Chapter 36: Trial of the Sprinter

The floor below me changed from solid black ground to a massive moving conveyor belt that spanned the whole hallway. The direction was pushing back towards the three others, meaning I had to run against the moving belt. And worst of all?

The door we had come in from shut tight, and from above my three companions, the ceiling opened up to reveal a long string of whirling sawblades. They slowly descended, and my three teammates didn't need to be told what to do.

They immediately leaped off the ramp we had been on, and together, we began sprinting away from the sawblades chasing us from behind. However, running on the conveyor belt was difficult, especially with how fast it was moving.

"Use the walls!" I yelled, moving to the right edge of the conveyor belt and hopping onto the 45-degree inclined slope of a wall. It was difficult to keep my balance, but I was able to run on it a lot faster than I could on the conveyor belt.

The others followed my example, and Furuwa took the right side behind me while Ichigo and Jim took the left to avoid cluttering up like what had happened with Horiya earlier.

However, I then heard another whirring sound, coming from within the walls.

"Tch...! Get off from the walls, there are sawblades too!"

"What the hell?!" Ichigo yelled, before leaping off as the rest of us did the same.

We landed back on the conveyor belt, but there was no time to rest. The sawblades were closing in from behind and now the two sides as well. Luckily, the ones closing in from the sides stopped upon reaching the border of the conveyor belt. That mean we at least had some horizontal space to work with.

"Try to stay in the air for as long as possible!" I yelled. "Take big strides, and minimize contact with the conveyor belt!"

"Got it!" Furuwa and Ichigo shouted in response, and did as told. Jim also followed my directions, utilizing his large body frame to the fullest. He was extremely tall - around 6'3". Because of this, his legs were pretty long, so his strides were large. I may be faster than him in a normal race, but with these conveyor belts in the way, he was the fastest out of all of us because he was least affected by the moving belts.

So far, we seemed to be outrunning the sawblades. Even Ichigo, who was the slowest out of all of us, was doing fine. The sawblades behind us were fairly slow, so we gradually created some distance between us and the spinning blades of death right as we rounded the corner to turn left. However, things took a turn for the worse here.

The ceiling directly above where I was about to run into suddenly opened up, and out came a large metal crate.

"Damn-!" I skidded to a stop right before the crate came crashing down on the conveyor belt, shaking the entire corridor. If I had halted a second later, I would've been smashed to pulp.

However, this brief pause meant I needed to wait on the rapidly moving conveyor belts, even if only for a moment. The others pulled ahead, while I was brought dangerously close to the spinning sawblades closing in from behind.

"Igarashi!" Ichigo shouted in concern, turning back to look at me.

"Don't stop running!" I yelled in response, and quickly began sprinting as well. In the corner of my eye, I saw the sawblades closing in from behind cut directly through the metal crate as if it was tofu, and I gulped in fear.

"And watch the bloody ceilin'!" Jim added as he ran in huge leaps.

Despite his words, neither him nor the other two had any crates dropped on top of them. On the contrary, the ceiling above where I was going to run kept opening up and dropping heavy metal boxes - as if whoever was controlling this thing was targeting me specifically.

I cursed as I weaved around the obstacles, suddenly changing my trajectory from time to time to avoid being predictable. As planned, this caused less boxes to land directly in front of me and more to miss. Gradually, I began to pull away from the sawblades again, much to my relief.

However, then, the whole ceiling opened up in front of me, dropping three metal boxes simulatenously side-by-side, thoroughly blocking off any escape. It was far too tall for me to climb, even with my AGI stat, and the walls on the sides still had sawblades coming out of it.

I stopped. Milliseconds ticked by as the sawblades behind me drew closer, eliminating the precious distance I had created for myself after so much work, centimeter by centimeter. I was washed up by despair, having run out of strategies.

Furuwa, noticing my panic, called out my name. "Igarashi-kun! Don't give in!"

These words snapped me out of my daze. Gritting my teeth, I took a gamble - the only one I had left.

"Heh... Furuwa... since when did you care about me? Ah, whatever. If this works, this works... if not, well, I'm dead anyway!" I closed my eyes, took a running stance, and cast the skill that would - hopefully - break me out of this predicament.

'Vanishing Clouds.'

I felt myself dash at the speed of light, phasing through the metal crate far too quickly for me to even identify what it felt like, moving through objects. In the instant I phased, I prayed that I would be able to make it.

-And I did.

Somehow, I managed to phase through the thick metal trunk with my Vanishing Clouds skill. I'm sure there was a limit on how thick objects can be for you to be able to phase through them, but I didn't have the luxury to be thinking about the specifics of that right now.

I immediately launched myself off of the metal crates and sprinted as fast as I could. Sweat was dripping from my forehead and some drops flowed into my left eye. That didn't matter - I could still see through my right. The sawblades cleaved through the three metal crates, and their speed quickened.

Up ahead, I could see that Jim had already rounded the next corner, turning right, and Furuwa was about to do the same. Ichigo was a bit behind, but still quite a bit ahead of me.

I groaned and forced myself to run faster. My legs felt like they were on fire, but still, I kept sprinting without giving them a chance to rest. The sawblades wouldn't, after all. From there on, whoever was controlling the metal crates was relentless. They continued to drop metal crates, mainly in batches of 2. Thankfully, no more groups of three crates were dropped on me simultaneously.

I mentally counted in my head to 20 in order to accurately gauge the cooldown of the Vanishing Clouds skill to see if I could use it to save some time. Unfortunately, 20 seconds was a lot of time in this scenario. I wasn't able to use it to save some time and phase through the two-crate pairs that were dropped down in front of me, and was forced to go around them.

Because of this, I was unable to create a gap between myself and the sawblades like I had earlier. I could only manage to maintain the status quo in terms of distance, even though I was moving as fast as I could.

My heart raced as I weaved through the various obstacles in my path, until at last, I reached the right turn the others had made earlier. When I rounded the corner, I could see the three of them, who had already made it. They were waiting in the safe zone beyond a rhombus with four equivalent angles, just a short distance away.

At this rate, I would make it.

But then, the countdown began.

[Warning: Time remaining: 10 seconds.]

I gritted my teeth and pushed forward despite reaching my physical limits. Two crates dropped down in front of me, side-by-side, and I was forced to switch to the left lane to swerve around it.

[9 seconds.]

However, immediately after, I had to move to the right lane again, as two more trunks dropped down and crashed onto the conveyor belt.

[8 seconds.]

A crate dropped in front of me earlier than usual, nearly killing me. It was a good attempt, but my reaction speeds were greater.

[7 seconds.]

Just a little bit further... c'mon!

[6 seconds.]

I continued dodging, switching from left to right, and vice versa again. But then, the sawblades picked up their speed. I realized this because their whirring became louder. They were closing it faster than before, and I tightened up, but didn't stop running.

[5 seconds.]

The sawblades continued to advance, cutting through the metal crates like butter.

[4 seconds.]

They were only fifty meters away. Their speed had surpassed mine, and at this rate, they were going to catch up very soon.

[3 seconds.]

The mechanical whirring noise of the spinning sawblades were right behind me now - I could feel it.

[2 seconds.]

Just another step-

[1 second.]

BOOM.

A singular crate came crashing down in front of me, successfully blocking my exit. They didn't need 3 this time - 1 was enough.

However, I was ready. Despite the odds, I smirked in triumph.

'Vanishing Cloud.'

I dashed forward, phasing through the metal crate and into the safe zone.

[0.]

[Congratulations - you have successfully completed the Trial of the Sprinter.]