(Barella)
"Uaaa!!!!" I reached out and grabbed the edge of the boat, and I struggled to climb onto the boat.
Shit, Almost, I almost spent the rest of my time soaking in the water.
"Huh...heh...huh..." After holding my breath in the water for a while, I couldn't help but feel sincerely happy to be able to breathe fresh air now.
I pulled out the little piranhas that had bitten me one by one and threw them out of the boat.
Melon... you really are as strong as a monster!
I have never heard of such a thing as a participant abandoning their own boat, choosing to run on the water instead!
Also, what is that ice floor that suddenly appeared under you? How did you make that? Are you secretly a [Mage]? Aren't you a [Fighter]?
Originally, my plan was to take advantage of [Apollo] to swiftly achieve victory without any problem, but I never expected that the place where Melon landed would be the same as mine!
Before I could even react, my boat got smashed by an incoming projectile in the shape of some thrown participant that Melon kicked.
After regaining [Apollo], my dynamic vision has also improved significantly because of the elf weapon on my body.
Using that, I was able to see the horrifying scene of Melon punching, kicking, and flipping numerous other participant boats without any opposition, making the others need to swim for the rest of their time in here.
What if she suddenly sees me and decides to trash my ship!? I'm not sure she would consider me an accomplice in this competition, I surely hope so.
But, considering her dedicated attitude of serving her master, will she participate in the competition very seriously, and then choose to bombard my boat?
Aren't I going to become a stepping stone to her?
Immediately, I jumped into the water.
The annoying fish rushed over immediately, but compared to Melon, these fish were much cuter.
Based on the confirmation during our previous training, and from what Walson had said on one of our drinking nights, Melon's hearing is very strong, and she is also very sensitive to vibrations. She will detect the slightest movement or even breathing.
When I was in the water, I didn't dare to breathe out or move my body. My natural endurance is thankfully strong enough to let me ignore the fish bites. I patiently wait until I'm sure that Melon has left the area.
I don't know if it's because she's not interested in me or if she hasn't discovered me. In short, I escaped the fate of becoming a stepping stone.
"...Okay, what should I do now?" I caught the last annoying fish that was biting my throat and threw it away. I then picked up [Apollo] and sat on the boat.
When soaking under the water, hiding my presence away from Melon, I really felt a sense of fear that I was about to die.
I was like a poor little rabbit surrounded by savage wolves.
However, at that time, my first thought was "Mama! I want to go home...", but then I realized that I have no home to go back to, so it became "Walson! I want to go back to [Dog House]!"...
… ...I'm really starting to depend on him, right? Hmm... But if the opponent is Melon and Grace... Will he still save me...
To him, what am I...
Ah, no, stop here, what am I thinking in the middle of an important tournament….
The game isn't over yet, I think Walson is watching from the sideline too.
... ...
...
... The embarrassing view of my diving just now was shown to him right?...
Wooooo, I feel like I will be laughed at by him afterwards.
What to do now? The key of this block has been taken by Melon.
... Grace is not in the same block as us, that is to say, she should be in another block.
During the competition, you can choose to cooperate with others to share credits, but... Melon probably doesn't need it.
Grace neither.
If there can only be one winner in this tournament, I think the confrontation between these two is inevitable.
An extraordinary magician who can freely use the space magic to teleport around, and a monstrous lizardman with an insanely accurate super sense who can smash pretty much everything using only her barehand.
Well… since I could beat neither of them in a fair fight… should I try to sneak attack them when they fight each other?
While I was busy muling over the morality of sneak attacking my own friend, and about what kind of impression would that give to Walson, I heard a sound coming quite not far away.
"There's a complete boat over there!"
"Don't take it from me, I saw it first!!"
"Hey! Over there! Hurry up and hand over the boat if you don't want to suffer..."
The sound of splashing water caught my attention.
Some people, all of them unknown to me, scrambled towards me and slowly getting closer.
….. Are these people who have only entered this kind of tournament for the first time? This is obviously a festival competition, something that is made to hype up the festival, and is most certainly being watched by some magic drone. All of our activities are being broadcasted to the outside world, and these people intend to show the world their ugly side….
Before the group had even come over, several of them started tripping over each other, making them sabotage themself one way or another.
… On another note, this maze is not scary at all, but the water makes things troublesome though….
"Girl! Hand over your boat!"
While thinking this way, I pointed [Apollo] at those rude people, and using nothing but a single arrow, I instantly blasted a hole in each one of the rude peoples heads in one shot.
Sorry, whatever-your-name-is, but I still have to rely on this boat to see this game to the very end.
The expression of the participants who had their head pierced by my arrow fell into a daze for a while, and then they fell into the water.
After a few seconds, there was a glimmer of light in the water, light started to enveloped their whole body, and soon, the body was gone.
"I'm not as kind as that person just now, I will directly send you out." It doesn't matter anyway, as long as they wear the [Festival Talisman], the death that happened inside the maze will have no effect on the reality.
In other words, these people cannot be killed, in here anyway.
I picked up the boat paddle and slid along the direction of the ice floor.
It's kind of impractical to walk on these floors, which have already started to melt.
What kind of magic did Melon use?
With Melon's personality, she shouldn't waste any extra time after getting the key. She will immediately hunt other contestants.
Therefore, it can be deduced that she has gone to the central altar.
The still solid ice floor is her trajectory.
With the boat as her means of transportation, I think it is very easy.
While following the ice floor trails, I saw numerous broken boats, melting ice floors, people who are unconscious that are just aimlessly drifting in the water, and people with weapons are looking fiercely at my boat.
Yep, Melon was here all right.
"Good Bye." I raised [Apollo] and quickly sniped the still surviving participant, quickly dwindling the amount.
While harvesting the other participant, after some time, I was able to hear a faint sound of water splashing against something coming from ahead of the ice floor.
I had arrived.
What catches my eye is the huge altar surrounded by water channels. The altar is lower than the surrounding area.
The huge sound of water is a waterfall flowing in a circle from all directions to the altar.
The height of the waterfall was about twenty meters. Without Melon's special means, I couldn't get up.
This is the center of this layer of maze.
At the surrounding entrances, there are already sparse contestants soaking in the water, grabbing the vines on the walls, watching their surroundings quietly.
There are also many people who have been washed down ashore below.
"...Ah, it's Aure."
Following the voice from above, I saw the figure of Grace that is somehow standing in the sky.
There are cubes floating beside her and beneath her.
What am I looking at! ?
This…. Since when can stone fly!?
Unlike other contestants, Grace, whose clothing was dry and comfortable all over, sat cross-legged on her self-made platform.
Around her neck were two keys.
"OO──[Grabbing Hook Arrow]." I cast the skill at her direction without any hesistation, and the rope arrow made of magic power firmly grasped the wall beside her, lest I encounter the fate of being washed down.
Pulling the magic rope, I moved my boat towards the stone wall, tore off part of the vines on it, tied it to my boat, and fixed the boat like this.
"Grace, you won't attack me?"
"... I would think about it." Grace looked at me and nodded thoughtfully.
Wait, don't think about it seriously!
Grace had been waiting for something from the very beginning.
"...It's kind of strange, the flow of magic power...is not right, Aure, be careful." Before I could ask about what she meant by that, Grace interrupted me.
"Shush!!!"
The moment Grace said that, the sound of explosions came from an entrance in front.
The sound was so loud that one could even feel the shock in his heart.
"Disappear!"
A figure flew out from the entrance, and landed in the center of the altar in one smooth motion.
It's a person.
The person in gorgeous robes and holding a gorgeous sword in his hand... who is it?
Shua!!!
With that sound, Aure can also see another figure.
It's Melon.
The shirt on her left shoulder was torn, and blood flowed from the wound. However, Melon didn't seem to feel any pain.
The lizard girl held a young girl with frightened eyes in her arms, with dim anger burning in her eyes.
"You lowly slave of the common people! Know the fate of fighting against me!"
There was a very ominous aura around that guy who looked like a lunatic...I immediately understood one thing.
An accident would happen at the [Opening Ceremony]