ONE HUNDRED: Gym Class, II

ONE HUNDRED: Gym Class, II

They barely had time to say thanks and bye to Instructor Fragment. As soon as their feet hit the ground, students from the next group were jogging up, and their group was supposed to be jogging off to their own second session. Everly was staggering ahead of Alden and Kon. She was clutching her shoes in her hand, and her hair buns had mostly unraveled. > she said in Korean when she spotted Konstantin. > You were magnificent! Like an ice spider! She frowned. A spider? A beautiful spider, he said. But why was your bag a girl? I was imagining it was my mom. So that I wouldnt drop it. When Alden had heard they would have class time dedicated to practicing maneuvering and positioning, he had imagined a lot of talking would happen, and then maybe a quick exercise. But he was starting to suspect that the philosophy of their gym instructors was going to be a learn-while-doing one. Instead of giving a long lecture, Instructor Marion was periodically talking in their ears through System comms and telling them what to think about and what mistakes theyd just made. Half the gym had been given over to this class, and obstructions had been created out of the magic shields that could be used to segment the gym into dueling blocks. Theyd been made opaque, and they stood in tall columns and walls, creating a maze filled with tons of blind spots. Alden stood with Astrid, trying not to gasp for air. He was afraid that breathing too hard would give away their position. Both of them were wearing green vests over their gym suits, and they had their backs pressed to a column. The other green vests were their teammates for this exercisethe hunted. The red vests were their enemiesthe hunters. The hunted gained a point for every twenty seconds they went without being spotted. The hunters stole one of those point every time they spotted someone. Its simple, Instructor Marion had said in that pleasant voice of his. Its so simple that most of you will have little use for your magic. A spell effect will usually give away your position. You cannot scale the obstacles. There is no combat. Apologies, Alden, but this time theres no ground element. Well play with that later. Here most of you have nothing but your witsand of course your stats. Youre supposed to be using your talents heavily in the other sections. Think of this game as a fun breather! Fun breather my ass. It had been twenty minutes of flat-out sprints to reposition himself behind a safe obstruction, where he would stand for just a few seconds before Max would [Alden and Astrid, go down the corridor to your right at the signal.] A high-pitched yelp came from the Light Shapers direction a moment later. Presumably he was both signaling and providing a distraction to pull away the hunter whod been running toward Alden and Astrid. They left the column behind and fled down the corridor. Everly, wearing a red vest, was standing right there as they emerged. She pointed at them excitedly, then spun around to press her face to the column behind her, like the person who was it in a game of hide-and-seek. Hunters whod just gotten a point had to close their eyes and count down to let the hunted get away again. Shit, Astrid whispered as two points disappeared from their teams score. They were barely keeping it above zero thanks to Konstantins efforts on behalf of the other team. His legs were definitely not tired enough from climbing up and down the scaffolding. When they first got started, hed been excited and hed said he was going to try to use his object reading skill to detect where people had recently been standing on the gym floor. But either that had been too slow, his skill was too low level to do a wide enough area, or the magic floor wasnt particularly readable. Because hed shifted tactics and was instead pelting through the gym like an S-rank lunatic, whipping his neck back and forth rapidly to catch glimpses of green. Alden wasnt sure he was even blinking. [Everly saw us,] Alden reported to Max. [Shes at the end of the corridor you sent us down.] [Sorry,] Max texted back. [Nobody has sighted her in a while, so I didnt know what area she was in.] He was doing really well at remembering the layout of all the visibility obstructors and, usually, the positioning of most members on both teams. Kons squirrel-like habit of spontaneously changing directions had made Max curse in three different languages at one point, though. [Astrid and I are splitting up. Im heading] Before he could finish texting, Astrid darted off back the way theyd come. [Im heading toward the bathrooms,] he finished. [East,] said Max. [Bathrooms is simpler, dude.] Astrid suddenly texted, [Scar folder! Master red! I do run!] The others were using finger texting, but the shapeshifter had claimed she wouldnt be outdone by Max and Alden and would be sticking with mental. Thus, some interpretation was required. Alden stared at the words. [I think she means she just spotted the red teams Meister in the direction of the scaffolding.] The Meister must not have spotted her, though, since they hadnt lost another point. Alden crept along a wall, then sprinted through an intersection where he could potentially be spotted from too many directions. He stopped beside another obstacle. A moment later, he heard rapid footsteps approaching. [Is that you behind the obelisk, Alden?] Max asked. [Its me.] The other B-rank stepped around to join him. He was breathing hard, too. Max held up both hands with his fingers spread to indicate a ten second rest, then he went back to directing their teammates and collecting enemy locations through the chat. [Raccoons!] Astrid said, just as they were about to sprint again. Raccoons? Max mouthed. [Do you mean bathrooms? Is Kon toward the bathrooms from where you are?] [Type oh. Sad face. I do run!] I think she was just thinking about raccoons and she accidentally typed that, Alden whispered. Max sighed and dashed away.

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They were so tired they didnt even speak when the session ended. They all just stumbled off to let Big Snake take his turn beating them up. Aldens skill was toast. Hed tried an extra-long line again in an attempt to poke Klein just one more time, and in combo with the breath mint handicap, the effort had done the skill in. His officially useable magical powers were now a candle lighter and screaming invisible balls that would cost him six hundred dollars a pop. Everlys floor-freezing spell had required a reagent, too. She was eyeing a bottle half full of some dark blue powder with a depressed look on her face. Alden patted her on the shoulder. She nodded. This was how they were all communicating now. Words required lungs. Lungs required air. Too much trouble. He didnt even have the energy to say, Why, Astrid? Why did you randomly attack me and then throw yourself at nothing? But she had given him the shoulder pat of companionship when they finally escaped from the ice. So he figured it was all good. Shed only tackled him and then used his nose as a launchpad. Everyone had their idiosyncrasies. You all look like youre raring to go! Big Snake said in a jovial voice when they appeared. He clapped his hands together hard enough that it would probably have hurt their ears if not for the suits. Were gonna start with a few laps to get you warmed up! Sren whimpered. Hahaha!said the instructor. Just kiddin. Just kiddin. Looks like Torsten put you through the wringer. Wednesday, youll all start with me, and then its my turn to wear you out! So! The way this session works is the reverse of Instructor Kleins. You all run, and I attack. That should go well. Well, thats the gist of it. This is where yall find out what your powers can do for self-defense. Ill be teaching you general principles of self-defense, but thats mostly in your homework. Today, since you look about dead, we have the magic management talk and you get a short breather before I start to attack you. He stepped over to Alden and grinned. In Big Snake mode, Instructor Waker was so tall and wide it made Alden feel like a child standing in front of an adult. And the superhero vibes were strong, even though the instructor was in the same gray unitard as everyone else. Alden felt a tiny thrill through his tiredness. BignLittleSnake was about as famous as an Avowed could be without being a hyperbole, and on top of that, he had been considered extremely kid friendly prior to the tank-punching incident. An insanely strong morpher known for a larger-than-life personality, entertaining charity work, and nonlethal captures was hard not to like. Somewhere in the back of a cabinet in Connies kitchen, there was a cup with pictures of Big Snake on it that would turn into Little Snake when you added cold drinks. Youve got a magic shield, the instructor said to Alden. Thats about as classic as a self-defense skill can be. But what do you have without the magic shield? Not much, Alden said. Thats right! You can use your wits and your muscle, but even then, youve got a lot more options for using those things when the magic shield is up and running. So whats the most important thing for you, as an Avowed, in a fight or a disaster? Alden didnt know why this felt like a trick question. Not losing my shielding skill? Right! Only it might be better to say the most important thing is getting the job done without dyin. Youve all got to know how to treat your power like a finite resource. Youll get stronger here at school, but youll never get so strong you can win every fight by just flinging your power around however you like. He looked up at the ceiling. Even if you get strong enough to beat every last problem weve got here on Earththeres bigger problems. Oh, thought Alden. Good. He was relieved a faculty member had finally addressed it. They were in superhero school, but it was starting to feel weird that the older Avowed hardly ever referenced off-planet work. I know Im overly concerned with whats going on out there. And Im in a different situation from most people because Im probably going to be unusually useful in that capacity one day. But I was starting to feel like I was crazy What if a criminal runs from you? Instructor Klein had asked earlier. What if a demon runs toward me? Alden had thought. Smiling, Instructor Marion had said, You need to learn maneuvering and positioning so you can Escape from demons. In later courses, youll have the opportunity to learn about structural integrity, Instructor Fragment had told them. Because Because chaos eats and mutates fucking everything. It was like everyone else was talking about the weather while Alden had a disturbed man wearing a sandwich board in his head that said, Beware of moon-sized demons devouring Earth and the End of Days! Like Haoyus mom, Big Snake got summoned a lot. And considering his skillset, it probably wasnt for waiting tables at college parties. Maybe it made sense for him to be the one to bring it up. You ought to be trying to exhaust your levelable talents often, Big Snake was saying. And your spell impressionsoh, uhthe ones that wont bankrupt you. The last was said in response to Everly going white as a sheet and clutching her bottle of blue powder like the instructor might steal it from her. Whether you have gym or not, find ways to burn em out. Learn em. Know how much you can do with them before you hit fatigue. This quarter were still getting to know your talents and youre still getting to know them yourselves. In gym courses after this one, youll be expected to manage your skill usage better so that youre finished about the same time the class is. Understanding how far you can push your magic before you lose it is a lifesaver. He looked around at them all. Now let me show you why you dont want to come to my session without your powers. He bent down toward a large cardboard box at his feet and pulled out a tennis ball. It looked small in his hand. Ive been workin on my pitching accuracy this month! He started stretching out his right shoulder. Were going to die, Kon whispered. Nobody disagreed with him. N0v3lTr0ve served as the original host for this chapter's release on N0v3l--B1n.