章 257: Chapter Fifty Seven - We are not doing so well
Within the stadium, the cool, large mirrors, which hung together to create a decahedron floating in the arena's centre, offered images that were not reflections. For five minutes, the audience filling the ascending seats circling the arena, could witness scenes from the other Realm and the team's involved in the challenge. As the sun reached a slightly higher point, this would change; the scenes would mostly focus upon the twenty teams led by the top Martial Artists in the Institute, each favoured with quarter of a shìchèn time before the images altered once more. After the audience had the chance to witness the achievements of all twenty teams, the mirrors would once more shuffle through the other forty, thus those supporting their scattered friends within other teams could see a little of their progress as well.
And so, considering the first mirror facing north was dedicated to Ari's team and as well as the eleventh placing person, Culven's team, then the sixth mirror counting left was for Pike for at least half an hour and Bowyer one more left next to his. This suited Sun, who felt he could support both his seniors this way. And Leon of course.
Currently on that sixth mirror flickered a darkened scene, with brightness appearing in one location. When one focused intently, one could hear sounds emanating from the mirror as part of the spell's magic. Right now, Sun could hear the heavy rush of water.
A small Mage globe appeared as if taken from inside a bag or clothing and a cool light filled the space, reflecting the damp rocks entwined with moss and algae. It also revealed two very weary, very wet bodies and a third less tired but equally as damp person. This person happened to be Troy, the other two were Leon and Roman. As Caelus, Velana and her fox appeared from the larger light source, Leon tried in vain to wring the water from his heavy robes. Pike appeared in the frame a few seconds later.
"Let's rest here for today." Everyone heartily agreed with his words.
*****
Despite the initial flush of success that the team had experienced upon the first day, things had not been progressing so well following the forced abandonment of their first camp. They had hoped to follow the line of the shore, keeping reasonably close to the source of water while within the dubious shelter of the trees. Only, the undergrowth of shrubs, vines and tall grasses had thickened as they walked, forcing them to take a trail more in land.
Walking along the outskirts of the thickening growth had also them accidentally step into the territory of a dense nest of nibblets. These pests were not dangerous individually nor could they be considered much in small groups, but just as Earthlings would be wary of poking a wasp nest, Cultivators and mortals would evade disturbing a nibblet nest. The hairless, winged rodents all quickly grabbed sharp pebbles and thorny twigs to abuse them with, hundreds surrounding each Cultivator.
Pike had surrounded his hand axes in flames to help repel the pests, while Troy relied on his abilities twisting shadows to temporarily blind the nibblets while striking them down with his knives, protecting Caelus, who was chanting a spell beneath his breath. Velana had not caught up, thus there was less of a wall protecting the more powerless Roman and Leon and more gaps through which the persistent nibblets could slip through and attack them. Though the wounds were no more than bruises and scratches, none of them remained completely unscathed as they backed away, releasing abilities and spells upon the nibblets. Many small bodies littered the ground before the main nest decided to retreat.
Velana caught up with them to witness them checking over Roman, whose tall person had definitely been the target of the worst of it. Leon decided to give him a One Heart Pill to consume before they carried onwards. The dead nibblets were not really worth anything as either trophies or materials, so were left behind for scavengers.
This misadventure had given Leon pause for thought. Most pills were intended to support others, but there were also poisons and Trick pills that alchemists could use to protect themselves, such as those that the new Teacher Jian had lectured about. It was just that, apart from attending the one lecture, Leon had yet to give these things much thought, to busy making pills to sell and for this competition. Now he kind of wished that he'd paid more attention to Teacher Jian's lectures, at least long enough to create something perhaps like a smoke bomb he'd witnessed in the movies once or twice.
But hindsight was a wonderful thing, just not a useful one as proven when Leon fell down a natural pit caused by dry clay earth and the rotted roots of a large dead tree. Troy easily rescued him, but otherwise Leon had nothing to show for it but a twisted ankle. As the suns were beginning their long descent, Pike felt it was becoming more urgent to find a place to camp, so Leon was carried on the back of Roman rather than waste time searching his interspatial bag for a Blood Pill at this time. Fortunately for Roman, whose physique was not great, Leon was not heavy.
Their camp was not as secure nor hidden as the night before. Roman set up temporary talismans, Pike created a rota that everyone had to participate in. Sleep was interrupted during the second watch with an attack of a skinny and very hungry Spiked Boar, who fought desperately. It was no match for Pike, who defeated it easily and then claimed its horns. However, there was no meat on its bones and it was also carrying disease from an infected wound, so it was buried some distance away. Sleep came uneasily after that.
The following days were just as filled with minor obstacles, not enough to be dangerously hindering, but enough to cause weariness to seep into muscles and bones. Naturally Roman and Leon were the first to be affected. And just when things could not seem much worse, the silver clouds that had formed over these days had come together and darkened to a steely grey then had shed their contents upon the ground below. It was persistent and unceasing to the point where even their water resistant cloaks could not shelter them from it and Caelus had to stop deflecting it with his spells or suffer from draining his innersea too much.
Just yesterday evening, in this rain, they had managed to find their way back to the lake and had come to realise just how lazy the map maker of this floating island had been. This part of the 'lake' was more like a river, rapid and violent and several ten-chi wide and was fed by a tall and thunderous waterfall. Thanks to the darkening sky, they couldn't explore nor wait to find a decent place to camp, could only miserably make shelter under a tree with wide leaves and huddle together. Leon found it wasn't true that a fat man was warm like a wide heated stove. Thanks to Caelus' preference for ice magic, his body leaned to being quite cool.
Having had little sleep, the team's moral was lacking, Pike knew it wasn't wise to push them too much at the moment, despite their lagging progress, so he waited until the sun rose before discussing plans around a feeble fire. The rains had yet to cease so the heat, while welcome, did not do much to dry their already damp clothes. It was fortunate that Cultivators tended to be slightly hardier than mortals or they likely would have fallen ill by now. Leon was particularly weak against the cold and was currently nestling against the thick fur of the tri-coloured fox, despite the fur smelling similar to that of a wet dog. Velana was on it's other side, brushing the half dry mud from its tails.
Pike still felt it would be best to find a more permanent camp so that they might rest well for at least a day and it was Caelus that happened to jokingly mention the cliché idea that waterfalls often hid caverns behind them. As it happened, this time he was actually correct.
クリエイターの想い 
Ebonsolaris
Ebonsolaris Author’s note; shìchèn is two hours, so a quarter is 30 minutes. Chi (I don’t have the correct symbol for the ‘i’ on my keyboard) is roughly just over a foot, depending on era. So let’s assume 12inches in this realm for simplicity sake.
週次パワーステータス
-- 推薦
ランキング 
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チケット