Ginnn's voice stopped. When it didn't start again and the other students began to move, I belatedly realised the lecture was over. While the presentation style had been interesting, the material was already familiar to me. Even if it had been the most fascinating new information I had encountered, I might have struggled to overcome my intense anticipation for the upcoming chroma game.
Actually, that was untrue. New knowledge would definitely take precedence over sports. But my anticipation level was extremely high.
"It's wild that you're showing up the night before the big game," a friendly voice beside me said.
"Hey, Wunno. I am still a student."
"A student and a chroma star!" Nandy said from my other side. "Like Wunno said, it's wild!"
"It doesn't seem all that wild to me," I admitted. "Not compared to me being here at all. Or to everything Skids and I did last year."
"I guess not," Wunno agreed. "You know we'll be cheering you on, of course. I think everyone at the academy will be."
"Even Spike," Nandy added.
"I appreciate that, a lot," I said, ignoring the mention of Spike. "And especially all the help you've been to the team the last few weeks."
"Glad to help," Nandy said. "You can't really practice plays with no one to practice against."
Wunno nodded. "I hope we did well enough. I know we're not a fraction as fierce as Dreaming Eye, Demonstration Domination, or..." he stopped to shudder. "Or Dead Drop."
"Don't worry, Skids and Punnt's caster and drone friends were plenty fierce," I said. I tried to sound reassuring even though I knew we would be facing a much scarier threat. "The opposition won't know what hit thall!"
"Thall sure won't," Wunno said. "We won't say a word about any of your plays and plans."
"Not a one," Nando said with unwavering conviction.
"Glad to hear it," I said, though everyone who'd been allowed to participate in training had signed secrecy agreements. If anyone talked, they would find themself short on friends and favours.
"We'd better be off. Still have to put the finishing touches on the next assignment," Wunno said. "Nando hasn't finished it either."
"I submitted mine a week ago," I said, with just a hint of smugness. I was quite pleased with myself for the cleverness of my work and how promptly I'd completed it.
Ginnn spoke up from behind us. "I'm very impressed with your work on that one, Drift. Some ingenious ideas and your hexwork looks impeccable. You're a regular hexing machine."
My cheeks heated up a little at that praise. Just a little. I didn't look around. "Thanks, Ginnn. Will you be watching the game?"
"The scrycast, yes. I'm afraid I couldn't obtain a ticket. The dome sold out in minutes."
"I'm sorry I can't get you one," I said, turning to address my teacher properly. "We've given out all the team's tickets already to people who helped us out. And you helped me a lot too. You had some very good advice regarding hexwork structure and optimisation."
"The result will be its own reward. And frankly, it's much more comfortable to watch the game away from a crowd. Now, I don't want to keep you away from your team any longer. Off you go, and may the Over Seer watch over your efforts."
"Er, thanks. I'll, uh, make the academy proud."
"I'm sure you will," Ginnn said. I wasn't sure that he completely believed those words. That was probably because I didn't fully believe them myself. I knew we didn't have much chance of coming out of this fight on top.
Hopefully the academy would be proud enough without a win. To that end, I had to hurry home and change into a new outfit.
All throughout the night, visitors had been arriving at Wonambi Central Station by trolley. Casters were working tirelessly to efficiently wrangle everyone into trolley-sized groups as they arrived, while avoiding altercations between the most dedicated rival fans. Some known troublemakers from past years had been identified and turned away. Special care was of course given to the visiting chroma teams, who were escorted by additional casters from thall's home hives. None of Wonambi's casters on duty were chroma players, for obvious reasons.
I had followed all this news via my scryer between lectures, but I would witness the arrival of the last time live and in person. The other five members of Cheesy Goodness were lined up beside me. I could read the anticipation on thall's faces. We weren't in team colours but we were dressed up beyond usual casual wear. I wore a cobalt blue jacket with an uncomfortably high collar, magically printed with black hex symbols. I didn't much care for it, but the rest of the team said it suited me well, and it was comfortably warm. A temporary fence kept us and other onlookers back from the arrival platform so the incoming team couldn't be swarmed. A few guards with aetherstunners watched in case anyone became exceedingly unruly, but we all knew better.
The trolley glided into the station and stopped more smoothly than any steam locomotive I'd ever witnessed. The automated welcome message played and the safety doors opened. A pair of security casters exited first. Sall wore padded uniforms similar to Wonambi's guards, but carried more weapons. One exchanged a few quiet words with the closest of our guards, after which the other gestured to the team in the trolley.
I gasped as a skeleton stepped onto the platform. Many others gasped with me and I looked to either side to gauge the level of surprise. Everyone seemed at least a little surprised. I looked back at the skeleton. Every bone appeared to be bleached so white it was glowing under the station lights, in contrast to the blackness around it. I looked closer at the blackness, then behind the skeleton as it was joined by five more like it. Upon closer examination I realised the blackness formed the silhouette of a jacket and trousers around each skeleton, and a helmet around each skull.
The first skeleton person reached up and removed their helmet, revealing a normal mage head underneath. From the bright red tufts of hair, triangular tattoos, and teeth, I knew this had to be Dead Drop's caster, Crick. Sa spun sa's helmet around sa's skeletal gloved hand, showing the apparent image of the skull inside from all angles to the cheering crowd. The other five members of the team took thall's helmets off too and dedicated the next few minutes posing for photographs.
I analysed the team's expressions as they interacted. Everyone seemed entirely confident and comfortable. Each one knew who they were and that they were entirely capable of everything that was expected of them. None seemed concerned about the impending violent struggle.
My eye roamed back to my counterpart within Dead Drop: the violently violet hexmage, Hexen. A vivid purple stripe crossed he's face diagonally, crossing he's nose and one eye. He's hair had been fashioned into little snakes with beady eyes and bared teeth. I wondered how he could fit such a style under a helmet comfortably. As I pondered the question, I realised he was looking back at me. Before I could decide on any action, he twisted he's purple painted lip into a smirk and winked. A heartbeat later, a hulking demon stepped out of the trolley. The dropbeast.
The dropbeast was roughly based on a stout creature with four clawed limbs, two big fluffy ears atop its round head, a leathery nose, and hardly any tail. Its coat of grey and cream fur was largely obscured by arcane mechanisms and magical paraphernalia. It was almost as tall as a mage, making Liberty look like a child's toy by comparison. I was glad Liberty was at home, as I felt Hexen would be shooting derisive looks at my shoulder if our mascot was resting there. The dropbeast moved slowly and awkwardly, but I knew that was deceptive. Under the chroma dome it would be a serious threat.
Dead Drop waved one last time to thall's fans and strode off to thall's hotel. All thall's gear for the match had already been delivered and secured, and the same had been done for the other teams. As the watching crowd began to disperse, a couple of scrywriters approached us, rapidly firing questions.
"It's a great honour to represent Wonambi, City of Darkness, City of Magic, where the blind fish stares and the water spouts," Skids said instead of answering any specific question. Sa spoke carefully and loud enough to be easily heard over the chatter of the crowd. "We're all ready to put in our best work and make our hive proud. None of the visiting teams will find Cheesy Goodness a simple or easy challenge." Sa paused and the scrywriters and some other onlookers filled the gap with a torrent of loud questions and demands. "Tonight I'm wearing an experimental dress design by Clyff Jur. No further questions, thank you."
With some assistance from the guards, we made our way to Marto's Pizza Den. It wasn't yet the time for celebratory pizza, but Marto let us have the place to ourselves so long as we ordered drinks.
"I think we handled the crowd well," I said. "You especially, Skids."
"Thanks. And thank Swipe and Broth for the public relations lessons," Skids said, nodding to both. "And big thanks to Clyff for the dress, and Drift for helping me pick this one and for the alteration suggestions."
"Clyff did well," I offered. The dress was a daring shade of shimmery red fabric and fell almost to Skids' solid black boots. It had no arms and was held up by shoulder straps, but sa's powerfully muscled arms were mostly hidden by a warm woolen shawl. The colour of the shawl reminded me of the off-red bricks of the Wilison farmhouse. "I think it'll catch on." Actually I had no idea. "I hope it catches on," I amended.
"We'll see," Skids said, rolling sa's shoulders in something between a shrug and a stretch. "Now that I've thrown a bunch of thanks around, we should get down to business. Swipe?"
"The game is tomorrow," Swipe said, as if there was any doubt. "We know our moves. We have some idea of what to expect. We're ready to adapt. Our armour is strong. Our weapons are powerful. I want each of yall to keep your eyes watching for danger, both to yourselves and to one another. Remember, losing a player will lead to defeat even more surely than loss of points. Know what your armour and your body can take, and don't exceed that. Now, has everyone got a drink?"
We all did. Marto's selection wasn't as good as what Rubble Tea offered, but I'd found some decent options. I raised my tub of Diet Speloj, which was an orange flavoured drink high in aetherialites. Skids had a flask of Crystal Bop while the others had Double Carrot Milkshakes.
"To survival and success!" Swipe declared.
We all tapped our various drink containers together. "To survival and success!"
"For Cheesy Goodness!"
"For Cheesy Goodness!" we echoed.
We all exchanged grins and downed our drinks.
Thanks to a clever concoction distributed by Broth, I had a great day's sleep and woke feeling well rested the next night. Without it, I would likely have slept fitfully, plagued by anxiety and anticipation. Skids and Broth joined me in a silent breakfast of a soup-like concoction, also prescribed by Broth to assist our performance on the field. Slink was still in bed, but had a front row ticket to our sector of the stands.
"Whatever happens," Skids said after we stepped out of the house, "I'm really glad we made it this far. I can hardly believe I made it to Rainbow Rage in my very first season of chroma! Thanks for being here with me. A year ago I wouldn't have thought this was possible."
"A year ago I barely had a clue what chroma is," I said. "I had no idea what was going on the first few games I watched. Even with your explanations."
"I'm glad you got the hang of it. We couldn't have come this far without your clever hexing. You've single-handedly made us a formidable team."
I waggled my five flesh fingers. "I sure have. And my real work has hardly begun."
We mounted a trio of aetherscooters and set off for the chroma dome, escorted by guards before and after us. Liberty sat perched on my shoulder, occasionally leaping off to grab a moth, then gliding back to grab my leg and climb back up.
"This would be so much easier if we could just knock everything out with an ABAM," I heard Skids quietly complain as we approached our entry door.
I waited until I'd dismounted to nod in response. "Easy, but probably not as fun. And it would break the scoring mechanisms and the commentary amplifiers."
"Yeah, I know. ABAMs were forbidden in chroma from the very start. Oh well, we've got plenty of tricks up our sleeves."
"You're not even wearing sleeves," I said as we reached our locker room where our weapons and armour awaited. "Aren't you cold?"
"The cold wakes me up," Skids said, and flexed. "And we'll all be very warm before long."
The other half of Cheesy Goodness entered just a minute behind us and we busied ourselves fastening armour plates, tightening straps, and checking aether meters. We tossed a few practice balls back and forth, until Punnt hogged them all for juggling.
"Looks like everything's in place," Scaff said, knocking jur's fist against the seventh, largest conglomeration of armour pieces. This one had no room for a mage inside, just lots of aetherbottles and magical actuators. "The commentators will start calling out the teams in a few minutes. Let's do this."
As one, we pumped armoured fists in the air. "Let's do this!"