Chapter 9 Target Practice
I wonder if Mr. Griffen wants me to fail on purpose by adding this twist. From the looks on everyone's faces, it doesn't happen often. Well, all I have to say about that is.
BRING IT ON
A good challenge and new things always appealed to me, and this fit perfectly. I line up with all the nervous-faced contestants. I smile as I look around to where the rest of the students stood. Some had bows with dull-tipped arrows to shoot at us. They will probably hurt like hell when they land their mark. I will make sure they miss. I notice Kayla telling her groupies where to go, and I was sure what and when to hit me with items. Some neon, bright green balls caught my eye. I assumed they must be some sort of goo that would slow me down in some way. I would have to make sure to say far away from them, seeing how I did not know what they did.
Mr. Griffen stood in front of us as we stood at the starting line. With a cocky smirk on his face. He looked right at me as he spoke to the group of "newbies," as he called us. I smiled right back at him.
"All right, as I said before, other students who passed in previous years will try to make you fail. Also, the five with the slowest times will be disqualified as well. So run fast and think fast. The first thing you do is you must army crawl as fast as you can and select two weapons or tools to help you with this then with the selected items you must scale the twenty-foot wall and make it to the other side. Once there you will pull an envelope with a piece of paper that will have a picture of an item you must find in the sand trap. Then Run down the track and swim through the pool with your item. On the other end of the pool, you will find a hook with keys on it. You must find your key with the emblem of the item you have. Once you have the key you must use the key and put your item in the lock box it belongs to. Then race back to the start line to finish. Got it? Good. GO!"
And just like that, we were all running and diving under the barbed wire. I could hear the swoosh of arrows in flight. Every so often, I hear one make its mark. I was hit twice, but I was trained not to react and to keep moving, so I did. In this race, I was already quicker than my classmates. I was the first one out of the barbed wire. I quickly scanned over the items and saw lock picks and a pair of daggers. Not sure what I could use this with for the test, but I was an expert with these, so I grabbed them and was off again. I used the daggers to deflect the arrows that were on their way to hit me. I deflected everyone who came right for me. I heard gasps throughout the crowd as I raced forward.
Climbing up the wall, I noticed a girl nearby, but she lacked the upper-body strength to pull herself up, especially with how heavy the rope was. I was even struggling a bit; this was my weakness, but I always made it up with speed, agility, and my quick thinking. I make it to the top and begin to slide down when I notice the girl who was on my tail is now struggling to keep up with the guy who was now on my tail. This part of the race suited him, but that was fine. I would still win.
I was still being pelted by arrows, and I did a good job keeping them away with my daggers. It seemed I was the object of everyone's attacks. The more my daggers kept the dulled arrows at bay the more people seemed to want to hit me. The rest of the students used that as an advantage, and I could not blame them for that. I would as well. Even though I was constantly defending myself from arrows I still stayed in the first place. I scaled down the other side of the wall as fast as I could dodging arrows as I descended. I still have not seen any of the green balls that Kayla and her groupies had. I am positive they would use them at the worst possible time. I would worry about that when the time came.
I grabbed my envelope with the paper that had the picture of a bell. Well, this will just draw more attention to me, and it is not the easiest thing to carry with me with the items I already have. Oh well, I would have to deal. I quickly get to work searching for the small bell. I notice some people beginning the search for their items. Some were on their hands and knees searching for their items. Leaving them exposed to arrows, and people took advantage of that. My item would make noise when found so I quickly decided to shuffle my feet through the sand quickly as I ran around the area. I was the second person to find their item.
I was quickly on their tail as we race down the track jumping, and dodging obstacles meant to slow us down or stop us. It slowed the guy in front of me down a bit, he was a brute, but he was not near as agile as me. So within a few moments, I passed him. Not sure what was funnier his stunned face when I passed him with a wink or the fact three arrows that were aimed at me that I dodge out of the way tripped him up causing him to land on his face with a curse slipping from his lips. A laugh escaped me as I ran forward Jumping into the pool, and launching into it like a torpedo. I reach the wall with the keys as the brute made it to the pool. I quickly scan the wall looking for my key. When a bright color ooze caught my eye, Some of the keys had the green ball stuff on them, I muttered a curse under my breath when I noticed mine was extremely covered with the green ooze. I heard laughter break out in the stands as Kayla and her groupies laughed so hard at me. They thought they had me, but they did not, not yet, and not today.
They really thought they had me by covering my key with green goo? HA. I felt a wicked smirk fall onto my face as I ignored the keys and headed straight to the lockers. I found mine with the bell etched on to the silver plate. I quickly pull out my lock picks and began working as lots of splashes sounded, the rest of the group must be jumping into the pool. I had to work fast. It did not take me long to figure out the type of locking mechanism. It was pretty basic, smirking as I used the picks to even lock the bell into the locker. The big guy who was behind me jumped into the pool moments before I did. climbing out my hand was struck making me slip into the pool again causing a girl to get a head of me.
Damn it I was in third place. I pull myself up and out as fast as I could. So, I could avoid a careless mistake like that again. I make mistakes like that when I get cocky. I should know better.
I run like my life depends on it, and I quickly close in on the girl in front of me. I pass her with ease. I deflect more arrows with my daggers. As quickly as possible, I make it to the wall. That green goo covers three of the four ropes, and the big brute of a guy is using the other one to climb up. I quickly assessed my options and reluctantly made my choice. I was going to get up that wall. However, I will not be using the rope.
With both daggers out I make a running jump at the wall. With a hard thud I was connected. Using what upper body strength I had I alternated between daggers and slowly climbed up the wall. I was about three quarters up when I saw the Big brute of a guy make it to the top. Surprise crossed his face as he got to the top, and he... what the hell?
The guy took the only clean rope and tossed it so only the gross green ones were left. Looking down I noticed the green goo stuck to you and made it impossible to grip anything else. So no one else could pass? I was competitive, but that was a dick move.
I push myself more to get to the top as fast as I could. I worked myself over to the rope he made it so others could not pass. I would rather only get 2nd place if it meant fixing this guy's jerk move. Once the rope was within reach for the others. I hear a small cheer ring out from all around. Ignoring that I did some risky moves to get down the wall as fast as I could. Noticing I was about half way down and he was just under the wire working his way slowly. I jumped down and made a run for it. I was so much smaller than him so it was easy for me to work quickly under the wire. Just as I was about to get caught up to him, I noticed something. No one was shooting me with arrows. it looks like everyone who was, was now aiming them at him and it was slowing him down. Well, that's what you get for being a grade A jerk. I smile and the knowledge of him getting Hammered instead of me, gave me that final push to really move it into to high gear. We were neck and neck getting out from under the wire. I only got a head by a step or two because of my size and the fact people were all shooting all the arrows they had left at him.
Next thing I knew, I was the first one back. Some people even cheered when I crossed the finish line. That was just so ridiculous. They went from all hating me and making my life difficult in the race. Not like I did not deserve some of it, but then they cheered me on at the end because I did the right thing, so others had a chance at passing, just made me bust out laughing.
I was laughing so hard that I did not even hear footsteps approaching me.
"That was some good work, Hawke. Not a lot of people would have done that for others they did not know." Mr. Griffen said as he looked down at me with a cool gaze.
I stood up and looked him in the eye. "Well, it was the right thing to do. No need to congratulate me on that." I said flatly.
"Well, you are correct on that. Good job passing part one, let us see if you can pass part two tomorrow." He said with a slightly amused smirk on his face.