Explosions are great. Really awesome. Whenever I watched them in movies, I always cheered.
When you're the one doing the exploding? It's not so fun. Trust me.
Being the competitive person I was, I was this close to beating Hephaestus in the race when her spell suddenly vanished from my body and the full power of attempting to move at light speed hit me like a planet.
It felt like having my veins soaked in lead then thrown into a furnace and slammed into the ground repeatedly and the stuffing a grenade in my stomach. And having all of that happen at once.
Faster than a mouse aimed for cheese, I flew back in a mess of blood, flesh and bones and crashed into the ground.
My consciousness went hazy and I just barely had time to activate my healing magic.
Dense, green, healing mana rolled into my body and turned the figures that barely resembled a humanoid back into a shape resembling myself.