As the competitors prepared for an all-out battle, another explosion rocked the river as two final ships burst from the Ouroboros. Sir Bearington's ship appeared currently in a fierce battle with a ship that had more hulls and rot than even ancient vessels. Standing on the deck were what were clearly skeletons.

“Wow, looks like we are in for a treat this year, folks. The rarely seen Never-Finishers. A crew of undead who are doomed to do this race till they win have just joined us!!!” the announcer's voice echoed out from above each racer. It was now the most dangerous part of the race had truly begun.

—---------------------------------------------

A few hours have passed since they had exited the Ouroboros, and they were still stuck in the middle of the pack. The current positions were, in first place, Dorian with his ship, the Tophat-Trick. Second was firmly held by Sir Bearington, who using his warship, destroyed the majority of the other ships that had survived the underwater current. Third was held by the gnome depot ships, though both ships were arguing about who would claim victory.

Behind the leading pack in their own grouping was fourth place, which was held by the class with the Trouser Surprise. Their metallic hull had saved them from numerous ramming and ranged attacks. Just behind the class in fifth were the Never-Finishers on the ship that was named the Damned, with the Artistes just behind them. The three were currently locked in combat, with the Aristes painting holes onto the undead’s ship. Though the Damned already being hole riddled was not as affected as all their previous victims.

Finally bringing up the rear of the pack was the duo of the Swimming Paul, who, to everyone’s shock, was still perfectly swimming despite it being deemed impossible. Alongside him was Angrathrond, who was still trying his best to learn to swim.

“We need to catch up with them!” Yuu shouted as she fashioned fresh water sails for the ship out of spare decking plates.

“Chief, anything we can do to make this ship go faster?” Gunter asked.

“Dunno, I’m more the enchanting guy; your folks and Yuu are the engineers,” Alex replied with a shrug as he launched a curse at the ship behind them, causing the undead all to start stubbing their toes.

“What about you guys? You ok?” he asked, turning to Daisy and Kline, who were currently focused on resting to recover their mana. It had been a tense few hours, and they were launching countless spells left and right.

“We could use that…” Mel began before trailing off.

“Use what?” Tasha asked as she jumped into the air and kicked a ballista bolt fired by the undead’s ship off its trajectory.

“Dump the armour,” Mel replied as four of her arms deflected physically manifested words fired by a writer on the Artistes ship.

“We can't; that will weaken the ship too much,” Senior protested as he focused on reloading the Trouser Surprises' own Balistae.

“The ship can shed its armour?” Yuu asked.

“Yes, we made it so we could pull a latch that would release the plates so we could replace them easily,” Senior replied.

“Can you be selective with what parts will be dropped?”

“It's possible,” Mel replied, unsure of where Yuu was going.

“Ok, what if we drop off the plates below the water line first? We won’t expose ourselves, and we will keep our armoured sides?”

“Big Chief, I don’t think my folks' ship can survive the currents without the armour?”

“Junior is right to be worried, we aren’t shipwrights, and the ships with wooden hulls were reinforced in ways to flex with the current so as to not break. Ours were reinforced with metallic armour to take the brunt of the current. If we drop the armour, we may end up sinking,” Senior warned.

“What do you kids think?” Alex asked as he launched a volley of fireworks over the Artistes ship.

“I don’t know, sir…” Kline groaned as he drank another energy potion. The potion itself was a craft made by Mel. It had many high-energy ingredients, and as mana is naturally sourced from the energy a being takes in, it could increase the mana recovery rate. The only problem was the taste was what could be kindly referred to as using the stink pits for mouthwash.

“Let’s do it,” Maxwell declared as he stood up. “Worst case, we can forfeit before we sink.”

The rest of the people on the ship grimaced. They had been in the race for near a full day by this point, and they weren’t even at the final quarter. But they couldn’t help but admit he was right. There was no reason to forfeit their lives when they could just forfeit the race.

“I suggest we do as Maxy says,” Tasha declared as she clenched her fist above her head in determination.

“I second,” Bea added as all eleven of her copies mimicked Tasha’s gesture.

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“I want to stand on dry land, so the sooner we finish, the better,” Daisy added as she retched slightly at the next potion she had just uncorked. The rest of the class followed suit, with their teachers close behind.

“We got the class. What about you folks?” Alex asked, looking at Mel and Senior. In response, both shrugged.

“We never made it past the start line before, so this experiment has been a great success. Let's do it!” Senior declared.

“Ok, to drop the armour, you need to pull that switch there,” Mel explained, gesturing to one of a dozen levers and switches the class had been expressly told not to touch.

“To be selective of the armour detached, we will need to-”

“This one, right?” Tasha asked, pulling the lever indicated.

Time almost seemed to freeze at this moment as everyone just looked at the elf and what she had done. At the very same moment, loud clangs began to echo around the ship. All at once, a loud bang as every single one of the plates launched themselves outwards away from the hull.

The immediate result was one of the larger plates flew backwards and bisected the Artistes ship in two. The secondary result was everyone was nearly flung off the ship as it massively accelerated. Leaving behind the Never-Finishers who were struggling as is. With their newfound momentum, the ship started to rise as it glided along the surface of the water.

“Glad we added those fins to the hull,” Senior shouted as he pulled himself back over the railing onto the deck. Meanwhile, Mel was putting each of the class back down as she had thankfully caught them with her eight arms as they flew towards near-certain doom.

“GODS DAMMIT, TASHA!!!” Maxwell shouted to the elf, who was looking crestfallen at being told off.

“I thought we were pulling the lever,” she replied, looking like a kicked puppy.

“We…” Daisy began before sighing. “We were, but we were going to do it in a specific way… where are Sir and Miss Yuu?” Everyone realising what she had noticed, the class and Gunter’s parents looked around the ship to realise the teachers were nowhere to be seen.

“They’ve fallen overboard!!” Kline shouted in a panic as he rushed to the railing only to be pulled back by Gunter.

“Kline, they are strong. They will be ok,” Gunter said, trying to reassure the panicking Kline. However, even he was having trouble believing his own words.

“As much as I would love to turn around and go back for them, that is an impossibility,” Senior pointed out.

“Not to mention we are now nearing the troublesome twosome,” Mel added, pointing to the front of their ship where they were rapidly approaching the Gnome Depots.

“Battle stations!” Senior shouted

Immediately with drilled precision, the class all ran to their assigned spots. Maxwell and Gunter readied to fire on the two ships, while Kline and Daisy, despite being exhausted, readied spells to fire. Tasha and Bea, with a freshly summoned set of copies, readied to defend the ship from attacks launched their way.

“DER AFTER ME, WEE MEN!!!” An insane-looking old man incoherently shouted as he stood on the deck of one of the ships readying a pump action crossbow.

“FIRE!!” Senior roared. Following the order, they fired the ballista hull splitter rounds.

To their relief, the round penetrated between two boards of the hull perfectly. All they would need to do is wait for the mechanism to engage, and the hull boards would break apart. Only to their surprise, the two boards separated before the mechanism could activate, and a pair of hands threw the bolt into the river. Just behind the boards, the class could see an older-looking gnome giving orders.

“Crap, they are the quick builders!!!” Mel shouted. “Focus of shattering attacks or fire!!!”

“Looks like we’re up, Kline,” Daisy declared as she held her hands out in front of her and focused. Throughout the race's second half, she had been trying to recreate Gorm’s repaid fire spell trick. She had not had much luck, but she had found a way to utilise her own little trick.

“SCATTER DRAGON SHOT!!!” With her shout, she fired a scatter of mana bolts, each infused with fire.

Immediately the panels hit caught fire, only to her surprise for the gnomes to move the panels to below the waterline to extinguish the fire.

“Kline, come here!” Maxwell shouted as he ducked behind his ballista’s shield as a blast from the old man's crossbow collided with it. For a few moments, Kline and Maxwell held a quiet discussion before Kline gave a thumbs up.

“Come forth, for I seek the greater beyond!” With the chant completed, Manny appeared on the deck, ready for his orders.

“I HATH COME MINE MASTER!!!”

“Attack the ship without the old man!” Without a moment of hesitation, Manny flew over to the Gnome Depot without a crazy man wielding a crossbow and dove into it. The ship suddenly became very animated in response, and it began to swerve all over the river before colliding with the second Gnome Depot.

“YES!!!” Kline shouted in triumph, only for the two ships to fully merge and become larger than their ship. “Crap!!!!”

“I must thank yeh; I got all mah wee men back!!!” the Old Man shouted as he brought his crossbow to aim down on the now exposed deck of the Trouser Surprise.

“Not going to let you do that,” Tasha declared as she jumped up and onto the now singular Gnome Depot.

The old man retreated out of view to chase her as the ship continued to pulse and warp. After a quiet minute, the side of the ship exploded in a shower of splinters as Tasha riding on Manny’s back, burst outwards, dragging the older-looking gnome with her.

“Let me go. Do you know who I am?!!!” he cried out as they landed on the deck.

“I noticed this guy was the one who told them what shape to make the ship,” Tasha explained as he noticed their gazes asking why she had kidnapped a gnome.

“MAH WEE MAN!!!”

“Ok, let’s test that theory!!” Maxwell declared. “Kline, just like I suggested!!!”

“Gotcha,” Kline replied with a nod as he held his hands out in front of him. “I’ll wait for the right moment.”

“Guys, focus on getting the ship to go faster. We can’t waste time with the gnomes!!”

“Hey!!!” a swarm of Beas and the old gnome protested. Slowly but surely, the Trouser Surprise began to pull further and further towards the front of the Gnome Depot. As they did, they passed the gaping hole left by the chaotic duo of Tasha and Manny.

“Hey, I got a gift for you!” Daisy called out as she made eye contact with the gnomes on the other side of the hole. With an evil smirk that would’ve made even Crozonia shudder, Daisy popped the cork on two of the energy potions and threw them through the hole.

“Mhmhmhm!!!” the old gnome tried to shout despite his mouth now being covered by Tahsa’s hand.

The result of the stink bomb Daisy had made out of the potions was immediate. More of the panels began to shake and come undone, and the Gnome Depot was starting to visibly sink further into the water.

“OK, NOW!!!” Kline shouted as he began his chant.

“GAIAS-CORUMDRO-POTASA-VELICOSS!!!” Kline finished his chant.

The class were somewhat surprised to hear him use a chant. They had become rather proficient with using light circles that it had been a while since they had used anything other than Lumus Rex. But they immediately understood when they saw what was appearing in a cloud and coating the hull of the Gnome Depot.

“Potassium,” Maxwell said with a grin.

“Potato what?” Tasha asked.

“Potassium,” Maxwell corrected. “A material used in alchemy. I got Kline to do an earth spell to summon a specific metal and coat their ship.”

“Why would you do that?” Bea asked as they watched the fine powder stick to the ship.

“Because in one of the books Master Sithy had me read, it said that Potassium would-” Before he could even finish his explanation, the ship began to fizz and burn. “The material burns when in contact with water and well…” he gestured to the Jormunganda river around them.

“And they can’t put it out with water,” Kline observed as the ship started trying to rearrange itself. After a few moments, the whole ship started to burn up, only for a spectral hand to float down from the sky and pick it up.

“Damn fools…” the old gnome grumbled. “Can’t think for themselves and need me to tell them what to do…. Guess I’m a passenger now… I’ll help where I can,” he said as he slumped against the railing.

“No time to rest. We are in third now; we need to be ready for the two ahead of us,” Senior said, pointing to the now heavily scarred war galleon ahead of them.

“Raghhhh!!!” Sir Bearington roared angrily as he looked at the now-approaching ship.

“Very good sir, we shall eliminate them post haste,” the Bak Stah’Ber answered.