Book 2 - The Usurper from the Wilds: Chapter 23; A Strategic Stampede

The screen turns on as the chapter title plays "Chapter - 23; A Strategic Stampede".

It's still the side street with a ton of stalls with people selling their stuff but now Grim, Yuu, Ace, and Deuce are also walking along it.

Grim is floating looking at every little thing especially the food stalls as he floats back to the group, shouting "Myaaah! Get a load of all the food stands! They got churros and funnel cakes, and…" as he looks around more then spots something else as he shouts "Ooh, is that jerky!"

But Ace and Deuce are more somber and sad as Ace says depressingly "Man, I can't believe I didn't make the team after all that." Deuce says "Me neither…"

But Yuu shrugs as she pulls them to half hug on either of her sides and tells them "There's always next year!" Deuce smiles as he gets out of the hug with renewed hope and says "Well, we have an important job to do anyway. We should focus on that." Ace is also smiling as he gets out of the hug agreeing "Yeah, good point. Focused. That's us." Yuu shakes her head fondly at them.

The trio then overhear Grim shouting excitedly "Whoa, what's a corn dog?! I wanna try one! Come to papa, whatever you are!"

Ace grabs Grim by his paws as he wants to move along shouting at him "Eat later! We need to go!" Deuce follows along as Ace had started fast walking to their spot while pulling Grim who was still trying to go off and get food from the stalls. Yuu face-palms as she fondly shakes her head, lightly jogging to catch up the other three.

It then switches over to the entrance area of Savanaclaw dorm where most of the dorm is standing waiting to go. Leona checks the time as he states "The players should be reachin' the stadium soon."

Ruggie looks at something before smirking and telling Leona "Everything's set. We're ready to go whenever." Leona states "Last year's champion will be up first – that's Diasomnia." he then lets out a laugh before saying "My heart's pumping now." Ruggie does another strange laugh "Sha ha ha!" before saying with enthusiasm "Then let's get going!"

It then switches back over to the side street as there is an announcement coming through the PA system, that shouts slightly like Crowley but isn't exactly. It does a small test to see if it's really on and working then shouts out "...Welcome, one and all, to the Night Raven College interdorm Spelldrive tournament!" Thank you for your patience. The players will be entering the stadium momentarily!"

At that the audience cheers quite loudly "WOOOOO-HOOOOO!"

The PA system announcer then introduces the first dorm up that starts to walk through the street to the stadium "First up will be last year's champion. But can Lightning really strike thrice? Give it up for the Reigning Light…" as the announcer pauses for suspense before shouting incredibly loudly "DIIIIIAAAAASOOOOOMNIIIIIAAAAA!!!"

It shows the team passing through the street as the crowd cheers loudly "WOOOOOOOOOO!!"

Ruggie is seen on a higher place overlooking the street, although where exactly is not clear. He looks over the street as he says "Ooh, what a crowd! It should be plenty large enough…" as he does the signature laugh again.

Ruggie looks down at a pouch as he grabs out a glass vial with the potion as he says "First, to drink Azul's potion…"

He then drinks it before gagging then saying "Blech! What IS this?! It's awful! It's like…a stew someone made with gym socks."

He then shakes his head telling himself "Urgh… Okay, get it together, Ruggie. Let's go. Time to fire off my signature spell/unique magic…Let's send the audience running like a stampede of wildebeests!"

Ruggie then picks up his magical pen saying "Okay, folk…" Before shouting his signature spell/unique magic "Laugh With Me!" He then casts his spell on the crowd.

An audience member asks "Huh? What's that sound? What is going on over there?" as he hears a sound. He then looks over to where the noise originates and once he sees it he shouts "There's a whole bunch of people charging at the players!" A person who was charging shouted at the others "Wh-whaaaaa?! My body, I can't control– Ah! Out of the way! Out of the way!" Another audience member shouts "EEEEEK! Don't push me!" Then one of the more responsible audience members shouts to others "Run! Before you get crushed!" Then all of the audience/crowd was shouting "AAAAAAAAAAHHH!!" as they were either being controlled to run or trying to run away.

The PA system asks confused "What?" before someone else tells him and he shouts "What's happening?! Spectators are converging in some sort of reckless stampede!" The PA system then shouts at them "Everyone please, calm down! I beg of you!"

But the crowd is just screaming "WAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!"

It then switches back to Ruggie as he excitedly and slightly manically shouts "Whoa… Azul's potion is insane! Look how many people I can control at once!"

He then starts panting as the magic strain is starting to take its toll on him. He says "I don't know how many more…" as he's interrupted by a pant "...I can handle, but this…should be enough!"

He then seems to get his second wind as he shouts "Let's see what you do now! Surely you wouldn't use magic against civilians? You're the Prince of the Fae, Malleus. Even if you wanted to, you wouldn't dare! So get squashed instead!" as he does his signature laugh.

The PA system then commentates, shouting as it's surprised "The rush of stampeding spectators is headed right for the Diasomnia players…!" It then pleads to the crowd "Everyone, run away! Please, run awaaaaay!"

The crowd/audience is still screaming "WAAAAAAAAAH!!!"

A Diasomnia boy with silver hair shouts "If they keep coming, we're gonna get crushed! Everyone, protect Malleus!" As a tall boy with neon-pastel green hair also from Diasomnia shouts "This way, Housewarden! Malleuuus!" But as he turns to face and look at his housewarden, Malleus, he sees something horrific as he shouts out "N-no! We're too late!"

But the crowd is still running at them as the tall boy shouts "Oof!" as he's run into by one of the people as he continues to shout "We're getting crushed!"

The silver haired boy then shouts in a surprisingly dry tone "AAAAAH! MALLEUS, NOOOOO!"

It then switches back over to Ruggie as he's barely standing with his hands on his knees bent over gasping for air as he looks at the crowd and Diasomnia as he shouts exhausted "It worked! Exactly as we planned it!"

The screen then fades to black as "To be continued" plays before it fully turns off.