The moment Chase had been dreading was now upon him. This was only a challenge course, the stakes were much lower than an actual fight but Chase knew that if he wanted to take this new fight thing more serious then he would have to succeed in challenges like this. Challenges and training drills were important to new fighters as they needed to gain as much attribute XP as possible and level up their fighting abilities to be able to compete in certain tournaments and events. Also, what came with a higher fighting level was a much higher level of respect. The two came hand in hand. In this case, it was essential that Chase improved quickly whilst being inside this prison as he was seen as an easy target to most.
Chase took as much time as possible when making his way towards the Colonel. The images of Wiz and Rocky completing the course were continuously running through his mind as he wanted to study their technique as much as he could.
"Remember what I told you…. Stay on your toes!" Wiz was heard shouting over to Chase as he offered his fight bracelet to the Colonel. How could Chase forget? This was the only thing he had to work with and was screwed if this advice turned out to be useless.
[Fighter: Chase]
[Specialized Skill: Unknown]
[Level 1]
"Another with no specialized skill? This should be fun" sarcastically groaned the Colonel as everybody without a skill before Chase had failed miserably. But Chase was determined to shift the tide and make a real go of this.
'Stay on your toes'
'Stay on your toes'
'Stay on your toes'
'Stay on your toes'
Chase repeated the advice given to him over and over again until it was engrained into his brain. After all, Sensei Li had taught this to Wiz and it worked seemingly well for him so he had no reason to trust it. There was just doubts as to whether he could execute it.
Chase was at the start line ready to take on the side wall section. He knew as soon as he made his first step over the line that the time would begin so he took a huge deep breath to help compose himself.
'Here we go' he thought as he immediately sprung onto the first side wall. He then sprung onto another on the opposite side whilst staying on his toes using only them to spring from side to side. Chase began to notice that the advice was working, and working extremely well. The self-doubt began to disintegrate from Chase's body as the confidence grew inside him as he jumped from side wall to side wall until he completed the first section without any hiccups.
The time difference for the first section of the challenge did not seem to dissimilar to Wiz and Rocky's attempt. Although Chase was under no illusions that the task was completed. He had to take on the stepping stone section next which had taken many victims including Apollo and Drew. But Chase had learnt from their misfortunes and knew that he had to be quick and agile through this section of the course. Once again, he reminded himself of Wiz's advice and dived straight into it. Chase was a natural at this. He was making it look easy. He made it across the course as if he was a pebble skimming the water, gracefully jumping from stone to stone ensuring that his foot had already left the stone before it had time to even sink. This was even a shock to Chase at this point, he was always a decent runner but he never applied it into a sport so never really knew how he would compare to others. The advice from Wiz was a gift sent from god to Chase and he was bursting with confidence as he made his way to the balance beam.
This was the trickiest section of them all. This is the section that bombed Dynamites time. The section that both Wiz and Rocky had to pay real attention on to ensure that no errors were made. But something had changed inside of Chase, he felt this was his now. Nothing could stop him.
Unlike everybody else before him, Chase attacked the balance beam with speed and directness. He made quick progress across the beam maintaining perfect balance whilst ducking and diving to avoid any contact with the boulders being fired in his direction. Chase's agility was truly astonishing, no one had ever shown this much skill on the balance beam before. Chase had almost done it, he was a few meters away from completing it. He had already thought about the celebrations in his head along with the bragging rights with his friends. He was almost there when out of nowhere a boulder struck him in his gut and knocked him completely off balance. The thought of winning had distracted him completely and now the whole challenge was in jeopardy. Just as Chase was losing his balance and about to fall from the beam, he made one last leap to the finish line. Time had suddenly slowed down all of a sudden and what was only a matter of seconds felt like an eternity. Chase was midair frantically reaching out in the hope that his final leap was enough to complete the challenge. Just as hope was nearly lost, Chase's left sole of his shoe hit the platform in which the beam ended and he tumbled over onto the finish line lay down flat on his back.
"WOW, I did it" exclaimed Chase and this response was replicated amongst everyone who had just witnessed it. Everyone was in a state of disbelief as they eagerly awaited the time that Chase had taken to complete the course.
'2 minutes 43 seconds' was displayed on Chase's hologram. He had completed the fastest time out of the group and not only the group, he set a new record at the prison. Colonel Cannon was more shocked than anyone.
"impossible" Colonel Cannon stated in disbelief. "I guess… Well done" The Colonel was never one to give out praise to others during these challenges but what he had just witnessed was a complete anomaly. He had never seen anyone finish the course in under 3 minutes before but Chase had done this comfortably. He along with many other guards who had just witnessed Chase complete the challenge began to consider him as a viable option for the upcoming prison fight tournament later in the year.
Once Chase got back to his feet, he noticed that his fight bracelet was aggressively flashing. It had been updated.
[Fighter: Chase]
[Balance +25 XP]
[Speed + 25 XP]
[Agility + 100 XP]
[Specialized Skill: Agility]
[Level 1 completed]
[Level 2 Activated]
"Awesomeeee!" Wiz and the group said together in amazement. "You have found your specialized skill already. It took me until I was at least level 5 to truly find my main skill" Wiz explained.
Just as Chase was chatting away with the guys reminiscing on the challenge an old prison guard with a croaky voice interrupted them. "Inmate 457… over here.. We need to have a word".
Chase made his way over unsure about what the guard wanted but he naïvely assumed he just wanted to congratulate him.
"I have an offer that you can't refuse…."