The Toughness Competition continues! Now, our girls are navigating the minefield! Will they be able to get through safely? Or will this contest have a rather… "messy" climax? We'll have to find out, and hope things don't get too rough! Remember to review!

KedharS: You never know, it just might be!

Pokemonking0924: They're definitely getting better! The competition is heating up, and if it's a question about who's going to win, that answer will be quite difficult to obtain.

Just a Bad Writer for Fun: Lila is a lot stronger than the impression she gives off, that's for sure.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 763

Ayame and Sango were both very careful in how they navigated the minefield, mainly because they didn't have much idea about how they were SUPPOSED to navigate a minefield. Sango was shocked, what sort of "obstacle" was this?! Be careful and don't step on something that will blow up and kill you? Some test.

Because of how slowly they were moving through the minefield, the gap of distance between the girls and everyone else was starting to draw tighter. It was really irritating for Sango, who had spent so much energy trying to stay at the head and remain competitive with Ayame, only to realize that the gap she had drawn had ultimately been worthless, because the other girls were already making progress and catching up.

Sure, it might have been a balance factor, but sometimes Sango just wanted to shout "fuck balance" and come out ahead because she had worked harder for it, damn it!

Alcea was the first one to reach the minefield after the two tomboys, followed closely by Gabrielle. She stared calmly at the flat ground, looking carefully for the right way to move forward. It wasn't something that was easy to see, there was nothing to give away the idea that there was a minefield anywhere around her.

Then, she had an idea. "Rosetta," Alcea said, turning to her Roserade, "use seed bomb to scout ahead, please."

"Rose," Rosetta said, nodding. She lifted the bouquet in her arm and flung it out, a long row of seeds spinning out in front of her, the seeds hitting the ground in front of her and her trainer, setting off a chain of small explosions.

When the dust cleared, it was clear that no mine had gone off. Alcea smiled, confident that she had found a safe path forward. Her steps forward were self-assured, and when she stepped on the tile on the ground…

…It blew up in her face. But it wasn't gunpowder and TNT, blowing the scarlet-clad noble into scarlet chunks of meat, no. Instead, a massive blast of white cream blew into her face from below, covering her and her nice dress in sticky sweet slime.

Everyone was silent for a moment, staring at the screen in shock.

"Milady!" Kate exclaimed.

"OOooh, that had to be awkward," Lukas winced in mock sympathy, turning away from the screen and flinching. "Seeming so confident in her way forward, only for the mine to explode? What's the issue with that? Well, the way it works, these mines are specially made! They won't trigger by anything other than a human's footstep! Trying to detonate it with seed bombs, those won't work! We had our students in the Research Course design them specially!"

Blake didn't want to think about what the Research Course was doing designing bombs for the student body. In his eyes, that was something incredibly wrong, but he didn't have anything to say on the matter. He would just think of it with worry.

"H-Her highness's dress…" Kate stuttered. She was as pale as she had ever been, staring at the screen like she really HAD just seen Alcea get blown to smithereens. She shook her head in disbelief. How… It just wasn't fair. Alcea had gone through so much work to maintain her beauty and elegance, and that mine had just ruined the entire thing!

Internally, Olivia was cackling with glee as she approached the minefield. Not so fancy now, are you Alcea Vermeil? She mentally spat at her rival, sending her as many bad vibes as she could. She hoped that her spite could maybe make Alcea trigger another bomb, if she was lucky.

While the first of the mines detonating had been a shock, now that it had had some time to sink in, the tension in the Milotic Dome was slowly fading away. They weren't dealing with massive explosions of dynamite, though no one REALLY believed that would be the case. It was a relief to see that there wasn't anything to really worry about.

"Yes, as you can see, we made sure that none of our booby traps would be TOO big of an issue!" Lukas assured the audience. "Certainly had you going for a second there, huh?"

The audience wasn't going to be all that happy about it, certainly not the same way that Lukas was talking about.

"Alcea Vermeil has always been a rather proud and noble woman," Lukas continued, a bold smile on his face. "Certainly not the kind of girl to be involved in something like this! I'd bet this is the first time she's ever gotten sprayed with white cream!"

Kate made a mental note to strangle the life out of Lukas. She knew what he was insinuating, and questioning her highness's chastity was NOT going to be acceptable! She hated that he had said something like that, it made her sick to her stomach. This whole thing made her sick to her stomach, seeing what Alcea had gone through.

Alcea herself seemed to have been stunned motionless by the blast, not moving an inch. It made sense, after all, considering she had just triggered a massive explosion.

Her heart pounding in her chest, Alcea felt the life slowly return to her. She wasn't dead, she hadn't been blown to pieces, everything was fine. A sigh of relief escaped her lips and she slumped down, ignoring that the cream was still covering her body. She wiped enough off of her face to see clearly, grateful she didn't need glasses.

Unlike Kate, it didn't matter to her that her dress was ruined. She was fine with that. She had others. What was more important than maintaining her state of dress, she felt, was maintaining her air of decorum, and not letting the explosion get the better of her. She wasn't going to appear shaken as she walked forward into the minefield, willing to let whatever happened, happened.

Ayame and Sango, relieved, and still in the lead, began to think the same. Now that they knew there wasn't anything to really worry about, they didn't need to be so cautious and they could continue working forward, taking advantage of their athleticism to widen their lead.

Heck, unlike a bomb with dynamite, maybe they could even dodge those cream blasts or something else, you never know!

Blake was just a relieved as the girls were. He was relieved that they didn't have to worry about getting blown up, and he was relieved that they would just be slightly inconvenienced. "Well, that's good," he sighed, relaxing back in his seat. "They're just cream pies."

"Yeah, and I'm sure you know how familiar Ayame is with cream pies, huh?" Claire and Cynthia said simultaneously, their eyes shooting to each other. Both girls burst out laughing, while Blake just rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, whatever you say," Blake dryly stated, not going to engage with this mess. He was more worried about what was going on with the others, and he was hoping that everything would be okay. He was relieved, but there was something that was still nagging at him.

Maddi was the one who put words to his worries, surprisingly. She wasn't a very talkative person, so he hadn't heard her at first, turning to the other girl in confusion.

"Huh? What was that?" He asked, catching her eye.

Maddi waited for a lull in the cheering before she repeated what she'd said earlier. "I was just saying that there isn't the time for us to sit back and relax," she explained. "There could be other booby traps besides just cream explosions, don't forget. There are a lot of other ideas that they could use besides mines, they said that at the beginning, remember?"

Blake paused to consider what she had said. That was right, he had almost forgotten when he had been so shocked by the explosions before, he hadn't even thought about it. But yeah, Erik had said that there were all kinds of booby traps they might face. The idea that they might have gotten blown up had been drawing all of his attention, but now that those worries were gone, he had something else to be worried about now.

"Like… Like what?" He asked warily. He knew Maddi probably didn't have any answers, but he still felt compelled to ask.

And lo and behold, Maddi didn't have an answer for him. She shrugged her shoulders noncommittally, not at all sure what to do next. Blake didn't like that one bit, slumping back in his chair with a sigh on his lips and a shadow across his face.

He just had to hope that everything would be okay.

Lila and Darla finally made it out of the barbed wire, and glanced at each other. They had moved at the same pace, and were both covered in mud. Lila's makeup was absolutely ruined, and so was her tracksuit.

But she was smiling.

"W-Wow," she laughed, holding her sides and doubling over. Shine looked up at her, amazed that her trainer was laughing even though she was covered in mud. It was the least Lila thing that anyone would ever expect from her, but yeah, she was laughing her ass off.

"Not as bad as you thought?" Darla asked hopefully, grateful that Lila wasn't freaking out. She knew that Lila had some slight agoraphobia and didn't like getting dirty and muddy one bit. But she was handling it incredibly well.

Lila smiled, and nodded her head. "Don't get me wrong, I feel icky," she clarified, looking down at the mud covering her clothes. She glanced up at Darla and shrugged her shoulders, her grin widening. "But hey, maybe sometimes it's okay to get a little dirty, don't you think, Darla?"

Darla smiled broadly and nodded her head in agreement. "You are ABSOLUTELY right, Lila, sometimes it's okay to get a little dirty. Absolutely the case!"

The two girls laughed, and headed off to the minefield, the final obstacle. They weren't exactly hand in hand due to the distance between the two of them, but they were feeling like they were completing this competition together.

That just left one person left to get through the barbed wire. Serefina looked down at the prickly wiring, a little reluctant and wary. A sigh escaped her lips and she crouched down, squashing herself into the mud as she tried to crawl her way through the obstacle. It wasn't that much of a problem, she could get through it…

Almost. The problem was, as usually the case for her athletic performances, was the fact that her boobs were getting in the way. She was pressing them into the mud and trying to move through the mud in spite of the pillowing, which was starting to get inconvenient. Even running was more convenient than crawling through mud.

With a sigh on her lips, Serefina kept moving forward. She felt some pricks against her arms and neck, and especially hearing some tears in her clothes. She couldn't help it, her boobs were pushing her up too high to keep going.

Serefina didn't like this obstacle much at all, it was just the worst for her. But she suppressed her frustration behind a calm, locked jaw, and continued to crawl forward through the muck as more of her clothes were picked away at.

Serefina may not have been the biggest fan of the barbed wire and the mud pit, but Cynthia, on the other hand, was having a blast. She was trying hard not to drool as she imagined Serefina rolling around in the mud, or the potential wardrobe malfunctions that could arise, should the barbed wire hit a critical spot on Serefina's garb.

Cynthia was a rather shitty person that way, all things considered. But she would have to learn to keep it in her pants, because after a period of time that felt far too short for her liking, Serefina pulled herself out from under the barbed wire and stood up, wiping mud off of her clothes and skin. She had a sour expression on her face but she didn't let her frustration get the better of her. She jogged ahead, heading to the minefield.

Cynthia felt a sting of betrayal, cursing the structural integrity of Serefina's clothes. Seriously, couldn't she hope for even one little nip slip?!

Then she felt an intense look aimed her way. A shiver involuntarily rolled down her spine and she turned, shakily, staring at Maddi, who leveled a cold glare in her direction. Cynthia gulped, sinking under the weight of Maddi's glare.

Okay, she needed to be better than this.

That was what Maddi's glare was silently conveying, overwhelming disappointment in how much Cynthia was rooting for Serefina to expose herself in front of the entire student body. That was a pretty good point, Cynthia had to admit. She sighed reluctantly and nodded, guilt washing over her as she turned her attention back to the competition.

Cynthia needed to do better. Lusting after Serefina was one thing, but what she'd just done had probably crossed the line, even if she wasn't being openly perverse about it. It wasn't the same as fantasizing, she had been hoping for something that was absolutely not okay to happen, and she knew it.

Besides, she could still enjoy the sight of Serefina's boobs bouncing as she ran, mud splattering off of them, so it wasn't like it was a total loss, after all. With that in mind, Cynthia smiled brightly and began cheering again.

All the girls were moving through the minefield, and they were all moving cautiously through it. But it was Gabrielle who thought of the most clever strategy of the lot. Rather than begin walking from where she had been standing, she instead walked horizontally, just before the line, and entered Alcea's section of the field.

She followed in Alcea's footsteps, one step at a time as she walked right behind her, much to Alcea's amusement. It was a cold amusement, though, one tempered by her dignified air. She glanced over her shoulder at Gabrielle and her Glaceon, and raised her eyebrow.

"Following behind me, is it?" Alcea asked, a smirk pulling across her lips.

Gabrielle gave a silent nod in affirmation. It was the smartest decision, the smartest way to maneuver through the minefield. By walking behind like this, letting Alcea lead the way, she could allow Alcea to set off all the mines and traps, and remain nice and safe.

Gabrielle was used to trailing after Alcea, this was nothing new to her in the end. Alcea watched her with wry amusement and sighed, glancing down at Rosetta. Her Roserade shrugged her shoulders, not sure how to respond.

"Very well," Alcea said, turning and walking forward. She didn't mind that Gabrielle was following after her, clearly intending for her to trigger the booby traps and mines. She was Alcea Vermeil, she wasn't going to let something like that get the better of her. She would be fine, whatever traps awaited, there was no way she was going to flinch.

A beeping sound came from beneath her foot, and the ground exploded, ending another wave of cream up into her face.

Yes. She was Alcea Vermeil. Something like this wasn't going to bother her for a moment. She reached up and wiped the cream from her face, sighing dryly, and kept trudging forward with her head held high, noble that she was.

Alcea may have been the kind of woman who wasn't going to let herself get bothered by something like this, but even she had her limits. And she had to admit, it was rather annoying that she was the only one who had triggered those mines.

Alcea continued to move forward in spite of that, keeping her head held high. She knew that the road ahead would be a tricky one, but she wasn't about to-

She bit down on the curse in her mouth with everything she had at the sound of yet another beep from beneath her foot.

Gabrielle winced at another cream explosion, averting her eyes out of respect for Alcea's dignity, and she found herself nearly willed into laughter. After all, Alcea had been walking with such assuredness, and even though she was such a brave and noble woman, the fact that she kept getting blasted with cream from the mines was about as amusing as it got.

Kate was less than amused, however, trying to keep the curses out of her mouth even harder than Alcea was.

"What's with this dumb fucking minefield?! Who the fuck would make such a fucking piece of trash that would blast her highness with tons of fucking cream like that?! It's like this shitty thing was designed to be an affront to her highness's dignity, I can't believe such a fucking thing would be allowed to happen!"

…Well, "trying" was the operative word.

Unfortunately, trying to keep Kate from cursing was like trying to keep a Tentacool from swimming. She was just going to keep doing what she naturally did, and if you got in her way you were going to be stung.

Olivia watched Alcea get blasted with another facefull of cream, and a smirk crossed her lips. She probably shouldn't be seen laughing at her opponent's misfortune, but she couldn't help herself. She was delighted by the fact that Alcea was continuing to be barraged by all that disgusting stuff, and an ongoing smile remained on her face.

It was nice, seeing her get knocked down a few pegs. In the meantime, she was amused as well by the fact that Gabrielle was in a situation where she was following after her. It was rather adorable, honestly, like looking at a cute little pokemon imprinting on a human.

Olivia had to acknowledge the strategy of Gabrielle's plan, but she wasn't about to let herself get swept up in it, and do the same. Right now, she was more focused on her own strategy, trying to keep from stepping on the mines in the first place.

Yes, it would be smart to do what Gabrielle had done. But at the same time, she would then be forced to follow after Alcea.

And she was NOT going to let the image of herself trailing in Alcea's footsteps be projected to the student body. She was going to-

The ground beneath Olivia's feet gave out. She let out a scream and fell a few feet down into a hole filled with pillows. It was one of the booby traps!

Her face red with outrage, she stood up from the cluster of pillows and resisted the urge to hit the side of the wall in frustration. What the hell was up with that?!

Reiner felt a twang of sympathy for Olivia. He understood what it was like to be in that situation, courtesy of his sweet girlfriend. He glanced at Nikita and she looked innocently back at him, confused by the look in his eyes.

"Something up?" Nikita asked.

Reiner sighed, a wry smirk crossing his face. "Nikita, you haven't dug any holes around campus recently, have you?" He joked.

Then he saw the worried look on her face, and his joke became a lot less funny.

"Nikita?" He asked, his voice insistent and worried.

"…I'm thinking…!" Nikita said, averting her eyes from his.

Well, sometimes your girlfriend leaves her keys somewhere and doesn't know where she put them. And sometimes she does the same with holes. These things just happen.