Voen
Sora tumbled in front of me, launching me forward.
Flying through the air, I had a few options. Crash into the wall, or blow through the giant wooden wall.
The rules were flexible. That was enough. I filled my lungs to their limit and poured everything into my flute.
The soundwave struck like a concussive blast. The wall bent, splintered, and tore open, leaving a hole just enough for me to pass through.
Sora had recovered quickly and jumped through the hole. We missed the blade slicing down by a hair. I had never been able to process things this fast before.
I knew Sora was doing something with her abilities.
I didn't care; she was my best bet at winning and raising my standing at this school.
So I was going to tag along for whatever she needed.
It's not every day a princess is willing to help you.
Must be my charming good looks.
As we sprinted, faint cracks and whistles began to multiply in the air. Before I could process it, clear shards zipped past my face.
Looking to my left, I see a girl with white hair and silver eyes holding her partner with one hand.
Shards hovered around her as she glided across the icy path underneath her, while a kid from the Araknos family used a web to pull them to the next wall, using the momentum to sling them around the wall.
"Of course, Frostbite is attacking," I muttered as I dodged another shard.
"Voen, can you run defense?"
"Sure, but what exactly do you want me to do?"
A wicked smile grew across her face.
"What you did to the last wall but to them."
"Got ya."
I twisted my shoulder to the left and blew into the flute with all I had.
The sound wave and the ice shards collided. The ice broke into many pieces and was blown back into them, severing the web that the Arkanos student had.
"Voen jump." I turned my gaze to the blade at the top of the upcoming wall.
"Cover your ears." I blasted out another sound wave from my flute. The blade shattered. Sora uncovered her ears, took hold of the rubber padding at the top of the wall, and pulled herself over. The momentum dragged me along.
My heart thumped as I tried to catch my breath. "How many more do you have left?" Sora asked as we slid down the other side of the wall.
"Two left," I said, taking quick, shallow breaths to ready my next blast, thankful for the training that has allowed me to increase the number of blasts I project.
We were almost in the clear. I could see the next wall. I took another step, and something stuck to my back.
A force yanked me out of my gait, slamming Sora and me against a cold wall.
I wobbled to my feet; the high-pitched ringing in my ear drowned out everything else. Sora snapped her fingers and gestured widely, pointing towards our opponents.
They were in the lead. I felt a jolt run through my body, and Sora took off. I thought about how far from a normal race this was.
The ringing in my head still drowned out everything. Sora frantically pointed toward the opponents, clearly urging me to fire. I obeyed. A soundwave tore across the terrain, ripping the ground beneath us apart.
It slammed into Kelda and the Araknos kid, sending them flying. My head was still ringing; it was hard to focus, so I had no idea how much cosmic energy I actually used. I did know that my cosmic energy was low.
I hoped I didn't have to use it again. Because if I were to lose the ability to augment my body, I wouldn't be any help for the rest of the race.
Sora increased her speed. No longer worrying about whether I could keep up. I knew she wanted to win, and she wanted to win badly. We had one last wall to scale now.
The ringing in my ears almost made me forget about the blade. I knew what I had to do. I tapped Sora on the shoulder.
"After I use my ability on the blade, I will run out of cosmic energy. You are gonna have to drag me to the finish."
She gritted her teeth. I knew this wasn't the information she wanted to hear, but I had to tell her. We sprinted up the slightly slanted wall. As soon as our bodies made contact, it started its descent.
"Cover your ears," I yelled, taking one last big breath. The blade was halfway down and closing fast. I released the breath into my flute.
The force of the blast shot the blade back to its origin, causing it to crack and burst on impact. I was relieved, but my body felt weak. Sora looked back at me and grimaced. We have about a hundred yards left. When we got to the other side, we saw our opponents were back. They stumbled and limped their way through the course.
"Voen, do you trust me?"
Can you ever really trust anyone?
"What do you have in mind?"
Sora didn't respond. She was coated in lightning, and in a second, everything went silent and blurred.
She moved so fast I was nearly floating horizontally, with my head inches from bouncing off the ground. I nearly lost my flute in the process.
But it didn't last long.
We crossed the finish line, barely beating out the other team. We had one last thing to do: tell the proctor the full message. That's when my stomach started to flutter again.
Sora looked over to me as I was getting myself off the ground, "Voen, what's wrong?
"I'm not sure we have the right message," I said to her.
"What do you mean, Voen?"
"I heard different things being said at each station."
"You sure about that? I'm pretty sure Nerena has perfect recall."
"I'm sure."
"Why didn't you say anything earlier?"
"There was a lot going on; I heard so many things, as all the races were happening. But really, I just didn't know how to tell you. You were so stressed out after dealing with Cyrus and Jace; I didn't want to be the one to set you off again."
Then the proctor stepped up to us. "What is the message?" I looked at Sora and told her to go ahead.
"The pain in the rain will always remain the same, even when the terrain matches those who don't complain, for endurance and focus will always be the path to never remaining the same."
There was a pause, then the proctor's face crinkled.
"Incorrect message. You have failed."
Her body slumped to her knees.