War for the Skies (completed) (Book 1 of the Heroes of the Realms series)

Chapter 8

When I arrived back at camp, I ran straight for the Great Hall to eat. This time, I didn't think of my mom's food, because I knew I would probably fall into some deep dreams about it, so I just thought of a boiled egg and orange juice.

I sat next to Theo and Lukas again and we didn't really talk except for the conversation about my new sword.

"Whoa! Nice sword, man!" Lukas had said.

Theo had nodded and then we had eaten.

After most of us ate, coach came back in.

"Hello my fellow students!" he gestured all of us. "Today we will be playing Central Capture the Flag! Everyone here knows how to play right?"

Everyone nodded but I said "No."

"Your friend Lukas will explain it to you, Leon," he said.

Hey, I'm not an idiot. I knew what capture the flag was. It was pretty obvious. I had no idea what Central Capture the Flag was.

"Everyone you all have ten minutes to gear up and get ready, then we will start!" he said and gestured us all out.

Everyone rushed to their cabins to get prepared.

I stood in my cabin with nothing to do since I had nothing except my sword to use in the game. I was thinking of taking my dad's armor, but then I thought that this was just a training for camp. But then I also thought that all of these guys had deadly weapons.

I went to my closet and opened it up.

I imagined my dad, and how he had given me this sword, how the twenty minutes of me seeing him had passed, and surely enough a piece of armor stood in my closet. It wasn't anything special. Two golden shoulder plates and a piece in the back for putting my sword. Stretching from my left shoulder to the right side of my hip was a golden lightning bolt. In the center of the lightning bolt, a small circle glowed white, with a symbol of a tornado.

I took off my jacket and put the armor on.

Somehow, it auto-adjusted and instead of feeling like a huge piece of metal on my shoulders, it felt like a regular t-shirt. I was able to move pretty comfortably.

I didn't think it would protect me much, but then somehow the white circle in my chest was pushed in, and the suit covered me in a black and white wool suit, which somehow felt safer than my t-shirt. My jeans suddenly had golden and white highlights.

I felt like I was ready to go. I strapped off my belt and put my sword on my back, and stepped back out.

I met Lukas in front of his cabin, where he was in a new set of technical armor, along with all of his cabin mates.

"Hi," I said.

"Hi," he said.

"So."

"So, in capture the flag, there's a flag-"

"I'm not an idiot Electric Brain, I know what capture the flag is. How is it Central?"

"Instead of two flags in each team's base, there's just one in the center of the battlefield, and one team has to catch it and bring it to their base," he explained.

DUH! I thought. It was actually pretty obvious.

Theo jumped out of his cabin with a few half-siblings. He had red leather armor on with orange highlights. It was also on fire.

"I'm not even gonna ask," I said.

He smiled.

"Where's your weapon?" I wondered.

"You'll see soon enough. Maybe it might be too deep in your face for you to see actually," he beamed.

"Ha-ha, very funny," Lukas sighed.

"Wasn't that funny, actually," I muttered.

"Look, Leon. In the battlefield, if we die, then our bodies will be healed and teleported back to our cabins," Lukas explained. "So don't worry if you die. It still hurts, but you're not dying. Somehow, when we enter the special battlefield, our bodies are upgraded and can stand stuff like getting stabbed, shot, or whatever. Because our bodies modify, they can take that sort of damage without dying. But... you'll be out of the game and your upgraded body will fade off until you're back in the battlefield again."

"So you're saying, if you shoot me in the head with an arrow, I won't die?" I asked.

"If you're in the arena, yes. But that arrow in the head will get you eliminated."

It was kind of a mind-fry, but I was okay with it. If someone was going to stab me and I wouldn't die, that would be amazing.

A horn sounded in the distance and we walked over to the battlefield.

Coach showed us a yellow flag that he placed on a canoe in the middle of the river. Even though there was a current, the boat stood still, without any ropes or anchor or anything.

"Alright, split yourselves up into teams, and we shall begin!" coach said.

I noticed Skylar teaming up with all of her half-siblings and a few people from Lukas's cabin, and a few others, but I didn't recognize them. As soon as Lukas told me I was on his team, I didn't care. But of course me not caring meant Heather had to be in.

"I'm in your team!" she screamed followed by her other half-siblings.

The only people I recognized other than her were Theo and Lukas.

When both teams announced that they were ready, we split up. Our team went into the part of the woods near the main camp and the other team went to the woods on the other side of the river.

Coach yelled so loudly he could be yelled from all the way back here.

"THE SHIELDS HAVE BEEN PLACED!" he said as a glow of blue showed a dome around the main arena.

"3!" Coach screamed. My legs wobbled. "2! 1! GO!!!"