Doodle Champion Island Journeys!

3.

Lucky eagerly jogged up the path lined with pine trees and old wooden stand lamps, heading to the Island Center Square where she was to be given some sort of guidance to the game, as said in the scroll Bells had given her.

She took a few fleets of stairs up a hill, and on the top was a square - a literal square of flattened soil, surrounded by pine trees. There was a stone stand lamp at each corner, four in total, and all of them had mold thickly covering the surface as if haven't been in use for ages.

It took a while for all the qualified competitors to arrive in front of the square, and Lucky noticed the number was considerably small compared to the huge group of athletes before the Komainus' trial.

"Guess not everyone can pass," Lucky felt bad for the failed competitors. "They certainly had trained hard for years for this."

But, well, hard training wasn't the only characteristic contributing to your result.

As soon as they all gathered north to the square, the lamps lit up by themselves, all at the same time, radiating lights and vibrating the air differently.

A flame burst from inside out of the closer lamp on the right, red and orange flares consumed the whole stone object before shaping a wide breast, a beak, and a pair of claw-like limbs, then the fire started to burn out, revealing a bird with dark red feathers - of which those on his shoulders were still slightly burning - stood arms crossed and seemed like he only spared the competitors a side glance, no more.

Water flooded from inside the right further lamp. As soon as the water hit the ground, a certain amount flooded the nearby ground while the rest bounced straight up like light reflected on a mirror, surging higher than the lamp itself. Then the wall of water went slamming back onto the ground with such force as if of a miniature tsunami, splashing droplets on the competitors and revealing a beefy bull with blue hair, dark blue horns, and swirling hydro marks around his shoulders.

At the closer lamp on the left, as if the air had been compressed in there for a long time, winds blew out with a 'pop', sending a gentle breeze to the crowd. The main flow of wind from the lamp, however, was the opposite of gentle. It could be vividly seen as silky light-green streams of air moving around the lamp that seemed to be thickening and picking up pace in the process, until an air cocoon was formed. Just then the air lessened revealing a yellowish-white fox whose tail looked like it was made of steam, for its tip was a bit transparent and kept swaying freely.

And at the final lamp, on the far left, a tree sprouted. Its thin roots made way towards the ground, and seemingly that's it for a while. But suddenly, big, thick branches emerged from the ground and braided together into a humanoid figure decorated by small leaves. Then the leaves started to fall off and the stems unbraided themselves, detached from each other, and fell to the ground with a soft 'thump', slowly as a blooming flower, revealing a greenish creature with a carapace, a short yellow beak, and a nested water bubble atop his head.

"Greetings, athletes," roared the fearsome Komainu as he and his kinder company stepped out of the bushes opposite the competitors.

"At this point, each of you will choose to join one of the four teams, who to give you support and instructions on the games," the kind Komainu explained.

"Also, there's also a side competition between teams to see whichever provides the best guide and have the most potential athletes," the other added, "Your performance will be counted by points and added to your team's total score. At the end of the Championship, all members of the winning team will be honored - because only the Grand Champion of all sports will be honored individually. Do give it your best, and choose your team wisely."