The Day They Sprout

The whistle had not been blown, which can only mean one thing. The game was still on.

But something had changed. Across the second line, the champions no longer stood with relaxed shoulders or idle smirks.

Vellin's eyes narrowed.

[ Vellin ]

"...She broke our spread."

"Made you look ridiculous."

[ Damien ]

"I wasn't ready..."

[ Vellin ]

"No excuses."

He turned slightly toward Kiba, who was cracking his knuckles with visible interest.

"I leave her to you, Beastheart..."

"And don't hold back."

[ Kiba ]

"Finally."

A ripple of æsther danced along his arms — reddish gray, primal. His eyes sharpened.

Brandon "The Wall" Sparke gave a lazy shrug from the backline and finally stood.

[ Brandon ]

"Guess it's time to stop pretending we're at recess."

Meanwhile, on the Ironroot 1A side, Kaiden felt the shift in atmosphere like a storm front rolling in.

[ Kaiden ]

"...They just got serious."

"Irna!"

"Just stay there."

"Wait for the rest of us."

[ Rio ]

"What gave it away?"

"The murder glares or the last man finally standing up?"

[ Peggy (snorting) ]

"You say that like we're backing down."

[ Nerim ]

"Yeah, but..."

"They're gonna play for real now."

[ Kaiden ]

"Good."

"It's about time they take us seriously."

He turned toward Peggy.

[ Kaiden ]

"Ready for your shot?"

Peggy rolled her shoulders. Cracks popped from her joints like drumbeats. She took out a bobble and tied up her hair high with a confident whip, and gave Kaiden a grin.

[ Peggy ]

"Was born ready."

[ Kiba ]

"Hey kid..."

"Come across."

"I won't tag you, I promise."

Irna was cheering for the team while ignoring Kiba and keeping herself at a safe distance from him.

[ Irna ]

"You got this, Pegs."

[ Rio ]

"If you die, I'll loot your socks."

[ Peggy ]

"They're enchanted."

"You'd trip on 'em."

[ HEART ]

[ Ironroot Passive: Earthen – Triggered ]

Body alignment calibrated.

Ground-contact sensing: Active.

Tremor feedback: Live.

Peggy took two steps forward and planted her feet.

The earth answered.

Her bare soles vibrated faintly — tiny pulses moving through soil and rune-chalk and turf, feeding her positional data. She closed her eyes for half a breath, mapping out the field through microtremors.

Brandon shifted on the fifth line. She felt it.

Kiba's foot scuffed forward — too heavy, more muscle than grace. She felt that too.

And Damien?

He was bouncing.

Left foot, pause, right foot, pause.

She timed it...

And made her move.

She feinted right, drawing a knee-jerk from Talya, then burst left, cutting a tight arc across the ice-blade's frozen edge. Her toes barely touched the strip as she used it to slide—not run — into second zone territory.

Talya lunged from the left —

[ Talya ]

"Oh, no you don't!"

— But Peggy dropped into a roll, timed it perfectly, and let the slickness of the ice boost her spin.

She snapped up from the slide and barrelled straight past Damien's line, who was too far away to the right to do anything.

Irna jumped in joy as Peggy joined her safely in the third zone.

[ Damien ]

"Wait — why didn't the traps spring?!"

Talya blinked. Something felt wrong. She turned, then spotted Nerim with both hands buried in the soil of the first zone.

[ Nerim ]

"Hehe..."

[ HEART ]

[ Ironroot Passive: Ironclad – Triggered ]

Substance conductivity: Altered.

Rune locations: Acquired.

Æstherical runes: Disrupted.

"You guys are not the only ones with skills..."

"Duh!"

While the champion team focused on the two girls, Nerim quietly disabled the traps laid by the twins from the back.

Coach Trillian smirked.

[ Coach Trillian ]

"Hmph..."

"Maybe these saplings aren't half bad after all."

Across the field, Vellin gritted his teeth.

[ Vellin ]

"Enough!"

Æsther flows from him at an absurd rate.

"Time to show them what a real captain looks like."

"Bran!"

"Brace us up..."

"Now!"

Brandon finally stood tall, cracking his neck as though waking from a nap. He raised a single hand and pushed it downward, like planting something invisible into the earth.

The ground rumbled.

Earthen hands erupted beneath each of the champions — thick, mossy fingers curling around their ankles like shackles grown from the bedrock itself. Not rough. Not rigid. But firm.

The champions wouldn't be moved. Not an inch.

Vellin raised both arms, his cloak fluttering before a breeze even begun. A halo of wind gathered above him, glowing faintly with concentric runes of blue and white.

[ Vellin ]

"Let me show you why I'm captain."

The halo dropped.

A howl tore through the field — a gale so intense it bent the hedgerows flat, whipped hair into eyes, and sent gravel scattering into the air like stinging sand.

Vellin was trying to blow his opponents out of bounds.

The tactic the champions used to breeze through preliminary rounds during last year's Annual Academy Game.

[ Peggy ]

"Hold..."

"On!"

[ Nerim ]

"I can't see...!"

[ Kaiden ]

"Everyone!"

"Hold on to something."

"If we go out of the playing field..."

"We lose."

The wind surged like a tidal wave of air. The Ironroot kids dug their heels in, sliding despite themselves.

[ Irna ]

"We're gonna be blown away!"

Rio's feet began to skid past the second line.

[ Kaiden ]

"RIO...!"

But then something clicked.

[ HEART ]

[ Ironroot Passive: Anchor – Triggered ]

Water-Earth union: Achieved.

Hydrologic equilibrium: Stabilized.

Localized pressure field: Engaged.

A dull pulse. Like the thump of a deep drum underwater.

A faint mist swirled at Rio's heels, where the wind lost grip. The turf beneath him darkened slightly, softening...

Clinging!

His feet stopped sliding. Then, shockingly, so did Kaiden's.

[ Peggy ]

"Wha — how?!"

[ Rio (grin) ]

"I dunno..."

"But I think I just got..."

"Stubborn."

His body was surrounded by a low-pressure ripple, like walking through a bubble of still air in a raging storm. That bubble spread, enough to anchor the others.

[ Vellin ]

"...Impossible."

The champions remained rooted — by design.

But Ironroot 1A?

They were still standing, until...

" FWEEEEEEET!!! "

Coach Trillian's whistle wailed, sharp enough to cut through the wind.

This time, it wasn't a normal blow. The sound from the whistle disrupted the æstherical flow within the playing field and neutralized Vellin's spell.

The gale stopped.

[ Coach Trillian ]

"ENOUGH!"

"You think I'm letting you toss my students around!?"

She stared towards the observation deck.

"You trying to add 'manslaughter' to your extracurriculars, Arcanum!?"

The wind dissipated, leaving only swaying grass and silence.

Brandon's earthen hands crumbled. Vellin's cloak settled. The team of champions stood stunned, unmoved but shaken.

Ironroot 1A was still... inside the playing field.

Still standing.

And slowly…

Grinning.

A brief silence followed Coach Trillian's whistle.

Then —

"YEAAAAAAHHH!!"

The student benches erupted.

[ Karen ]

"Did you see that!?"

"Rio just... tanked a gale!"

[ Neena ]

"And Irna slid through like some ninja squirrel!"

"So cute."

[ Dawnbreaker Senior Gregory ]

"Hah! No way that was just beginner-tier magic."

"That was field-stable equilibrium compression!"

[ Dawnbreaker Senior Fred ]

"More like dumb luck."

"Wind wasn't even at full force."

[ Ironroot Senior Shawn ]

"Say that louder, I dare you."

The sideline banter started escalating into guild rivalries, louder and sharper. Trillian folded her arms, a small smirk curling at the edge of her lip.

In the observation deck above, the tone was changing too.

[ Skyward Overseer Arwell (leaning forward) ]

"Hmm. Anchor, was it?"

"Maybe his dad is a sailor."

[ Dawnseeker Overseer Marduke ]

"And Regrowth activating mid-game?"

"Spontaneously?"

"Either this batch is lucky... or someone's tampering with the system."

[ Beastheart Trainer Gorran (grunts) ]

"They've got spirit."

"That girl's instincts were clean."

"And the earth one..."

"Nerim, was it?"

"He listens to the ground."

"Real slow magic."

"Good origins."

Arwell crossed his fingers thoughtfully.

[ Skyward Overseer Arwell ]

"This level of coordination from first-years is... unusual."

"Something unusual about their skipper."

"The kid with no stat boost."

[ Dawnseeker Overseer Marduke ]

"Or something dangerous."

[ Beastheart Trainer Gorran ]

"Or promising."

[ Skyward Overseer Arwell ]

"Depends who you're rooting for, doesn't it?"

Off to the side, the Concordium observer had stopped writing.

He unrolled a second scroll — thinner, black-trimmed parchment. The kind used for red-flagged evaluations.

He dipped his quill into silver ink.

[ Concordium Scribe (muttering) ]

"Early passives. Internal triggering."

"Spontaneous pressure manipulation."

"Field instincts beyond age-bracket norms..."

He paused to glance toward the field — at the five kids still catching their breath, still smiling as if they hadn't just stared down a champion's gale.

"Recommend Level-1 Stability Audit for Ironroot 1A."

"Special focus: Kaiden Stagin. Rio Brentt. Irna Nguyen."

Then, without looking up —

"Seal and send to The First Dome."

A second figure emerged from the shadows of the observation booth.

Unmarked robes. Not an instructor.

[ ??? (coldly) ]

"Do you require eyes placed in their dorm?"

[ Concordium Scribe ]

"...Not yet."

"Let's see how many more seeds sprout."

The scroll rolled shut.

And below, five saplings stood tall in the grass.

Unaware that the world above had noticed.