The hivemind is conquering for me?

”Go on! Go on! Have it Son!” ”You got it! You got it!” ”Don’t you dare fucking stop now man!”

Screams from an assortment of men were heard as Gabrielle and I approached the lake. The lake itself was breathtakingly beautiful. The nature of the place was not cut away for ’convenience’ so the planet’s jungle hugged the edge of the clear blue water right up to the small beach that connected the lake to the college.

There were no fences here either to mask the beauty that was nature. This part of the lake was a small cove that was cut off from the rest of the lake and had, thankfully, shallow waters only ten feet deep And with the water being perfectly clear, it meant it was perfect for swimming.

Though no one was swimming now. ”Everyone shut up! I’m concentrating!” A burly man said as he was pulling with his entire might on a thick line made up of what appeared to be some unique Psionic energy from the way my eyes were perceiving its shimmer..

He was standing on a small wooden jetty surrounded by a group of men with similar body compositions. Thick. In the muscular way, not the enjoyable way... Looking out to where he cast the line, which was about the width of my arm, he had thrown it quite some distance as it was well past the cove line and was deep out into the lake.

”So, Apollo, how about a quick dip?” Gabrielle asked me as she began to unzip her body suit. I looked at her a second as the zipper began to show her cleavage before turning away. ”Um, sure, in a minute. I just want to check what the commotion is about.” I said before walking towards the pier, leaving Gabrielle momentarily stunned before she zipped back up.

’So first he can’t stop looking and now I can’t even get a glance?...Men... I love him so much’ She thought before she began following hastily.

”Hey, what’s going on?” I asked as I approached. A man wearing no top and looked like he had just come from a body building competition looked back and his eyes went uncomfortably wide.

”We got another one! Kid hurry up and get here before Iilr goes in for the snag! We need all hands on deck!” Before I knew it the man had grabbed me and easily picked me up like I weighed nothing and I was crowd surfed to the front of the burly men.

As I was put down the person who did let out a heavy breath. ”Fuck a duck, you are heavy for a leaner chap.” I ignored his compliment before turning to the guy who’s line everyone was watching. He was basically wrapped from head to toe within his own line now, seemingly using his own body as a mooring.

”So, what’s going on? What’s with the crowd and the line?” The man, Iilr, looked from the corner of his eye and glanced at me briefly. ”Haven’t seen you here before... Nnnnghh! I’m wrestling with the lake beast.”

”The lake beast?”

The man seemed taken aback and gave me a proper look, causing him to jolt slightly as his line moved before his attention was drawn back to it. ”Someone explain to the freshman.” I was then manhandled again and spun around on the spot as another bodybuilding bald bro started to explain.

”The Lake beast is one of the Psionic Goliath’s on the moon. It is relatively harmless and lives most of its time in the subterrain ecosystem of the lake. But, for some reason, every few days a few hours after sunrise, the beast comes up to the surface lake. It’s harmless mostly, not some monster despite its size, but it seems to enjoy taking part in the feat of strength.”

The man paused and looked directly into my eyes, like he was expecting me to press his dialogue button or something. This clearly didn’t need to be a back and forth, he could just continue...

He continued to stare at me, eyes hungry with the urge to get out what he wanted to say. I sighed internally before asking robotically. ”What is the feat of strength?”

He clearly had been waiting and within a breath his mouth verbally vomited. ”The feat of strength dates back thousands of years back to king Leondis, whom the planet we are orbiting is named for. Apparently when he arrived on this planet he took a dip in these very waters just after sunrise and encountered the beast. It said they fought for hours, both sides were able to land killing blows, but each time they continued their fight, enjoying it. After the fight, the king declared the beast must never be harmed except in the name of sportsmanship. As such, to this day, anyone that wishes to pass the trial must use their abilities to win their contest. Illr is going for a tug of war. He says he is still decades from being ready, which is why we are here to help with the pulling for practice. The beast is gigantic so it’s still a fair competition with us all here.”

Despite my fear of ocean gigantism, the thought of a friendly goliath so close made me think of Nukumi again. I was curious as to what the creature looked like. I then glanced at Iilr and looked at the man, impressed. ”So he is tugging with the beast now? That’s impressive.” I said, causing the man to snort out, amused.

”Ha! Please, the beast is simply toying with me while its doing whatever it does for the few hours its in the upper lake. No, it’s when it dives, that’s when the fun begins.” Iilr then began focusing again, the beast toying with him taking up almost all of his attention.

Quite ironically, I was hooked now. Anything with a history attached to it had me invested. I wanted to be a part of this trail, see how I match up against this beast when it was time to help Iilr

Gabrielle watched on to the side, shaking her head. She had remembered when she got access to classified information regarding Psionic hot zones a decade ago and about this beast, but it had long been erased from her memory. She was overcome with grief after all. The only thing she recalled about the beast was something to do with scales. ’It had them... Or didn’t have them?’

Her helpful thought aside, She continued to watch as her son bonded in the excitement of the game the boys were playing. Tears threatened to fall, but she held them back. She was creating a core memory right now. Watching her son have fun. She couldn’t taint it with sadness, this was a happy occasion. The time of sadness was erased the moment she knew her Apollo still lived.

She observed lovingly until the man next to him shouted as he began untangling himself from his rope. ”Quick to the beach! I am not paying to have the jetty fixed again!” In unison, the band of men began sprinting to the end of the jetty and onto the sand where the man ran further ahead from the rest before travelling horizontally to them, the men then reached for the rope as it came to them as they braced, preparing to help in the feat of strength.

”Don’t hold back Freshman! The fucker is about to dive!” Iilr yelled as the rest of the twenty men proceeded to get into a tug of war position. Where I was holding the rope, a small hoop emerged with a turquoise glow before taking on the properties of the rest of the rope.

I took hold of the support with one hand and braced on the base rope with the other and began pumping my legs full of energy, causing them to begin to physically expand. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but considering the fact they had managed to lift me earlier, even though my Gyrokinesis does displace a great deal of weight, It meant these men were incredibly strong in their own right and I was taking no chances.

”Brace!” Iilr shouted as we could all see the rope beyond the cove begin to dip under the water at an incredible pace and then into the cove and right up to ”GRRRRRR!” We all groaned simultaneously as the sheer weight we were holding between ourselves was immense.

”Fuck me!” I yelled through gritted teeth as my feet became encased in the sand. Whatever was in that water was massive as the whole line buckled forward. ”Hold!” Iilr’s voice sounded like a general, giving us all a slight amount of vigour as we fought against the drag with all we had.

For five straight minutes, my body went through war, my legs were the size of my torso at this point as I utilised all of my Potential from Sapphire’s original body. We had been pulling and pulling and had not moved an inch, until.

We all simultaneously took a step back, I lost my balance as the kinetic energy stored up basically springed me backwards, along with everyone else. Thinking the rope snapped, I sat upright, dejected, but satisfied with the workout I just did. That was until from behind me Iilr shouted with the excitement of a child within his voice.

”It’s coming up to breach!”