LIGHTNOVELSTORY Chapter 214: The Winning Midget
'I could end it right here. Right now. All of it.' Rafel searched for the courage to say yes to Peitho's offering. His system, in this was more than eager to serve. He met Cora's blue eyes from his high seat above them all. He met her shaking her head; she knew what he was thinking of doing.
If he ripped out [Bloodthorn] now, Nicara would be dead before she knew what hit her. So would her treachery.
"Dominus, this isn't the right time," Aya's voice entered his mind. She was using [psychic sphere].
She told him as a telepath. "The bitch's time will come. But attacking her right here, in the middle of the games is not a wise idea. And you, my Lord are not foolhardy. Ravenna says: stick to your plan. Let go of Bloodthorn and do not turn this sporting event into an assassination.
Let's just watch the swimmers, and if we play our cards right, we will get much more than cold-blood murder tonight."
Rafel detected an ounce of chastisement in Aya's words, but he knew she was right and so he read nothing into it. He closed his eyes briefly, took deep breaths and gave a silent command to Peitho, denying access to his power weapon.
If the sword of the Deathbringer entered this arena, Rafel had good word it would not rest again in its sheath until its blade had swum in blood that ran as deep as the alligator-infested waters below.
"Are you alright, dear?"
It was Nicara, asking softly.
Rafel sat straighter. His eyelids fired open and his feline yellow eyes sought the pool of running blue water where the sands used to be.
"Yes, ma'am. Never better." He forced a smile for her. And just as quickly avoided eye contact. If the Headmistress had the employ of an occult [Magess] who knew what else spun around inside of her head? Even with his rune of [Mindforge], he didn't trust the gods-damned woman not to try getting in his thoughts.
Down below, the four swimmers had just climbed up the raised plank for the dive, and everyone was waiting on the Headmistress's go-ahead. As Nicara pulled her royal Roman purple about herself and stood, Rafel leaned closer under the grand canopy when he spotted a dwarven lass on the third diving plank from the left.
A midget.
He actually wiped his eyes to look again.
From her golden string-bikini, he knew she was the candidate for the Gold faction, [Griffin Arc]. But fuck, a dwarf?
Pegasus had a merman—a hunky dude strangely called Phlebotomus—who looked like he could do butterfly strokes in his sleep. The girl representing his own Arc, the Phoenixes, was built slender and long-limbed; he would not be surprised if she changed into a swan at full moon.
And then the swimmer entering the [Aquarian Dance] for the Shadow faction, Raven Arc, looked like he'd be the one to eat the gators.
Were the Griffins just trying to lose or what?
No offense, but their swimmer's short legs were no where as fast in water as her odds. Rafel fell back on his seat, thinking the girl midget had just given the roaming alligators a nice, 'short' supper. "What is she? Four feet?" Someone gave a demeaning whistle.
Rafel frowned at the intentional jibe; he surmised it was probably a member of an opposing Arc in the crowd. He looked over the little blondina. She was close to five feet and quite fetching. Her form was well proportioned and she held a ramrod back to the flying insults. Rafel almost believed she'd take the merman.
He didn't have to wait long for the shortie to prove herself—in his case it wasn't derogatory or anything.
Besides, Rafel expected to see a bit of spontaneity sooner or later in the Games.
The sunset was just the perfect scarlet dip on the island's beaches. Standing above him, Nicara gave the clap. The resounding tremor of the starting dong swiftly followed. Loudly.
CLAAANNG!!!
He watched all the swimmers jump and roll in the air as the spectators cheered and got forward to the edges of their seats. He particularly focused on the midget girl. Her flip was the best of the four, and like a dropped needle, she broke water surface, inserting like a javelin into mud.
Splash!
Gasps of surprise escaped those watching as the Dance began. The strokes of the four swimmers were swift and accurate, their streamlined bodies almost moving in perfect sync. At the third second in, no one was in the lead—yet.
The movement of the water dancers, for so they were nicknamed by their loyal Arc comrades, was so similar to the slithering of an eel, especially that of Pegasus Arc's swimmer: Phlebotomus swung his limbs like he had no bones. The flapping of his arms and legs in the surge was akin to swishing of fins.
In Rafel's point of view, all merfolk should be gracefully banned from this part of the spring Games. The odds were decidedly in their favor.
Every gambling pupil of the witch academia must have certainly laid gold for the merman; the way in which he swum was a stark contrast to his hulking frame. Rafel pulled on his [Third Eye] to view the sport closer from his high level canopy.
The amphitheater was positively energized.
"It's the twelfth second in now, and our swimmers are coming in on the final lap. We have Pegasus' champion, the iridescent Atlantean Phlebotomus taking the lead," the stirring voice of Bob the games commentator streamed out through a short mic sigil. Bob, short for Bobbacaan—which absolutely no one called him, "it's Phlebotomus coming in hot and heavy from the tie with the Raven's swimmer.
The chum has left him in the rear now. Griffin and Phoenix are struggling to keep up. IT'S PHLEBOTOMUS AT THE FIFTEENTH SECOND! AND IT LOOKS LIKE HE'S GONNA DO IT. And. .
.ohh—"
Bob's voice cut out the [microphone sigil].
"Ohh!!!" The crowd in the amphitheater fell back too in unison. There was a brief silence. Out the corner of his eyes, Rafel even saw Nicara flinch in her proverbial throne.
A gator had got Phlebotomus.
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"Fuck." A teacher with a blue sash tied around his fat neck cussed aloud. "I forgot about those fuckin' fuckers!"
There, below in the water, Phlebotomus: swimmer representing the Blue Faction had stopped moving. Had stopped swimming. Had stopped doing... anything. A circle of red was slowly spreading out in the water around him. He rose to the surface, floating, gasping, clutching to his midriff which was missing a huge chunk.
Not quite dead though.
The other swimmers ripped right past his injured body, gunning on through the last lap.
With the [Aquarian Dance] as the last round of the Spring Games before the finals, every Arc was desperate to gather as much points to their spot in the leaderboard. Desperate to the point of abandoning a bleeding fish-man to the mercy of circling alligators—literally.
Bob's voice finally caught up with his mystified eyes in his commentary nook: "It's the twentieth second folks... and can you believe it? It's Griffin's champion in the lead now. After a rather perfect water maneuver, the golden midget has taken a steep curve ahead of Raven's swimmer. And she's going for gold!"
The dwarf girl smashed across the finish line.
BOONNNGGGG!
The bell-plate was hit, marking the winner.
All canopies of the [Griffin Arc] in the stadium went up to their feet, stamping and chanting an anthem as they waved proud gold flags and banners. Their cheering broke the rotunda like thunder. It rattled the seats. The whoop-peed and catcalled for their swimmer—whom had dumbfounded the entire amphitheater and left mouths of other Arcs open for a sandfly to swoop right in.
Bob was beside himself with excitement in his nest. He commented furiously. "OH MY GODS! You just can't make this stuff up! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?! In the twentieth second?
The Griffins have gone and surely won it now. SHE HAS WON IT."
Those in gold colors in the watered stadium gave bullet shouts and screaming as their champion broke out the water surface: the winning midget.
She ascended up to a safe ledge for a second, only to dive right back in from the slippery marble to rescue the poor merman bleeding out in the center of the wide river pool. "Phlebotomus! Phleb!" She shook him to keep him alive, "come on, dude. These gators are circling like shark."
Up above in the Headmistress's elevated tent, Rafel watched the midget girl spirit the wounded merman from the snapping incisors and large jaws of reptilian death. She saved Phlebotomus.
Since the [Dance] was over now that she'd won, the dwarf girl used [marine torch] to stroke fast through the water and [bioluminescence] to keep the gators off. In her petite form, she finally hefted her human cargo off the water, dumping him on the ledge. She hurriedly climbed on our after him, leaving the alligators closing jaws to be met with only water.
The one she'd saved vomited blood on the marble. Phlebotomus was missing a lung.
Nicara pointed to a fat-bellied alligator with a straight nail and said, "that one. I daresay its that creature that has in its belly the merman's organ."
Rafel replied her with silence. If he was hoping for the Headmistress to commit herself to her sins against the academy tonight, it was not to be, for the dwarf girl now waving regally up to the stadium's levels stole every smile on every face and every word from every lip.
At the fortitude she had shown in diving back into the infested water to save Phlebotomus, all in the rotunda stood and cheered for her—including Rafel. The standing ovation was absolute.
Phlebotomus was wheeled off in a stretcher by a shock of Healers and the din of the populace quietened a bit when the massive green screen of the Games leaderboard shimmered into the air. The gigantic hologram hovered over the water below and displayed the latest rankings. After the midget's shocking win, her moxie had shot up her Arc, The Griffins to an astounding second place.
Phoenix's swimmer came up third place in the [Aquarian Dance] but previous wins kept the Arc in the gold plaque. Raven Arc's swimmer was runner-up in the event and collated silver points on it.
Pegasus Arc were humiliated to see their name come up last and their title drop from second to last fucking place. Nicara tried to encourage them that it was only fourth place, but who in the stadium gave a shit about semantics. It was of little surprise that the Blue Faction members were more angry at their loss in the event than in the sob story of their eaten-out compadre.
And so it was that as the night fell and the arena was drained again to the sands; alligators hissing at handlers who coaxed them back into cages with [electrum lances], that Rafel looked over the leaderboard again.
[PHOENIX ARC: 74 Gold – 5 Silver – 12 Brass.]
[GRIFFIN ARC: 30 Gold – 44 Silver – 18 Brass.]
[RAVEN ARC: 51 Gold – 19 Silver – 2 Brass.]
[PEGASUS ARC: 67 Gold – 0 Silver – 21 Brass.]
"Suck on this, arseholes!" Erika flipped the bird at the jock bros of other Arcs. "I told ya we'd make our comeback, baby! You can't keep a Griffin down. Haha!" She high-fived her fellow teammates, much to the annoyance on the boys faces. They bowed their heads, slinking out for the stadium's exit.
The amphitheater was empty as a lazy moon appeared in the sky.