Chapter 93 - HQ Final Obstacle Course Test - Part 2
Kipset, when arriving in front of Zephyr, stared calmly at the obstacles past him, and especially at the old guys who seemed to challenge some participants on a weird interval.
'I should be mindful of those old guys on the track. I would get done like Inor by the last old guy and lose on time.'
'I should get this track in 6 minutes. Now let's see what the old guys have for me.'
Looking at Zephyr together with the rest of the young marines, the purple-haired old man gave them the go.
The start began with 4 people distancing out from the other 6 who were slightly behind.
Kipset looked around himself and noticed that Hina, a muscled guy he didn't know his name and another young girl with dark-blue hair and a slender body.
'Hoh, these people are really good. I expected Hina to stick around with me, but the rest?'
Taking his attention off the people taking the test, Kipset tensed his chiselled muscles and ran faster than the rest of the people.
Yet when he did that, the well-built guy snorted and started running faster, arriving close to Kipset.
"Don't you get the idea you can beat me. You're too young for that."
The girls also felt challenged and pushed harder to reach the two but were some steps away from reaching them.
The first obstacle came, and Kipset with the well-built guy climbed it simultaneously, soon arriving in front of the first old man who looked at them with a creepy smile.
"You come quite fast lads. Let this old one test your reflexes."
As he said that, he took a spear in his hand and started doing some thrusting cuts with it. First staring with some slow thrusts before picking up the pace, having both the well-built guy and Kipset start doing fast dodges until they left his range.
The old man was left whistling, impressed at what he saw, but he soon noticed the pink-haired girl and dark-blue haired girl, giving them a wide smile.
"Go on little dolls if you can dodge some of this old man strikes you can move and catch faster those annoying brats."
Hina and the dark-blue haired girl looked at the old man who drew his spear, preparing for a strike.
Their eyes focused, but when they saw how easy-going the old man expression was and manner of attacking, they wanted to chuckle a bit but kept their serious side.
Dodging the first old guy strikes, the two of them passed toward the other obstacles.
"Argh, I missed them. Those dolls are so fast that they managed to dodged everything.
Hey Zephyr, you saw it all. You better don't have a problem." said the old guy when the girls passed him.
"Hmph, that's why you remained bachelors. Whatever, this test is just to see how much they can push themselves and motivate one another to reach the end goal faster."
As they were saying that, Kipset and the well-built guy talked a bit while running.
"You aren't half bad tanned guy. What is your name?"
"Kipset. You too aren't half bad, I thought that in the physical aspect I was at the top."
"Well, it seems you've been wrong Kipset. I'm Draw. You better remember this name."
"Don't worry, I will remember it."
Talked Kipset and Draw for a brief moment before they arrived at one of a harder obstacle that required focus.
Passing that obstacle, they arrived at the second old guy who, like the first one, welcomed them with some attacks that pushed them even harder on their limits.
They moved out of that old guy range, who welcomed the girls with some attacks compared to the Kipset and Draw ones.
"Hey, weren't you supposed to go easy on us?" asked the dark-blue haired girl while she dodged the strike of the old guy fastly.
"Hehe, little girl don't take this test so lightly, is unknown when we old guys will change our minds since we've started getting senile."
"Hmph, it's not like I can't dodge those attacks."
Ended saying the dark-blue haired girl called Ain while dodging the strikes and moving out of his range.
Hina also thought while being attacked by the old guy.
'Should I use my devil powers and make a new route toward the other part of the track? No, this will make the old guys target me and get a bad time. The guy with smoke tells me everything.'
Just as Hina ended thinking that she already moved a bit away from the old man, soon leaving him and moving to the next target. She could see Draw and Kipset backs in the distance from where she. Similarly, she saw the dark-blue girl Ain who started distancing from her.
"Aaaa, Hina got distracted." said Hina with a slightly frustrated face.
Meanwhile, while Hina and Ain were having their own duel of abilities, Kipset and Draw maintained their high speed, while on their faces their serious side could be seen crumbling a bit, leaving out a small smile.
After passing the 3rd out of 5 examiners, the two also started fighting along their way to the 4th. Giving one another leg kicks and fast jabs. Those attacks were flowing along as the two guys were running and climbing difficult obstacles.
They arrived at the 4th examinator while maintaining their fight.
"Those brats take me for nothing here."
Commented the old man while also entering the fight, separating both. Following their separation, he quickly sent a kick toward Kipset and Draw that released a wind moving aggressively toward them.
"Hey tanned guy, you better dodge that, we still have to continue our fight after passing this old guy." said Draw while tensing his muscles to dodge in time the tempest attack, leaving him sweating a lot.
Kipset saw the strike moving toward him and remembered a strike Commodore Kirin sent while displaying his skills around for the new recruits at the branch.
'I better dodge this or it will hurt.'
Tensing his muscles just like Draw, Kipset jumped out of harms ways. He then looked at the tempest kick, still continuing until hitting and shattering a large rock.
As this strike ended, the old man gave a sly smile and threw another tempest kick toward Kipset and Draw.
This continued until the two managed to get from his kicking range right before two girls who were sweating a lot appeared.
"Well, hello there little dolls. I thought you would come later. I'm not really in the mod to play with you since I got to do some light exercises with those 2 guys. Here, dodge some of my Tempest Kicks and I'll leave you to quickly follow those guys. Maybe you'll best them."
Ain didn't wait for the old man to end his talk and started moving toward the following part of the track. Hina also did the same thing getting almost shoulder to shoulder with Ain.
"Tsk, these little dolls are so rude. They don't want to have some fun with this old geezer. Then here I come."
"[Tempest Kick]"
As the old man said that, multiple flying energy slashes were moving toward the fleeing girls, approaching them at a rapid pace. Ain heard something approaching behind her back and crouched down, letting that flying attack move past her. Another series of strikes began moving toward her, but she dodged all the attacks by a hair strand using her agile, slender body.
Meanwhile, Hina managed to dodge most of the attacks, but at the last moment, when she was almost out of the examiner range, a larger Tempest Kick approached, looking powerful.
"Black Shield"
Cried out Hina while around her body cage bars began morphing into something similar to a black shield.
The sound of the clash between the shield and blue energy wave subsidies as seconds passed before dispersing in the sky. As a consequence of blocking this attack using that black shield, Hina got pushed on her knee, however she raised quickly and started sprinting to catch Ain with an annoyed expression on her face.
Yet before she left for good, another [Tempest Kick] moved toward her back, which made her grit her teeth, summoning yet again her [Black Shield]
"This old guy starts to annoy Hina. Hina will rank low because of him." said Hina with an angry hint in her tone, while her expression remaining stoic.
"Hehe, little doll, I've heard you. You got quite the interesting devil powers. I'll remember you." said the old examiner with a smile on his face while taking a seat on the ground before waving at Hina.
Not bothering herself with the old examiner, she followed after Ain, the dark-blue haired girl who had a decent lead over her.
As the girls were rushing for the 5th examiner, Kipset and Draw had already passed the obstacles placed before them. Soon they started encountering the 5th examiner.
When they arrived where the examiner was, they noticed the frail-looking old man who seemed to take a nap on the ground.
"Hey dark skin, what do you think of this old fart? Should we pass him and let him sleep, or is it a trap?"
"I don't know meathead. But I doubt he's really sleeping. Let me check on him."
When Kipset ended saying that, he took a decent size rook from the ground and seemed to want to throw it at the old man.
On the other side, there was someone outside of the testing ground who watched with a big evil smile on his face before roaring toward Kipset.
"DO IT KIP. THROW THAT RIGHT ON HIS HEAD!?" roared Inorra outside of the test grounds, scaring some of the guys when they heard his roar that contained some craziness.
"Pathetic. Do you really hold a grudge on that old man?" commented a girl who was also watching the testing ground.
"Hmph, what do you know beauty? Obviously you'll say that because the old guy handed you the win." said Inorra while staring at the crimson-haired girl, Isuka.
While their bickering continued, Kipset on the ground did indeed throw that rock but not toward his head, instead choosing to go close to him.
"Argh, what time is it? Where am I right now? Right, right, it's those little shits tests."
That was something that Kipset and Draw heard from the old man who was slowly rising up.
"Fuck, you shouldn't have done that."
"What if it was a trap? We'll just have to pass the old guy. Good luck."
"Damn, you better don't look for help."
By the time Draw ended saying that, he tensed his body and rushed toward the old guy who was seated right on the path they had to take to get out of the test ground.
"Ohh, you're one of those brave guys. Good, good, I might need to warm my bones a bit."
After he said that, he picked a wooden sword from the ground and starred with a still sleepy face at Draw, who was approaching him. He did a simple sword strike when Draw arrived in his range.
Draw noticed that strike and used his muscled arms to block the wooden strike.
"Argh, damn it, that hurt so much. What are you made of, old guy!?"
"Flesh and bones." said the frail old man with an amused expression before he continued his attack.
Kipset saw this as a chance to act and bypass the two fighting, not wishing to waste his time on a pointless fight.
"Where do you think you are going you little shit? Come let these old bones test you."
Then Kipset saw the old man send a sword wave toward him and jumped out of harm's way before getting back on the track to living the old man range.
"No thanks, I have to win a race here. Maybe I'll spar with you after some more years."
