"AAHH!" -a blood-curdling scream seized abruptly.
The blinding light in Azario's vision ceased, his surroundings shifting to an idyllic scene, a lush emerald field around him. Sounds of leaves and branches being heaved by the wind drifted all around him. The symphony of birds and insects woven serenely into it.
"What the hell?" confusion was etched on Azario's face as he scanned his surroundings.
The gentle warmth of the sun caressed his very being, lighting up his soul.
"Did I die?" he ruminated in a distressing panic.
"Hi… " a clearly nervous voice called.
"Huh?!" Azario exclaimed, causing him to nearly jump out of his skin in fright.
Looking in front of him, he could see a video recording of the person who had introduced herself as Emily woods, but to his surprise the video seemed like it was fashioned out of the very air itself.
'A hologram,' he determined.
She wrapped a lock of her coffee-coloured hair around her left pinky finger.
"You must be really confused, so l-let me clear your worries," She offered timidly.
'"Clear my worries", I think we should start with your own' Azario mused mockingly.
"Right now-you are in a virtual reality," she anounced
"A virtual reality", Azario mumbled skeptically.
But the hologram seemed to take no notice.
'This feels so real… too real' he reflected, his mind unable to process the gravity of the events occurring before him.
"This is where the test will be taking place", she announced.
Azario's muscles tensed in anticipation.
"But before that I will go through a quick lesson on how to shoot using a bow"
"Really", Azario said aloud in surprise.
Dwelling on the revelation for more than a second, Azario retracted his happiness.
'That's the least you guys should do', he commented cynically, knowing or at least thinking that no one could hear him.
*vrr*
"What", Azario exclaimed.
Out of thin air appeared a big black bow, startling Azario momentarily as he reached out to the foreign object.
"Huh"
Azario was slightly startled, as he did not expect to be able to touch it.
"No way" Azario grasped, holding the bow firmly in his left hand, the unexpected weight of it jolted his hand down a bit. The bow felt sturdy but not hard to hold. It had three strings that looped around two wheels on either end of the bow.
"I can actually hold this", he exclaimed feeling bewildered.
*Vrrt*
"what the-" Azario managed to yell, jumping in fright as he felt a constricting sensation diagonally around his torso.
Seeing that it was some sort of black strap he turned his head back to the weight that he could feel on his back. It was a black quiver with relatively slender black arrows that seemed to only have two 'wings' they felt a bit oversized to Azario. He tentatively reached his arm over his left shoulder grasping an arrow.
"No way" he muttered in awe.
Ecstatic excitement began to bubble in his chest, a giddy but shocked smile began to form on his face.
'Is this a dream' he considered flabbergasted.
"OK grab an arrow" Emily woods instructed.
This jolted Azario back to his senses. He complied, taking an arrow from the quiver once again facing the hologram.
"Good", she said, her eyes seeming disconcertingly distant to Azario.
'Something is kinda off', Azario thought skeptically.
"There are many ways of nocking an arrow, whether that is holding it or the movement of nocking the arrow itself",she explained.
"Today I will give you a method to use, but in the future you should explore what feels best for you-ah alright concise." She said visibly nervous looking at a specific part of her .
'These guys sure can't catch a break', Azario thought incredulously.
'well, that's the life you live if you become the dog of the vertex',he added spitefully.
"Stand straight, your legs shoulder width apart, one leg in front of the other. Usually it's the same side leg so you can contract fully."
Azario complied putting his left foot in a familiar arrangement in front of his right foot.
'Reminds me of Taekwondo', Azario reminisced.
"If you look at the bottom of an arrow you will see the notch now grip onto the end of the arrow between your index and middle finger, slot this onto the string of the bow that is closest to you", Emily instructed plainly.
Azario gripped the arrow as instructed between his left hands fingers, Azario inspected the bow seeing that two of the strings were bound together by a protrusion of the bar, the arrow closest to him was free to be pulled so he strung it on the bow, feeling through the arrow the sturdy resistance of the bow string.
'What the'-
Without warning a deep groove appeared on the right side of the bow, just under his hands.
"You see that groove right there, make sure the hand holding the bow is underneath that groove, then hold the bow out straight in front of you, make sure you don't hyperextend your shoulder also keep your arm straight out, let it sag a bit setting into place naturally. Don't tightly clasp your hands around the bow just hold it loosely in your hand."
"Good" she responded eerily similar to last time.
'Are they using sound bites', Azario thought.
"Make sure to position the arrow in the groove. Now pull the arrow with those two fingers, to rest just under your chin, try to make this a consistent point. First, out slightly then back in, but remember it's all in the back.
"All in the back", Azario repeated almost solemnly.
His bent right shoulder contracted outwards, he immediately felt a sharp pressure in the middle of his back and a cutting sensation against his fingers, as he strained against the bow, his face creasing slightly. Azario felt like he was exerting 70% of his maximum effort.
'Are bows this hard to pull', he thought in disbelief.
His arm pulled the arrow outwards from the center making it significantly easier to pull it back, when he felt like he had pull the arrow back enough his hand came back in in line with the bow, resting just under his chin. The string was pressing against his left lips the string itself a blurry white line across the edge of his left eye vision.
'Is this normal', he pondered, confused.
"The string being pressed against your face is normal and also it being blurry in your vision", she said as if peering into his mind
'what is this timing', he thought incredulously.
Oddly enough a great amount of the strain disappeared. Somehow it felt like it had locked into place, no longer struggling against him.
"Good", Emily exclaimed, just as lifelessly as last time.
A new attachment to the bow appeared out of existence, on the right side of the bow that Azario was looking past, but he was no longer startled.
"Now do you see that pin, it's the site pin which if you line up on a target the arrow will hit within 328 feet as long, as your back is straight and your shoulders and hands are in line.", Emily explained.
In the far distance a white, black, blue, red and yellow Olympics looking archery target appeared.
'That's so far how am I supposed to hit that' Azario considered in trepidation.
"Now aim the pin onto the yellow bullseye of the target, remember don't look at the pen but beyond it Even though it's blurry that's fine, just align that see through sight pin with the target" she continued
'I don't know how Deemas would have been able to do this without his glasses, the idiot doesn't even bring them with him'
Azario began slowly maneuvering the pen over the yellow bullseye, struggling desperately keep it still.
"Remember don't overcorrect too much, be relaxed." uttered Emily
'Can she see me', Azario contemplated, shocked
'cause I'm being read like a book'
"When you feel ready release the arrow from your fingers."
Still struggling has a pen cap shaking Azario took a deep breath and relaxed his arms.
Despite the pin shaking, he released the arrow.
*Fwoosh*
The arrow sailed through the sky.
The bow jutted in response making him feel like it would escape his grip, so he reflexively tightened his hand around it.
*Thud*
The sound of the arrow hitting the target echoed in the calming meadows.
"Good!, you hit the target!", the obvious sound bite of Emily woods exclaimed.
"No way, I actually hit it", Azario said aloud, feeling surprised whilst slowly putting his bow down.
The arrow sticking out of right side of the target from the blue.
"Starting, now", she said ignoring anything he said.
He looked up at the hologram.
"You get 10 tries as practice and then when I appear to you next I will announce the start of the 1st test-" Disappearing the very instant her last word was uttered.
"Alright so only ten tries", Azario huffed out.
An enormous hologram appeared above the target, it was a timer that was very active displaying the time '1:27' seconds
'I've only got 1 minute and 30 seconds, not even that ',Azario realized, feeling a ripple of urgency.
He clumsily grabbed an arrow from the quiver without looking picking them up with his two fingers, quickly knocking the arrow,
'why did the arrow not hit straight, what did I do wrong?, Azaria thought in deep concentration.
Azaria took a quick nervous breath as his pupils began to dilate And his focus seeming to dissipate to an outside observer he seemed to be staring lifelessly into space. He focused diligently on straightening his back as much as possible but he accidentally straightened his back too much bending it inwards.
'Not too much, just straight standing up', he chided himself.
Feeling intently that his back was not favoring one side more than the other, he strained his shoulder and arm in pulling the arrow feeling the immense pressure jump to Crump for his efforts of straightness he counteracted it tirelessly. Then when he started pulling it out It got easier managing to pull it to like before just under his chin the string biting a bit into his face and the force digging into his back. His face strained slightly. he held the bow loosely out straight in front of him,
'Why would it fly so low and right?', he questioned, feeling some anxiety.
His eyes meticulously scanning the arrow, expanding out to the bow his arm holding the bow.
'My shoulders must be too low and too much to the right', he determined.
his eyes fixated on his shoulder looking at it with almost desperate scrutiny. As he moved it significantly to the right and upwards.
As the site pen looked more properly aligned with his eye the pen more centered within the circle than before.
"That's it!, I'm such an idiot' Azario exclaimed aloud
He looked at the timer his heart almost jumped out of his chest
'1:14! I'm not gonna get any practice at this rate',
he scrambled aligning as straight as possible on partly feeling and site alone
Lining his shot up he prevented himself from straining himself too much in hopes of a better shot as he trusted that that would be counterintuitive, not realizing his previous arrow had disappeared from the target.
*Woosh*
The arrow soared from the bow, cutting through the harmony of the field once again.
*Thud*
The arrow was sticking out of the target on the red an inch To the left the yellow bullseye.
"I hit the red",he said excitedly.
Azario snapped himself out of his celebration worriedly looking at the timer
'1:01 OK I need to hurry up'
He quickly went through the motions of setting up a shot making sure not to not cut any corners.
'why was it an inch to the left did I overdo it? ,he thought thought while pulling the arrow back towards the position under his chin.
'There was such a big difference but why didn't it even move it that much ',Azario questioned, the arrow now in position under his chin.
'How are you supposed to shoot accurately at all if you have to calibrate each shot this much especially if the target is not in the same exact spot at the same exact distance', he complained looking blankly at his arrow, his mind succumbing to its own depths once again.
'The string! ',He exclaimed in realization.
'I just need to be able to align the string perfectly along the middle of my arm all the way to my shoulder! ',He reasoned in his head.
As he turned his attention back to the string he noticed that it was slightly too left in comparison to the boaw so he moved his arm down to make as the string a straight as possible line.
'Damn, now that's two out how am I supposed to aim'
Out of due process he moved it the opposite direction his hand instinctually moving along with it the stream now compressing his left cheek.
'what's this work ', he said unsure.
'Let's just do it', Azario conceded spied on by the uncaring timer.
He lined up the sight.
'where did my other arrow go, even the previous one-no I just need to shoot', he immediately cleared his mind of any thought, and shortly after he released the arrow
*Woosh*
*Thud*
"No way…", Azaria mumbled stupefied feeling a rush of electricity flowing through his body, shaking it uncontrollably.
Azario stood there for a moment, an embarrassed smile adorning his lips. His vacant eyes caught sight of the timer snapping him out of it.
'****! 49 seconds!'
He knocked another arrow in a hurry but still prioritizing his technique pulling it back he looked down the site for a moment aligning it and taking the shot.
*Woosh Thud*
It hit bottom left of the yellow.
Azario look at the timer again The time displayed 46
"Damn I rushed that too much, A bit to the right and up", He said a loud while drawing the arrow.
*Woosh*
He released it.
*Thud*
The arrow shockingly not only hit the opposite side but went even beyond that to the red
'Dammit I overcorrected again ,that bullseye was a fluke', he concluded
The time displayed 41
He pulled the arrow back
'Forget this, I'm just going to focus on stabilizing my form', he decided begrudgingly the concentration focusing on his body once again, making sure the was arrow straight across the bow and the shaky site pen lined up.
*Woosh*
The arrow flew from the bow.
*Thud*
This time it hit to the right of the red, slightly above the center line.
Azario once again looked at the timer with almost incessant fanaticism.
'34 seconds why can't I hit the yellow anymore', Azario thought with the arrow under his chin, his anxiety flaring up. He paused a moment thinking back through the steps.
'I need to hold the bow holding loosely and I need to relax', he acknowledged feeling like his anxiety was ricocheting in his body
He inhaled deeply feeling like the app was diluting the necrotic gas that was released from within.
'I need to calm down, it's fine if I'm I'm not able to shoot 10 arrows I just need to shoot them the best I can' he exhaled releasing an arrow
*Woosh*
*Thud*
The arrow hit near the middle of the yellow Azario couldn't tell if it had hit the bullseye or not.
Out of habit he looked at the timer.
It displayed 25