Chapter 9: Race through the forest

Chapter 9 - Race through the forest The sound of pine leaves being crushed continuously could be heard along with the sight of a black flash streaking through the woods at a high speed.

Kieran, running at a high speed, felt the wind against his skin which he had to say was rather liberating, took a few minutes to reach the rough clearing which could be considered the official starting point of the race and surprisingly he wasn't the first to reach there.

Pausing at the clearing he saw the white-haired guy whose gaze shone with disinterest arrive the same time as him, apart from that there were already around five people before he arrived which only served to increase the caution in his heart.

The five faces were ones he had never seen before, with only two among them having an aura that set them out, the rest looking like the average recruit but the white-haired boy who had arrived same time as him stared at one of them with blonde hair, his eyes burning with anger contrary to his indifferent expression from earlier, he seemed to have seen the person who murdered his ancestral lineage.

The person on the receiving end of this wrath filled gaze only glanced at him and looked away with a smile tugging his lips.

Another recruit who had a frigid presence only moved his eyes ever so slightly in their direction before losing interest. The white-haired kid having realized his mistake resumed his former indifferent posture which only lengthened the smile at the corner of the blond-haired kid's lips

All of this happened in the span of a few seconds and Kieran captured all their reactions, subconsciously excluding the three plain recruits.

Ignoring the exchange Kieran decided to wait a few minutes to inspect his surroundings and the moment he made that decision, the burly dude with the spiky hair rushed into the canopy of trees disappearing a matter of seconds.

Not long after, the second also made the same move, vanishing the beneath the cover of the trees. Taking that as their cue, the other three also rushed in, but Kieran ignored that and focused on inspecting the surroundings trying to see if his knowledge from earth could be put to use. The white-haired kid noticing his futile actions sneered in disdain before diving into the forest like the others.

After a few minutes of inspection with the appearance of no other contestant, Kieran stood up with a satisfied smile before also diving ahead into the huge canopy of trees.

Running ahead, he started to hear footsteps from his front and his sides betraying the presence of recruits exceeding the number of people he had seen go in. This didn't make him surprised but just reinforced the idea - that rough clearing wasn't the only one. He had that suspicion since the map was sent to their watches before they had been disabled.

Despite that, he was meant to be ahead of these recruits but unlike him, they didn't waste time trying to understand their surroundings like he did.

The trees flashed by him as he weaved past them and other recruits, Kieran pondered on a something he had noticed.

'This Forrest seems manmade, if that's the case then...'

His gaze sharpened paying more attention to the forest floor covered in pine leaves, and lightened his steps, adjusting the weight he put on his foot.

Although this reduced his speed, he felt it was worth it and as if to assure him of that decision, sounds of several recruits falling was heard from the front and on getting there they were discovered to have fallen into deep holes several meters deep which had previously been covered with pine leaves.

The other recruits were startled at this surprise but he calmly went through the area running in a weird zig zag motion avoiding all the camouflaged holes and leaving the stunned recruits to stare at his back in surprise.

'Fuck! Who would have thought dad's wilderness lessons would come in handy someday'

He thought to himself silently thanking his dad after passing through the region, his forehead glistening with sweat. It should have been easy for him to pass through safely but the forest seemed to have mutated made and it a lot harder but he got the hang of it.

Increasing his speed, he started to see the backs of some recruits that had passed him a while back, he could faintly see the dirty blonde guy.

Still, catching up was going to be a problem as the positioning of the holes became more complex, if they were formed naturally and random before, it felt like it was purposely placed by the soldiers now just only that-

"Ahhhh!!"

A recruit who had fallen into the trap screamed, but this time it was different, Kieran frowned, it wasn't a scream filled with shock or surprise, it was filled with pain, following that, several other screams of pain was heard from those who fell into the pits

Although this baffled him, he was confident in his ability to evade those holes, focusing on catching up with those three from earlier

Swoosh!! Bang!!

The pain he felt from his ribs cracking evaporated that sense of confidence as his body was raised into the air due to the collision, tumbling and rolling a few times before coming a stop. Luckily for him, he landed in a spot devoid of holes.

"Hmmm," groaning in pain, he took a sharp hiss because of the pain when he tried to stand up.

Managing to sit up, he noticed the cause of his current state, a smooth rock the size of two fists had crashed into his ribs.

Inspecting himself, his gaze darkened and his frown deepened

'Two of my ribs cracked, my lung slightly pierced, my body's sore from the rough landing and I'm out of breath. What the hell was that?!'

"They fucking set traps!!"

His question was answered when, a recruit who had encountered a similar fate to his. Although, his condition was far worse and he seemed to be out of the race with his legs being bent in an unnatural way as he screamed with hate and pain.

'Figures'

Kieran thought to himself in disappointment for not seeing that possibility, but he wasn't to blame as the extremely concealed holes with traps in them made the race hard enough, this only made it seem impossible, but he couldn't stop here.

From his mental clock, he had less than 45 mins more and he wasn't keen on failing his second mission in a row even though it was supposed to be an ordinary morning routine.

Forcing himself to stand up, Kieran remembered his only advantage in this place, his crazy constitution! The feeling of soreness had completely vanished and only the broken ribs remained and issue but they didn't sting his lungs anymore

'This should be enough, I can hold back anymore', he thought, his concentration peaking.

Unknown to him, his eyes took the same hue as the night he beat up Richard, before breaking into a mad sprint becoming a blur in the eyes of the other recruits.

Nimbly avoiding the holes and dodging the projectiles by listening to their movement through the air while also anticipating any new trap, he reached a state he had never reached before, his senses were inexplicably heightened, widening his perception and it even felt like his body didn't belong to him. It was a fresh experience and he was about to overwhelmed with the sudden increase in cognition, but he managed to push through.

He surpassed several recruits in a few seconds and felt like he could still go faster, so he did just that.

He sped up!

Whipping up the leaves on the forest floor, in no time, the white-haired guy appeared in his field of vision along with the blonde, they were both on the floor in pain, seemingly having fallen into the traps but Kieran had a different idea from their bruised faces and red knuckles.

Ignoring them, he sped up, surpassing their position in a second.

A few meters ahead, he saw the red-haired girl and the blue haired one having forgotten her name. They seemed to be working together, the blue hair's guards were absent possibly having fallen along the way, still he ran past them and from there the number of recruits reduced until there was no one in front of him.

The had lost track of time but he knew he probably had about two minutes more, thankfully he was approaching the end of the race path, the towering mountain once again in view. Crossing the boundary between the forest and the mountain, he rushed into an opening at the foot of the mountain, constantly adjusting the path he had picked at the beginning to get to the flat mountain top where they started from and after a few wrong turns, he managed to get there.

At the top of the mountain he saw the two instructors and the others who had yet to commence their punishment, searching further he didn't notice anyone until the figure of the spiky haired guy with a wild aura caught his eye.

'Seems I wasn't the first, but at least I made it',

he thought to himself but the instructor took away what little joy he was about to feel with his next statement

"Huh, finally someone, 5 minutes late. Hmph, this batch is rather disappointing"

His face dropped in disappointment at his own result, he didn't think he won't be so far off. He hadn't taken the exercise seriously until that accident. Walking to a corner he sat and dropped his face reviewing his performance and noting his own errors.

Five minutes later, the red and blue haired girls he had seen arrived which marked the arrival of a few more recruits and after another long wait, the instructor moved into action.

"It seems no one is coming anymore. Keith, send the droids to help those who are still stuck."

The other instructor gave a nod before vanishing into the mountain.