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Of Arms and Arcane: Chapter 149
🕑 Added 2024-10-12 08:44:16 +0000 UTCThe next day, I went with Dave and Sam to watch their Archery event. While I went to the stands to watch, they were ushered to a holding area.
Before the contestants came out, the announcer explained the challenges the contestants had to take part in.
First, was the stationary targets where there would be different targets at 10, 25, and 50 meters, the contestants would be given one minute to shoot as many arrows as they could, and depending on the target they hit, they would be awarded points. Naturally, the further the target, the more points awarded.
The second challenge was moving targets at the same distance as the first challenge with the same time limit and point system.
The last challenge was an obstacle course challenge, the same mages that created the ruins I fought in the Melee Battles event, would create a yet-to-be-revealed terrain and scenario that the contestant had to go through and shoot targets along the way, but unlike the other challenges, this time, the points awarded would be calculated by how fast the contestant completes the obstacle.
Soon, the competitors were called out and lined up before the king to perform the usual greeting and formality of getting permission from the king to start the event. All of them had their bows slung on their shoulder, most of them looked like the standard longbow used by the kingdom, but downsized for 12-year-olds, while a few had different styles of short bows, they may even be compound bows, but I was too far away to really tell.
That was when I noticed that the number of commoners participating in Archery greatly outnumbered the noble contestants. I guess was only natural to be so, nobles take archery as a hobby, while commoners take archery as a way to feed and defend their families and themselves.
After the formalities were done with, the first batch of contestants were led to multiple range lanes where their targets were ready for them.
As the different contestants came and shot at their targets, I noticed quite a few different archery styles, the most common style was drawing arrows directly from the quiver at their hips, some of them held a few arrows with a finger on the hand holding the bow to cut down time of reaching for an arrow, while others held a few extra arrows in their drawing hand for the same reason.
Soon enough it was Dave and Sam’s turn to have a go at the stationary targets. As they raised their bows, it was obvious to everyone that their approach to scoring points differed. While Dave held a longbow that could easily reach the furthest target, Sam was using a short bow, which meant he was most likely going for the 10 and 25meter targets, but the difference was that on average, short bow users had a faster rate of fire, so it was the classic case of quality vs quantity.
The moment the signal was given, all the competitors on all the lanes started plucking away at their bows and filling targets with arrows. As Dave and Sam were shooting away with respectable speed and precision, they had the misfortune of being in the same batch as one of the few elves students in the academy.
That elf had his own custom bow that looked like it was not carved into shape, but grown into shape, and he was firing arrows faster than any of the short bow users, all accurately hitting the furthest target.
When the moving target segment came around, the few elves that joined the Archery event were just as domineering.
After the moving target segment, a short break was called while the mages reshaped the terrain for the obstacle. When the mages were done, instead of the ruins I fought in, it looked like a city street with two-story shophouses, minus the glass windows of course, no point wasting good glass.
As for the targets in the obstacle, they were placed on roofs, in the building windows, and on the streets behind partial cover.
When the setup was done, the contestants were let back in as the announcer described the obstacles, objectives, and number of man-shaped targets there were in the obstacle, and for every target they hit, time would be deducted from their overall time, as for every target they missed out, an equal amount of time would be added on to their overall time.
Soon enough, the obstacle segment started. As the contestants started negotiating the obstacle it displayed the contestants’ true mastery of the bow, as they cleared the street like modern soldiers from my world did, most of them had to stop to draw, aim, and shoot, while the few who were truly versed with their bow could shoot while running, or at least slowing down to a jog.
They also displayed different strategies to get the lowest timing they could. Some tried to hit all the targets to cut down their overall time, while others tried to speedrun the whole obstacle while only picking out the targets that could be easily hit.
Dave and Sam performed better than most as they were at least able to maintain a jogging pace while shooting their targets, even some of the out-of-the-way ones that required spending a few seconds to get to an elevated position to see the target.
As for the elves, they were practically showboating, they took off at a sprint, yet they could accurately hit all the targets while maintaining their sprinting speed. As for the out-of-the-way targets, one of them was even skilled enough to make his arrow curve over cover to hit the target.
When the Archery event was over, it was no surprise that of the top five, four of them were elves, and a bunny beastfolk was in fifth. As for Dave and Sam, out of eighty-plus contestants, they managed to secure 15th and 12th place respectively.
Not bad, not bad at all.
After the event was over, me and the boys decided to eat out somewhere we could trust would give us the shits, it would not do for me to feel like shit (pun intended) at tomorrow’s Spellcasting Duels, I wonder if there is a spell that makes my opponent incontinent… Hehe, I could just imagine myself shouting “I cast… Brown Pants!”
After that, I went back to the academy and booked a training room for me to practice my casting speed for tomorrow’s event.
***
The next day, I was back at The Arena’s holding room for the Spellcasting Duels contestants, and I felt I was looking very out of place. While others were wearing their uniform, I was one of the few who were still wearing armor more suited for melee combat.
We were all given the same bracelet that would deploy a mana shield when we got ‘killed’ before the tournament staff got on stage to explain the rules of the Spellcasting Duels.
