Chapter 155 Disadvantaged Scenarios

The gym floor shifted and changed in front of Lee Seng's eyes. He watched as ten similar lanes with a randomly generated set of objects sprawled across the ten lanes. Ten training dummies rose out of the floor at the end of the lanes.

"Alright, pick a lane and you'll be randomly assigned a team number based on the ten lanes! Whoever wants to go first can go first!" Mr. Icarus instructed. The groups began to pull away and line up. Lee Seng looked over at Garcia and Ritsuka and looked at the lane in front of them.

"I guess we're lane 1?" Ritsuka shrugged.

"I guess so." Lee Seng lifted himself off the wall and moved over to stand with his back to the lane. "Anyone feeling brave enough to go first?" He lifted his hand and looked at Ritsuka and Garcia, waiting for a definite 'yes' from one of them.

"Uh, I-I'm not that great. I-If I go first, d-don't expect a l-lot from me." Garcia stuttered. Ritsuka nodded and moved forward.

"If you don't want to go first, you don't. I can always go if you don't wanna go, Lee Seng." Ritsuka offered. Lee Seng shrugged and waved from him to go first.

"Let's see how the Third Rank soloist runs." Lee Seng smiled. Ritsuka shook his head and stood at the starting line. Lee Seng moved to stand next to Garcia and looked at the other lanes. There seemed to be a good number of people who were confidently standing at the start line.

"Does Mr. Icarus give out extra credit, alot? People are really pumped about it." Lee Seng turned to look at Garcia. Garcia turned to look at Lee Seng, nervously, and nodded.

"Icarus isn't one to give extra credit. It's usually grueling lessons day in and day out. You're lucky you don't have to see him five days a week. H-he's no-notorious for p-picking on those w-who are w-weaker and have the mo-most talent." Garcia explained. Lee Seng nodded and turned to look at Ritsuka jumping side to side.

"Alright, everyone pick their lanes and who's going first?" Mr. Icarus asked. He lifted his hand up in the air and looked at the first set of runners. "Get ready! Get Set…! Go!" Mr. Icarus' arm went down and a loud noise blared.

The ten runners started down the lane and the training dummies held a gun out. They began to shoot down the lanes randomly and Lee Seng watched Ritsuka dodge to the right, narrowly dodging the bullet. Ritsuka sprinted forward and continued down the lane.

10 Feet

The ten runners were still going. The bullets came faster and Ritsuka dodged, pulling out Obsidian Edge. In one swift motion, he sprinted forward only to meet another bullet. Ritsuka narrowly deflected the bullet with his sword and continued forward. Three lanes lit up in red as the rest moved forward.

15 Feet

The bullets came faster and the amount of objects grew smaller. Ritsuka was nearing seventeen feet when three bullets flew out at him. Ritsuka moved and deflected the first two bullets. The third bullet flew straight into his chest and knocked him backwards. The siren blared and Ritsuka grunted as he lifted himself up and watched as the tracker at the end of the lane marked his distance as 16.89 feet.

"Damn," Ritsuka sighed. He released his soul sword and slowly rose as he listened to the AI call out twenty feet. Lee Seng and the others watched as soon as the rest hit twenty feet, the training dummies shot faster and all of the remaining laners with ease. The siren blared and Icarus stepped forward.

"Longest distance is lane 5 with 23.27 feet!" Icarus shouted. "Alright, let's rotate out for the second group!" Ritsuka stood up and stretched. The plastic bullet fell to the floor and he turned around and jogged back towards his teammates.

"That's harder than I thought it would be." Ritsuka sighed. "It started to kick up in difficulty when I reached fifteen feet. Twenty feet seems like hell."

"See, I-I told you. M-Mr. Icarus doesn't like t-to go e-easy on the st-students." Garcia motioned.

"Gotta have some difficulty I guess." Lee Seng shrugged. "You wanna go second or you want me to go?"

"I-I'll just get it o-over with. D-don't expect t-t-too much from m-me." Garica moved and stood by the line. Ritsuka nodded and moved to stand next to Lee Seng, folding his arms.

"Do you think he'll do fine? He's really shy. I'm wondering what his ranking is within the Third Year Fighters." Ritsuka whispered. Lee seng's eyes were glued onto Garcia.

"I don't know. He's probably introverted. He's good enough to be here, so I wouldn't count anything out, yet." Lee Seng answered back with a whisper.

"Alright, second group ready?" Mr. Icarus asked.

"Yes, sir!" The second group responded.

"Good. On your marks! Get set! Start!" Mr. Icarus' arm went down and the siren blared. Lee Seng and Ritsuka watched their teammate start. He started to run down the lane. The first bullet fired near the five feet mark and Garcia simply moved to the left and continued forward.

"His physique makes me think he won't last long." Ritsuka spoke.

"Let's not judge a book by its cover, huh?" Lee Seng slightly turned his eyes to face Ritsuka when the AI spoke.

10 Feet

The bullets came quicker this time. Garcia dodged a bullet and moved forward, meeting the second bullet. His form shimmer and he slid below as an afterimage appeared where he was. The bullet flew through the afterimage and Garcia quickly threw himself back up and continued.

"Holy shit, did you see that?" Ritsuka excitedly tapped Lee Seng's arm. Lee Seng pushed Ritsuka's arm away and nodded.

"That's why I said to not judge a book by its cover. His physique may be lanky, but his reaction time is crazy!" Lee Seng complimented Garcia.

15 Feet

Garcia continued forward, noticing the objects to hide behind were slowly thinning. Alarms started to blare, but Garcia kept his focus forward. Triple bullets flew down the lane and Garcia quickly after-imaged himself to the right and pulled left. One bullet flew straight through the middle image while the second bullet flew through the second image. The third bullet landed in the large object Garcia was hiding behind.

? 20 Feet

Garcia took a breath and closed his eyes. He could hear the clicking of the mechanical gun and dummy.

'It's going up five levels.' Garcia thought as he opened his eyes. The dummy began to spray and alarms started to go off. Garcia quickly after-imaged two times and jumped, dodging the rest of the spray. He rolled and continued forward. All eyes were on Garcia, lane 3 and lane 7. The three continued towards the twenty-five feet mark as another spray flew at them.

Garcia after-imaged and slid to the small object in the middle. He forced himself flat and listened to the bullets fly past him and land onto the object in front of him. The sounds of clicking alerted Garcia and he threw himself up and moved.

25 Feet

The dummies immediately sprayed two full shots onto the three laners. Two alarms went off one after the other and Garcia realized he was the only one left.

'Everyone's… w-watching me.' Garcia began to panic as he pulled himself out of the narrow wall on the left and moved forward. He began to slow as people began to cheer for him.

"Go Garcia! You can do it!" Lee Seng shouted.

"Holy crap, you're good!" Ritsuka clapped.

"Gar-ci-a! Gar-ci-a!" The class rooted. Garcia's nervousness began to swarm him as he saw the thirty feet mark. The sounds of rooting and shouting swarmed his ears and he didn't notice the two sprays of shots coming his way. Garcia sloppily after-imaged twice, stumbling forward and watching as a bullet landed right between his eyes, forcing him backwards. The alarm blared and Lee Seng and the crowd groaned.

"Lane 1 with 28.77 feet!" Icarus declared. Garcia stumbled and steadied himself and sighed. He rubbed the spot the bullet had hit him and felt a bruise mark. He turned around and started his way back to his group.

"Man, you did so well. Why did you panic there?" Ritsuka asked. Garcia brushed him off and moved to sit to Lee Seng's right, burying his face in his arms. Ritsuka looked at Lee Seng and Lee Seng simply shrugged.

"Your power is so cool, Garcia." Lee Seng crouched down to compliment him.

"N-no, I-I'm not c-cool… I-I messed up…" Garcia mumbled. Lee Seng sighed and nodded.

"You made it further than anyone did. Your reaction time is scary good! I wish I had that great of a reaction time."

Garcia's position didn't change and Lee Seng nodded. He patted Garcia and stood up.

"Is he…?" Ritsuka whispered. Lee Seng shook his head and patted Ritsuka as he passed him.

"I don't know. Let's just leave him alone." Lee Seng said as he moved to the line.