NOVEL NEXT Chapter 86: Vaultbreakers
After five minutes of meandering through the ancient-looking walls generated by the alliance's training hall, Jay finally laid his eyes on the vault.
It sat inside a large square room with doorways in each wall and was a giant, two metre by two metre cube of metal. Each face of the cube was divided into sixteen squares, all with a unique symbol on them.
Yeah… No chance.
"Well, I guess one of you two's on safe cracking duty." he said while pointing at the abomination of a vault in the middle of the room. "Because there's absolutely no fucking universe where I'm solving that thing!"
Akira chuckled as he followed Jay in. He spent a few seconds glancing at the vault while slightly frowning.
"Let's not get ahead of ourselves." said Lyra, the final one to step into the vault room. "We should go over our strategy before we let the hounds in after us.
"Step one. Our goal."
Lyra pointed at the safe.
"Get the safe open, not much more to it. Our motivations are clear. If the teams were equal then that would be that, but we're starting with an advantage."
An emerald green screen appeared above the vault as Lyra shifted her finger upwards. A timer appeared on it, displaying five minutes.
"Since Fox, Tia, and Alf start at a disadvantage. They don't need to crack open the safe to win. All they've gotta do is delay us five minutes. Got it?"
Jay and Akira nodded.
"With that sorted, let's go back to our goal. Getting the safe open. Who wants to start?"
Akira raised his hand and began pacing across the vault room.
"If our goal is to crack open the vault, let's think of the things that could potentially stop us from achieving that goal. Off the top of my head, I have two: Not cracking the code in time, and being overrun by the attackers.
"Let's look at scenario one first. Opening the vault is priority number one, we should have someone working on that right away." Akira stopped to chuckle slightly. "Since Jay has established that he'd… rather not try and crack the code, that leaves me or you Lyra. I think I could do it, but I'd rather it be you…unless you don't want it either?"
Akira paused, waiting for a response.
"Why Lyra? And why do we need someone working on the safe right away?" asked Jay, "They're probably expecting that, right? What if we rush them at the start, finish them off while they're not expecting us, and then come back and crack the vault? Surely it'll be faster with all of us working on it?"
Well, with both of you working on it and me just standing there looking pretty.
Jay agreed with everything Akira had said, but he wanted to hear the reasoning behind Akira's decisions.
Akira gave him a slight nod before voicing his thoughts once more.
"Why Lyra? I think it's optimal in both maximising our strengths and minimising our weaknesses. Regardless of our strategy, there's probably going to be a showdown near this room at the end with all six of us here. A chaotic battle like that is the situation where Lyra's at her weakest. Plus, in that hypothetical where I'm cracking the code, there's a chance I get hit with a stray and lose focus while I'm working on the vault. Lyra's both tougher and more aware than I am. So I think the position suits her more."
Lyra began nodding in agreement. She glanced over at the vault, but her eyes didn't stay there for long, quickly turning back to Akira.
"I agree." she said. "Plus, that same chaotic battlefield complements your fighting style. My twin can also still fight while I simultaneously work on the code. I don't see a better way of arranging it."
"Great." said Akira.
"Now, onto Jay's second point. Why don't we just say screw it and charge straight at them? I simply don't think we're strong enough. We can go over Alf and Tia's abilities later, but they're both in the top sixty. They're no pushovers. This whole challenge is defined by asymmetry. If we take on that task, we consign ourselves to not just having to beat them, but to having to beat them quick enough to be able to get back here in time to solve the puzzle. Conversely, when they see us, their strategy immediately switches from rushing here to delaying the fight as much as possible, since they know we're not working on the vault and our time is running out. By running out and chasing them, we're giving up our biggest advantage for a gamble at surprising them. I simply don't think it's worth it."
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Jay churned over Akira's words in silence for a few moments before he realised his teammates were waiting for him.
Ah shit, I was the one who asked.
He gave Akira a thumbs up and let him go back to strategising.
"That brings us to scenario two: being overrun by the attackers. We've established that we need Lyra on vault duty. That means that if and when they reach this room, we'll be at an inherent disadvantage of three against two, Jay. Or two and a half if you count Lyra's twin."
"She can help, but if I'm not fighting then her use is limited. I think she'll be best utilised protecting me so I can fully focus on the vault." said Lyra.
Akira paused for half a second before nodding. "Two against three then. How do we mitigate that disadvantage?"
"That's not their only advantage." said Jay, making sure that their strategy covered all bases. "You said that this challenge is defined by asymmetry, but I think time is the most important factor. Both teams' win conditions revolve around time. For them, its reaching five minutes. For us, it's opening the vault before those five minutes are up. If, as you say, we get into the fight here, it's far worse than just two v three. All they have to do is stop Lyra from getting into the vault. As much as I trust our fighting ability, that battle's as good as lost before we even start fighting."
"Good point." said Akira. He scrunched up his forehead and stopped pacing. "But just as time is an asset for them, we can use it too. the more uninterrupted time Lyra gets before shit goes down, the closer she'll be to cracking it. The less time they'll have to get here.
"Plus, we have home field advantage. We define our battlefield. We can set up traps in the corridors. Or prepare a kill zone nearby so that they don't even make it to the vault!"
"Wait. Take a few steps back." said Lyra. She held her hands out and motioned for Akira to calm down, walking next over to him while keeping her back to the vault.
"We're not here to try and win these war games, we're here to prepare for advancement. If the vault truly was our end goal, then all that might be useful, but let's imagine we're actually in the competition for a moment. We wouldn't have the time to set all that up. What if there was a third team attacking us from the opposite side and they ganged up on me while you two were off preparing for the people who chased us in?
"If we were only trying to win this challenge, we'd figure out the code before we call them in and declare victory ten seconds later. We need to think beyond the challenges we set ourselves. Let's keep any traps to this room and start the challenge soon. Taking so much time to plan is unrealistic and won't improve our chances during advancement by much. Thinking quickly is a quality too, and the more time we use to strategize, the more time they get too."
Keep it simple huh, makes sense.
Jay agreed with Lyra's general plan but doubted whether it suited him as well as it did his teammates. He kept his thoughts churning through his mind and looked back at his team.
"There's another factor to consider. Who we're fighting.
"We've established that Lyra's on vault duty to maximise our strengths, but we need to think about who's coming after us too."
Lyra began to open her mouth but Jay kept speaking.
"I know what you said about realism, but I think even in this situation during advancement, we'd know the abilities of the team chasing us. There's no point handicapping ourselves by charging in blind. I don't think we need unique attack plans for each opponent, but some information would be nice. I don't know who the hell Alf or Tia even are!"
Lyra frowned, but after Akira expressed his agreement, she relented.
"Tia's a brawler, just like Fox, but I don't think she'll be fighting like that this time. She increases her strength, speed, and toughness via enchantments. There's a chance she enhances Fox instead of herself. Amplifying his strength and hoping he can take one of you out before you can attack her or Alf.
"I don't know Alf too well, but he's a long range fighter that summons many different plants to fight for him. In his thirty coliseum fights nobody's even got near him, so I don't know how he fights at close range."
Let's see if I can find out…
Jay thanked Lyra before locking his opponent's profiles within his mind. He remembered his training with Cyrus, and how the D grader had entered Jay's domain and used his own strengths against him.
"Planning over? Are we ready to fight?" asked Akira.
Lyra nodded, but Jay had more to say.
"I'm not sticking in here and waiting for them to come. Akira can prepare for a battle in here but that's just not my style, it doesn't maximise my strengths. You mentioned Tia and Fox teaming up to take one of us out, but what if I do the same thing?"
Akira and Lyra both turned to listen to him, their faces a cross between confused and worried.
"I've got two ideas; both should turn the fight in our favour. I rush in there, take out Alf before he can react and run away before Tia and Fox get me. If that goes tits up, I drag Fox into a brawl and drag him away from his team while stalling for time. Either way, we get an advantage, either in numbers or by giving Lyra more time."
Lyra paused, before eventually nodding and turning to face the vault.
"Sounds like a plan. I'm ready to go." said Akira. He pulled both of his swords out of the quiver that Jay had just traded him.
Jay clenched his fists, tapping his metal knuckles on his new metal undershirt. He felt the restless energy inside him begin to stir. Ping floated in front of him, landing in his hands and calming him.
Ready to fight?