Chapter IV.XXVIII (4.28) - Sand

  “Now, of course this is a party,” Basil said, all eyes in the room locked on him. “And it wouldn’t be a party without a few drinks. So I hope you’re ready for a serious bender!”

  A cheer erupted across the room. Basil took a moment to bask in the attention before he waved the cheers down to be heard once again.

  “Our game is a simple one. Outside, my lovely assistant has set up a little obstacle course. There are five sections to this relay course. Sand, water, air, boardwalk, and palm tree. The goal is to get to the end the fastest. Each member of your team must decide on which area you want to tackle. Two teammates per area, but everyone needs to participate in at least one and no continuous areas. If you do sand, you won’t be able to do water. You’ve got to hand off your position to someone else, but you could come back and do air later. Choose wisely!”

  With the announcement of the relay rules everyone immediately launched into strategizing with their teams. The villa was filled with noise.

  “Obviously I will do sand, air, and palm tree,” Sene said. “That way we maximize my time in the field most efficiently.”

  “And what if you’re not cut out for one of the areas?” Finn said. “You seriously think you can handle any challenge better than any of us?”

  “Yes. I do.”

  “Ione,” Kizu said. “I think you should be on either air or water. It sounds like you can create summons before we arrive and take off immediately after we meet you. And those are two areas that are likely going to be especially good for your summons.”

  Ione shrugged and yawned. “Sure. But I can’t swim.”

  Kizu cursed. He’d forgotten. And she didn’t have a good summon for swimming yet. If only this had happened next week after his date with her, then maybe…but regardless, she could fly over the water. It would still probably be fine, but that wasn’t a guarantee.

  “Finn and Faible,” Kizu said, turning his attention to them. “I’ve seen what both Sene and Ione are capable of. What are your strengths?”

  “I have a decent grasp of illusions,” Faible said. “However, physical activities, especially races, are not my forte.” He gestured at his size.

  “Just pull up my rankings,” Finn said sullenly. “You can see whatever you want there.”

  “That doesn’t give us an actual idea of what you can do though,” Kizu said, exasperated. “Like you can be one of the best elementalists in the school, but if you can only cast fire spells that won’t exactly be helpful for the water stretch of the obstacle course.”

  “Fine. I’m good with ice. And I have an enchanted ring that lets me breathe underwater.”

  That was very little information but Kizu decided to just shake his head and roll with it. He could put Finn on the water section and hope that he could hold his own.

  “I will handle air,” Sene decided. “As I have enough elemental control to suspend myself with the wind.”

  Kizu shook his head slowly. “No…I’m sorry Sene but I think Ione should be on wind. We need you in the water.” Plus he wasn’t confident in Finn, so having their strongest member paired with him would help.

  “But that will force me into only being able to participate in one other area!”

  “I think that for the team, this is the best possible strategy.”

  After a bit more debate, Sene reluctantly submitted. Everyone else appeared fine with their roles.

  “Okay, so for sand we have myself and Faible. Then water will be Sene and Finn. Air will be Ione and myself. For boardwalk Finn and Faible. And finally, Sene and me on whatever ‘palm tree’ is.”

  Kizu was the most worried about himself being put on the air part of the obstacle course. But he was by far their best climber and wanted to be on the last stretch with the trees, so that meant he was the only possible choice for the spot. And he did, at least, have jumping available to him, a spell selection uniquely available to him. He might very well be the best equipped student at the academy for an obstacle course. Plus, if he needed to, he did have potions that would transform him into a bird. Though him struggling to flap across an obstacle course with unfamiliar wings would be extremely slow.

  “Is everyone ready?!” Basil’s voice boomed around them. “Please, everyone join me on the back porch so we can begin!”

  The room began to shuffle and funnel out of the back door.

  Kizu blinked as he exited to an entirely different scenery than what was expected. A path with barriers on either side cut across the beach. Holes littered the sand, some filled with sludge while others dropped down into darkness. He watched with fascination as several of the holes physically moved across the sand.

  “A little sneak peak as to what’s to come!” Basil announced. “Take five minutes to finalize your decisions!”

  Kizu was about to ask how Basil managed to afford all of this, but then he spotted her. Aoi stood among a dozen very official looking Hon mages. Basil must have called in his favor with the Hon government for this. He even spotted Professor Oasaji and Arclight among them. The duo of professors appeared overjoyed to be helping out. Arclight’s loud laughter could be heard from across the beach.

  Beyond the beach though, Kizu could see nothing. They’d created some sort of haze, blocking the next area from view. Likely to keep them from rearranging their teams before the starting line.

  “Basil really pulled in a lot of resources for this,” Kizu commented. “Must have cost a lot of favors.”

  Finn just gaped at the entire set up.

  “I doubt he’s the true mastermind behind it.” Faible removed his spectacles and rubbed them with a cloth before replacing them on his face.

  “What do you mean?”

  “It’s a means of distraction. This sort of competition will encourage students to leap back into their studies with a higher heart and resolve. Surely you’ve noticed the weight on everyone this last week? An event like this replaces the depressing atmosphere that threatened to weaken the student body.”

  “That’s idiotic,” Sene said. “Historically, tragedy unites.”

  “That is circumstantial. It’s less likely to unite people when the subject of tragedy is a group of people across the ocean. Especially when those people being massacred don’t look like you or I. Most people in Hon are likely stressed and frustrated about supply chain changes, but lack any righteous anger. Here, where people have friends who’ve been affected, we’re more likely to see dreariness and distraction. But most aren’t going to be riled up and proactive about their studies. A different sort of sadness.”

  This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  “Psh. How would you—” Sene started but then wisely stopped before finishing that statement.

  Faible was exactly the person who would understand international responses to genocide on this scale.

  After an awkward pause. Finn coughed. Then Kizu decided to reroute the subject.

  “So you think that the academy is funding all of this?”

  “Doubtlessly. Just look at the prize offered. But it’s far better for morale if a student puts on the event. More natural and allows the students to relax more. And Basil mentioned the event involved drinking. Not something the academy can directly encourage from their students.”

  “Now then! Everyone settled?” Basil’s voice boomed, amplified by some enchanted device. “Let us begin! Beach contestants please step forward!”

  Kizu and Faible stepped up along with over a dozen other students. Harvey stood alongside Tip, both of them clearly flexing their enhancement spells. Other students were quickly scraping together summoning circles in the sand or prepping elemental spells.

  “Aoi!” Basil called out. “Please serve our contestants their first drink.”

  And then Aoi was there, grinning as she passed each of them cups of bubbling black liquid.

  “Is this…merman muck?” one student asked, eyeing her cup.

  “Precisely so!” Basil replied. “I told you, only the finest drinks for you all! Now, bottoms up!”

  Kizu stared at the drink. It didn’t just bubble, the liquid seemed to be pulling itself toward him, fighting and failing against gravity as its bubbles popped in the direction of his lips. He tried reassuring himself that he’d be fine. He could hold his alcohol. Over the years he had to have built up far more immunity to poisons than the rest of his peers.

  The sludge eagerly slipped down his throat and he had to hold back a gag as the salty gunk left a grimy residue on his windpipe before settling in his stomach. The effects were near instantaneous. Kizu blinked rapidly as the world swayed around him.

  “That was certainly something.” Faible hiccuped. The gnome was already knocked off his feet and grinning up at Kizu with big, dilated eyes.

  “Keep hold of your cups! Those are the batons to be passed onto your next teammates!”

  Kizu looked at the fallen cup next to Faible. It was the same size as everyone else’s despite the gnome being a third their size. This was going to be a problem.

  “Ten…nine….” Basil began the countdown.

  Kizu stumbled as he bent to scoop up Faible. Damn. Whatever merman muck was, it hit hard. He’d need to research the ingredients later. Likely some fermented ocean vegetable with magical properties mixed into a compatible liquid.

  “Five…four….”

  “Okay, Faible. We’ve got this. Just hold onto me.”

  Just a few quick jumps and he’d be at the finish line in record time. He focused on a spot over to the side within sight that wasn’t near any of the obvious holes.

  “Two…one! Begin!”

  Kizu jumped forward, Faible clinging to his back.

  And immediately felt the effects of a dozen different beacons dragging on him. He appeared ahead of the others, sure, but also buried waist deep in sand.

  “And if you’d look at that! Kaga Kizu out in the lead, but he foolishly didn’t expect us to account for his spatial magic specialty! How will he get out of this predicament? How much time will he expend?

  “Damnit, Basil!”

  “Now, what’s this? Tip Green is pulling ahead of the rest! Physically leaping over the holes in his path! Look at those quads flexing! Mmm, those thighs! Wait! Aoi, I didn’t mean—” There was a whistling noise as Basil’s voice was thankfully cut off.

  “I got this, Kizu,” Faible mumbled. He patted Kizu on the head and climbed off his back and started running in the general direction of the finish line. He swerved and swaggered. Within seconds he fell into a hole with a verbal oof.

  “Okay,” Kizu said to himself. “The beacons are going to pull me off course, but I should be able to compensate for them if I have a good idea of where they’re at. They’re not actually that strong. Their individual radius’ can’t be more than fifty or so meters.”

  “Look at that!” Basil’s voice boomed back. “Jewel Nanten is hot on Tip’s heels! Literally!”

  Kizu spared a look behind him right as Tip flew past him, the older student propelling himself forward with impressive enhancements to his legs and what Kizu briefly noted were boots meant to solidify his footing. An impressive and useful enchantment.

  A wave of heat hit him as a mage bathed in fire blasted past, skating across a glassy surface. The mage commanded her element so efficiently as to be able to entirely ignore the holes, instead creating glass bridges in a direct line in front of her.

  Kizu decided to get creative himself. He created a barrier above him and gripped the edge before heaving the spell upwards, pulling himself out of the sand.

  He next tested out a very small jump, just over to the side of Faible’s hole. This time the beacons pulled him backwards. He fought them and barely ended up a few paces back, only ankle deep in sand. But this was bad. Those beacons were in completely different places from his first jump. That meant they were moving beneath the sand.

  In the background, Basil yelled about someone punching a fellow student into a hole while Kizu scrambled over to Faible’s hole and lifted the gnome out with a barrier.

  “Thanks, Kizu,” Faible swayed and tried to fix his crooked glasses. He overcorrected and they were equally crooked in the other direction by the time he was done, but the gnome didn’t seem to notice.

  “Just stay put,” Kizu said. This would be a bit of a challenge to maintain, but Kizu plunged forward, running straight ahead while keeping Faible suspended on a barrier beside him. Ideally, he’d also place himself on the barrier and just ride it over everything. But that would cost too much of his blood. Faible was light and easy to keep stable so long as he didn’t move too quickly.

  A hole shot across the sand, trying to drop him underfoot. Kizu suspended himself with hand-sized barriers underfoot, stepping over the hole as he ran forward.

  “And if you’d look at that! Someone has finally confronted the competition on Tip heels!”

  Kizu watched with fascination as Tip’s teammate finally caught up. Harvey wasn’t as quick as his teammate, but he still used muscle enhancements to cross the distance. Unlike Tip, Harvey used the glass mage’s bridge to his advantage. The Tainted student’s tattoos glowed as he propelled himself across the bridge, smashing holes in the glass with every powerful step.

  And behind him, utter mayhem. Kizu blinked, wondering why more people weren’t also using the bridge, but then he saw the flash of metal at Harvey’s lips and just the slightest high pitch whistle. Harvey used his flute’s magic to shatter the glass behind him as he chased after the glass mage. Kizu couldn’t help but admire the incredible lung control that must take to run at his speed while simultaneously casting a spell through his flute.

  Now caught up, Harvey leaped to the side and let out a massive blast from his flute. This time the shrieking whine was easily heard by normal ears. Kizu winced and raised his hands to cover his ears. He nearly lost Faible, the gnome rolling over on the barrier in surprise at the sound.

  The glass exploded under Jewel Nanten’s feet, sending her tumbling into the sand. A moving hole gobbled her up and she disappeared from sight as Harvey leaped past her.

  Kizu’s mind raced, trying to come up with a solution. The gap between themselves and Harvey and Tip was only growing. He cursed himself. While he ran he should have been creating invisible barrier obstacles to obstruct their opponents’ path but had been taken by Harvey’s spectacle.

  “Allow me,” Faible said.

  Kizu groaned internally. Before he could protest, Faible cast a spell.

  A hundred more holes appeared ahead of them. All moving erratically.

  Tip swerved to avoid one of the new holes, only for his foot to fall into one of the original pit traps. The sand clamped down on his ankle like a bear trap. And then Harvey slowed and detoured to the side to assist his teammate.

  Illusions! Okay, maybe Faible wasn’t going to just be a weight on him the entire time. He could make this work!

  Faible teetered over to the side and Kizu adjusted the barrier to keep the gnome from falling on him. Unfortunately, he didn’t calculate for the contents of Faible’s stomach. He hurled, the puke splattering across the edge of Kizu’s barrier and over the top of his head. Kizu felt the writhing alcoholic liquid squirm inside the warm puke as it dribbled from his hair down the back of his uniform.

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