Living Life As A Game: Through And Through 166 Let's Have A Race

Bidding her parents farewell, Elizabeth shared a hug with both her mother and father, but something unexpected occurred as she was parting with her brother Grey. As they shared their "very normal" hug, the older brother unexpectedly planted two seemingly inconsequential kisses on either side of Elizabeth's cheeks. To which Elizabeth naturally lashed out against, pus.h.i.+ng him away and asking, "Bro… what the f.u.c.k?"

Literally no one else in the room felt his actions were odd until the moment Elizabeth rejected his farewell so harshly. Feeling wronged, Grey said, "Oh, right… my bad, I've just been spending so much time in Spain, I forgot you did without the gesture… It won't happen again..."

Upon realizing that she may have been the one with the unfounded reaction, Elizabeth felt bad; albeit barely. She said, "Mhmm… You… No, it's fine. I should be more open with you guys anyway..." Thereafter, she walked out of the Estate and returned back to her most favorite cafe within the island for one final task before leaving.

She couldn't resist drinking one final Iced Tea as she booked a private room to complete a couple talismans she would need shortly. With a couple talisman papers appearing to her left and some Neutral-type King Stage Beast Blood to her right, Elizabeth materialized her Inscription's pen and began preparing to fail a couple Enchantments as she was about to create two Hybrid s.p.a.cetime Enchantments.

Fortunately, with her experience, it didn't take more than two failures for her to get the foundation of her Hybrid Enchantment, the Living Storage Enchantment, on one talisman paper. Atop that foundation, she added a Neutral Seal Enchantment and the result was a talisman she could use to temporarily store a living sentient being. Elizabeth created another in case she needed to store her Clearlight Sparrow on the ridiculous running escapade through the ocean she planned on conducting, but more so than anything, she wanted these talismans for her Macabre Moose.

[Status

Name: Living Storage Seal Enchantment

Grade: Peak Tier Mortal Grade Enchantment

Description: Used to seal a Mortal Grade ent.i.ty to High Grade or the King Stage.

Effect: Contains about 50 cubic meters of hospitable s.p.a.ce for living sentient creatures to be sealed.]

Unfortunately, even before Elizabeth had met it, it was on track to gaining sentience as a living being and for that reason, she couldn't just throw her Tamed Beast into her Spatial Ring or Storage Enchantments. Fortunately, the Moose Beast was still weak enough to be contained in a Mortal Grade Enchantment, Elizabeth would have to resort to transporting the moose via a s.h.i.+p or plane if that weren't the case.

Suddenly, the idea to play a little game came to Elizabeth as she finished up her second Living Storage Seal Enchantment. With a smile creeping up on her face, Elizabeth drew up a couple Neutral-Time Hybrid Enchantments and left the cafe with a pain welling up in her heart. 'So long, my precious tea...'

She pulled out her phone and immediately ordered her own tea leaves to make her own special Iced Tea brew before leaving for the Hall of Treasures that opened after the Tournament concluded. Elizabeth picked up the rewards she got from the Martial Event along with all the techniques she earned from compet.i.tion in Secondary Occupational Events before leaving the village and trekking across the mountainous forest to reach the docks of Sharktop Island.

There, apart from the lack of precious yachts and the sight of her friends and brother playing around in the waters, everything looked as it had two days prior. Elizabeth quickly walked over to greet them after putting her Moose Beast into her Living Storage Seal Enchantment. She walked over the surface of the ocean water without thinking twice and with Knight now perched on her shoulder in his shrunken state, Elizabeth pa.s.sed out the Time-type Enchantments she created while saying, "Now, before we leave, how about we make this a race? These enchantments I'm pa.s.sing along to you guys are nothing more than perfect pacers. They're synced with all the other Enchantments I've pa.s.sed to you guys so you'll know how far ahead or behind you are relative to each other. So, what do you say?"

"Why are we doing this again? Are we in a hurry, or..." Liam was the only one who questioned Elizabeth's insane idea of traversing the ocean with nothing but their feet.

"Well, this is a form of training! Not only will you train your speed, but you'll also probably be better off controlling your Qi if you get used to running at high speeds with only it keeping you afloat. Also, I'd rather not waste time on a slow boat or even plane… It's only around 930 kilometers of distance we need to cover, but for a s.h.i.+p that will easily take several days. Why wait, when we can make it to our destination before nightfall?" Elizabeth had seen Tristan and Liam's water-walking technique and though they weren't experts, they could travel at a relatively decent pace which is where Elizabeth estimated that they would make it back home before night settled.

"O-ok then..." As a Peak Phase Martial Warrior, Liam, the weakest person in Elizabeth's group, could run several hundred miles an hour without a Martial Art a.s.sisting him, so after perfecting his water walking, it shouldn't take him more than a couple hours to reach Miami. Thus, the race began...

"Alrighty then~ We'll start in five… four..." As Elizabeth began counting down everyone a.s.sumed a running stance as Elizabeth felt Knight's claws grip her shoulder much firmer; it clearly knew Elizabeth planned on doing something insane.

"Two… one… GO!" BOOM!!! A sword materialized on Elizabeth's hand and a sonic boom followed after her as she slowly worked on her own water walking technique. Practically flying over the ocean's surface at just over Mach 1, Elizabeth was quite a ways from her max speed, thus she hoped that by the time she reached the US Eastern Coast, she would be able to achieve it.

Of course, because her companions were standing just a couple feet away from her before she launched herself, they were left soaking wet as the ma.s.sive wave that followed Elizabeth splashed onto them. In just a couple moments, even Jane, who's water-walking technique was the best behind Elizabeth, could no longer even see her past the horizon…

Very quickly, the strengths of Elizabeth's party sorted itself out as the water walking race accurately aligned itself with the rankings they received in the Martial Event. Elizabeth led the pack with an overwhelming advantage. Behind her, Jane and Sun were pretty closely matched, but because Jane excelled in Qi Control, and she had a higher cultivation base, she just barely pulled away from him. Behind them, Tristan used his superior cultivation base and experience to pull away from Liam who was being patiently taught by Yrre. In truth, it was highly likely that Yrre was objectively the fastest person in the group as Elizabeth couldn't say for certain whether the mysterious Djinn would be able to eclipse her speed while she used her sword and activated her 6th Chaos Seal. But she was a.s.sured that Yrre could best her base speed with a sword.

…

Thirty minutes later, on the Floridian Coast, from Key Largo all the way up to West Palm Beach all the beaches were evacuated as Air Force Jets, various other branches of the Army, and the Coast Guard moved to respond to a supersonic moving projectile that was picked up by satellites. It would be pretty hard to miss man-made waves that Elizabeth's ridiculous running created and in no time, she was forced to stop as the wall of s.h.i.+ps made it hard for her to progress.

'Aw s.h.i.+t… I totally forgot about the consequences using these abilities might bring to a world that hasn't yet acclimated.' Though reproachful of her thoughtless actions, Elizabeth didn't mind the US's defense as they would probably let her pa.s.s after making a few calls. She gradually slowed down her movement speed until she came to a complete stop a couple hundred meters before a t.i.tanic s.h.i.+p.

Amplifying her voice with Neutral Magic, Elizabeth said, "I'm from the Martial Society. Need I say more to pa.s.s?" She wasn't being arrogant, it's just this was the first time she was stopped for being too… superhuman. In her mind, this simple statement ought to be enough for her situation to be resolved.

Unsurprisingly, Elizabeth heard a voice through a loudspeaker, "State your name and purpose for coming here! There haven't been any scheduled oceanic crossings, so, for now, you are deemed to be a threat!"

"Mhmm… My name's Elizabeth Ultimatia and I'm returning from the Wus.h.i.+ Tournament. My faction is in Miami, it's called Atid's Dojo."

It was silent for about a minute before the voice called out to Elizabeth again, this time much less critical and almost, friendly? "Oh, Ms. Ultimatia! We are so sorry to inconvenience you… We realize you're still new to the Martial Society so you probably don't know about the rules, but to keep the borders of our nations secure, usually a high ranking member of the Martial Society will notify the countries involved before traveling."

'Shouldn't I be the one apologizing? I mean, surely it must cost a lot of resources to move so many defensive measures into action...' Elizabeth though. She watched as the s.h.i.+ps parted for her, but before leaving, she warned, "Sorry for the trouble and as a head's up, you'll see a couple more pract.i.tioners cross through here as I did. I didn't know about these rules and hosted a race from Sharktop Island to Miami, so don't mind the six others who may disturb these waters..."

Without another word, the white-haired teenager exploded into a full power sprint yet again. In her trial, she left hundreds and thousands of crewmen in fear for their lives as just the collateral of the waves her running caused rocked the s.h.i.+ps in the oceans back and forth. Moments later, with the waves yet to have calmed, Elizabeth out of sight for the s.h.i.+ps at sea and to the rookies of the army who had never seen a Martial Pract.i.tioner, this became an unforgettable memory.