[hr][hr][img]https://i.imgur.com/ZIth3mU.png[/img][hr][hr][color=B0E0E6][h1]The Dragon: The Dragonspine[/h1]
They were welcomed by howling winds, crunching mud, and whipping cold, but also by warmth. As the desert racers bundled through the portal, they were quickly wrapped in warm quilts and provided with hot cider, waterproof boot-covers, and all of the hospitality that this distant corner of Eskand could muster. If the land was poor in wealth and luxuries, it was rich in spirit and conduct.

Their arrival caught some by surprise. It was easy to retreat into a comfortable haze of quilts, cider, and conversation, but those who knew this place and understood the nature of the competition recognized the importance of staying limber and acclimating. Those who started ‘cold’ started better. 

Quickly, an invigorating hike turned into an exhausting slog. A shallow incline turned into a steep one and, even further, into a perilous vertical. Powerful gusting winds whipped snow into the climbers’ faces and picks dug into rock and ice alike for purchase. Great white dragons circled overhead, a looming threat, and treacherous fissures promised a quick and painful fall or else cruel and opportunistic creatures that lurked unseen. Before long, sparse shrubs and mosses gave way to hardy lichens. In turn, these submitted to bald rock.

Yet, this was not an exercise so cut and dried as those that had come before it. While all competitors were given a wooden board, rope with grappling hook, and set of picks, they were not forbidden from bringing equipment of their own. Ashon of VOID-Crusaders came with his Dervish gear. Ghaven of You Could Never-Shortlisted wore his runic items with pride and purpose. Ingrid and Sven, both Eskandish, had their own gear to supplement what they’d been provided. Perhaps the strangest and most novel, though, was Trypano Somia and Chimalpepech of Xicallicaotl-Gunboat Diplomats. They came with… more or less a bobsled and a great deal of Kinetic Gift to use.

There were some, such as the Hegelan, Ghaven, antigravity mage Ashon, and mana-enhanced powerhouse Augusto who were never [i]not[/i] going to thrive. The discovery of helpful items along the way certainly did not hurt the chances of many of these frontrunners and their partners. Yet there were those who suffered. Some fifty racers would have fallen to their deaths were it not for the intervention of local safety crews. For all of its speed, the bobsled nearly crashed multiple times due to sabotage and the naturally-occurring fissures. Summit pegs were hidden and frozen to the ground, ropes were cut, and avalanches were started. Were it not for the Gift, the majority of teams would not have had so much as a hope of completing the challenge. Indeed, some did not even appear particularly interested in doing so, so ardent was their search for treasures. Sven Bjornsson, both competitor and local, came away with the egg of a Grand Mountain Serpent, abandoned in a hollow just off-course by its mother. Rope dragons attacked these explorers almost at will, but even those who stayed on course were not immune to their attentions. The beasts had to be fought off by staff and students alike.

It was not these that caused the single greatest calamity, however. That distinction lay with Benedetto Corvi of Lucky Seven-Sea People. Harassed by a juvenile Tyrannus Monsigneus, he took the dragon on in single combat and slew it upon the mountain, rendering a large section of the course near-impassable for some time. 

The leaders were already ahead, however. Hopped up on a series of boons, adrenaline, and natural abilities, they clambered, skied, or slid down the mountainside with varying degrees of grace and competence, some - like near-local Ingrid Penderson of Snaked and Afraid-Vyshta’s Favoured - treating the massive ski jump as an experience. 

When all was said and done, however, it was You Could Never-Shortlisted who once again crossed the line first. Lucky Seven-Sea People lost further ground, Xicallicoatl-Gunboat Diplomats gained, and the racers plunged through their third portal with some hopes waxing while others waned.

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[hider=Submitted Strategies][h2]Zeno Afraval: Augusto & Ghaven[/h2]
Augusto: 4, Ghaven: 1
Notes: God tier power and magics that can boost speed and keep him warm plus full speed ahead, temperature manipulation, and Hegelan OP climbing should equal a high finish. Augusto will use illusory magic on the dragons and on other teams liberally, and both will hit the summit with heat beams, melting sections of the snow and making the pegs easy to find. They’ll freeze things in their wake, making the ground slippery and the pegs hard to dig out. Augusto is putting 4 into search in the hope that he won’t be slowed too much and may sneak a major boost as well as protecting Ghaven from sabotage. Hegelans are pretty hardy and resistant to tampering, though, and nimble when climbing. 

[hr][hr][h2]Zeno Colloy: Ashon & Veesah[/h2]
Jamboi & Memaru from Coastal Crusaders on the Dragonspine.
Jamboi carries Memaru. Dressed up warm, sharing same overcoat. Koala-bear hugged to his back, sharing the warmth..

Treasure Searching: Jamboi - 1/10, Memaru *special*/10. (5)
Both working together. He is going to concentrate on speed, carrying her. She the spotter, powergazer, locates hidden dangers/dragons/sabotage/boons. Help direct him. Jamboi for first in race, Memaru second. New trial record.

Notes:
Jamboi is antigravity mage. He broken in this race. He could have sprinted up the side.
Jamboi is Dervisher trained. He will be Attack-on-Titan ODM gear with those hooks. Keep balance and pull on forwards. Hooks/rope are for safety reasons, doesn’t need them.
With Memaru, he monkey-climbing (4-limbs) up the wall instead, still very fast relatively.
Memaru prepared concoctions for trial. Speciality strengthens bodies. She is an internal chemical mage, maintaining their peak performances. She will indirectly sabotage others by making clouds with chemical magic to obscure sight and various obstacles, all within the trial rules to slow others. Creating distance.

Gravity: What gravity?
Cold: No issue, see preparation.
Wind: He will shoot hooks out to stabilise himself. Try to get cover where possible.
Dragons: Powergazer Memaru can spot these and inform Jamboi, natural evader.
Vertical Sections: The guy spoke to Marbrand whilst standing upon a wall. No issue.
Off-White Pegs: Memaru can help spot or make it easier. Use chemical, red salt to melt snow/ice draining away, leaving reddish peg.
Ski-Jump: This is a Jamboi we are talking about.
Counter-Sabotage: Speed is key, get ahead, slowing down others.Evading traps and dangers. Powergazer as blind sight for anything obscuring or hidden.

[hr][hr][h2]Zeno Moonlight: Ingrid & Chad[/h2]
Search 6

The challenges that come from mountain climb are endurance, climbing skills, freezing, and dragons. Ingrid has experience with Eskandish mountain climbing making her an asset for the climb. Her physical strength is easily made up for with her skill in kinetic and High RAS. Ingrid has shown exceptional use of Ipte-Zept’s Blessing in the Melon Derby making her ability to keep herself and her partner warm easily. Killing the dragons would be easy but her new mindset would have her leaning to stun or move dragons away from her. On top of all this, Ingrid believes that due to the sparse heat available in the mountains, Ingrid believes that most students will try to grab from the lava immediately and will overdraw, causing a shortage of heat. Ingrid and Chad are uniquely capable of handling this with their dual approach to Atomic, Chad gets an infinity loop going with magnetic, and Ingrid draws and converts it into heat for them and other applications. Leading to where the sparse energy region is specifically not as dangerous for them.

Chad's physical strength and build of a yasoi make him particularly gifted in climbing and would be able to make full use of Ingrid's knowledge. His gift in magnetic will let him shoot the pegs high up and connect them with ease when paired with Ingrid's kinetic. his athleticism and talent for combat makes him valuable for defending against aggressors. Chad and Ingrid plan on carrying the pegs down and skating down the slope on some planks.

For sabotages, they will use their high RAS to drain energy sources before others can use it. Chad and Ingrid have methods for undoing pegs before they make contact. Other than small things they plan on running a clean race.

[hr][hr][h2]Zeno Mozaru: Trypano & Chimalpepech[/h2]
Firstly, Trypano will be putting a one in terms of how much effort they'll be putting into searching for treasures for reasons that'll be outlined further down the strategy.

For Trypano's strategy what she'll do is create a sort of roofed sled made of sand-wyrm bone, sort of in the shape of it's skull. It will have a rigid transparent membrane covering the view slots that are similar to it's eyes coating, allowing it's occupants to see while maintaining a sealed interior that Trypano will fill with air regularly. The interior walls will be padded with Gift of The Frog and have handles on the floor to hold onto. Once made she will shrink this vessel down and carry it with her into the race proper. For the actual race Trypano and her partner Chimalpepech will get inside this sled at which point Trypano will create a groove up along the face of the mountain and her partner will use kinetics to accelerate them up it. Trypano will be using Gift of The Serpent to feed the wealth of magic she's drawing to her driver so they can go even faster. The normal issues of flying will be circumvented thanks to the groove keeping them tight up against the mountain, difficult for dragons to get at. At the top Trypano will use her senses to locate the off-white pegs. If they're not resistant to magic she'll draw apart the others to prevent any other teams from completing this stage. If they are she'll refrain from tampering and just move on. Either which way when she has collected the peg from the summit she will sled down the mountain, her partner navigating the sled while Trypano draws apart obstacles in their path. They'll go for the ski jump at the end since with the kineticist on board it'll make crossing the ice lake a breeze.

Trypano's not gonna be searching for treasures since she'll only be breaking for the peg on her magic-powered dragon-bone rocket sled.

[hr][hr][h2]Zeno Secto: Sven & Revan[/h2]
Sven: 7, Revan: 6
Atomic and Chemical to keep warm, hope to find some good stuff, and use size, BIG RAS, familiarity, and natural climbing ability to do well. As a Beastmaster, Sven will calm dragons and attempt to ally with some of the smaller ones to sabotage other teams. Our main focus is on finding treasures, but not to the total neglect of the race. 

[hr][hr][h2]Zeno Solstice: Benny & Kyri[/h2]
Benny: 3, Kyri: 2
Punch the shit outta some dragons, cause avalanches, be a shit for Benny. He has the skills to keep himself fresh and warm. Kyri is an icevein and too tough to be affected or easily taken out. She’s also resistant to any internal tampering other teams try and can nope the smaller dragons. Has the right build for climbing.

[hr][hr][h2]Zeno Zemana: Manfred & To’fon[/h2]
Manfred: 1, To’fon: 1
Manfred’s a tough guy, militarily trained, with a background in Arcane and Kinetic. He won’t be wasting any time on treasures. To’fon is a mountain-dwelling stormcaller, so the weather is his to command and he’ll make it easy for himself and his teammate while hard on everyone else. 
[/hider]
[hider=Leg Standings][h2]Final Tally[/h2]
[b]Finish Order:[/b] Afraval (1,4), Colloy (2,3), Mozaru (5,6), Secto (7,16), Moonlight (8,12), Zemana (9,15), Solstice (10,17), Sadan3 (11,18)
[b]Leg Time:[/b] Ghaven (1), Ashon (2), Memaru (3), Augusto (4), Ingrid (5), Trypano (6), Chimal (7), Siv (8), To’fon (9), Sven (10), Kyri (11), Chad (12), Manfred (15), Benny (17), Janaus (18), Revan (20) 
Treasure: Sven (Egg), Ingrid (Sword), Revan (Artifact), Chad (poop), Memaru (major), Augusto (major), Benny (minor), Kyri (minor), Sven (minor), Ingrid (minor)
[b]Points:[/b] Afraval (52), Colloy (50), Mozaru (25), Secto (14), Moonlight (19), Zemana (14), Solstice (11), Sadan3 (11)
[b]Point Standings:[/b] Colloy (126), Afraval (104), Mozaru (80),  Solstice (71), Secto (64), Zemana (55), Moonlight (53), WN&BG (30), Sadan3 (19)
[b]Time Back:[/b] Afraval (00:00.00), Colloy (-00:02.81), Mozaru (-00:05.60), Secto (-00:09.42), Moonlight (-00:13.14), Zemana (-00:14.02), Solstice (-00:19.33), Sadan3 (-00:22.51), WN&BG (-00:30.44)[/hider]
[hr][hr][h3]Next Up: Invasive![/h3]
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