Chapter 60: The Vote is Cast

Chapter 60: The Vote is Cast Among Ember City’s eight current leaders, the High Priest never took part in votes. Only half-elf Guard Captain-General Constance had yet to cast her ballot. Sabina and Yade both got splitting headaches at the same time—this was one ’ice-cold’ woman who couldn’t be bought! With everyone’s eyes glued to her, Constance thought it over briefly and ’casually’ glanced at her star subordinate Iris not far away. Her star subordinate’s little brother, and according to Iris, he thought the world of her—the answer was pretty much a no-brainer. Constance raised her left hand. 4:3! Case closed! "You lost!" Sabina gently waved the alchemical cards in her hand, lifting her chin and looking down on the Disciplinarian like a blooming rose, classy and cocky. "..." Disciplinarian Yade took a long, deep breath and turned his stone-faced mug away from Sabina’s smirking gaze. Unfortunately, he then caught the hopeful looks from Covert Operations Chief Warner and Warden Clementine reminding him about their payoff, making his heart bleed over and over. "Alright, the vote’s done and dusted. The young man’s actions are ruled completely above board! Everyone, please get back to enjoying these kids’ hard work." High Priest Aulina wrapped things up, putting this topic to bed. All the leaders went back to business as usual and kept watching the competition. On the surface, this was a leadership voting mess sparked by Carlos. In reality, this was a knockdown drag-out between two major leadership factions, with Carlos just caught in the crossfire. After this vote, High Priest Aulina’s heart grew even heavier with worry. She felt like her time to join the Sacred Fire was getting closer by the day. When that time came, who could take her place in keeping the leadership from tearing each other apart? Constance? She’d always been a lone wolf. Sabina and Yade mixed like oil and water. The others all had their own baggage and wouldn’t bend the knee to each other... The more she chewed on it, the more the High Priest’s stomach turned... ... Inside the maze, hearing the whoosh of air from above, plenty of contestants looked up. Then they spotted Carlos with wings sprouting from his back, cruising overhead like he owned the place. "Is that a referee?" Someone guessed, then immediately a nearby contestant looked like he’d seen a ghost. "What referee! That’s clearly Carlos from the Valois family!" Other contestants couldn’t wrap their heads around it and smacked their own faces. "He can actually fly? You’re allowed to fly in this maze?" Most were hopping mad, bellowing at the sky: "This is straight-up cheating! How the heck can he fly?!" "Referee! This isn’t a fair fight!" Tons of contestants pointed at Carlos cruising leisurely through the sky, raising holy hell. The referees declared with straight faces: "Talking to referees during competition is against the rules!" "I *** you *** him ***" Contestants let loose with the colorful language, then... "I was wrong! I’ll play fair now!" After getting their clocks cleaned, they honestly got back to competing. After schooling these contestants, the referees were scratching their heads too—did the leadership really give this the thumbs up as rule-kosher? Yep, if the leadership kept their mouths shut, it meant they’d already bought into Carlos’s actions being squeaky clean. Without marching orders, the referees naturally wouldn’t stick their necks out. ... Up in the air, Carlos looked down below. Contestants were busting their humps trying to find exits in the maze—some constantly running into brick walls, some nearly getting their tickets punched by monsters, some getting ditched by backstabbing teammates in their groups, and very few making steady progress and closing in on maze exits. "I deliberately flew slow to give the leadership plenty of time to throw a fit. Since nobody’s tried to ground me so far, it means they’ve given this method the silent treatment stamp of approval." Carlos felt a huge weight lift off his shoulders. His wings beat as he fired up storm power, instantly becoming a streak of crimson-gold lightning in rapid flight. In no time flat, he’d blown past the first-string contestants who were slugging it out through the maze. "What a load of bull! Talk about shameless!" Little Giant Leo watched the golden streak vanishing on the horizon and let the curse words fly. He happened to kick a rock into the wall, rolled his eyes, and got a bright idea. "If flying’s fair game, then me busting through walls and charging straight ahead should definitely pass muster too!" After thinking it through, without wasting another second, Little Giant Leo roared as his body ballooned to twice its size, muscles popping out like basketballs. Then, under the referee’s ’are-you-kidding-me’ stare, he fired up ’Savage Charge’ and went straight for the towering stone wall ahead! "Boom!" After a thunderous impact, the tall stone wall didn’t budge a hair without leaving so much as a scratch. "?" Little Giant Leo refused to throw in the towel and kept hammering away with ’Savage Charge.’ "Boom! Boom! Boom!" Impact sounds kept ringing out as Little Giant Leo crashed until his face looked like hamburger, grimacing and roaring: "How can it be so blasted hard!!!" The referee behind him watched without a word, thinking that when they built this maze, of course they’d plan for knuckleheads trying to smash their way through. ... Little Giant Leo’s wall-bashing stunt was just one of many harebrained schemes contestants eagerly tried. Fired up by Carlos’s flying shortcut, contestants suddenly got creative. Why honestly follow the organizers’ intended maze route? Wouldn’t it be enough to just make it to the exit? Those trying to bust walls, trying to dig tunnels, trying to scale walls, trying to grease the referees’ palms to help them pass... With all kinds of wild and wacky methods, hardly any contestants stuck to the normal maze exploration route. This made the crowd go absolutely nuts: "Hot diggity! So this is the real challenge of the maze round! Using every trick in the book to get through with everything you’ve got!" "Folks taking the straight and narrow don’t have a prayer of passing! Only those who throw everything they’ve got—brains and brawn—can be one of the four who make it!" "Well, I’ll be! Little Carlos was the first to crack the code—absolutely incredible!" "Which genius cooked up this round? Pure brilliance!" "..." The leadership on the viewing platform looked at each other after hearing the crowd’s gushing praise. Sabina stuck her nose even higher in the air, straightened her slender back even more, with confidence through the roof. "Listen to these folks singing our praises. I wonder what certain naysayers are thinking now?" Warden Clementine and Covert Operations Chief Warner couldn’t help letting their minds wander, acting like they had nothing to do with this whole mess. This left only Disciplinarian Yade to face Sabina’s needling. He stayed poker-faced, like a statue, not moving a muscle—clearly not having the guts to shoot back. Sabina was over the moon, half-covering her red lips as she laughed: "Ha! What a riot of a competition!" Her sweet laughter was dripping with winner’s swagger. Disciplinarian Yade acted like he couldn’t hear Sabina’s victory lap laughter, showing zilch reaction to the trash talk. To anyone watching, he looked completely wrapped up in the competition below, couldn’t care less about anything else. "Look, that young man’s about to hit Exit #1." High Priest Aulina spoke up at just the right moment, getting everyone’s attention back where it belonged. "Fallen Flame Tigers are real thorns in the side for these youngsters. What do you think this kid will pull?" Raskin picked up on the High Priest’s cue, stroking his big beard: "Nine times out of ten, he’ll send out skeleton soldiers to keep the Fallen Flame Tiger busy, then take his shot at flying to the exit and getting through!" This game plan sounded pretty solid. Marcellus and the others nodded like bobbleheads, and Sabina thought it made perfect sense too. "Nope, he’s going to put that Fallen Flame Tiger six feet under." The previously quiet Disciplinarian Yade suddenly piped up. His eyes showed respect, because from this kid’s stare, he saw cool as a cucumber composure, street smarts, guts, and most importantly, stone-cold killer instinct!