(Author-kun's POV):
After having lunch, Designer-chan's vitality seems to have recovered and is seeming lying down on my lap once again. We continued to talk about our plans with this story and didn't really make any bothering actions. When we finally finished our discussions, I helped myself on getting a lap pillow from Designer-chan. Ahhh so comfortable-
Author-kun is addicted to lap pill-
Shhh! Not anymore than that-
The two of us kept cancelling each other's sentences for a while as we sat down watching at the large group that started performing high level competitions of swimming and the like.
"Alright! You know the rules. First one to tap on their respective flag wins, mobility skills are forbidden but you can use your skills to hinder others or to protect yourself!" - Denzel
The competitors started to look at each other and have somewhat lined up with a set distance in between each of them.
"Ready?!" - Denzel
Author-kun, who do you think will win?
Who knows... Their diversity of classes give them an edge on the competition after all.
With the look of things, the competitors are lined-up as follows: Malech, William, Jerald, Flora, Marcus, and Lester. There are people cheering for all competitors but some are just feeling a bit light.
"Begin!" - Denzel
And Malech has a head start! Using time zero straight off the bat! It's not a mobility skill but a short time stop!
It's impressive, that he made a gap in between the other competitors already. Though it doesn't look like it will end that easily...
Yeah, the distance they have to cover is a hundred meters. Gaining three to five meters isn't a big deal!
While watching at the other people trying to catch up, it starts becoming an absolute chaos.
"Soul Snare!" - Lester
And everyone's snared! They lost about ninety percent of their mobility specially underwater! It's gonna reach extreme heights soon!
Author-kun, they're using more abilities now!
"Gh- Purify!" - Flora
Flora went up to gasp for some air before removing the curse off her body. Wait, mistake! Flora is a dude right?
Yeah, he's a guy... Kinda like Tetra from Log Horizon...
You know that not many people are gonna get the reference you just made right?
Well who knows, there might be readers who are also weebs...
Designer-chan... Eh screw it...
Each competitor has to gasp for air before casting a skill. This issue on swimming competitions make it completely different from the original speed swimming. This time, it takes some tactics to slow down a person while keeping an eye for the goal. William used a pinnacle skill which enveloped all competitors with astroburst so that they would be completely immobilized. The entire competiton was abrupt chaos. People spend various abilities here and there, some had trouble to continue but still went for it, and Denzel was just enjoying the view of utter chaos.
"Warzone! Warzone!" - Denzel
"Denz, that's a little bit too evil..." - Lilith
Denzel who has seen something that involves a beautiful pose where he raised both of his arms like he has said something grandly evil.
Author-kun, Denzel looks nasty-
Yeah, I might've written him out like that...
He's enjoying himself too... How about you Author-kun? Enjoying our vacation?
Yeah, definitely...
My hand made its way towards Designer-chan's cheeks and allowed myself to caress it for some time. She showed a satisfied face as I kept caressing it gently. After my attention has returned to the chaos, most competitors have passed halfway through. The last person was surprisingly Flora, who was using water to propel his speed and removing any crowd control. After him was William, who ran out of breath and went up the water for a bit to catch some air. Marcus then comes in fourth place since he was just swimming normally while clearing all effects. The nasty competition lands on Malech and Jerald, with Lester being third place currently.
The speeds of Malech and Jerald and their experience kept them from stopping. Jerald hasn't used any abilities while Malech had a headstart using time zero. Even with that overpowered time stopping ability, they're neck in neck...
That looks intense, isn't it Designer-chan?
Yeah... In terms of raw speed then Jerald will definitely win... But Malech needs one more time zero so that he could secure the victory...
Well, who knows... Maybe either of them could win...
The two were completely inning for the final push when Lester slowed them down once again with soul snare...
"It's getting close!" - Denzel
Denzel seems to enter the mood of an intense shoutcaster but didn't really say much except watching and seeing the others catching up. Jerald and Malech was bout to touch each of their flags but Jerald suddenly took out his katana from magic storage and sliced off Malech's arm...
Malech's arm flew towards his flag while Jerald has finally touched his flag.
"And first place goes to Malech!" - Denzel
"What?!?!?!" - Jerald & Malech
The two people who are close were surprised about Denzel's revelation. But after the explanation, the two just laughed it off...
"Malech's hand was sliced off but it touched the flag first. So even if dismembered, it's still his body part that touched the flag anyway so it's his win." - Denzel
"Say what?!?!" - Malech
"So, that was a mistake. Ah fuck it! Good game, good game everyone..." - Jerald
Jerald seems to have shrugged off the loss and accepted his second place. Malech went towards Thrish and was immediately given a hug...
"Are you okay?" - Thrish
"Yeah, I'm fine... Heal me a bit..." - Malech
Yeth-! Chronomyst!
Designer-chan really ships the Chronomyst huh... Well, I also ship them too...
Thrish and Malech exchanged hugs as the other people started peering onto their relationship. Jilean went in after Malech's hand was returned to its place and clung onto his left arm.
"Wh?!" - Malech
William who noticed started chuckling and slowly entered into a huge laughing state... Denzel who noticed William laughing started cringing but was stopped by Lilith after his arm got pulled in between two hills...
"?!!!" - Denzel
The other members started enjoying the rest of their time swimming together gleefully. Some people gave the others lap pillows to rest, while Flora was being attacked by some other members of the male camp. The others were just talking around the shade...
Sunset comes so fast that we didn't notice it easily... Me and Designer-chan switched around lap pillows from time to time and kept ourselves in the comfort of each other's laps from time to time.
"Designer-chan, can you draw a barbeque thingy... I forgot to bring it..."
"Kay~"
Designer-chan starts drawing on her tablet while I waited by standing around... After she finished drawing, a griller appeared right out of nowhere. I took out some game meat and started grilling it for barbeque. The two of us ate up a bit while looking at the sunset...
"They're having barbeque too it seems..."
"Well, we've had our fun too so just leave them be for today..."
I placed my hand on Designer-chan's head and started patting her head gently...
"Ehehe~"
She showed her satisfaction as we both look towards the sunset. We took another short rest and we had noticed that the group had completely disappeared already...
"They went home huh?"
"I guess, it's just us two..."
The time right now is midnight as she slept around for a while. I pulled her to the sea so that we could enjoy the waves once more even for a little bit. We splashed water toward each other, and created some enlightened memories. After walking close towards her, we both tripped but I stopped myself from falling entirely downwards...
Designer-chan was below me as I cover the moon from directing its light towards her. I started to lower myself more. She was starting to feel surprised with my seriousness as I land a kiss toward her forehead...
"Na-?!"
I simply just smiled at her as I stood back up and offered her a hand.
She took my hand and stood beside me.
After talking about some things about their life, we both sat down and I gave her a kiss.