Tom watched the other two progress through the obstacles. There were moments of grace and periods of ineptitude both. The severe contrast between those moments was eye-catching. Briana’s performance was a this way due to her being a child, while Kang’s was driven by his maniacal training. The other reincarnator had, as always, imposed handicaps on himself to challenge and develop his coordination. Tom was very aware of the other boy’s Quick Step skill. It was a huge advantage – but, instead, of exploiting it, Kang was clearly attempting to obtain a secondary mobility technique. He was training one of Leap or Jump. This choice surprised Tom a little, but he guessed that, if Kang was going after a magical evasion tanking class, one could see how the ability to shift position vertically and in uneven territory could be considered vital.
Every chance Kang got, he was placing both feet flat on the ground and then springing forward as far as he could, completing standing jump after standing jump, and abusing fate the entire time at that. It was only a single point, but the boy’s pool was draining rapidly. For a moment, Tom considered the unspoken requirements of such a skill. He guessed these requirements would be something about producing a series of perfect jumps. A requirement might have been to demonstrate an ability with jumping off two planted feet with multiple trajectories, such as vertical, horizontal, or leaping across to higher or lower platforms. Then there was probably similar expertise required when running, and off each individual foot. Just like with Spear Mastery, there was probably a hidden list of a hundred of so different types of jumps, and he would have to get sixty percent perfect in order to to trigger the ability.
That was for the standard method. For the Earned Equivalent, Tom imagined it had a similar requirement, but with the amendment ‘and the perfect attempt also saved your life’.
“Tom, are you going again?” Briana yelled out happily from where she stood, watching the swinging arms and waiting for the perfect moment to dash through them.
Tom startled slightly at the question, and realised he had spent too long admiring their efforts.
He allowed his actions to speak louder than his words. Without responding verbally, he used his ring to handicap himself, then sprinted forward. From experimentation, he knew that the first cliff worked best if you hit it at pace. He leapt, slammed into it, and almost had his breath knocked out of him, but he had gotten the height he needed and he scrambled up successfully.
With the level he had set his handicaps at, his experience in previous lives meant nothing. By design, he successfully completed each run less than twenty percent of the time. That was so even with him challenging significantly easier courses than the other two, but the training and having his body react through adversity was excellent. The gravity was dialled up high enough that it impacted his walking speed, and it totally screwed with his ability to jump any significant distances. At its current level, he was physically unable to complete the next highest course, but the one he was doing was more about balance and agility than power, so he got away with the ridiculous restriction.
The agility requirement, however, made the electricity running through him problematic - which was just how he liked it. Because of that, he built in a large margin of error in everything he did. Where he could, he kept both hands on an obstacle as often as possible. It was a continual trial of adjustments, shifting both his grip and body positioning constantly to mitigate the impact of regular muscle spasms. Finally, Dampen Senses made even simple timing obstacles, the type Briana struggled with, but ones that his adult brain should have found easy, difficult to complete. Not being able to see past about five metres meant the motion of the later part of the puzzle was unknown, and thus couldn’t be adjusted for.
Every single run was a trial. There were enchantments built into the system that changed the patterns regularly, so there was no way to memorise it once and fake your way through afterwards. Danger Sense grumbled, but he ignored the warning. Being able to adjust to mistakes was important.
He dashed forward, having spotted a guaranteed gap for at least the first few metres. Then the rest of the pattern revealed itself, and he knew he was in trouble. After the warning Danger Sense had given him, he wasn’t surprised. Tom stopped, attempted to step back, but instead jerked as his quad muscle locked up. Anyone watching would have seen a child miss the timing of a movement and then get paralysed through indecision. The padded beam smacked into his ribs and sent him flying.Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.
Without hesitation, he spent one fate point with the image of strengthening humanity. Then he found himself bouncing off obstacles on the way to the ground. His body twisted and spun, and he used his acrobatic knowledge to reduce the impact. There was only so much he could do, and he had to protect his head by thrusting out a straight arm.
There was a crack in his wrist - an outcome he had predicted the moment he had decided to use his arm as he had. However, a couple of guaranteed but insignificant broken bones were better than risking a head injury.
He waited a moment, hoping for a result, but there was no welcome ding to offset his pain.
His entire wrist ached, and he had to bite his lip to avoid crying out. With a sigh and a curse, he went to the crystal and fixed himself up. It took almost forty seconds for the mending to take place, because specialist spells were needed to reset the bones that had broken and moved. It would have been far faster if he had supplemented the healing, but, as always, he was attempting to keep the breadth of his abilities under wraps.
When he turned around, he was surprised to see that Briana had left her obstacle course and was chatting with Eloise. If Tom hadn’t known better, he would have thought they were best friends.
As it was, he could smell trouble. Kang only shrugged when he caught the other boy’s eyes. Sometimes it felt like Briana considered Eloise to be a friend, but neither of the girls was laid-back. Their personalities clashed with each other. Eloise was not the type to take a backward step, and Briana was somehow the most competitive person he had ever met. She had to win at everything.
The two little girls were chatting busily and Tom was not at all surprised when they lined up next to each other on the paired obstacle courses, thirteen and fourteen respectively. It was the course Kang had been practicing on, with Briana doing the number fifteen and Tom having settled for number ten.
“This is going to end badly.” Kang said quietly to him as they both moved into position ready to cheer on Briana.
“I think it’s good.”
Kang grimaced slightly. “Not if she loses.”
“Focus on the prize, Kang. Think long term and not about how painful the next hour might be.”
The two contestants took off. Briana moved with her usual grace and agility, while Eloise was somewhat more tentative. Slowly, their friend drew ahead. His fellow reincarnator relaxed next to him. Tom personally wasn’t so convinced.
“I think, Kang, that a loss might be for the best. It will teach her. Winning will only give her a big head.”
Kang nodded. “It could work out. I guess, if she loses, she’ll just keep challenging Eloise until she gets her win. Apart from the likely late dinner, that’s not too bad.”
They both chuckled, Kang having had been on the end of that particular form of being overly competitive more so than Tom. There had been times when he had lost deliberately, after the tenth challenge, just so they could do something more interesting.
Briana reached the sheer climb, the second-last obstacle. She was a full ten seconds ahead of Eloise, and she started clambering up it immediately. The obstacle was designed for older and taller kids, which made it a severe struggle for children of their limited stature. They knew how to do it. They had to crab crawl sideways along the mock-rock face as much as going up to compensate for the inability to reach higher hand holds. It was the primary reason none of them could get competitive times against the teenagers – and also the reason why Kang, who was slightly taller, consistently beat Bri on the course.
Tom wondered if Eloise, not being as familiar with the climb, would even be able to get up it. They had all failed the first few times they had tried it.
She reached the wall at a run, with a big grin on her face, and leapt up. Her feet landed on empty air and she pushed off. To Tom’s stunned surprise she shot up the wall effortlessly. Three, four and a fifth jump off one foot propelled her to and then past Briana.
She grabbed the top, and with a struggle pulled herself up and over. She was now well ahead.
“Shit,” Kang whispered.
“I had forgotten about that,” Tom agreed.
For those who have gotten past the wall, there was a number of descending switch back tight ropes to reach the end. With her lead established, Eloise took her time to ensure she won, and, even with Briana sprinting recklessly down the ropes, she couldn’t close the distance.
Eloise danced on the finishing platform in triumph.
“Again.” Briana demanded.
The other girl shook her head. “I can’t.” She touched her head. “I have the start of the headache. I won’t be able to use force step for ten minutes.”
“That was cheating. Let’s do it without any skills.”
Eloise disagreed with a shake of her head. “I won. I have nothing to prove.”
“Best of three, and no waiting around.”
It was clear that Eloise was not going to change her mind.
“I bet you I can beat you.” Tom volunteered knowing, how Briana would respond before he did so, but the distraction was needed so he took one for the team.
“You beat me? Never! You can’t…And no, I don’t want to challenge you. I’m going to beat Ellie.”
“Then, Kang, I challenge you. Prepare to be humbled.”
The other reincarnator chuckled, but lined up with him.
“Doing it with a skill’s cheating.” They heard Briana proclaim. “So the win doesn’t count.”