The relentless bombardment ended after a minute or so. One-by-one, the Class One fourth-years sat back down on the blanket after Olivia managed to get out of what they called “effective bombardment range.” From what Nyssa could see though, the bombardment didn’t achieve many results.

Olivia’s demon just swatted most attacks aside like they were basketballs.

Even as Electra sent a wave of electricity through the water to electrocute the paddlers from the other teams, Olivia’s demon, Alecto, just kept paddling. Electricity flowed into her... and had no effect.

“How are we supposed to hold Olivia back if her demon just paddles, and defends... and can’t be hurt or hindered by our attacks,” One of the Class One upperclassmen grumbled as she took a seat beside Nyssa and Celeste. She turned to the two girls besides her and pointed into the distance where Olivia’s boat had now reached. “If one of you two can land even one hit, that’s a success. We’re quite sure that Olivia has sacrificed most, if not all of her senses in a contract to use Alecto like this!”

“But it’s a demon...” Celeste raised an eyebrow. “How are we supposed to get past it if you all can’t?”

“Because you two seem like very capable young women! Celeste I saw you last year during the Class Zero showdown,” The upperclassman tapped her chin as a light of recognition began gleaming in her eyes. “If you harness your powers well, I’m sure you will outshine all of us Class One seniors by a mile.”

“Ah, I got identified,” Celeste looked away and coughed to hide the smile tingling at the edges of her mouth. “Thank you for the compliment. Sadly, I don’t think I could do anything right now though. The powers have gotten better, but they’re still not under control. Your best bet would be Ryker and Electra. They’re probably the only students who are currently stronger than Olivia.”

“Rats,” A guy, who had splayed out on the blanket by their feet, shook his head. “Looks like we’ll need to help Ryker and Electr-”

Before he could finish his words though, someone rolled over and kicked him in the ribs. “Why the hell would we do that, they’re the number one enemy! Olivia’s our stalwart leader of Class One! They’re the annoying pests! Think for a moment!”

“No, you think for a moment!” The first guy returned with a kick of his own. “We should help them! It might help them slightly, but it’ll hurt Olivia more! We want a net negative! We can’t forget Olivia rejecting to partner with all of us! Are you going to forgive those grievances so quickly?”

As a fight seemed imminent, a third upperclassman separated the two. She pushed them apart from each other and had a few other people hold them back from each other. “Come on, don’t fight, we need to conserve our energy. Let’s hold a small vote, why don’t we? I’ll cast my vote for helping Ryker and Electra.”

With the upperclassmen holding an impromptu vote, Nyssa swiveled her neck around to get a sense of the situation. Once they wrapped up and began tallying the votes, she couldn’t help but point towards the river and raise her voice. “By the way, Ryker and Electra are back again, they’re rowing right there, so uh... we should get moving soon.”

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Her words caused an entire battalion of Class One seniors’ heads to snap towards the river once more. Looking over, they all froze for a second.

Ryker laid stomach down facing the bow of the boat with his arms stretched out towards the sides, hanging off edges and grazing against the water. Each second, he detonated his hands to send his team’s dinky raft forward through clouds of black smoke. While Ryker provided steering and a subset of their acceleration, Electra sat at the stern of their raft on top of Ryker’s legs, faced backward with one hand in the water and one hand raised in the air. Arcs of purple lightning flowed out from her eyes as she sent bolts of electricity through the air to defend against attacks. From the other hand came repeating bolts right into the icy-evening waters.

Nyssa, herself, couldn’t help but to also pause when faced with the brilliant light show. It doesn’t move that fast though...

Their makeshift vessel chugged through the river, tattered by the oncoming attacks and by the aggressive acceleration methods employed by the ‘expert’ crew members.

“The votes are in, we’re... helping them,” the mediator of the small Class One upperclassmen group called out before rushing off to run towards the edge of the riverbank. “Come on!”

“What... Really? We’re actually doing this?”

“Ain’t no way you all are selling your morals like this! The degeneracy modern society has fallen to! We have to return to our steadfast ideals!”

“Just. Move! We democratically chose this!”

With the appearance of a couple racers, people on both sides of the riverbank closed inward. Ginger steps down the gentle slope took everyone right up to the edge of the water—and right into ideal attack range. Mud specks went flying as the legion of Class One upperclassmen surged forward, and as they neared the river, an announcer’s voice broke through the shouting, explosion-filled chaos. “Please do not step into the water! Spectators may interfere with their powers but cannot enter the water! Any spectators who step into the water will be escorted at express speeds to the Institute hospital!”

“Ryker! Electra! We’re here to help you!” Celeste shouted over the chaos as she and Nyssa peeked their heads through the crowd of Class One students preparing to fire off their powers.

“No you aren’t! I saw what you did!” Electra sent a bolt of electricity towards the shore with an adrenaline-filled laugh. “I saw those beams and those grenades! Get away!”

“We need their help if we’re going to catch up to Olivia though,” Ryker gritted his teeth, raising his hands and blasting the racers to their left. “Let’s... let’s... let’s trust them.”

“Fine, you’re taking responsibility if we get blasted into the sky and lose fifteen positions though,” Electra groaned as she suppressed the electricity flowing out of her over the course of a couple seconds. She raised her arms into the air and stared up into the aisle of night sky visible through the trees flanking each side of the river.

The smoke cleared. The stars twinkled.

She took a deep breath in, and let it out with a slow sigh.

Then, chaos broke loose.

“Group two and three, fire towards the other bank! Group one and four, propel! Hold off the attacks from the other banks while pushing Electra and Ryker forward,” A leader standing next to Nyssa and Celeste struck a pose while sending a sound shockwave forward to rattle the students on the other riverbank.

A second later, waves of attacks whistled through the air and lit up the night sky once more as both sides engaged in bloodthirsty battle.