VARSITY 9 | VOLUME II | BL

FOURTEEN

"That's pretty high. Think you can reach it?" Kean asked Wen as the five members of Team 14 gazed up at the support system of the indoor arena.

Wen had never flown higher than fifteen feet in the air, but he was willing to give it a try if it meant finding a white finch. While they had not seen any indications of the arena housing a finch, Shina's plan consisted of Wen flying up to high places to scope them out.

Sound a "Mm," in response to Kean, Wen stepped away from his team a few steps before creating a current to lift him in the air. The four others watched as Wen rose toward the lowest layer of structural beams.

To Wen's surprise, he was able to hold the current all the way up to the lowest beam that was ninety feet off the ground floor. This was by far the highest he had flown, so he was not surprised when his body was drained of quite a bit of energy by the time he touched down on the thick beam.

Now that he had reached the lowest layer of the support system for the massive arena, Wen carefully began flying from beam to beam in search of a white finch. After clearing the first layer, Wen flew up to the second layer of beams and continued his search.

Oh! The arlex's eyes widened when he saw a single, white feather resting on a nearby beam. That was the first evidence of a white finch that the team had yet to find. Stooping down, Wen picked the feather up and turned to alert the team of his discovery. But, when he turned to look down, he saw that a second team had entered the arena and was facing his team members.

Deciding to keep quiet and not give away his location or the fact that he had found traces of a white finch within the arena, Wen silently watched as his team blocked the newly arrived five from passing them and entering the rest of the arena. What's going on?

Wen was too high up to see who the members of the second team were, but by observing Kean's defensive patterns, Wen knew the second team was going to be a problem should they know he had found a feather. So, instead of wasting time watching the showdown of the nine on the ground floor, Wen returned to his search.

"Hey there."

Wen jumped in shock when he heard the sudden voice. Turning to see an arlex standing behind him, Wen's face paled when he saw a feather in her hand.

"Derin was right. He told me to follow you. I'm glad I did. Wouldn't have found this if I hadn't." The girl blew on the feather and winked at Wen before kicking off from the beam she was on and floating over to the one on which Wen was standing.

Derin...? Quickly turning back to the group on the ground, Wen's gaze zeroed in on a guy with icy blue hair who was leading the second group. It all made sense now. So, that's why Kean was acting defensively.

"By the way, the kyro on your team is quite handsome. You don't happen to know his number, do you?" The comment from the female arlex brought Wen's attention back to his task at hand.

"Sorry, he's not interested." Wen was not fond of some random girl checking Kean out.

The girl's eyes squinted. "How do you know? Are you his boyfriend?"

"...No..."

"Then, you can't know for sure, silly," the arlex rolled her eyes while tossing the feather and letting it float toward the ground. "I'll have to ask him out when I win this."

Wen's fist instinctively curled at the girl's declaration. It was almost as if she knew what she said would piss Wen off. If he was not already fully invested in finding the finch first, he definitely was now! There was no way Wen was going to let her catch the finch and then proclaim her love for Kean before he did.