155 The race

"Serena, Ariel, To beat them, I'll need your help. Can I count on you?" John asked 

"You don't have to ask" Said Serena 

"The role of a party is to help each other." Ariel said confidently 

"Then... Everyone hold on to me." 

Knowing that they had no time to waste, no one complained, and all moved in to hold to John. Serena wrapped her arms around john chest from the left side while Ariel did it from the right side. 

The two were blushing but weren't opposed to the idea, it was probably embarrassing for them to do something like this in front of others or so john assumed. 

[Where is master?] 

Meanwhile, master had already started to shadow step from one path on to another, each path was a long jump away from each other, and she could 50 meters with every shadow step so she was skipping around 3 to 4 paths, she had started before anyone noticed and was already half way there. 

John himself only realised this now. 

"Alright, I want everyone to start gather air behind us, we're going to use it as a catapult to propel us all the way to the other side, naturally we'll be going fast, and I'll also use 'that' so we don't fall." 

By that, john meant Levite, and his party members were already aware without him telling them. 

They began to gather air behind them, while fake chanting and avoiding the others around. Serena despite being better at using chant-less fire magic, she can use wind pretty good. 

While Ariel is better at chant-less wind magic but she can use fire magic pretty good too. 

The combinations in their spells are so complex that John wouldn't be able to do it himself if he wanted, for example, he'd need to have 2 minds to be able to merge them that perfectly. 

Serena's ability to properly ignite all of the air particles formed by Ariel, and Ariel's ability to properly manage to air particles to be ignited by Serena. They make an unstoppable duo. 

"John shouldn't we also use an explosion to propel ourselves forward? We'll cast a wind shield so we don't get hurt by the blast." 

"Hm that's a good idea, then, we'll go with that, gather as much hydrogen as you can and tell me when you're about to ignite it. 

The distance from where they stood to the other side was around 800 meters, Azure's party was 400 meters in while Master was around 550, even if master makes it there first, it wouldn't count if they're not there with her. 

"We're ready" The two simoutaneously said 

"Then..." 

The amount of air that was gathered behing them was incredible, if they were to unleash it now, everyone would be blasted away, people now started to notice what john and his two party members were planning and began to back away. 

"Leave the compressing to me." 

Ariel had now stopped gathering air all that remained behind them was a insanely dense ball full of air, originally it wasn't a ball and was just air twirling around behind them, but john gave it the shape of a ball as he added a circular spherical sphere on it 

"Compressing all of that air is going to be impossible..." Serena muttered 

"But this is john we're talking about..." Ariel added 

"Ah, that's right, I keep forgetting common sense started to apply to him but still doesn't click in." 

[These two...] 

The dense amount of air quickly began to compress itself, and in a mere 30 seconds, it went from a ball twice their size to the size of a basketball 

"Serena, ignite it." 

Compressing exhauts magical energy, Ariel knew this because she's tried compressing a few spells with wind magic before, whenever she did, she would be out of breath. 

Seeing john do it and look unfazed made her want to try even harder to do it properly next time but at the same time she felt another sense of defeat. 

Meanwhile Serena was on the verge of punching john for doing everything so perfectly well. 

Without wasting a second, it ignited. The inside which was colourless slowly turned into a reddish yellow ball. 

[Now that I think about it... Isn't this just like my flamethrower explosion spell? Gather air, hydrogen especially, compress it, ignite it. This could really kill someone... Luckily we're the only party still at the starting point, the other parties had already started moving a while ago] 

The members of the cloaked party had started simultaneously jumping from one path to another, on the off chance that they got wrong path, they would quickly jump on to the next one. They were fast and nimble. 

While the lady was leading her party by jumping on to the path first to check if it was safe before jumping on to the next, she was also surprisingly fast. 

"Well then, everyone grab on tight" Said John 

The two girls both increased the strength of their hug and he could feel another sort of softness on both of his sides 

John was having trouble focusing as the two girls who he was attracted to were now hugging him with nearly all their strength 

Not just because he was getting flustered but because the hug was a little too tight. 

"O-on 3 we're supposed to hop, okay? Also Ariel set up a shield please, I'll make sure to set one up but two is better than one." 

The two girls nodded and waited for the count. 

"Then... One... Two... Three! Levite!" 

*BOOOOOOOM!* 

A loud sound of an explosion, resonated throughout the entire 2nd floor and an immense amount of wind pressure could be felt by everyone. 

However everyone stood their ground and no one fell off, they may have not been as strong as john, but even they had experience and valued their lives. 

Alongside the explosion some sort of missle could be seen heading straight towards the end of the 2nd floor. 

The people who saw it, couldn't believe what they were seeing 

"Isn't that?!" 

Azure and his party were on the 600 meter mark now, so the wind pressure didn't reach them, however he still turned, while the griffin continued to fly, to see what all the commotion was about. 

As he did a smile was formed on his face once again. 

There was John, Serena and Ariel, soaring through the air, quickly gaining up on them.