Mi

The final member of Flame’s group went ahead. A well-built girl with curling, ram-like horns, she decided to combine brute force with her fire magic. One of the large javelins rested in her hands, before she lit it, turning it into an aerial bonfire, and exploded the scarecrow’s gourd head with relative ease.

Imps cheered, enjoying the display of power, and then it was time for their group to step up.

Misty watched Rhodney and Navy move together, the pair walking side-by-side, asking for a boulder and a scarecrow respectively.

The minotaur had placed the targets down without a second thought, with the boulder dead center, and the scarecrow far to the left. Misty had given the suggestion to pick a pig to her teammates, but Rhodney declined. She’d wondered why the boy decided to pick the harder option. With his type of fire he would have destroyed any animal.

Regardless of the time limit.

It seemed a little arrogant to her. The blast he had created still shocked her to her core, she couldn’t lie about that but…

The explosion of flames that created the tree had at first looked like they’d done nothing. The cradle’s walls were probably just too strong to show any damage.

But even with that defense, a giant tree still found its way with the help of its master's beacon, busting its powerful roots through the Cradle’s roof. Providing them with the mana that helped them grow expeditiously.

Rhodney had a right to believe in his power… she just hoped he knew what he was doing. “Turn it off quickly…” Rhodney whispered to Navy. Navy nodded, placing his hands on Rhodney’s back. Rhodney had to do the job of two of them while Navy managed the boy’s mana from the inside.

They didn’t need Rhodney falling asleep for another two days.

Misty found their magic exciting to watch. Rhodney’s veins crawled, snake-like, up his arm and around his neck glowed a neon yellow, and Navy’s light poured into Rhodney’s back.

The magic imp grit his teeth. He struggled to wrestle with the power that he’d easily quenched before. And before the minotaur could say go, an explosion of green light hit the field.

A roaring pillar of flame escaped the boy’s cupped hands, and blasted dead center towards the boulder.

The flames howled as they escaped her companions' hands. A brilliant green, yellow, with licks of red came off the beam that dwarfed even the Minotaur in size. It hurt her eyes to look at, but didn’t feel…

Wait… isn’t fire supposed to be hot?

Rhodney, after five seconds of sending his intense power, screamed and struggled against the weight. He tried to tilt his arm but was hit back with a shock-wave of force as he tried to move the hurricane. He wasn’t piloting it, it was piloting him.

“Help!!!” Rhodney screamed.

Navy struggled to spin the boy to the left. His own stress was already bad enough. Sweat poured from every orifice as he struggled to keep Rhodney’s mana together. Misty couldn’t even tell if it was working… Their feet slid against the ground as they struggled to stay on their feet.

Hoof marks were drawn backwards as the two were pushed back by the wave.

Smokey ran up in a flash to help the pair. Holding the two by their waist and trying to aim Rhodney at the scarecrow aimed to the left.

He’s crazy! Misty started to sweat as the three boys screamed trying to move the beam that didn’t want to budge.

Torrent ran up to help. She aimed her hand to the right and tried to use her wind magic to create more leverage to move the boy out of the way.

“Crap!!” Torrent used Rhodney’s coined swear as even she didn’t have enough force to push the boy out of the way. And pushing herself was her specialty. They were so close to the thunderous maelstrom of fire that the sounds of the ambient yelling and Nike were all drowned out.

Misty felt frozen.

What if the beam exploded?

What if the energy created was something that could alter her body and deform her years later?

What if this wasn’t worth it…

““Would you rather lose? Or not try?”” Rhodney’s words echoed

…

She grabbed her friends by their wrists, and with Smokey, pushed as hard as she could. Her powerful limbs pushed her sturdy hooves against the dirt with all her might.

They weren’t going to lose today.

They were going to impress this stupid goat and move onto whatever next step was next.

And they were going to not only succeed, they were going to win.

And she was going to move this stupid kid!!!

Misty felt an energy come over her body that she’d never felt before. Maybe it was all the magic pushed through the air. Maybe it was adrenaline fuelling her body.

Maybe it was something unrelated.

But she suddenly heard something drumming. Something beating loudly in her ears. And in time with this internal metronome, it shook her body as it started to speed up within her body.

Boom, Boom, Boom, BOOM!

Smoke started to pour from her mouth, and she felt hot. Burning.

With new strength, the teeter-totter was finally leveraged in their favor. The flames touched the scarecrow on the shoulder, tearing arm from body. The ripped arm and scarecrow were pulled into the void and vanished into the woods. And Misty knew there was no way the boulder or the scarecrow had survived all that.

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Navy twisted the metaphorical knob down on the mana, and Rhodney’s torrential magic halted.

The five lessers collapsed in a heap of exhaustion.

Huff, huff, huff, huff, hurghh, huff.

Torrent ran over to the woods and the group overheard the sound of her throwing up.

Misty’s heart still beat with loud thuds that drummed her along. She felt like she needed to hit something. Her skin was an even brighter pink than normal, and steam continued to flood out her mouth.

She couldn’t think. Her mind felt cloudy. And she only noticed what the others were staring at ten seconds after their faces had paled.

The scarecrow was gone. They had been successful in eliminating that. But, the boulder…

That boulder was now gigantic.

Standing even taller than the minotaur now. A gigantic landmark that would be impossible to move. Diamond shaped, dug deep into the ground, seemingly in protest to the blast of energy.

It had gone from a brown stone similar in color to the grassless path of the arena, to a smooth gray. Glowing a slight dark blue that forbiddingly pulsed with light.

Everyone looked at the glowing gem with slight worry.

Well, she couldn’t say everyone.

“Ha…Hahaha…HAHAHAHA!” Flame’s nervous chuckle quickly turned into a howl of laughter as he saw the boulder. The ridiculousness of the entire display tickling him pink.

“How do you mess that up?! Gods, Rhodney!!” Misty couldn’t tell whether the boy was making fun of her friend, was laughing at him, or was excited at the show of power.

Was there an ‘all of the above’ answer?

Flames' laughter stopped immediately when the minotaur shook the ground with a stomp. He shut up real fast and did an involuntary demon salute as he shuffled away.

Misty looked back and saw the gazes of the other imps.

Nervous chuckles. Creeping fear. Jealousy. Complete and utter self-doubt. And…Waiting. Waiting on the edge for the minotaur’s words.

Nike walked up to the boulder. Looking at it with his old eyes. Hesitantly, he moved his large finger toward the rock. The minute he hit it… a groan? A moan?

She couldn’t tell what effect the rock was having on the minotaur. Some kind of intense feeling moved through the old man’s body as he felt the mass, causing him to involuntarily make some kind of odd noise.

The minotaur fell to one knee and stared at the rock with confusion.

He turned to Rhodney.

“What… What did you do? I thought you had… healing magic?” He talked through bated breaths, choking through his mix of pain and ecstasy.

The hell did this rock do to him!?

“Um, I–Uh…” Rhodney didn’t seem to know how to answer the question. He looked just as befuddled as the rest of us. Misty was afraid Rhodney would accidentally heal the boulder and not do any damage, but something else happened that raised even more questions.

What were his abilities? Was this some variation of earth magic? And if so, why did it come out as fire?

And what was this feeling? She felt her heart vibrate as her muscles felt tight beneath her skin.

“That doesn't matter!” Flame yelled to Nike, “You said that we had to destroy our targets, he didn’t. So they don’t win.”

Nike gives Flame a confused look.

“I said, everyone gets three chances. He only fired one blast lad.”

Flame curls in on himself and Misty giggled. Idiot. He really wants to win.

Flame thought for a moment, then pointed at the minotaur in an “Ah HA!” gesture, “You also said we couldn’t use scarecrows if we worked together… but you gave him a scarecrow when he asked for it!”

Misty realized. She had completely forgotten that it was a requirement. Rhodney and Navy’s eyes widened as Flame snitched. Crap… Why didn’t they just listen to Misty? They could have avoided this entire caveat.

Nike looked over to Rhodney and Flame, “Do either of you have earth magic?”

Navy nodded.

“Fine,” The minotaur huffed, smoke coming out of his nose.

“Flame is right, I forgot that I made that rule,” He said honestly, “I shouldn't've even let you use the scarecrow. It’s on me. To keep the test fair, you will lose a try at getting rid of the boulder, you will have only one chance now.”

Navy looked spent. The boy’s horns, more pin pricks than anything, sprouting out above his eyebrows told everyone how little mana he actually had. He may have had a lot of proficiency, but that didn’t change the fact that the boy lacked fuel.

Him and Rhodney’s bodies swayed as the two approached the rock.

Not even trying to do it from range.

Flame tried to complain, but the minotaur quickly shut him up. This was going to be hard. No way they could do it from an equal distance away.

Rhodney placed his hand on the rock, and similarly to the minotaur, unconsciously gasped at whatever energy the rock was filled with.

His veins glowed a deep blue as he looked deep into whatever it was. Navy waited patiently as Rhodney pulled off whatever sorcery he was messing with, mumbling to himself as he… whispered to the monolith?

If they couldn’t get the rock destroyed, this test may as well end here. The other half of the field was consumed by the Boulder.

Rhodney’s eyes rolled back and his veins, cyan blue, bled into lines that dashed along the surface of the stone. Running up the thing and around it. Rhodney whispered something over to Navy and he nodded in tentative agreement to the plan. The ground around them turned to sand, and together they coaxed the rock into going down,

Down.

Down.

The ground cleared as if nothing had even been there at all.

—-------

Out of sight, deep in the woods, a scarecrow laid down. Covered and dirt, its gourd head battered and bruised, its newly-made sentience spiraled dizzily. How long has it been since it landed? It had hit several trees and would describe its own day as… Less than okay, if it had to rate its experience.

One of its arms had torn from the trip, and laid a decent distance away.

How would you describe life?

A sad, miserable experience when someone gets beat down over and over again?

Or would you describe it as… a struggle?

The scarecrow started to glow and light, shaking violently. Its body broke out into rubbery protrusions that seemed like something trying to punch its way out of rubber walls. Something desperate to break free. Its body glowed in a necrotic green as the scarecrow started to claw into the dirt, dragging its broken body toward the laid out arm. His left arm undulated and grew, breaking the laws of mass.

It had far more straw then when it started.

It moved in in a twisted way that the gods would frown upon.

A bastardization.

A horror.

It had no concept of those things however. Information pumped slowly into its brain as it feverishly grabbed at its arm. It dragged its clawed hand across his face, breaking into a scream as it made its own jagged mouth. The creature grabbed tightly on the arm and raised it high in celebration.

Hungry.

The Scarecrow was hungry.

It saw no meals, but looked to its own arm it collected, a dripping pumpkin smile as it looked down. It greedily feasted on its own straw like flesh, its pumpkin blood dripping from its seedy tongue. It tore into the meal, desperate to swallow in a body that could not.

Its own straw falling from its mouth as he couldn’t keep it down.

Anguish. It cried out in its own hunger, its empty belly crying out for something to consume. Something to nourish it, anything to feed on.

“Fh–Fat–therr…” It’s raspy new chords creaked out the words as it stared back to the area from where it had been thrown.