Once Pamerun said ‘Go’, all the participants rose into the air and shot out like bullets… except for Q who was still on the ground drawing runes. The audience stared at Q, who only said “What? My ‘flight’ spell is more complicated than just saying a few words.” Q’s flight spell was definitely complicated, as she had spent countless hours trying to come up with the perfect combination of movement runes and other kinds. Finally she completed her rune circle and placed it on her staff, allowing it to levitate in the air. She then willed it forward, and was finally on the move. Although her speed wasn’t any less than the other witches, there was a large gap between her and them, so she had to push herself to catch up.
I wish they’d let me prepare my rune circle in advance… Oh well, no point in worrying about it now! While her staff flew forward, Q removed one hand and began to draw a rune gate. While drawing it, she took in the sight of the racetrack. The floating lanterns were arranged neatly in the sky and she could just barely make out the robes of the witch in second to last place. Finally after a few more seconds she finished the gate. She didn’t stop there though, as she let the rune float behind her and continually drew more until she had three. Once the third gate was complete, Q placed all of them in a straight line in front of her and went through them all.
Q was propelled forward with an incredible burst of speed, allowing her to quickly close the gap. As the wind rushed through her hair, she kept one hand on her hat to keep it from getting blown off. It was then that she heard a faint “Kshaa~” and felt Schorl coil tightly around her ear, keeping the hat locked down. “Thanks Schorl.” Q put both of her hands on the staff and tightened her grip as she was coming up to a bend.
Pulling the staff up and slightly to the right, she was able to drift around the curve and finally saw the main group of witches turning at another bend. She leaned down a bit and clutched her staff tightly to her body in order to minimize air resistance. The moment she turned the corner she was about 50 meters away from the group so she hurried to catch up. The moment she sped up though, a large wall of of ice was erected in the midst of the main group, separating at least a quarter of the witches who were towards the back.
While most of these witches simply flew higher to avoid the wall, the unlucky ones who were close to it had to use spells and exert a lot of force to stop themselves from crashing into it. Most used wind and fire spells to create a blast that would slow them down. I could fly over it like the others did, but that’d put me even more behind than before. The wall doesn’t seem to be too thick either… Alright, I’m breaking through!
Q started drawing a rune circle with a large earth rune in the center. Surrounding it were spin runes, and then it was finally completed with fire runes lining the outside. At this point Q was so experienced in writing runes that she could complete one every half-second without having to use her cheat. She completed the rune circle in about 7 seconds, then finally activated it about 10 meters from the wall. A quick flash of light occurred, and out came a large, burning chunk of rock in the shape of a drill which began to spin rapidly. The moment the drill made contact with the wall the flames sizzled and were weakened a bit, but the drill continued forward. The flames outside the drill melted the ice and made it less solid, allowing the drill to bore through the wall and break out the other side.
Throughout all of this Q maintained her current speed, so she shot out like a bullet and quickly passed by the witches who were still descending from the top of the ice wall. She felt a slight pain in her stomach as she left the wall behind her. I’m getting a stomachache now? Ah, no time to worry about this. She ignored the pain and looked ahead. What greeted her was a sight of pure chaos, as the witches began slinging spells at each other left and right in an attempt to delay each other or take out other contestants.
Q flew lower to the ground in hopes that she wouldn’t get hit by any stray spells since most of the action was occurring in the air above. She noticed that a few other witches were flying low to the ground as well, apparently having the same idea as her. These witches all looked at each other and seemed to have an unspoken agreement to not bother each other until they got out of the chaotic mess.
Up ahead the floating lanterns lead into an alleyway, and the witches were forced to slow down or squeeze themselves in to get through the alleyway. Q made a few rune circles which had configurations that made a flat wall of each element and had them surround her. These walls were placed in front of her and were slightly angled to give her vision of what was ahead. Then, instead of slowing down like the rest of the witches, Q sped up and even created another speed gate to go through (though she made sure to dispel it immediately after).
The result of this action? Q turned into something similar like an armored vehicle as she barreled her way through the alleyway and relied only on the walls to protect her. A few witches saw her do this and tried to throw potions or use spells but Q was going too fast for them to hit and she moved the walls for anything that happened to be in her way. The alleyway didn’t even last for 15 seconds, as the path split up into three different areas. The paths to the left and right were narrow and had few witches, while the one in the center was slightly larger but had more witches. Q was tempted to go into one of the paths that were less crowded, but decided to go into the path with the most witches instead. Although I could probably go faster if I went into the other paths, I’d be more likely to get hit by other witches which would inevitably slow me down, or waste my mana.
With the idea of conserving mana and avoiding trouble, Q headed into the center path. Her decision turned out to be correct, as the witches in the path she chose were more focused on getting through and not bumping into something. She got rid of her walls since they’d be very conspicuous, and instead opted for using a hard and reinforce rune on herself, increasing her defence. She was forced to slow down a little, but in exchange she wasn’t harassed at all - though she did notice there were a few hexes placed around the area which gave her a slight headache.
In the end she made it through, and it turned out that all the pathways leaded to the same area anyway. Q sped up and reached the front of the pack. She noticed that the number of witches who left the other paths were significantly less than how many entered them, and was thankful she hadn’t chosen to go through. “Slow and steady wins the race…” she muttered, “But that’s boring!”
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She began creating rune gates with speed again, but this time since she was near the front, more witches noticed her and began to use spells or hexes to stop her. Noticing this, she made a layer of three walls behind her. Unfortunately she underestimated the power of these spells as they easily broke through her walls and threw her off balance. Shit! Q flicked her tail to regain her balance, but a few other witches shot out more spells with the intention of taking out another competitor.
At this point Q did something which shocked everyone. She let go of her staff and created a flat wall of earth slightly underneath her, then she used it as a foothold to leap forward. The spells aimed at her earlier flew over her head, and once they disappeared she created a rune circle which let out a blast of wind that launched her through the air. The staff was still going forward, and Q was just barely able to grab onto it. Her maneuver allowed her to get slightly ahead of the witches, so she took this opportunity to create more speed gates and broke away from the main pack.
“Haha! Back in the lead in one fell swoop! Or not…” Q’s joy was dampened slightly when she noticed the people at the very front of the race. Many of them were the older and more experienced witches who were skillfully exchanging attacks while maintaining their high speed. The rest were some apprentices of the Grand Witches (which meant they were definitely dangerous), and there were also a few other people she never took notice of before. If they’re all in the front, that means they’ve definitely got skills to stay here and not get taken down or left behind. Not only that… Cookie is there! I have to be careful here… especially since my stomach is really starting to bother me.
For a second Q thought of greeting her, but decided against it as they were opponents for the duration of the race. Instead she decided to send out a friendly ‘warning shot’ and sent a light gust of wind towards Kukis. The wind barely affected Kukis, but she turned around and saw Q quickly closing the gap between them. With a slight grin on her face she threw a few potions behind her, then shot some fireballs at them.
The moment the fireballs came in contact with the potions, the glass containing them shattered and the contents were set ablaze, creating a wall of green fire. Q decided to create the same drill that went through the ice wall earlier, except this time she coated it in water. The water was able to get her through the wall, though Q noticed that it was almost boiling by the time she got through. At this point Kukis stopped her attack and slowed down ever so slightly to let Q catch up to her.
“Hey there Q. I knew you’d make it to the front of the pack.” Kukis grinned.
“Of course!” Q returned a grin of her own.
“By the way, how do you like my present?”
“Present? What are… Oh. Oh! You little-!” Q’s grin faded once she placed the puzzle pieces together and realized what Kukis was talking about. In contrast, Kukis’ grin only grew wider as she saw Q’s frustrated face.
“That’s right. The potion I gave you does restore mana, but also has the side effect of causing a bad stomach ache. It was a failure when I started making potions, though I suppose in this case it worked in my favor. The best part is it doesn’t even count as a status effect yet, so no curing it! All’s fair in a competition! Especially when you’re cheating. Later~” Kukis then sped up and left behind another wall of green fire - this one smaller than the last.
“I am SO getting back at her for this.” Q gritted her teeth and created a few walls of water to get her through the wave of flame. The pain in her stomach wasn’t getting any better though, and she could swear she heard some gurgling noises. Taking a quick glance behind her, she saw that the group of witches were spreading out now that there was more room, and it was only a matter of time before they started to attack her.
Slow them down or speed myself up? I’d rather not expend the effort to slow them down, especially since I’ve used a fifth of my mana already. I guess that leaves speeding up then. Now making a conscious effort to ignore the stomachache, Q created some more speed gates to go through and return to the leading group. Now to deal with this pain. The stomachache was getting worse now, and began to distract her. She looked through her inventory to see if there was anything that might help, and she noticed that there were some leftover candies from the event quest. She popped one in her mouth, and the pain was temporarily alleviated as she focused on the sweet flavor that spread through her mouth. So eating something helps? No… it’s probably just the candy. But I can’t do this forever. Let’s try this!
Q used a ‘cleanse’ rune on herself, and to her surprise it worked! Incurable my ass… Though I suppose it’s because my intention when using cleanse was to get rid of impurities in my body. More importantly, I need to focus on the race! Q maintained her distance from the lead group and the main group behind her, focusing on keeping a steady pace. There were a few more turns in the path and occasionally obstacles (in the form of hexes or large scale spells from witches up front), but Q was able to get through them all. Finally, the lanterns lead out of the village and towards the Forest of Fog.
The lanterns split up again and lead to multiple large gaps between the trees which surrounded the village. Q randomly picked one and headed inside, and was faced with a wall of fog. She created a rune circle with fire and sustain and made it float a few meters in front of her. The fog cleared up, but also revealed a branch about to hit her face! Q ducked and felt the branch just barely scrape the top of her ears. A quick glance at the path in front of her revealed that there were all sorts of trees with their branches twisted and interlocked in a way that forced her to maneuver slowly in order to get through. She was able to make out the lanterns easy enough since the light they have created a large area with no fog, but there were so many splitting paths that she was a little overwhelmed.
Q randomly chose a trail of lanterns and followed them. She swerved to avoid another branch, and then hung on her staff upside down to keep herself from crashing into a whole slew of branches overhead. It seemed that there wasn’t anyone else near her, though that might be because there were so many paths through the forest. She ducked and weaved her way through the branches and eventually came to an opening where she saw other witches sitting down to one side with a small station set up.
I guess that’s one of the checkpoints huh? Q passed by it and continued to fly forward, though she waved at the witches waiting there, prompting them to wave back. Doesn’t seem like anyone else got here yet, so I guess I’m somewhat ahead of the pack. Alright, let’s keep up this pace and keep going!
*****
In the outskirts of the witch’s village, a breeze blew by. The branches of the trees moved a bit, and the few leaves that were on it rustled. There was one branch in particular though, that didn’t move a single bit, as if something was holding it down. “Ahh. Even if people can’t see me, my surroundings can still give away my position. I wonder if there are any skills that can bypass that.” A voice rang out, breaking the silence in the woods.
For a moment the air around the branch shimmered and then stopped, revealing a cloaked figure. “Felkon’s [Still Air] spell might have helped… but then again someone could sense mana being used. *sigh* Being stealthy sure is hard when there’s magic and stuff in play.” The figure continued to mutter itself as it dropped from the branch. It walked up to the gigantic trees which surrounded the village and put a hand on them.
“It’s been awhile since this giant tree wall was found, but only now do we know what’s behind it.” The figure looked over to an open portion of the wall which had colorful floating lanterns coming out of it. “Well, this pretty much confirms it though. This is the witch’s village. Mission accomplished I guess. I wonder what kind of reward I’ll get from the Church. It’ll probably be some holy item or whatever...” Just as suddenly as the figure appeared, it vanished with no evidence of it ever being there.