Chapter 314 - Competing (1)

Luke shook another bottle before passing it to me to drink. I knew I wouldn't be able to eat any solid food today. There were no plates in front of me on the table. Although the white drink was creamy, it had no taste.

"We're only participating in the last rounds for each subject," Alex looked at the new schedules given to us.

This meant there was more time to rest inside my room before going to compete. I nodded as I continued to drink from the bottle. Lucius placed a bunch of different medicine in powder and liquid forms to create this drink. I just needed to finish two bottles for each meal to help me participate in the competition.

Only people from our school took the time to eat breakfast slowly. Everyone else was competing to face us as the final opponent. This was only acceptable since our school won every year for the past decades.

Halfway through the bottle, I began to give up on finishing the drink as I felt nauseous and dizzy. This drink was more filling than I thought it would be. I placed the bottle on the table as I decided to use this time to rest.

"Finish the bottle Rika. Remember the promise you made yesterday for going to the pizzeria," Luke reminded me.

"I already drank one full bottle. There's only half of this one left," I whimpered.

Luke passed me the bottle, "you have to finish this one or else you won't get better. I'm not going to accept your excuses of feeling dizzy or nauseous this time."

I chugged the rest of the bottle, trying to get rid of the rest. Like I predicted, I ended up vomiting the rest of the drink I drank with some blood after the last sip. Luke sighed as Shelly handed him more napkins. This was why I didn't want to drink the rest.

"Let's go back to our room to change," Luke helped me walk.

I ended up soaking in a nice, warm bath before changing into a new set of uniforms. Luke's marble vibrated as he got a message from Lucius that we had to start heading to the competition room for our grade. It was crowded near the room as the disqualified contestants watched the people in the room on the TV screen.

Evan was part of the crowd as he lost against the people in the second district. The doors opened as the four of us stepped inside. There was a podium for each pair as Luke and I walked together to our spot.

"Let's start with the first question," the host showed the question on the screen.

I was shocked as they pulled out a math question that I learned near the end of elementary school. I never knew the second district was this behind the first district. However, I was quickly proven wrong as the level of difficulty increased. We were no longer in the range of high school problems, but master's level in university.

Luke pressed the button, not wasting a single second as he answered the sixth question in a row. Whenever Luke was not able to answer, Alex took his place. The students in the second district were shocked from their fast reflexes. They were not able to gain a single point compared to the people who lost in the last round.

But all the questions were still on the easier side compared to what was asked on our exams. Even I knew most of the answers to this question. This time, I decided to be the one to press the button. I smiled when it was deemed that my answer was correct. The other team started to look more desperate as we were winning by a huge landslide.

"What is the proof for this matrix?" The host asked an essay type question this time.

I was the first person to press the button as I opened my mouth to say the answer. However, Luke pushed me to the back with him as our podium suddenly exploded. The host froze as the podium crumbled into ashes.

"The proof is from this line by calculating this side by the matrix first," I continued to ramble as Luke helped me get up.

"Correct," he mumbled as I coughed more blood from the impact.

"We're leaving first. Please tell us when the next subject starts," Alex started to help Luke to carry me on his back.

I vomited an insane amount of blood on Luke's shirt. Everyone stared at us, wondering if I was ok from watching everything on TV. I knew it appeared worse than it actually was. Evan walked to follow us from the back from worry before Alex turned to him, "can you please visit us later? I have to help my cousin with her injuries."

He nodded his head as he continued to stare at us from the back. Shelly helped Luke wipe all the blood from my mouth as Alex opened the machine again to see what was wrong this time. I guessed sleeping beauty switched to explosion spells, which was about the equal level of creating a fire.

"You inhaled some smoke that came from the explosion. Making your present injuries even worse," Luke read the results.

I couldn't believe my horrible luck. Instead of sleeping beauty wanting my help, it looked like she was trying to kill me. When I finished coughing blood, I took another bath to wipe myself clean. I couldn't believe that we would have to go to the next subject soon when Luke got another message from Lucius.