Chapter 1340 1340 Green Means Barrel Through

Chapter 1340 Chapter 1340 Green Means Barrel Through

The source of this content nov(el)bi((n))

?--- Kress ---

Kress could see Stan making some progress in catching up to Nell. Where as the beastkin woman was sticking to slowly winding her way around the tendrils at the water's surface, Stan had dived down deep and was looking to pass her soon. Kress wasn't sure how effective it'd be once Stan needed to surface. If the demon could hold his breath though...

Kress discarded that line of thought and started his own swim forward, following as closely behind Nell as he could manage. The beastkin eyed him suspiciously but Kress concealed his intentions well, simply using the chance to keep Nell a little on edge without actively hindering her just yet. Better to keep those few cards to his chest.

Stan surfaced nearby. Just a touch ahead of Nell, startling the beastkin a bit. Just enough for her hand to brush a nearby red barrel and suddenly it exploded into fire. Nell dove down instantly, and Kress followed not even a moment behind. A glance upwards revealed the red liquid was burning atop the water quite handily.

Kress cursed his lack of breath. Dammit. I just wanted to duck away from whatever was going to come out of that barrel. I didn't think I'd need to stay underwater for too long. The red ones definitely have the biggest range. Though... that could be useful. I can try to set one off near Nell if I'm careful. We'll have to see if it's worth it though.

Nell was swimming forward, trying to get through the fire that way, but Kress knew he didn't have the oxygen to manage a similar feat. Instead, he swam to the side away from the centre of the blast and surfaced near a green barrel as he sucked in a deep breath. The main upside, was that Stan would hopefully be able to use this as a chance to get ahead properly... though the raging fire meant it was impossible to see the demon's progress from the surface.

Which is how Stan made it out in front to grab onto the jet-skis first. Once he was out of the barrel minefield it was a quick climb up onto the wooden support structure to get onto the jets-ski. There was three on either side, one in front of the other. Perhaps, in a different race it'd be a chance to get a bit ahead but Stan just grabbed the first one without any issue.

Kress nodded as he saw Stan figure out the controls and zip off onto the rest of the course. Kress didn't see how Stan stumbled over the ramp and nearly fell off, nor the look of complete panic as Stan realised that Kress had seen him doing something silly. Still, the demon shook that off quickly and zipped ahead making the most of his lead.

Back with Kress, he was making his way out of the water at the same time as Nell. Part of him wanted to push ahead and get on a jet-ski first... but really that was only going to delay Nell for a moment or two, and with Stan noticeably in the lead, there was no reason to waste the element of surprise just yet.

Nell leapt onto the jet-ski, turned the key and then zipped of all in one single swift motion, proving just why she was chosen for this challenge. *Why does she know how to work one of these!*

Kress tried and failed to mimic the ease with which Nell managed to take off. He mounted the vehicle well enough, but he fumbled too much with the keys and only managed to start it after a few seconds of panicked scrambling. Really not what he was hoping for.

As the jet-ski roared to life Kress tried to take in the layout ahead of him. There were a number of sections with walls, or barbed wire that seemed to limit your options in regards to moving forward. From the look of things it was forcing you to treat it like a slalom... that is. If you ignored the jumps.

Every now and again there were clear ramps that could be used to jump over the obstacles. There had to be more to it then that... but it was all Kress could make out from where he was. Stan was just making it over the first jump right now and he had plenty of speed to clear the barbed wire he was dodging.

*There has to be a catch here somewhere. I refuse to believe that Thyme made this section of the course so simple. Perhaps the jumps can only be used a certain amount of times? Or perhaps they have a cooldown? Maybe the wire falls away? So many possibilities that I suppose it's not really worth worrying about them right now. I just have to try my best and catch the two frontrunners so that I can actually help out a bit.*

Kress revved the jet-ski and tried not to let his fear show when it nearly bucked him off as it exploded forward, nearly leaving him behind. Kress barely managed to properly seat himself as the jet-ski went off the edge sending him back down the to ocean bellow and into the course proper. Kress managed to stabilise the landing and prevent himself from taking a dip, but it was a close thing, and he was damn glad that Stan couldn't see it.