Fate Online: Shadow

"Why am I the last runner of all people?" Michael said with a little complaint in his tone while looking at his teammates.

"Because aside from Chad, you're the most athletic in the group. So I'm assuming that you can swim?" Lisa said with a raised eyebrow.

"Of course I can swim, I'm just not sure if it's enough to beat Elrand" Michael replied with a shrug of his shoulders.

"Hurhur, that's why I'm going halfway so that we can take a huge lead since I'm a better swimmer than the rest in the other team" Chad said with an arrogant tone, arms crossed.

"Just take your time during the race so you won't tire easily. The girls will go first, then followed by us guys" Michael said to the people in his team.

Before long, everyone was finally done preparing themselves and their instructor immediately called for their attention.

"Are the two teams ready? First swimmers come forward!" the instructor shouted as he raised the starting pistol in the air.

The weakest swimmers who can only do dog paddles for swimming immediately stepped forward on the starting line with tense faces.

Bang!

The two students immediately raced towards the water with weird steps before diving towards the water!

Whoorl! Whoorl!

The gap between the two teams were really close during the first three swimmers, but a change finally happened when one of Chad's jock friend's turn came and he created a huge gap against the swimmer from Brandon's team.

"Let's go, Arnel!"

Even though the two swimmers were Chad's jock friends, his support still inclined towards his current teammate and showed his support by cheering for him, and when he saw the gap slowly widening between the two, he even exclaimed, "Damn! I didn't know that dude can swim that fast!?"

He felt genuinely amazed since the current and last obstacle was just seventy meters away from the shore compared to the first obstacle that was just thirty meters away, and with the distance of the current obstacle, he knew it was something he would certainly have problems with.

Let's not even mention the last obstacle since it's the farthest with at least a distance of around two hundred meters from the shore!

Which was ridiculous since there's almost a hundred meters distance from the eighth bobber!

And that gap continued to be that wide until it was Michael and Elrand's turn. Even though Michael went first and was already halfway through the course, Elrand who started later than him after Brandon was already slowly catching up to him bit by bit in a butterfly stroke!

There was no plot twist, Elrand managed to catch up to Michael in no time and won the competition for his team with a ten meter gap!

"Let's gooo!!! We really won! I thought we were gonna lose earlier!"

Brandon's team celebrated their win, while the other team were all feeling a little crestfallen and disappointed, and surprisingly, no one was blaming each other since they probably just thought that it was an expected outcome when their sole varsity swimmer went to the other team.

"Alright! Listen up, I forgot to mention something important earlier before the race!" their instructor yelled and the students immediately shut their mouths and turned their head towards him, something they learned during the past few days that they should immediately shut up and listen when their instructors had started talking to avoid getting punished, something these group of scions of rich families had never once experienced before till this MT happened.

"There are only three days left for this MT and you guys can finally say goodbye to this place after, and so for the winners for today's race, they will be able to leave a day ahead of schedule while the team that lost would have to stay here for the full length of the duration. That's all for now, you can go back and get some rest"

"Yes!!!"

"W-what!? Damn!"

While the winning team became even more boisterous, it made the losing team even more depressed, excluding Michael who doesn't seem to even care about it.

"Stop thinking about it, it wouldn't change anything even if we knew about it" Michael said to the others, wanting to give them a slight comfort through his words.

Listening to his words, all of them just sigh, even Chad who doesn't really like him could only find comfort in his words as they knew saw with their own eyes that even Michael who was dubbed in their class as the most athletic of the bunch can't even outswim Elrand, and they can't even blame him because of it.

Following the competition, the students finally had lunch, and were finally given a chance to rest and enjoy their own leisurely activities. Michael found himself drawn back to the shoreline, where he and others were engaged in a spirited game of beach volleyball with a group of classmates.

As night fell and the stars began to appear, Michael retreated to a secluded spot, his mind still plagued by boredom. Suddenly, his satcom that he had hidden here buzzed with an incoming call a few seconds after his arrival. Glancing at the screen, he saw that it was from one of his friends, Sun Bin or otherwise known as Silver Fox..

"Hey, what's up?" Michael answered casually, trying to mask his surprise.

"You need to hear this," Sun Bin's voice rang from the other side.

"The Rothschild family and their allies are on the move. They're furious about the deaths of their patriarchs and are planning something big."

Michael felt a shiver run down his spine as the news sank in. He didn't shiver because he was scared, but from excitement. Since he knew that this day would eventually come as those people certainly wouldn't allow Mine Tech. Industries grow to a height that would really surpass them than they already did.

But this should have been something that should only happen five years from now, but because of the multiple changes he had caused and along with the deaths of those two patriarchs that he had indirectly caused, the event was brought way ahead of its time.

So what was the reason behind him doing all this?

Well, only Michael has the answers.

"Alright, keep me posted. Thanks" Michael said before hanging up the call.

After the call, Michael immediately dialed a series of numbers and called it.

"It's me, have you heard about the news? Is everything going well on your side then? That's good, we'll make our moves after I come back. Alright, you lot too" Michael said and hung up the call.

"This time, I'll make sure that they wouldn't be able to cause any more damage than they did in my time"

After making a few more calls, Michael eventually went to the campground and saw that the students had started singing with a guitar that they had requested from their teacher.

"I used to be love drunk!"

"But now I'm hungover!"

"I'll love you forever!"

"Forever is over!"

"We used to kiss all night!"

""All night!!""

"Really, how are they even singing this song with only a guitar?" Michael chuckled, as he even eventually joined them because of the energy.

He felt like he was back to those days where he only worried about his bills and meals.