First Stage's Trials
Six point five eight seconds.
Liam smiled to himself. He had done pretty well for himself, but the sprint was merely the start of the first stage trials.
"Alright, applicants!" Mark barked as they all lined up behind the white starting line of the running track. "Listen up! For the next test, you will all run ten laps around this track, understood?"
A few of them went pale upon hearing Mark's words.
Run ten laps around the huge track?!
Many of them did not have the stamina for that. Even more simply had no desire to run such an absurd distance.
"Excuse me, sir."
A girl whose long white hair was tipped with blue raised her hand. Her blue eyes were cold and sharp, and her steady voice rang out.
"How large is this track exactly?"
Mark answered without missing a beat.
"This track has a perimeter of two kilometres. I advise you to conserve your strength and pace yourselves. All of you must have prepared yourselves for such an event, right?"
He swept his eyes across the group.
"Being a Hunter is equivalent to throwing yourself at some of the most dangerous creatures alive. By all means, you would have prepared yourselves to become students in this course, right?"
His words were met with silent agreement
"If you understand, then prepare yourselves. You have exactly one minute to warm up."
Can't argue with that logic, Liam thought as everyone began preparing for the race.
"Preparation is at the core of every successful hunt."
That's what Dad said, and he made sure I knew that it applied to a lot more than just hunting.
Liam stretched his legs, each giving out a satisfying pop.
I've kept up my fitness training, so even though I may not be overly athletic, I can definitely do a twenty-k without too many problems.
Liam paused his stretching and frowned as a sudden thought hit him.
Wait a second.
Is it just gonna be running?
For a simple sprint, we had to endure psychological warfare. Now we're racing. Apart from endurance, what else could be tested?
"Your minute is up! Everybody to the starting line!"
Those who had recorded the fastest times in the sprint were placed at the back, whilst those with the lowest were placed in front.
Fair?... Nah.
Liam gritted his teeth as he took his place near the centre of the group.
The pale guy with black hair... what was his name? He's crazy fast.
So is that tall blond guy.
"Ready...?" Mark shouted.
Liam exhaled deeply and felt his body grow hot as Mark gave the signal—
"GO!"
****
"Hey, Liam."
"..."
"Heeeyyyy. Liam."
"..."
Lisa frowned as the two continued to walk.
She sighed, then raised a hand and twisted his ear.
Liam jumped as he grabbed his ear, wincing in pain.
"Ow! What the heck!"
"Serves you right!" Lisa rolled her eyes at Liam's groaning. "Who asked you to space out whilst walking?"
Liam sighed, rubbing his ear.
"Was that necessary?"
Lisa turned her head, her expression clearly asking if he was stupid.
"So what? I just let you crash into someone like a stupid cliché? For someone so smart, it's sad to see you act so spacey sometimes."
"It's only sometimes..." Liam mumbled as Lisa took the lead.
"Did you say something?" Lisa turned, confusion on her face.
"No," Liam answered immediately. "...Anyway, what did you pick for your electives?"
Lisa chuckled as they went around a corner and stopped at a vending machine.
"Threat Assessment & Adaptation along with Scouting. I'm guessing you chose the same thing?"
Lisa smiled as she ordered two drinks and threw a can of soda at Liam after they came out.
"No way are you picking Tactical Command."
Liam caught the drink with a small laugh.
"Heh, yeah. Leadership is not for me."
Both popped open their sodas at the same time and took a large gulp of the cold drinks.
"Ahhhh..." Lisa grinned as she wiped her lips. "Now that hit the spot."
Liam nodded, and they continued the walk back to the dorms.
Lisa hummed as she continued taking sips from her can, whilst Liam took three more swigs, crushed the empty can, and threw it at a nearby trash-droid—a hovering trash can with thin robotic arms.
"I bet ten credits you miss," Lisa said.
The crushed object arced through the air and bounced off the rim of the droid's top.
"Ha! Pay up!"
"Doesn't count," Liam grumbled as he jogged over, picked up the can before the droid could, and dropped it into the machine.
The droid gave him a thumbs-up with its hand.
Liam reciprocated before walking back to Lisa.
"Sore loser," Lisa snickered as she lobbed her own empty can at the droid.
It fell perfectly into the machine.
She mock-covered her smug smile with the tips of her fingers, though she didn't bother holding in her snickering.
Liam rolled his eyes at her laughter and kept walking.
She was such a tomboy when we were little, Liam thought as Lisa poked him while laughing.
Always pulling me into whatever pranks she pulled on people. Then acting so smug when we succeeded that we got caught the moment a teacher looked her way.
Guess that hasn't changed.
"By the way, Liam..."
"Hm? Done with your smug-fest?"
Liam turned to her with a straight face.
"Nah," Lisa answered instantly. "Just curious. What were you thinking about that got you so spacey?"
"...Good question..." Liam muttered as he looked straight ahead.
She was definitely the silver-haired girl at the exam.
I was so preoccupied with doing well that I didn't observe the others that much. And now that I think about it, the Headmaster did say that everyone who applied was accepted.
Which meant the rankings alone hadn't decided admission.
Which makes sense, because that race at the beginning alone was wild...
****
What the hell?!
Liam jumped over another hurdle, then leapt to the left to avoid a small sandpit.
He almost collided with a short, brown-tailed girl but managed to leap back into his former lane before it happened.
The first lap had been perfectly normal.
The applicants just had to avoid crashing into each other and maintain their pace.
Some went straight for first place, like one loud, blue-haired guy.
The fast ones at the back—the tall blond, the pale boy, the grey-haired girl who had held her nose around Liam, and a few others—all wove their way through the crowd.
Liam paced himself, mostly ignoring his surroundings and focusing on his breathing and rhythm.
That was until they crossed the line for the next lap.
The loud boy in front yelled, and Liam looked up in time to see him jump.
"So it begins!" the boy laughed loudly.
Who is that guy?!
Liam stared as he neared the finish line.
Then he shook his head.
More importantly, what just ha—
The instant his foot crossed the line, the ground beneath his next step disappeared.
A foot-wide section of the track slid aside, revealing a miniature sandpit exactly where he was about to land.
Without skipping a beat, Liam pushed off with the foot still on the ground and landed farther away from the pit.
That was close—
A waist-high wall popped up four steps in front of him.
Before he completed those steps, Liam's mind covered much, much more.
First, tight competition and a test of endurance. Now there's a random obstacle course?
This is going to mess up my pacing! Ugh~!
Well, if that was the examiner's intention, looks like they succeeded.
A constantly changing obstacle course will force us to use up a lot more stamina than an ordinary race, and it'll force us to be on constant alert.
So they're tiring out the mind too... damn, they thought this through.
Liam vaulted over the wall.
When a hurdle popped up a few seconds later, he jumped into the next lane—
And landed directly in a small stretch of sand.
"Ugh!"
He grunted as he got back on track.
"This is messed up..."
For the rest of the race, the applicants encountered not just sand, short walls, and hurdles, but small pitfalls, mud, walls as tall as Liam, and two-foot-wide gaps in the track.
Some pushed themselves too hard, whilst others took it slow.
Those in front slowly dwindled in number, eventually leaving only nine people with a clear gap between themselves and the others.
The tall blond, whose movements and reactions were almost mechanical.
The pale boy, who had yet to break a sweat.
A boy with red streaks in his black hair.
The grey-haired girl.
Another girl with pure white hair tipped with blue.
A dark-skinned boy with an afro.
A short boy with minuscule black lines running across his skin.
Liam.
And the loud boy who had previously been in front.
This... is insane...
Liam's heart pounded wildly in his chest.
His pace had increased enough to remain competitive, but it was also fast enough to drain his stamina quickly.
As sweat dripped from his heated body, Liam leapt over a water trap, slid under a hurdle with a tall crossbar, and moved into the next lane to avoid a long stretch of sand.
He was too tired to think.
His body had practically shifted into semi-autopilot to avoid the obstacles.
For the past nineteen kilometres, all the applicants had undergone a race almost all of them mentally agreed was torture.
It had been a little over an hour for Liam, but a lot more for some of the others.
Almost... there...
Liam panted quietly as he saw the finish line several metres away.
No obstacles hindered those in front of him, so he deduced there would be none for the final stretch.
He smiled just a little at the thought, then lowered his head and pushed himself forward.
I'm gonna make it.
His ears caught the sounds of shouts.
I'm gonna make it, I'm gonna make it, I'm—
Liam's foot hit the ground.
The next thing he knew, he was falling straight towards it.
—not gonna make it?
His hands shot out and hit the ground to soften his fall, but they slipped backwards, and his nose made its acquaintance with the track.
It hurt, but Liam ignored the pain as yet another problem presented itself before him.
I'm... being carried? Backwards?!
He pushed himself to his knees immediately.
When he was carried back another metre in only a few seconds, he came upon a realization so horrible he nearly gave up.
The track... it's a treadmill?!
Indeed it was.
The very place where the race had begun had been turned into a fast-moving treadmill.
Liam gritted his teeth.
Seeing no other way, he jumped back onto the backward-moving track.
What's going on?!
He gritted his teeth in frustration.
This doesn't make any sense! How on earth are we supposed to complete this when we have to stay on track?!
Liam looked in despair at the finish line that never moved, yet was impossible to reach.
Soon, more applicants joined the stagnant race, some grumbling, some almost crying in frustration and pain.
Then there was a loud commotion at the front.
The tall blond had stopped running and stood completely still as the treadmill carried him backwards.
He didn't so much as flinch or look away as a few of the others shouted at him or stumbled out of his way.
When he reached the treadmill's end, nearly ten metres away, he took a few short steps back and said:
"If you have the energy to talk, focus it on getting out of that trap."
With that, he took two large bounds forward, crouched for a single second—
And burst into the air.
Some of the applicants actually fell in shock as the boy soared over their heads.
Liam, still moving, stared wide-eyed as the boy practically flew over all the others and landed in a wide crouch a few metres from the finish line.
"Well done."
Mark nodded with a small smile on his lips as he tapped something into the tablet he was holding.
"You may rest for now."
"How did he—?!" Liam exclaimed in shock, almost losing his steady pace.
The pale, black-haired boy who was now in front stopped running.
He then crouched on the moving treadmill and leapt the remaining distance, landing gracefully over the finish line as if he had calculated exactly where he would land.
"Good work," Mark said with another nod.
As groans of despair began to increase amongst the crowd, Liam began to slow down.
His mind moved quickly, taking in both boys' solutions, and Mark's reactions.
His wide eyes closed, and a minuscule smile appeared on his face, as if he had finally reached his limit.
He ignored the shouts and grumbles as he kept moving backwards, then came to a stop at the treadmill's end.
I've been going about this all wrong.
He bent over and held his knees.
Even my first thought was wrong.
'How are we supposed to complete this when we have to stay on track?'
Liam slowly straightened.
Well... no.
Seeing that blond guy made me realize something.
Liam walked off the track and onto the grass at the centre.
He passed his fellow applicants as he took slow, measured steps.
Several of them stared at him as if he'd finally lost his mind.
When he neared the finish line, he turned back towards the track and jumped across the corner, landing beyond the finish line.
He took a few steps forward before turning to their exam proctor.
Mark frowned, raising an eyebrow at the sweaty and exhausted boy.
"And just why did you do that? Did you think that counted?"
Liam didn't answer for a few moments as he tried to catch his breath.
Ultimately, he gave up and answered anyway, albeit through pants.
"Hahh... sir... no one... ever said... you had to... stay on track... to finish... right?"
Mark stayed silent as Liam pointed towards the blond.
"He... didn't stay on the track... to finish."
Mark glowered at Liam for several seconds.
Long enough that Liam started getting nervous.
Then a small smile broke out on the examiner's face.
"Indeed he didn't."
Mark looked at Liam for another moment.
"Impressive reasoning, boy. Well done."