[OLD] Fear The Whispers - Book 1 [Wings of Fire Fanfiction]

Chapter Six - The Race

Team Jade had a few hours to prepare for the race, and Essence was doing some practice questions with Ace. He may not be a part of the team but he'd be damned if he couldn't help in some way. Swellow was practicing her swordsmanship against a training dummy from Clay's class. Tundra was working on his flying by going through the course, Kraken was hunting, and Scorpion was practicing his aim. Essence was a bit worried about Scorpion. He did very well against the stationary targets and did great in mid flight hitting the targets with his fire, but he struggled with hitting the moving targets. Whereas Driftwood did well against the stationary targets, struggled with hitting targets while on the move but had shredded the moving targets.

Essence was also amazed by Ace's intelligence. All the questions he asked her he knew from memory. He was really really good with history and dragon anatomy.

The race was about to begin and there was a huge crowd gathered at the base of the mountain to watch. Before the race began, Moon and Qibli wished their daughter good luck. Team Silver consisted of Driftwood, their team leader and striker, Oracle, their genius, a male SeaWing named Hammerhead who was their hunter, a male sandwing named Coquina as the fighter, and a female Rainwing named Masquerade as a flyer. Essence was standing at an observation area because she really wanted to see Swellow fight. She had seen her duel dragons before and was always mesmerised with the ease of how she defeated even the most skilled of opponents.

The first race of the Jade Mountain Circuit was about to begin, and then the crowd started counting down, a giant voice among many

"Three, Two, One!"

Tundra and Masquerade flew off so quickly it took Essence a moment to find them again. They flashed through the winding course, dodging the obstacles. With Masquerade being a RainWing, she was not as fast as Tundra, but she was far more agile, taking impossibly sharp turns with the help of her tail.

Masquerade made it to the first checkpoint before Tundra and Team Silver's Sandwing, Coquina, snatched the animus-enchanted dummy and they started to grapple. Worry swirled through Essence but she was confident that Swellow could make up the lost ground as Tundra swooped in. Swellow charged towards the wooden dragon, jaws wide in a battle cry. Swellow swooped up into the air like a rabbit, pulling out her sword and delivering a powerful downward slash in one smooth movement. The animus dragon suddenly pulled out a wooden sword and blocked Swallow's attack, jerking with every movement. Staying on the offensive , Swallow delivered swing after heavy swing against the animus, but every attack was blocked.

Realizing that this animus enchanted dragon was better than Swellow had expected, she switched tactics, going on the defensive and started giving ground between the two waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike.

Just as the wooden dragon was going for a heavy downward strike, Swellow rolled sideways; it's sword hit the stone floor heavily. Swellow extended her talon and shot a stream of white silk at the dummy, wrapping itself to its hind leg. Swellow yanked her arm with all her might, pulling the wooden dragon and flipping it on its side, wings flapping. Quick as a medic to a wounded soldier, Swellow was over the dummy, sword against its throat . The wooden dragon flailed a touch, as if for a last resort, then fell dormant, reverting back to a statue.

"Too easy!" Swellow said, kicking the dummy to the side.

Swellow spread her wings and launched herself to the next platform, the SandWing hot on her tail. The crowd was loving the performance of the teams so far.

Essence rushed to her platform after the hunting section. As she flew over to her section, she saw Kraken and Hammerhead dive into the forest below. Before Essence knew it, Kraken had emerged between the leaves with a goat in her talons.