"So I'll be battling underground," Harrison Reed remarked when we all met up for a last-minute strategy meeting right after we received the email. By now, everyone knew the drill, and automatically headed to his room the moment we received the email. Having missed out the first three matches, I wasn't aware of this tradition, but Dong Fang Yue Chu made sure to stop by my room and knock on my door to get me to move out.

"This looks like it's going to be difficult," Pearl Pang said worriedly, staring at the holographic map that was sent as an attachment along with the email. She spun it around and enlarged it for us to see. "There's a lot of hiding places and shadowy spots to lay ambushes and catch the partic.i.p.ants by surprise. Not to mention, these tunnels…they are so dark, so winding, and long…it's like a maze in there. A labyrinth where you can get lost forever."

"Couldn't Harrison use that to his advantage?" Cody Crosby suggested with a nonchalant shrug. "Set up traps and spring ambushes on his opponents. That's what I would do."

"That's precisely the problem." Lily Liam instead agreed with Pearl, also giving Harrison a concerned look. "This sort of battlefield and sneaky style doesn't suit Harrison at all."

"Sneaky style…oi!" Cody growled, feeling offended. Lily quickly waved her hands frantically to placate him.

"Sorry! I mean no offense! But you know what I mean. There's absolutely nothing wrong with the way you fight, and relying on stealth, traps and surprise tactics are definitely valid methods in a map like this. Preferable, even. However, Harrison isn't the type to fight like that. We're in the same society, you know how Harrison fights, and what sort of magic he uses."

"Holy magic." Theodore Hammond nodded thoughtfully, placing a finger on his chin. "If he uses his holy magic in such a dark place, he'll practically be s.h.i.+ning a beacon upon himself and painting a gigantic target over his head. He'll be attracing a lot of unwanted attention."

"Exactly!"

"Just our bad luck!" Craig Carlson cursed angrily. "Of all the places to choose for the final match, they picked such a shady place! It's almost as if they are doing this on purpose!"

Of course they weren't. Everyone knew that the tournament staff selected the venues for the tournaments randomly, without favoring one school over the others. As much as we hated to admit it, lady luck had chosen not to smile upon us this time.

"d.a.m.n…if only the map I partic.i.p.ated in was this…I would have done a lot better!" Cody groaned as he leaned back.

"It can't be helped." Surprisingly, it was Bu Fan who spoke up. The guy usually didn't bother joining the discussion and was always off in his own world, thinking about his own personal matters (and most likely his sister). Sometimes we even forgot that he was part of the team. He shrugged when he found himself scrutinized by nine pairs of eyes, totally not fl.u.s.tered by our intense gazes. "They already specified that the last round would be between captains. We are not allow to swap another member in. whether we like it or not, Harrison has to partic.i.p.ate in this round."

"I don't think anyone is denying that," Sheila said, confused. "Even if we want to, we can't just change the team captain without a valid reason."

Obviously they woudn't allow us to change the team captain now. Unless he had somehow been incapacitated, fallen ill or was terribly injured (which was no excuse since healing magic existed), or had urgent family matters that required him to drop out of the tournament suddenly, it was against the rules to change the captain in the middle of the tournament. Even if we could, there was little point. Someone who had already partic.i.p.ated in the earlier stages was not allowed to partic.i.p.ate in the other stages. Each member was only allowed to take part once. No member was allowed to repeatedly partic.i.p.ate in two or more stages or the whole team would be disqualified. That meant that we couldn't just subst.i.tute Cody in for Harrison even if we somehow concocted a "valid" excuse.

Not that Harrison was having any of it. Being the dignified, responsible leader that he was, he maintained his own code of honor.

"I will partic.i.p.ate in this and I will earn us the points we need to qualify for the next stage," he declared firmly. No one was going to propose that we switch captain, no matter what Bu Fan might imply. Harrison wouldn't allow it. His pride demanded that he did his best, no matter the venue.

"More importantly, we should think of how you will fight in the metro," I pointed out, bringing everyone back to the topic at hand. "These tunnels seem like a death trap. It's tempting to hide in them, but the moment you use your holy magic, you'll expose your position."

Harrison nodded, pondering on my words. He tilted his head at me.

"So are you proposing that I stay on the platform?"

"Uh, well…I guess so."

"That seems like an obvious plan." Craig chewed on his lip. "But won't the other partic.i.p.ants also think along similar lines? That will get you stuck in one place, and Harrison might end up being cornered sooner or later."

"He'll be cornered if he goes into the tunnels," Bu Fan scoffed.

"Yeah, well…then what should he do?"

"The answer's obvious, isn't it?" Bu Fan was trying not to roll his eyes as he sneered. "Just beat up everyone who challenges him. Overpower them with overwhelming strength. It's not rocket science."

Everyone looked at him in disbelief. Easier said than done. If it was so easy, anyone would just do that. Unfortunately, Harrison wasn't some G.o.d mode Mary Sue who could steamroll 49 other partic.i.p.ants by himself (or 40, considering that he only needed to be among the last surviving ten to get the bonus points). Actually, now that I thought about it, he didn't even need to survive until the very end. He just needed to get a decent haul of points.

Again, easier said than done.

While my teammates continued to debate and argue over possible strategies, I returned my attention to studying the map once again. For some reason, the map of the metro looked very familiar to me. I felt as if I had seen it somewhere before…

"…eh?"

Yeah, I was pretty sure I had seen this layout of the metro somewhere before. But I just couldn't place my finger on where exactly…

Then it hit me.

"I know this place!"

"Really?!" everyone turned to stare at me. Harrison, in particular, raised an eyebrow. "You've ben to Aurora City before? You've used the metro before?"

"No. Not Aurora City…uh, well…I saw it somewhere before. In a simulation."

Now that was not exactly a lie, but it wasn't exactly the truth either. The reality was that I had indeed played through this "metro" over a hundred times before, but it was through a game. To be more precise, it was the Metro map of Battlefield 3, a game that I played with my friend when we were both still undergraduate students. Even though Electronic Arts often received a lot of criticism because of their microtransactions and whatever, Dice was still an excellent AAA developer, and there was fierce rivalry between fans of the Battlefield series and fans of the Call of Duty series, I had to admit that Battlefield was somewhat addicting. Well, at least 3 was. I kind of stopped playing 4 because I found a better game – t.i.tanfall. t.i.tanfall is the best and most fun shooter I had ever played, and its sequel was just as good, if not better.

Resp.a.w.n rules.

Before I detracted too much, the main point was that I had often played in Metro whenever I joined my friend in Team Deathmatch or Conquest for Battlefield 3. Thus I was unexpectedly familiar with the map. Recalling what I could from sp.a.w.n points, flags that you were supposed to capture in the Conquest game mode, the various killzones and chokepoints, I hurriedly explained the places where most conflicts occurred to Harrison, who nodded as he listened intently and attentively.

"The most important thing about this map is…" I paused dramatically, savoring the looks on everyone's faces as they stared at me, almost as if they were enraptured. "…teamwork."

"…huh?" Craig gaped at me.

"You heard me. Teamwork is most imperative here. If you try to go solo, you'll get caught in between these killzones and eliminated very quickly. In order to prevail, you must team up with quite a few people and hold the chokepoints here, or here, or here. You then cast ranged spells and form an overlapping field of fire to create a killing zone. Anyone who comes this way will die. No doubt about it. The only way to weather your hail of fire is to have a team of their own, but by then you should have established a foothold and have an overwhelming advantage."

"…right." Harrison seemed skeptical, but he didn't dismiss me outright, which was a good sign. "You are definitely right, though. I can't do this on my own. I'll need allies."

"That's the spirit!"

I smiled, and then dug through my memory for any more advice. Oh, there was plenty I could offer, especially since I had died countless times in this d.a.m.ned map before. I was glad I wasn't the one who had to return there to brave the fire.

Speaking of fire…

"The most effective spells are area of effect spells, or high explosive spells." I couldn't conceal the grin that was spreading across my face. Enlarging a single point in the holographic map, I pointed toward the staircases on the first level of the station that led to the subway below. I recalled how often I died while running through those chokepoints because Engineers fired their rocket launchers or a.s.sault medics launched grenades downward at the killing zones, often wiping large swathes of my team out and gaining lots of points for team deathmatch. Of course, the reverse was true as well, where my team held the high ground and completely wiped the floor with the poor opposing team. "In such confined s.p.a.ces, particularly, the opposing team will be tightly cl.u.s.tered and vulnerable to area of effect spells. With just a few of those spells, you can take out a whole bunch of them at once. Not only that, the explosive effects of your destructive spells will be amplified exponentially in such enclosed s.p.a.ces. So all it takes is a single boom!"

I emphasized my point with a snap of my finger.

This time, Harrison looked convinced, and he snapped out of his enthralled expression to nod somewhat excitedly.

"You're right. That certainly sounds like it will work."

"Now, all you need now is a team, like Richard says." Craig also seemed persuaded by my plan. He folded his arms and nodded gravely. "Otherwise you'll end up getting stabbed in the back while trying to pin the enemy at these chokepoints."

"That's right." Harrison leaned back in his chair and thought for a moment, his handsome features creased into a frown. "But who can I trust? Who among the other partic.i.p.ants would be ideal to team up with?"

"The strongest," Bu Fan said automatically. Everyone turned to scoff at him.

"Don't be ridiculous. What use is teaming up with the strongest if they backstab and betray you?" Pearl shook her head. "They are the ones we have to watch out for the most. If anything, they have no reason to team up because they will be confident in their own strength."

"Yeah," Lily agreed. "More than strength, we need someone who can be trusted to not betray us. Someone with honor. I would rather team up with a somewhat mediocre student from a rank B or C academy than entrust my back to a genius from a rank A academy, only to get stabbed in the back because he or she wants to score as many points as possible."

I suppressed the urge to roll my eyes because I personally thought the whole ranking system was utter bulls.h.i.+t. However, Lily did have a valid point. Loyalty and honor were more important than strength and talent when it came to forming a team. There was no use teaming up with someone who we had to spend half the time keeping an eye on, afraid to turn our back on him because we were aware he would backstab us at any time. That defeated the whole purpose of trusting him to watch our backs. I knew of the adage "keep your friends close, but your enemies closer"– but that obviously did not apply in the battlefield when the bullets started flying and you were more occupied with fighting and staying alive than scheming and betraying.

Aha. I suddenly thought of someone who I could trust. Well, I wasn't sure about his academy, but the guy at least kept his end of the bargain and helped me out, and even until the very end, he never betrayed me even though he had every opportunity to do so.

"How about the students from Divine Divination Academy? Ding Ke Po owes me for the alliance in our previous match, so I think his teammates are more likely to help us out than any of the other partic.i.p.ants."

"Hmm…" Harrison hesitated a little, as if he wasn't sure he should voice his objection. Fortunately, he had Bu Fan to say the ugly things for him.

"Are you joking? That bunch of fortune-tellers? What can they possibly do in combat? Maybe they are trustworthy, but how are you going to trust your back to someone who sucks at fighting, and can only do palm-reading or astrology? How are they supposed to contribute to winning this match?"

"I'm afraid Bu Fan has a point," Harrison reluctantly admitted. "I understand that they are trustworthy, but I don't see how having them as an ally will be helpful in this situation."

"They will just drag Harrison down," Bu Fan continued dismissively.

"Actually, that remains to be seen."

"Oh?" Theodore cut in before anyone could protest hotly. He matched my gaze, his dark eyes curious. "What makes you say so?"

"When I fought alongside Ding Ke Po, his predictions and divination actually helped me avoid ambushes and traps," I explained, curling a finger on my chin. "If you're camping on these chokepoints and holding the killzones, what better ally would you have than someone who can accurately predict where the next a.s.sault will come from, when the opponents will attack, or if there is someone sneaking up on the team from behind?"

"You're right." Harrison nodded eagerly, his eyes lighting up. He had watched the video a.n.a.lysis of my match alongside Ding Ke Po, and everything was falling in place for him now. "Intelligence is definitely a vital resource for victory. If we can predict where the enemy comes from, and what exactly they intend to do, that's pretty much half the battle won."

"Yeah, that's a very useful a.s.set to have in battle," Bu Fan condeded grudgingly. I couldn't help but stare at him in shock. I never thought he would admit that he was mistaken.

"All right." Harrison clapped his hands, a smile spreading across his charismatic face. "I guess it's time to start forging alliances."