The Ranch

Trial Committee (3)

The instructor that was previously uninterested in the conversation and meetings as a whole, said a word for the first time ever. Ignoring the fear in everyone's eyes, he turns to me," Repeat."

"R-r-repeat??" I manage to stutter out, biting my tongue along the way. It hurts...

"Name." The low voice spits out.

"Ah! Uhm...His name is Tih, Sir." I say sir, even though were technically of the same rank. But...he's way too intimidating. The invisible pressure his eyes give me, is what's making my legs shake nonstop. The scariest part is that I don't think he's doing it on purpose...

"Second trial."

I-is that supposed to be a question? Is he asking me what happened with the newbie's second trial? Was he not listening to the conversation earlier? I don't have the guts to ask any of this, so I make an educated guess and answer with,"He was in a coma at the time, so we skipped his trial and just gave him a pass...sir."

"Coma." His cold eyes bore through my soul.

"For a month...he woke up sometime around last night to this morning." My voice slowly becomes steadier as I grow more used to the shivering. The other people in the room watch our conversation in silence, not daring to interrupt.

"Hmm." He seems to be finished with his questions, because he turns his attention to the two individuals on screen,"Start the trial."

From his usual indifference to saying multiple words is a major difference when it comes to the person in front of us. For that reason, it took us a moment to regain our composure. We all turn to the live broadcast.

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After regularly training for the past month, I've regained most of my fitness. The more trials one takes, the longer the intervals in between become, making it hard to judge when the next trial will be. There's usually one around every month, but sometime over a month passes by without anything happening, which confuses the senses and unconsciously makes people on guard when they wander around outside.

In my case, I don't have this problem. In my younger days I was overconfident, but now I'm just too lazy to care. Even if they give me a trial when I least expect it, I've always been fast at reacting to new situations.

I was lying on my couch at the dormitories when I got the notification for the trial. It told me to go to a certain location in the mountain region. When I arrived, I was pushed from behind and landed in this area. If it wasn't me they pushed and someone else, they'd have a hard time composing themselves from the surprise and landing safely. I really wanted to beat the crap out of whoever planned that, but it wasn't out of my expectations.

This...was completely out of my expectations though. Walking around for a while, I see a figure in the distance. Thinking this might be a team trial, I walk up to greet my partner. Team trials are usually harder than normal, since you have double the manpower. That's why it's necessary to work well with whoever you were paired with. I just hope it's not someone that has something against me. Those trials...were not the most functional performances.

Getting closer to the figure, I notice its the height of a child. "Weird...I don't recall any short people that can handle my level difficulty?"

Hearing my voice, the short figure turns his head, giving me a good view of his emotionless eyes.

"...sh1t." He shouldn't be here, must have come here on accident.

I meet up with the short newbie," How'd you get here, Tih?"

He stares at me in silence. Hmm...this might be bad. Those higher ups are probably too lazy to help the kid.

Let's try to get him to a safe place first. There's always a lot of paperwork when someone dies and I don't feel like dealing with  all the nagging when I hand all the paperwork to Scott.

"Let's get you out of here, ki-" Before I can finish, the round underneath our feet starts rumbling. "Damn...they really did it." Looks like the trials starting with or without the kid.

The shaking continues as I try to figure out what's going on. By the time I realize it, the entire floor was already tilted. Seems like one side of the ground is raising, slowly causing the flat ground to become a  steep wall.

If I recall, it's descending towards the open-faced cliff. Then we should move to higher ground before the angle becomes too steep to walk up.

This kid must be a bad luck charm or something. We just had to be right next to the cliff when they started the trial.

I grab Tih's small wrist and dash towards the rock wall opposite of the cliff. Luckily, the ground is rising very slowly, on the other hand, I don't think I'll be able to run all the way to the end before the angle gets too steep.

I'm pulling the kid's wrist, but it feels like I'm pulling air. I glance back to see a calm and collected expression as the small legs of the child easily keep up with me.

Looks like he can carry his own weight to a certain extent. I let go of his wrist, since it's not the most comfortable way to run,"Keep following me!" I call behind me.

At this point, we pass the half way point, which was about the size of a football field. I'm still in pretty good condition to run, but it looks like we won't be able to do that anymore.

Taking one step is like skipping a stair on a staircase. If it was just that, it wouldn't be much. The main problem is the slipperiness of the ground. The moment either of us slip, we can only hope to grab onto a tree or rock. Otherwise, we'll slide right down to our deaths.

I now realize why each thing sticking out of the ground is so far apart from each other. I pick Tih up by the back of his collar and toss him to a nearby tree. I grab onto a branch and pull myself over. "We're gonna have to start wall-climbing. Ever tried rock-climbing?" I ask the silent kid.

I stand on the tree trunk and lead against the dirt floor. "It's the same thing. Now up...we..go!" I pick the kid up and throw him to the nearest tree. I repeat the process as my arms grow weaker and weaker.