Luminary Institute

60: Upperclassmen Enthusiasm

At some point, the hosts had begun blasting music loud enough to rattle the audience members’ eardrums. Each beat clawed through Nyssa’s chest and pounded against her heart. Stood by the riverside, hand-in-hand with Celeste, she rocked on her feet along with the music while watching the spectacle further up the river. 

A lightshow of powers illuminated the night. Every few minutes, she’d see a team’s makeshift boat go flying into the audience or into the sky. For the ones shot into the audience, they’d skid along the ground, collapse into a heap, and rush around to pick up what they could before rushing back to the river to get back into the race. For the ones sent to meet their ancestors in heaven, they... well, they just came crashing back down onto the river—unless a different person sniped them in the air and sent them flying into the audience. 

“Can you tell who’s in the lead right now?” Nyssa murmured while squinting her eyes. With her other hand transformed into a cute duck head, she raised her ‘hand’ upward and lobbed grenades into the chaos from their position. 

“I think it’s... some Class One student?” Celeste raised a hand up and let off a huge beam of energy right into the heart of the chaos. “Electra and Ryker are near the front though, so... let’s just keep going.” 

“Sounds like a plan to me,” Nyssa split her hand into two different duck heads. Each one, at a steady rate of one per ten seconds, spit out a grenade from its mouth with a loud “QUACK” sound. The grenade launched straight from the ducks’ mouths, lobbed into the center and would explode while leaving behind a duck shaped cloud. 

The racers, though, managed to make slow progress forward. They fought back. Electra’s signature purple lightning lit up the night as it came crashing down several times to delay other races or to knock out annoying audience members. Ryker, on the other hand, made full use of his regenerative capabilities. Shielding Electra, he paddled like his life depended on it. When free, he’d also explode a foot or leg to propel their boat forward. 

“They’re getting closer,” Celeste warned as beads of sweat rolled down both her and Nyssa’s face. 

“Okay, give me a second,” Nyssa closed her eyes and tuned out the music. Her ducks took a temporary break and began quacking to each other—as if in conversation. Multi control is... hard... I'm so rusty at it too. How long has it been since I sustained so many entities? I need to practice more. 

Her eyes burst open as her hand returned to its normal form for a second. One blink later, her arm below the elbow had disappeared; in its place sprouted a horrific mess of duck heads numbering in the twenties. “Carpet bombing time.” 

Nyssa shifted her position and stood in front of Celeste to get a clear shot at the advancing Ryker and Electra. For a moment, they made eye contact. In the next, a rain of grenades waterfalled onto the two Class Zero leaders like droplets in a shower. 

After bracing for the shockwave, she felt her brain rattle as the explosion seemed to rock the entire world. Water sprayed into her face as she took a few steps back and into Celeste’s waiting embrace. Meanwhile, a massive, yet cute, duck-shaped explosion cloud stretched into the sky where Electra and Ryker now resided. 

With the two figures in the air, Celeste looked up, her eyes darting around as she scanned the air for their positions. Once located, a wave of energy crackled around her eyes and raced down her hair, transforming its color into one reminiscent of the starry night sky. Then, two laser beams raced out from her eyes. They overtook the onslaught of attacks aimed towards the sky before ripping their way through Ryker and missing Electra by a hair. 

Now also out of breath, Celeste and Nyssa stood there as the rest of the Institute’s students, all gathered along the riverbank, continued their job for them. 

“You two are great!” An upperclassman from the adjacent group praised once Ryker and Electra came crashing back down into the river—now quite a few positions further back. “We were just plotting how to get back at Ryker and Electra, and you two made it... trivial even!” 

As he talked, the rest of his groups also pitched in with their own praises while others asked a few questions. 

“What MAGNIFICENT usage of powers!” 

“Do you have a duck-related power?” 

“Are you two part of Class Zero? Wait... are you Celeste?” 

“Truly, unbelievable! We’re all fourth-years, but I wouldn’t be surprised if you could match us in terms of power output!” 

“That’s some great aim... I can tell you’ve worked hard.” 

“What are your names? If you want to share?” 

“Want one of our drinks? They’re non-alcoholic, don't worry! We also have some food!” 

“Let’s work together to do something to Olivia later, she’s the other one we’re plotting a revenge against! The three of them have wronged the rest of us Class One fourth-years!” 

A little shocked as to how social these upperclassmen seemed, Nyssa and Celeste paused for a moment before joining them for some drinks and snacks. Some of the women in the group, one in particular, made sure to shove their arms full of food before pointing to her side of the large blanket. “Come sit with us, we’re the more moderate half of this group, I guarantee all the guys and girls on this more crazy side are going to get nuked at some point by Ryker.” 

“Or Electra,” A different guy pointed out while sipping a juice box. He spun a ring of energy around his finger before flicking his hand forward to launch it into the fray. 

“O-Oh...” Nyssa mumbled, still a little overwhelmed by the warm greetings. “Thank... thank you.” 

“Yeah, thank you so much for all this food and drink...” Celeste nodded her head, shrinking back a little under the curious gazes of the upperclassmen. “You had a lot of questions earlier, so perhaps... one at a time maybe?” 

“LATER!” A girl shouted as she and a couple of guys leapt to their feet from the supposed ‘zealous’ side of the blanket spread across their little section of the riverbank. “Another group of Class One fourth-years has just begun bombarding Olivia since she’s near some of the other Class One racers! Let’s join in! SHOW THEM HELL!” 

After her call, everyone looked towards where the three people had pointed and began letting loose a barrage of attacks. Still weary from their previous attack, Celeste elected to just send a couple beams out and Nyssa lobbed two grenades into the mix. 

Nyssa, looking around as she lowered her hand, shrugged. The rest are trying hard enough to cover for Celeste and I anyway... 

Their upperclassmen put their all into the attack. Most had their teeth clenched, others had trembling limbs, and all had sweat running down their foreheads.