Chapter 19: Curtains Close, Results Revealed!

Yeah, this is an insane plan.

I stepped out from the bushes, and I took a few steps closer to the still-dazed rhino. I raised my staff and created a snowball, now, this will be the ‘insane’ part.

I took a deep breath, swung my arm as quietly as possible, and threw the snowball, at the Pyro. The snowball hit it right in the booty. The rhino roared and turned around to face me (which is the direction of where the snowball had come from, because I am the one who threw it).

I think that steam is flowing out from the rhino’s nostrils, blood vessels had started to appear on its face, I had succeeded in triggering it. I turned to Eloise, who was staring at us, and she is probably thinking of something like, Yeah, he’s an idiot. And I agree with that thought. I faced the rhino, “That’s right! I threw that snowball at you! And I’m proud of it!” I yelled at the gigantic being.

Actually, I’m not proud of throwing snowballs at endangered mammals. The rhino stomped its hooves, it let out a more powerful roar. This signals that it’s time for the second phase of my plan, and it will only work on whether I can outrun it or not… The rhino charged, and it is already a few metres away from me when I had started running.

I chanted the Second Position, and tapped my staff to the ground, causing the path in front of us to freeze. The path is now more slippery, and also more slide-like. I sat down so that I won’t fall, which will result in my plan failing, and sadly, I don’t have a plan B. We slid down past trees, the rhino seems to accelerate towards me due to the ice, despite this, everything is going perfectly.

The Pyro snorted in confusion, it’s like as if it never saw ice before, or it didn’t know that ice is slippery. But that didn’t stop it from trying to get closer to me so that it can squash me or pierce me with its horns. I should get off now, my booty starts to hurt due to sliding so fast, but no, we’re almost done, just for a few more seconds.

I scanned through our surroundings before I put this ‘insane’ plan to motion, I recalled that there’s a huge boulder in front of us, and it will be in sight any moment now.

Any moment now…

I saw an object with a sharp top in front of us, there it is, the final step. Before I knew it, I was only a few inches away from the boulder, I ducked out from my ‘ice path’, and landed into some bushes (there are lots of bushes around here), but the landing still hurts. The Pyro was too slow and confused to react on what’s happening, it crashed head first into the boulder.

CRACK

The boulder now has a perfectly carved hole on it. The rhino squealed in pain, its eyes rolled up, and it collapsed. Don’t worry, that won’t kill a creature that huge. I got up, and laughed at my own victory, “Hello? You alright?” Eloise’s voice made me realise that I almost forgotten that she is there. “Yeah! Give me a moment!” I answered.

I managed to climb out and reunite with her. Now, I need to do something with her leg wound, “This will get chilly.” I told her as I created an ‘ice-bandage’. I wrapped it around her wound, I don’t even know how does these kinds of magic work. The bandage that I had created from the ice is actually soft and is more elastic like a normal cloth.

“Thanks.” Eloise whispered, since we knew that the Pyro Rhinoceros won’t be the last creature that we’ll encounter. “I don’t know your name yet.” She added, “Oh, yeah. It’s Edward.” I replied. “Edward from Paxsalam.” Her eyes widened, “Wait, so you’re a?” “Yes?”

“Holy… I’m from Skyremia.” My eyes twitched a little, and I’m not sure why… “Really? I heard of that kingdom!” “Same as yours.” This is the first time that I had met another prince (princess, in this situation) from another kingdom, since they rarely go out due to their fame. “Right,” I said, “We have to keep on going. Are you able to walk?” Eloise tried to stand up, but she winced as she tried to move her leg with the cut injury.

I helped her to get up, and offered to carry her if she can’t take the pain. But she denied it and I did as well, it’s embarrassing and awkward to carry a girl. I found a piece of wood that is perfect for a walking stick. We decided to team up for each other’s safety. “Since this forest is a hill, I think we should move upwards and then we’ll go down.” Eloise told me, “But what if we’re wrong? What if we end up at the starting point?” “Hey, you just gambled with your safety just to take down that rhino. So, why not gamble our chances of making it out of here?”

I get that, we hiked upwards, hopefully to the top of the hill. Eloise used her staff to make a torch, since her Element is Fire. We did encounter a few more creatures on our way, but we managed to fend them off. Despite having a cut in her leg, Eloise still puts up a good fight, even though she would scream “Ow! Ow! Ow!” afterwards.

From the top of the hill, we looked like Gods (and Goddesses) that are looking down onto the Earth. We sat down, and we took a small break. It feels more cooler at the top since it is above sea level after all, we saw some footprints of shoes and some paw or claw marks, that will mean that someone and something had been here before.

We followed the footprints of the shoes after our short break. We did stop again since we found some juicy fruits hanging down from some random tree branches, I realised that I haven’t ate anything since I got here. More creatures stood in our way (including one very, angry sparrow), we fended them off, with some minor bruises and lots of sparrow pecks, which hurts a lot.

We noticed that it is going to be daybreak in a few… well, I’m not sure, since it sucks to not have a watch with you. After freezing the legs of an unlucky and unfriendly Water Llama (the water that they spit out is really hot). I saw an opening between the trees in front of us, I looked at the sky, light started to shone down from the treetops, I held Eloise’s hand, and we rushed (slowly, since her wound still hurts) to the opening.

I estimated that there were forty of us at the start.

Now, there were ten of us left. “Edward! You made it out!” Felix waved at me, Aisha was with him, smiling at the fact that I made it out. I waved back, and turned to Eloise. “Those are my buds.” I told her, I waved at Felix and Aisha to come to my side. “Guys, this is Eloise, from Skyremia. Eloise, these are Felix and Aisha.” Eloise shook hands with them, she looks a bit nervous with she did that, I’m not sure why though…

“GOOD MORNING FELLOW SURVIVORS!!!!!!!” Owen’s voice boomed with his loudspeaker. “Can he please shut up for once.” Gunther mumbled, “Nope,” A girl with a white hood on her head replied to him. “I don’t think he would…” “You had completed all the three games for your first Magician Games! Congrats! And, for the ones who had lost, this isn’t the end! You all will have a chance to shine in The Magician Games next year! You can do it!”

That was really reasoning, I thought. We received our trophies. However, Gunther has received the ‘special one’. Owen had forgotten to tell us that the one who defeats the most creatures will be the champion for this year’s The Magician Games. But we really don’t care about that… The four of us walked together to reunite with our families and stuff.

Claude was waiting for me, he nodded once I got to his side, I waved back at my friends, who are by their families’ side, and we walked down the… oh no, I forgot! THE STAIRS!!!