Algernon Black

(Chapter 64) Round Two

"How far out are they planning to take us?" Jasper asked Lucy as they peered past the bow of the ship to the endless stretch of water ahead.

For the second round of the tourney, the students had been loaded onto a quite a large ship and were currently an hour into a sail with no idea of their destination. Of roughly the 30 students who made it through the second round, 20 of them were fourth and fifth years, and as a surprising turn or events the majority of the underclass were freshmen. A fact the second and third years fiercely resented considering it made them look bad in comparison. And they made sure the most lacking of the freshmen felt their full disdain.

"I don't know," Lucy softly replied, trying to ignore their eyes. But what unsettled her most was the golden hair boy that had approached her in the first games strange smirk as he eyed her over. At least the dagger strapped to her thigh gave her some sense of support. Besides that, she dressed in a corset tight enough to keep her chest in place and a skirt down to her knees. The other students wore more form-fitting clothes, but Lucy felt there was more movement in a loose skirt than tight leather pants.

"What you should really be wondering is why we're taking a boat to get there," Pecilia chimed in as she checked out her freshly sharpened nails. "They had everything pre-planned so why wouldn't we be using a transportation stone to get to the next round?"

Lucy's and Jasper's mouth fell open as they realized what that meant, while Freya's mouth bit down on the few slices of Asiago cheese she snuck along.

"Students!" Ulmonwood addressed from the helm of the small ship. "Congratulations on making it to the next round of the tourney." The sun was painfully bright, and the professor had to shield his eyes to address the contestants. Algernon felt the draining presence of the sun the most as his all-black outfit absorbed the harshness. "As you can see, we're making our way to that island over there." Lucy followed Ulmonwood's gesture where she could just make out the faintest outline of small mountains across miles of water. "There we will have our third trial for the tournament."

"Third?" Freya repeated confused. "When did we have our second?"

"Professor." Inglewood, the fourth year's destruction magic teacher, said. "We have to hurry this up."

"Oh right, of course," Ulmonwood said. "Well, then the second round begins-" A huge explosion burst out the side of the ship and almost all the students lost their footing from the blast. "Now."

"Make it to the island and you've passed the next round," Ulmonwood announced as Inglewood handed the professor a transportation stone. "And there is only one lifeboat."

With those final destructive words, the professors vanished in a flash.

A second explosion erupted somewhere in the bottom of the ship and sent the students into a frenzied search for the lifeboat, which was on the left side of the ship and could at most hold ten.

One of the third-year students started to climb inside but was shot overboard by a fourth-year, declaring, "We'll be taking that."

A different third-year shot at her, but she dodged it and in doing so it sailed right towards Lucy where it would have landed if Algernon hadn't nulled the attack.

"Thank you," Lucy said, her body pumping with adrenaline, though she had no idea what to do with that extra energy yet.

Algernon just looked at her, not giving a response as he tried to calm down his own extra heart beats. Though it wasn't from an adrenaline high even when a third bomb drastically expedited the sinking.

The fourth years won the battle for the life raft and started to lower themselves, but the watchful fifth-years severed the ropes and joined together to flip it upside down, emptying the fourth years into the sea, and taking the boat for themselves.