Wizard Chess: The Gauntlet Invite Only

ROUND 5 of 5

Round five, and no matter what happens, the game would finally be over.

Reducio

Camilla could practically feel her heart trying to shield bash its way out of her ribs. Almost everyone was shouting, or throwing magic like it was the last period before summer holidays.

Right out the gate, the crazy could be seen with Aislin. Instead of getting in on the action, she just nopes out. actually sitting down on the board while others are off trying to win the day. Anticlimactic, but Camilla could not hep[ but respect the first year. Sometimes the bravest move is knowing when to just...vibe.

In contrast, shields are going up in a hurry around the board. Mamori and Maisie lock eyes and for just a moment, and bam Maisie goes full Slayer on him. Camilla's seen quite a few hits throughout the game, but oof, that one's going to leave a mark. Then Landon, probably still nursing all that pride from earlier, drops an Invocation right on Mamori’s head. Boom boom KO. Mamori's out. Camilla actually has to pause to do a double take. Even she wasn’t expecting that much damage out of nowhere.

On the other side, Livia’s watching the board, before firing off an Invocation straight at Ara, That girl has been like a sniper this game, fully embodying the spirit of the Bishop[ she's paying. And it HITS! Full-on, knockout punch, and Ara topples. Even the “invincible villain queen” can eat the floor sometimes.

Of course, Ara’s not going quietly. She tries to lance Astra with another of her mighty wraths but too slow, as Astra's already out of there, and the attack goes wide, hitting nothing but air.

Elsewhere, Prat tries a shield bash on Blaize, but Blaize somehow dodges it. Again. How he did this goes completely over Camilla's head, but she's here for a good show and she's dam near getting one. Meanwhile, that weird guy who’s still just “Bishop” in Camilla’s head throws an attack at Livia, and… KO. Livia’s out. Camilla does her best “announcer gasp,” but honestly, she’s running out of breath.

Everyone’s moving. The board looks like someone flipped a bag of marbles: Prat slides to d7, Mamori and Aodhan all up in the Black zone, Archer staking out the center, Elisa drifting to f6, Livia swinging wide, Astra holding the line. In the middle of all that, half the players are looking for a chance to throw one last punch, and the other half just want to make it out alive.

Then, memorably, there was Aodhan. Can’t keep this guy out of the action no matter how you try. He tries to run a full on run through Clark Baird. Doesn’t go anywhere. Camilla’s grinning because, honestly, can you picture Aodhan full-on rugby tackling a King in the middle of a chessboard? This is why magical chess makes zero sense and all the sense, all at once.

“ALRIGHT EVERYONE, HALT!" Camilla all but yelled at the remaining people on the board. "Right, everybody. Moment of truth! Both Kings are still upright, and both sides count six pieces still standing."

She pauses, squinting hard at the battered remnants of the pieces still standing, trying to assess the state of everyone still standing."AND WITH THAT, TEAM WHITE WINS!"


Her throat is raw, her hands are shaking, she’s pretty sure half the school will be replaying those KOs for the rest of the term. Team White takes it. By a nose. By a gasp. By a couple of percent. And that, Camilla thinks, is exactly the kind of bonkers chess match she’ll remember a long, long time.

Team & HP

Reducio

Team WHITE(a1-h1) 3363.5/5500 (61.15%)

Team BLACK (h8-a8) 3770.5/6400 (58.91%)


--sorry it's been a while and I lost the calls, ask if you want me to do them again--