Tarragon

Chapter Three: The Skytreaders

-January 1st, 2024
-Mantis

Today was the day that I'd get to meet the Skytreaders, and begin my training. I sat in the car with my mom, my mind buzzing with excitement. I kept having to remind myself that though I was starting my training, I wouldn't play for another two years.

We drove up to a fortified parking garage, and I flashed the QR code on the sheet I was holding to the scanner. The door opened up, and we drove through.

"What parking space does it say?" My mom asked me. I skimmed it, until I found what I was looking for.

"108." I told her.

She drove around a bit, until she spotted spot 108. We got out of the car, and walked over to the building attached to this parking garage.

A worker was standing next to the entrance, wearing the uniform of the Skytreaders. It was primarily blue, with a few cyan details, and stripes. He confirmed that I was Mantis, and led me inside.

I was greeted by ten people. The worker left us alone in the room with them.

One of them walked towards me. Skimming his badge, he was named Willis Smith, and he was the team captain- the person who had sent me the email.

He raised out a hand, and I hesitantly shook it. He was substantially taller, and looked fairly intimidating.

"Welcome to the team, Mantis. It's nice to finally meet you in person. I'm Willis Smith." He greeted me in a warm, and welcoming manner.

"Nice to meet you too." I responded, a bit nervous.

"I'm Aliya, the person you'll be replacing." Someone butted in, "I'll teach you everything I know, and then, once my contract ends two and a half years from now, you'll take my place."

I looked at Aliya. She was a few inches taller than I was, and I estimated her to be 5'10".

She had a badge with her name, and 'Player' written below it.

We had our formalities, and a few minutes later, my mom left. I told Aliya where I was with my magic, and she seemed surprised by my dedication for practically no reason. I only then really considered that I had over 400 hours in magic, just doing it casually.

Aliya showed me to a few rooms- A table with a few miniature Tarragon table presets, a gym, and an arena. The arena was for combat training between team members, the gym was for training physical strength, and the table was for strategy.

Finally, Aliya brought me back to the arena. She showed me the set of Tarragon gear which would become mine. It was sleek, with a few lines of cyan LEDs for our team color, there was a one-way glass window on the mask, and a few concentric circles around the body which were cyan too. There were some materials on the chest and legs which were there for shock absorption too.

However, the main thing which made Tarragon armor so invaluable to its players was the teleportation ability. When triggered by a hit, it warps itself and its wearer to a designated location.

Each suit is worth about three million dollars, and the amount of measures in place to make sure it can't be stolen is just incredible.

I picked up the helmet, and placed it on my head. It melded to the rest of the suit, sealing the whole thing. I was able to see clearly through the visor, and Aliya showed me a few useful modes with it, such as its night vision mode, and heat vision mode.

We walked out into the arena, and stretched for a few minutes. Once we were ready, we shut the door, and the room lit up.

"Don't worry about winning, this is more of a benchmark of your combat ability. We'll keep track of how long you can last, your dodging, counterattacking, and so on." Aliya explained to me.

"3... 2... 1... Go!" I heard a robotic voice announce.

Aliya launched the fight into motion, leaping forwards and spraying lightning onto her left and right. I empowered a jump, and launched myself over her, spraying lightning down while in the air. As she turned around, I noticed that she choreographed an empowered bolt, so just before she sent it, I grappled to the ground with a strand of lightning. She flew across the ground in a blur of crackling electricity, formed a spear of lightning, and drove it forwards. I turned to avoid it, but to my dismay, she just slammed it to the side, into me. In a flash of light, I was back at the entrance to the arena.

"You did a lot better than I expected," Aliya started, "Your movement is pretty good, but you seem to be lacking certain ways of moving... You seemed to forget that I could move that spear laterally, though." Aliya continued listing off what I did right and wrong.