Quest Academy: Scavengers, page 55
Erika’s voice cut through all of them.
“No! Sal, just shoot them. Brophy, stay inside. We’re defending right now and the moment the door opens, we’ll be taken down. Ioseph, focus on the barriers!” She sounded absolutely pissed; the whole thing had turned to shit around her.
No windows, reduced visibility of their surroundings, and being trapped in a cube with their assailants outside had ended up as a disaster. The best outcome they could hope for would be a stalemate unless Sal managed to take out all ten of them by himself.
“They’re too close. I’ll hit the roof if I try to hit them!” Sal insisted again, but Erika’s voice snapped back in frustration almost a half second later.
“Just shut up and keep trying! You made this mess, so we need to hold out for as long as possible!”
Sal saw red as he snapped his attention to where her voice sounded out. “I made this mess? If you hadn’t insisted on manning the tower, we could have seen them approach and reduced their numbers! They’re clumped on us now because you needed to be in control!”
Erika shouted something back at him, but Sal didn’t hear it as an ethereal mist formed in front of him. He tried to lift his revolver, but it was too late. A hand burst out from the mist and grasped his wrist tightly. The strength of her hold was insane, and Sal could barely budge as the rest of her body materialized into the tight space around him.
Sal couldn’t even get out a word of warning as her arm snaked around his neck and forced him over the edge of the railing. His visor was forcibly removed and the revolver followed shortly afterward. Sal twisted his body, trying to get a look at her, but all he could see was a small device clipped to her belt.
Name
Essence Disruption Grenade
Origin Crafted
Age 1 year
Grade Uncommon (Low)
Dimensions 4 inches Length | 2 inches Width
Materials Nullification Essence | Void Metal Dust | Soul Shard Fragment | Magma Shard
Attributes Nullify: Drains target essence and restricts activation of abilities.
Stun: Temporarily paralyzes target.
Abilities Nullify | Stun
Power Source Internal Core
Evolution No
Quality Excellent
Condition 91%
Value
Est. $4,000.00 – $6,500.00
Sal suddenly understood Prestige’s earlier warning. If that grenade went off inside their building, the effect would be greatly amplified. He strained as much as he could and managed to surprise her slightly.
In that small window, Sal screamed down at his team. “Get out of the tower!”
His reward was darkness as his ambusher cut off his air supply and knocked him unconscious.
Chapter 76 – Defeat
“So, there’s a lot to unpack this time.” Prestige tapped her cane against the ground, a wide smile on her face. “It was about time we had an overwhelming defeat, with no doubts about your performance. Isn’t that right, Erika?”
She turned to Erika, who stared back at her defiantly. There was no refuting the facts. They had lost, and badly.
Sal had found out when he awoke that the team hadn’t managed to get out of the building in time, with the grenade going off moments after he screamed at them. One factor that gave him a grim sense of satisfaction was that his attacker had also been caught up in the blast, with the Amplify ability blowing up the tower she was perched on with Sal. She had been similarly knocked unconscious.
That was the only person they had managed to take down, and it was only through her own error. Brophy had apparently been forced by Erika’s ability to remain in the building, which ensured their collective defeat. If they had managed to achieve one thing as a team, it was a mutually assured destruction.
Prestige’s smile didn’t leave her face as she listed the facts. “You cloistered from the beginning, with an over reliance on your impenetrable defense. That clearly resulted in your downfall, but we’ll get to that in a few moments. I want to talk about the construct first.”
She turned and waved her cane at their camp. “Incredibly resourceful, but poorly utilized. You had four people doing nothing with all your focus on a single person in that tower. Having just a single person responsible for your success is a poor choice, and out of all the available people, you elected the wrong individual to start.”
With a wave of her hand, she gestured at one of the people dressed in black who were lined up the same as the previous week. The same man who had spoken to them before stepped forward at Prestige’s beckoning.
“We were able to advance on the camp without any issue this time. There were no surrounding wards like before, nor were there any barriers. It looked like an invitation to advance on the building, so we proceeded carefully. No traps were detected in the area, and all we needed to do was stay out of her line of sight.” He pointed at Erika as he spoke. “The branches of their tower created blind spots that we leveraged in our approach, and we had no issues in getting to the building.”
Prestige raised a hand for him to stop. She looked at the team and shook her head.
“You somehow managed to regress the complexity of your campsite in just a week. All the factors that gave them issues have been thrown to one side in favor of protecting yourselves. What did you hope to achieve with this plan? A fortified structure like this is something you fall back to when your initial plan doesn’t work—it’s not the place to stage your counterattack. In my opinion, this week’s ambush felt like you went into it with a defeatist attitude. You all knew that the ambushers would be adapting to your movements and habits, and you did nothing to change up your personal performance.”
She gestured for the man to continue, and he obliged with a nod.
“We identified very early on that there was limited offensive capabilities around their structure, with an over reliance on the tower itself. We utilized that as our entry point, by dispatching the Support, who had been switched out with the Controller. The essence disruption grenade was supposed to mildly stun them and allow our infiltrator to open the building from the inside. We hadn’t anticipated the Amplification effect of the building, which resulted in a severe reaction. Our apologies for not taking this into consideration, as it wasn’t our intent to create such devastation on week two.”
Sal followed his gaze to see the remnants of the tower that had been half-destroyed by the grenade blast. If his assailant hadn’t pushed him to safety, he likely would have been gravely injured by the blast. He couldn’t help but be resentful toward Erika for streamlining their defeat. She had insisted on being the person in the tower and refused his suggestion of using the tracker to identify the incoming targets. He didn’t know whether it was because of arrogance, or something else, but Erika said that the Amplification ability was more than enough for her to take them all out before they got close.
When that failed, she had tried to wrestle back control, which devolved into shouting instructions and ordering everyone to listen to her. Sal couldn’t even fathom the frustration Brophy must have felt at being controlled with her power, only to have to face an explosion as a reward.
Prestige clapped her hands together, drawing everyone’s attention back to her.
“I’m sure you’ve all learned a great deal from this encounter, and I’m almost reluctant to tell you that it will be worse next week. Your opponents steamrolled you this time, and my expectations have not been met. I’m happy that you’ve faced a setback early rather than later, but I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t disappointed at what you showed us this week. If I was to allocate grades on the last week, I’d fail each and every one of you. That structure that you poured days into creating is not fit for purpose and limits your capabilities. My suggestion would be to dismantle the building as it’s clear you’re being held back by it.”
Sal’s jaw clenched. He was proud of what he had built, but it had ended up working against them. A part of him wanted to insist that the problem wasn’t with the building but with Erika. If they had used it as it was intended, the result would have been much different. It felt unreasonable to blame his construct for their failure, but he was conflicted.
He had made the tower to suit his own needs from their first ambush and didn’t really consider how it could be used by the others. Sal was reminded of the first shirt he made with his ability, and how it, too, hadn’t been capable of performing the way he’d designed it. It was a product of his fear of prowlers, and it had almost killed him despite being functional. He thought then of the equipment that Blathnaid had made, and how she took the wearer into consideration when she adapted the style of her clothing. He still had so much to learn, and Prestige’s words about the building being dismantled really grated on him. Not because he thought she was wrong, but because he was starting to see that she was right.
Prestige stood closer to Erika and placed her cane squarely between her legs. She gave their Controller a meaningful look as she tilted her head to one side. “Do you disagree with any of my assessment so far?”
Erika shook her head slightly, the only indication that she was even listening.
Prestige wasn’t satisfied with just that and she leaned in closer. “Explain to me what went wrong during this exercise. I need to know that you understand before I can sign off on you entering a tower in the future.”
With those words, Prestige highlighted the importance of them getting this right. The guardians were in place to ensure that the students would be ready for what awaited them in the tower. Be it training vigilance or resilience, or whatever, the guardians were watching their every move.
Erika’s brow furrowed as she looked back at the team. It was like she was weighing up if she’d rather own up to her mistakes, or to throw them into the fire. No matter what she said, Sal was convinced that her actions had thrown them into disarray.
Erika gestured at their accommodation and maintained a stoic expression. “We operated with the materials we had available to us. Salvatore created this with the help of the others, so the time spent on its construction reduced our ability to bolster our defenses.”
Prestige’s laugh cut her off. “Please, Miss Clifton. Stop trying to pawn this off on your team. I know the concept of working with a group is new to you, but don’t you think that it’s a little farfetched to blame our battle-readiness on this? Your Support highlighted how long it would take and the resources required to build it. You insisted on its construction, so don’t try to use it as an excuse.”
Prestige smiled as she tilted her head again and looked at Erika with that piercing gaze. “You could make this so much easier on yourself by explaining what truly went wrong.”
Erika’s jaw tightened, and Sal saw how uncomfortable she was. He genuinely wondered how she was going to try to talk her way out of it.
When Prestige tapped her cane impatiently, Erika gave her response.
“It made the most sense to have the Controller in the tower, to orchestrate the rest of the team and issue commands. When the enemy got too close, I made a judgment call and put Salvatore into that position instead. He can track them better with his equipment, and I thought he’d be able to take some of them out if he was up there. It would seem that I was wrong in that assumption, and we ended up getting overwhelmed.”
Erika spoke as though the outcome was obvious, and Sal stared at her in astonishment. How could she be so clueless about everything around her?
Prestige shook her head and waved Erika away as though she wasn’t bothered with her anymore. Her cane tapped against the ground as she moved to Rochelle.
“No bullshit or excuses, Miss de Verdon. Tell me what happened from your perspective.”
Rochelle didn’t even blink as she pointed at Erika. “We agreed that Sal was the best choice to use the tower at the start, but Erika overruled our decision. She wouldn’t let Brophy outside to fight off the enemy and told us that we just needed to wait while she came up with a plan. Brophy should have been outside fighting like an Offense, and Ioseph should have been guarding us with wards. Neither of those could happen because Erika and Sal wouldn’t work together.”
Sal did a double take. He had disagreed with Erika and let her have her way in the end because she was their Controller and he was Support, but had Rochelle really interpreted that their failure was because he couldn’t work with Erika? It seemed somewhat ridiculous to think that he was supposed to somehow have overruled her.
Prestige nodded at that feedback and went to Brophy next. “And your opinion? What is the verdict?”
Brophy nodded at Rochelle. “Essentially what Rochelle said. We were hamstringed from the beginning as the guard tower could only be used by either Salvatore or Erika. They argued over who should use it, and Erika won out by pulling her ‘Controller’ card. I doubt we could have talked her out of it as she already demonstrated that she’s not above using her powers on her teammates. Even after getting the instruction from Salvatore to leave the building, Erika forced me to stay by using her ability. I was forced, against my will, to take the blast that I could have easily avoided by evacuating. We absolutely failed because the structure was not designed with our team in mind, but rather as accommodation with added versatility. Squabbling over the use of that versatility and treating the building as a fortress rather than our accommodation resulted in us sitting inside and waiting for defeat.”
Prestige smiled. “I agree. At least you’re now aware of the limitations this sort of building brings. I hope that you’ll give us a better showing next week. Otherwise, I’ll need to recommend to Quest Academy that you don’t face the tower.”
Erika whirled around and gave Sal a dark look.
“Don’t look at me like this is all my fault,” Sal snapped as he pointed at her. “No matter what we do, you’re convinced that you’re right. I made this place and it’s flawed—I get that now. It has limitations, and I should have been more mindful of our team dynamic when building it. I can tell everyone when I’ve fucked up, but you can’t seem to own your mistakes. Your orders screwed us tonight, so at least own those instead of blaming everyone around you!”
He hadn’t intended to sound as venomous as he did, but when the words came out, Erika looked as if she had been slapped in the face. Rather than showing shock, she appeared to be furious.
Prestige stepped into the gap between Sal and Erika and looked at Sal first with a calm expression.
“Frustrations among teams are normal but allocating blame to each other isn’t a healthy mindset to operate with.”
Her head turned to Erika as she gave her a wide smile.
“You should be communicating with your team and working together to achieve your goals. This was a failure, but there is a lot for you all to learn from. Utilize the team to get the best results possible, rather than trying to dictate every detail from the sidelines. You’ve already seen the incredible capability of your team, so rather than trying to control it, work in harmony with it to reach even greater heights.”
Brophy snorted, which drew Prestige’s attention. Her eyes narrowed and locked onto her son, but he shrugged as he gestured at Erika.
“It doesn’t matter what you say to her. It’s going to be her way or nothing at all. That’s just her personality, and we have to deal with it when you disappear for days on end.”
Erika shook her head and gave him a deathly glare. “Big words for someone who’s literally planned out how he’d kill each and every one of us. Don’t try to deny it, Brophy. I saw your thoughts. How can I trust you when you’re ready to kill us off?”
Brophy’s expression didn’t so much as flicker. “You could start building trust by not reading people’s minds. I factor in risks and ways to mitigate them—that’s the role of your Offense. To help train each person on this team, I need to know your weaknesses. I run simulations in my mind to best prepare for those encounters. That’s context you’d have if you actually had a conversation with me instead of trying to control me like a toy.”
Prestige’s cane slammed into the ground, which caused a ripple of essence to stagger those around her.
“Enough!” She stared at Brophy to silence him, and he complied immediately.
When her gaze turned to Erika, Prestige shook her head, but with no semblance of mirth on her face. “Trust is vital to the successful operation of a team. If you’re betraying that trust by burrowing into their thoughts, no wonder they’re not feeling great about working with you. This is a team, and although you’re operating as a Controller, it doesn’t make you their owner. Find a way to work together or the next two ambushes will end up even worse than this one.”
Sal laughed humorlessly, which was enough to draw Prestige’s gaze. No matter what was said to Erika, it was unlikely that she was going to change her behavior. He didn’t want to take that risk and continue operating with everything being an uphill battle. If they wanted to change their trajectory, there was only one thing that could be done.
Sal stared at Prestige and pointed at Brophy. “Make him the Controller, instead.”
Chapter 77 – Motivation
To say that the atmosphere was tense would have been an understatement. Prestige didn’t elect Brophy as their Controller, and the position remained with the now furious Erika. They had endured countless admonishments and reports from the ambushers and Prestige, with recommendations on how they could have worked better as a team.
The following days had been spent in near silence around the camp. Brophy and Sal continued their training out in the woods while Ioseph constructed barriers around their camp much like he had the first week. Rochelle had taken it upon herself to go for walks in the forest to stay away from the campsite whenever Erika was there.
It took a couple of days before Brophy addressed the topic with Sal. They had just completed the fourth run of Sal’s new exercise regimen, that involved darting between the trees, sliding into cover, and taking out ranged targets that Brophy called out at random. It was during a short rest when Sal had sat heavily against a tree that Brophy turned to him with a conflicted expression on his face.
