Triathalon: Round 1 Swimming Summer Camp '22

Open to Interactions
Mentioning: Quentin Gagné (@Della Barfield)
Bolded Text: French | Regular Text: English | Color: #BF4040

While Florian was certainly out of breath, he wasn't going to give up quite yet. After taking the time to catch his breath from the side of Kim's boat, he would attempt to make the lap again. This time things were much smoother. Perhaps he just needed a bit of a practice round to get through it. He thought of Quentin, who he certainly felt like he was better than, and how the younger boy had clearly managed to pass the first lap without issue. Heck, the boy even yelled "CANNONBALL!" before he threw himself in the water, almost as if this was more for fun than for a test of one's athletics. He tried to shake the thoughts from his head in order to try his best at his second attempt of the first lap.

In this lap, he already felt like he had a much better grasp of swimming breaststroke style, as he was in second place. Although second out of six probably wasn't that much to gloat about, but hey, he wasn't last, and he was doing much better than last time. It was almost as if something clicked for him, and he managed to finish. He paused to take a breath, letting the other two of his group catch up. Man, this was simply embarrassing to be so behind.

Soon it was time for the second lap, and Florian tried to prepare himself to continue.

Action: Swimming Level 2
Stats:
Sta: 6 | Eva: 9 | Str: 5 | Wis: 10 | Arc: 5 | Acc: 12
Abilities:
Foulplay | Evasive Manuvers | Fearless

English
Japanese

Swimming [ Level III ]

It was definitely a breeze on this level as well. His stamina wasn’t the best at first, but when it came to strength, he certainly found it easier to catch up with the rest. Instead of being one of the few ones behind, he managed to finish the lap in 4th place. A good improvement from the earlier round! Sara couldn’t be happier, if he wasn’t so busy with continuing the race, he would’ve shown a nice big smile.

Reducio

Fortunately for everyone else, that didn’t happen. Next, the next task to do is to avoid the obstacles on the water. Sara has to suck in an excited breath. He loved these things! A big shame most of them adorned bright colors, but they were so adorable that he was tempted to just touch them out of the sheer need to watch them bounce back and forth. Evasion wasn’t a problem for him in terms of skill, but perhaps the biggest challenge for him is to successfully avoid everything without purposely touching them.

Well at least on the bright side, for someone who hasn’t swam in a long time, he was doing fairly well so far. He was getting more and more used to navigating through the waters. Would his skill in evading things work as well now that he had to use them in the waters?

w/c: 239

S t a t s

Reducio

Stamina: 4 || Evasion: 14 || Strength: 14 || Wisdom: 3 || Arcane Power: 10 || Accuracy: 7

Action: trying his best >_>
Mentioning:
Wearing:

Reducio

Roleplaying as Akira Shimizu from Mahoutokoro

The waters were choppier this round, and his strength wavered as wave upon wave sloshed onto his slim frame, tossing him off-course. He felt like a crab stick being jostled about in a bubbling shabu-shabu, being tumbled up to the surface by boiling bubbles before being drawn back down to the bottom again.

When he heard that he did not complete the lap on time, he swept his dark hair out of his eyes to reveal a scowl, though he did appreciate the event organizer's encouragement. He was much too tired to focus on how well the Champions were doing at this point, but Shamsi seemed to have not passed this round as well, as the only Champion that failed Level 2. He would wait until his Champion finished and treaded water next to the Indian boy. "Is this... supposed to be... fun?" he asked the boy skeptically in between quick breaths. "You seem to be... dead last as Champion." It couldn't possibly be fun for Shamsi to see how poorly he was performing relative to their competitors. Sure, Akira was able to finish ahead of Shamsi during both rounds, so that was some satisfaction for our Japanese boy, but swimming really wasn't his cup of tea, either.

When it was time to re-swim the lap, Akira took a deep breath and began swimming again, hoping that he would be able to pass Level 2 this time. He would do his aggravated best.

Japanese || English
Date: 08/08/2022 || Time: 10:00
Outfit: Swimsuit

Ayako was beginning to feel the burn as her core strained to push her through the tumultuous waters, but she'd paced herself rather well so far and she even managed to catch back up to Chi, which was fairly impressive in her mind since she wasn't a very strong swimmer.

She managed to overcome the ache of her chest and arms long enough to catch her second wind, and despite the fact that she was still in the middle of the pack, she was confident that she would at least finish, which was more than she'd ever done in this manner before this day.

"Chi-chan, I'm proud of you," she said between breaths now that the two of them were closer in position.

As she completed the lap, though, Ayako saw the moderator of the triathlon and his assistant littering the water with various floating obstacles. Oh, this was going to be fun.

It couldn't be too terribly different than the rocks and other obstacles from Flying practice, so she wasn't very worried, but after two laps she was bound to be just a bit sluggish, so she would have to be careful. Pacing was everything, so long as she didn't fall too far behind.

Action: Level 2

Notes:

Reducio

Interacting:

@Paz Zhang as Chi

Mentioning:

@Kim Sato

Howard did his best to focus and keep his pacing. One, two, inhale. One, two, exhale. His long arms dug into the water in rhythm with is kicking legs. The teenager was in pretty good shape, but he would feel the burn as he succeeded level two. Howard's stamina would not be enough to see him through as the challenge increased in difficulty and he would have to rely on his strength to see him through. It was tough for the competitive Dhampir to resist the urge to give it his all as some more contestants passed him by. Ever fiber of his being called out to expend all energy to get to the number one spot, but resist he did. Slow and steady wins the race. Images of a tortoise and hare from his childhood quickly flashed through his mind. Hopefully that fable carried some truth to it! Howard's pacing paid off as he was able to continue though the second level, but now he would have to not only swim but also dodge inflatable projectiles in round three. So far his physical skill had carried him though he did worry. He was strong and accurate, but dodging had never been his strong suit. Many bruised ribs from bludgers stood as proof. However, he would not quit. No matter how many times it took him he was going to see the finish line.

Action: Attempting Level 3
Stats: STA - 11 | EVA - 12 | STR - 15 | WIS - 0 | ARCP - 0 | ACC - 18
Abilities: Fangs, Claw & Bite | Martial Artist | Unsettling Aura | Blindvision | Keen Smell

Durmstrang Institute's

¤ | Ω | ¤ Romeo Giovanni Marchonné

"English." "Italiano. Italian." "Russian."

| Faint scar on left eye | | Mangled right ear |

None

Deep breaths as I frontcrawl, keep striding, keep springing. As I come up on the second lap, I push myself to swim faster and faster, feeling the burn in my deltoids and biceps as I part water violently to make way for my stalwart self.

I breeze past my fellow Durmstrang people, past many of the foreign students that I have never met or seen before, kicking harder and harder as I push and push against the defying waves and ride on the pull of the current forward. I switch strokes from frontcrawl to the butterfly to maximize my forward distance and increase velocity.

A deep breath and a brief look upward on the upstroke reveals that I am a little bit behind another muscular boy who appears to be a good deal older than me. Though I continue in my dedicated sprint, slowing down for nobody, I can only keep his pace, not gain on it.

Just as well, as obstacles show up in the water ahead. We have to dodge them. Herein lay the rub. I am strong, I am stalwart, I am able to take a good deal of punishment.

But I am not always the most agile person in the fight. True, I am able to avoid some hits, especially if the one throwing the punches is of a lesser martial caliber when compared to me, but dodging for the sake of dodging and maneuvering in a split second is far from my strong suit. I will have to be smart about this, and try to find a path of least resistance in order to ensure that I am as successful as I can be.

With a deep breath that fills all the way to the bottom of my lungs, I dive below the surface, aiming to swim beneath all the obstacles in my way and hoping that my back does not scrape the surface and therefore a potential floatie that serves as a theoretical "naval mine".

Performing Lap Three

Stats:

Ω Stamina 9 | Evasion 7 | Strength 15 Ω
Ω Accuracy 14 | Wisdom 9 | ArcPower 0 Ω

Abilities:

Ω Obnoxiously Strong | Perfectionist I | Martial Artist | Healing Sage I Ω

Outfit

Haley had promised to give it her all and not fail. And that was what Haley did, her efforts had paid off and this time she had made it through the first round, moreover she had made it first, which put a big smile on her face. Even though she was disappointed that she hadn't made it right the first time, she was now more than optimistic again.

When she reached the finish line, she cheered on the rest who were swimming behind her and were also on their way to the finish. "Go, go! Go! You can do it!" she cheered for the others, motivating them until they made it to the finish line as well.

But the fun wasn't over yet, now it was on to round 2 with those who made it and those who had to repeat round 2. Haley continued to stay focused and tried to recover as best she could during the short break to give it her all again.

When the starting gun went off, she dove her head into the water and started swimming. She tried to do at least as well as she had just done, if not better. She wanted to make the second round, the fighting spirit in her was awakened.

Action: Round 2

Stats: Stamina - 7 | Evasion - 7 | Strength - 8 | Wisdom - 7 | ArcPower - 6 | Accuracy - 8
Charmer

ACTION Swimming Level 3

There was always a trick when it came to focusing on what was ahead. Bloom looked at someone ahead of her when she was swimming her heart out for the second round around the ship. She was looking at Lysander Stravou. It was unsure of whether or not he was related to Phaedra. Bloom remembered Evelynn question it to her from the Quidditch game. Bloom made Lysander a moving target and tried to swim as fast as she could to get to him. Unfortunately, she was way to slow and was not able to catch up to him, however, she was so glad to have made it past the second round.

With a quick look around, it looked like she was one of the only small handful that made it. Not wanting to slow down, Bloom made sure to keep herself focused ahead. Hearing Kim Sato's voice cheering them all on, including her, gave her the boost to keep going. It was now onto the next level. Bloom turned the corner only to see that this time there were obstacles in the way. Aw man, she thought to herself. Bloom began to go around large water balloons, trying to find the best way possible to get through quickly without touching them.

Bloom swam the best she could in and around the water balloon obstacles, her breathing extremely heavy.

Stats: 10| Evasion - 10| Strength - 9| Wisdom - 11| ArcPower - 10 | Accuracy - 11 + 1 from broom racing
Abilities: Muggle Condition & Lovely Creature

ACTION: Swimming Level 3
Stats: Sta: 6 | Eva: 5 | Str: 8 | Wis: 8 | AP: 4 | Acc: 4
Abilities: Perfectionist
Encyclopedia Link: "X" marks the spot

Outfit

Okay. Time to get serious. Stephen's goal here was not to be the first in this round. No, the goal was simply to finish while conserving as much energy as possible so that meant pacing himself needed to be his focus. There were still two more challenges left yet to complete in this Triathlon and each of those had three different levels as well. It was going to be a fabulous test of his endurance.

Relinquishing his comfortable backstroke position, Stephen deftly rolled in the water, readying himself for his freestyle strokes. He looked to see who was ahead of him while quickly gauging the distance between them and whether he should make a plan for passing them or not. Just as he had submerged his head in the water and exhaled before turning his head to inhale a quick breath as his face partially emerged above the surface, he kicked with strong legs, keeping his body nicely aligned and as aerodynamic as possible. One arm came over and cleanly sliced into the water like a knife and then the other did the copycat move right after it. He thought he caught sight out of the corner of his eye of something being thrown down into the water from the deck of the ship. Ahhhhhhhh. Now the game really was afoot.

A change of strategy was formulated mid stroke. Speed was now suddenly more of an issue than he would have liked just 60 seconds ago, but with the addition of water obstacles now introduced into the equation, he would have to be fast and accurate if he wanted to see the next challenge. And he definitely wanted to see the next challenge, but from the perspective of a participant and not as a spectator.

Everyone else was in the same boat, (yes, pun definitely intended), but it was go time now. His kicks were harder and faster. His arm movements were beautifully synchronized with his head turns allowing him the maximum oxygen intake to fuel his muscles in the most efficient way possible. He had zero doubt about his ability to finish the level had it just been a purely swimming endeavor.

But the obstacles? That could screw up anyone's game... Stephen's included. Kick and stroke...Dodge!...exhale under water and turn head to inhale... more kicking and freestyle stroking...Watch out!!

Man. For the first time ever, Stephen wished he had a set of compound eyes. And then the Flight of the Bumblebee started tripping through his brain.

FOCUS, Schwartz!

If he finished this challenge, he would consider it somewhat a miracle.

Forwards she moved, without the provision of swimming lessons to learn the right techniques, she really was not the fastest or the strongest in the waters. She had attempted to imitate the movements of her fellow swimmers beside her, a boy and a girl, in hopes that it would be better than her current one, but the strategy did not help improve her position much at all. All she knew was that she was pushing to carry on with each stroke, with each drag of water felt in her arms, the tensing ache growing.

Large splashes from behind made her halt, paddling as she turned. only to see a dark-haired boy flying through the surface of the water in wide frantic butterfly strokes. Hadrian. Barely acknowledged in his stead, the large waves created from his movement and speed practically splashed those he took over - which was just about everyone including herself.

With an impressed hum, Aurelia continued. It was the better option to slow down to avoid overworking herself. There were many that took her over as she changed the frequency of the strokes that dragged her forwards. With so many competitors, Aurelia knew that a win was unlikely, finishing this race would already be a great enough accomplishment. In the next course, multi-coloured floaties bobbed in the water. Aurelia took a deep breath and disappeared underwater, letting the currents lead her. Wary of the obstacles around, this was not too bad at all.