When we passed through the portal, it was just as I expected. Everyone stopped. The Lake of Doom isn't called that for nothing. The objective is to cross it, but you can't swim in it. The muddy water not only contains various dangerous sea creatures, but it's also extremely poisonous. If your body is soaked in it for too long, you're sleeping with the fishes. Even if I constantly apply Cure All on myself, even I can't survive in that thing for more than 30 minutes.

"Oi, is this really a lake?"

"It's so big… it looks more like a sea."

"We gotta seriously swim that far?"

"You idiot, haven't you read a little history? You're gonna die if you try to swim in this."

A few students have already started to become restless. It's understandable though. To cross this thing you need out of the box thinking.

"Move."

Dante made his way near the water. He seems dead serious. He snapped his fingers and in the next second the earth around him cracked. He made a small island, big enough for one person and used wind magic to make it float. This reminds me of Magneto somehow. He also generated a small metalic surface for him in the movie to fly. And now Dante was doing something similar. 

Without minding anyone else he started propelling himself across the water. Honestly I'm a bit impressed. This guy might be my only real competition. 

"Wow! That's Dante for you!"

"What are you fawning over? This is a competition. Can you do something like that?"

"Umm… no."

"Come on guys. There's more than one way to cross this thing!"

The students started to try figuring ways to cross the lake. Some chanted some summoning spells to call forth various flying familiars. Giant owls, bats and even a big dragonfly, all of them to fly across the lake. It's worth mentioning that this lake has anti flight wards. Creatures with actual wings can fly, but flying magic is cancelled out. 

Others teamed up to form an ice bridge. Casting the basic spell Freezing Shock forms a nice ice surface on the lake. However it doesn't last long. People rotated and constantly applied it to extend the bridge forward. It is an option I suppose.

"Yuri-nee, should I split the water and create a path?"

Although I'm confident Lumi-chan can pull off a biblical move… 

"No. I don't want to reveal your strength or perhaps even your identity. It isn't the time to do flashy moves like that yet. So that's not an option. Rather than that… Shizu, can you handle this?"

"Yup! No problem at all. Do you want me to create that 'speed boat' vessel you taught me about?"

"Yeah. Please do."

I occasionally mentioned to Shizu things from back on Earth. Although creating weapons or engines or cars is pretty much impossible. Without a blueprint and an understanding of how they actually work, you can only create the shape, but it won't work. Even the speed boat concept, the boat itself is going to work. But no engine. That won't be an issue though, because I have a replacement for it.

"Alright, Yurishia. It's all done!"

Shizu's crafting skills are amazing as always. She doesn't didn't even need the moon stone for this. The other stones she had were enough. After we pushed the boat into the water I pull out of my storage a plain staff with a green jewel attached. This was a wind stone. I mined all sorts of stones way back for Rio, and Shizu refined them for me. This toy is one of them.

"Hey Bessie, put the tip of this in the water. The stone will handle the rest."

"Okay, Boss."

As soon as Bessie put the staff into the water, the magic activated. Like an engine, it propelled us across the lake. It was time to take this race serious, hehe!

------

"Darn it! I didn't think the first round would waste so much of our time!"

The students that paired up and rotated to build the ice bridge were frustrated. Although this was a reasonable method to cross the lake, it was also time consuming. Meanwhile, the students that chose to summon familiars to take them…

"Oh look. We're catching up to Dante!"

"Yeah, matter how good he is he can't compare to actual flight."

"Oi… is it just me or he stopped?"

It wasn't their imagination. Dante has stopped his levitation. With sharp reflexes he jumped back. The platform he created was blown to bits. Various hideous tentacles emerged from the lake. However, even without the platform, Dante was skilled enough to walk on water. More and more tentacles, some even having mouths with sharp fangs emerged from the water.

The students that flew too close to the water surface were easily caught and pulled under.

"Whoa! Up! We gotta go higher!"

"What the hell is that thing?"

"Filthy Mazoku! This lake is my domain! You all will die here!"

Various tentacles once again assaulted the students. It was sinister because they emerged from everywhere and didn't seem attached to a main body. The ones that were heading towards Dante were imediately block as he deployed the demon barrier Fuka.

"So you show your fangs, guardian. I've read stories about you. The protector of the Lake of Doom. And the cause it's so dangerous."

"Silence! I am just trying to protect what little life this lake has left. You are the evil ones! Die!!"

"As much as I would enjoy testing my skills against you… sadly, this is a race, so I lack the time for it."

Dante placed both his hands forward and a large magic formation was drawn.

"This is what happens if you block the way of a king. [Perfect Freeze]!"

In the next moment a bright light flashed. A vortex of mana started to freeze everything. The surface of the lake for roughly a 100 meter radius, along with the tentacles. It almost like a huge ice sculpture. 

"Hmph. This is enough for now."

Dante nonchalantly continued his advance. This time however, he used a chunk of ice as a surf board and used water magic to continue his movement. Roughly 10 seconds after he left the area, the entire ice cracked and even more tentacles emerged.

"Mazoku!! Mocking me like that… kill… I'll kill every last one of you!!"