Xerxes' academy wasn't the only place where this deathly race was being carried out. Just about every other academy who had trainees indulged their rookies by subjecting them to this tradition. They were all infatuated with the tradition of the rookie race. It wasn't fetish or anything of the sort, it was the ultimate test of character for the young trainees. It was a chance for them to prove themselves and test to the limit their own intellectual capabilities, skills, abilities and emotional intelligence. These rookie races were conducted individually by every academy and were thus independent of the influence and interference of the politicking involved with inter-academy affairs. There were no interruptions and there was no interfering. Two things remained unchangeable though; the rules and the difficulty. They were the cold immovable aspects of the game that was set in stone.
But this didn't mean that the teachers and officiants weren't invested in the participants and the outcome of the race. This aspect was so important that an entire office was set up in the academy for this very purpose. It was a site that was reserved for teachers where they could view the entire rookie ratings. This information was readily made available online for all to access all over the world. This was the same for every single academy that was conducting the race. The ratings of every academy's rookie ratings were all posted online. The standards were pretty much the same for every academy. From these offices, all over the world, teachers silently cheered on their favorite students, even though they were supposed to remain unbiased.
But of course, a venture such as this had to come with high level tracking technology. It was very necessary to track the vitals of every single trainee involved in the race. Since there were no officiants on ground with them in the race, a system had to be present to track the performance of the trainees. This portable piece of hardware was called the miniature life system. It was a moderately small equipment was controlled by a very impressive software that transmitted terabytes of data by to the web. This data was very important as it provided everyone's performances, heart rate, blood pressure and respiratory data.
Before anyone could participate in the rookie race, they had to have a chip installed at the base of their neck that was close to the vertebrae. This chip was always placed close to the headquarters of central nervous system for a lot of reasons. The importance of the miniature life system could not be over emphasized. In addition to providing a detailed analysis on the physical state of every trainee, the miniature life system was also responsible for one other chilling responsibility, it played the role of the informing when a participant was either dying or dead. Many times, the miniature life system had often been referred to as the harbinger of gloomy news for they were always the messengers that delivered the terrible news that no one wanted to hear- the death of a trainee. It a tragically efficient system that kept tabs on both the good and the bad.
In this peculiar office that was reserved exclusively for teachers, multiple notifications began to appear across the tens of screens. Unfortunately, it was bad news. The miniature life system was living up to its name as the harbinger of gloom as it poured in data from ground zero; some of the newbies were starting to die off one by one. The odds that a certain number of rookies would be killed was known to all, but this forehand knowledge did nothing to numb the shock and the disappointment.
Xerxes' statistics came up and it showed that he hadn't been able to attain any point at all. He was still in last place. Some professors who didn't see eye to eye with Janae used this as a solid opportunity to belittle her teaching methods. One of them, a middle aged balding man with a protruding belly croaked in laugher. Out of breath, he pointed at the screen and mocked Janae;
"Hey Janae look at this! Isn't this your star student? Check out his brilliant score! He's got absolutely NOTHING!"
He squealed some more in malicious laughter as he took another jab at her professional pride;
"What kind of teacher are you anyway?! Just look at this appalling score for heaven's sake! LOOK AT IT!"
Another lanky professor with glasses took up from where he left off;
"Janae you should be happy, your optimistic style of teaching has rubbed off on him. He's probably thinking 'If Miss Janae was around, she might say I am first from behind!'"
The fat professor roared in laughter at his colleague's follow up joke. Janae made no attempt to reply them. She knew Xerxes wasn't weak. At the very least, she was sure he could cross the finish line. It bothered her that Xerxes hadn't made any moves yet. She peered hard at the screen and clenched her fists as she thought to herself;
"Come on Xerxes! How come you haven't done anything yet?"
...
Time moved very slowly over the next few days. More and more newbies died off in the first stage and others took advantage of the empty positions and advanced further. It was a dog eat dog situation out there. The entire world held its breath as it watched the rookies go hard at the race.
Xerxes had made considerable progress during that period. Sure, he had taken his time, but in seven days, his spores had spread with the ubiquitous nature of a pandemic and covered the entire field. It was almost impossible for him not to sense anything. His entire senses and preceptors were fully awake and conscious all through the day and night. Sleep had completely eluded him. Xerxes maintained a state of suspicious alertness that ensured his utmost vigilance. It wasn't a time to doze, and it definitely wasn't a time to slack off.
Xerxes had honed his ability so well that he could actually sense not just the presence of other contestants and evil monsters in the terrain, he could also tell when they were moving and in what direction they were headed. Thus, Xerxes was able to plot his course and chart his way through the cascade of enemies all around him. Having locked all this down, Xerxes started to move with the gait and confidence of one who knew what was ahead. It was uncanny just how effective his symbiote had come to be.
Xerxes braved through some of the loneliest terrains in order to avoid battles, but he soon came up on a situation that he just couldn't avoid.
Xerxes's spores detected a very impressive presence just north of his location, according to the signals relayed by his spores, Xerxes sensed that it was an eight foot tall, 260 pound bear. It wasn't uncommon for a creature such as itself to be present at a time like this, but Xerxes had to go through that route in order to get ahead. He contemplated his options carefully and a light bulb came on in his mind.
"Yes! This might just be the perfect opportunity for me to test out the parasitic strength of my spores. I can use this to perfect my attack strategy!"
With that, Xerxes surged forward. He was anxious to test out just how effective his spores would be before an enemy of this magnitude. He knew that if this was successful, he would be capable of creating and executing the perfect ambush. It would be practically impossible for his to be detected without detecting the enemy first. All things seemed to be in prefect alignment for the smooth execution of this plan. Xerxes could not wait to test it out. Xerxes approached the location of the bear cautiously. The closer he got to it, the more he sensed just how strong the bear was. It turned out that the bear was actually a strong level three class bear. He kept his physical presence hidden and sent out his spores to do the hard work. His spores crept up on the bear stealthily and attempted to take over its being by parasitism. The bear roared violently. It could feel the spores swarming all over it like a million ants on an anthill. It shook and shook but found it impossible to completely shake off the spores.
The heavy bear rose up in its full might and slammed itself into a nearby tree in order to shake off the intruders that were actively permeating through his being at the very moment. Xerxes could feel the bear's pain.
"Easy there big fella," he whispered coolly, "I just want to borrow your body for a little bit. Shhhh…"
But the extra-large bear didn't seem like it would go down anytime soon. It continued to bellow and bellow like a crazed bull. Xerxes' spores irritated the beast bitterly. It could take on an enemy twice its size, but it was finding it extremely difficult to battle an enemy it couldn't see. The spores made their way underneath the bear's epidermis like an army of a million burning ants. Xerxes frowned. His spores seemed to be making progress, but the enemy was far from over powered.
Soon found out that parasitizing a bird or a rodent was one thing, but parasitizing an enormous beast of this size and rank was almost equivalent to attempting to kill a wild boar after killing a chicken. It was the same technique, but it required a whole other level of strength and stamina.
The bear was still a long way from being subdued. It seemed like Xerxes had only succeeded in making it extremely mad. The beast was dangerous on a normal day, but with Xerxes' making his way with his spores underneath its flesh, it was safe to assume that if Xerxes failed to parasitize it, the beast would definitely mad with pain and frustration, and embark on a killing spree.
The protracted battle was proving to be dangerous for both sides as Xerxes discovered much to his dismay that his spores were seriously getting weakened by the minute due to the extended period of time they had spent in trying to parasitize a formidable level three earth bear.