So just as we walked towards the tower a girl with long black hair rode past us on a horse. To me she looked like a better looking version of Nazuko and for some reason I can feel the coolness emanating from her. But, I’d say her coolness level lies just underneath both Ryder and Manchester, as I’m pretty sure no one can surpass the coolness that is explosions. And for Manchester… well okay maybe she might surpass pants. While Nerva and Nazuko are chatting up, I also see Azura lecturing Adam for something I don’t care about. From what Quincy keeps saying about Adam, he doesn’t seem competent at all, but that may be a biased opinion. Still whenever I’m around Adam, my instinct ability fails to activate at all, that’s how I know he’s extremely underwhelming. There’s also that thing that Armstrong taught me to do, to sense people’s intent from feeling out their aura’s and Adam just leaves a really tiny presence, it’s as if he’s like a tiny mouse. I hear the honk of a horn signaling for Nerva and Adam to leave. The next thing I know I see Warren’s party ride away in a car with Anastasia accompanying them. For some strange reason she had this really happy look on her face. As Warren’s party leaves, Azura walks up to me with a kind of concerned look on her face.

“Azura what’s wrong?” I question.

“I’m a bit concerned for Warren’s party. They left looking for a fight in really bad condition,” she answers.

“Huh, They both looked like they we’re in a somewhat decent state. They said they we’re on drugs, so maybe they're fully healed now. Maybe Adam did his job as a healer correctly for once,” I respond.

“And that’s what I’m concerned about. Adam told me that a black haired reaper injected them with a bit of Benetant. It provides pain relief and a short term energy boost. If they go into another fight and the effects run out then...”

“They’re screwed,” I finish.

“Pretty much, it’s a temporary fix, one that could go bad real quickly,” she informs.

“Well that’s not good, but it’s not like we are in any condition to go help. We need to focus on getting better quickly,” I decide.

“Yes and that is why all of us are immediately headed to the infirmary,” Azura tells me.

An hour passes and we are all in hospitable beds in the tower infirmary. It’s a bit boring here, with nothing to do but rest, but on the bright side I have Ryder at my side. Nazuko and Remi are still squabbling about who gets to be my nurse even though I established that if anyone’s gonna be my nurse, it’s gonna be Ryder. AND HE AGREED. That made me really happy, that or it was the medicine I took to heal my injuries, I can’t tell. Yet I still find recovery to be awfully boring, maybe I could do something like read a book (that isn’t the history genre mind you), but all I have are these cursed magic books, which if I read could end up blowing up the tower, AGAIN or all these lewd books Vasavir is making me hand out and I can’t read those with Lilith in the room, cause I do try to keep up a somewhat normal image around her.

“Ugh, Ryder I’m bored we need to find a way to pass the time,” I announced.

“I was thinking exactly the same thing. As it happens, I actually have a great idea,” Ryder announces.

“Oh and what is that,” I say, interested.

“Well first things first wait until Azura leaves the room, then we make a break for it,” he tells me.

A few minutes pass until Azura notifies us that she needs to go use the bathroom.

“Okay, now that she’s gone, everyone grab a wheelchair in the corner over there and make a break for it,” Ryder instructs.

“Wait, but we don’t need wheelchairs, we can walk just fine,” Remi says.

“Yeah, but it’s all part of the plan, now let’s go,” Ryder commands.

We each grabbed a wheelchair and run out of the infirmary. Ryder instructs me to place portals at specific parts of the tower and we all head up to the top floor of the tower.

“Ok, so we’re about to have the first WHEELCHAIR GRAND PRIX!” he announces ecstatically.

“Oh I see what’s going on, this is going to be fun,” I say in anticipation.

“Basically we’re racing down the tower in wheelchairs, whoever gets to the entrance first wins!”

“Racing huh, I’ve raced a bit with horses before, but never in wheelchairs,” Lilith says.

“This is a little bit reckless isn’t it. What if we get hurt?” Remi states nervously.

“Eh, it's not as bad as getting killed by a reaper, so I think it’s bearable,” I say.

“Yeah Remi just doesn’t like to have fun. In fact she’s just afraid that I’ll beat her,” Nazuko declares.

“What was that? I think I changed my mind, I’m going to win this race,” Remi announces.

“In that case, let's start, get ready guys, when this mini firework goes off, we all ride down the stairs,” Ryder tells us.

He lights the mini fireworks and we all wait for it to pop. A few seconds later we hear the sound of a loud crack.

“GO!” we all shout in unison.

We all start blasting down the stairs as soon as we hear the fireworks go off. The constant bumps are making my injuries ache a little bit, but so far I’m winning the race.

“Haha, I’m not just the Hero of Westphalia, but the Master of WheelChairs as well!” I boast while in the lead.

As we come across the first corner I’m cut off by Nazuko who can make a tighter turn since she’s lighter.

“Heh, who’s the master now,” Nazuko gloats.

Suddenly I see Remi zoom past everyone using a gust of wind.

“Not you, that’s for sure!” Remi brags.

“Hey that’s cheating!” Lilith yells.

“All is fair in love and war,” she responds.

“If she’s gonna play that way fine,” Lilith said as she starts making her wheelchair move a lot faster.

“Come on Ryder we gotta catch up,” I tell him.

“Yeah, let’s do this,” he says in agreement.

We all start (wheeling?) faster to catch up to both Remi and Lilith. It’s now a tie for first between Lilith and Remi, while Ryder and I catch up to them with Nazuko bringing up the rear. A few knights look upon us bewildered seeing 5 people racing around in wheelchairs.

“It’s time to take the lead,” Lilith declares as she puts one hand behind her wheelchair and fire starts to be emitted.

“No wait we don’t need anymore explosions!” I shouted.

“What was that? We need more explosions!” Ryder says as he pulls out a flashbang and it ends up blinding all of us.

“Agh our eyes!” we all yell.

I ended up running into a wall, Ryder into one of my portals that take you up one floor, Remi falls out of her wheelchair and Lilith goes down the wrong flight of stairs. Due to that exchange Nazuko ends up passing everyone since she was far enough behind that she didn’t get affected by the flashbang. A minute later and we’ve recovered, all of us now chasing after Nazuko in the lead. We begin to close in on the last leg of our mini race, all of us viable candidates for the victor, except Ryder who’s still a floor behind us. I take a brief moment to check who’s behind me and I see Remi being pushed by her bear accelerating her even faster than before.

“Ok you're taking cheating to a whole new level,” I complain.

“It doesn’t matter as long you win sucker,” she taunts.

Suddenly Nazuko makes a power move by jumping onto Remi and her wheelchair.

“Hey! Get off!” Remi yells.

“Sorry, but I’m commandeering this vehicle,” Nazuko informs her.

The two girls are now fighting over the wheelchair at breakneck speed while Lilith and I are left to play catch up. Both Lilith and I start to propel ourselves faster with our elemental magic in a last ditch attempt to win.

“Yes I’m gonna win,” I yell.

“No I will,” Lilith declares.

“No we will,” Nazuko and Remi say while fighting each other.

For some reason I hear the sound of an explosion in the background.

“Lilith do you hear that?” I ask.

“Yes?!” she responds somewhat confused as to what the noise is.

We turned around to see Ryder in his wheelchair being blasted up to us with the force of his explosions. He goes so fast that he surpasses everyone and wins the race, but he’s going so fast that he can’t stop. As it would happen we see Azura walk into the hallway we set as our finished line.

“Everybody stop!” she shouts.

Except we are all going too fast and none of us can stop. First Ryder crashes into Azura, then Lilith into Ryder, then me into Lilith and finally Nazuko and Remi into me.

“OWWWW,” we all groan.

“Who would have known that the person named Ryder would be the one to beat us all in a race,” Nazuko notices pointing out the irony.

“Ok that’s it, you are all going to stay in bed OR ELSE,” Azura threatens with a look on her face that shows she could murder us all.

And thus ended the very first Wheelchair Grand Prix, it was fun, but the pain is starting to seem like it wasn’t worth it.