangle.
Small. Tight. Controlled.
Across from them, Yanis' squad spread out further, three to each side, leaving a deliberate gap in the center.
Bait.
Marek leaned in, voice low."They want us to charge."
"We won't," Reed said under his breath.
Marek grinned.
Then —A sharp clap from Treesha.
"Begin!"
Yanis' squad moved instantly, exactly as Reed expected — closing from the flanks, trying to collapse the triangle before they could react.
But Reed didn't move forward.
Instead, he stepped back, folding inward — tightening the triangle even further.
Their formation became a knot.Small. Unyielding.
Magic flared at the edges of Reed's senses — a crackle of compressed air from the left, a flash of earth magic ripping up shards of stone from the right.
Yanis himself charged head-on, a brutal hammer strike glowing faintly with mana.
Marek moved first.
With a sharp thrust of his hands, a burst of water coiled up from his palms, twisting into a dense, spiraling shield that absorbed the incoming stone projectiles.The shards smashed harmlessly against the swirling current, deflected wide.
Lannis followed a heartbeat later.
A pulse of gravity snapped outward, warping the air around Yanis' hammer blow, dragging it subtly off course.The hammer missed by inches, crashing into the dirt with a thunderous thud.
Reed slipped forward smoothly — not aiming for Yanis directly, but pivoting toward the flanking opponent just behind him.
His opponent stumbled, surprised by the sudden reversal.
Reed struck low and hard, a sharp sweep that knocked the taller boy off his balance, sending him sprawling backward across the dirt.
One down.
The crowd outside the circle stirred — a few scattered gasps, more surprised than anything.
Yanis growled, pivoting back toward Reed, but Marek intercepted him — water magic surging into a whip-like coil that snapped out, forcing Yanis to dodge wide.
Meanwhile, Lannis moved with quiet precision.
Another pulse of gravity bent the battlefield — subtle, but devastating.
One of Yanis' flankers staggered mid-run, feet suddenly sluggish, as if he was trying to sprint through thick mud.
Reed capitalized immediately, striking a clean, fast blow that forced the second opponent to yield, dropping to one knee and raising a hand in surrender.
The professors watching the match exchanged small nods — professional, impassive, but approving.
Two down.
Still outnumbered, but the tide was shifting.
Yanis bellowed a command — sharp and angry — and his remaining squadmates grouped tighter, abandoning the wide circle strategy.
Good, Reed thought distantly.
Tighter groups were easier to collapse.
For the first time, a flicker of uncertainty crossed Yanis' face.
He hadn't expected a real fight.
Most of the students hadn't.
Outside the circle, murmurs grew louder.
"Look at them.""How are they holding against six?""No way..."
Inside the ring, Reed moved.
Fast.
A low mist began creeping from his skin — not dark and oppressive like when he lost control — but contained, sheathing his body in a thin wisp of shadow.
An extension of himself. A weapon.No more. No less.
With a sharp gesture, Reed drove forward, not waiting for Yanis' team to act.
Surprise was an advantage.
Marek's water whip lashed out again, snagging one opponent's leg and yanking them off-balance.
Before they could recover, Lannis hammered them with another gravitational pulse — so heavy and sudden it sent the opponent crashing flat onto the ground.
The boy grunted and lay still, hand slapping the dirt in surrender.
Three down.
Yanis roared, surging forward, hammer raised again.
But Reed was faster.
He ducked under the blow, stepping inside Yanis' guard, and drove a sharp strike into his midsection — a controlled hit, enough to knock the air from Yanis' lungs without breaking anything.
Yanis staggered, gasping.
Before he could recover, Lannis hit him with a subtle gravitational pulse, dragging him slightly sideways — just enough for Marek's second water whip to slam into him from the other direction.
The combined forces spun Yanis off his feet.
He hit the dirt hard, weapon tumbling from his grasp.
For a moment, the field went utterly still.
Yanis coughed once, rolled onto his back — and raised his hand in surrender.
The last two members of his squad hesitated a beat longer, then dropped their hands in reluctant defeat.
The duel was over.
Reed, breathing steadily, straightened.
The mist around him thinned and faded naturally.
Across the field, students stared in stunned silence.
Three against six — and they'd won.
Not with overwhelming power.Not with reckless charges.
With control.
With teamwork.
With trust.
Professor Treesha stepped forward, raising a hand sharply.
"Victory — Squad Reed."
A smattering of applause broke out — hesitant at first, then growing louder as more students joined in.
Some clapped genuinely.
Some clapped because they were stunned.
Some clapped because they realized, finally, that Reed's squad wasn't weak at all.
Harlen's gaze found Reed across the field.
For the first time all day, the older professor allowed himself the smallest, faintest hint of a smile.
Not approval — not yet.But acknowledgment.
Reed met his gaze calmly.
It was only the beginning.