Finley Cai Aies Hall April 20, 20XX

The General led me over to the side of the machine and went over the instructions briefly, explaining how each section would operate and then began to preset the machine to operate by itself.

She brought out her wand, a longer and more slender version than mine and her bronze magic that was slightly closer to gold than before began to flow from her wand into the machine but she held a displeased expression on her face as she did so.

“ Anything wrong Mei?”

She quickly shook herself out of it and then looked at me with a slightly troubled expression that bordered more on irritated than helpless.

“ Nothing large, it just seems that I won't be able to operate it and run it at the same time”

I probably looked more disappointed than I thought because she rushed to finish her explanation but the amused smile on her face didn't escape me.

How exactly does she see me now that she isn't under the spell?

“It's fine, I’ll just get Lillian over here. If I send for her now she should be here within the hour.”

And what were we supposed to do till then?

I couldn't help but think. The thought of just looking around the attractions again was enough to bore me half to death and I didn't want to have an awkward chat for an hour with the General.

I went over to look at the contraption again and looked at the traces of the Generals magic through it. If I followed it like a road map starting from where the trace had faded the most I would probably be able to direct my magic in the same way.

It didn't look overly simple but it wasn't anything beyond my current capabilities. There also wouldn’t be too much of a risk of exposing myself as the General had mentioned that there were some male students in the academy. Doing this probably wouldn't be impossible for that cohort as well.

“ Mei, would you mind if I gave it a try? I’ve been training a bit in the castle so I should be able to operate it.”

Surprise flitted through her eyes and she considered it for a few minutes before finally nodding.

“If you’ve been personally trained by Esmarelda and Corin there shouldn’t be much of a problem… But I’ll have you try it before I actually get onto the machine. It would be a problem if it stopped working while I was in the middle of the course.”

And with that she walked closer to me and carefully guided me through it, making me operate each section individually before she was finally satisfied enough to run the course.

She got onto the starting platform and as soon as I began to move my magic through the course, the floor of the running course suddenly pushed up large poles that moved up and down, creating dangerous hurdles for both fliers and runners.

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The timer at the end of the whole thing began to clock down starting from 20 minutes.

The General launched into the air right away, not even bothering to challenge the course on the ground. Like she possessed a seventh sense she would bank and rise with the poles successfully passing through them and made it to the obstacle wall.

As soon as she came 3 feet close to it cannons suddenly began to shoot out glutinous spheres at her, impeding her flight patterns.

With a determined expression, she cast a shield spell, successfully blocking the majority of them without stopping and cleared the wall.

As soon as she crossed the wall her wings stiffened and she suddenly dropped like a rock onto the platform. She took a second to gather herself before taking off down the narrow platform.

She extended her wand into a sword, slashing each metallic sphere like they were made of butter and sprinted up to the end platform where the prize would eventually be.

She sped up near the end and leapt up to the platform and hit the timer, leaving 17 minutes on the clock.

I shut off the magic I was supplying to the machine, letting all its functions slow down as the general got off and came to me.

Slight beadings of sweat lined her hairline and the remnants of the glutinous spheres from the second part of the course clung to her body suit but otherwise, she was fine and was barely out of breath even as she jogged over.

I handed out my handkerchief to her when she arrived and took my hands off the levers that activated the machine and handed them over to her.

“ Do you mind if I give it a try now?”

A small smile flitted past her lips but she said nothing and instead nodded and waited for me to fly onto the platform before starting the course.

The first part was the movement course where I would have to maneuver around the poles. I didn't have as much confidence in my flight as the general did so I closed my wings right away and took off sprinting.

As with the General the poles took off in random spurts and at random times but I was at an advantage as I could see the small activation of magic that sparked before they took off. It may have been cheating but I doubted it would make much of a difference to the General and it wasn’t like I was doing this for a competition anyways.

A small spark flared up right as I placed my feet onto the ground launching me up into the air. Immediately my training with Theodulus completely overrode the play times with Cambridge and I didn't even have the time to open my wings and take to flight.

I braced my foot and flipped back onto the ground into a crouching position so as to regain my sense of balance before taking off again.

I took out my wand as I approached the wall and multiple sparks popped out as the cannons showed themselves but unlike the General I didn't bother to waste time with a shield and took the hits as they came and dodged those that I could.

I extended the wand into a pole and vaulted up at a blank space on the wall. I recognized that the wall would become more aggressive if I extended my wings so I aimed towards the wall and ran up a few stops onto the top of it and then tumbled onto the platform on the other side.

Immediately I extended my wand into a bat. I knew that I wouldn't be able to slice through them like the General had but I also wouldn’t just be able to take the hits like I had with the cannons in the previous section, half goblin or not.

As I ran I batted the spheres away, lining the edge of my wand with a repellent spell so I could focus my strength on my legs and sprinted onto the ending stage finishing with 12 minutes on the clock.

She shut down the course and flew towards me as the gears grinded to a stop.

“ Cai, that was impressive. To finish with 9 minutes on the clock is more than amazing!”

She spoke proudly and there was nothing to say that she was being sarcastic or was lying but I knew that my results far paled in comparison to hers. I had known that there would be a gap btu of almost 10 minutes was unacceptable to me.

Before I could ask to try again Cambridge and Corin popped up out of nowhere and took a quick scan of me, the obstacle course and my stained clothing and began to drag me away before I would so much as say a proper goodbye to the General.