Chapter 20: Flag Game

|3rd POV|

Byakuran snaps from his thoughts and quickly dodges to the left. He watches Vale fly past him and quickly raises his hand to do a counterattack. However, before he can do that, something heavy presses against him and makes him fall to the ground.

*Boom*

Byakuran can see Vale looking at him with a silver aura around him. He takes a deep breath and releases his sky flame. A white energy washes over him and Vale, canceling Vale's attack against him.

Vale widens his eyes and says.

"As expected of you, huh? Your control over Sky Flame is too high."

Vale can cancel foreign energy, but he needs a few minutes to make his flame find the weakness of the energy attacks. Byakuran can do that only after a few seconds of feeling it. The knowledge from countless versions of himself gives Byakuran perfect control over his Sky Flame.

"Thank you~."

Byakuran grins and looks at Vale excitedly.

"However, I am more interested in your silver aura! It lets you control gravity, right?"

"Oh? What gives it away?"

"I did not feel any energy attacking me. Your aura controls gravity around me instead of attacking me. If it is the latter, I need a minute to cancel your attack."

"I see."

Byakuran let out a small laugh, and suddenly, white wings appeared from his back.

"Let's dance, brother! Show me your full might!"

Vale takes a deep breath, and flames appear on his forehead. His face gets calm, and his eyes now change into orange. Byakuran claps his hand and says.

"Hyper Dying Will Mode! You awaken it! Great! This is Great~ I never awakened that ability because of my innate ability, but it looks like you can awaken that."

Vale nods and takes out his box weapon. He takes out his sword and dashes at Byakuran, who dodges his attack. Byakuran laughs loudly and dashes forward with his sky flame around his fists. He thrusts his fist forward, and each time he does that, a torrent of orange flame comes out of his fist.

Vale raises his aura and tries to increase the gravity around Byakuran but he increases his flame to neutralize the gravity manipulation. However, instead of getting frustrated, Vale smiles as he sees Byakuran's attack weaken, and the younger man is busy countering his gravity manipulation.

Byakuran raises his hand as Vale swings down his sword. He jumps away and looks at Vale with a frown.

"That is cheating."

"Hmmm~ What is it, Byakuran?"

"I need to concentrate on countering your silver aura!"

Vale laughs and says.

"All fair in a fight, no?"

Byakuran sighs and says.

"You are right. I give up."

"Eh?"

"What? I know my limit, brother. If you give me time to prepare, I can beat you. Sadly, I cannot beat you in a straight fight. However, give me a year or two, and I will beat you. I need to increase my reserve to counter your annoying ability."

"You already have a massive amount of Flame, you know? Just how much do you want to get before you can beat me?"

"Countering your ability uses a lot of my flame. The only thing I can do is to fight you in a close combat fight without my flame, and I know I cannot beat you with that."

"Fair enough."

Byakuran walks toward Vale and says.

"Right! There is something I have wanted to ask you since I arrived here."

"Hmm? What is it?"

"Who are these people?"

"Ah"

Vale looks at his guests, who watch from the side, and says.

"They are my guests. They are coming here to learn how to hunt and fight."

"Really?! Can my guardians join?!"

Vale blinks for a second before saying.

"I don't mind. You know what? We can make a training game."

Vale looks to the side and says.

"Markos! Can you come here? With your students, please."

Markos and his student walk toward him and say.

"What's up?"

"Do you want to play some games between you and my little brother?"

"What kind of game?"

"Capture the Flag."

Seeing his confusion, Valerian decides to explain more.

"As the name suggests, it is a capture-the-flag game. The battlefield will be the forest in front of you. We will create some sort of barrier around the area to indicate the end of the line of the battlefield. Each team will be given one flag, and they need to hide their flag somewhere visible but easily defensible. The goal of this game is to capture your opponent's flag."

"That sounds easy enough."

"It might be easy. However, hiding among the thick trees will be beasts that you need to defeat or flee from."

Valerian summons his Weapon Animals and smiles.

"These are among the beasts that are hiding in the forest. However, if you are daring, you can beat the beast and get the weapon they are protecting."

"Did my team not get any weapons?"

"Only one type of weapon for each member."

"I see."

"There are no more than two guardians that protect the flags, and they cannot stand within ten meters of the flag."

"Even when defending?"

"Even when defending, yes. However, that is because the one who captures the flag must bring it to their base. Not only that, the capturer cannot stay without the circle of the flag for more than twenty seconds. If they do that, they will be automatically put into jail."

"I see."

"When you guys meet each other and decide to fight. The one that cannot move for more than ten seconds will be taken prisoner, and they need to be put in 'jail.' Where is the jail? Your team will decide that. However, it has the same rule as the flag, but the defender can stand within ten meters of the jail. The one that is put in jail will be healed. You can use this to your advantage if you want to take the risk. To let your team out, you need to touch them. The prisoner cannot be bound but can be disarmed and use their weapon."

Valerian can see the demigods shake in excitement at the game, so he ends the explanation by saying.

"Lastly! No maiming or killing. My healer unit will be around the battlefield to ensure nothing severe happens. You can join the fight, Markos."

"Are you sure? I might look like this, but I am a high-class fighter, you know?"

"Don't worry. Byakuran will be offended if you do not join, right, Byakuran?"

The marshmallow-addicted young man gives him a thumbs up.

"However, it will be seven versus seven. Byakuran, do you have one more member?"

"Hmmm~ Don't worry~ I know someone that will joining me~"

"If you say so."

Valerian looks at Markos and says.

"What do you think?"

"Of course we are in. This looks fun."

"Great! The game will start in three hours! I will prepare the battlefield and show the general location of your base!"