Page 73 of Monster's Baby

“Stop!”Pierre said, gripping my shoulder.

I tightened my hold on the spells on our homunculus, letting the landslide carry the beast head over heels down the mountain.

The instant he hit the ground, I moved the mountain over it, and Joey and Carmine sliced through to the heart.

“Two to go,” Bruce muttered.“What now?”

“Knock ‘em over!”Joey cheered.

“Yeah, I think that’s a good plan,” Carmine said.

“Well, if you two agree, I guess that’s what we’ll do.”I tried not to let my amusement show, but Bruce elbowed me, so I’m not sure I was successful.

“Ready?”I said, warning everyone.I lifted the mountain, and the audienceoohed.Then, with the power of the other five minds melded with mine, I dropped it.

The resultingboomechoed through the stadium.Our platform shook with the force.The two humanoid homunculi fell over.

I quickly crawled the mountain over them, and Joey and Carmine made quick work of them.

Silence reigned in the stadium.

We moved the mountain in front of the judges, revealing the final two homunculi, and made it bow.

“With that astonishing and unexpected victory, Europe takes first place in the final event of the two-hundred and fifty-third Magical Olympics!”the announcer’s voice boomed.“Please deactivate your homunculus and then take your bows!”

CHAPTER18

After we thoroughly trounced theother competitors, we were whisked away to the closing ceremonies in Cairo.And by ‘whisked’, I mean that the entire audience and all the competitors were teleported by a handful of witches around the auditorium.

Ireallyneeded to look into the properties of the landscape in Liangshan Yi and how it exponentially increased the ley lines’ magical effects.

It should have been impossible to teleport that many people that far, but that only five witches managed to do it?

I was really excited to talk to Professor Akhtar about my observations.

The rest of the competitors swarmed the field, everyone shouting in excitement.I had to cast a muffling spell on my ears because the noise level quickly became overwhelming.

Somehow, Aiden found me in the press of people, scooping me up and raining kisses over my face.“I amsoproud of you,” he murmured.“You kicked ass.”

“It was Siobhan’s idea to make the mountain,” Bruce said.

“I didn’t come up with the mouth on the bottom, though.That was Carmine,” I protested.“And we made it bigger than I thought we’d be able to, thanks to everyone’s help.”

“We definitely had an easier time controlling our homunculus because it didn’t have limbs,” Pierre said.“That poor flying guy.It was a good idea, but they couldn’t control it.I’m glad we didn’t go with my idea of a dragon.”

“We all worked really well together as a team,” I insisted.“If there had been any egos, we wouldn’t have done as well as we did.”

Sofia blushed.“We almost had a hard time because of me.”

Joey put his arm around her.“And me.I’m glad we recognized the brilliance of our leader before it was too late.”

“You led us well,” Carmine added her voice to the others.

Everyone was looking at me.“Me?”I squeaked.“I didn’tlead.”

“You were the main controller of the mountain,” Bruce said with a smile.“It was your idea.You did a good job.”

“Say ‘thank you’, Siobhan,” Pierre said with a chuckle.