Chapter 1342 1342 Lights, Current, Action

Chapter 1342 Chapter 1342 Lights, Current, Action

?--- Kress ---

Kress was keeping pace with Nell quite well when the beastkin shouted out, "Why are you so intent on riding my ass, won't your boyfriend get jealous?" Nell realised what she'd done as the words left her mouth. She turned a horrified stare back at Kress, wondering what possessed her.

Kress shared a similar fate, looking at Nell like she'd suddenly grown a second head. Despite the distraction they managed to continue the slalom without any issues, but the silence was growing, even with the sounds of the jet-skis to help mask it. Finally, Kress gave the only answer he could. "Marigold? How did you sneak into this race and why are you wearing fake ears?"

Nell let out a loud groan. "I can't believe it! I didn't even spend that much time with that perverted elf and she's somehow corrupted me! I can't believe I said that shit. There better not be audio for the people watching or I'm NEVER going to hear the end of it. I genuinely have no idea why I said that... urgh, what a pain. Alas, my life is over," Updated from novelb(i)n.c(o)m

"Stop being overly dramatic," said Kress.

"No, we give Nabras shit all the time for his dumb choices, but I don't think any of his slip-ups are as easy to make fun of as what I said earlier. I'll be the but of my parties jokes for years! Years I tell you. Or at least until someone else manages to pull off something dumber, but I doubt it," explained Nell.

Kress gave a shrug and said, "As long as it's mostly in good fun I don't really see the problem,"

Kress' worries were dashed as he shot out into the next section of the race. It was beautiful. The top of the cave was lined with glowing algae that lit the way forward with a soft and gentle glow. Down below there was another strip of the stuff that was congregating around the air Thyme had set up.

That's when the first air bubble whizzed past Kress. He'd been too distracted by the majesty of the place. He panicked for a second before forcing that panic down. There was no sense in wasting air freaking out. Eyes now firmly fixed ahead, Kress waited for the next bubble to appear. It ended up being down and to his right. Kress kicked in that direction... but the current held him strong and he ended up missing for a second time.

*Oh shit. This is actually more dangerous then I was expecting. I'm going to need to really put in some effort to catch one of those aren't I? Hmm... should I just head to the bottom instead? Try to be safe about it? It's a good excuse if Nell passes me that way, and... I might genuinely need it. I'm not sure if I can catch one of these bubbles before the current drags me past. Yeah... I'm not looking to win here so let's just go for the bottom*

With that decided Kress started trying to make his way down to the fresh air. Emphasis on the trying. The current was really strong, and Kress was starting to wonder if Thyme had bothered to properly test all of this. Kress grimaced and started to put all of his effort into swimming straight down and finally started to make some progress. The lower he went, the easier it was to keep going and soon he was within arms reach of the bottom. A few more kicks and Kress felt his face break through the algae layer and into fresh air.

"Bleugh, urgh, it got in my mouth," grumbled Kress as he started to spit out the glowing organism. Sure it looked lovely but it tasted horrible. What was even more annoying was that even all the way down at the bottom, he was still being pulled along by the current so he had to be careful not to get any more of it in his mouth as he moved. The first time was enough, and the little bits that leaked in despite his efforts were hard enough to ignore.

Kress sucked in a deep breath and then swam back into the stream. It was much easier to go back up into the thick of the current then it was to leave. Part of him wanted to stay down longer, he hadn't seen Nell swim past... but he also didn't want anyone to work out that he wasn't trying to win at all. He'd managed to get Stan ahead and in first place without it looking like he was sabotaging anyone, no reason to hurt what goodwill he'd managed with Nell by making any of this obvious.

So he swam along with the current, or more accurately he road the current and tried to ignore the burning in his throat from the algae that had gotten in his mouth. It was certainly distinct from the burning in your lungs when you need air. Kress wasn't sure how long he had until he was experiencing both but he was trying to be careful. Bubbles flew past him... but he didn't bother with any of them. It was too much effort to course correct into them and they'd be good for one gulp of air at the most.

Then the tunnel started to narrow again. Kress didn't panic, he just let himself be carried along until... the open air! Kress looked around and saw both Nell and Stan sitting at the finish line. Or rather, Nell was on all fours and throwing up a bunch of water while a Thyme looked her over and Stan was sitting down.

Kress was so distracted by this sight that he didn't react properly to the landing. No instead of a nice smooth landing he smacked down face and stomach first and proceeded to bounce towards the finish line like a skipping stone, bleeding of momentum, but it was going to hurt more when he crashed into the wooden platform...

At least, until Stan reached down and caught him. *Worth it.* Thought Kress through the pain as he started to relax.