"LOOK OUT!" someone screamed behind me before another giant saw blade launched out of the wall. But, despite their worries, it shattered on my arm like thin glass on rock.
"Why not just wait until I have gone ahead?" I asked them before my next step set off some kind of focused magic bomb. One that seemed to be trying to tear me apart by focusing its power directly into me. Yet, like every other trap, it was too weak to so much as bother me. I was not surprised, this was made for young students.
Not someone who was once a Valkinvar...
"We are on a timer, mind you!" one of the boys nearly shouted as those behind me switched between careful movement and trailing behind me.
"And I have made it clear I am not here to win this event." I remind them before I set off even more traps. Only moving to respond whenever it was something designed to knock me off my feet.
"And why not!? It's one of the biggest events of the year! It's the Suhurlodst Academy of Arcane Learning and Understanding Inter-House Talent Display!" I was enthusiastically reminded by someone unable to wrap their head around my obvious ulterior motive.
"If it means so much to your confidence and pride to win this, then go on ahead." I tell them before I intentionally start to set traps off to drive them off. It had worked, to some extent, but, they were not weaklings, these students. They were still the best this place had to offer, so quite a few kept up with me.
So, I came to a stop and closed my eyes. Reaching out with an ethereal grip with a degree of skill many of them would not have for decades to come. And, when I found what I was looking for, I lifted a fist and punched down a wall. Standing at the hole's side as the dust cloud dissipated.
"What you want is that way, keep going forward." I tell them, the simplicity of my instructions confuses many. But, I left it simple because this was meant to be, as they loved to remind me, a talent display. They needed to win on their own merits here, not mine.
"Then why are you headed that way?" one girl asks me as she fiddles around with the strings on her instrument.
"Personal business, now go." I tell them one final time before I set off even more traps. And, that seemed to encourage the last few to leave me alone. Yet, just in case, I shot off down a tunnel at my fighting speed to put some distance between us. Hopefully, as well, the shockwave would warn them off even more.
However, now I could say that I was lost. I was originally following the proverbial scent of foreign magic. As that would lead me to the one I most sincerely wanted to see gone... But, having done what I just did.
The scent had spread itself out, and I could no longer make a good guess as to where that thing might be. A distant light, however, seemed to be the best route as I could feel a slightly familiar aura of magic. Undisturbed as it might be. In fact, whoever this aura belonged to was not threatened at all.
They were enjoying themselves while not fighting...?