As the team was teleported into the arena for their final team fight, their nerves were at an all-time high. The giant arena stretched vast and quiet around them, its winding lanes, dense jungle paths, and massive glowing obelisks looming like silent judges. The match countdown ticked in the corner of their vision, each second heavy.
It was only trust in Elijah's plan that kept them steady against the monster they knew they would soon face.
Rennik exhaled, trying to mask the shake in his breath. "Alright, no biggie. I just play aggressive when we see Ryden on the map away from me, and run like the wind as soon as he's not visible. Easy peasy. Right, Sylvara?"
"Eep!" Sylvara squeaked, clutching her fists tightly. She had grown closer to the team over these matches, but the pressure of a final fight, and the knowledge that Ryden was on the other side, made her tongue tangle.
"Don't worry, guys, we've got this," Elijah said, his tone calm but his eyes sharp. "Honestly, the hardest part of the plan is Mira's. She has to keep eyes on him, harass him, and keep him busy, all while staying alive. No direct fights." He looked at Mira as he said it.
Her expression was flint and steel. "I know. Don't worry. I won't let you down again."
The sting of her earlier failure hadn't faded, but she'd turned the weight of it into resolve. Elijah could see it burning in her gaze.
He gave her a nod, then glanced around at the rest of them. "No matter what, let's have fun. There's always next year's exams. This isn't the end of the world. And… I'm glad I got you all as my team."
It was a rare admission from him, tinged with shyness. Elijah had never had more than one or two friends at a time with Tim and his father being the only constants, years of isolation and failure shadowing him before he awakened. To have this team, to feel like he belonged, meant more than he could say.
Brax grinned and clapped him on the shoulder, his heavy hand landing like a reassuring hammer. "Couldn't have said it better myself."
With that, the spawn gates groaned open. The five of them burst into the field, feet pounding dirt, mana humming in the air.
Elijah cleared his first jungle camp, muscles empowered by mana and sticky lines pummeling the beast. His eyes flicked to the map overlay. Ryden was mid, still wrestling with Mira's illusions. Perfect. Elijah sprinted downriver toward bot lane.
Bot was still level one. He was already level two. Time to turn it into a three-on-two.
He vaulted over the tall jungle wall, sticking to its surface for a heartbeat before flipping forward into the lane, right between the enemies. His sticky lines fired with a snap, twin arcs of translucent mana that latched onto Luthar and Corvex. Their eyes went wide as Elijah heaved towards himself.
The lines strained, threatening to snap, but then Sylvara's harmonics rippled through the air like a chime. His mana surged in resonance, strengthening the tether. Muscles thrummed with borrowed power, and he yanked both enemies toward him.
They collided with a bone-jarring smack. Elijah leapt aside mid-air, letting their momentum crash them together, then slapped his palm down to stick them fast.
"Now!" he barked.
Rennik was already in motion. His first javelin of glass sang through the air and pierced Corvex's shoulder, fracturing into shards that detonated on impact. The second drove straight through Luthar's chest before he could raise a defense, the harmonic boost making it cut deeper, sharper, stronger.
The enemies didn't even get a spell off. Both collapsed within seconds.
"First blood!" Rennik whooped, eyes gleaming. "And second blood. I'll take those."
Elijah was already retreating, sticky lines pulling him up the jungle wall and back to his path. The kills weren't his to keep—that was the plan. Gold had to go to Rennik and Sylvara. He would stay behind on purpose if it meant the team could get ahead.
He cleared another camp quickly, sweat beading on his brow as his tempo slipped. He was about to rotate again when Mira's urgent voice crackled through the comms.
"Ryden missing!"
Elijah froze. His eyes darted to the map—no icon. His danger sense flared, but too late.
Flame and wind erupted in his path. Ryden's spirit projection crashed into him like a storm given flesh. A burning blade cut across his chest, his shield nearly collapsing instantly.
Slash. Flame. Slash. Wind.
The attacks were relentless, a blur of fire and steel. Elijah reeled, senses ringing, body struggling to keep up. There was no counter. No escape. His danger sense screamed, but his body was already breaking apart under the storm.
And then he was gone. Eliminated in an instant.
The plan had expected this. It had to.
While Ryden carved him down, Brax made his move top lane. Kael had overextended, trying to press his advantage. Brax charged with a roar, stone-armored fists swinging in wide arcs. Kael blocked one blow with his currently hulking arm, but the second cracked his guard wide open. Brax slammed his shoulder forward, rattling Kael's poise and sending him stumbling.
Veyra dashed out of the jungle, gauntlets of pure mana flashing, but Mira was not far behind, illusions spiraling across the battlefield, clones darting in and out of Kael's vision. For a heartbeat, he hesitated, unsure which Mira was real. That heartbeat was all Brax needed.
His hammer-fist crashed into Kael's side, breaking his stance. Mira slipped a heat-attributed bolt of mana into the gap and Kael went down.
Veyra snarled, whipping her giant bitch mittens toward Mira. The blow caught her in the ribs, dropping her to the ground. Mira gritted her teeth, vanishing into a final scatter of heat-bent illusions. But Brax was still there, fists slamming like boulders. He grappled Veyra, driving her into the dirt, and with a brutal stomp ended her shield.
A two-for-one trade. Costly, but favorable.
Elijah respawned back at base, shaking his head. He had to catch up somehow. Ryden was unkillable, but the others? The others could be bled dry.
He dove back into his jungle. Mid lane would hold on for now even with Mira down and Ryden holding steady, but bot was the real play.
Rennik and Sylvara had been farming with discipline, grabbing gold wherever they could. Their early kills had given them the first item advantage. Now was the time to use it.
As soon as they got back to the bottom lane from their last recall.
"All in," Elijah ordered. "Ryden's mid. Make it fast."
"Aye, sir," Rennik said, voice practically grinning. He and Sylvara surged forward in perfect sync.
Corvex and Luthar barely had time to retreat. Sylvara's harmonics thrummed through the lane, bolstering Rennik's strength. Rennik hurled a spear that shattered Corvex's shield instantly. Luthar raised his bow to counter, but Sylvara cut the arrow of poisonous mana midair with a sharp, dissonant chord.
Glass javelins followed one after another, each a blur of glittering shards. The lane exploded in dust and light as both enemies fell.
"Four kills to me," Rennik crowed, chest heaving, eyes alight. "Hope Ryden likes what he sees when he finally gets down here."
Elijah smirked faintly, studying the map. The plan was working. Slowly, methodically, they were turning Ryden's allies into dead weight.
It wouldn't stop Ryden forever. But it would make him fight all of them at once.
Rennik was starting to get fed at this point, which was a necessary part of Elijah's plan. Every kill that fell into his hands was another glass spear sharper than the last, another threat Ryden couldn't afford to ignore.
The fight continued with Elijah's team whittling down Ryden's teammates while avoiding him whenever possible. Whenever Ryden appeared in one lane, Elijah called for a counterpush on the other side of the map. The rest of the enemy team (Kael, Veyra, Luthar, and Corvex) were no longer true threats. Every death stacked against them, every lost wave widened the gulf.
At one point, Veyra slipped into bot lane with a clever pathing through the jungle and caught Sylvara off guard. Her mana gauntlets struck like falling meteors, slamming Sylvara against the dirt before she could raise her harmonics. But Rennik had been ready. He escaped, sprinting under the cover of Sylvara's dying chords, preventing Veyra from cashing in on the much larger bounty his head would have given.
It became a pattern: Ryden hunted for picks, and often found them. His blade claimed Elijah more than once, Mira more than once, even Brax once when he strayed too far from safety. Each time it was quick, merciless, impossible to answer. Ryden would simply vanish into the jungle, his next victim already marked.
But every time he appeared on one end of the map, Elijah's team used the chance to crush objectives or punish the weakened enemy squad elsewhere.
"Good job everybody, keep cross-mapping him whenever possible. He can't be everywhere at once," Elijah reminded them, forcing steadiness into his voice.
The game plan was holding.
As the match stretched past the half-hour mark, the dynamic was clear. Ryden was a terror—so strong he could dive under their obelisks, tearing Elijah or Mira apart even while the tower fired lances of mana into him. What should have been suicidal became spectacle: flame-wreathed slashes carving through shields, wind bursts scattering defenses, his health bar shrugging off punishment.
And yet the rest of his team was collapsing.
The scoreboard told the story better than words could.
Enemy Team
Ryden — 20/0/0
Kael — 2/10/2
Veyra — 1/8/5
Luthar — 3/9/1
Corvex — 0/7/3
Elijah's Team
Elijah — 5/6/3
Mira — 4/5/4
Brax — 10/5/2
Rennik — 15/4/3
Sylvara — 0/6/20
Overall Score: 34–26.
Elijah and Mira were behind; that was inevitable. They had been forced into sacrifice roles, absorbing Ryden's attention so the others could grow fat on gold. But Brax was now a juggernaut, Rennik an unstoppable carry, Sylvara the glue holding them all together.
At this point, most of the obelisks on both sides had already fallen. Elijah's team had destroyed eight of the enemy's, leaving their base exposed in multiple lanes. In return, Ryden's team had claimed five of Elijah's, and Ryden showed no signs of slowing down.
Both bases were fragile now, their defenses hinging on a single line of obelisks and the shimmering mana core beyond.
Elijah called the next move. "Alright, everyone, make sure we've got lanterns down across the map. Eyes on Ryden at all times. Especially now."
Lanterns flared to life across jungle corners, choke points, and river crossings. Anywhere Ryden might prowl, they wanted warning.
"Next objective is the Aether Guardian," Elijah continued. "If we take it, the buff will be enough to finish the game. Mira, you stay back and defend base. With your illusions, you can stall anyone but Ryden himself. The rest of you, come with me."
No hesitation. No doubts. The team fell in line.
The Aether Pit was a crater carved into the earth, light boiling within like liquid stars. The Guardian rose from that radiance, a colossal figure of crystal and mana, its form shifting between beast and sentinel. Its every roar sent tremors through the ground.
Elijah's team struck together. Brax tanked the blows, stone armor cracking under each titanic strike. Rennik's spears shattered against crystalline hide, splintering into dozens of smaller shards that drove deep into glowing joints. Sylvara's harmonics amplified every strike, her chords keeping Brax's stone skin from buckling, making Rennik's glass cut like diamond. Elijah darted across the walls, sticky lines and zip line style punches keeping pressure constant, funneling the beast's attention.
Bit by bit, the Guardian faltered.
Then Mira's voice crackled in the comms, strained, panicked.
"He's here. Ryden mid. He…"
The connection cut to static.
A warning flashed across the team's vision: Ally Obelisk Destroyed.
Elijah swore under his breath. On their minimap, Ryden's icon cut a bloody swath down the center lane. He had obliterated Mira's illusions one by one until she was cornered under the obelisk. Even that bastion crumbled beneath his storm of fire and wind. By the time her shield gave out, she barely got a scream off before his sword erased her.
Now nothing stood between Ryden and the heart of their base but two final obelisks.
"We finish this!" Elijah barked.
The words had barely left his mouth when the rest of Ryden's team vaulted over the pit walls. Kael came first, swollen arm raised high. Veyra followed, gauntlets blazing. Corvex and Luthar loosed projectiles in tandem.
But Elijah had planned for this.
The vision network of lanterns gave them every warning. He saw them coming before they were even close.
"Turn and burn!" he roared.
Brax met Kael head-on, their clash shaking the pit. Rennik's first spear pierced straight through Corvex's chest, harmonics sharpening it into a killing blow. Sylvara's second chord disrupted Lurthar's poison volley, giving Rennik space to end him with another glass javelin.
Veyra tried to punch through the chaos, her gauntlets hammering Brax's side, but Mira's earlier delay had left her, like all the others on the enemy team, far behind in levels. Brax shrugged off her strike and countered with a slam that caved her into the dirt.
The skirmish was over almost before it began. The enemy team, starved and desperate, fell one by one.
The Aether Guardian roared a final time, then shattered into light. The buff washed over Elijah's team, wreathing them in radiant mana. Their shields thickened, their damage burned hotter, their recall spell charged with speed.
And not a moment too soon.
On the map, Ryden had already destroyed the penultimate obelisk. He stood at their last defense, sword raised, Mira still on a long respawn timer.
"Recall. Now." Elijah's order was instant.
Empowered recall took seconds. In a flash of light, they were home.
They rushed from the base gates together, Aether's glow surrounding them. Ahead, Ryden turned as the final obelisk fell. The last line of defense between him and their mana core crumbled into dust.
Now it was just him, alone—and them, four strong with the Guardian's blessing.
This was it. The last stand. If they could defeat Ryden here, they would have the time and power to march across the map and claim victory before he respawned.
If they failed, the match—and the exam—would end in their destruction.
They spread out instinctively, weapons gleaming, harmonics thrumming, glass spears ready.
Ryden stood calm as ever, embers drifting from his blade, wind curling at his feet. His scoreline was perfect, his reputation monstrous, his very presence suffocating.
The student ranked number ten in their year. A predator. A storm.
Elijah swallowed hard, his senses already screaming at him.
"Together," he said, voice steady despite the weight crushing his chest. "We end this now."
And with that Elijah's team charged the monster head-on.