A Bored Lich

As soon as both Doevm and Frey returned to their Amphiboards, all three Generals emerged from the fog. Behind them were the last few groups, who were lead to their respective Amphiboard and informed on the initiation guidelines.

Thomas chuckled as he shifted around on his Amphiboard: "Doevm, I bet-"

"Not now," Doevm waved a hand at him and pointed at the three Generals, who had spaced themselves out facing the groups. Life essence came from their open mouths.

"Now that everyone is ready," the three announced in unison. "While we have made sure that each and every group understands what is at stake, their objectives, and the most important rules, we still have a few more things to say before you take off."

"Taking points from other groups is encouraged. If you can take it, it can be yours, no matter how many or little points. However, using money to bribe people, forming teams, taking anything unrelated to points, and excess harm is forbidden. This is a game meant to encourage cooperation, not hatred. We will be watching. Treat encounters with each other groups as scuffles. Accept your loss or win with grace, not an oath of vengeance or any of that immature crap. Any form of cheating, Von Trike has predicted, Marble has made rules for, and Alexander will enforce."

"You cannot attack a group twice no matter if your group won or lost in the past. A loss means all your group was rendered unconscious or has surrendered. Hand over your points and or point values, including the items you might have received from the many shops in the swamp. If one is wearing this badge," the three Generals held up a badge with an emblem of an olive branch on it.

"They have diplomatic immunity. No fighting them until the badge wears off. Alternatively, they cannot attack you. After a defeat, leave the group alone. No harming them in any way or trapping them. In short, don't be a dick. We want competition but we want as many people as possible to become knights. With that said…GO!" All three Generals pointed ahead.

The groups stood there for a moment, the words not registering in their heads. Doevm and the rest of his group, however, took off immediately. Curses rang out as more Amphiboards pushed off from shore and traveled deeper into the fog.

Doevm held a hand towards Thomas and Frey, who were about to fall off their Amphiboards from pushing off so hard: "Take it slow. We have a week." The two took a breath before pushing their paddles into the muck and propelling themselves into the fog.

Doevm and Elero slowed their pace. All groups headed in different directions, most going around trees, some crashing into trees. 'I guess that this board is easier to learn than I anticipated,' Doevm thought. 'There goes our early advantage. This is not going to be easy.'

The Generals, the shoreline, and the mountain behind them faded into white. "Make sure to stick together," Doevm said. "If we are not careful, we'll separate."

"We got it," the other group members emphasized each word. "We aren't useless."

"O-oh," Doevm stuttered. "Sorry," he swallowed. "It is a bad habit that I picked up from the front lines."

In a few short moments, all signs of humans disappeared. The many rhythmic splashes turned into four. The Amphiboards went over the shallow water, cut through masses of moss, tall grass, and Lily pads, and even over the thick mud.

'What to do?' Doevm thought as he looked at the rest of the group. 'Make a plan, get to know each other better, try to make a formation, or let them figure out how to maneuver? I think…I'll let them struggle. I can't do everything for them.' He dispersed his thoughts and paddled to the back. He scrolled through his past memories about the swamp, smiling.

The next few minutes were spent the group trying to navigate around large trees, which stuck out of the rich soil, using their long roots to both anchor and raise their leaves to touch the absent sunlight. While everyone could balance themselves, only Doevm could steer properly, which led to him being the driest of the group.

Long, thin masses of leaves swayed with the wind. Decaying logs and assorted dying plants fed mushrooms and fungi. The many creatures of the swamp called out, almost laughing at their struggling. Every few minutes, small shadows would move out of their way. Each and every time, Thomas would flinch. Bugs surrounded them no matter how many times they slapped at them. The still water rippled around them.

"So," Thomas said as he finally managed to maneuver around a tree without stopping or falling. "Is this it?" He scanned the surroundings, poking at stumps and trees that they passed. "What's so dangerous about this place?"

"A swamp," Frey said. "Is not like the forest by the Virility household. Here, the inhabitants won't rush at you from out in the open. The area might not be dark, but there are plenty of nooks and crannies that one can hide in. Even the water, as low as it is, can be hiding spot. At least, that's what my grandfather told me."

On cue, Thomas's head snapped down towards the water, and he squinted with life essence around his eyes. "Don't bother," Doevm said. "You won't see anything. Some inhabitants will hide in the water, but not in the open, rather blending into the many plants." The deeper into the swamp they paddled, the more noises they heard. A frog's croak, bird's whistle, a hissing.

"I found something!" Thomas said as he drew his spear and jabbed it through an ancient tree. When he pulled his spear back, he displayed a limp snake at its tip. "That wasn't bad at all."

"Congratulations," Elero said as she glanced back at him. "You got nervous and killed the first thing you saw, a little snake."

"Looks like a big snake to me," Thomas said as he held the snake closer, its corpse still hanging around his spear's tip. After taking a closer look, he held it out at Elero. "See, it's got black growths. I think this might be a valuable mutant."

Elero reeled back, pushing the snake away with the bottom of her paddle. "Ok there are several things wrong with what you just did. Firstly, gross. Secondly, those aren't growths, they're leeches. Thirdly, the snake is already dead. Fourthly, don't point your very sharp, very painful weapon at me ever again."

"R-right," Thomas stuttered as he pulled the corpse back. "These are leeches? They're each bigger than both my thumbs! How can leeches even kill a snake? Isn't it the other way around?"

He poked one of them and it moved. He wiped his finger on his clothes and grimaced. "Does this snake or the leeches even count for anything?" Doevm shook his head. "Great," Thomas said as he flung the snake's shrunken corpse backwards over his shoulder.

Just before the snake's corpse reached the ground, the water's calm surface broke, and a large set of green scaled jaws clamped around the snake's corpse and swallowed it down in one bite. Twelve sets of yellow eyes stared down Thomas, who pushed himself further ahead. "Doevm!" He nearly barked. "I found a weird looking alligator!"

"I see that," Doevm said in an exaggeratedly calm mannor. "Just don't bother it and it won't bother you…hopefully." He put on a sadistic smile as Thomas groaned, his eyes still locked onto the alligator as he backed away. The alligator blinked before slowly sinking back into a mess of moss.

A few minutes later, Doevm said, "So Miss Mech, if we are all going to spend a week fighting together, we might as well know more about each other. Why do you want to be at the academy? Why do you want to become a knight? 'I might as well overlap the information I already know about her so I don't make any mistakes…more than I have already.'

"To be a knight is to be free of what is expected of me," Elero responded. "I just need the skills to move as I please. I don't want to live and die by a word of the Kingdom and I don't want to live by a knight's code like the rest of you, no offense."

"None taken," Doevm shrugged. "I don't want to be an actual knight either. I just want to fight as I please."

Frey cocked his head to the side: "What about the mission for protecting Tho-"

"Frey!" Doevm shot Frey a glare as he interrupted him. After however, he shrugged. "I guess it doesn't matter now, but you should at least have a cover. Why do you, a regular commoner, want to become a knight?"

Frey glanced at Thomas and Elero before cursing under his breath. "Well, I already said my answer, and it will never change." He looked at his reflection in the water, which had been distorted from many ripples. "never," he repeated to himself, his eyes going out of focus.

"Frey," Elero's call brought Frey back to his senses. He shook his head and turned towards her. "If you don't mind, can I see your level of life essence?" Frey shrugged and did as he was told. "You're already at the Cyan life essence level. Why do you need to get stronger? Are you going to be attacked by an army or something?"

"Don't you mean blue?" Frey asked.

"The Cyan variant?" Elero looked to the others for support but they only shook their heads. "Thomas, you don't know either. You're a noble aren't you?" Thomas shrugged. "Life essence comes in hues. While there is not a very noticeable difference at the earlier levels, the upper levels need to be put into subcategories. Depending on the hue, the power is different, much different. Someone with midnight blue, the strongest level of blue life essence, can easily deal with someone of the cyan hue." She held out her arm, which was covered with the same light blue life essence as Frey's. "I've got cyan as well, see how light it is?"

"How many levels are there?" Thomas asked, leaning closer. "And why haven't I noticed a difference before?"

"There are…" Elero put a hand to her chin. Her eyes went wide as she pulled out her rapier from her spatial ring. "Giant toad!"

"Toad?" The rest reeled back as a pillar of water shot up right in front of them. Within that spout of water was a shadow nearly as big as the many trees around them, and as wide as a Doevm's old shack. The four drew their weapons and got ready for their first fight of initiation.