Speedmage Tournament

29TH GEAR - PRESIDENT SONIC JUMPER MAN

29TH GEAR - PRESIDENT SONIC JUMPER MAN

This is the last day of the joint training camp. Unlike the last two days when we have a morning jog, the officials of the camp decided to have that time to prepare for the match-ups. We will be doing Speed Battles for the whole day because there are more than a hundred participants in this activity.

I am sorting out our supplies on the bench with bottles of fresh water, mana potions, stamina potions, and towels. Ericka is doing some stretching, while Cruzo is doing some dancing as a form of warm-up. On the other hand, Flu is dozing off on the bench.

Last night, Flu was overly excited about the Speed Battle that we trained until it was about three in the morning. We overworked ourselves and I somehow feel like dozing off right now, but the early morning coffee did its job for me to stay awake. I'll let Flu rest for now and wake her up once it's her turn to play.

Fweeeeet!

The whistle was blown, indicating the start of the Speed Battles. The crowd of Speedmages started to clump around and looked at the two players who are about to start the duel.

"On your marks... Get Set... Go!"

Fweeeeeeet!

The spectators cheered as a support for their friends or acquaintances. I heard Speedmages yell "Go! Touch the Checkpoint Tower!", "Don't let him overtake you!" , "Strike him right unto his ass!". Some are even secretly betting money for their horse in the race.

I saw Cruzo still beaming with a smile as he looked at the piece of paper that contain the matchups. His battle will be the next.

"Are you nervous?" I asked as I put on my headset.

"Of course not! I am fighting the President of the Eaglecrest Guild!" Cruzo gave a thumbs up. He is beaming, but his lips are somewhat vibrating. When he can no longer pretend, he frowned. "Just kidding. I'm quite nervous. I think all my fat will be converted to sweat even before the battle starts."

"You should be!"

Somebody intervened in our short conversation. When I looked to the left, I saw President Levi and Vincent the Teleporter in their Eaglecrest varsity jacket. I guess they are keeping their tough-guy bully vibes until the end of the training camp.

The macho man with a dark complexion flexed his biceps and gave a confident grin.

"Everybody knows that I, Levi the Great, am the leader of the most powerful guild in the Saint Crusade Academy- no, in the whole country! I lead the best of the best! And you losers will never have the chance to beat me!"

"Okay! Let's have a good game, Mister President!" Cruzo still beamed with a smile as he offered his hand.

Levi just slapped the hand away and then turned around.

"Suck it up, big fat loser."

After doing the glorious trash talk of the oh-so-mighty Eaglecrest President, he walked away. Vincent just followed him with an entertained smile on his face. We just had a short eye contact before moving on.

When the opponents are nowhere near us, I talked to Cruzo.

"Well, that guy doesn't know how to keep his putrid mouth closed. I'm surprised you're still being friendly to that jackass."

Cruzo sat down on the bench and drank water. "You'll get used to being trash-talked by the other guilds. That has been how they looked at the Merry Knights since time immemorial."

I just thought that Cruzo may have been the same as me. We are both subject to discrimination and hate, but Cruzo's coping mechanism is different from mine. He chose to confront these things by giving me a smile and a thumbs up, while I just kept on running away and avoiding people.