by Jay Boyce
Jade glanced back over the side to see Glen floating on his back, just staring at the sky. “Glen, are you okay?”
He smiled halfheartedly at her. “I think you might’ve broken a few things,” was his weak reply.
Grumbling, she reached out, calling to the water he was in. He yelped as the water basically formed a cushion beneath him as it floated up until he was level with the platform. She brought him up and over the bar, standing him upright before dismissing the water, which streamed back to where it had come from. She caught his arm as he hissed with pain when his feet hit the ground, sending a wave of healing through him as she examined his injuries.
She winced, speaking in a tiny voice, “Sorry, I thought you were okay since you kept going…” She was quickly fixing his broken bones…of which there were seventeen.
She was amazed he’d lasted so long in the challenge with those injuries. When he relaxed with the healing going through him, he said cheerfully, “Hey, at least I can say I did it. I’m sure no one else is even willing to try now.”
She glanced around, giggling softly because everyone had basically said exactly that and she figured he’d probably overheard at least part of it. The looks around her were a mix of consternation, nervousness, and challenge.
Chapter Thirty-Five – Obstacles
Grinning, Jade shrugged. “That’s okay, I want to try now anyway.”
Blank stares greeted her, and it was Jarom who coughed nervously and suggested, “Jade, I realize you’ve put on some muscle, but you should probably try the beginner course first. This one requires minimum stats of fourteen to complete. The higher, the better.”
Jade turned to look at him, appraising him. Finally, she requested hesitantly, “Jarom, can I ask what your physical stats are?”
He seemed to be pondering her question before he finally nodded. “I suppose that’s fair. My strength and dexterity are at sixteen.”
That was quite high for most people. Hers were only higher because she was cheating, but the fact was…hers were higher. She glanced around at the people on the platform. She trusted Victor and Jarom, but there were also Jayce, Angus, Bryoni, and Glen standing there. Still, eventually people would learn she was different. Might as well be now, when she could instill confidence into them.
Glancing over her stat sheet briefly, she nodded. “Thank you for telling me. Please know that I’m not trying to show off, I merely want you to understand. My lowest stats are at seventeen.” Okay, there was a tiny white lie in there. Luck was at 16.97, but she figured it was close enough. Still, her soft words elicited exclamations of shock and amazement from those around her.
It was Victor who recovered first. “ALL of your stats are seventeen or higher? Even luck and magic?” Smiling gently at him, she just nodded. He sucked in a breath before muttering his next question, “Since when?”
She shrugged. “This morning. So I’m not completely used to the changes yet, which is why I want to try the course. I need to figure out how to gauge the amount of power I use on everything for the best efficiency.”
“I want to see her run the course!” Jayce was her first supporter, and he just looked plain excited. He was beaming at her before glancing at the others. “Look, Glen is one of the best runners, and she demolished him with her arrows. I, for one, want to see what she’s capable of, so let her run the gauntlet. What harm would it do anyway? At worst, she has a few broken bones, which she can heal herself, and she gets a bit wet, which she can take care of easily as well.” He shrugged and looked back at her again. “So I want to see you run the gauntlet, but I think maybe you shouldn’t use your magic if you want to test your new strength.”
She dipped her head quickly in agreement. “You make a good point. I won’t use magic to make it easy.”
Jarom was shaking his head, but it was in acquiescence. “Alright. If you want to do this, I won’t stop you.”
She bounced cheerfully, a huge smile across her face. “Thanks! I’ll go get ready!” Jayce looked like he was about to lead her down, but she gave him a mischievous look. She wanted to test something. She backed up from the railing, giving it a considering look as she thought about the distance to the starting point. She wasn’t as worried about if she fell because of the water, so it was the perfect time to test her jumping ability! Absently, she sent a message to her babies, “You should stay here and watch. I don’t want you getting hurt.”
“Safe?” Lilith’s voice was questioning as the fellacai took flight from her hair to flutter around above them.
“I’ll be fine,” she mentally reassured them as she judged the distance was appropriate.
“Jade, what are you doing?” Victor’s voice sounded both nervous and curious as she mentally psyched herself up.
“Flying,” she replied absentmindedly, nodding to herself as she started to run forward. Right before she hit the railing, she jumped, using her foot to push off the railing as she zeroed out her gravity to basically nothing. Laughing with glee as she soared through the air weightlessly, she concentrated on her landing point, gradually increasing her weight as she got closer until she landed and rolled to her feet in a rather graceful feat for her. She came up with her arms held high in the air in the gymnast landing pose, and her cheeks almost hurt, she was smiling so hard.
It had worked! She figured that one of the easiest ways to use her gravity magic was if she just used it to augment a movement she was already making. That way she didn’t have to worry about creating momentum, she just had to worry about obstacles in the way. Absently, she healed her foot before anyone could notice the tiny wince of pain she felt when she turned. She’d need to work on the landings so that she didn’t hit with too much force. She waved at the platform of people who were just staring at her and noticed the entire arena had pretty much gone silent as a grave.
“What on earth just happened?” She heard a whisper behind her and turned to face the two people manning the starting platform.
Jade giggled at him, muttering, “I took one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind!” The poor duo looked perplexed by her muttering, unsure if they were supposed to take her seriously or not. One of them appeared to be an assistant professor and the other was probably another third or fourth year. This fitness class seemed to be entirely filled with the upperclassmen, which she supposed made sense.
She sighed as she looked at them, seeing as they still hadn’t figured out what was going on. “I’m challenging the course next. I’m Jade, by the way.”
The student asked in a squeak of a voice, “Did you just jump from the archery platform?”
She smiled benignly at him. “Yes, I used magic to jump over here directly rather than walking around.” She was trying to not sound condescending, because having someone fly over and do a parkour roll followed by a gymnastics pose and strange quotes was probably both extremely strange and slightly terrifying.
“You’re the traveler?” the assistant teacher asked calmly. She nodded and he seemed thoughtful.
It was only when Jarom’s voice boomed across the arena that she was given her reprieve from the awkwardness. “Jade, start!” She glanced around, startled. That was abrupt; she’d at least exchanged banter with Glen before he went off! Still, she wasn’t about to miss her chance.
Grinning at the two behind her, she gave them a two finger salute as she said happily, “Toodles!” Laughing, she turned back to the front and began to sprint. She easily dodged the first two logs that were swinging at her, but the third was swinging directly in the middle when she was about to run into it. She decided to just hurdle it. She was flying through the air when an arrow whizzed past her, going through where she would have been if she’d stopped.
Adrenaline pumping through her veins, she had a somewhat feral grin as she began to duck, jump, and weave through the logs, twisting to avoid the now more frequent arrows coming at her. When she glanced up, she realized there were four people shooting at her, and she called out teasingly, “Cheate
rs!”
“It’s payback!” Glen called back as he loosed another arrow. She grunted as she avoided one arrow, only to have another smack into her leg. She would have been fine if she’d had a wind shield up, but she was supposed to be doing this without magic. Still, she directed a tiny burst of healing to where she’d been hit. She tried to justify herself, mentally explaining that healing wasn’t the same as using gravity, wind, or water magic. Her abilities were still being tested, she was just…doing magical endurance training at the same time! Yeah, go with that…
She made it through the swinging logs with only a few more hits by arrows. With four people shooting at her, she felt she was doing pretty good. It was painful and she was no longer smiling, but her eyes were filled with determination. Every time she got hit, she simply directed more magic to heal herself and worked on dodging better.
Next came the platform jumps, and she almost dumped herself in the water by jumping too hard and overshooting the platform. Only a quick ricochet to the next platform saved her. She was taking more arrows here, the necessity of being in the air and unable to move to avoid them was a harsh reality. Instead, she picked up the pace, jumping and moving in a faster and more controlled way. More of the arrows started missing again, but she was getting closer to the platform, so it was also getting easier for them to shoot her.
The ropes. She wanted to study them for a moment, but the arrows coming at her didn’t allow that. In her annoyance, she started swatting the arrows away while she stood still for a second, happily surprised to find that she could deflect them for the most part. Grinning, she realized that while she had overshot on the platforms, she could use that here. Taking a running leap, she jumped through the air, ignoring all the early ropes she was supposed to have used.
She caught one rope, which went sailing forward from her momentum, and she released it at the apex, flying forward once more. Three ropes later and she was already at the other side. “Oh come on, that’s cheating!” she heard Glen whine from above.
“Says the cheaters who have four people shooting at me with my own enhanced arrows!” she called back. Oh yeah, she’d noticed that they were still using her wind arrows. She glared at the giant wall in front of her. It looked around twenty feet high, and there were a bunch of cracks and bumps you could use as footholds to climb up it. She decided her tactic of using fast power was still the right choice.
Taking another running jump, she kicked up the wall to get more momentum and height, grabbing a handhold almost three fourths of the way up. She took several arrows to the back and one to the head, which made her loosen her grip for a moment before she flooded herself with healing energy. They were getting vicious! “Head shots are rude!” she yelled at them as she pushed herself to the top through sheer force of will, making sure she didn’t lose her grip. It would really suck to fall at this point because there wasn’t water beneath her there.
Reaching the top, she was now equal with the archers, who were laughing while they shot at her. She danced around for a moment, weaving between the arrows. “Can’t take your own medicine?” Glen taunted her with a smirk.
“Oh, that is IT! Bring it!” She focused on them and the world seemed to slow down for a minute as her senses kicked into high gear. She grabbed the next two arrows that flew at her by the shaft, turning and whipping them around. She heard yelps as she managed to peg two of the archers in the chest with her projectiles; it helped that they were only fifteen feet away.
She laughed. “Arrows go both ways!” She was rewarded with the other two pegging her in the legs, and she growled at them. The next part was over water again, but it was a downward run over spinning metal bars. Lovely. “Oh, screw it,” she muttered before running and diving. In superman form, she flew over the sliding bars that she was pretty sure she was supposed to run over, barely managing to push herself upwards on the last bar so she could make the platform. She still missed, crashing into the wall with only one arm on the platform she needed.
She groaned as she got hit by more arrows but stubbornly healed herself as she painstakingly pulled herself up. The last section was another rock wall of sorts. Instead of going up, she had to make her way across the wall hanging above the water. It curved like a loop de loop of a roller coaster, so she was pretty sure she’d either have to go upside down at one point or be hanging by just her hands.
She got pegged in the back by an arrow and yelled at them, “I’m going to remember this!”
Victor was the one who yelled back, “You asked for it!”
She grumbled under her breath and started moving across the wall. She didn’t want to jump this time because she was getting tired and didn’t want to miss grabbing her grip. The constant need to heal herself and the physical exertion was taking a toll. She moved as quickly as she could while trying to protect her head and shift her body to avoid the arrows flying at her, since they’d shown they weren’t afraid of hitting her in the head.
When she reached the apex of the loop, she paused and just anchored herself there for a moment. The angle was such that they couldn’t shoot her from where they were, so it was a rare moment without extra pain. She enjoyed it for a brief moment before moving on to where the blunt arrow barrage began again. Still, the arrows stopped as she used a last kick to jump away from the wall and onto the final platform.
Panting from the exertion, she decided that sitting down was a good idea and plopped to the ground before laying down and staring at the sky. It was such a pretty blue.
Her muscles were still screaming at her, and she focused on breathing. She heard a voice above her asking a little nervously, “Jade, are you okay?”
Her stomach grumbled loudly in protest as she spoke to the sky, “I need somebody to make me a sammich.”
Chapter Thirty-Six – Fame
“What’s a sammich?” Bryoni’s musical voice rang out as she approached, her rose smell announcing her presence as clearly as her voice. Jade could hear a stampede of feet coming towards her, choosing to ignore it in favor of staring at the sky. Her stomach rumbled angrily at her again, but she didn’t feel like she had the energy to move. Her muscles were still screaming in protest at having been pushed too far.
People were encroaching upon the sky now and she closed her eyes, blocking them out since they decided to block out her sunshine. “Jade, are you okay?” Victor’s voice was growing more concerned, so she reluctantly opened her eyes again.
“I’m fine, just hungry. Did anyone grab my bag by any chance?” As far as she knew, she’d left it on the archery platform.
“Ah’ve got it.” Angus’s calming voice rolled over her. He was like a gentle giant as he made the crowd part before him so he could deposit her bag next to her. She smiled gratefully at him, ignoring the other mutters going on around her as she gingerly grabbed food and began shoving it down, healing the soreness in her muscles as she did.
“How are you still standing? That was…brutal.” The question came from a girl she didn’t know, but Jade smiled tiredly at her.
“I’m not standing.” There was soft laughter around her because really, she was lying flat on the ground while shoving food in her mouth. The girl was somewhat upside down for her from this position, and she moved her shoulders in an approximation of a shrug as she said, “I was healing myself the whole time. It was the only way I was going to make it through, considering they cracked,” she paused to do a mental count, “fifty-seven of my bones.”
Sympathetic groans rang out as she heard Jayce ask, “Fifty-seven? I thought you dodged most of them.”
She laughed, which turned into a cough, causing her to sit up so she could lean over her knees until the fit passed. She shook her head as she looked up at Jayce. “I did, but honestly, there were four of you shooting at me constantly with magic arrows and a bunch of places where I couldn’t do a whole lot to avoid them. What did you think was going to happen?”
She narrowed her eyes at them as she went on. “Moreover, you guys were a
iming for my head. I realize it’s good practice, but there are some things even I can’t fix, and the brain starts treading in that area. It was also in a dangerous area where I wasn’t over water. If you don’t have enough control not to aim for the head, you shouldn’t be on that platform.” Her voice had gotten lower and more menacing as she spoke, and Bryoni was looking at the ground guiltily.
“Sorry.” Her voice was no more than a quiet whisper. “I got too excited and wasn’t thinking. You just…kept going, no matter how much we hit you.”
Jade shook her head, reassuring her, “I understand, but don’t do it again. You were lucky it was just a glancing shot. If I had fallen wrong at that point, it could have easily killed me instantly.” She glanced up at Jarom, who had remained silent this whole time. “Actually, I think that’s something you should probably change, just in case.”
He shrugged. “Most people who make it to that point are strong enough not to fall. It’s never been an issue.” She wanted to punch him. Just because it never had been didn’t mean it never would be. She was almost the .0001% statistic.
She held her breath, counting to five to calm herself before she looked up at him. “Be that as it may, I would advise you to look into the change. As it’s something that could be done with relative ease, I don’t see why it wouldn’t be possible.”
“Tradition.” She glanced over at Victor, brow raised in curiosity. “The course hasn’t changed since Dracona was founded. No one wants to be the one to change what our ancestors left us.”
She growled under her breath. Stupid traditions were going to get someone killed eventually. This was a perfect example of why the world had stagnated. They seemed almost unwilling to change, holding up what their ancestors had done on a pedestal.
She got up, brushing herself off as she snapped, “Fine. I’ll build a new one. My world had obstacle courses down to an art, despite not shooting anyone while they were trying to complete them.” Ninja Warrior meets Beastmaster, here she came! She figured she could combine the courses as possible and maybe add some fun new things using magic. She mentally added it to her to-do list of things when she came back from the mesmer hunt.
