Asher pressed in closer to my back. “If you want to be able to make it out there still breathing, I’d keep moving now.”
Calen took the threat seriously, spinning around and hurrying after Rone, Larissa, Jesse, and Axl, who were in front, leading the way.
“I had it handled,” I told Asher.
He smirked. “Never said you didn’t.”
He couldn’t help himself … always trying to save me. He’d sacrificed himself for me one too many times already, and I was trying to break him of that habit.
“Next water ball is for you, Asher,” I warned him.
Fucker didn’t look remotely concerned.
When we were close to the back of the Academy, between the mansion and fey dorms, the field came into sight. It was quite large, and I’d seen lots of sporting events take place out there, only I’d never been interested enough to check them out. “What sports do supernaturals play?” I asked Asher.
“We play a lot of the same sports as humans,” he said, reaching out to link our hands together. He was always touching me, and it threw me off my game every single time. I’d had the occasional boyfriend and lover before, but none who seemed to want to be with me. Wanted to touch me—not like Asher did.
I was greedy for even more.
“But there’s one that’s our main sport, something that requires a mixed team of four, a member from each of the four races.”
This grabbed my attention. “Supernaturals-only sport?” I asked breathlessly. I didn’t learn as many new things after being here for a year, but still, it felt like there was something every day.
Asher nodded. “Yep … SSW.Supernatural Strategy Wars.”
Flickers of rain hit my face as I glanced up at him. Asher quickly erected a small shield above us while we waited for the larger one. Exactly what I was saying about magic. No one flinched using it in small amounts outside of classes.
“So how does this SSW work?” I asked him.
“There are teams of four,” Axl said, and I jumped, because I hadn’t realized he was behind me. “One from each of the races has to be represented, even if it’s mixed race.”
“It’s a lot like paintball,” Rone added, crossing his arms and looking around with disdain at all the students close to us, “where you have a magical artifact that you’re protecting, and you can use magic and spells to try and take the other team out. But the spells are limited to the few that will immobilize whoever you hit for no longer than twenty seconds.”
I shook my head. “But vampires and shifters can’t really use magic?”
Jesse’s face was lit up, and I was starting to see that the guys were actually pretty into this sport. I wondered why they hadn’t played last year. “There are different positions. The fey is generally the shield, the magic user is the one who usually shoots the other team with spells, while the vampire is the runner. The runner and the shield are the ones aiming to grab the artifact, while the other two are the attack. Shifter and magic user work together to take down the team. If you’re hit by a spell, you’ll be out for up to twenty seconds, leaving your team short.”
“Is the artefact hidden?” I couldn’t quite picture it in my head, but I also hadn’t played paintball before.
“It’s not hidden.” Asher shook his head. “But the magic user is allowed to use spells to protect it. So you have to be careful about what you’re going to face.”
“It’s a race between trying to protect your own artefact and going after theirs straight away before they lay too many spells.”
Larissa laughed, crossing her arms. “It gets pretty heated out there, and obviously the stronger your skills in your race are, the better your team will be.”
I could only imagine. “Is that what we’ll play today?” Her dad often gives her inside information, and since this was a new class…
“Shield’s going up!” someone shouted from nearby before she could answer. “All magic users report for duty.”
That was me, and I wondered if it was a smart idea or not to put my power out there on an open stage like this. I still didn’t have the best control over it, and my worst fear was accidentally hurting someone because I couldn’t handle my own power. I didn’t like not pulling my weight though, so I quickly crossed with Asher, Axl, and Calen, and stood in the huge group of magic users. The four races were pretty evenly spread across the students, but it seemed that magic users had slightly higher numbers.
“UseShinsense,” the same deep voice added. “First years need not help. On my count…”
I’d erected a shield using this word last year, when I’d almost been crushed by an undersea waterfall. It had worked then, so hopefully it would work now.
“Surely they don’t need hundreds of magic users for this?” I said, looking around as we all prepared.
“It’s a unity thing,” Asher added right as the deep voice started his count.
