"Crap, it looks like I'm up," I said.

"Don't worry about us, rock brain," Daniela said, already looking a much more natural shade of red than before. "It's hardly a dangerous environment we are in right now. We've pushed our limits in worse situations."

Sure, but not while a whole crowd watches, with some unknown Tendril asking around about us and people on the other teams trying to nudge us to fail. I couldn't be sure, but considering there was no real wind to speak of flowing through the road... the gust that had forced Daniela's hand was likely magically created. I was also fairly certain the attempted sabotage on Sam's wrangle hadn't been an 'accident' either. I was fairly confident the Zebelos weren't trying to sweep the rug out from under us, but the other factions were up in the air. Especially the Breakers and the Clansmen.

"Sure. Just get yourselves back up to shape. We still have a group event ahead of us, you hothead." Of course, I didn't exactly voice that; Daniela was liable to fly off the handle. And even if I was inclined to let her, she might hurt herself in the process. There was something to be said about the mutually assured destruction balance that the Factions had formed, especially when considering an Aberrant was involved.

The brunette kicked me in the shin, wincing at her toes, before leveling a glare at me. Shaking my head, I followed the other competitors to where the target range had been replaced with a clear spot of earth and a trio of long stone hexagons. Some twenty paces away, a line was marked in the millings. I caught the eyes of Horace, who'd apparently deigned to contend with me for this event himself, and the giant sneered. The two of us towered over the arrangement of orcs and dwarves the other Factions had sent as their competitors.

"Impressive showing," the man whispered. Instead of answering, I merely grunted in response. "Don't expect that to last. Your cheap tricks will only take you so far in this fight."

"Last I checked we were doing a sport," I said, doing my best to keep my eyes locked on the judges as they approached.

"If that is what you believe, then I do not look forward to you wasting our time," Horace huffed, widening his stance and looking away from me.

I clenched my hands behind my back so hard that my wrist bones let out a loud pop. The other competitors looked distinctly uncomfortable with the exchange, particularly the orc I recognized as Cash from that very first meeting with the Cloth Muscles. Of course, the man wasn't wearing his signature robe, but he was sending me concerned glances. I gave him what I hoped was a reassuring nod before focusing on the judges. It was all I could do to keep from eyeballing the ripples telling me exactly where the Clansmen's leader stood.

"I appreciate your quick approach ladies and gents," the head judge said by way of introduction. "As I've told your other competitors, my name is Harvey and we will be cataloging your results for this Parade. We are each selected from one of the factions for the sake of impartiality, but if you have any complaints please feel free to reach out to us or the administration committee. Let's all have a smooth and clean event."

He clapped his hands, a disproportionate amount of wind rustling our clothes as he drew our attention. "Now, I am sure you are all familiar with the event but I am required to clarify it. Considering we have a few first timers, I don't want any blunders if a minute can be taken to clear them away. This is the Pillar Toss, a modified version of the Old World's Caber Toss. The principle effort of flipping the pillar, which replaces the caber, is still the same. However, we've added a few modifications to account for the more... physically superior abilities of the Fallen while also simplifying the scoring effort.

"There are three sizes of pillar, each heavier than the last. You will get a chance to feel test the weights before you select one to toss. The weights give a flat point amount if you can lift them of two, four and six, which isn't enough to offset a good set of tosses but can help, so keep that in mind. You will hoist the pillars, move in whatever fashion you'd like to the toss line and then flip the pillar forward. Should the pillar not complete a full rotation, you will get no points for that toss. If it does tip forward, your points will be based on the orientation on which it lands relative to the hours of a clock. I'm sure I don't need to bring one out to explain the idea?"

When the man received a series of head shakes, he continued. It was impressive how flat he could keep his delivery, though I supposed it was likely not the first time he'd given the spiel. "Twelve O'clock gives four points, with a one point decrease for each hour forward or backwards. The determining hour is always rounded down. You will have four tosses, with your worst being thrown out. Understood?"

A round of nods responded, which prompted the man to clap his hands again, loudly. I noticed a slight wisp of grey coalesce a spell chain around his mouth as soon as the motion was complete and he spoke quietly to seemingly nothing. Suspicious in its coincidence, Radolfo picked back up on his commentating as the judges led us to the three pillars for the event. I wasn't going to say they weren't daunting.

Despite all my work out efforts, I rated the toss-ability of the hunks of rock at close to nil. The first was just as tall as I was and at least a half foot thick. The second didn't pull any punches, and stretched just as far but was a full foot in width. The third wasn't even worth mentioning, as it was still that foot thick, but also closer to nine feet in length. There were some indentations formed at the 'base' of the pillars to help with gripping them, but it didn't simplify the effort of tossing them at all. If my mental model of weights for stone was right, then the first was somewhere in the three hundred pound range, the second in the high five hundred and the last nearly seven hundred. Lifting wouldn't be the problem, but tossing... The response from vibro seemed to agree they were some dense bricks.

I glanced at my Status out of the corner of my eye, crossing my fingers that my training had been enough to at least not embarrass me.

Subject: Ronan Terrigan

Health: 100% (Unafflicted)

Mana: 100%

Metier Quotient: 6 (51.25%)

Dreg Accumulation: 0%

LPS: Wildwood Bunker, FL

Communications

Party

Skills - (1) Selections Available

Traits - (0% Banked)

Attributes - Growth Quantified

Skills:

Offensive

- / /

-

Defensive

- / /

-

Misc

-

-

-

-

Traits:

Limestone Skin (36%) > (66 [8]%)

Quake Osseum (Tremor Frame)

Slurry Ichor (8%)

Harmonic Sinew (31%)

Attributes:

Strength: 2.26 > 2.28

Mobility: 1.71 > 1.70

Perception: 2.40

Refinement: 1.69 > 1.70

Containment: 2.53

Out of our group, mine was the least... practical of the events. Sure it required that I leveraged my prodigious Strength Attribute that had eclipsed everyone else’s, but that was about it. There were few combat applications to trying to flip your opponent at least in my experience. Nevertheless, someone had to compete so I had to bite the bullet.

With as much order as a bunch of burly competitors could manage, I lined up behind Cash somewhere in the middle of the group. Horace, of course, was at the front and he didn't bother with the lighter pillars, hoisting the heaviest one. Surprisingly, or perhaps intentionally since he glanced at me after setting down the heavy one, he moved back one size to line up in front of the middle weight. And so the others proceeded to select the pillar in similar fashion, testing a heavier weight before moving down one.

Before Cash moved to select his, he whispered over his shoulder. "It's all in the wrist. Don't let it get caught on the grooves."

The orc didn't turn back around, heading to the third weight and lifting it with some effort before lining up behind the middle weight. I kept my eye on him, watching his form and how it let him handle the slightly out of scope weight. I bent my Perception to his effort as much as I could.

Before taking my own turn, I dropped Fievil down and dismissed my completely. As the grains of sand flowed off me and the axe-hammer let out a dull thud I felt most of the competitors sharpen their gaze on me. Just like Horace had done, I bent and gripped the heaviest pillar. I took a few quick breaths before a deep one and lifted. Compared to lifting Gec's sliver it was light but my muscles strained not to wobble in place before I set the pillar back down. I safely confirmed the toss was squarely out of my safe zone and my gauge for weights was nigh spot on.

"We will begin the event. You will all cycle through to give you a brief rest between each toss. Remember, only one will be ignored," the judge said, waving Horace forward.

The giant strode forward confidently, squatting as one of the assistants in the field helped bring the pillar upright. The man placed his hands, wrists clasped, under the pillar before standing. The pillar was cradled precariously between his head and his shoulder for only a moment before he took off running.

Despite how the man had been grating on me, I took deep mental notes of his process. It was a testament to his Strength and Mobility that each step was sure as he sunk an inch or two into the earth. Before he'd even reached the line, he'd coiled up into a half squat. The momentum of his run started the pillar tipping forward before he exploded up and forward with a burst of grey-brown mana.

The pillar did one perfect twirl without touching the ground and landed perfectly parallel to the ground. Its impact threw up a small puff of dirt and vibrations rippled through the ground making me doubly aware of how perfect of a toss that had been.

There was cheering from the audience and polite clapping from the other competitors as the man joined the back of the line with a smug grin on his face. I did my best to ignore him, focusing on how everyone else performed instead, especially Cash. While the run up seemed to be made easier by the hand grooves, the orc had been right that it was a double edged sword. The two people that followed Horace clipped the pillar as they tossed it, causing them to drift off to either side of a perfect toss.

The orc himself, while not as clean as Horace, put just enough energy into his toss to get it to flip and then topple into the four-point range. His mana had crawled up his back as a pair of fiery hands that seemed to support his own back like a tripod while he ran with his pillar. It was a somewhat strange use of that type of Gift than what I'd seen, but I couldn't argue its effectiveness.

Cash gave me a nod as he walked back and a pair of assistants toted the pillar back into position in front of me. I dried the sweat off in my hands on my cargos before bending to receive the pillar. I breathed deep as I kept my back as straight as possible while standing.

All in the wrist, huh... The thought lingered as I meshed what I'd seen with the lifting practice of the last few days and the myriad times I'd used my Strength to hit-bad-guy-real-good. I visualized the spider that took Daniela, or using every fiber of my being to dodge Galloway's attacks, or fighting the gator elites of Lake Weir. Then I ran forward.

My chest swelled with each breath and my long strides had me at the line before I expected. Fumbling the timing, I skidded hard on the gravel as I tried to redirect my momentum into the pillar. Sure enough, it transferred. However, the spin was more turned into a stab and the pillar sailed forward before digging a groove into the earth twice as long as itself. The judges looked impressed with how critical my failure had been and none of them reacted for a moment. My ears grew hot, even more so when Horace howled with laughter. The giant was quickly followed by the crowd, and it took everything I had to walk back in line without flinching as the assistants reset the competition field.

Cash's encouraging look of pity almost made things worse, but I tried to get out of my own head. I'd been working at a deficit since the beginning, it just meant I had to clutch the next three tosses for the win. Despite my embarrassment, I tossed away the distraction of the crowd and doubled down on watching not just Horace and Cash but everyone else in the event. The posture was different, the way they hiked the weight up into the resting position and the way they balanced before taking off running towards the line. I didn't have the luxury of multiple repetitions to refine my form, but I did have Slurry Ichor to help lock me into place and my vibrosense so that I didn't make a fool of myself... again.

So, on my second run I repeated my balance process and took measured strides forward as I breathed through the toss like I'd seen Horace do. This time the flip was on point, but sure enough my arms had clipped it on the way up, throwing off the weight to one side and netting me a two. For my third toss I was able to bring that into a three pointer, getting a grumble from Horace as I matched his own toss on the low end of range.

Unfortunately, just like the other competitors, I was starting to feel the burn in my muscles despite our high Strengths. The relatively short minutes between each toss didn't leave much time for our bodies to recover. To make matters worse, I did the math. Horace was solidly in the lead with an almost perfect score for his tosses. Close behind him was an Earth Tendril and Cash tied with him for second place. I didn't know what served as a tie breaker, but I didn't like my odds of placing either way.

As if to rub in his lead and score, for his fourth toss Horace chose to move down a weight just to get full points even as his scrapped one. Most everyone but Cash, the Tendril and I had swapped for the smaller pillar by their third throw. Cash and the Tendril were trash talking each other, butting heads in their clamor for second place while I'd already been taken out of contention. I wasn't a particularly vain person, but after the blunder of my first toss and the silent beratement from the Clansmen leader I was feeling the little Daniela in the back of my mind revving up. So, with nothing to lose but more of my already-wounded pride, when it was my turn at the toss I left the middle weight behind and motioned the assistants towards the heavy pillar.

Murmurs seemed to go through the crowd as people ran the same numbers I had. With the extra points from the heavy pillar, if I got the toss perfect, I would be able to tie Horace. Clearly, the man in question didn't like the possibility which just solidified my decision.

"You may be a large man, Terrigan, but I didn't realize you were too big for your own breeches!" Horace hollered.

The judge glared at the giant before turning to me. "Are you certain? It is still possible for you to place if you do get a good toss with the medium pillar."

"No risk, no reward," I huffed, cracking my neck and giving the man a nod in confirmation.

"And here I thought that mentality died with the old world," the head judge said, shaking his head. "Very well, let him at it."

The assistants didn't waste time hoisting the final pillar up. With it towering over me, I felt some of my confidence slip before I was able to slap some sense into it. Tie or no tie, I wanted a successful toss at the very least.

I squatted low, taking several deep breaths as I slipped my fingers into the hand slots. When they were snug, I tensed my body with the intent of locking my two hands with the help of my Slurry Ichor. Keeping my grip no higher than waist level, I leveraged the hexagonal hunk of rock to my shoulder. Immediately I could feel the difference in weight as my feet sunk a good inch into the gravel and my back protested the effort. The rest of my musculature protested too, but my back was screaming for relief that I instead smothered with the help of my Trait. I'm going to need some healing after this.

Grimacing against the effort of my own blood hardening my muscles, I started to power walk. I was so concentrated on going forward I even forgot to breathe and darkness crept into the edges of my vision. Some Affliction or another popped up on my Status, but I ignored it as I got two steps from the mark on the road. Praying for all I was worth that my knees had enough springiness built into them from my Harmonic Sinew, I dropped into a half lunge. It wasn't a premeditated action, it was simply because I didn't know how I was going to transfer my momentum and slow myself at the same time.

My right foot ground the earth as I stopped inches from the line and the pillar started to tip. In a herculean effort, I jumped out of my lunge. My left thigh clamped up, but thankfully it had performed its function. I puffed my chest forward, hoping to impart just that bit more spin on the pillar as it left my hands. Cleanly. As oxygen reentered my body, the tunnel vision receded and I got the pleasure of watching my pillar stick the landing near vertically. I watched with vibro and my own two peepers as the gravel shifted and the pillar started to tip away from me. Once more holding my breath, I leaned closer as if it would urge the thing to fall how I wanted it. Alas, it wasn't enough.

While the pillar did in fact tip in the right direction, the edges of the hexagon hadn't been in my favor. With a decisive quarter shift to the right as the base settled on the path of least resistance, the pillar landed dead on the 1 O' Clock position. The ripples of its orientation washed over me as I slumped to a knee and shook my head.