Chapter 103: You Spin me Right Round

To outsiders, the sight looked ridiculous. They could see Kat flailing about, wings trailing behind her and tail dancing around like made, twisting and contorting sometimes dragging along the ground or pulling her wings back in line at the last second to prevent things from getting worse, and while it looked like this couldn't possibly be helping Kat's orbit started to stabilise.

*Is it sad my tail is better at this than I am?* Kat thought as she struggled, or more accurately, she directed demonic energy so her tail could struggle, to solve this balance crisis. As the minutes kept passing by Kat continued to feed her tail more energy but things had stabilised… somewhat.

*Is this really a good situation for me?* Kat herself was still spinning with her body moving all over the place and the balance threatening to tip at any moment. Then again, five minutes of constant spinning and you kind of get used to it when the nausea doesn't set it. At least I don't feel like throwing up. I wonder how the others are going.

As Kat spun, she observed the other two, and it seemed like they'd both come up with better ideas, or at least more practical looking solutions. Jack had encased himself in stone leaving just his hands sticking out. He also had a wall that his hands were pressing against as the air continued to be expelled from the orb.

*I'm surprised that's allowed if I'm honest.* In this instance while Jack didn't have the orb touching the ground, it was rather close in so many ways. The stone wall that had been raised to hold his hands, and the stone box that encased his arms and helped prevent movement. *I guess Thyme meant it really literally when he said it's fine as long as it doesn't touch the ground. I wonder if I placed the orb on a picnic blanket or something if that would count.*

*Then again, that wouldn't actually work long. Assuming it could withstand the heat the orb would have shot of instantly if it was just sitting on the ground when something like this happened.* Kat then let her eyes drift over to Dusk, or more accurately focused on Dusk as her view kept rotating.

Dusk had taken a vastly different approach to Jack. Instead of making it harder for him to turn he'd instead made it easier. Dusk stood with his legs spread out, with ice encasing his shoes, or perhaps just on the bottom, it was hard for Kat to get a clear view with the robes in the way.

This technique allowed Dusk to stand 'in place' and get spun around with much less hassle then Kat had to deal with as she twisted left and right desperately keeping her balance and looking the fool.

*Ok, maybe Dusk has the right idea, instead of fighting it I should go with it. Can I just hover in place? No likely not, I need to flap my wings for that… but perhaps I'm on the right track.* Kat tried to move the orb in her hands while keeping her tail stocked with extra energy. Kat found it wasn't too difficult to change the direction of the orb, and thus the way she was pushed.

*Ok, I think I can work with this.* Kat pooled energy into her legs. Twisting she waited until balance required her to place both feet on the ground and jumped. Once in the air she brought the orb up to the side of her face so that the gust of air would push behind her.

Once in the air Kat now directed the energy back, letting it go to both her wings and tail. Now with forward motion Kat beat her wings as she carried on forwards, using her tail to adjust herself so that having her main source of propulsion off-centre.

"Hey Thyme" Kat shouted as she flew around the arena "Is there any rule against leave the area?"

Thyme swapped it's outfit to a thick leather jacket, a scarf and some goggles "Well, I'm pretty sure this ain't restricted airspace, and I dun recall no rule that says you have to stay inside, but you can't get too close to the other two competitors. I'll add that you have to stay where I can see ya, but that ain't too hard"

And so Kat let the orb drag her around to the various booths to visit the spectators. Waving wasn't exactly an option on account of having her hands bound together but a nod and a smile did just as well. Skye was the only one who waved back in her booth, but the God Crushers all got in on it having a good laugh and waving as she passed by.

For her own team, Gareth returned the nod but kept watching Green for the most part. Green of course continued to sleep, unburdened by the cares of the world or at least the cares this round of the tournament brings. Kress just huffed and made a point of not looking at her, while Nixilei… Well she waved but the smile she had on was closer to that of a scientist who was coming up with a ground-breaking idea rather than someone who was greeting a friend.

The elves showed a mix of reactions, Grace, Ryo and Estelle all seemed surprised, a little interesting, and a lot confused by Kat's performance. *Perhaps they didn't think I could actually fly.* Though Rakhor seemed completely unphased and just ignored Kat.

Finally Lynn just mouthed out "Stupid demon powers"

So Kat decided to correct her a little bit. As she flew around the arena Kat managed just a few words per lap, but she hoped to get the point across

"Think though"

"If I didn't have"

"Wings at all"

"This would"

"Have been so"

"Much easier"

"Yeah? Says the girl who can fly!" yelled back Lynn

"Look, this"

"Isn't ideal"

"For me either"

"And I'll"

"Admit my other"

"Powers are kind"

"Of dumb but"

"This one doesn't count"

Lynn let Kat make a few more laps after finishing her point before replying "Ok, but it's still dumb you can fly already"

Kat nodded *I can accept that. My powers do seem really strong, if a bit specific but flight is certainly one of my best so its probably fair to complain about that one.*

Kat continued her loop around the arena for a few minutes with nothing happening. You could only nod at people so many times before it just became routine. *I know this is an endurance test but how long are we going to be stuck like this?*

Then Kat heard a crack. Following the sound Kat's eyes landed on Jack. The wall he had been sustaining was starting to break apart. Cracks started spiderwebbing out centred around his hand.

She saw Jack glance towards the cracks and close his eyes. Moments passed as he made no move, and the cracks just kept getting bigger. Jack slowly opened his eyes and let out a deep breath.

Three sigils lit up around him. The wall and the box that had been encasing Jack quickly melded back into the ground. With that the first sigil vanished. Next a ring was sliced around Jack in the dirt, creating a clear divide between the section he was standing on and the rest of the ground as the second sigil vanished.

The third sigil burned brighter as Jack dropped to just passed his knees into the ground. This all happened in an instant, and as Jack fell into place he started spinning… along with the ground around him.

*Huh, that's actually pretty cool. Dusk moves around the ground; Jack moves with the ground and I said screw the ground!* Kat chuckled a little as she watched the scene play out it was somewhat funny watching the contrast between a calm Jack, magic sigils around him and the current Jack wedged halfway into the ground.

*I mean sure he still looks pretty calm but it's so much easier to forget he's a wizard when he looks like a carrot half out of the ground.*

Shortly after Jack's display however Kat felt the tugging on her arms weakening. Quickly slowing with her wings and swapping to hover in place Kat brought her hands together in front of her with the orb sitting still comfortably above her hands.

Dusk noticed Kat's movement and pulled his legs together and fixed his arms into a similar position. Jack was… not really paying attention, swirls in his eyes as he struggled to keep his balance. As he slowed down however it became quite clear he'd kept hold of the orb properly in a more normal position and despite his inattention when a moment later the clasps around their hands were released none of the contestants dropped their orbs.

Kat let herself drift back to her starting position. She kept afloat just off the ground not quite ready to commit to standing again but more than ready for whatever the next challenge the orb might have.