บท 66: The five-minute rule
It was time for the brain to take control instead of submerging in fear and cowardice. Some might say that the apprentice mage was too scared or maybe too weak, but in the first place, he didn't have much choice. Nothing was helping him in a dark world. It was said that the past might be better than the present but everything was the same.
Not only he was pulled into a world where the strong hunt the weak, he was also weak. He thought that everything would be fine since he had his mind but he was wrong. Power was power. Nothing would replace the handful strength of the power. Nothing would prove that without any power, humans would survive. Luck might be a form of power but relying too much on it might squeeze it dry. Furthermore, focusing on variability like luck that shifted with time was one of the biggest mistakes. What if one day he met with someone with so much luck, if they clashed, he wouldn't win.
The fear that he felt a moment ago turned to anger. He wanted to become strong, so strong that he would be able to crash her into pieces. His only option right now was to survive and go beyond that test. He tested his luck enough and now it wasn't something reliable. Stephan looked ahead, approaching the first part of the race. A beep sound resounded each time he advanced a certain distance. He looked around and found the road he was on was divided into parts.
He stopped and looked around, examining why the beep sound resounded. Luckily for Aurora, Stephan didn't notice the clock that started counting again when she stopped. "What happened, Stephan? Are you having some doubts? The clock is ticking."
"Shut up! I am thinking," he returned his gaze to the road beyond. From the beginning of the second part, he assumed the whole road was divided, but for what? Each time he crossed a line, it illuminated with a green colour. He tried to return but there was a barrier, which meant there was only one option, to advance. "These parts and these lines… Does the five-minute rule apply for all this part? Does it mean that I can stay on each rectangle for five minutes?"
Aurora clapped her hands happily. "I didn't know Stephan was a clever man. You are an intelligent one," her voice was soft all this time. It was the voice of a young girl in love or like a child.
Every minute he used to his advantage was a minute that would help him greatly. He thought of asking her about a useful skill to train then he remembered her talk about the poison. He had a defective body. It was better to train his other reflexes instead, like agility or his muscles. It would come in handy in the future. Stephan decided that once he got finished with this entire past tense affair, he would train his physical body, better than not do anything. He would stir away from any troubles until he got enough handling of a way of combat.
He resumed his running but it was slower this time. He wanted to use the maximum time he got to think of a way to pass successfully the next phase. He stopped each time he reached a line and waited for the clock to hit the last five seconds then step to the next part. He kept going this way till he reached the next phase.
The first part of the race was left empty, approximately 500 meters divided into twenty parts, as a way for the runners to learn about the race and avoid dying in vain. The audience didn't want the participants to stop the entertainment early. Dying wasn't good in anyway. They needed the humans to bleed but not die. As Stephan spent his first ten road parts thinking of his wretched state, he wasted a lot of time. It looked like a huge game meant for real criminals. However, if a knight was taken to Earth, he would still be a murderer. Everyone was a criminal in their own way.
The second part had huge spiked bats swinging with different speed. It looked like all of them moved chaotically. His best call was to move one at a time. He was agile to a point he could do it in one ago and he didn't have masterful shield or barrier to protect himself from a hit. He would die on spot. He didn't want to die.
There wasn't anything holding them up. They floated in the air swinging endlessly. Stephan imagined giants swinging them and for a moment, he imagined the audience behind the dark areas. He had the impression he was in a theater, a box of dolls… He took a deep breath and stepped inside the second zone.
"What did you think about, Stephan? You took a lot of time coming to the second phase. Imagine if we had harpies behind us, it would be dangerous," she nodded.
"Right now, I don't want to hear your voice. It annoys me."
"But I am just helping you, dear disciple. Don't you know? I am doing this for your own good."
"You remind me of a story. It's a fairy tale all children on Earth know, about two girls; one, each time she talked, gems and gold came from her mouth, the second one, she had snakes, scorpions and frogs."
"Oh," her cheeks turned pink. "Then I must be…"
"The second," he cut her and stopped in front of the first spiked bat. He watched it move twice before he ran past it. It wasn't fast so it wasn't worrisome.
"That's cruel! I don't look like a mean girl," she pouted. To take revenge, she grabbed his hand and ran crazily, her eyes wide open, looking out for all the spiked bats. Stephan was shocked by her audacity. In an attempt to snatch his hand back, he stumbled and fell.
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