A Game Of Pawns

Chapter 8

Saris added more games to our training schedule. We'd only play one or two games a day, but they were fun breaks from the exhausting physical training. A game of chess might take us the whole day, broken up between meals and breaks from training, but I looked forward to playing when we did. I had even gotten better and finally beaten Saris, once I got more used to his playing style.

Despite the fun change to our routine, Saris also intensified my training. When we sparred, he increased his speed, hit harder and attacked in areas that were more difficult to block or dodge against. He woke me from my sleep earlier and kept me up later, so we could get more training in. While it wasn't fun, I did see a difference in my ability and stamina. I was faster, stronger and more clever with my attacks. I was also not as sore or tired as I had been during the first few days of training and even though I was getting less sleep, I didn't feel too tired to function for the whole day.

Saris kept giving me tips during downtime too. During a game or while we ate, he would describe some of the abilities that I might see or the weapons that they might have. He would also give some details on common strategies we could come up against.

"Some people look for certain types of players," he said while we ate some ham and cheese sandwiches. "This usually consists of a ranged attacker and two or three people up front in the fight. If it's a team of four, you'll usually see someone as more of a support, using powers to try and either block incoming attacks or trying to trip up opponents."

"What are the most common abilities?"

Saris thought for a moment, "Elemental powers. Fire users are probably most common, but you'll find telekinetics and general energy style things too. An energy blast or shield; something like that."

"You said teams are looking for people with ranged abilities or support tactics. Are there certain strategies I have to learn to fulfill one of those roles?"

"Not really. Every team will be a bit different with how they operate and you'll learn that as you make teams. If all you can do is attack, that's fine. But if you can attack and defend, or do multiple things in a combat situation, you'll be more valued as an ally. Although, you might also be considered more dangerous and people might target you for it. So, there are pros and cons to being versatile. My suggestion would be to do what comes naturally"

"What's the best tactic to win a fight?" I asked, trying to not think about people targeting me because I was too good. Thinking about it too much would make me not want to train as hard.

"In my experience, as long as you get to an enemy quickly, before they're ready for you, you'll have the advantage. Actually, there are plenty of teams out there that try to do this in a fight, sometimes more than once. "

I took a sip of water. "How do they do that?"

"They hide how many members there are, then the hidden member comes to strike from behind, or just somewhere unexpected. It doesn't work too well if you don't have enough people though. It's rare for a team to just be two people."

"Why?"

"Well, for one thing, it's harder to take out bigger groups. But also, you need to keep watch every night, especially when you're out in the open. Splitting that between two people is a lot to ask for. Best you can manage is about four or five hours each and you'll be easier to sneak up on and take out because you'll be too tired or you won't be moving around as much, making it easier to stalk you. A good team is three to four people. Any more and you risk the team feeling threatened by each other, any less and you won't be able to defend yourselves easily." Saris noticed that I was done eating. "Let's get back to it."