He was so nervous that he almost stumbled over his own feet at the whistle. "Yannik, do you think they're good enough to play Crossride now?" Master Rania asked, worried.

"Ma'am, please. Let me try again. I'm just a little nervous. "She nodded and Ulf tried again. Before he started, he took a deep breath and felt himself calm down immediately. His magic was wild and unruly at first, but then he had it under control and guided it through his entire body. He ran and overcame the first three obstacles without problems. Then came the last two, who had caused minor problems with the other participants. At first he had to go down and the barrier was very low on the ground. Ulf let his magic run wild. He sank backward and slipped under the obstacle so that only his soles touched the ground. After the hurdle he straightened up and turned to the last barrier, which was four meters high. Without much thought, he pushed himself off the ground and overcame the distance without touching the bar. All this he put back at a speed that no one had ever shown.

At the finish, he took his surroundings again, and got along, as everyone applauded him. He jumped with his magic back onto the field and landed as softly as if he had just climbed down a flight of stairs. When he regained his magic, he felt cumbersome.

"Fantastic. You would be the perfect runner, "praised the cross rider.

"I'm just going to run over my death body," he said. Master Rania looked horrified to him but said nothing. Navina and Martin came to him and congratulated him. He basked in this recognition and went to the Verenus community room. There he was greeted by Sebastian Brohm. He was the crossride captain and guardian of Verenus. "Great run Yannik. I definitely want to see you on the field at 3pm on Saturday. If you were a runner with us, we would be unbeatable. "

"But I do not want to be a runner," moaned Ulf in agony.

"Why not? You would be perfect. Ah, whatever! Come on Saturday anyway. We'll find something. "Luciano entered the common room. "I want to see you on Saturday, too. You're good with your magic. "

Overjoyed, the two young Verenus talked. Luciano revealed that he wanted to try as a warrior. Friday dragged on like an ancient chewing gum. To make matters worse, they also had mythology that day. Ulf was unable to sleep the previous night and was soon deep in sleep. The embarrassing thing about the whole story was that he started to snore so loudly that even Grandmaster Hellos paused with his monologue to see who the troublemaker was. Luciano woke up his by new friend and he hid behind his books with a red face.

Ulf was the hero of the common room. He was the first Verenus to succeed in bringing Master Helos down. Although Ulf was uncomfortable, he still celebrated. Finally came the longed-for day. On time he entered the Crossridefeld. Brohm greeted everyone and started. Even though he was the captain, he wanted to set up the best team and thus there was also a choice for the guard. But it soon turned out that he was the best by far. Thus, the captain was confirmed in his position. Terry Cort became replacement guard. Next came the selection of warriors.

"Good luck Florence," Ulf wished as he ran to the players' contenders. But it was a bad day for Luciano. He did not want to succeed. He could not even make it to the spare bench. Brohm also talked to new and old players called Terry Scott, Linda Laurell, Kevin Hobbs and Thorsten Harsch. Emanuel Rush became a replacement warrior. Ulf inspected a jumper of the jumper. A rather beefy Verenus teased him, "Is not he a little too long for you? Just make sure you do not hit him on the head. "

Ulf blushed but said nothing. He was surprised that the bat was pretty heavy. He reached from the floor to the shoulders, and was fairly wide at the ends in the middle, he had a grippy coating and made sure that you could hold him well in his hands. Brohm asked that somebody release the comets. The bully opened a box. "Not the ones who play comets crazy there, and they're mostly used by the deceased," he warned, but it was too late. They whizzed into the air and picked a target. They flew from different directions towards Ulf, who did not see them because it happened behind him. The boy suddenly felt a strange tingling sensation. Almost automatically, his magic awoke. He raised the bat, turned, and at a furious speed knocked all six comets away, leaving him blurry. Everyone flew straight to the nearest gate.

When the crazy comets were stowed, the captain turned to Ulf and was still amazed at what he had just observed. "You really have a quick reaction. That you could react so fast after my warning, and that with all your magic. "

"What warning?" Ulf asked, confused. What had just happened here? How could I know about the comets?

"Do not tell me you did not hear me?" Ulf shook his head. "If you did not hear me, how did you know that all the comets were shooting at you?" He asked, puzzled.

"I do not know. Suddenly I felt a strange tingling on the neck. It all happened by itself. At that moment I did not even feel the weight of the bat. "

"I never thought I'd say that, but Yannik, you're a phenomenon. If you show the same skills in the game, you have the job as a knight. You must be the smallest jumper ever to play. "

Ulf felt flattered. Luciano congratulated him wistfully. The young Yannikspross felt sorry for his friend and wanted to cheer him up. "Try it as a jumper. Maybe you're more fortunate. "Luciano hesitated, but after a good persuasion he agreed. After initial skepticism, Brohm also agreed.

"It's time we got really good jumpers. So far every year we have had a new trio for this position. You're the last one. First I want to see what the others can do. "The selection started and very soon Captain confirmed Ulf that he was the team's first solid jumper. Shortly thereafter, Raphael Sauer entered the field. He was like Ulf in the first year and he was relatively similar in stature. Now it seemed they could read each other's thoughts. They harmonized so well that he became the second jumper. For the last place only Luciano and the brawny guy, who made fun of Ulf at the beginning, were left. He called himself Zero, but his real name was Ludovik Karos. He was also pretty much zero. He was really surprised that he could walk straight, but as a jumper he was almost as good as Ulf and Raphael.

When Luciano got his turn, he did not want to try it first. He did not expect any chances to be better than this Zero. Only after Ulf had spoken with him urgently did he try it. Very soon everyone realized that the chemistry was right between the trio. It was almost as if they only thought with one head. Brohm wanted to test the trio in an emergency and let them compete against the players and himself. It was unthinkable that a structured gameplay could be planned. Even Brohm had to give himself very often beaten, which otherwise seldom occurred. He has never had this bad result. Finally, Luciano became the third jumper. Zero had to settle for the replacement bench.

The choice of the runner did not last long, because only three had applied for this position. Gudrun Dranto was the best. Her skill was no match for Ulf. Rudolph Lincoln became replacement runner. Euphorically, Brohm announced that they would be celebrating a party in the common room for this successful selection. Karos said he would stay to see who would come to the Arami team just entering the court.

Ulf ran into his sister, who teased him as always, but Ulf ignored her. He did not even say anything when he saw Ariane enter the place.

In the common room of the Verenus it went up high. It was a phenomenal mood. As the secret door opened and Karos entered the room, everyone fell silent, as if by a secret command. Full of suspense, they waited for his report.