Chapter 1275 1275 The Highlight Reel
--- Kat ---
Kat watched as all the competitors were deposited down on the stage. The various different reactions were rather funny. Chartreuse and Midnight had their arms over each other's shoulders and were shaking their heads, knowing that they probably didn't make it. Nixilei and Asteodia were still stacked up, but all the sudden change in position and all the water meant they fell over in a pile, and started laughing. Ellenell was… sitting in a hammock? Kat looked at the elf confused. She'd been following Asteodia's and Nixilei's progress with Lily's eyes for a while. Why was Ellenell in a hammock?
"Congratulations everyone!" said Thyme. "What a round! Now, before I go on to announce the results. Nixilei, Asteodia, would you like to be judge as a team? Or separately? Technically you weren't perfectly aligned with that little trick. Close enough for me to give it to you of course… but if you'd like to fight it out?"
The two women shook their heads and answered together, "No thank you,"
"Perfect, Perfect," said Thyme as they spun around until they'd shed their old appearance. Now in front of them sat Thyme in a little plane model that hovered above the ground. Thyme's knees were up near their face due to lack of space, and their costume matched Asteodia's closely. "With that, I proclaim you both the winners of this round! You will both receive two points for working together! Our runner up is Ellenell!"
Asteodia and Nixilei untangled themselves and were able to join the clapping with everyone else. Thyme smiled, "Now, you are free to leave to get food or just to have a break. You have one hour until the obstacle course round will start… but if you want to stick around you can watch a few highlights first!"
Ellenell shrugged remaining in their hammock while Chartreuse and Midnight seemed uncertain. Asteodia and Nixilei nodded at each other then Nixilei said, "We'll stick around if you're willing to dry us off,"
"Of course," said Thyme and with a snap of their fingers the water vanished. From there Thyme shuffled the chairs around a bit so that everyone could see the giant screen better. This mostly meant moving the contestants outwards. Kat flicked over to Lily's vision as her girlfriend sat up and transformed back into her human form. Kat leaned into the corner of the couch while Lily leaned into Kat and they took in the scene before them.
The first highlight was the take-off. Cutting between action segments. Midnight chasing after Asteodia, Nixilei chasing after Chartreuse, and intense two games of cat and mouse as each tried to get the upper hand… as well as Ellenell who just… took off without resistance and easily left the platform. The quick cuts between major action and Ellenell's calm ride was a little comical.
This was double true once the two teams formed. With Midnight upon the glider of shadows and Nixilei resting in the shared plane. They could see the two teams fighting it ouch. Midnight and Chartreuse were really pushing themselves, both clearly deciding to go for an all out attack instead of trying to save mana and take over the plane.
Then all of a sudden it would cut back to Ellenell just casually pumping a bit of mana into the flame spout so that the hot air balloon would raise slightly higher. Then back to Midnight struggling to maintain enough shadow on the wings to keep it all together, then Ellenell enjoying the view, then back to Asteodia desperately dodging. Thyme had to be doing it on purpose, as every time the action seemed to be heating up the highlight reel cut back to Ellenell just standing there.
Then, sombre musing started to play as the shadows around the glider's wings started to flicker and fade. Midnight's shaking hands, and the Chartreuse's sad face of acceptance. The music continued all the way until the glider crashed into a patch of ocean… only to cut back to Ellenell right before the moment of impact with the music changing up to a light and airy background track. Kat couldn't help but let out a slight puff of laughter that she quickly clamped down on.
Lily sent back her own feelings of amusement as the highlight reel continued, showing Nixilei and Asteodia both pointing at the snake thing, and then the drastic shift in atmosphere as the music became overbearing when the giant cloud-bird showed up. For once, instead of a quick cut back to Ellenell the music swelled, becoming more and more overbearing as the pair go closer to the forest, tension rising all the way until they entered the woods. Then they jumped not to Ellenell, but to the moment the cat tried to attack the plane duo and failed, getting smacked on the jaw with a propellor blade.
Laughter ensued, laughter that doubled when the scene then cut to Ellenell who seemed to be cleaning out his ear with a damp cloth. Ellenell just shrugged in his seat up front. "What? Elven ears need proper care to stay healthy you know. I wasn't exactly doing anything else at the time, so what's the problem,"
The next cut showed the girls desperately fighting off spiders to tense music before jumping back to Ellenell. This time he was utilising the hot-pot feature of the hot air balloon and just… casually eating some food. Nixilei and Asteodia glared at him, and he just shrugged again. "I didn't encounter any of the weird shit you guys did. It was a relaxing two hours,"
"I almost feel cheated that Ellenell got a full point for doing nothing for two hours," grumbled Asteodia. Kat watched as Nixilei whispered something in Asteodia's ears as a response, which turned the elf bright red. Kat was a little curious as to what was said, but hadn't been paying enough attention, especially not right now while using Lily's senses. Aw well, the chance had been lost.
So Kat refocused on the video, it was a big cut of all the other things that had attacked Asteodia and Nixilei, though Kat knew from watching the original 'cut' of Nixilei's adventures that none of these monsters could even damage the plane, the highlight reel made it seem like Asteodia and Nixilei were being attack constantly, even cutting back to moments from the spider attack to make it look like Nixilei was fending them all off with her wind sword.
lightsΝοvεl ?οm Of course, then it cut back to Ellenell who found a floating island and was using the waterfall attached to it to wash out the cooking pot. Once away from the waterfall Ellenell turned it upside down and started to use it as a chair. Then the scene cut back to Nixilei and Asteodia fighting their way out of the forest until… CLEAR SKIES.
Cheerful triumphant music played, but Kat knew it wasn't the end just yet. The music stayed light and joyful… but little hints of darkness. Booming drums echoed every ten seconds or so, as slowly the skies started to darken, the world started to turn grey and the wind stared to really pick up.
Then smash-cut back to Ellenell. He had the net and the grappling hook out and was using the hook to quickly slice away all of the weights on the net. Kat wasn't sure where this was going… until they spent the next minute watching a timelapse of Ellenell building a chair out the net with the extra rope from the grappling hook, after the hook was removed of course. Thyme even added a silly 'And that's how it's made' graphic above Ellenell's head after the elf sat down in the hammock. Which did neatly explain where it came from.
The highlight reel cut back to Nixilei and Asteodia for the last time, it showed them just as they were plunging into the tornadoes itself, showing the entrance into the swirling mass of dark cloud and water from all angles right up until the plane made its way inside… then it showed the briefest glimpse of the sight inside of it… before making it seem like there was lens flare where it cut back to Ellenell relaxing by himself in his recently made hammock before the entire screen faded to black, and disappeared a moment afterwards.
Kat grinned, her eyes remaining shut as she made use of Lily's for now. "Well that was certainly entertaining," said Kat. "Thyme turned it into a comedy… not that it wasn't interesting, I enjoyed it, but this version really lacks the tension watching Nixilei and Asteodia originally had. Plus, they missed out on Midnight and Chartreuse making their way to the forest and starting to go around it, not even seeing a glimpse of that giant bird,"
"Yeah well they weren't exactly competing for first place after the fall in the beginning… but I agree, a few cuts to them after they recovered could've been funny as well," said Lily with her own smile. Ears twitching and tickling Kat's nose a little. Kat held down the urge to sneeze. Best not get snot on her girlfriend.
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