We've seen Ayame and Sango's rivalry really shine in the Toughness Competition, but what about the other girls? How are they handling these difficult obstacles? We'll have to find out! Remember to review!

KedharS: It's definitely an understated relationship, that's for sure.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 762

Sango's lungs were tearing themselves apart and her legs were like lead as she chased after Ayame frantically. The two girls had climbed out from under the barbed wire at roughly the same time and taken off running for the next, and final, obstacle of the course, when Ayame had seized the lead from her once again.

There was sadly not anything Sango could do. She was a runner, certainly, but Ayame was just built differently.

She was a natural-born athlete, after all, and running was second nature to her. Now that she had gotten her strength back there wasn't much Sango could do to catch her. She was on her second wind, and Sango was already on her third or fourth, and her body was starting to give in. Her legs were shaking, somehow numb and in pain at the same time as she desperately tried to catch her, but she couldn't manage it.

And then Ayame slowed down, much to Sango's confusion. Sango was feeling herself start to slow down as well, but she doubted that Ayame was actually running out of energy, not after that showing of her endurance after coming out from under the barbed wire.

But no, she was definitely slowing, and fast, too. In fact, the girl had come to a complete stop in front of her, even though the land ahead was completely flat. Sango was confused, but she wasn't about to let it slow her down. She came up next to Ayame.

"Why did you stop?" Sango asked, slowing down a little to catch her breath. She glanced at Ayame and saw that her face was troubled. Ayame raised an eyebrow and pointed down at the ground, where the lines between their individual tracks had faded away into a single flat expanse. That's when she remembered what the last obstacle was. In her haste, her lungs practically bursting out of her chest, she had nearly forgotten it.

The land in front of them was wide and flat, and only a few meters in length. About the size of a football field, with the labyrinth on the other side. It was nothing fancy, just an empty plateau leading to the labyrinth, with the occasional stone sticking out or piece of dead tree lying around, framed by the tall trees surrounding the obstacle course.

Of course, what was special about this last obstacle wasn't the scenic décor, it was what was underneath it.

A minefield.

Ayame and Sango had stopped in front of the sign, with a crudely-drawn bomb emblazoned on the sign, someone's amusing joke.

The girls looked at each other again. Walking through this minefield wasn't exactly going to be a lot of fun. But on the plus side, Sango could feel herself start to take some softer breaths. One thing about navigating through a minefield that she could be grateful for was the fact that it wasn't something she would have to rush.

She could take things slowly, which was good for an obstacle course that had already pushed her to her physical limits.

"The first two of our competitors have reached the final leg of the obstacle course!" Lukas bellowed into his microphone, his eyes shining excitedly. "But they'll have to take things slow, or risk triggering the bombs! And it's not just explosives we've rigged it with either, there are all sorts of booby traps to consider!"

The audience wasn't exactly thrilled to hear that, the atmosphere around the dome starting to die down a little as tension returned.

Blake himself was scared out of his wits. Lukas had said that there were explosives? What sort of explosives!? And who the hell would rig explosives for a school event? That was insanity, there was no way that was an actual minefield, this had to be some sort of psychological test, it was the only thing that made sense.

At least, he hoped that was what it was. And he really hoped his hopes wouldn't end up being dashed by this whole mess. He just prayed that everything would be okay.

"While Sango and Ayame are navigating the minefield, let's take a look and see what our other girls are up to!" While one of the cameras remained focused on Sango and Ayame as they cautiously made it through the minefield, another camera turned on another section of the obstacle course, where more girls were competing.

Darla climbed down the wall, fast in the lead. But much to her surprise, Alcea was quickly catching up with her as she descended, and then passed her, rappelling down the side of the wall until she reached the ground.

Darla was surprised Alcea was that skilled. But she didn't let that get the better of her. She made it down the wall, and was surprised by the time that she had gotten to the nets, Alcea was already moving through them gracefully. She was quite amazing.

But now wasn't the time to be drawn in by the other girl, Darla had a race to win. She looked at Dina, the small Deino looking back at her from behind her fur-covered eyes, and nodded. The two tried to go over the net, and it was really hard. She nearly slipped a few times. But she was used to keeping her balance.

Her past history of meditation was quite helpful as well. She was keeping focus, allowing her to make her movements slowly, gracefully, and could feel Dina right behind her. In spite of his awkward appearance, the small pokemon was carefully moving through the nets.

But she knew it wasn't likely that a pokemon so ungraceful would manage to get across the net. That's why she made her decision, glancing back at the scrambling pokemon. "Dina, get on my back," she called back to her.

"Deino!" Dina nodded, jumping up and landing on Darla's back. Darla grit her teeth at the feeling of her Deino's claws digging into her shoulders, but she didn't let it get to her. She kept her fingers grasped tightly against the net as it shook, knowing that the most important part of this whole thing was keeping her grip. That way, she wouldn't be able to fall off and land in the mud.

Once the net finished shaking and she regained her balance, she began climbing up the net, moving forward at a slow, but steady pace.

When Gabrielle got to the nets, though, she realized that she had been a fool to try so hard, much to her irritation. Gabrielle stopped in front of the net, glancing across it, her Glaceon watching it pensively as well.

"Yes," Gabrielle said, nodding to the small pokemon. "Do it," she ordered.

"Glaceon!" Glaceon chirped, opening her mouth. A beam of ice shot out and froze the net solid, forming a small bridge across it. No longer having to worry about the net shaking now that it was frozen to the pole, she slipped her gloves on and climbed across it.

Darla watched in open-mouth shock as Gabrielle passed her effortlessly, and suppressed her irritation, moving across the net bridge as best she could with the weight of Dina on her back and the unstableness of her footing.

The audience was a little shocked at what had just happened.

"Is that okay?" Cynthia asked in disbelief. "Getting to have your pokemon freeze the way ahead with ice beams, there's no way that's fair, right?" She asked, looking to the others for confirmation, and they looked just as uneasy as she did.

"It… doesn't seem fair," Kitty said, shaking her head. "I mean… being able to use a pokemon move to free the net? That isn't fair, right?" She asked, looking around nervously like Cynthia was. "I don't think that's fair at all…"

"Now, some of you might be thinking that it isn't fair for Gabrielle to have her Glaceon use her ice beam," Lukas said. "But you don't need to worry about that! You see, the way the rules work, trainers can use their pokemon's moves to help them in a pinch, but only moves of a certain kind! Things like fly or teleport or dig aren't allowed, nothing that would allow in direct transportation, only incidental, like we just saw."

He chuckled. "And of course, the move rock climb is also prohibited, for similar reasons," he added as well.

Blake rolled his eyes. To him, that didn't seem all that fair. Not that he really cared. Right now, what he wanted most of all was for the camera to turn back to Aya and Sango, he needed to make sure that they were okay! He hadn't heard any explosions, so that was a good sign, but how much longer were they expecting him to watch these other competitors?!

Claire was watching Blake out of the corner of her eye, and learning a very unfortunate fact about her friend; namely, that Blake had a slight problem with being way too self-interested when it came to his girlfriend, to the point where he wasn't even paying attention to the other girls, instead viewing them as an inconvenience.

Claire was starting to worry that her friend was beginning to think that the whole world revolved around him.

In terms of the whole world revolving around one entire person, though, Blake couldn't hope to compare to how Kate was seeing Alcea at the moment. As usual, she was supporting Alcea, and doing it loudly, too.

"Go, milady!" Kate cheered at the top of her lungs as Alcea reached the next obstacle, the barbed wires. She was filled with excitement, even though she knew that this was the sort of challenge that Alcea might find… well, challenging.

After all, Alcea's dress was quite lovely. And having to crawl through the mud under the barbed wire would be rather gross, she felt.

Kate was cheering Alcea on heartily, but she didn't want to see her get all dirty, either, besmirching herself in front of the others, in front of the whole school. A noble lady like Alcea didn't deserve such indignity!

And to everyone's surprise, it became clear that she wouldn't have to.

Just as Gabrielle made it to the nets, Alcea was already implementing her strategy. Gabrielle might have been all the way across the obstacle course on the outer pathway, but she was still close enough that she could see what Alcea was doing.

Alcea turned to her Roserade. "Rosetta," she said, "use grassy terrain."

"Rose," Rosetta said, nodding. She raised her bouquet hand and her body began glowing a bright green, and the aura flower through her body and down into the mud. Invigorated by Rosetta's greenifying abilities, the mud began to dry up, and shoots of grass poked out from between the cracks. In a matter of seconds, the muddy section beneath the barbed wire had become filled with bright grass, becoming a full field.

It was astounding to look at.

"Whoa!" Kate cried in excitement, feeling weak in the knees. She stumbled backward and landed in her chair, marveling at the sight before her. She wasn't the only one, the entire audience was amazed at what had happened, Alcea had turned the obstacle into a perfect patch of sod. Now, she could crawl under the barbed wire without getting a single drop of mud on her fancy dress.

Of course, she did exactly that, much to Gabrielle's begrudging respect. She wasn't so lucky, having to crawl through the mud herself to get to the other side, Glaceon trudging right beside her. The two were annoyed by the mud, but it didn't show on their faces.

Darla managed to catch up, but instead of heading in after the two of them, she decided to wait and bide her time.

It might cost her the Miss Pokemon Academy Contest, but she had more important things to concern herself with.

Namely, how her partner was doing.

Lila had lost a lot of ground, trying extra careful to make her way across the net without falling into the mud. She hated the idea of getting muddy and dirty, and she was going to take extra special care not to get anywhere close to it.

Which was exactly why Darla was waiting for her. She knew that Lila was liable to just give up and back out when confronted with the idea of getting mud all over her, even clothes she despised as much as her tracksuit, and she wanted to be there to help her through it.

Lukas didn't seem to pick up on that.

"Why is Darla just waiting in front of the obstacle, not doing anything?!" He asked in shock. "She should be going under as fast as she can! Doesn't she know that the other girls are getting even further ahead of her, now?"

But as Lila came up to the obstacle, red in the face and panting, even Lukas was able to figure out what was going on.

Lila looked at her partner in confusion, not sure why Darla had stopped, or why she was staring at her so meaningfully. "Darla, what are you…" Lila's voice trailed off as she glanced down at the obstacle ahead of her, and her face went pale. She figured out what was going on, and she wanted absolutely no part in it. "No. Oh, no. No WAY. Not gonna happen."

"Lila…"

"No! No, no, no!" Lila screeched, stomping her food on the ground and hugging Shine closer to her chest. "You don't GET it! It's MUD, Darla! Icky, sticky, nasty, grimy, MUD! And I am NOT going to be covered in it, or crawling through it, do I make myself clear? I'm crawling through that mess over my own dead body!"

Darla sighed. Lila was just going to be the most difficult girl in the world, wasn't she? "Lila," she hissed, glancing at the camera, "we've got to go through with it for the audience. They're expecting to see us give it our all, and that's what we're going to do, give it our all."

"But… But… no!" Lila wailed. "I'd rather be disqualified than have everyone see me covered in that stuff! Darla, I can't, you have to do it for both of us!"

Darla couldn't even BEGIN to understand the logic of how THAT one was supposed to work, but she didn't really care, either. She was about to deliver a stern rebuke of Lila and tell her just where to shove it when her attention was captured by something else entirely.

Olivia had jogged up to the two of them, a sour expression on her face. Belle was following quickly behind her, sparking with energy and wearing a big smile on her face, the Luchador-cosplaying Pikachu brimming with pride.

Olivia wasn't nearly as bright as her pokemon was, though, staring at the idol duo with a look of casual suspicion.

"What are you two doing here?" She groused, raising her eyebrow. "Aren't you going to get through the mud and get moving already?" Her question wasn't accusatory, in fact, it was rather light-hearted, given her situation, which Darla found surprising.

"It's none of your business," Darla huffed, turning back to Lila. "Lila and I are working things out for ourselves, I'll have you know."

She winced, she hadn't meant to sound so snippy. With a shake of her head, she glanced back at Olivia, hoping she wasn't too mad.

But surprisingly, she wasn't.

Olivia shrugged her shoulders. "If that's what you want, then that's fine. Take care, girls, I'm going on ahead!"

With that, to Lila and Darla's amazement, Olivia knelt down into a crouch and slid under the barbed wire. This girl, who had been well-known as the most beautiful girl on campus, idolized by tons of students, had ignored the mud covering the ground and had gone right into the thick of it without a second thought.

"W-Wow," Lila said, completely shocked by the fact that someone as pretty as Olivia had let it happen like that.

If Lila was being honest, she had a little bit of a crush on Olivia. Nothing serious, certainly nothing that could compare to how she felt about Darla, of course. But hey, Olivia was hot, and she sent Lila's heart aflutter whenever she passed by.

Lila admired the pretty girl, and the thought of seeing her covered in mud just seemed… distasteful to her.

"Just think of it like a mud pack," Olivia said with a shrug, a broad smile on her face. In truth, she wasn't the biggest fan of mud either, but she had intentionally worn clothes that weren't have a problem with the mud; it was a cat suit designed to be easily washed. And as for her hair, well…

Let's just say that Blake would have his work cut out for him.

Making sure her golden ponytail was as secure as it could be, Olivia crouched down and began to pull herself through the mud. Belle followed eagerly after her, and the two idols watched in amazement as the Empress crawled through the mud.

Olivia wouldn't normally be so brazen. In most situations, she would be disgusted, and part of her certainly was. It wasn't that she LIKED crawling through the mud. But Olivia was a woman of unshakable will. If it would help her accomplish her goals, she would swim through sewage or crawl through hot garbage, a little mud was nothing.

Okay, maybe she was exaggerating slightly. But the point was, she wasn't going to let a little mud discourage her.

She was going to win this competition, she had to. Losing wasn't an option.

"W-Wow," Lukas said, in shock at what he was seeing. The Empress hadn't even hesitated to get down and dirty, crawling through the mud. He hadn't expected that, and neither had the audience. For students who had always seen Olivia as an impossible beauty to be admired from afar, the thought that she would get muddy like that was a little… off-putting.

Cynthia looked around, hearing the uncomfortable murmurs. A look of disdain passed her face. "I can't believe this," she muttered, shaking her head.

"What is it?" Julia asked, confused.

"Don't you hear the audience?" Cynthia griped, waving her hand in the direction of some murmurs of disgust. "They're clearly disgusted by what they just saw. The Empress, crawling through the mud. Like somehow she's too 'good' for something like that, and now that she's gotten all dirty it's like she's been tarnished, even though that's the whole point of the competition. It's honestly pathetic, she's just a girl like anyone else," she grumbled.

"I agree, it's pathetic," Claire scowled.

A few minutes later, Olivia emerged from the other side of the obstacle, and the camera zoomed in on her. And what it showed was surprising. Olivia stood tall and proud, wiping a speck of mud from her cheek. She looked as immaculate as ever, even if she had gotten so dirty.

Olivia wasn't just hot, she was the sort of beauty that not even mud could tarnish, and she was proud to show it.

The crowd murmured a little, their voices rising in excitement, much to Cynthia's irritation. Oh, now that they saw she was still hot, they didn't care? Fucking scum.

But even if the impression made on the viewers wasn't the best, there was someone who had been watching closely, and gotten a different interpretation.

Lila was shocked that Olivia had gone through with it. In her time working closely with the Empress, she never would have expected that the proud girl would crawl through the mud. She thought that, in that regard at least, the two were on the same page. But no, Olivia had gone into it eyes wide open.

Maybe… Maybe it wouldn't be so bad? She glanced down at the mud puddle and swallowed.

Darla was too far away to take Lila's hand, but she comforted her with her eyes. "Lila… let's do our best, okay?" She asked. Dina barked in agreement from where she stood on the ground.

Lila looked at the two of them, then at the cameras. She forced a smile onto her face and nodded, trying to pretend like this wasn't a big deal.

"Oh… Okay," she agreed, and with a deep breath she threw herself into the mud.

Lila's overcoming her disgust! As for the other girls, they're moving ahead too! The obstacle course is coming to an end!