The arrow came out of nowhere and blazed right past Leon’s leg, barely missing him and another Snow Lion by a hair.  The strategy Leon had decided on was to run away if attacked, but one arrow hardly qualified as something they needed to run away from.  That being said, as none of the Snow Lions had any ranged weapons of their own, they all immediately sought cover behind trees while trying to see who was shooting at them.

Once the initial panic from being attacked wore off, Leon poked his head out from around the tree he had ducked behind.  He knew the arrow had come from roughly ahead of him and to his right, so that’s where he focused his gaze. 

He didn’t see anyone, but he did hear a few quiet, but hurried footsteps pushing deeper into the forest.  Whoever had shot that arrow was on the move, but it didn’t quite sound like they were trying to get away—their footsteps weren’t quite hurried enough for Leon to think that.  Instead, he thought that they were probably just displacing after their shot, just in case Leon and his Snow Lions charged in the direction the arrow had come from.

‘Whoever is following us isn’t going to give up quite that easily…’ he thought to himself.  Better to see who it was and to deal with them, if he could.  The last thing he wanted was to deal with this every single time he and the Snow Lions needed to come to their tower for some reason, and the best way to deter people trying this was to retaliate with strength.

He wasn’t sure he could do this with the rest of the Snow Lions, though.  He glanced backward, taking in the others with him.  None of them, in his opinion, were good enough outdoorsmen to keep up with him or their mysterious archer.

“Get out here,” Leon ordered the other Snow Lions.  “I’ll deal with this.  Just stick to the strategy.”

He got a few worried looks, but as soon as he gave the order, several of the trainees bolted off into the forest without hesitation.  That essentially forced everyone else’s hand, and the rest of the Snow Lions began moving in different directions, scattering into the forest to make their own way back to the gorge.

Leon smiled as the others vanished into the forest.  ‘They’ll be fine, I’m sure,’ Leon told himself, suppressing his few misgivings.

He pushed himself to his feet and rushed in the rough direction the last arrow had come from.  As before, he didn’t see the archer, but that didn’t stop him from looking around.  He dug deep and used every tracking trick he knew about, and after several minutes, he managed to find a promising trail.  It was faint, proving the skill of the mysterious archer, but it wasn’t anything Leon couldn’t track.

Leon smiled in anticipation of a good fight, then took off in pursuit of the archer.  The trail wound around and doubled back several times, but Leon kept following, determined as he was not to let the archer escape.  The longer he followed, though, the more unease he started to feel; he couldn’t hear the archer anymore, and that had him feeling more than a little nervous.  He slowed down significantly, the worry that he was dealing with more than a single archer growing with every step.  He didn’t want to stumble into an ambush, so sacrificing some speed for caution was a fair trade, in his mind.

He stopped completely when the trail led down into a sparsely vegetated valley surrounded on three sides by large, forested hills.  Leon and the Snow Lions had trained in that very same cul-de-sac only a week prior, so he knew well enough that once he went in he’d be at the mercy of anyone on those hills.  The slopes of the hills near the entrance of the cul-de-sac were relatively gradual, so had he not been there before, he probably would’ve walked straight into a terrible position without realizing until it was too late.

Leon’s smile of anticipation faded away, to be replaced with a deep frown—this, more than anything else, had him thinking that this was an obvious trap, meant to draw in any Snow Lions foolish enough to dive into the valley without thought.  He peeled off the trail, moving in a wide circle around the hills surrounding the cul-de-sac.  The tallest of the hills surrounding it was on the opposite side, and that’s where he wanted to be.

It had been over an hour since Leon’s group had left the Snow Lions’ tower, and Leon was still getting back into the groove of hunting his prey.  He’d managed to do some hunting before the Snow Lions had moved into the western gorge, but since then, he hadn’t done much to keep sharp.  But following that trail had been like flipping a switch; Leon fell back into old habits and moved through the forest like a ghost, making no noise and leaving no trail anyone else in the Academy could easily follow.

It wasn’t long before he had circled around the entire hill cluster and began ascending his target hill.  The short journey had given him some time to think about who might be interested in ambushing him.  His first thought had been the most obvious, the Deathbringers.  Gaius had no shortage of reasons to seek his revenge on Leon, but such an indirect plan didn’t strike Leon as being his style.

Leon’s second thought was Tiberias.  He definitely got the idea that Tiberias hated him, and that it was probably due to his relationship with Elise.  That look the man had given him as Elise walked off with Leon to get Xaphan’s potion ingredients, in particular, made Leon think that he’d made an enemy that day.  Leon didn’t know enough about Tiberias to confidently say it was him, though.

After those two came the Steel Century.  There wasn’t much to back Leon up on that possibility, but he knew Alcander wanted to duel him and the tower closest to the cul-de-sac belonged to his unit.

Leon looked forward to confronting who had prepared this for him, assuming he wasn’t simply being paranoid.  That thought had occurred to him as well, that maybe the archer had only passed through the valley and that he’d made the detour for nothing.  Leon truly hoped that wasn’t what was happening, as he’d have undoubtedly lost too much time going around the hills to catch the archer if it was.

It was because of that final possibility that Leon felt relief when the top of the hill came within view and he saw a young man hiding behind a boulder, watching the clearing at the center of the hill cluster like a hawk.  He had a bow, a small quiver of training arrows, and a training sword strapped to his hip.

Leon smiled and silently crept up on the man from behind.  The man was too engrossed in his vigil to notice Leon until he had pounced like a lion on its prey. It was over in less than a heartbeat; the man lay stunned at Leon’s feet and barely a sound had been made.  Taking the opportunity to get a good look at the man, Leon pushed him over onto his back.  He immediately recognized the guy as being one of the third-tier nobles who led the Steel Century.

Leon rolled the unconscious noble out of sight with a frown.  He’d watched both Marcus and Alcander fight multiple times during the first month of the training cycle and knew they were both extremely capable warriors.  Leon’s frown grew deeper when he took the noble’s place behind the boulder and cast his gaze down into the valley.  Down there, he saw Marcus, sitting on a wooden stool out in the open with a bow slung over his shoulder.  He was alone in the clearing between the hills, but from Leon’s vantage point he could see at least two other people, though they were hiding in the trees covering the hills, and he couldn’t get a good look at their faces.

He guessed one of them would be Alcander—he saw one of them had a long pole on their back, not unlike the haft of Alcander’s ax—and the other had to be the last third-tier noble leading their unit.  What gave him pause, though was that both of them were on the same hill, which would leave one hill undefended had Leon not already made a move.  He figured there might be others on that last hill that he couldn’t see, and who they were had him feeling rather nervous.  He’d already seen the Deathbringers make an alliance with the Black Vipers, and that had lost the Snow Lions their banner.  He was confident in the strength of his unit to face down any other unit in this training cycle, but if they were allying against his Snow Lions, then that changed things…

Despite the horrible position it would put him in, Leon made the decision to head down there and see what Marcus wanted.  Even if he were walking right into their ambush, at the very least, the mysterious allies ought to be revealed.

Besides, he wanted to confront the people who’d done all of this.

‘They’ve gone to so much trouble to invite me here that not speaking with Marcus would be rude!’ he thought, holding his training sword in a vice-grip and smiling at the thought of the fight he was sure would come, despite his enormous disadvantage.  If things went poorly, he could always retreat back into the forest where he was confident he could escape with little trouble.

Leon’s smile grew wider and he started moving.

---

Marcus grinned as Leon finally showed himself.  Leon was walking in from the entrance of the cul-de-sac, the direction that Marcus had been expecting.  He was looking extremely cautious, and kept scanning the hills, showing himself to be not foolish enough to think that Marcus was here alone, but the simple fact that he walking into Marcus’ trap had the noble feeling just a little disappointed.  It was more than that that had Marcus feeling a little let down, though…

‘Hmm, he’s a little later than I expected…’ the third-tier noble thought for a moment.  He banished that thought, though—he could revise his opinion of Leon later, but right now, the Valeman was walking in his direction.  Marcus had to get his head in the game, otherwise he would end up like Gaius, and that was the last thing he wanted.

“Leon!” Marcus said, pointedly not calling Leon a barbarian.  “I’m so glad you were able to find this place!  I have to admit that I wasn’t sure you’d accept my invitation!”

“How could I not when it was so carefully delivered?” the Valeman shouted back, and Marcus couldn’t help but smile a bit wider in appreciation for the banter.

“I didn’t expect you to appear alone.  Having more of your unit with you would have been much safer, no?  Or are you just that confident in your abilities?”

“Had the others retreat,” Leon replied with an almost arrogant smirk.

“Really?  That’s certainly… unorthodox…”

Leon didn’t answer, instead choosing to slowly walk in a circle around the still-sitting Marcus.  He seemed to still be staring out into the forested hills, but he couldn’t possibly see anything, Marcus knew his allies were hidden to well for that.

“Cautious, aren’t you?” said Marcus with a light laugh.  “Don’t worry, I only invited you here to talk, I mean you no harm.”

“Odd way to invite a man if you don’t want violence…” Leon pointed out as he glanced rather pointedly at Marcus’ bow.

Marcus put on a bashful face and went a little red from embarrassment.  “Ah, well… I’ve been told that I have something of a flair for the dramatic…”

A moment of silence followed, during which Leon stopped circling Marcus and stood to face the noble with his back to the largest hill.

“Well, dramatic or not, I’m here now.  Why’d you go to the trouble of all this?” Leon bluntly asked.

“There are actually a couple things I had hoped to bring up with you if you would indulge me,” answered Marcus, his smile turning into more of a smirk as Leon placed his back to the hills, unwittingly leaving himself open for Marcus’ bow-armed companion on the largest hill.  “I’m quite curious as to where the Snow Lions have been these past few months, as I’m sure many others are.  Perhaps you could enlighten me as to where you all have been?”

Leon’s answer was swift and came without hesitation.  “No.”

“Really?  Why not?” asked Marcus as he put on a hurt expression.  “I’m really curious, surely you could give me this one small indulgence?”

“Why would I?”

“… To make a friend?” responded Marcus as he turned to properly face the Valeman.  Leon rolled his eyes at the weak justification, but Marcus just laughed it off.  “It doesn’t matter what you think, you’ll tell us the location eventually.  Which brings me to my second point!  My friend has witnessed your skills from afar and has consequently been inspired to test himself against you!  I would appreciate it if you could indulge him…”

Marcus continued to jovially smile at Leon, but he raised his fist into the air in a signal to those waiting in the trees to show themselves.  Alcander emerged from the trees to Marcus’ left with a smile of great anticipation, his huge ax already in hand, the last third-tier mage of the Steel Century, sword already in hand, at his side.

Leon, curiously, didn’t seem that surprised at Alcander’s appearance, but what happened next certainly had his eyes opening wide in shock.

Valeria appeared from the trees on the opposite hill, her glaive at the ready, a subtle, but playful smile on her lips.  Asiya, too, popped out from the trees, looking thrilled as she blocked the path that Leon had taken into the valley.

Asiya happily jumped into the air, giving Leon an exaggerated wave while shouting, “Hi there!”  Leon waved back, though not nearly in such a bubbly manner, then nodded to Valeria to acknowledge her as well.  She nodded back making it clear to everyone that she wasn’t there out of malice.  Marcus wasn’t sure if Leon could appreciate such finer details of civilized life, but Leon certainly didn’t look aggrieved.

“So, is it Alcander or Valeria who wanted to fight?” Leon asked, despite looking like he already knew the answer as his eyes tracked Alcander more than anyone else.

“… It was Alcander,” Marcus responded, but the smile he wore was growing shallower as his final third-tier mage failed to appear from the largest hill behind Leon.

‘He’d better not have fallen asleep waiting for the ambush again,’ he thought with rapidly-growing irritation.

“And if I lose, then I have to tell you where my unit is hiding?” Leon guessed, seemingly unaware of Marcus’ brooding.

“That’s right,” said Marcus, who turned his attention back to Leon.  Even if he was down one third-tier mage, there was still more than enough force to follow through on his plan.

“Well,” began Leon, “I’m not going to tell you, no matter what happens.  And I won’t agree to anything that could possibly end with me telling you what you want to know.”

“Are you sure?  You haven’t even heard what we’re willing to wager—"

“I don’t care what you offer, it’s not happening.”

“So you won’t fight him?”

“I’m perfectly willing to fight him; in fact, I’d quite like to, but I’m not going to put the Snow Lions or their banners at any risk.”

Marcus frowned at Leon, then gestured again to the other four third-tier mages.  “I guess we’ll have to think of something else to entice you with.  For the time being, I’m going to have to ask you to come with me back to my tower—"

“Fuck you, not happening,” Leon bluntly interrupted, throwing Marcus completely off.

“Well that was extremely rude…” Marcus said in response.  “You’re outnumbered, you don’t really have much of a choice.  I don’t want things to get out of hand, so why don’t—"

“Aren’t you curious as to why your last guy hasn’t emerged yet?” Leon interrupted again.  Marcus looked at him blankly for a split second, before Leon’s slight smile clued him into what had happened.  But, before he could move, Leon was already lunging forward and drawing his sword.

Marcus barely managed to raise his arm to block, but he was knocked flat on his back and his right arm was stunned into paralysis.  He hadn’t expected Leon to attack him with so many other third-tier mages around; he thought he’d been in complete control of the situation and had been caught completely off-guard. 

Marcus shouted in surprise and pain and could do nothing as Leon turned around and sprinted for the largest hill.  Alcander, Valeria, and Asiya all moved to engage him, but they were caught just as off-guard as Marcus and Leon managed to make it up and over the hill before anyone could stop him.  Alcander and Valeria pursued Leon into the forest while Asiya stopped to examine the noble Leon had knocked out earlier.  Concurrently, the last third-tier trainee from the Steel Century had gone to check up on the flabbergasted Marcus.

“Why would he do that?  He was supposed to surrender or fight here!” Marcus shouted indignantly, angered more at Leon not doing what he predicted than his temporarily paralyzed arm.  But the anger soon passed, and the thrill of the hunt set in as he sprang to his feet, charged up the hill, and took off after Alcander and Valeria with Asiya in tow, leaving the last third-tier noble behind to take care of his stunned comrade.

---

Leon sprinted through the forest with Alcander and Valeria in dogged pursuit.

“HAHA!  THIS IS FANTASTIC!  NO GOOD MEAL COMES WITHOUT AN APPETIZER AND NO GOOD FIGHT COMES WITHOUT SOME BUILD UP!” Alcander bellowed.  He’d been yelling himself hoarse for a while, having quickly realized that Marcus and Asiya had fallen behind him and Valeria.  So, he’d taken it upon himself to shout loudly enough to practically let the entire Academy know where they were.  He wasn’t even paying that much attention to what he said, the point was just to make sure Marcus could follow them even if they’d left his sight.

But even though Alcander made it easy for Marcus to follow him, his and Valeria’s pursuit of Leon wasn’t going nearly so well.

Out in the forest, Leon was proving himself to be unmatched.  He was certainly proving his barbarian comfort with the outdoors, with the lead he had in the beginning only growing wider in the minutes since the chase had started.  He avoided every tree root, weed, and errant stone in his path as if he had run along this route a hundred times before.

Alcander wasn’t particularly built for speed, and he was struggling to keep up.  It was only his stubbornness that kept him running so hard after Leon, and his mounting frustration not to let him go.

Looking to his right, he saw that Valeria clearly didn’t share in his mounting frustration.  A rare smile had graced her lips; she clearly relished the chase.

‘That girl’s a damn monster…´ Alcander thought appreciatively as she pulled ahead of him.  Fatigue was setting in, and even his frustration could only keep his legs moving so quickly.

Valeria had no such problem, though.

“Don’t lose him!” shouted Alcander to Valeria in between roars for Marcus’ benefit.

“I won’t,” replied Valeria, “though it seems you won’t be getting the first bout.”

“Grrrah!  Fine!  Just keep him in sight!”

With those words, Alcander slowed down to meet up with Marcus and Asiya, letting Valeria handle the chase.  He kept moving, though, doing his best to keep Valeria in sight even as Leon vanished into the forest.

After another few minutes, they started moving up a steep hill.  It seemed to Alcander that they just might catch the Snow Lion as he slowed down enough to allow his pursuers to come back into visual range.  But then, he crested the hill, and disappeared once more.

It only took Valeria a moment to get to the top of the hill, but as soon as she did, she practically froze in place.  Her head swiveled in clear confusion, and Alcander soon found himself joining her at the top of the hill.  Leon had vanished into the forest.

“He… where did he go?” Valeria wondered aloud as Marcus and Asiya finally caught up to them now that they had come to a stop.

“You said you wouldn’t lose him!” complained Alcander, groaning loudly in disappointment.  His tone was light enough to make it clear that he was more frustrated with Leon than Valeria, though, and he gave her a quick smile of camaraderie, which she rather pointedly ignored.

“How could that guy just disappear like that?” Asiya wondered aloud as she joined the others at the top of the hill.  She’d ran hard to keep up, yet her usual buoyant enthusiasm didn’t seem dampened in the slightest, which Alcander couldn’t help but admire.  “Ooooh!  Maybe he had some kind of invisibility spell or enchantment or something like that?!  That would be sooo cool!”

“It’s possible, but I doubt that,” Marcus said, massaging his right arm and flexing his fingers.  “Such spells or enchanted items would sell for tens of millions of silver, so far outside of the price range of a Valeman that it would be ludicrous to assume he would have one… However, I think I might have something.”

The other three quickly moved closer to Marcus, who crouched down to examine the ground near the top of the hill.

“He didn’t vanish, he just changed directions.  In the split second that Lady Valeria lost sight of him, he darted to the right.”

“Damn,” she whispered in a tone that suggested self-recrimination.  “Did he leave a trail that you can follow?” she asked anxiously.

“He did,” answered Marcus, bringing a smile to the faces of the entire party.

He led them in pursuit of Leon at a fast pace—though it was quite a bit slower than when they were directly chasing him earlier.  Every now and then he’d have to stop and examine the ground or a bush, but still confidently led them onward.  Alcander was grateful; he was next to useless when it came to tracking.

“This trail is meandering west, towards the mountains,” Asiya pointed out.  “Perhaps the Snow Lions’ camp is in the west, rather than somewhere in the forest as we had assumed?”

“Maybe…” muttered Marcus with a furrowed brow.

“Something wrong?” asked Alcander, noticing the unease that had started to creep into Marcus’ voice.

“It’s… probably nothing, but the trail seems odd…”

“… Could you be a little more specific as to it’s oddity?” asked Valeria after a long pause from Marcus.

“Well, every time I see a sign of Leon’s passage, it leads us in a certain direction.  But, there’s only ever that one sign, and when we go far enough that I would need another clue, then bam!  There’s another one just waiting for me.  Maybe I’m reading too much into this, but it just seems oddly convenient.”

“Not getting cold feet, are you” asked Alcander in a teasing tone.

“Hardly.  I just don’t want to lead us into a trap.”

“He’s one guy!  How much of a trap could he spring on such short notice?”

“Let’s hope we don’t have to find out…”

The group followed the trail right up to one of the doorsteps of the western mountains, a small footpath on the northern edge of the Academy’s training grounds that led into a series of rocky canyons carved by powerful earth mages centuries ago.

“Well, shit…” muttered Alcander as he looked up at the two imposing mountains that flanked the mouth of the footpath.  His doubts about what Leon could do to them started to evaporate; the greatest danger to Leon fighting all of them at once was that one person could tie him down while the other three would attack his exposed flanks.  The footpath, however, was far too narrow for such flanking action.

They would have to be fools to not acknowledge Leon’s fighting skill.  They all knew that he was an equal at the very least to any of them, so combat against him in such a confined space would be far from easy, especially if he were to spring an ambush of his own.

“I’m going in,” Alcander declared, drawing the eyes of the other three.  “We’ve come this far, and I, for one, am not going to just turn around and run when Leon is somewhere in there.”

Without another word, Alcander tightened his grip on his ax and strode with more confidence than he felt down the footpath, with Valeria only just behind him.  Marcus and Asiya hesitated for a few seconds, but they, too, followed, and all four soon plunged into the rocky canyons that Leon’s trail led into.

---

“This damned place,” Alcander muttered as the group of four reached another intersection.  They had followed Leon’s trail into the footpaths and had walked deeper into the canyons, the sky growing ever further away with every step they took.  They quickly found that the canyons were essentially a maze, probably built by some sadistic Knight Academy Legate who wanted to diversify the local terrain.  If it wasn’t for Marcus—who had learned how to navigate in such terrain in his family’s holdings in the hilly and mountainous Eastern Territories—they would’ve gotten lost as soon as they made their first few turns.

Marcus had lost Leon’s trail, but the four nobles refused to give up without at least trying to find it again, and so had stubbornly kept exploring.  All four regretted that decision, as there didn’t seem to be an end to the rocky crags and cliffs that surrounded and almost seemed to press down onto them.

‘Did he want to bring us here?  Was it his intention to lose us in this place?’ Marcus wondered.  If it was Leon’s plan for them to get lost in the maze, then he had to admit he was both impressed and disappointed.  Impressed at Leon’s simple but effective plan, but disappointed with the abject failure of his own plan.

“We should leave…” Valeria said quietly, her radiant blue eyes constantly swiveling in their sockets as she tried to keep everything in sight at all times, as if Leon could suddenly pop out of any of the boulders and attack.

“But this place is so cooool!” protested Asiya, her face beaming in joy as if she were here as a tourist.

Valeria pointed out, “This place is also probably where the Snow Lions have been hiding for these past few months.  I’m sure they would know the layout far better than we do.  Continuing onward would be asking to walk into an ambush.”  Asiya frowned for a moment, but didn’t disagree.

“Let’s press on,” said Marcus.  “I have a feeling we’re about to find what we’re looking for…”

“You’re not wrong,” came a voice from above them, “but you really should have listened to the lady!”

The four immediately looked up, searching for the source of that voice, and saw Castor, Alphonsus, Leon, and eleven other Snow Lions staring back at them from the top of the crevice they were walking through.  The cliff walls were low enough for third-tier mages like them to jump to the top of, only about three or four times the height of a full-grown man, but the Snow Lions didn’t give them the opportunity.  As soon as they turned their eyes up and made eye contact, the Snow Lions loosed their prepared arrows.

Alcander shouted as he raised his axe to try and defend, but he was a large man and the four arrows aimed at him all found their mark, knocking him out.

Marcus tried to dodge, but both of his legs and one of his arms were hit and disabled.

Asiya and Valeria dodged as well, but an arrow grazed Asiya’s arm and paralyzed it.  Valeria was the only one of the group who wasn’t hit.  After taking a moment to take in her situation, she leaped into the air and landed nimbly on the top of the cliff.

And there she was faced with Leon, Alphonsus, and five other Snow Lions.  Leon stood in front of her grinning in triumph, while Alphonsus raised his sword and glared from behind her.

“Draw!” shouted Castor from the other side of the crevice, ordering the rest of the Snow Lions to prepare more arrows to fire down on Marcus and Asiya.  Then, he turned to Valeria.  “If you fight, you won’t win.  However, if you leave, we won’t follow you…”

Valeria looked at how badly she was outnumbered and surrounded, glanced back down at the other three, then reluctantly lowered her glaive, a scowl momentarily gracing her features as Leon stood only a few steps in front of her, still grinning triumph, no sign of fatigue from the run through the forest anywhere to be seen on his face.

“… We’ll go…” she reluctantly murmured, acknowledging that they had lost.  Neither Marcus nor Asiya argued with her decision.  Marcus actually thought the Snow Lions were being incredibly merciful for not simply knocking them all out and dropping them at the doors of their respective towers.

Valeria made to rejoin her group, but just as she was about to jump back down, she turned to Leon and said, “I’m looking forward to our next proper duel.”  Then, she gave him a minute nod and jumped back down into the canyon.

“I’m looking forward to it as well,” responded Leon with a much bigger smile.

Marcus, Alcander, Asiya, and Valeria promptly retreated under the watchful eyes of the Snow Lions, with Valeria carrying Alcander and Asiya supporting Marcus until his stunned legs regained feeling.  They cut amusing figures as the two young ladies carried two much bigger men with seemingly little effort.  Marcus was still conscious, so he was easily able to direct them back to the exit.  The Snow Lions didn’t follow them that far, but none of them were under any illusions that Leon, at least, didn’t know where they were.

‘Next time, we won’t lose,’ he thought as the competitive fire in his heart blazed with a fierce intensity.  ‘Next time, we will seize those banners.  When this cycle comes to an end, it will be the Steel Century who stands on top!’

---

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